What happened?

I guess you could say it was a whole lot of nothing and a ton of everything, all at once.

Firstly, we moved to a more rural community (read: the internet speed here is the pits!). Without a good reliable high-speed internet connection, editing and posting videos became a task I couldn’t sustain. I absolutely love teaching by demonstration but slow uploads just took all of the fun out of that aspect of CreativLEI. Fast-forward, right now four of our children are home for virtual instruction while we wait for the schools to fully reopen when safe.

Speaking of said children…

My kids started growing up!

When I first began blogging in 2006 (good grief that was the prehistoric age of mommy-blogs), I only had three children. They were young, I was knee-deep in the physically exhausting aspect of parenting, and sharing our stories was an amazing creative outlet for me and an excellent way to keep our family and friends clued-in to our daily life. We had a handful of more children and life got busier but we continued to share our stories openly.

But when more than a few of my children started getting old enough to create and manage their own digital footprint (and their lives started being more complicated than curriculum choices, extracurricular activities, and favorite hobbies), it became more important to me to preserve their right to be the primary sharer of their own stories.

If you’ve ever tried to talk about parenting without oversharing your kids’ potential blackmail fodder, you’ll understand why I could no longer “just” write about life.

Why don’t I just share art tutorials?

That would be the easiest solution, wouldn’t it? Well… If I’m being honest that would end up being pretty unsatisfying to me because I truly do enjoy writing. I’m a story-teller. I’ve kept diaries and journals for as long as I could remember. The challenge I have is to figure out how to write about life without sharing the aspects that should be preserved for the kids to tell.

Building my digital platform became unimportant.

For years I attended blogging conferences and webinars about how to grow.

Grow my following, my income, my reach.

However, each “right” step I took felt less and less like “ME” and became just plain exhausting.

Plus, with our move to a new community, some of my children started entering the local school system, I started spending more time helping at the local dance studio, our family’s schedule started getting fuller and more spread out. There just wasn’t as much time to sit at the laptop to write, edit, and post.

We became busy with life.

The funny thing about an evolving life is that you end up with a ton more to write about and infinitely LESS time to write it!

Face-to-face connections are irreplaceable.

I cannot tell you how much I value the ability of the internet to make the world a little smaller and connect people who might not ever meet “in real life.” But, there are some things that truly are best shared between intimate friends. Friends you see on good days and bad. Friends that pass the tissues when you’re crying. The friends that show up when you can’t leave the house. The ones who know the worst parts of your story and are your biggest cheerleaders anyway.

For me, this meant relearning how to invest in my “real-life” relationships during face-to-face encounters. A VERY tall order for an introvert who much prefers the self-controlled conversation that a blog provides. It’s ugly, but it’s true.

It is time to find a balance between the two worlds.

One of the (many) perks of two-thirds of my half-a-dozen kids now being teens (and one graduated from high school) means that they are more independent and require less of the physically-there momma.

This new-found flexibility has allowed me to explore more opportunities to grow my art throughout my community, to teach at the dance studio, and to build new and deep friendships. My next step is to get reacquainted with my keyboard. I have so much I still want to share with you!

More of our story (as much as my family is comfortable sharing), more of my art, and more of the tutorials that help YOU create art!

How did you first find CreativLEI?

I want to know more about you! Are you here to learn lettering (or other crafty things)? A young mom looking for a light to guide you through the exhausting tunnel of lots of little kids? An older mom looking for camaraderie among the like-minded?

Tell me a little about you in the comments!

The post When it takes three/four-ish years to overcome writer’s block… appeared first on CreativLEI.

Using the Blog Success Planner from Inspired Bloggers University.

Like any good #plannergirl, I have a couple few number of planners. Each one has a different purpose and use. With so many planners, my life must be in complete order, right?

Nooooooooo. It’s not (and I still tend to be a bit scattered).

This year, however, I’m reclaiming the chaos! I’ll be writing up posts describing each one of my planners over the next few weeks to help hammer out why I’ve chosen each one and how I intend to use them to help keep me moving forward with my word for the year, FOCUS. I will be the first to admit I’m way too type-b to consider myself truly type-a. So using my planners is about a lot more than keeping track of appointments, they’re a place to reflect, access, and document.

Let’s start by digging into the Blog Success Planner.

I first downloaded my copy of the Inspired Bloggers University Blog Success Planner in November. I’ve been a fan of Tabitha’s classes for a while, she breaks down blogging information into do-able tasks for someone like me that loves to write and share but dislikes the ‘business’ side of blogging. Vince gifted me a Lifetime Membership as an investment into building my community, this past fall.

In fact, that investment was just one month before I planned the #LoveYourLettering series that introduced me to many of you! As you can imagine, I’d whole-heatedly say that implementing the lessons learned from Inspired Bloggers University will help you refine your vision for writing and cultivating an online community.

Back to the Blog Success Planner…

As a Lifetime Member I had an early start using the Blog Success Planner. The first thing I realized was that I wanted a number of the inserts printed and bound for my traveler’s notebook, so that it would be truly portable for evenings I get away from home to spend some time on writing dates. When I showed Tabitha what I had done, she graciously decided to reformat the original planner for practical use in a traveler’s notebook (or any A5 planner) and I got to create the cover art for the booklets!

The new format is an excellent portable compliment to the complete (desk) planner. I’m making use of both!

