Hello, January! | What's New?
Hello, January! But, first let me begin with an apology! Though we are already about a week into January, I was, as I mentioned previously, waylaid by illness. This post was, as a result, delayed. I'm finally feeling well enough to think properly again. Apologies, apologies! Now, onward with the content!
Hello again, January! This time for real. I'm trying to be welcoming even though you are one of my least favorite months. You are cold, you are decidedly un-festive, you constantly threaten us with snow and ice, you are so, so far from spring. Despite all that, you bring with you a fresh start and promise of good things to come, if you are wiling to commit the time and energy to make them happen. So that is why, this year I am choosing to welcome you with open arms. I need a little change and determination in my life. Besides talking about January and what's going on on the blog this month, today I'm going to talk to you about some new ideas for this blog and my YouTube channel, as well as the (ongoing) design revamp of the blog.
A New Month, A New Theme
Even though January is wretched in most ways, I can admit that the snow can be quite beautiful (if you are not walking through it). To match this I've decided to try out and share some easy, elegant dishes that are tasty and impressive, but straightforward to prepare. Lots of mix and match options with a full meal menu, as well as dessert. This month, I'll also be saving the recipe index for the end of the month, so that you will be surprised at what recipes you get and also to serve as a good wrap up and reminder of what happened in January.
The New DAPHNEHASFUN.COM!
During December the blog was all fancy and festive because of the holiday season. When I was returning it to its non-festive state, I took the opportunity to make some design changes and improve some of the features to make it more user friendly. I hope you like it!
I've switched around the layout to highlight the newest posts, but at the same time make it easy to find posts about different topics like food, DIY, beauty, etc. Those will be changing as I continue to develop the website and figure out what I want to write about. I also worked for a while to put together a recipe index, which you can also find under the 'The Blog' menu. For now I've categorized everything by type of recipe (appetizer, cookie, bread, pasta, etc.), but hope to make further pages for meal, cuisine, ingredient, and season. It's a bit of an undertaking, so bear with me. If you are having trouble find a recipe, just use the new search bar!
New Ideas & Features
I've been thinking about my blog and my YouTube Channel a whole lot recently. The YouTube seems to be a random appendage that I haven't been utilizing or integrating into all of the content here on this blog. I really want to change that. Through improving quality, focusing my content in a thoughtful and interesting way, and sticking to a schedule.
One thing that will help is that my lovely parents generously gave me a new camera for Christmas that will improve the quality of my videos and photos for sure. Thanks parents!! Another change is that I'm going to try to post a video a week for the time being. (I have to get on that!) Theoretically that will give me roughly 50 videos in 2015! So exciting. I'm still working on a schedule for the blog that fits in with all the content I want to produce.
As for that content, I've come up with several new features for my blog. I will be continuing my monthly-themes recipe series and the Daphne Has Fun Playlist series. I'm also going to work on a beauty series that focuses on the best buys for those (like me for now) on a limited budget. Next I'm going to start a 'Mindful Living' series all about eating better, thinking about the future, challenging myself, and living sustainably. I'll also hopefully be doing a monthly photo story of old and new trips.
Finally I've been throwing around an idea of a kind of Daphne vs. the Internet kind of concept (name TBD). This means I'll be sharing some stuff that I know how to do pretty well, like cooking, baking, crafts, sustainability. This will be complemented by me attempting tutorials, ideas, and other ideas I've discovered on the internet and maybe even beyond. I might be good at this stuff; I might be terrible; the tutorials themselves might be terrible. We will just have to find out together. Perhaps in a humorous, yet informative way. The idea comes from the fact that I've learned a lot about certain things like makeup, video-making, photography, and just life in general from the internet. I'd like to keep the learning going, try some new stuff, share some of what I know, and just become more engaged in this community. This will be my first series the spans my YouTube Channel and blog. First of many?
Finally, I just wanted everyone to know that this blog and the Youtube Channel are hobbies for me at the moment. Fortunately, while I'm still in my career planning/job search mode I have time for this. Unfortunately that leaves me a penniless pauper at the same time, living on the good graces of my parents. I might get a job at any moment, but completely intend on keeping this going to, but I might have to reevaluate what that means. I'm devoting a lot of time to this blog and the YouTube Channel because I LIKE to, no in fact, LOVE to do it, and to be quite honest, I'm considering how I can infuse my sustainability career with all the useful skills I'm am gaining in producing all of this content. To that end you might, no you will see more green/sustainability/social impact thoughts on my platforms because they mean a lot me, I want to share this passion, and I want to see how this work can integrate with my career goals.
Well, that's all I've got for the moment. That was a long one!! I hope you're having the Best Week and a Happy New Year. Keep in touch and let me know your thoughts about all these changes!
