Bonjour August

August 1st... wow.  Here we are welcoming the 8th month of the year and I think that I'm mentally still somewhere back in the spring.

It's officially been two and half months since I've checked in.  At some point, it probably won't look like that if I'm able to go back and write all of the posts I had planned.  But here in the present, I haven't written a blog post since May 15th.  And even then, my May posts feel like cop outs... it's been a while since I actually posted.

Eliot and I have been busy as usual... which I'm sure is no big surprise.  What's new is that we're navigating a lot of changes in our personal lives.  This past month has been a bit of a rollercoaster... and I can say that July wasn't my favorite.

I won't unpack it all right now, but let's just say that we're wading through uncharted waters.  Eliot and I have never really had health issues before, and this past month or so has brought to light a few things that we're now learning more about.  Both of us are adjusting to new medicines, new routines and new normals.

I'm not going to sugar coat it.  It's been pretty shitty... figuratively and literally.

Medications can bring on a whole new host of delightful side affects, and our bodies probably both feel like they're being metaphorically tortured.  And the fun part is that I'm not sure the worst has yet to come for me... so that's something to look forward to.

Anyways, I haven't really been in the state of mind, or body, to sit down and write.  I've spent a lot of time in bed napping... time that I had originally thought I'd be writing while trying to enjoy the nice, cool air conditioning in our living room.  The harsh reality is that I've been so busy (or not feeling well) that I haven't even missed writing.  I haven't even had the website open.  And up until this past week or so, I hadn't even checked on my blog post planning notes.  They were weeks old since I had updated anything on them... which is unheard of for me since I'm a planner and list maker.

While I haven't thought much about it the past two and a half months, I have missed my blog.  "Write Blog Posts" is on my daily to do list, but lately it's been nothing more than an item that gets deleted since I know it will be a small miracle if I can put a dent in the rest of my list of things that really need to get done.  I've slowly been making progress on that stuff, and I'm hoping that more time will miraculously find it's way to me... but there's always more stuff that needs to be added to it.  Still, I miss writing.

I'd like to say that I'm going to go back and write the 80 posts that I've missed since the beginning of the year... but the truth is that I just don't know anymore.

I knew I was behind, so I don't have much planned for August.  I'm hopeful that I'll be able to go back and write some of the things I'd planned... even if it's merchandise and holiday posts to begin with.  I never got anything done for my 10 year Blogiversary or Christmas in July.  Those both seem like huge tasks now, but I guess we'll see in time.

Right now, the most important thing is Eliot and me taking care of ourselves and each other.  And our next priorities are both businesses and trying to enjoy a bit of our summer.  Thankfully, we have been able to spend some time with friends and family when we've been feeling ok.  We have also caught a few Portland Sea Dogs games at the ballpark and some movies.  This summer hasn't been as spectacular as I had envisioned, but I'm thankful for all of the things we have been able to do.

I hope you have all been well and that you're enjoying your summer friends.  I will check back in as soon as I am able to.  °o°

A September to Remember

Whew!  It's the end of September and this was definitely one to remember.  From traveling to California, Disneyland, and the 2022 D23 Expo to coming home and celebrating our 10th Wedding Anniversary, this has been one busy, yet epic, month!

I'm also happy to report this is the most active I have ever been on my blog.  I set a goal for myself that one of the months in 2022, I would write a blog post for every single day of the month.  And September was that month as it was my last chance to achieve this goal before Eliot and I get busy with the holiday rush for our businesses.

It wasn't pretty, and I had to get caught up a few times, but I did it!  Mission achieved!  I wrote 30 posts for September... something I will probably never, ever do again.

I worked my butt off before our trip to California in order to have posts ready to go live every day of our trip.  I'm so proud of myself for sticking to my plan and busting my bootie off before we left.  In the end, I was never able to finish the post for the last day of our trip.  (I thought I might work on it at the airport during our layover in Chicago... but I wasn't awake enough to focus on it.)  But other than that one post, I had a blog post scheduled to go live every day of our trip!  I think that's pretty impressive!

Especially considering that when I finally wrote that post, it took me about 4-5 hours to complete.  My merchandise and bucket list results posts can take me a lot of time... usually multiple hours for one blog post.  The longer the bucket list or more products that I'm sharing with you... the longer it takes to put the post together.  (Some of these posts took me over 4 hours to write, edit, and get photos together for.)  So you can see how it's easy to get behind when I'm juggling that, our businesses and my personal life!

