With some sun.

Instead of in rainy Auckland.

Yes, Taupo is a good place indeed. Can’t wait to go back!

I write a lot of blogs some more regularly than others but I’ll try to take a stab at all of them in my answers. My questions and answers about my blogs below:

Could I describe my blog to a friend in 3 sentences or less?

A Merry Life -Yes. This is my blog that chronicles my journey from sad, sedentary obese girl to happy, active healthy girl. It’s a weight loss blog but focuses more on fitness and being healthy in all aspects of life beyond the scale.

AML Food -Yes. This is a simple blog to describe. It is my food blog where I sometimes record my daily food when I want to be accountable but mostly I use it as an occasional food diary and recipe holder. It gives me a place to put food ideas as I learn to cook and decide what healthy foods I enjoy.

A Merry Wife – Yes. This is the blog I probably have the best ability to describe as it is my wedding blog that focuses on my wedding and diy projects. It’s the perfect outlet for my crafty nature as I post about crafts and making things lovely.

Life Is Awesome -Probably, but not in a good way. I’ve gone back and forth on this blog and whether it should even exist. I’ve almost deleted it a few times but kept it simply because I like the name and it’s a place to throw things that don’t fit anywhere else. Internet vomit at it’s best.

Would I subscribe to my own blog?

A Merry Life – Maybe. I would subscribe to this blog but I would probably end up skimming the content. I know I’m wordy and it helps me but as a reader I know I wouldn’t read everything. I don’t subscribe to many journal blogs – maybe about five total? And they are all close to my age and have similar lives. Other blogs of this type I tend to bookmark and check in on their lives periodically.

AML Food – Yes. I like food photos and recipes and just looking at food. yummm.

A Merry Wife -  Yes, if I was still a bride to be. I loved reading personal wedding blogs and getting ideas from other brides and their wedding plans. Currently? I wouldn’t subscribe. Though I love writing about my wedding and projects I only subscribe to one other wedding blog after the wedding and that’s because it talks about being a wife too (APW).

Life Is Awesome – No.

Where am I taking my readers?

A Merry Life – Ultimately this is more about a journey and a peek into my life. I’m not sure that there is a destination exactly, although I do have some goals related to weight loss that eventually we will see being achieved.

AML Food – No real destination in mind for my readers. This blog was and is about my learning to cook and use food in healthy ways. I’m not sure there is anywhere to go other than continue with that path.

A Merry Wife -  Here I plan to take my readers through my wedding via recaps and then through all the diy projects with tutorials and extra resources. I have a very clear plan in mind for the direction and destination of this blog and even have about a year’s worths of post ideas already planned out.

Life Is Awesome – Nowhere? honestly, I don’t know. This has the least direction of all.

What promise am I making with my blog?

A Merry Life – I’m promising that I will do my best to strive for the healthiest life I can achieve and share my experiences honestly with readers sharing both the successes and the struggles.

AML Food – I’m promising to experiment with food and eat healthier while sharing my experiences.

A Merry Wife – I’m promising to share my wedding experience and the knowledge I gained from the wedding with future brides to be who want an authentic and memorable wedding without spending a fortune.

Life Is Awesome – I’m promising…. to… occasionally post content here that makes no promises.

Conclusion

This was really interesting to do. I think it was a good exercise as a blogger and would benefit other bloggers. It really clarified some things for me regarding my multiple blogs and helped me see where my strengths and weaknesses are. Interesting exercise!

It feels almost like it’s a different person. Guess it will take some time to adjust to this new name as well as new online persona. It feels like a good time to shake things up though.

That’s why I’m very excited about my friend Tara’s new site Fab Girl Travel.

Tara has always traveled a lot for both work and pleasure. She started her blog a couple month’s ago and writes about both her travels and how to travel fabulously. Fab Girl Travel’s tagline is: The online travel guide for the fabulous girl of the go!

Obviously I’m her target market since I’m a girl who wants both to be fabulous and to travel frequently. I must say, so far I’m loving the site.

Some of my favorite posts on Fab Girl Travel so far include:

• Who is Fab Girl Travel?
• Fab Tip: Packing
• Fab Travel: The Luggage Debate
• Ask Fab Gabby: Inexpensive Solo Vacation

Those are just a few of the articles I’ve enjoyed. I’m excited to keep reading and see where Tara takes the site in the future. It has great potential to be an awesome niche travel resource. Make sure you check Fab Girl Travel out!

Luckily a friend recommended Sucuri and they saved my butt.

Sucuri is an amazing service that protects WordPress blogs by scanning and removing infected files. For 90 (one site) or 290 (10 sites) you also get a year of protection. For me that is a flipping good deal to get my site fixed and feel secure for a whole year.

Being hacked isn’t fun, but you know what? Something good came out of it. I found an amazing new service I can 100% recommend to anyone who finds themselves in the same situation.

Sites getting hacked.

Bummer, really.

Especially when it’s a sneaky hack. That no one can seem to figure out how to fix quickly but they see there is a problem.

Having a site hacked is no fun.

And this:

I can’t wait to go back to New Zealand! I can’t wait to get to the beach & ocean! I’m already planning a trip to the South Island in my head.

I’ve been thinking a bit about where I want to take them during their stay here. Here’s a list of Memphis places we will hit up with some or all of the group when they are here.

Pre-Wedding List:

• Graceland (I’ve never even been)
• Beale Street
• Memphis Zoo
• Gus’s Fried Chicken
• Las Tortugas (Deli Mexicana)
• Soul Fish Cafe
• Huey’s
• The Flying Saucer
• Kooky Canuck
• Arcade Restaurant

I know I’m forgetting stuff and of course they all want to go to fast food places. But I’m going to force them to eat at least some of the above since most will also have a chance to eat whatever when they go on a roadtrip after Memphis. Regardless, they might leave weighing 10 pounds more than when they came.

Wedding:

• Central BBQ
• Muddy’s Bakeshop

That’s a pretty good roundup of my favorite Memphis stuff that I think I can work in to their visit in between/with wedding events going on. It’s going to be awesome! I love showing off the city to people!

He seems to have the worst Fridays. So far he has lost his body, lost an eye, had his heart cut out then speared, had his head taken apart… when will it end? Poor Mr. Clock Radio suffers on to live another day.