My blog has a new home! PLEASE READ!

Hey, hey, hey! If you are seeing this blog post in Google Reader, that means that you currently follow my blog with Google Friend Connect (GFC), which I am no longer using. I just made the switch to Wordpress (you can check out my new site design HERE) and I would LOVE for you to still be able to see my posts in your feed!

Please consider re-subscribing to my RSS feed (HERE). Or, you can get my posts delivered to your email (HERE). OR, you can manually add my URL into Google Reader by clicking on the orangey-red "SUBSCRIBE" button and putting in my feed URL: http://feeds.feedburner.com/DreamsToDo.

I don't want to lose your readership, so please let me know if you have any issues or need any help!

Yay for change and new beginnings and this wonderful world of blogging. :-)

Over and out.

~Ariel

Shout out!

Image Source

I've always had a little bit of a tricky time making new friends. I think this stems from the fact that I grew up in a tiny town with the same group of friends from kindergarten through high school. Even when I went off to college, my freshman year room mates were my high school besties. If you met me in person, you probably would never know how socially awkward I really am. I'm pretty good at faking the outgoing persona, but inside I'm usually a mess in new social situations.

When I started this blog, the last thing I was thinking about was making new friends. Little did I know that this would be my FAVORITE thing about blogging. It has taken me a couple of years to really start getting into social media and interacting with other world wide web lovers, but I'm finally getting the hang of it.

I dedicate this post to a few of you out there who make this whole blogging thing EXTRA worth while. Thank you for being supportive of my little corner of the web!!! Not to name names, but...

Fiona @ Life Amongst The Palm Trees ~ Probably the most encouraging person I've met online! She always leaves the sweetest comments and inspires me to keep on writing. Her, her hubby, and their beautiful baby girl, Alidia, live in the Dominican Republic (a place very near and dear to my heart) where they run an awesome non-profit organization. Some day I want to go back to the DR to volunteer and hopefully meet Fiona! Thank you so much for lifting me up with your kind words, Fiona! It means a lot to me! 

Becky @ A Lazy Crazy Life ~ My blogging soul sister! We relate on a lot of levels... full-time working moms with no time for anything who still manage to consistently post on our blogs. We also both love to play around with our fancy cameras and take lots of photos of our kiddos. :-) Becky, thanks for your encouragement and for making me feel like I'm not alone and getting left behind in this crazy blogging world.

Melissa @ Completely Eclipsed ~ I don't even remember how I found Melissa's blog, but I was instantly drawn in to her witty and unfiltered words. I realized that she was writing a lot of things on her blog that I was thinking, but would never have the guts to say - ha! She's a working mom of a 3 year old daughter (with one on the way!) and has been through A LOT in the past year. She is super inspiring even though she probably doesn't think so. Girl, keep doing what you're doing! Thanks for being supportive of my lil ole blog. I wish we could enjoy a girls night out on the town together! Maybe some day we can meet up for a weekend in Vegas. :-)

Megan @ The Memoirs of Megan ~ This girl cracks me up! I can always count on her to put a smile on my face. :-) Her adorable daughter, Vivien (don't you LOVE her name?!), is just a day older than Landon so we already have a lot in common right there. She is a big encouragement for me and is one of the few people I actually interact with on Twitter (I'm still getting the hang of the whole tweeting thang). Oh, and you should totally check out her Scentsy shop HERE. Thank you, Megan, for reading my blog and for your always kind words and tweets! I wasn't lying when I said you made me cry happy tears the other night (drinking makes me emotional). I hope we can meet in real life some day!

Emily @ The Peck Life ~ Love her blog, love her photos, love her happy outlook on life! Emily is also a work-outside-the-home mom of a toddler and she's expecting baby #2 next spring. Yay! She was one of the first people who actually started commenting on my little blog and it has meant so much to me to have her around. Emily, thanks for reading my blog and commenting and writing such a wonderful blog yourself! I always get excited when I see unread items from your blog in my Google reader. :-) And you have GREAT taste! I always love everything you share. 

