The Kathryn Bag and end of June grow my blog challenge!

Allow me to introduce...

The Kathryn Bag

So named because the bow is exactly like one I remember in my mum's hair

 (my mum's name is Kathryn)

in a lovely black and white photo of her as a child!

The bag has pockets inside, - a nice secret zipped pocket and a couple of simple slip-in ones too:

And also looks good in other colours !

Wouldn't you agree??

I'm quite proud of my design - and have even produced a pattern and tutorial for The Kathryn Bag too!

I am giving this away as a free thank you gift to all my email newsletter subscribers!
I've spent all month trying to figure out how to set up an email newsletter and sign up form - and finally succeeded! Yippee!!

If you would like to sign up and receive your free copy of the pattern - see the top of my sidebar !

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Aside from that fabulous bag !  Today marks the end of my challenge to grow my blog this month!

Although I'm not stopping this growth, this has been a month to kickstart the process and has really shown me what is possible in a short space of time!

So - at the beginning of June I set my goals:

The measurable ones were:

"To grow my blog, I need to increase traffic. So for something measurable, I'm going to aim to boost my number of followers from my current number of almost 600, to 800. And my monthly pageviews from around 14000, to 20000. And since this is about making it profitable, I should attach a monetary value to it - this is tricky, and probably the scariest part as I'm not sure right now how I'm going to do this - but I have to have a goal, so I'm going to say I want to make $100 this month, from some action I have taken this month! Phew! I've said it - put it out there, now I have something to work towards!"

So how did I do?

Well as of this morning I have 792 followers.  I still have today to reach the magic 800- so if you aren't already a follower, you could alway join me and help me reach that goal!   I'm amazed to have got so close! Nearly 200 new followers in a month is amazing!  Thank you everyone!!

Monthly pageviews, I'm already over 20,000 for June - and still have a day to go!  Again - amazing! That's over 6000 more views than last month!

Now as far as my monetary goal of $100, sadly I didn't reach that.   I can say though, that in past months on Google Adsense I've made around $5, if I'm lucky.  This month that value has tripled!!!  I'm pretty happy with that as a start - and will focus on the fact that if I can keep my blog growing at the same rate as it has this month - then soon I will have an income from my blog!!  I've set up advertising space -and revised down my affiliate links to a quality minimum.

At the beginning of the month - I checked my Google Page Rank and it was 1 out of a possible 10.

I noticed a couple of days ago, that my blog is now ranked 3!!  Not a bad jump up!

So overall - I think I've done well, and my blog has certainlty grown lots during June!

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I learnt a lot this month about blogging and how to turn it into something profitable!

This is just the beginning and I will continue to learn about and grow my blog to reach my goal of it providing me with an income so it can be my job, not just my hobby!

Some things I learned:

How to add a facebook 'like' and 'tweet this' button to my posts.

How to increase my blogs exposure by submitting my work to various sites.

More about advertising on my blog.

Ways to improve the look of my photographs.
About the importance of keywords.

 That there is always more to learn!  Which means there is always a new or different way to grow my blog!

Have you been learning with me this month?  Have you noticed an effect on your blog visitors? or stats?

I hope you will continue to visit my blog and share in my continued growth.

I have lots more ideas brewing for new tutorials, and next Wednesday have a global launch of my Creating to Success interviews!

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Finally - I need to have another measurable goal for July!

So to push me to continue my blog's speedy growth, I'm aiming to reach 1000 followers, and 30,000 monthly pageviews by the end of July!

And I'll try again for $100 profit!

Wish me luck!

For more wonderfully creative spaces , go here!

Wednesday Blog Hop - How are you Creating your Way to Success, Mich in LA

Hello and Welcome to the Wednesday Blog Hop here at Creating my way to Success!

<center><a href=http://jembellish.blogspot.com/search/label/Creating%20to%20Success><img border="0" src="http://i895.photobucket.com/albums/ac152/creatingtosuccess/blog%20buttons%20-%20Creating%20my%20way%20to%20Success/Jillsbloghopbutton.jpg"/></a></center> 

Providing a chance to find new friends and blogs and be inspired and encouraged - while gaining new followers and supporting each other!

