Blast From the Past: Easter and Spring Projects

Hello everyone!

First of all, I want to apologize for not posting lately. I can't believe it's been 1 1/2 months since my last post! Unfortunately, it will probably go on like this for a while still. I just don't have the time or the energy to think much blogging right now. I'm concentrating my efforts more towards finishing my master's, exercising and losing weight and feeling better and more motivated all around, and general housekeeping duties. I hope you will understand, and really I'm sure you will, we all go through this, right?

That being said, I'm not officially going on hiatus or anything. I might still post from time to time when things slow down and/or I get better at managing my time, and feel more motivated to do so. I could seriously write a 2000+ word post about what is going on with me right now, but I'm not gonna do that at this time; I'm still a little too much hesitant about who may in the future read these types of post (read: future employers). I have written many a post like that in the last 6 months but never was quite able to push the publish button. So maybe short and sweet will have to do.

I am still on Facebook and posting updates there more frequently (make sure you interact with me occasionally to keep seeing me in your newsfeed!! Just a simple Like once in a while will do :) ). I'm also, slowly but surely, working on a new blog design, that I'm making from scratch. I just kinda really love that stuff!

I did want to drop by your newsfeed or email inbox today to share with you some fun Easter and Spring crafts I made last year.

(Click on the links to see the full tutorials. I'd also appreciate it if you pinned directly from the tutorials, for others to find them more easily, thanks!)

First there's my Bunny Family Portrait. I made it so last minute last year, but still got quite a bit of positive feedback for it. So I hope more people will enjoy it this year. It was probably the most out-of-my-own-head craft I've ever done, so I'm particularly proud of it, and even still!



These little Flower Balls were quite popular last year!


And this was my spring "mantle" (which is really just the top of the low bookshelf) last year. I'm not sure what's gonna happen this year because I'm thinking of changing my living room around in the coming weeks. But I will have to find some place for all these lovelies, I so need some spring cheer right now!!!


Until next time!



ETA: Just writing this one post gives me a bit of an itch to share something new! So maybe it won't be so long until next time ;)

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What I have learned: a Year in Review

A quick note, I have turned OFF word verification. I am SO SORRY that it was on, it shouldn't have been. I'm sure I had it off at one point and it magically got turned on again. Please leave me sweet comments again! Thanks Amy for pointing it out to me! And if it happens again, do let me know! Ok, onto the post...

Did you know that I didn't really do crafts before I started this blog? It's true. I'd like to say I'm a crafter who blogs, but really I'm a blogger who crafts is more appropriate.

I have, however, always been a DIY-er at heart, because of my dad. I just never had much excuse to do stuff before I moved out of my parent's and got my own place without a roommate.

Before coming to the crafty/DIY bloggy world, I wasn't much inspired, nor motivated. I didn't know where to get stuff, or what stuff TO get. I didn't know HOW to make the crafts. I never realized I COULD make so much fun crafts, either!

So in the past year, I've been experimenting A LOT. I've learned SO much. Some of it I learned from others, but really it's easier for me to learn if I make the mistakes myself. I'm stubborn I suppose.

So as a little celebration for my 1 year Bloggiversary, here is a compilation of the trial and errors, and just general experiences, that have helped me grow as a crafter, DIY-er, and blogger in the past year.

click on the picture to be taken to the post

When you start blogging, it's not gonna be as easy as you think
My first post! I've made a few of the things I had set out to make when I wrote that post, and some are still on my to-do list lol I have 49 published posts as of before this one. That's not even 1 a week... Blogging takes a lot of time and effort, which I wasn't entirely ready for!

You need to learn to take good, flash-less photos!

Still one of the most google searched of my posts, really wish people had nicer pictures to look at once they find my contact paper backpslash... Still thinking of updating the pictures... And don't mind the picture corners I tried out for this one post. That was not a good idea.

Anyway, I still have room for improvement here, and I think my stupid camera is stupid and part of the problem. Oh and also my dark apartment doesn't help...

You might be a tad embarrassed looking back on some crafts you have made

Seriously, what WAS I thinking? They look SO childish! They were even featured on a child-made site (which got me some nice traffic when I started out...). But now, I'm just a little embarrassed that I actually posted this.