Celeste @ Our Fabulous Life In The Suburbs ~ Such a beautiful, sweet girl who is expecting her first baby with her handsome hubby next spring! Celeste's comments on my blog always put a smile on my face and I feel like we relate to each other a lot in terms of our cluelessness over our place in this world and what we want to get out of life. Thank you for your support of my blog, Celeste! I'm so excited to follow along on your pregnancy journey and throw unsolicited parenting/baby advice your way. ;-)

Thank you to all of my internet friends! I really do love my computer because of you. :-)

Monthly DIY: Blog Planner

Obviously it isn't easy juggling a 40 hour/week job, a marriage, a home, and 2 little kids to take care of. Throw a blogging hobby in there and really there isn't time for anything else. I've always been a really disorganized blogger. With the exception of my "Wise Words Wednesday" posts, I have absolutely no schedule that I post on and usually no clue what I'm going to post about until I actually sit down to write. This method has worked out well for me, but I'd really like to start being a little more intentional with this here blog and lately I've also been craving more structure in my life. I need more of a schedule.

So, I set out on a Google mission. I was interested in finding out how other bloggers manage their internet homes and I was hoping I would find some sort of organizer/planner for my blogging. I wanted something physical. Sure I love my computer and my phone, but when it comes to organization, notes, and my creative thoughts, nothing is better than good ole pen & paper. My search led me to Beckie at Infarrantly Creative's Free Printable Blog Calendar. You guys, Beckie is seriously a GENIUS because this thing ROCKS!

I'm totally counting this as my monthly DIY project even though I didn't really do much of anything myself. However, I am VERY excited about this and love how it turned out!




You totally need to visit Beckie's post on Infarrantly Creative if you are interested in seeing how cool this planner really is - she has a video posted! But basically, it consists of a monthly calendar tear-off pad with weekly planner pages that store behind the monthly calendar. This way the current month and week are always right there when you open it up.

Beckie offers readers a file that is already "pretty" AND a plain one that you can add whatever background you'd like to. So, I decided to utilize a variety of chevron and moroccan tile colored backgrounds. And I also changed the text on a few of her boxes to keep track of what matters most to me.







I printed off all of the pages (to last me through the rest of 2012 and all of 2013) myself and then took them, along with a front and back cover (laminated print outs I made) to Office Depot. I had them make the monthly calendars into a tear-off pad and had them bind the weekly pages. Then, I cut down a file folder to size and attached the tear off pad to my planner book (see Beckie's exact tutorial for all of this). Office Depot charged me $5 for this. Not too shabby!

I found the backgrounds I used at my new favorite freebie blog by Mel Stamps. That's also where I found the chevron overlay that I used to create the planner cover in photoshop. Love this blog!

Now let's see if I actually utilize this thing to bring a little structure into my chaotic life!

Social media is cool, right?

I've been debating with myself lately over whether or not I should start a Facebook page for my little old blog. I didn't really want to do it because I feel weird telling people to "like" me and I didn't want to risk feeling insignificant because people don't "like" me. BUT, I've wanted to do it as a way to connect with some of you who may read my blog, but don't want to comment (or are just too dang lazy, like me). And most of the good mommy bloggers out there are using a TON of social media. So today I decided to just bite the bullet and do it.
You can find me on Facebook here ------------->
(Let's hang out in cyberspace!)

As for Twitter... I have a confession to make. I have never tweeted in my life. Honestly I don't have any close friends in real life who are on Twitter, so I've just always stuck with FB. But, I think I wanna give it a try. I planned on getting started today, but all of the usernames I wanted are already taken... boo. So, I'll have to think about it and get it going soon. I hate feeling like I'm behind on this whole social media thing! Especially since it's a big part of my work life!

