Happy Wednesday! I hope everyone is doing well with this first week after the holidays...we are halfway to the weekend! This week has made me hangry due to my post-holiday detox diet (why did you have to eat so many Christmas cookies, Meghan?!) and stressed because of studying for the NCLEX. I know it takes a few days for the body to stop those sugar cravings, so hopefully by the end of the week I will have stopped staring lustfully at the candy jar on the living room table...

Image via 

If you recall Monday's post, I talked about my personal goals for 2016 and today I will be talking about my goals for this blog. I am super excited to get these down in writing, because they are things that I have been thinking of for a while now. I don't know if it was noticed, but starting in mind-October, I really tried to amp up this blog. While I know there is a lot I still need to work on, I am proud that I have really stuck to my plan over the past few months and I want to bring the momentum I have gained into the new year. 

But before I can continue on with my goals for this year, I would like to reflect back on my blog goals from 2015. I want to share what I did accomplish and also what I didn't...

// Learn how to make a blog button. 

// Reach 60 Bloglovin' followers by the one year anniversary of Me as Meghan.

// Go on adventures/try new things in order to gain experiences that I can turn into interesting and thoughtful posts  This one!

// Post at least three times a week Although it took me until October to get the MWF posting down consistently, this is something that I am really happy with! 

// Sponsor another blog 

// Host a giveaway

// Tell my friends about this blog I told my best friend who has been more than supportive! While I know I should tell more people, I think I have a better plan for this for 2016...

// Have a better blog schedule, where I plan out my posts a few weeks in advance I have post ideas and blog plans written down in my planner, it has made blogging so much easier! 

By the end of 2016, I hope to accomplish... 

// At least three fashion posts

// Sponsoring another blog (I have already started to research what blog would be best!) 

// Host a giveaway

// Reach 250 Bloglovin' follwers

// Blog everyday for one month 

// Share my blog on Twitter and Instagram 

// Make a lot of layout updates...especially my About Me page!

// Buy my own domain name 

I hope that this time next year, I will be crossing all of these things off in a post about my blogging goals for 2017! What are some of your blog goals for 2016?

Linking up here today! 

Happy 1st Birthday!

Right now i'm sitting in the same exact place where I first hit publish a year ago and I remember being so nervous about pressing that orange button on Blogger. I don't know what I thought was going to happen...Would people laugh at me for my writing? Would anyone even read what I had written? Did I care what people thought? I think its hard to take on a completely "don't give a damn" attitude about people judging you, and throughout blogging I have learned that I don't care if they dislike what I write, but I care if they enjoy it. I want to make people laugh and I want to maybe even inspire and make a positive impact on other people. I think I have made a few of you laugh, but I am still working on the inspiration bit! 

Here's a little look back on the first year of Me as Meghan: 

My very first post "The First, and hopefully not Last" has 7 views, and I think I am okay with that considering it was just my pointless rambling and there were no pictures. I think that if I were to write a "first post" again, it would definitely be similar to what I wrote a year ago. Thats a comforting thought because it means that my blog hasn't diverged off of what I originally wanted it to be. 

My most popular post this year was "Best Movies of 2014", which is funny because I have such a weird taste in movies and I am sure no one actually agreed with me on the "best" title. 

My top three favorite posts were:

1. Debra Morgan taught me a bad habit

2. Spring Break @ Home To-Do List

3. D.C. Recaps One & Two

 In searching back through old posts, I am happy with where I have been in the past year, and am excited to see where this year takes me with this blog. I am thankful to have all of you reading as you are all so encouraging and inspiring for me! My only regret about this blog is that I did not start it sooner. Since I can't rewind the past and start this earlier, I can only channel that wish into building a better blog for the future. Let that future start now! 

New Year's Resolution #3: Become Blog-tastic

Although I still think of my blog as new, it is four months shy of a year. In the beginning, I thought I would have my blog-stuff together by now, and be a writing whiz, along with having super cool picture-taking skills. It has not turned out quite like that, to say the least. Now don't get me wrong, I am pretty proud of the work I have done so far, because it took a lot of courage for me to put my thoughts and ideas out on to the internet, which is far from the safe and nonjudgmental place that is my mind. However, I am someone that believes that there can always be room for improvement and so this year I am setting a few goals for this blog! 

1. Learn how to make a blog button.

2. Reach 60 Bloglovin' followers by the one year anniversary of Me as Meghan.

3. Go on adventures/try new things in order to gain experiences that I can turn into interesting and thoughtful posts 

4. Post at least three times a week

5. Sponsor another blog

6. Host a giveaway

7. Tell my friends about this blog

8. Have a better blog schedule, where I plan out my posts a few weeks in advance

I hope these resolution posts aren't getting old to read, because I really love sharing my goals on here. Knowing that I have shared my goals with others is great motivation for pushing myself to work towards these resolutions. As an example, I wrote last week about how I wanted to get into better shape and feed myself well, among other things. This past week I have worked out 6 out of 7 days and I feel amazing (but sore)! I feel a whole new sense of inspiration growing in me and I am starting to feel like I can conquer anything this year. It is a feeling that I wish I could bottle up and share with you all, but we have yet to discover how to capture and send emotion in bottles, so I will just have to stick to sharing it with you through words! 

Happy Monday, and I hope you all have a great week! 

What are some of your blogging goals for 2015?