Stenciling: Do NOT use a brush, use sponges/dabbers and DAB.

In the end, I still LOVE my handpainted chandelier, and people always mention it when they first visit, which makes me very proud.

Hot glue does not hold anything and everything together.

The little saw-tooth hanger I used at the back for this project kept peeling off from the hot-glue. I think it must've fell about 4 times (some spikes are a little damaged because of it...), and finally after that 4th time I had enough and used epoxy glue. It hasn't fallen since :)

DIYing your own blog design is super fun, but takes a lot of time and patience
Every design element on the blog was made by me. Well, I did use Just So Scrappy's scrapbook kit Tweet Tweet, but the actual blog header image, menu bar, sidebar titles, footer, background, I tweeked myself. I kinda like playing with html and css :)

Linking up to linky parties will really pay off once you get featured

And boy did I get featured with this one! Most featured post (but not most viewed...). Still want to make myself one of these.

Persistence can pay off and Not all crafts work how you imagine

Took me one month to get this simple thing right, but in the end I finished it and love it!

Painter's tape is not vinyl
Pictures can only describe this one:


What you think is common knowledge might not actually be common knowledge

Seriously, if you have not yet read this post of mine and don't know what hotlinking or bandwidth theft is, please read!

Things don't need to be complicated to be popular and Getting featured on a big blog will bring you lots of traffic, for a long time!

I never thought this one would be so big. It's so simple, yet very effective, and I still LOVE and enjoy the end result!

I'm still not a very good seamstress, but I'm not giving up!

Seriously, you'd think I would be able to do straight lines easy enough, but no...

Start seasonal/holiday crafts EARLY

I got so many comments saying if only they had seen this craft earlier, they would have loved to make one! I really bit myself in the butt for that one, could've had lots more traffic if only I hadn't procrastinated making this once I got the idea to.

Paper punches can hurt, when you need to punch a LOT of little flowers!

BTW, most viewed post on the blog! And one that must have taken the longest to make. I am going to think twice about a craft that I need to use paper punches so much.

I still LOVE playing/crafting with wood!

My first, very small scale, distressing adventure! I can't wait to get a big piece of furniture to redo one day! Will be looking for a new desk and buffet/dresser in the near future!

Sometimes having a blog pushes you to do some much needed cleaning

Seriously never would have deep cleaned my kettle had I not wanted to show it for this post (alternative use for electric water kettle: hard boiled-eggs). Speaking of, it needs a cleaning again... It's not as bad as in this picture, so I still got some lee-way ;)

You can find really fun stuff for free if you shop your parents' home!

With just a bit of spray paint, this pretty frame now fits into my decor. Oh, and you'll want to ask your permission before snagging anything from them lol.

Blogging without internet is really hard and no fun
Read more about that here.

When building stuff out of wood, take the time to properly protect and seal it

Especially, if it's gonna be in the kitchen with flying oil everywhere. The wood turned darker where there was nothing covering it...

Dads are awesome. and When a space doesn't work for you, make it

I'm seriously so lucky to have a dad who can build stuff, and who passed on that love to me. I just lack the experience, but it will come! I gained so much space with this unit, it was so worth it!

All in all, I'm still very happy I started a blog. It gave me a purpose. Sure there are days that I want to throw in the towel, but then I just give it a rest for a week and then I want to come back. I'll continue doing it for as long as it's feasible and I enjoy it.

I'm really not expecting to ever be a big blog. After all, I only reached just over 100 followers in 1 year... I'm just not able to put that level of commitment to the blog at this point. And I'm really ok with that.

Still, I'd like to do more next year. They key, I think, is planning, and not procrastinating!! A little at a time, right?!

Thank you to each and every one of you! I know a lot of bloggers go a long time before they are ever noticed and have followers. I don't think I would've stuck to it if you guys weren't there. I've really enjoyed getting to know some of you, and I would really like to get to know some new faces :) So don't be a stranger, say hello once in a while!

Oh, and I've got a big blog announcement coming this week! So stay tuned!