This weeks co-host is Mich in LA

Hi, everybody!  Mich here, from Mich L. in L.A.   Upcycling fool, craft blogger and pet rescue enthusiast.  Jill has asked me some questions, I will do my best to answer...

What do you create?  I make jewelry.  Some is the regular kind, made with chain and beads and, well, regular stuff.  But most of it is upcycled from bizarro items like earplug cases, Q-Tips, computer keys and bread tags...

My favorite thing to create nowadays: my DIY tutorials, because I love getting people hooked on making their own jewelry.

Why do you create?  It's therapy, a vacation from stuff that's not fun, mental stimulation and I save soooo much money.  Plus I like to occasionally make people go "ew!"  For example: 

The lovely Moss Agate pendant above was made from a gynecological instrument.   (You went "ew," right?)

Do you sell your creations? If so, how? Where? And is it profitable?  I do sell my 'regular' jewelry, mostly through word of mouth.  Some of it is available at a cool boutique here in L.A. called Anyash.  For my weird stuff, I started an Etsy shop a few months ago, but I can't say the items are flying off the shelves.  It's fun, though; I like having the weirdness available on the web, just in case someone needs it.

What mistakes have you made or lessons have you learned?  Ooh...I have a regular contest on my blog called "Guess the Mystery Thing."  People try to identify the mystery ingredient in one of my upcycled jewels.  At first, I tried to award a prize for most creative guess.  But so many people wrote in with hilarious and clever guesses, there was no way to pick just one and I was stressing out.  So now I let random.org pick the winner.

What, to you, is success?  Have you achieved it yet?  I think I have totally achieved it.  Never really expected anyone to read my blog - well, maybe my mom.  I didn't expect to have so many regular visitors, or to become so absorbed by the process of blogging.

So what's next?  Another Mystery Thing, of course.  You think I'm telling?  You'll have to see if you can guess.

Thanks for inviting me, Jill - you know how much I love you and your blog.  I am so inspired by your big ideas - keep moving forward and I'll follow along!

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Thank you so much Mich for your wonderful answers! 

If you haven't clicked over already - then do it now!  Mich in LA is one of my favourite blogs and I'm proud to be able to share it with you!

And don't forget to link your own blog to the hop below- so we can all find new creative friends and blogs!

If you have a craft to share- then go here to link that to my Round Tuit party link!

Remember

Link your main blog here so people can find you....

Link your crafty post at Round Tuit for our weekly show and tell party!

Before you go..... I wanted to let you know that next week this blog hop with success interview is GOING GLOBAL!!!!  Do come back next Wednesday to meet the new co-hosts on all five continents and take a tour around the world with us to discover some amazing creativity!

How to make a fabric lunch wrap in 5 easy steps and just 15 mins!

You can make a fabric lunch wrap like this in 5 easy steps and just 15 mins! 

Simple!

Perfect for sandwiches, and also doubles as a mini picnic mat:

This size fabric wrap is perfect for a single 'round' of sandwiches, a bun or a slice of quiche.  You can simply make a bigger or smaller square for different sized snacks or lunches.

How to make your own:

Step 1.

Cut 2 squares of fabric 26.5cm square.

1 for outer fabric

1 ripstop nylon for inner fabric

 (this fabric can be wiped easily after use as it is waterproof)

1 piece sew in velcro 8cm long.

Step 2.

Pin one piece of the velcro to a corner of each square diagonally - like this:

Stitch around all four edges of the velcro to secure.

Step 3.

Place the squares right sides together with the velcro at opposite corners.

Then pin and stitch around all 4 sides with a 3/8" seam, leaving a gap open of around 8cm on one side.

Step 4.

Snip the corners off close to the stitching:

Turn the squares right side out through the gap you left in the stitching, and press flat.

Step 5.

Topstitch close to the edge around all 4 sides:

And your fabric sandwich wrap is finished!