At least I'm on Pinterest, I guess. :-)

My New Year's 1st Blogiversary

HAPPY NEW YEAR (& happy 1st blogiversary to me)! Boy oh boy did 2011 sure fly by. It seems like only yesterday that I was writing my very first blog post exactly one year ago.

New Year's Day 2011:


New Year's Day 2012:


2011 was not my favorite year thus far, but it was also far from my least favorite. I got in the groove of juggling a career with a baby. I made a quilt. I became more of a positive thinker. I experimented in the kitchen more. I made a conscious decision to focus on myself without feeling guilty. I made a baby! I lost a dear friend. Overall, 2011 was full of some serious ups and some serious downs. At the start of it all I created this blog and I challenged myself to be more productive in my life - to take my life by the reigns and ride it into the sunset. I know I still have a long way to go in terms of this productivity, but I feel like I've made some serious progress.

Thank you dear blog for being there for me through it all... for being my source of ventilation in this crazy thing we call life.

Here's to another year! 2012 is going to rock my socks off & I hope it rocks your socks off, too!

Wise Words Wednesday: Keep Dreamin'

via Pinterest

Time for me to take a moment and reflect back on why I started this blog. And the above quote sums it up pretty nicely. Before I started blogging at the start of this year I felt like I was at a stagnant place in my life. I was working M-F 8a-5p and focusing all my attention on my daughter when I wasn't at work. Sure, I liked my job, but it wasn't anything I was passionate about and it wasn't anything I would define who I am by. And, I loved being a mom to Leila, but at the same time I didn't just want "being a mom" to define me. I felt like I wanted to focus on myself a little more. Okay, that sounds super selfish, right? Well I wasn't thinking it in a selfish way. I was thinking it in more of a "how can I make myself a better, happier person and in turn become a better mother, wife, employee, friend, etc?" As a life long procrastinator and just plain lazy person, I decided I should blog about some of my goals, my dreams to do, and maybe start taking some actions to accomplish them. Thus my second baby (this blog) was born.

As of today, this blog has become much more than what I intentionally wanted it to be. It has become my public diary, my creative outlet, and my family photo album. Sure, maybe I haven't actually accomplished many of my little dreams to do yet, but I'm in no hurry! I've been learning more about myself along the way and meeting lots of new people. I never thought my silly little blog could become an inspiration to others, so I am thrilled and honored when I receive random emails that it has done just that. And THAT, my friends, is more than I ever could have dreamed of back at the start of this year.

As my 28th birthday quickly approaches, I'm not really stressing about getting closer to 30. Whereas last year when I turned 27 I was terrified for some reason! Now I realize I am still super young and I truly believe that we are "NEVER too old to set another goal or to dream a new dream" AND actually DO IT. But, I also realize that having two children does make it a little more tricky. :-)

Mommy Blogs

I heart mommy blogs. If I let myself I could probably lose a full day of my life getting sucked into others lives through their blogs. I think this has to do with my love of psychology and how people think and act. I am just facinated with people. My fave thing to do is just people watch. I love airports for this reason. And maybe this explains why I am such a reality TV junkie. Okay, I'm off on a tangent...

Anyhooooooooo, I just joined the rankings of Top Mommy Blogs - one of my fave places to go to find new reads. So, I'm putting a little linky in my sidebar and I'm hoping if you read this you will vote for me!

I know I may be slacking in certain dream-doing areas of my life (*cough* quilt *cough*), but I really am so proud of myself for getting this blog started and keeping up with posting regularly. I have never been one to stick with anything I try for very long, so I'm impressed! And I feel like I have fallen in love with this world of putting your thoughts out there for anyone to read. I'm hooked. And I plan on keeping up with it for the long haul! I still have lots of dreams to do and I'm sure my list will continue to warp and grow with the addition of our new family member in October. Change is on the horizon! And change is always exciting!!!

To all you mommy bloggers out there... keep doing what you're doing! And thank you so much for providing me with free entertainment and insight on a daily basis.