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New Blog Direction

It feels so good to be back to blogging! My fingers feel so good typing on these keys, whether it be writing a post or a comment!

In my last post, I said I had given a lot of thought to the direction I want my blog to go, and what kind of blogger I want to be. So let me elaborate.

Since the beginning of my blog, I feel like I’ve been more in the crafting niche, but it’s not exactly where I feel like I belong. I enjoy doing crafts, but I’m not the kind of person that wants to craft all the time, I’m not a craftaholic. I didn’t even start crafting until I started this blog. Sure I’ve got a creative mind, but I never knew how to unleash, or execute, my creativeness until I found the crafty blog community.

What I think I truly am is a DIY-er.

It comes from my dad, as I've mentioned before. All my life, my dad has been the type to say “I can make that” and I’ve grown up to with that. My dad built my first bed, made all our kitchen cabinets (not to mention the house itself), custom built computer desk, etc. I love DIYing and the customizing possibility it provides (ok, and the cheapness). In a way, crafting is a type of DIY, right?

But more than just DIY, I started my blog thinking I’d dab in a little of everything. And I chose my name accordingly: Color Me Domestic. It’s really what I felt like my blog would represent- me learning the ways of keeping house, and making a house a home (or for the moment, apartment).

And as so I don’t want to label my blog as one type only, because that general idea opens the door to so many others.

I recently redid my projects page to represent that. Like I mentioned already, a lot of my posts fall in the craft category. But I’ve also got a DIY and Home Décor category (which will get lots of updates this summer!), an Organization category, Cooking and Cleaning category, and a Tips and Tricks category. So expect the blog to stay within those subjects, but I might diverge once in a while (dunno for what yet, but it could; maybe a few personal posts?).

I’ve also been thinking a lot about what I want to do with my Facebook page. I’ve barely got any followers following me through there, and I’m wondering if it’s because I haven’t been putting as much focus on it. What do YOU expect when you follow a page through Facebook?!

I mean, even I follow some blogs through Facebook, but the sheer amount of new things in my newsfeed is overwhelming because of it, and I don’t want to make the situation worst for you guys...

I was mostly using it as another way to notify you when there are new posts. Sure I tried for a couple of weeks to do a Weekend Happenings kinda thing, but that fell through because I couldn’t keep up, and because I didn’t really see any interest. I want to change that to sneak peaks of what I’m working on throughout the week, instead of all at once on the weekends.

Also, I’d like to use my Facebook page as a way to promote others’ creativity by featuring some projects I really like. I’ve never done this much, but I realize now the importance of community and sharing the love. I could also do a bi-monthly wrap-up of featured posts on the blog itself too, for those who do not follow through Facebook, if there is any interest in that.

Finally, I’d like to do a monthly wrap-up of my posts. That way at the end of the month you can see if you’ve missed something you might be interested in by skimming the wrap-up. I’d also take the opportunity to do some follow ups on projects. Kinda like a newsletter. What do you think??

All in all, there is one thing I do not want to change, and that is giving full tutorials with my projects; or as much as I can. That is something that is very dear to my heart. To me it’s not worth sharing something I’ve made if I’m not showing you HOW I’ve made it. If I’m copying a tutorial from someone else, then expect a link back only.

I sure hope you enjoy my style of tutorial, with lots of pictures and lots of description!! (But maybe I'd get more questions if it weren't as detailed?)

If you’ve got any comments or feedback about anything I’ve talked about in this post, it would be most appreciated!! Don’t be shy, and don’t be afraid to be honest, I REALLY mean that.

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Hotlinking: What It Is And How To Avoid It

Just a warning, this post is gonna be wordy (don't worry, I'll add pictures ;) ), and more serious than anything I've ever posted, but I think it's very important that everyone is aware of this. I'll try and make it as concise as possible (that is hard for me :S).

Why am I writing this post? Because this is what my blog looked like if you happened upon it last Friday evening/ Saturday morning:

click to enlarge all photos with Lightbox (finally figured out how it works!)


Alright, now that I have your attention, I'll start from the beginning.