You can make all sorts of colours and sizes:

To make the perfect picnic:

Then when the food is gone, just gently wipe the inside of the wraps with a damp cloth, or if they need more of a clean, just throw them in the washing machine!

Simple!

To make these fabric wraps extra fun for kids lunch boxes (or your own!) - you could make them with some of the gorgeous novelty fabric to be found at the online shop

 Fashionable fabrics! 

Do go and take a look at their amazing selection!

I hope you liked this tutorial - if you have any questions feel free to ask.  Have fun making your own fabric sandwich wraps!

Click here for more simple sewing tutorials of 5 steps in 15 mins.

I'll be linking this tutorial to many of the fabulous linky parties whose pretty buttons you can find on the bottom of this page.

A Round Tuit (55)

MOTIVATION and INSPIRATION are the key factors behind my Monday posts and opportunity to link up and encourage, motivate and inspire each other....with your very own ROUND TUIT

Tuits are very hard to come by, especially the round ones. For years people have been saying, "I'll do it as soon as I get a round tuit". Well now you can have one of your very own, and all those jobs that have needed doing will finally get done!

<a <br /><br /><center> <a href="http://jembellish.blogspot.com/search/label/A%20Round%20Tuit"><img border="”0”" src="http://i912.photobucket.com/albums/ac329/jembellish/Blog%20buttons/ARoundTuit.jpg" /></a><center> <br /><br /></center> </center>

Thanks to everyone who linked up last week,  we did grow again - this time getting 111 links! 

 Here are my favourites from last week:

First of all, this adorable dino herd from The Paisley Cupcake:

Aren't they cute?  And it seems once you start making them...you can't stop!!

For lots more fun ideas from some wonderful ladies- head on over to their blog at:

http://thepaisleycupcake.blogspot.com/

Next, another clothes upcycle (you know I love them!)  A tie skirt from Doodle Craft:

She's even done Mother's and Daughter's versions! How fabulous!!

For more brilliant and inspirational ideas go to:

http://doodlecraft.blogspot.com/

Finally, these oh-so-cute kimono baby shoes from Nifty Thrifty Things:

Aren't they just gorgeous??

For more great ideas, head on over to:

http://niftythriftythings.blogspot.com/

And now for our

most clicked on link of the week...

This men's shirt to halter dress fromWobisobi:

I LOVE the back on this and am definitely going to try this one for myself!

Wobisobi has some awesome clothes upcycles, so go and check out her blog at:

http://wobisobi.blogspot.com/

I'll also be featuring another couple of great links on facebook too!! - I might start doing this through the week to spread out the fun a bit more!!

For all those featured- please do grab a 'featured on' button from my buttons page!

Then link up more of your fabulous projects!!!

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Now it's your turn -  link up your posts - maybe it's a project you've completed that you're proud of - something you have wanted to get done for a while and need some extra motivation to get going on it - or you'd just like some of that fabulous encouragement, praise and motivation that bloggers are so good at spreading around.

Remember if it's a clothes upcycling project, you can also link to my long term linky on the clothes upcycling project page here:
There are now over 125 amazing projects linked up now - keep them coming!

Whatever the reason - grab your very own "Round Tuit" button (see sidebar), and link up.

Then head on over to some of the other links and praise, encourage and motivate.

I'll feature my favourite posts next week.

(by linking up here you're giving me permission to use photos from your linked post on my blog)

So come on, link up - tell your friends,  share the encouragement by visiting some other blogs and let's get this party started!  We're aiming for over 110 links this week!

And don't forget to enter the giveaway too!

One more thing before you go!  I'm almost at the end of  my one month challenge to focus on growing my blog.  On Thursday this month ends and we'll see if I achieved my goals!! I do hope you'll continue to read my blog and come on Thursday for my summation of the month - and look ahead to the next month's goals.  Everyone has been so generous in following along with my progress this month, and sharing their own blogging knowlege and tips too!

Please come back on Thursday where I hope we will all share what we've learnt this month -and look forward to more growth and creativeness!!!