But have no fear!  Everything is caught up for September now.  And in case you did miss anything, I've added a few quick links to some of the posts I backdated below: 

Merchandise Posts

Magical Merchandise: Haunted Mansion 2022

Magical Merchandise: Hocus Pocus 2022

Magical Merchandise: 2022 Disney Parks Halloween Collection

Trip Bucket List Results

September 2022 California Trip Bucket List Results

Disneyland September 2022 Bucket List Results

2022 D23 Expo Bucket List Results 

Finally, I also took a bit longer to put together my Summer 2022 Bucket List Results.  I had over 50 goals, so I knew that would take a bit of time to put together.  Thankfully, I've come up with a quicker way to do these after putting four bucket list results posts together this month.  Hopefully they won't be quite as difficult moving forward... I'm sure they will still take a bit of time, but at least it will be much more streamlined!

Looking back at all 30 of these posts, especially the bucket list ones... I can really see how full of a month Eliot and I had.  It was full of memories, fun, adventure, magic, new experiences, love, laughter and celebrating our happily ever after.  °o°

Introducing Themed Weeks

Happy Sunday Everyone!  I hope you're enjoying this beautiful July weekend.  Eliot and I are savoring the last hours of our weekend away in Trenton and Bar Harbor, but I wanted to pop in for a quick moment.  (Ah, the benefits of pre-scheduled blog posts!) 

Today, I wanted to share something that I've wanted to do for a few years now.. and I'm finally taking the plunge!  It's time for another new addition to my blog... themed weeks!

I've always thought it would be fun to write a bunch of posts surrounding the same topic.  The idea morphed into having a theme for a week and having all of my blog posts that week centered around that week's specific theme.  And I loved that idea... 

Naturally, all of the first themes I thought of were holidays.  Then, there was an endless stream of ideas about movies, theme parks, lands, attractions and more.  I knew that I was on to something... even if I wasn't sure when I'd finally implement it!

It's a lot of work to commit to writing that many posts.  But since I started using my new process of writing blogs, I've posted more.  I used to panic at the thought of publishing 12-13 blog posts a month.  Now, I'm writing about 20 a month... without the panic.

Thus, after a bit of thinking, and using my new process to plan ahead a bit... I have decided that it was time to debut my first themed week!  And since one of the very first ideas I had for a theme was Christmas in July, that's how we're going to kick it off!

So I introduce to you, my idea of Themed Weeks with our first one being Christmas in July!  Check back each day this week for something that's holiday themed so we can have a little bit of cool festive fun during these hot summer months!  °o°

Comment Clean Up

Hi friends!  Today, I'm popping in with a quick check in on my blog updates.  As you've probably already figured out, I kind of abandoned them last year after a lot of the fun stuff was completed.  I had too much fun working on my new header and updating my sidebar... once those were done I never went back to do the other stuff!

Yesterday, I did some housekeeping to get myself back on track.  I spent quite a bit of time cleaning up my comments section.  There's a place on my blog where I can see all of them, and it had really gotten away from me.  It seemed like a huge daunting task.  I used to get an email every time someone would leave me a comment.  But somewhere in the wormhole that was 2017 and 2018 (when I wasn't blogging actively) that stopped.  Lately, I have to actively seek out my comments, and thus I've pretty much missed any that aren't from recent blog posts.

I've been trying to go through them a bit here and there, but yesterday I committed to going through all of them... well back through 2017 anyways.  I had so much junk and spam in there that it was overwhelming me.  I spent too much time before marking posts as scam before I deleted them.  Yesterday, I just deleted anything that was junk.

After that, I also changed my settings to require my approval before a comment will post publicly on my blog, that way I don't have to take the time to clean them up ever again.  I've already quickly weeded out three new spam posts that never even made it through.  I'm hoping this will keep them in check so I can be more interactive with people who comment!  I love to read comments from my readers... but not robots!

As for my other blog updates, I'm still trying to get caught up on the rest of the posts I never finished in 2021.  Looking ahead, I'm hoping that I can get those done sometime in May.  My new blog post method is really working with being able to look out over my calendar more in advance.  May is pretty light right now, and I'm trying to keep it that way so I can focus most of my energy on getting caught up with my posts and doing some stuff around the house before it gets too hot.

I haven't forgotten about the other changes I wanted to make to my blog layout.  I still would like to add some pages.  At some point, I'm planning to clean up my labels.  I've been a lot more careful about labeling posts recently.  But if I want it to be easier to find stuff on my blog, it's going to take a bit of time to clean all of my older posts up!  And I still need to get everything legal set up so I can start doing my affiliate links on here!

I've still got a lot of work ahead of me, but it feels good to have one less thing that I have to worry about!  My comment section is now clean and spam free... at least as far as I know.  I might have missed one or two, but it's way better than it was before!  °o°

A Jumbled Bumbled Mess

Hi friends!  I hope your 2022 is going well so far!  Eliot and I are finally back from our trip to visit his family.  We ended up being gone for a few extra days due to weather problems.  But we're back home in Maine and settling back in! 

I'm also trying to get back on schedule with blog posts.  I thought we'd have more downtime than we did, so unfortunately, I'm really behind on posts now.  I've still got nine posts to finish for 2021 as well as a few from this week.  I'm also going to be finishing up my 2021 year in review and my goals recap for 2021 and goals for 2022.