5 things I wish I told myself when I started blogging.

Before I start in on this post, I want to comment how quiet the blogosphere gets over the weekend. I have noticed that many bloggers don't post on the weekends and dedicate posting time to just weeknights. I just find it funny because unfortunately, I am the exact opposite right now. 

With classes/clinicals/studying, I find it hard to make time to write Monday-Thursday. However, on the weekends and I am all over writing my posts, reading your posts and leaving embarrassing comments on them (I am sorry for the excess of those that I wrote for you). I am hoping that now I have noticed this trend, I can adjust to being able to write/read more on weeknights so I won't be so far behind by the time the weekend rolls around!

Me this past Saturday

The prompt for today is to share the 10 things we wish we could tell ourselves when we started blogging. Although I have had this blog since May, I still consider myself a newbie blogger and at this point I don't think that feeling will ever go away. I am still learning so much and still have a lot of questions (like why whenever I try to schedule a post does it never go up??) So many of your blogs having inspired me to break out of my writing comfort zone and try new things, and I hope this phase of learning and being inspired never ends. 

Since I am still so new, I feel like there aren't that many things that I did in the beginning that I laugh at now. I came up with a couple, and I am hoping you can relate!

1. I would tell myself not to plan to post about fashion--- I have trouble picking out clothes daily so I don't know why I thought it would be feasible for me to pick them out AND post about them.

2. I would tell myself not to plan to post beauty tutorials---This isn't totally out of the realm of possibilities for me because I love makeup, but I am just be too nervous because I feel like there are so many bloggers out there who are professionally taught and have so much experience. So maybe someday.

3. I would tell myself to stop planning on a concurrent YouTube channel---What I would make videos about, I am not sure. I just know I like watching them and wanted my own. So maybe someday too. 

4. I would tell myself to take better pictures---I got a point and shoot camera for my birthday back in February and I am just learning now how to make the pictures seem a little bit like they were taken with a DSLR (I repeat, just a little bit like them). 

5. I would tell myself that it is not easy---I definitely thought blogging would be a lot easier than it is. I laugh thinking about this now because as all of you know, blogging is hard work. Thinking of topics/writing/picture taking/editing/sharing/keeping up with other blogs is very time consuming...BUT I LOVE IT!

I hope you didn't laugh at me too hard (its okay if you did, I like making people laugh--even at my expense). Maybe some of you had the same thoughts?

What things would you tell your beginning to blog self?

New Year, New Me?

You might be shaking your head at the title of this post and be saying, "Meghan, its only September 2..." Yes, I do recognize that it is not New Years Day, however I am a week into a new school year. I have a love-hate relationship with this time of year actually. For the most part, I spent August one-fourth excited to go back to college to see my friends and get back into the swing of a schedule. The other three-fourths was spent sulking about having to say goodbye to my family, my home friends, my awesome summer job and the freedom of summer. 

This sulking is why I haven't quite been blogger extraordinaire. For a few weeks, I found it hard to muster the enthusiasm to write about what I was doing or what products I have been loving or whatever random thoughts pop into my head. On that note, with a new year upon me, I am feeling that I am back on the blog writing grind for good. I find that it helps to clear my head and I think it will be a great creative release when I am about to pull my hair out due to stress from nursing classes. 

I have a few questions for those of you out there in the blogger world that I hope you can help me with. Sometimes I have trouble with inspiration of what to write about...where do you all find inspiration on what to write? Also, what organizational methods do you use to coordinate posts on your blog? I read one blog once where the author had her blog topics picked out a few months in advance! Is this the norm that I just didn't know about? How far in advance do you plan out blogs? Any advice is greatly appreciated for this newbie blogger!

Here's an adorable cat gif in trade for your advice!

Blog Everyday...til the end of July?

One of my favorite bloggers, Juliette @ The Other Juliette, has been blogging everyday in July and has challenged everyone to do the same! I've really enjoyed the frequency of her posts because she is HILARIOUS. She loves Netflix, wine, being alone, gifs, and I could go on about what else she likes but then you might get her and I confused. Anyway, to make things easier with blogging everyday, she and a few other bloggers (Faith @ 'Cause You Gotta Have Faith and Allie @ allieology have made up a topic list for every day in July (click here for the list). I really wish I had started in the beginning of the month, but I figured that since today is exactly halfway through July, it would be a good day to start! HERE WE GO!

Today's topic is Top 3 Favorite Blogs!

1. Zoella/Tanya Burr/Sprinkle of Glitter

I grouped these three together because I love reading them (and watching their YouTube videos) for the same reason...They all have an interest in beauty and fashion, but they also include posts about their lives, vacations, random thoughts, homes, recipes and more. To make their blogs and videos even better, they are all from the number one place in the world that I am dying to travel to...England! Each of their posts and videos make such a nice addition to my morning cup of coffee on my day off. 

2. The Other Juliette 

I truly admire her witty and honest writing style and how she isn't afraid to tell her embarrassing stories to the whole internet. I would love to be able to sit down and have a glass of wine with her (while watching Netflix of course)! She also has the best tweets, so go follow her!

3. College Prep

Carly is a 20-something living in NYC living the bloggers dream. She posts things about fashion, her daily life, adventures and great giveaways! Something that I really love about her blog is that she always posts fantastic pictures. If you have any bit of the preppy spirit in you, you will love this blog!

What are your favorite blogs?