I've been blogging for 6 months now. I started not really knowing what I was doing. Sure I understood what a blog was, how to write a post, the basics. I also learned HTML several years ago when I opened my LiveJournal, so I felt I knew what I was doing. I didn't read a how to start your own blog, I just did it and knew I'd learn along the way.

Well a big learning experience came my way on Friday.

I went to link up to a linky party and when I went to choose the image and crop it, I couldn't see any of them. Instead I saw the photobucket image saying my bandwidth had exceeded. I quickly went to my blog and was greated with what I showed you earlier (at least my header and background are hosted on a different sire, or else it would've been totally image-less).





Naturally, I freaked out. This meant anyone coming to see my blog would not be able to view my content, and they'd get annoyed (I imagine) and leave right away. For a little blog like me who's trying to get off the ground, every new visitor is gold to me.

After a little digging, I saw that a particular picture was responsible for the problem. Remember my Magnetic Pin Dish? It's being featured a lot. More than I could ever dream possible, and I AM incredibly grateful.



But the problem came when these blogs copy pasted my image source to put it directly on their blog. That is hotlinking, and it's stealing bandwidth. I'm not trying to accuse anyone, no one would know they are doing this wrong unless they were told (I learned about it on LiveJournal). So I'm telling you.

Here's the definition off of wiki:
Hot-linking is a term used on the Internet. Hot-linking is when someone uses a link to an image that is saved on another website instead of saving a copy of the image on the website that the picture will be shown on. For example, instead of saving picture.gif and loading it on to their own website, the person uses a link to the picture as http://website.com/picture.gif. Hot-linking uses the bandwidth of the person who owns the website where the picture is stored. This costs that person money.

This happens because I host my images (or save my images) with a free Photobucket account. I get 10GB of bandwidth per month. Everytime my photos load on your or my computer, that is bandwidth being used. 10GB is plenty for me and my now 39 followers viewing my website (or so I thought, more on that later). But when someone copy pastes my image to their website, and they have 4000+ followers, then all the people viewing THEIR blog (and hence MY photo) are making my bandwidth go up. And then exceed it and then my images are no longer viewable.

How do you go around that, and fix it? Well, it might take you a little more time when you do a featured post, but you should save the picture to your computer, and upload it yourself to wherever you host your own images (be it blogger or flickr or picasa or photobucket or wherever). You can also upload directly to your host site (it's called upload from web; see below for Photobucket). For picasa web albums, you need to go to the picasa site (as opposed to uploading directly in the post editor) and when you click upload from computer, you can paste the image url from the other website. This will then re-upload it and give it a new url, and you won't be taking someone else's bandwidth.



It's the right thing to do, just like giving proper credit for someone else's image. And will prevent this from happening to anyone else who is just starting out and is not sure what they are doing; I'm sure you all remember when you started to get featured and how proud you were, now imagine how discouraging it would be for this to happen.

I've since come to realize I could be doing things more efficiently as well. I've learned that blogger/picasa web albums hosts pictures with unlimited bandwidth and 1GB of free storage. Sure that isn't much, but any picture smaller than 2048x2048 pixels don't count towards that limit. I dunno about you, but my pictures are all smaller than that, so I don't even think I'll have to get paid storage, and this will fix my problem. Only thing is, they don't have subfolders so organizing your pictures is next to impossible. Just saying, I like being organized!

I'm rather surprised that this is a common occurance in blogland. Like I said, I've known about hotlinking for a while so have been careful not to do it. It also makes me reevaluate how I'm handling my blog (and anyway, my blog is getting more traffic now so I don't think I would've been able to stay with Photobucket for very much longer with the free account, so this was bound to happen). But anyway, you still shouldn't do it. You should host all the images on your blog yourself, it's the proper thing to do.

After a bit of digging, I found this article from 2010 at CROQzine talking about how to use other bloggers' photos on your blog, and do not hotlink is the first thing that comes up, so it's not just me saying this.

Thank you for hearing me out.

Thanks to Ginger @ Ginger Snap Craft who is helping spreading the word.

Also found that Addicted 2 Decorating did a post all about this, too, because it also happened to her.






I party at these partiesIf you would like to invite me to your linky party, please do so on my linkies page, thank you!

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