I just thought I'd pop in quickly to let you know!  If you follow along on all of my posts, I'm going to be sneaking in a few new ones that will be backdated!  (There will be one post for September, two in October and 6 in December, plus a few from this week!)

Right now, my blog feels like a bit of a jumbled bumbled mess with all of these half finished posts; but I will get everything straightened back out in the next week or two!

As always, thanks for following along on all of our adventures!  Happy New Year!!!  °o°

New Blog Post Method

As I mentioned the other day, I've already hit 100 posts this year.  It's hard to believe considering how hard of a time I've had with posting regularly in the past.  But this year, I seem to have been on a writing roll.

I've written a bunch of posts each month: January (15), February (11), March (14), April (9), May (16), June (16) and July (19).  This year, I've been pretty steady other than when I had a little bit of a dip in April when Happily Ever Hatter really started to pick up in anticipation of Disneyland re-reopening at the end of April.

Each year, my goal is to write 150 posts.  That probably sounds like a lot, but I guess that's me and my high achieving goals.  In the past 8 years of blogging, I have only hit 150 blog posts once- with 163 posts in 2016.  But I have been close a few other times: 147 posts in 2014, 122 posts in 2015 and 125 posts in 2020.  

The other years, 2017-2019, you can see how little I wrote.  2017 (43 posts) was when Happily Ever Hatter really took off and Eliot and I had to adjust.  2018 (18 posts) was when I was barely keeping my head above water between HEH and my job.  Then, in August of 2018, I left my part time job to be at home working full time.  In 2019, I had a more respectable 63 posts, but I had a hard time adjusting to being self-employed.

When I made the goal of trying to hit 150 posts in a year, I calculated that I'd have to write about 12-13 posts a month.  That's about a post every 2-3 days.  Sometimes, it's hard to think of something to write.  Other times, I'm full of inspiration and I can't stop writing.  It's been really hit or miss these past 8 years.

The pressure to write a new blog post every 2 to 3 days got to me sometimes... even though I really wasn't letting anyone else down other than myself.  Over the years, I've gotten a lot more relaxed about my blogging goals.  They're in the back of my mind, but sometimes I just have to focus on other things.  This isn't what makes me money and while I love doing it, I have to prioritize.

Like I said before, I've been posting a lot more often these past few weeks.  Mid-July, I thought of a new method and it's been making it a lot easier to write and to work on posts.  I tend to like to work on posts here and there when I have a few spare minutes, so I decided to model my blog the same way I've been doing our social media plan.

For Happily Ever Hatter's social media, I plan posts out about 2 month in advance.  I also look ahead at the calendar to find ideas for posts based off of things like holidays, national days and Disney movie release dates.  One day, it suddenly occurred to me that I could do the same thing on my blog.  But instead of writing the plan down in a note, I could actually start making each individual post on it's date.  

Suddenly, within a few hours, everything changed.  I became entranced by this new method of planning my posts.  Before I knew it, I had a ton of posts planned months in advance.  Within a week or so, I counted all of the blog post drafts I'd started and I realized that I had already reached my goal of 150 blog posts for 2021. 

In the past, I've tried to write blog post ideas down in my notes on my laptop or my phone.  But those ideas don't always translate over to the actual blog.  On here, I can set up posts by date and they're all in one place.  I've made sure to date all of the posts and tag them with the correct labels so it's easy to find them.

The second part of the equation was my genius idea to do themed blog segments.  I've kind of been doing them all along, but it took me a while to get the idea to do more.  I have been writing Fun Find Fridays for years.  Then, I thought of doing my Throwback Thursday segments in February of 2020.  Then, in June of 2020, I did my first Small Shop Saturday post.  A few days later, I did my first Magical Merchandise Monday.

Suddenly, the reoccurring segments I came up with were making it easier to fill my blogging calendar.  Instead of trying to find ideas and topics to fill the calendar, I could lean into my segments based off the day of the week.  That has made it a lot easier this past year.  But I never imaged how far I'd come a year later.

These past few weeks, it's been almost as natural as breathing.  I've kept my notes with the ideas for each segment separated by category, but I also have drafts of all those posts over here on my blog.  The best part is that I've been writing posts faster than ever.  By planning my blog posts out a few months in advance, I'm able to pop into a post here and there whenever I have some time.

I really love this new method and I can't believe that I didn't think of it sooner.  I feel like this is much more sustainable for the long haul.  Plus, I haven't felt as much pressure to keep coming up with ideas.  I've already hit my 150 blog posts for this year.  Now I just have to finish writing them.  I can sit back and relax a little knowing that I have topics and ideas to fill the calendar and there isn't any pressure.

