How Do You Prepare Topics For Your Blog?

I am in no way a blogging expert.  Maybe I could say I am an expert blog reader?  Anyway, as I have tried to do a little writing lately, I've been wondering how other people plan or pick the topics they discuss on their blog.  I've seen blogging planners, but I have never been very good at using a planner for anything.  I'm a pretty big fan of lists, but I find that I usually just end up with a big stack of stuff that really never amounts to anything.  I'm also not very good at keeping a pen and paper with me at all times.  I do sometimes send myself a text if I happen upon something I think would make a good topic here on the blog.  That's really the thing that works best for me, since I almost always have my phone handy.

So, how do you do your blog topics?  Do you have a calendar where you plan out your ideas?  Or do you just let the topics fall where they may like I do?

I Feel Like a Celebrity....Sort Of

You know how you get an email notification from Pinterest when someone "likes' or "repins" one of your pins? 

Well, I usually just delete those emails without even opening them. 

But, I absolutely felt like a celebrity when I saw that Amanda from Kevin and Amanda had liked one of my pins! 

It was a pin from her website, but still, I was thrilled!

Do You Tablescape?

So, I don't think "tablescape" is a real word, but there are a lot of inspiring tablescapes in the blogosphere lately and I couldn't resist putting my thoughts into a blog post.  I love seeing all of the wonderful table settings bloggers are creating (like this one on Design Stash) but I just can't imagine setting a table only to take photos of it!  And it just wouldn't make sense in this house to put all those beautiful things out on the table and leave them.  I mean, if I put dishes and pretties on the table, where would I put all of the junk that's on the table right now?  I like to put things son top of the deep freeze, but Casey gets perturbed when I do that!

Newest Blogs I'm Following

I have spent a little time this week evaluating the many, many blogs I follow trying to pare down the number from, like over a hundred, to something closer to a manageable thirty-ish.  But, every time I unsubscribe from one blog, I seem to find two more that I want to subscribe to!

The Power of a Good Blog

As I mentioned before, I follow a lot of blogs.  I'm a self proclaimed blog-aholic.  I love them.  I can't get enough of them.  Blogland is a great place to visit if you've ever wondered how to make something or needed a gift idea for someone special.  I personally like to follow by email because it requires the least amount of effort on my part!  I just wake up every morning to an inbox full of messages from the blogs I love.  To help me keep up with just how many blogs I'm stalking, I decided to create a "tab" and list them all!  Well, two tabs, really.  The first is the DIY Blogs tab where you can find the creative blogs I follow.  The second is for the School Blogs.  Enjoy!

Why Teaching Blogs?

Why do I follow blogs created by teachers? I mean, I'm not a college trained teacher and have never really been interested in that career. But, I am a Kindergarten Mom and I have felt terribly out of the loop as I've tried to help my daughter navigate the school system this year. I'm 34, so simply saying that school has changed since I was a kid is an understatement!  Can anyone say "core standards"?
You want to know my first impression when I started reading teaching blogs? It had to be a mixture of awe and confusion. Teaching blogs are written ideally for fellow teachers. So the bloggers speak in teacher-esse which is a foreign language to me.  Being the determined and passionate person I am, I couldn't let a little confusion stop me from gaining a great appreciation for the blogging efforts of teachers from all around the country, around the world really. One of my favorites comes from Canada.