Keywords on your blog

I started reading the blogging books I got from the library - and found an interesting section in one of them about using keywords on your blog.  By using the right keywords, in the right way, you can help to drive more traffic to your site.  So I figured this was a good thing to look at.

The book I found this information in was Blogging all-in-one for Dummies - lots of interesting info about all aspects of blogging!

Anyway, back to keywords..

First thing I needed to do, was to find out what keywords people were searching for which brought them to my blog!   So I looked at both the 'stats'  tab at the top of blogger, and also Google analytics.  I found that most of my searches come from people looking for specific items - like my most popular tutorial - bed pockets, and also my insulated lunch bags tutorial.  I also get a fair amount of people who have googled clothes upcycling, and them some who are looking for something like 'way to success'

So what does that tell me?  Well, what I already knew really, that people are coming to my site - largely for my tutorials, and my clothes upcycling projects and links!  Ok, so that wasn't much of a discovery!

So what can keywords do for me?

Well since people are looking for tutorials, I can make sure the wording I use in my tutorial posts clearly reflects what they are for. 

The book suggests that you focus on one keyword phrase per post, and try to use that keyword phrase at the beginning and end of the post in particular, but also through the post in different grammatical forms - for example in the plural, or different verb tenses.

So for example, if it's a post on clothes upcycling, I could use:

upcycle those clothes

clothing upcycle

I upcycled this.....

100 great clothes upcycling projects

How to upcycle a...

I guess this helps as people Google things in different ways.

Again for example, if I Google:

Clothes upcycling                          -    then my blog comes up 3rd on the search results

Upcycling clothes                          -    then my blog comes up 6th on the search results

Clothes upcycling projects            -   then my blog comes up 3rd on the search results

100+ clothes upcycling projects    -   then my blog comes up 1st on the search results

Clothes recycling                           -   nothing!

Recycling clothes                           -   nothing!

It is also recommended to use the keyword phrases in subheadings, bolded text, and  close to links.

I've also had a look at Google Adwords tool  where you can enter words and phrases, and see how often they and similar words and combinations are searched on Google.

That shows me that recycling is searched FAR more than upcycling.

then also I found this strange:

the word                 upcycle           had 60,500 global monthly searches,  

 but the word          up cycle          had 246,000!!!

Did the space make all the difference? 

I looked in our big Collins English Dictionary (from 2003)  and upcycle isn't there at all! 

So I tried Wikipedia!  According to that:

Upcycling is the process of converting waste materials or useless products into new materials or products of better quality or a higher environmental value.

Recycling is processing used materials (waste) into new products to prevent waste of potentially useful materials, reduce the consumption of fresh raw materials, reduce energy usage, reduce air pollution (from incineration) and water pollution (from landfilling) by reducing the need for "conventional" waste disposal, and lower greenhouse gas emissions as compared to virgin production.

So what is the difference?

I found this on wikianswers:

"upcycling is when you use something in the form it already is to make something else. recycling you change the form of the item before making something else out of it."

Mmm, clear as mud! And really - I think you could use the two interchangeably but mean the same! 

So does that mean I should call my clothes upcycling  - clothes recycling instead, to get more traffic from google searches?  What's in a word hey!!?? Who would have thought!

Agan on Google AdWords search:

recycle clothes     33,000 global monthly searches

upcycle clothes       3,600  global monthly searches

clothes recycle     33,100

clothes upcycle    - nothing found!!

So judging from all that - I should start calling what I do recycling not upcycling!  I wonder if it will really make a difference?  Only one way to find out I guess......

Another thing that the book tells you is to avoid over using the keywords! (so this post will have stuffed that up completely!! Ha Ha!)

 

One final thing I found interesting was that you can look up what are the top 20 searches people are making now!  Great to know if you blog about something in that top 20:

http://www.google.com/trends/hottrends

I just had a look - but sadly there is  nothing there I could even vaguely post about on my blog!  I'll keep looking though - maybe one day there will be a trend for something I could sew ??/ or at least blog about without it being totally irrelevant to my blog!

Phew!  Well that's a lot of information about 'words' and my head is spinning slightly!!!  How about yours?