Now, I've already gone ahead and written full blog posts weeks and even months in advance.  (True story: I finished writing this post on July 22nd when I was resting after my surgery and I just had to go in and quickly double check my editing and add a few photos in order to post it today.)  I've already finished writing posts days in advance so I just have to click a few buttons and occasionally add photos.  I've also already started making my photo folders in advance as well.  I even have a few posts as far out as December and January completed minus the photos!

With this new method (that I basically stumbled upon), I truly feel unstoppable.  Most importantly, I feel less stress and less pressure to create.  I'm not sure if I'll continue to strive towards writing 150 posts a year, but with this new method, I do feel like it will be easier to keep up with my blog without feeling like I'm behind or in a creative rut.

Cheers to new ideas and my exciting new blog post method!!!  °o°

A Half Birthday Surprise

Happy Half Birthday to me!  It's a happy day indeed.  I wasn't even planning on posting anything today, but I just had an awesome surprise and I couldn't wait to share it!

As you know, I've been working on my blog updates and updating my social media accounts.  I have been so excited about it, but one thing that I wasn't really feeling was my new Instagram name.  (I changed it to magically_melissa_jo if you missed it.)  I wanted it to reflect my new blog name and "brand" but I wasn't happy about having the underscores in it.  It didn't really bother me at first... and I thought having underscores separating the words actually made it easier to read.  Then, I got the emails.

One of the small shops that I follow, and receive emails from, changed their Instagram name at the end of March... the same day I wrote about my name change.  I received the email mere hours after I'd posted my blog post.  In their email, they announced their name change, and included the text, "That's right!  No more ugly underscore!"

The words "no more ugly underscore" have stuck in my brain ever since.  I received a few more emails from them with that same intro text, and every time it cut me like a knife.  I started to seriously second guess myself.  I knew most of the large accounts for celebrities or brands don't include underscores.  And suddenly, I didn't know what I was thinking.  Since then, I've wanted to change it.

Every time I've looked at my own account, the words "ugly underscore" have bounced around my head and I have immediately left my page.  Even then, I didn't rush to do it right away... and truthfully, it's been moving day to day on my to do list for weeks.

This evening, I decided it was time to stop avoiding it and to deal with it.  I opened the app with every intention of changing my name to magicallymelissajo, the same name as before but with no underscores.  So I went to change my name and for the heck of it, I deleted the underscores and the jo and hit done.  I was sure that I couldn't use magicallymelissa because every time I've checked for about a year it's been taken. 

But it didn't kick me out or make me pick another name.  I quickly grabbed my laptop and put the name into it online.  No one came up but me.  Then, I Googled it.  The only results were my Instagram and my blog.  Was this even real?  Finally, I switched over to my Happily Ever Hatter business Instagram account on the app, and then I switched back to my other account to check one last time and there it was... magicallymelissa.

I still can't believe it.  Like me, there have been multiple ways other Instagram users have tried to have some variation of that name by adding "ugly underscores" between the words or at the end.  For weeks, I've been kicking myself for avoiding changing my name, but because I didn't do it, the name I really wanted was finally available!

I'm so excited and I think that I'm still partially in shock!  I keep opening my Instagram to check that it's still there.  I can't believe this worked out for me.  Talk about having a little bit of magic and pixie dust in your corner!  This probably sounds ridiculous, but I wanted this name so much and I thought it would never be possible.  Now, my blog name, Facebook page name and Instagram name are all the same and I'm so happy!!!

"Even miracles take a little time," and this one was definitely worth waiting for!  °o°

Blog Layout and Design

Today, I'm outlining the upcoming major changes in my journey to update and rebrand my blog.  As I've mentioned many times, something that I've really wanted to do for a very long time was to update and personalize my blog.  When I started back in 2013, I knew absolutely nothing about building a website, coding, HTML, or anything blogging related.  All I knew back then was that I enjoyed writing and telling stories.

When I started blogging, I wasn't even sure if it was something that I was going to do long term, or if it was just a season in my life.  I never imagined that I'd really enjoy it and still be going strong 8 years later.  If I'd known then what I know now, I probably would have taken more time to set it up properly back in the beginning.

I've learned a lot over the past 8 years.  I've read so many different "how to blog" posts online.  I have a secret Pinterest board that's filled with blogging links.  It appears that everyone has an opinion on the "correct" way to do it.  I've learned a lot through these posts, but the greatest thing I've learned is to go with my gut.  So that's what I'm doing.

After a lot of waffling back and forth, I've decided to stick with Blogger.  Some people change to Word Press but I've been really happy with this platform.  According to people who "know" more that I do about blogging, Word Press will give you more customization options, more flexibility, etc. but this blog is a passion project, not my full time money maker.  Maybe if I was more serious about it, I'd want to look into other options, but for what I'm doing, this is working.  Plus, it's easy to use and navigate.  As nervous as I was about updating my blog, Blogger has made it easy and stress free.

