From house to home

I am sitting here staring at the screen, worried about the fact that I have been away for so long, My YouTube channel has been dormant but steadily growing subscribers right now I stand at 171 subscribers.

My blog themakeupsquid.com I stand at 50 followers of the blog, 174 follow my bloglovin profile and through Google I have 67 followers.

I have gotten some products sent to me to try out, but they are at my old address, I am having them forwarded here.  I also got a perk from klout that should be coming in I will have that forwarded also.

My camera is in the garage buried in a box under other boxes so I can't film anything. I am worried about my blog getting lost in a sea of other blogs.

I find myself posting here most of the time because I have nothing worthy for themakeupsquid.com.
I added some affiliate links on the side bar, they are getting clicks here and there but nothing special.

I am worried I have clouded up the side bar, I have to figure out a way to make it look, not so much like a circus. I have been considering changing the layout again, not the banner I love the banner, but the lay out itself I feel needs a redo.

I think I am going to make the links smaller. I have ideas for posts, but I am unable to get them on the blog at this time. I really need some type of notebook for post ideas.

I need to take this step by step. A blog is like a new house or apt. Its a blank canvas that needs love and some decor. Nothing will stay in its original place, but as time goes on, everything will find its permanent place and become a home.


How to take my blog from house home?

Goals: 
Change blog layout.
Stream line the affiliate links.
Format my posts.

Laurie M.

How to be a house guest holiday edition!

We all love our families and can't wait till holiday time to get together for that last week of December and share this special time with the people we love. The tree, the kids, the snow and the moments that we will always remember for years to come. But, sometimes it doesn't always go as planned.

I mean what about the wet towels on the floor in the bathroom, your husband busting up a suit case leaving his clothes everywhere, the guys ransacking the kitchen, the kids finding the candy-cains before they get to the tree and your kid is the culprit! The man of the house forgetting his job of removing the snow from the walkway because his brother is in town. Not only is the visiting family in a uproar, but also the host family.

Kids are moved from their beds and transferred to a pull out, the bathroom becomes prime real estate, late hours waiting for the kids to sleep so you can actually have a cocktail or a adult conversation without hearing she pulled me, he's touching my stuff.

This can all be very overwhelming and even though I love my family and would do anything for them, visitations can go wrong in the blink of an eye. A question you ask your spouse could cause the other couple to go into a shouting match!! Believe me I know I lived it!!

Before you cancel your family gathering I am going to offer you a survival guide on

How to be a good guest holiday edition:

1. Include yourself and your family in daily chores.
Dishes, taking out the trash, preparing meals, running to the store, cleaning up.
This will ease some of the tension if everyone works together.

2. Keep the kids happy
Rotating who keeps the kids busy with stories, games, silly conversations, holiday crafts, movies, etc..
This keeps the noise down and gives every one a break from being a referee.

3. Keep your stuff in your given area.
Keeping your luggage and personal belongings in a designated area keeps the house from looking like baggage claim of an airport and it helps so you don't leave behind your favorite pajamas when its time to go.
And the host will appreciate it more then you know!

4. Don't change their life styles
Many people live different ways, I say to each their own. When in Rome, do as the Romans do. If they eat at 5pm you eat at 5pm. If they don't give their kids a snack before dinner, hold back on the snacks for your kids if any. You don't want to put the family out of sync and you don't want a child to cry when you leave, only because you gave them cookies when the parents said no.

5. Offer your awesome services
Cook a meal, watch the kids while they do some shopping, take the kids to see a holiday movie while they gift wrap. Make your presence valuable not burden some, you do want to be called back next year!!

6. Don't bring up the past
If your family is anything like mine, you know there are certain topics not to bring up, because Christmas will just be canceled after that. If these subjects come up, do your best to skip to something more lighthearted.
You don't want your brother staring you down because you brought up his high school sweet heart do you?

7. Make yourself scarce
Get out of the house for a day if staying more then a week.
Take a drive, go shopping. Do something that will keep you and yours out of the house for a few hours.
Cabin fever with family never ends well.

8. Don't take up to much time of a spouse
Brothers are brothers. Sisters are sisters. Don't take them away during the whole visit from their spouse the holidays are a special time especially for couples, give them their space. If a lovers spat breaks out let it pass, they will mend things on their own.

9. Be like Switzerland
If a argument breaks out and they are asking for advice, the best advice is just to listen and let them blow off steam. Listen to your brother as he claims his wife is a bitch. Listen to your sister as she screams her husband is a ass. Don't take sides, just listen. They will think your nuts and walk away after a while of you not responding to them. Better to be nuts then the reason for a fueling a dying fire.

10. Have fun!!
The holidays are a special time for everyone, a time where memories are made and moments cherished.
Don't bring your worries to the festivities, leave them at the door. A New Year is beginning! A second chance don't let the last year effect the next one. Enjoy your family, friends and holidays!!

I hope this little guide helps! Share this post if you like it, It helps me out and makes me happy :)

Laurie M.

Comments, are they important?

As bloggers we all want people to comment on our posts, to let us know they like our content, that we are doing a good job, etc...

Courtesy of Google images

But, do comments really help? If someone visits our blog, reads and writes and comment it ends there.
But, if someone goes to your blog, reads and shares the link to the post with their followers or social circles your post goes a lot further then with just a comment.

