Inspired Blogging - Giveaway!

Meet my Guest:
Darcy from Graphically Designing

When you buy your first home, you can't wait to put a personal touch to your space. Paint swatches are carefully examined, new furniture is strategically placed. Decorations, photos and images are chosen. Great care is taken to make a warm, cozy and hospitable place. If you're a home builder, everything from flooring to faucets is weighed and chosen thoughtfully and deliberately.

The same can be done with your home sweet home... online.

For the same reasons that living in a rental place with all rental white walls and stringent rules about nail holes feels stifling, so can that boring, standard blog. Just like your home creates an atmosphere that reflects your personality, so can your blog - your online home - reflect your personality.

Do you like warm colors, whimsical polka dots, decorative damasks or clean lines with vast white space? Are you a shabby nester or a minimalist? Warm linen or robin's egg blue?



My friend Sandy likes to pick beautiful table linens, sparkling stemware and prepare wonderful meals for her guests. Oh, how I wish I lived closer so I could spend an evening shadowing her, learning her tricks. Since so many of us are separated by miles, often our friends cannot visit our homes and, instead, must visit us online.

Why not take the same care in choosing how you decorate your blog? Instead of tablecloths and stemware - you choose textures and colors. Instead of flatware - you chose font faces. It's so exciting and inviting to your readers to get a glimpse of you in your space.



And all of this allows you to let your readers know that you care about their visit. When your visitors see that you've invested in your space, they know that you care about your readers' experience. And don't let the word invest throw you off! The investment of your time and talent rather than treasure is often investment enough.

The blogosphere is full of tutorials and resources! I've always said I was a graduate of 'Google U' - learning to code one trick at a time. And if the economy has been gracious to your family, there are momtrepreneur designers who make their livelihoods by offering these services. My designer friends and I always appreciate working with client friends to help them make a space their own.

Is it necessary to make these changes? Absolutely not. One might argue it is equally unnecessary to paint your walls and decorate your home. After all, your basic needs for food, water and shelter are equally met with rental white walls or Sherwin William's beautiful color "Aqueduct." But investing in your space online allows friends who are separated by miles still feel like they've been invited around your kitchen table for a chat.

June 8 - June 11th is the A Woman Inspired online conference. I will be giving a workshop on Blogging 101 entitled, "I've got a blog. Now what?"

Giveaway - 5 people will win tickets
Sandy and I are giving away 5 tickets to the conference! If you'd like to learn more about making your blog a home, as well as many other inspiring workshops, please leave a comment to be entered. You have May 19th and 20th to enter.

Extra chances to win
If you'd like chances for extra entries you may blog, tweet and post about this give-away on Facebook linking here. Come back to tell us in another comment with the link to it. Good luck!

Winners announced
Come back Thursday, May 21 - to see if you won! Tickets are $12.95 in value.

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Darcy is a momtreprenuer graphic designer over at Graphically Designing. Her work can be found on blogs such as this one, Like Merchant Ships, Nesting Place, A Soft Place to Land and The Blessed Nest. Besides creating home-sweet-homes online, Darcy is a wanna-be photographer, a photoshop fanatic and a homeschool mom of 3. She blogs over at Life with my 3 Boybarians



I can only tell you that my experience working with Darcy in creating 4RE was exceptional. She couldn't have made it any easier for me ... a very busy gal with little time for blog design! Thank you, Darcy, for being my guest but also for your sweet friendship.

If you want to read an inspiring Mother's Day story about Trouble, go here. You'll be touched.