Plus, I haven't actually looked at all of the options at my disposal in years.  When Eliot and I were working with Elissa on her new blog, I realized how many options I really had.  When I started my blog, I simply went with the website layout I liked best, and I made a few changes at the very beginning.  I never went out of my way to change the background photo or the colors.  I added a few gadgets, but left it at that.

While playing around with my blog in an effort to try to use it as an example to help Elissa, I realized how many options I had to customize layouts.  While she played around with different options for her new blog, I explored the possibilities of layouts, colors, fonts and more to update my own.  When I started my blog, I didn't spend any time looking into the possibilities.  If I'd known how many customization options I had at my disposal, I probably would have done something much sooner.

I'm happy with the way my blog is laid out for the most part.  I don't really see that changing very much as I'm happy with the text layout and sidebar.  After posting my first blog update post, that same night I started to tinker with updating my sidebar.  A few minutes later (and after almost 8 years) I can finally say my sidebar is wide enough to accommodate the images without cutting them off on the right side!  If only I'd known how easy it would have been to fix it.  That's been driving me crazy for years now.

There are a lot of other things I'd like to tinker around with as well.  I've wanted to add pages and to streamline the labels on my posts for a few years.  When I first started my blog, I was willy nilly with the labels and I often used way more than I needed to in each post.  (That's using Etsy rubbing off on me.)  In order to help people find what they're looking for (including myself) it'll be easier if I update and streamline the labels.

I'd also like to add some pages to my blog.  Most bloggers have a separate page for a longer "About Me" page and I'd like to do that.  I've also always wanted to add a page introducing our friends and family that I frequently reference on my blog.  In addition to that, there are a few legal pages that I want to add in order to start doing the affiliate marketing that I plan to start doing over the next few months.  Plus, I'm hoping that I can use the pages feature to make it easier to separate some of my reoccurring and segment posts.  I'd love to have a quick way to find more of my posts like DIY, style and Disneybounding, our house, merchandise, small shops, traveling, and holidays.

Finally, the part that I'm most looking forward to is updating the design of my blog.  I went to college for interior design and I love color so this comes as no surprise.  I'm looking forward to changing the background photo from the blurry window view.  I am also really excited about updating the colors and maybe even the fonts.  It's amazing how different it already feels even though I've only updated my blog header photo so far.  My logo was with me from the very beginning and I've grown attached to it.  But at the same time, I'm ready for a new look.  And it's time to freshen up a bit!

If things look a little out of place over the next few weeks, please give me a little bit of grace as I'm not sure how long it will take me to make these updates and changes.  I'm not sure exactly how I want the final look, so I might play around with a few different combinations while in the process of getting there.  In the end, I'm hoping it will be more streamlined, modern, easier to navigate and that it will feel more like me.  °o°

The Name Game

Whew... so much stuff is happening behind the scenes right now.  Between my sewing class, Squirrel-Gate, working on the house and keeping up with our businesses, I'm juggling a lot of balls.  But I'm still making time for my blog updates.  I feel like I'm at the cocoon stage of transforming from a caterpillar into a butterfly.  I'm keeping my blog update to do list near by while I work on checking things off.  The next section that I planned in my blog updates was to work on my name changes.  Today has been a whirlwind of social media changes, new logos and updating my new web domain links.

Earlier this month, I worked on making a temporary "logo" photo for my blog header and Facebook cover photo.  I didn't want to spend too much time on it since it's only going to be temporary.  But since I'm not 100% sure how long it'll be before I have time to invest in making a new logo and header design, I still wanted this one to look nice.  I opened up Canva and I opted to use the same template that I used on my Happily Ever Hatter Facebook cover photo that I showed you a few weeks ago.  

I changed the text over to my new blog name and tagline.  Then, I went through all of the fonts until I found one that spoke to me.  I really like this one and I might use it in my final logo design.  This script is modern and fun, yet professional looking with a touch of whimsy.  Finally, I uploaded photos that I thought would work for the time being.  I included the one of me Disneybounding with Minnie, one from Eliot's and my Magic Kingdom wedding photo shoot, a picture of me riding on Dumbo during our honeymoon and one of Eliot and me at Disneyland wearing Happily Ever Hatter ears.

I love how this came out!  It's still pretty minimal, but it works for now.  In the future, I'm hoping to do something that's more personalized.  I'm hoping to learn how to use a digital sketchbook program on my iPad.  Then, I can create designs with my own sketches.  I also had an idea to make some seasonal blog headers and Facebook cover photos, but that'll probably be farther down the line.  I'd love to be able to keep my blog design updated based on the current season or holiday, but that will depend on how hard it would be to keep changing it.  I guess we'll see how the redesign goes!

I had planned to continue on my roll with blog updates last week- then Squirrel-Gate happened.  That derailed my progress, but I have been able to re-focus the past few days.  Earlier today, I spent about an hour updating my social media pages.  