Have you ever considered keywords when writing your blog posts?  How much difference do you think it makes?

Blogging books

I'm really enjoying this month's challenge to grow my blog - but do see it as much more than just a one month thing.  I have been taking action every day this month - and watching the results of that action is inspiring me and keeping me believing this blog will be part of my own business with an income before too long!

As with anything I do, I feel it's important to constantly be learning.  So I've been to the local libary and got a little light(?) reading:

The more I learn about blogging- the more I'm enjoying it.  I'm espeically enjoying being able to pass that knowledge onto others too!

I hope that there are some of my readers out there who are not just following my challenge and journey to grow my blog and make it profitable, but they are also growing their own blogs too!

Even once my June challenge month is over - I am going to continue to push my blog and keep on growing it. 

My blog is focussed on sewing, and creating, and I am settling into a good routine of posts during the week based on that.  But I will continue to keep my weekend posts about the blog itself, its growth and sharing things I am learning!

I hope people will continue to read these posts, and continue to share their own experiences and tidbits of knowledge - as you have so generously been doing this month! 

Ok - I'd best get stuck into those books!

Sponsorship and Guest posts

I'm now nearing the end of my month's challenge to grow my blog.  I've been working hard, putting in the hours and seeing the results which is great!

I've also been hard at work in our garden, where a lot of growing has been going on too!

We now have lettuce ready to pick and eat...yum...

Here on my blog this week, I added sponsorship buttons to the top right of my sidebar, and an advertise page too.  Hopefully I'll get some businesses who would like to advertise here. 

It feels good to be putting my blog out there a bit more and giving things a go!

Hopefully it will start to grow - just like the newly planted seeds in my veggie beds!

I'm also going to start featuring guest bloggers who inspire me, every Friday. They are going to share some crafty tutorials with us all! I'm so looking forward to being able to spotlight some of my favourite bloggers!!

I'm also looking forward to seeing if some of the flowers on this plant grow into juicy eggplants!

I've got lots of new things in place now on my blog - and plenty of avenues I'm exploring to grow and expand.

But I'm always on the lookout for something new and unexpected......like this chilli plant that popped up in our secret garden!  What a bonus - as we love spicy food! 

I'm very happy with my blogging progress this month - and still another week to go!

I'm confident it will keep growing - just like this granadilla (giant passionfruit) which is now the size of my hand, but will grow to about twice that size before we pick and eat it!!

What have you been growing or building up lately?

Another clothes upcycle in My Creative Space

It is now winter here in Australia - and although winter here is nothing compared to winter in many places - like where I grew up in the North of England, you do get used to the climate where you live, and for me now - when I get up in the morning and it's 10C  that feels pretty cold to me.

Anyway, I don't like being cold - never have, and have found that lately, I've been drinking more hot cups of tea, which always seem to need a chocolate biscuit or piece of cake with them, and sitting around more being generally less active.

For me, less active, means less motivated in general, and so less productive. Not good when I have goals and aims and things to do!!

So I decided I needed to take action! 

My solution? To brave these ever so cold mornings and get up and onto our exercise bike! Get my metabolism going and ready for the day ahead!

I like to listen to something while I cycle (music or Anthony Robbins) but since I'm getting up before everyone else, I have to listen on my MP3 player with earphones.

So I decided to make myself a little holder for it - I've seen lots of people runnning and walking with them - they look fairly simple!

So I took one of my daughter's old t-shirts (that no longer fits):

Cut a nice wide strip off..

I just used one side of the strip - the pretty front side.

Right sides together stitched it, and finished the edges off..

Then pulled it on my arm, folded in half to make a pocket and there you have....

A groovy - roxy - MP3 player holder for exercising!

A grand price of $0 !! What a bargain!

And I have to say morning cycles have returned my motivation and I'm feeling less 'cold' now!

What helps you get motivated?  Does the cold slow you down too? 

(I was definitely some kind of reptile in my last life! I need to be warm!!)

For more wonderful creativity, head on over to Our Creative Spaces