Why Blogging Has Gotten Harder and What I Plan to do About it.

 pictures from instagram

 It seems to me like blogging has gotten harder and harder these days. The addition of a second kid into our family has taken some getting used to. I used to have a good 4 hours a day to do design work and blog and now I'm lucky if I get 2. To be honest, there is just no feasible way I can get it all done.

I also feel like blogging takes a much bigger time commitment than it used to. I remember a couple of years ago I would spend an average of 1 hour on a post. I'd find a cute interior I liked, post the picture, talk about what I liked about it and boom, 20 comments. But now Pinterest has changed everything. You can't get away with just posting pretty pictures. Pinterest is giving us pretty images in a much more convenient way. So it comes down to creating amazing original content, which takes time. For me to come up with a really great post it takes me well over 2 hours. And considering I have about 2 hours in my day to get my blog posts done and work on design work you can see that it's just not adding up. Not only that but I have mountains of unread emails in my inbox each day. 

I am drowning in stress right now.

So here is what I plan to do about it... 

 First of all, if I'm going to sacrifice anything it's not going to be my kids so I need to make whatever I do work around them. So something has to give and I've decided I can't be wearing the blogging hat and the designer hat anymore. For an indefinite amount of time I will not be taking new design clients. I will keep the clients I currently have and occasionally in special circumstances I might take on more but I can't do e-design, take new local clients or do consults at the moment. I truly truly truly love blogging and I want to focus more of my efforts and time on my blog. I want to spend more time coming up with great content for my readers. Blogging has never been very stressful for me. I actually find it somewhat therapeutic. I also love that it seldom takes me away from my home. 

The other thing I'm going to be doing to lighten some of my load is to introduce contributors to the blog. I have hand-picked each contributor because I feel their content and voice are a good match with mine. Of course the majority of blog posts will still be my own but this will give me a chance to make my own posts better. I'll slowly be introducing my contributors over the course of this month. Please give them lots and lots of love. They are offering up their own ideas and talents for my readers and I am so grateful.

Lastly I'm going to try really hard this year to monetize my blog better. I make very little from my blog currently. All the money that I get to do projects in my home has come from doing design work. So to make the jump from designer to solely blogger is a little scary. I have a few plans in the works to monetize my blog better and I'll be sharing them with you as I implement them. 

I am so grateful to each and every person who takes time out of their day to read my blog. Hopefully some exciting things are to come!

Bahamas Vacation Recap

On Saturday we returned home from an amazing vacation with our friends in the Bahamas. It was a blast and just what we needed.  All of my friends and I have all had new babies in the past year and so we relished every single moment of sleeping in, relaxing in the sun and being free from all responsibility! Here are a few photographs from our trip. 

We were on a cruise which stopped in Freeport, Nassau and a private island which had the most beautiful beach I've ever seen. 

I'll be posting about some of my vacation wardrobe favorites and must haves tomorrow! 

Jane's Birth Story by Jessica Kettle & the Top 7 Shots to Get During a Birth

I have mentioned on my blog before that I was going to have a Birth Story done by Jessica Kettle for Jane's birth. I wanted to have a birth story for a number of reasons but the main reason was because I didn't want Josh or my family or me to have to worry about taking pictures. When Jett was born Josh was so focused on the delivery that we dont' have a lot of great pictures. 

I had seen Jessica post about her birth stories before and I was in love with the idea of having a professional document our special day. I was totally convinced after I watched her segment on Studio 5 where she explained the whole process.

I recently got the pictures back from Jessica and I've been dying to share them with you. Let me take you back to a blissful day in August...

My labor and deliveries are pretty uneventful. I have gotten induced both times. Since Josh is a pilot I don't want to risk the chance of him not being there. On Jane's birthday I just showed up, got the pitocin, had my water broken, got my epidural and then waited.... 

Jessica got there when I was dilated to about a 4. With Jett I went from a 5-10 in an hour so she was there waiting and ready. While we were waiting she took a lot of detailed shots of the hospital and my delivery room. 

The view from my delivery room was pretty nice. 

waiting and waiting...

Dr. Terry is the best!! I am hoping he decides to never retire so he can deliver all my kids. 

Josh was rubbing my foot. I was totally numb in one leg but had some feeling in the other. Weird? 

My parents and Jett came to hang out in the room with us while we waited. 

These are the shots that I just love. I never would  have been able to capture all of these precious and candid moments without Jessica there. 

This is one of my favorite pictures. When it was time to deliver I had my mom and Josh's mom stay in the room to watch Jane be born. Josh is adopted and an only child so his mom has never witnessed a birth in her life. She was so excited and so emotional! More emotional than I even was. Right before Jane was born she started to cry. It was really sweet. 

Jane's birth was pretty much seamless. She came into the world kicking and screaming. I couldn't believe how big she was! 8 lbs 3 ounces. 

When Jett came back into the room he had picked me a flower. It was a little crumbled but it was so sweet. 

My sister Nicole. 

Some people may worry that it's weird to have a complete stranger in the room with you but Jessica is totally awesome. She wants to make sure you are comfortable with having her there so if there are shots you want or don't want she'll make sure it happens.  I am so happy that we have these beautiful pictures and 50 years from now I can look back and remember every special moment of Jane's birthday.

To schedule your own birth story contact Jessica here.

Jessica has also put together her list of "must-have" shots for your babies big day!

Thanks Jessica!

Just a little update on Jane... She is now 4 months and is adorable. I just adore her. She has cheeks that go on for miles! 

To stay up to date on Jane and Jett follow me on instagram. @kirstenkrason