This is why I like share buttons on my blogs. Asking for a like or a share is easier then to ask for a comment.

With a comment they have to type what they mean to say and from a phone, which is what most people are using these days. The captcha box is pure evil on any smart device.

So pushing a like or share button is a whole lot easier and gets your blog more noticed rather then a comment.

Comments are more for you then the general public, they help keep the conversation of the post going and it shoes the reader your listening to what they have to say.

Asking for likes or shares is a lot easier to ask for from you reader.

there are many add-ons for blogs out there on the interwebs I will list a few of my favs below :)

www.sharethis.com has sharing widget that goes right above your comment section after every post. It offers all the latest social media devices.

www.addthis.com offers a share button widget but you are not able to customize it to your liking.

share.cunjo.com is the least favorite here hard to configure and doesn't give much room to grow.

Sharethis.com is the winner of the sharing widgets in my book and after you customize it, it will install itself for you! Cannot beat the ease of access and use you this sweet widget.

I have it listed installed below so you can get a peek of what it looks like.

Hope this helps, Please don't forget to like and share this post :)

Laurie M.

On a personal note

There is something I want to share with you all, something personal, something special to me.
And that is the other side of blogging, the ins and outs the ups and downs.

And I feel that I cannot do that here since this is a beauty blog, I feel it wont be right to combine the two, it may get confusing to the readers and they may not want to know about my personal journey as a beauty blogger.

So I created a personal blog to share my journey as a beauty blogger, wife, mom woman with you all.

This blog will help other bloggers with tips and advice on creating and setting up their blogs and well as all the things I go through to keep themakeupsquid.com going.

Makeupbeautyandme.blogspot.com

I would love for you to check it out and share your insight with me and also I will be able to answer any blogging questions you may have. Hope to see you there.

Thanks for reading and have a great day!

Hiding from the Little Diva.

Siousxie Blue J.

This is Siousxie, She is my niece by marriage. She is 5 years old going on 16.

Siousxie loves makeup and beauty just as much as I do, so much that I have to hide all my makeup and beauty products from her.

Siousxie applies eyeshadow and lipskip, Thats right Lipskip everyday.

Shes dresses herself in the latest fashion.

Her hair is past her bum and always open except at bed time that's when its in braids.

When visiting our family, we usually have to hide all chap-stick, moisturizer and other products from her.

Shes like a midget ninja and you wont know when she strikes!!

The best is when she plants herself in front a mirror and gives a full tutorial, as if she is talking to all her YouTube fans. And my personal favorite the makeup collection.

I plan on doing a video with Siousxie for my channel while I am here, but until then I wont be applying any makeup in fear of the little diva.

Siousxies MOTD

Siouxsie gets all my hand me down products that I just don't care for anymore.

Do you have a little Diva in your life?

How to add your personal domain name to blogger

 Here are step by step instructions for changing to a personal domain name with blogger.
It took me a couple of tries to get it right, but if you take it slow one step at a time it will work.

Now #8 is very important because not every one types in www. before a domain name so be sure enter your A-records. You will have to repeat step 9 four times.

This part is specific to go daddy as it the service I am familiar with.

I hope this helped, if not I am truly sorry. When I get stumped I always call godaddy and they always walk me through it step by step and if you get a really nice person they might even do it for you :)

Good Luck!
Laurie M.

A blog is born

I started my beauty blog www.themakeupsquid.com in august of 2013.

I did not know what I was doing, I did not know where to begin, so I did what I always do.

I jumped right in and went for it.

I chose a name the makeup squid. How did I pick that name?

I went to a site that helps you pick screen names, I found it through Google.

I typed in my key word Makeup, then a few interests and then nothing, for hours.

I asked people to describe me in one word and all I got back was, straightforward, bitchy and real.

Nothing clicked. So I just started searching Google and while browsing I saw the site Squidoo.com and it happened, I asked my daughter what do you think about themakeupsquid? 

She immediately said yes and I liked it too.

I knew it was different and no one in the world had a name like that for anything beauty related, so I signed up with blogger, twitter, Facebook, instagram, pintrest and tumblr. I know that's a lot of social networks but I wanted to tie up the name.

I got all that down, now I needed a look. My beauty blog has the same layout as this blog.

I like the clean layout, even though my other blog can get pretty cluttered in the side bars, I go in there every so often and clean it up.

I joined bloglovin and themakeupsquid was born.

After a few weeks I wanted a personal domain name, leaving the blogger URL in a signature just looked strange to me and I wanted it to spike curiosity not a eyesore.

Once I got the domain name I hooked it up to blogger and lost every comment I ever got up until that point.

It was a very bittersweet moment for me, happy I got my domain, sad that all my comments were gone.

I wrote a few posts on beauty blogging that got some good attention and some beauty posts.

But I had to choose who I wanted as my main audience, bloggers or people who wanted beauty advice?

This all depends on the type of post you write. If I write a post on 10 best blogging tips, I get other bloggers.

If I write a post on 10 best eye liners, I get people looking for advice.

I love helping people, but I don't want to get stuck there. I want to help my fellow bloggers as well as non bloggers. I learned that your early readers will be other bloggers.

This blog is going to be about my journey as a beauty blogger, I hope you stay and visit often as this will be a behind the scenes look of a beauty blogger.

It wont be flawless or perfect, but it will be genuine.

Follow my blog with Bloglovin

Laurie M.