I’ve printed the sections that will require my monthly or annual review, for a desk planner contained in a binder. The eight sections that I most frequently turn to are printed for my traveler’s notebook.

I also laminated four of the pages in the Blog Success Planner to use as a dry/wet erase dashboard of blogging checklists!

Make the planner your own to be sure you use it!

How many of us buy planners, only to store them on the shelf because they’re just not fully functional for our needs, or we just don’t know where to start? Tabitha has a number of Periscope’s archived on Katch that teach how to effectively USE the Blog Success Planner, so that you’re not spending money on a resource that you’re not certain how to use. I feel like those scopes alone were a mini webinar.

This will be where I plan my editorial calendar and brainstorm my posts (one of the many reasons I’m always open to your feedback). There’s enough room to hammer out ideas, but it is small enough to grab and toss in my favorite bag as I head out the door.

I know that making full use of this resource will build in accountability to my year. Over and over I’ve found that the times I feel the most overwhelmed, are those times when I’m lacking a clear framework for moving forward and a place to plan real achievable aspirations.

Are you a #plannergirl, too? Which planners are you using this year?

The post Planning for (Blog) Success in the New Year appeared first on CreativLEI.

As a member of the Inspired Bloggers Network, I’m pleased to offer my readers a chance to win one of 2 iPad Minis!

Please comment to enter and use additional entries to increase your chances of winning! a Rafflecopter giveaway

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This promotion is in no way sponsored, endorsed or administered by, or in association with, Facebook or Twitter. Entrants are providing their information to Sponsor and not to Facebook or Twitter.

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The information entrants provide to Sponsor will only be used to select a winner for this promotion and to receive future promotional emails from Sponsor. Entrants may opt out from receiving those emails from Sponsor at any time.

The post Win an iPad Mini! appeared first on CreativLEI.

…and why do I need it?

For the past couple of months a small percentage of Twitter users have been using the new Periscope app. Last week it released for Android devices and the number of users is climbing.

What is the Periscope app and why do I want it?

You’re probably wondering if you really need another social media platform. Here’s why I joined and I think you’ll be interested, too!

My friend Tabitha of Meet Penny (founder of the Inspired Bloggers Network) mentioned it on her Facebook group this weekend as ‘the next big thing’ for bloggers. I trust her intuition, she forecasted Pinterest’s power!!

Sunday night I linked my Twitter account to Periscope and dug in.

Game Changer!

Let me just say, I do not claim to be a social media expert. I do not consider myself particularly entrepreneurial-minded. However, I see the potential value with using Periscope! Immediately I’ve started gaining wisdom from the leaders in those fields. But that isn’t all!

I know, I know. Social media already eats away at our productivity if we let it, right? Facebook nonsense, Pinterest vortex, Instagram image overload.

I get it, I do.

I know your time is valuable and I would never recommend giving time to social media over your family and responsibilities, so I am committing to use Periscope to add value when you generously share your time with me.

Live Sharing!

There’s no surprise to you all that I just don’t have the time to write everything I want to share with you, and I’m not talking about family updates. How many recipes are you waiting to read from me? I’ve taken the pictures but just can’t find the time to edit them all to write up. I cook off-the-cuff, and now I can live broadcast my recipes (I did it for the first time, yesterday!) and while watching live you can ask questions. Want to watch the process of some of my artwork? No more 15-second time limit! Want to see the steps of a craft in real time and watch how I deal with mistakes? Tune in when a craft broadcast is live and ask me to clarify the steps.

No more one-sided discussion!

I love writing on the blog and I know you all read, but I really don’t enjoy talking to myself. Many of you don’t like to comment and that’s okay, but I love having an easy and instant way to answer your questions and give deeper info and Periscope is opening that opportunity to busy mom bloggers like me! I’ve shied away from vlogging because I cannot imagine how long the video editing will take, but I love the idea of sharing with you as if you were here sharing a cup of coffee with me!

What if you’re not a blogger? Don’t want to scope?

You can totally join Periscope just to watch and interact with those you want to follow. No need to get in front of the camera… but I suspect you may want to jump in and tell your story some time. Have you ever found yourself discouraged while browsing Pinterest and other mom blogs about the seemingly perfect lives and women who are doing it all or have it all together? MYTH!! There are a number of us on Periscope already whose primary goal is to be authentic sharers of our real lives. No scripted ‘reality’ TV here.

Right now, Periscope has an advantage for us ‘little guys’!

I’ve been blogging for a long time, but I am definitely one of the little guys. I blog because I have a story to tell and I’m finding my footing in my mission of encouraging women that they’re not alone in this struggle of motherhood. It isn’t easy, but it is worth it.

Periscope being a new platform means that everyone has a chance to be seen and heard, regardless of your ‘numbers.’ We’re all learning over there.

I’ve never been comfortable with speaking on front of crowds. I’ll admit I get butterflies every time I get ready to tap that ‘Broadcast Now’ button, but it is getting a little easier and it is definitely a lot of fun testing the waters of broadcasting!

Come and find me (@CreativLEI) and let me know what you think!

I’d love to hear your input. I can’t wait to show you things during live broadcasts and answer your questions. It’s such a natural extension from this blog.

Are you on Periscope? Leave your handle in the comments so we can find you!

The post What is the Periscope App? appeared first on CreativLEI.