I figured that changing my Facebook page name would be the easiest so I started there.  Boy, did I misjudge that.  Facebook has done a lot to change their business pages over the past few years.  I consider myself pretty tech savvy with social media, but this one took me a while.  I had to look at a few how to guides, and in the end, somehow I stumbled upon the name change page.  I'm not even sure that I could get there again if I tried, but thankfully I don't plan to change my blog or page name again.

When you update your name on Facebook, they tell you that it could take up to 3 days for them to verify the changes.  Thankfully, my name was approved and switched over in a few minutes- before I even took one last screen shot of my My Disney Life page.  I also updated my Facebook web extension so it also reflects my new page name.

Changing my Instagram was a lot less difficult, even if it took me a few minutes to get into the correct location.  I'd already figured out what I wanted my new name to be, so it was just a matter of going in and typing in the new one.  After I finished changing my Instagram name, I added the link to my Facebook page.

Ironically, the easiest part of the blog name changing process was the part that I have stressed out over the most.  It only took me a few seconds to update my blog with my new website domain!  Blogger also took the guesswork out of it.  I was worried that people having the old website wouldn't be able to find me, but I was able to add the new website and keep the existing blogger webpage as well.  Now, you can find me at my new website address, and the old web address forwards you to it!  Easy peasy...

Finally, I just had to make a few quick updates in order to officially finish changing my blog name.  First, I updated the website link to my blog over on my Instagram and Facebook pages.  It's the first time I've used my new web domain!  (I still can't believe I have my very own website!!!)  Then, I updated the link to my Facebook page from the picture on the side of my blog.  After that, I uploaded the new header photos (aka my temporary logos) to both my blog and my Facebook page.  While updating the blog header, I also changed my name and my description.  After double-checking my list, I confirmed that I had completed all of my changes for this round of blog updates!

The name change step of my update process took a bit longer than I was planning for it to.  I only spent just over an hour doing it, but I thought I'd have this part completed a week ago.  But life happens and I'm not going to beat myself up for it like I would have in the past.  I'm only human and I'm getting a lot better at giving myself grace.  

Now that my social media and blog name changes are finished, I'm getting ready to dive into the harder stuff.  But, it feels good to take a minute to stop and celebrate this moment.  After many moons of wanting to update my blog name, I'm finally there!  °o°

There's a New Girl In Town

It's a very exciting day here on my blog... after almost 8 years of having a generically named blogspot webpage, I'm finally taking the plunge of getting my own website domain.  A few hours ago, I officially purchased my new website name... something I've been dreaming about doing for a while now.  I thought it was only fitting that today also be the day that I reveal the new and updated name of my blog!  "My Disney Life" is going to begin it's official transition into becoming... "Magically Melissa".

I'm so excited to finally have this hurdle behind me.  Once again, I didn't realize that it would be this easy.  Over the years, I've been researching different web hosts here and there.  It always seemed like such a big commitment and I didn't really understand much of it.  Thankfully, it was really easy and really inexpensive.  I was able to do it right thorough my blog.  I now have an annual renewal set up with Google Domain so I'll just have to pay for it the same time every year and the domain is mine!

As I mentioned before, I've wanted to get away from having the word "Disney" in the official name of my blog.  Back when I first started my blog, I wasn't even thinking about that.  I started blogging right around the same time as the #MyDisneySide campaign for the Disney Parks and the blog name "My Disney Life" seemed along those lines.  However, as time has worn on, and I've seen a few other blogs rebrand, I've decided that is also a path I'd like to take.  And I'm finally making time to do it!

I'm thrilled about my new blog name, owning my own url, the renaming and rebranding process and about the process of giving my blog a much needed facelift.

I'm so happy with the new name I've chosen.  Part of the reason it's taken me so long to get to this point was that I wasn't sure of what to commit to for a name.  Buying a domain seemed like a big step and I wanted to do it right.  After bouncing a bunch of ideas around, the one that kept sticking out in my mind was "Magically Melissa".

I've talked about how I wanted to focus on myself as my "brand" moving forward.  At the end of the day, my blog is a mix of a lifestyle blog, DIY blog, travel blog and online diary of our life.  Thus, it seemed more appropriate to find a more generic name that will stand the test of time.  Since I'm always focusing on adding magic to our lives, Magically Melissa seemed like the best fit!

In addition to my new web domain, I'll be updating the name, header and information on my blog.  I'm also planning a complete redesign of the look... but more on that soon!

Now that you know the new name, I am going to start working on getting my Facebook and Instagram accounts updated to reflect my new name and branding.  I'm not sure how long it will take to update those, but I'll be sure to give you notice on both social media accounts, as well as updating you with the new names and website links here. 

I'm so pumped about all of these updates and changes!  I've wanted to do this for a few years now, but I just couldn't get excited about rebranding and redesigning my blog when I was so busy with everything else.  It just felt like more work and I wanted it to be a fun and exciting process.  Now that I'm fully on board and looking forward to it, I'm finally taking the time my blog deserves and I can't wait to see how it all turns out! 

