ultimatum for this blog

I don’t like to just delete this blog because it has six years of blogging history to it. That’s a lot. And although this has been the least rewarding blog (when it comes to earning money from my blogs), I just can’t let it go. I think this blog never earned anything. Not even a cent.

I want to keep this blog so I kind of made a pack with the part of me that wants to delete this and the agreement goes like this: I can keep this blog as long as it is able to generate enough money to cover its domain and the hosting fee. Now, I don’t like to do sponsored reviews in this blog but I might accept some in the future. It depends on how good the offer is. For now I will just run a sponsors’ spot on the sidebar and I hope it does not bother my readers (ha! my readerssss! As if! LOL!) . It will not pay a lot but at least it will add to the 50$ I have to squeeze yearly from this blog. And it’s the least intrusive way I can think of to earn from this blog. If I can’t raise 50$ from this blog to cover for its yearly hosting and domain fee, I would have to take it down.

Also, I changed my tagline because this blog will not be about my online freelancing anymore. I still do a bit of freelancing online but since I am not actively doing it, I don’t have a lot to say about it. I might mention it every now and then but it won’t be the main focus of this blog anymore.

So what will be this blog from now on?

This blog will be the blog that does not have niche. It will just be about anything and everything. Does that sound like this blog is heading to its doom? Maybe. But I will try my best to stop that from happening. Perhaps this is just a transition. Perhaps, I’ll be able to define a clear future of this blog in a month or two.Who knows?! Right now, I am just happy that I can keep it another year.

restoring this blog

VL is back to business!

It took a loooong time but I am finally able to partly fixed the mess I created months ago. You see, I wanted to minimize the number of blogs I have so I cancelled some hosting plans and transferred contents from one hosting plan to another and in the process of it all, I messed a lot of stuff up. And since I didn’t work on it right away, I kind of forgot where is what. Now that I have the time and the need to fix my blogs, I am all …”Where are the files? Are there files? Did I EVEN back them up?”

So in short, I am only able to work with what I have. Or what I have left. For example, I lost the customized theme and all the photos. Yes, ALL THE PHOTOS! The photos that are very much part of my posts (specially the screenshots of my earnings in freelancing)!

People who will read my previous post will be confused and would probably think that I am a phony for not having the screenshots of the stuff I said I have screenshots of.

Unfortunately I can’t go through all all my external hard drives to find each of the photos I onced upload to this blog and reupload them. It’s just beyond my human capability. This blog has around 5 years of history to it and it is beyond my ability to restore all the photos back to the posts they belong.

Oh well, I guess I have to live with the fact that I lost all the photos (media files) of this blog and the theme. I have the posts and I seem to have them all so I should be happy that I still have the most important element of this blog.

too many

I have come to the realization that I just have too many blogs. This hit me already once and I did what was necessary—I merged some of my blogs. But I started creating new ones and before I know it, I have too many—again!

Merging them is not an option because though they are all basically personal blogs, they still have their own niches.

I also have three twitter accounts. I consider that too many since I am not able to update them all.

And email accounts? Ha! I have like a dozen. Am I using them all? Kind of.

I have to learn how to minimize.

I have to learn how to simplify.

I have to learn how to declutter.

I have to learn how to make my life easier. LOL.

sorry for the silence

The holidays have been fun but also stressful so I had to prioritize, again—family, friends, social obligations, self. Christmas shopping, family gatherings, family trips, and visiting friends were just some of the things that kept me away from blogging.

I wanted to write about 2011 and how that year has been really good to me, to us as a family, but I didn’t find the time. Now that every thing is slowing down, I could start picking up from where I left off. I’ll start with updating my blogs to working on blog design projects. I also plan to launch my online store not later than March so I hope that I could really populate it by then.

Family wise, every thing is doing great. My baby is healthy, happy, and active. He’s an amazing baby and he is growing up quite fast. My husband and I are as happy and as in love as ever. I thank God every single day for blessing me with such a wonderful family.

My career is another story. I wont say it’s doing great because it is not really the case but I wont say it’s a crap either because I am not really trying. My career as a freelance web designer/writer is just as successful as I am allowing it to be. I could be more successful on my job but right now, it is not my main focus. My family is my number one. I don’t mind not earning plenty of $$$ as long as I am doing great job at being a mom to my baby.

This 2012, I’ll continue prioritizing family over work. I will continue putting my baby above all the other things I have to attend to. I’ll sure accept some web designing and writing gigs but not more than what I can do in my free time.

just popping in

Originally, I wanted to write a post about my freelancing gigs but unfortunately, there’s nothing to write about because it’s been almost two months since I last work on anything. There were some inquiries about my web designing services but after my last client, I took a step back. Why? Well, not really sure but I’ve never met a client so…I don’t know. Maybe she didn’t mean to but she stressed me out and gave me the feeling that I am working under pressure–which was the main thing I wanted to avoid when I asked for a 10 days turnaround (and she agreed to that). I don’t know but there were plenty of negative vibes during the project. BUT I have to say that I am still quite proud of the outcome of my work despite all that.

Now, I am working on populating my online store. I am designing premade themes to sell later on but I am taking my time. That’s the beauty of working for myself… no pressure.

On another note, my latest acquisition is a Bamboo Stylus for my iPad and here are two artworks I did using my Bamboo Stylus and my latest favorite app: Auryn Ink

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digital watercolor is super cool

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lovin' my bamboo stylus and auryn ink app