Blogger Recognition Over Here!

I still get so pumped every time an awesome fellow blogger puts my name down on their page! It makes me all giddy and excited, so I definitely love doing these! Sarah from Sarah Learns Life nominated me and I am so thankful! (Sorry it took me so long).

Here are the rules for this one:

• Thank whoever nominated you and include a link to their blog
• Write a post and give a brief story of how your blog started
• Give a piece of advice or two to new bloggers
• Select 15 other blogs you want to give the award to
• Let the nominees know you have nominated them and provide a link to the nomination details.

The Beginnings of How to Get Things Done in 10 Ways:

So for about a year or so I kept telling my friends that I wanted to start a blog. I had no idea what for or what I would write about, but I just knew I had stories that I wanted to tell others. But I had no idea how to find my niche, so I just never did anything.

I was talking with one of my friends about my need to start a blog and she said, “You should totally do it. Why not?” I was like, yeah why not Allison?! “But I have no clue how to start a blog or what I’d write about. I have no hobbies, no passions, and no talents. Pretty vanilla over here.” She told me, “You’re good at giving advice!” Are you serious woman? I have never heard that. Like ever. But okay…”I could be like Andy Anderson doing an advice column for that magazine in the movie How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days!” Then my friend said, “Oh! You could call it “How to Get Things Done in 10 Ways”!” And boom. Ladies and gentlemen that’s how that started. And here we all are today.

My wise words of wisdom:

1. Blog it like no one’s reading it

My biggest fear was that no one would read my blog or even care about what I had to say. How was I going to be any different than all of the other 1,998,436 bloggers in the world?! But then I realized, this blog is for me. It’s a place to write down whatever the hell I want, and if a couple of people like it, then awesome! If that’s all it ever becomes, then hey at least I gave it a shot and I was able to try something new and I was writing how I wanted to write. Not how I thought people wanted to read, but how I wanted to write! This isn’t a formal school essay, it’s not an email at work to upper management, it’s a B L O G, so you can write however you want – ABOUT whatever you want!

2. Pictures!

When I first started this I never put up any pictures. For a couple reasons. 1) I always thought, “Oh I should write a blog post about that thing we did last weekend. Oh wait, I forgot to take any pictures. But I’ll just post it without any pictures.” Pictures make everything come so much more alive! Sometimes it’s hard to post pictures for everything I’m writing about, but at least that header photo so it can catch readers’ eyes as they scroll through their Reader page! 2) I didn’t feel like it was okay to use iPhone pictures. But you know what, that’s all I’ve got! I just make sure to take extra care that everything is in focus, the lighting is good, and then use an app to edit and make the photo the best it can be!

I’ve been meeting a ton of cool bloggers recently and want to give them a shoutout with a nomination!

Finding the Extra in Ordinary

Sophie Speaks Up

The Post Grad Gal

The 9 to 5 Wanderer

Find Your Happy Place

Kelsey Sherri

Lovely Littlest Life

Happy blogging!