What’s ahead on the blog for 2017

Boy, do I have some explaining to do! I am sure that by now you have been wondering where the heck I have been. Well, you know I don’t like to waste time so here’s the 411 on why I have been MIA.

Frankly, by the end of last year I was burnt out. Managing 2 blogs, taking care of 3 kids, a home and a hubby was really tough. My entire household was sick for all of November and half of December. My health unfortunately took a toll and the medication I was on did a number on me (still dealing with all of the side effects as we speak).

The holidays were a little tough because of all the sickness in our household…… And not to mention our Christmas lights were vandalized. We are literally the “Griswold’s” of our neighborhood and some little jerk kids (yes, I said that… I actually called them worse, but I like to keep it PG here) cut, ACTUALLY CUT, our Christmas lights on the perimeter of our yard.

Can you believe that?

Nothing like that has ever happened in our neighborhood!

We did do some digging, spoke to some neighbors and word got around that these jerks kids didn’t live in our neighborhood, but were nowhere to be found. There were other neighbors looking for them too as we were not the only victims, but we were the only ones who actually got our strings cut and permanently damaged.

Never mind that we are hardworking people right!? We paid for those lights so that our children could enjoy them…. The Scrooge in me came out real quick!

I see a huge Grinch sign in our future this year…. I might stick one in our yard with the words “we’re watching you” posted on it. If I do, I’ll make sure to share it.

Okay, moving on….

Then, my second blog took a huge change of course. I have had a long time love affair with photography but never thought I was good enough, however I have been doing so much better and even took a course at the end of the year that was huge in stepping up my game so I decided to bite the bullet and just take a chance.

I created a membership site for bloggers and online entrepreneurs in need of stock photography for their social media accounts and blogs and boy was I glad I did because the support and feedback has been immense. I have several members already and I am only in the second week!

Here’s a sneak peak at one of my photos.. not too shabby I guess.

So that was what I focused on for all of January. My goal was to launch on the 1st of February and I reached it.  Unfortunately, since there was so much work that needed to be done up front in order to “open shop” this blog suffered from my content and January was a fiasco…. however, my traffic didn’t hurt much.

One of the things that helped was that That Latina Next Door was featured on Clark Howard’s website! What the what?!

Crazy I know!

His site did a piece on saving money for the new year and they featured and linked my 365 Day Penny Challenge included in my “Some Easy Ways to Save Money” blog post so that got me some new eyes on my blog.

Very cool!

Seriously, mind blown.

So now with this increase in exposure I have had several companies reach out to me in order to possibly work together on some projects this year. I will divulge as soon as I get more details, but pray for me so that they work out!

As for what’s going to be happening here, I have some BIG wish list items and some content already rounded up for this year.

Here are my goals:

1. THE OUTDOORS – I met some amazing women last year on Instagram and Holly at @ourfauxfarmhouse has a gorgeous feed on her account. Just look at this amazing playhouse that her husband built for their kids….. so I had this crazy idea that I wanted one too. I have been talking to my hubby trying to figure out the plan of attack on something like this.

I won’t lie to you and say that I wouldn’t enjoy this more than my old children. It’s just so stinking’ cute. I really think they would love it though. Plus my hubby has the tools and the skills for something like this. The one factor that would work against us would be TIME.

I will say that if and when we start, we will commence sometime in March and document and video record every single step so that if anyone wants to learn (along with us) they can.

Make sure to check her out if you have an IG account. She doesn’t have a blog, but posts create DIY’s on her account.

 

2. MY HOME – My second goal is to show more of my home (the real stuff). We have been moving things around lately trying to make it work better for us. Right now there is a constant crazy mess of toys everywhere and I have about gone mad trying to find places for them and keep my house semi-organized at the end of the day…. needless to say, it has been an uphill battle.

My son’s cars seem to have taken over…

We are changing some things around, have purchased some new furniture pieces and reconfigured some spaces in order to make it better for our family of five.

3. RECIPES – I will be posting more recipes as my hubby and I have a few tricks up our sleeves when it comes to cooking. So definitely more of those. Plus, he is a great cocktail mixer – he can put some bartenders to shame and I know you will like some of the “here honey you have had a long day, you NEED this” kind of drinks he makes for me.

4. A SHOP – I want to open an actual shop on this site. This one is a big ONE! We have several test pieces of home decor items that I wish to sell on The Latina Next Door that I think might have a chance at being successful. It would be nice to open shop before the summer, but I am not sure as of yet. Still brainstorming and organizing all of the upfront things that need to get done.

But hey, I already started one shop, whose to say I can’t do 2!

5. TUTORIALS – I will definitely have more of those coming up with some great and not so great projects. I have one in particular that is just painful to talk about. It almost cost me more to update than what I paid for it! You won’t believe it!

Along with that, I plan on starting my second YOUTUBE channel in connection with the blog (especially if I am documenting the playhouse process)… I will need a place to host those videos that can be easily accessible.

6. REVIEWS – There are some things that I have tested out that have been awesome and some not so much (hence the project I mentioned above) so I am excited to start doing those here and sharing my honest opinions as well.

7. GIVEAWAYS – Both my giveaways last year were huge successes, so I am hoping to team up with other brands in order to do more of them this year. Crossing my fingers a few things get approved!!!

Okay, that was a long list!

So even though I have been quiet here, I have been working up a storm behind the scenes. It’s a good thing I have the Best Planner for 2017 cause without it, I would be a mess!

That’s it for today, but I’ll be hitting your inbox again very soon….

Which topics are you looking forward to seeing this year?