Watch out interwebs... Magically Melissa is coming and there's a new girl in town!!!  °o°

Goodbye Old Logo

I mentioned recently that I'm working on updating my blog.  I'm ready to update and refresh... and this place has been the same since I started it back in May of 2013.  It's definitely time for a makeover!!!  And that means, as part of the process of updating my blog, it's time to say goodbye to my original blog header and logo.

I made my logo back at the very beginning.  After learning how to input photos into text, I was well on my way to creating something that was quite personal.  I always thought that I'd do a post with more detail on each of the photos, but I never got around to it.  (Better late than never right?)  So, before she rides off into the sunset, I thought that I'd give a little more information about the photos that have graced the top of my blog and my blog's Facebook page for the past eight years.

M- Mickey and Minnie Wedding Photo
Eliot's and my photo with Mickey and Minnie while we cut our wedding cake was one of my favorite pictures from our wedding day.  Obviously, I had to include it!

Y- Melissa and Mickey
This is my first picture with Mickey Mouse from when I was a child!

D- Melissa and Eliot on Cinderella's Castle (pictured below)
I loved our castle photos from our Magic Kingdom wedding photo shoot.  We were so excited that we got to go up the stairs of Cinderella's Castle!

I- Magic Kingdom Fireworks * * * 
I've always loved the night shows at Disney and what's a day at the Magic Kingdom without watching the fireworks over Cinderella Castle?

S- Sorcerer's Hat at Hollywood Studios * * * 
I've seen a lot of changes at Hollywood Studios through the years, but I loved the giant Sorcerer Mickey Hat.  I had to include it in my blog logo.

N- Sleeping Beauty Castle at Disneyland * * * 

When I made my logo in 2013, I'd only been to Disneyland once with Eliot's family in 2009.  I hadn't fallen head over heels for it yet, but a few years later I would.

E- Spaceship Earth at Epcot * * * 
I had to put Spaceship Earth's texture in the "E" for Epcot.  I really love how it looks!

Y- Tree of Life at Animal Kingdom * * * 
I finished the word Disney with the last WDW park icon- Animal Kingdom's Tree of Life!

L- Cinderella Castle lit up with Christmas Ice Lights * * * 
I love the celebrating the holidays at Disney parks so I represented them with a photo of Cinderella Castle lit up with the ice lights.

I- Melissa and Eliot at Magic Kingdom Train Station (pictured above)

This was a photo taken right after Eliot and I got our first WDW annual passes back in April of 2012.  They were a gift from Disney Fairy Tale Weddings and we had just gotten the actual tickets at the Magic Kingdom Guest Services window.

F- Walt Disney Partners Statue at the Magic Kingdom * * * 
It might have all started with a mouse, but it wouldn't be anywhere without the man behind the mouse.  I had to make sure that Walt Disney was represented in my logo.

E- Melissa and Sorcerer Mickey
This photo of me and Sorcerer Mickey was taken at Hollywood Studios while we were on Eliot's second trip to Walt Disney World together back in 2010.

I also wanted to note that the photos with asterisks beside them (* * *) are all photos that I found after a quick Google search online.  This was before I knew how to properly credit photo sources online and unfortunately I have no idea where I found them.  I can't find the original images that I used to make the logo as they are all currently being held hostage on my old, dead laptop.  Lesson learned!

Of course, the photos in the logo are all cropped down to the outline of the letter so you can't see a lot of the other details.  Jeremy was completely cropped out of the first "Y" photo.   I had to find photos where the subjects would fit into the proper shape.  It took a lot of time to get the design and photos correct, but I was happy with the result.  I've loved my logo, the memories it evokes and how personal it is to me.

However, at the same time it feels old and stale at this point.  I've changed a lot in the past eight years since starting this blog.  It's time that I get a newer and more modern logo design that reflects me and what I dream for the future of my blog!

And there you have it- the story behind the photos used in my first blog logo!  Goodbye old friend.  Thank you for serving me well for the past 8 years.  °o°

Blog Updates & Re-Branding

Well, I think it's time that I let you in on a few of the changes I'm planning on making around here.  I've hinted at them for a while now, but it really is time that I start to focus more on those goals.  There are a lot of behind the scenes projects that I'd like to get working on if I'm going to continue on this blogging adventure.  

Other than this paragraph, I've actually had the rest of this post typed up for months and I've held off on posting it since I wasn't ready to dive in.  But after helping Elissa with her blog the past few weeks, I suddenly find myself chomping at the bit to get redesigning and updating mine.  Now that I'm excited about this big undertaking, I'm ready to officially jump in to this project.  After writing and posting 775 blog posts, it's time for blog that's more personalized to my style... so here we go!

