About the Blogging Your Way e-course

My mood board - My Rose Valley in the future.

My brain storming Blogging Your Way Course board on my Pinterest.

decor8 e-courses Blogging Your Way - the website.

Not very often do I read about people taking blog courses, so I thought I would share my latest blog course adventure with you.

I am taking a Blogging Your Way online course with Holly at Decor8. This is not the first time for me. Two years ago, I signed up for a basic BYW course, but the timing was so bad that I couldn't attend very much. I was disappointed, stressed out and thought it was a waste - at my own faults I should add. Because Holly's online blog courses are good. You get what you put in. You work hard and you will see results. You surf along and might not get that much at all out of it. You make the course happen for you. Like going in therapy. If you are not open for it and if you chose to sit silent, nothing will be accomplished.

This particular e-course is for the more advanced bloggers and pro bloggers. The tempo is intense. There is a lot of information to take in. Unfortunately I fell behind a bit the first week as we were on vacation, but slowly I have managed to catch up. I have 3 kids and a big house to care for which mean I have to steal my moments to do this course. Often at night time or early mornings. But I am doing it. And last night was my big proud moment when I delivered my homework for week 2 at 1.30am. Exhausted but so full of inspiration. Because that is what Holly's blog courses do to you. Fill you up with inspiration.

I don't really interact that much in class (there is a forum where you can chat, turn in homework and have discussions online) but just looking at what other bloggers do, checking out their blogs and reading their comments is feeding my knowledge base a lot. This is not a course where you get technical step-by-step details on how to add Social Media buttons or how to make the best blog layout. How to understand image formats or CSS coding. No, no, no. If you need to become more tech savvy you need to surf the Internet for tutorials or invest in books on the subject.

This course is more of a helicopter view of blogging. After blogging for over 5 years now I do get bored at times, I have doubts at times, I lack inspiration, energy and just plainly fall off the blogging wagon every now and then. I feel stuck in a route and am not sure about where to start to change direction or how to explore something new. I put pressure on myself and get stressed and suddenly my whole world is an imbalanced broken see saw... And this is where this BYW course does magic.

Holly and her team of teachers teaches about blogging and life balance, how to deal with blog envy, what works and what doesn't, color therapy (OH GOSH - how fun wasn't the color therapy classes!!!???) and the impact colors have on ourselves, our blogs and our readers and so much more. Her classes encourage you to step back from your blog and view it with different eyes, open up for changes and to become a critic of your own creating. She helps you to re-discover the spark in blogging and make you believe in your blog, that it has a purpose, that it is worth to keep going.

For probably more than a year now I have wanted to upping my game a little bit, change my blog layout and update My Rose Valley with my creative successes, the pattern and yarn business etc. I don't want to loose the homey feel of My Rose Valley but I want it to grow up a little bit. It needs a new outfit. The old one works, but what you wore in 2009 is not the same as you wear in 2014. You get what I am saying, right?

After last weeks big mood board exercise I think I am finally finding my way home. I got really carried away once I allowed myself to sit undisturbed and started to play with color swatches, checking my Pinterest board to identify what is me, searching for fonts that speaks my voice, the patterns that makes me feel comfortable etc etc. And after almost 3 hours of mixing and matching, cutting and pasting, deleting and changing, it all came together. Now I only need to apply the mood board feel into My Rose Valley blog.

I am inspired, I am making myself a work schedule, I feel organized, I am getting things done and I am changing and so is My Rose Valley. To the better, but it will take time before this face lift is done. I hope you will like it. And if you have been thinking about doing an online blog course, I highly recommend Holly's BYW courses. Read more about them here, and student testimonials here. and remember - be prepared, work hard and keep up with the classes to get the most out of it.

Kärlek
Annette