First of all, as I've mentioned before, I'm planning on changing the name of my blog and to do a re-branding.  I started this blog wanting to talk about my experiences and how Disney has impacted it.  However, over the past 5 years, I've also included posts on Harry Potter, the San Jose Sharks, the New England Patriots and other aspects of my life.  I always feel a tad guilty when I write those posts... as if no one will care or want to read them since they aren't necessarily Disney related.

Thus, I've decided to focus on myself as my "brand" and theme.  Obviously, Disney is still the main entity impacting my life.  All of the rooms in our house are Disney themed in some way.  Eliot and I are running a mouse ear business, and I'm home doing that full time.  We also run his business where we sell Disney inspired desk accessories, soaps and more.  We're also opening two more magically inspired businesses later this year.  The names we've picked out for our future puppies are mostly Disney themed.  I'm even trying to incorporate Disney into baby names we like.  Obviously, we go to the parks pretty often- other than during our current pandemic situation.  So in reality, the Disney posts aren't going anywhere.  I'll just continue to post a few non-Disney posts every once in a while- as I have been doing anyways.

Plus, after watching and learning while a few other blogs have gone through their re-branding, I've decided that including the word "Disney" in my name isn't something that I'm comfortable with anymore.  I don't want to confuse people.  I'm not affiliated with Disney and I don't want to get into trouble for including the word in my blog name.  So, very soon I will be updating my blog, Facebook and Instagram accounts to reflect this new name and new branding.  (Don't worry, I'll give you all advance notice!)

Along those lines, I also want to update my blog layout.  When I first started this blog, I used templates already set up for me by Blogger- mainly because I had absolutely no idea what I was doing.  I'm still not as blog tech-savvy as I'd like to be, but I'm willing to take more chances now.  I'd really like to make my blog more reflective of my personal design style.  Therefore, I'll be updating my blog logo, layout and themes as part of my re-branding.  (The blurry outdoor scene has run it's course after almost 8 years...)

I've also done some research on adding tabs and other pages from the main page.  I'm really hoping that this will make it easier to navigate my blog.  I'd love to have all of my DIY posts in one section and all of my travel recap posts on another.  I think that will make it a lot more user friendly as I move forward.

Finally, something that I've been meaning to do for a long time now is to set up some affiliate marketing.  For those of you who don't know, affiliate marketing is how a lot of bloggers make income from their blogs.  Businesses partner with bloggers or social media influencers (or their "affiliates") and they reward their affiliates when visitors click the link and are brought to their website.  In most cases, an affiliate will make a small percentage when the visitors make a purchase from the website.  Many companies use affiliate marketing such as Amazon, Home Depot, Shop Disney and Hot Topic.

This blog has never been a monetary stream for me.  It never even crossed my mind to start a blog to make money when I first started it.  I started blogging about 8 months after Eliot and I got married.  We'd moved to Maine and I wasn't working anywhere since Eliot still didn't have his driver's license.  After all the hours I had spent planning our wedding, I found myself unemployed with nothing to do during the day while Eliot was at work.  So, I decided to start a blog and My Disney Life was born.

In fact, as of right now, I've never made a penny off of it unless a reader has seen one of the products from Happily Ever Hatter or from Eliot's Snowblade Creations shop and bought something through those.  All of the ads on the side are either from my own companies or for my friends who I don't charge for the ad space.  Up to this point, all of the products I've linked to are just that- web links.  They don't give me any portion of the sales if you buy the item I'm talking about, or anything else on their website.  If I change over to affiliate marketing, I can use my own links so I can collect a small amount off purchases made using those links.

I've got a list of over 20 companies that offer affiliate marketing that I've collected over the past five years.  (Yes, that's how long I've been considering doing this.)  I have decided that I need to take the time to start applying for a few of these programs so I can start using them on my blog.  Of course, I will be making all of my readers aware if I'm including an affiliate link in a post.  (I hate when other websites don't do that.)

And let's face it... this is long overdue.  With all of the time it takes to write some of these posts, I really should consider my time worth making money through this, even if it's only a small amount.  Everything helps.  They say that "time is money" and that's especially true when you're self-employed.  My time literally is money and time spent on here is time that I'm not working on products or samples for our businesses.  I'm hoping that by having affiliate marketing on here, I'll be able to make a small amount of money to help sustain the time it takes to devote to my blog.

That's a brief overview of everything that's going on behind the scenes.  Overall, I think all of these changes will finally keep my blog feeling fresh, and it will give me another reason to continue doing it- besides the fact that I enjoy it.  With the launches of two more businesses quickly approaching, my time is extremely limited and I need to make sure that I'm doing everything I can to keep myself afloat while being self-employed. 

So, those are the big changes that will be going on around here over the next few months!  Please bear with me as I'm going through these growing pains.  I'm really confident that by the end of this, I'll finally have my blog where I want to be!  °o°