It almost completely slipped my mind, however I am reminded every day before Valentine's Day that another year is in the books for this little blog of mine!
HAPPY 3 YEAR BLOGIVERSARY, LIFE AS YOU LIVE IT!
I created this blog back in 2013 as a creative outlet for my DIY projects and can't believe the growth that it has had over the past couple years. Never would I have thought that I would still be typing away sharing my two cents, have a post go viral, or start my own little Etsy shop. The ever growing plans and opportunities that are ahead of any and every blogger are unlimited and it truly is very exciting to think about.
The first post that I ever published was my "FUN DIY VALENTINE'S DAY GIFT FOR HIM" project that I had put together as a gift for L. A rookie at best, I only included one picture (which was of the final project), and a little blurb about it. I look back and smile because it truly was a labor of love, and then a little bit more love to put it up on the blog. Maybe someday I will filter through my older posts and update them with better pictures, especially the ones that get a lot of pageviews.
I'm a big list maker and goal setter, so it only seemed appropriate to pull together four goals to hopefully see myself reach by year #4!

1. Post at least ten times a month - this probably seems like a small number to some, however, when the creative juices aren't flowing, I'm on the struggle bus and have to really focus to pull together a publish worthy post. I feel as though ten is a good, consistent number that is very attainable. I don't care if it's ten posts in a row, or 2-3 posts a week... it's happening! (:
2. Move to .com - It's been three years and I am still riding the .blogspot.com train. I know, somebody needs to cut the cord! Honestly, I'm in a little bit of a pickle because lifeasyouliveit.com is already being used and I'm not quite sure what other domain name I could use without detaching myself too much from "the brand". I've thought about completely rebranding the entire blog but have started to think that that may not be the best option as I feel as though LIFE AS YOU LIVE IT encapsulates the content of this blog really well. What are your thoughts with .org? Does anyone use it for their blog?
3. Double the pageviews that I had in December - I feel as though this goes hand in hand with the "post at least ten times a month" goal. I'd like to think that it is not all about the numbers, however it is one of the best ways to measure your progress. I did not start tracking my stats and using google analytics until September of 2015. Out of the three years I've had this, only 5 months of them I have tracked and recorded this kind of information. I don't know why I didn't reference to that information earlier, however I sure am glad that I do now! I look at the numbers that I had in December of 2015 and hope that I am able to double that by December of 2016!
4. Design 10 for items for my Etsy shop - I consider my Etsy shop and the blog as one entity, and would love to see these grow together. I try my hardest to design a new product for the shop every month and have a handful of ideas up my sleeve. I want to make sure I am continually contributing to this little shop so that it can continue to grow!

Thank you, everyone, for your continued support! Have a happy, happy VALENTINE'S DAY tomorrow! (:

HOW TO: Add Social Media Icons to your Sidebar (Blogger)

I do not consider myself an expert blogger or html master by any means, however whenever I learn something new that benefits me, and I know will benefit others I do feel compelled to share so that you can give it a shot as well! 
After over two and half years of my blogging career, I have finally created and added social media icons to my sidebar!
I'm always looking to do things myself, so when I came across Emily's video from Blogoholic Designs, I quickly (as in half an hour) followed suit and created my own social media icons! Thanks Emily! In an effort to help relay the information, I have attached the link to Emily's video, as well as step by step instructions that demonstrate how I was able to create the buttons! I hope you are able to find this very helpful and informative!

ONE: SEARCH AND DOWNLOAD SOCIAL MEDIA ICONS  I searched "social media icons" on Pinterest, and decided to go with these ones from green leaf imaging. Make sure that you are legally able to download them from the designer.

TWO: RESIZE THE ICONS Once you have downloaded the icons to your computer, open the files that you would like to implement on your blog and resize them to your desired size. The original size of the icons that I used were too large so I adjusted them all to be 0.15" x 0.15" with a resolution of 180 pixels. They did appear blurry after I changed them, however they turned out fine on the blog. I double clicked on each image and used the standard mac "preview" application to adjust the size (click tools > adjust size...). Notice the significant size difference in size once it was adjusted.

THREE: GO TO YOUR BLOG AND CREATE A NEW POST VERY IMPORTANT: MAKE SURE YOU DO NOT PUBLISH THIS POST. This step was used to help create an HTML format/code for the sidebar. Emily recommended naming the post "SOCIAL MEDIA ICONS: NO NOT PUBLISH OR DELETE". 

FOUR: IMPORT EACH OF THE DESIRED SOCIAL MEDIA ICONS INTO THE NEW POST Click the "Insert Image" button and select each of the icons that you would like to use. Line the images up horizontally by backspacing in between each one, and make sure each icon is centered. I went ahead and put two spaces in between each icon. The bottom picture demonstrates how it will look on my blog.

FIVE: ADD A LINK TO EACH ICON Click on an icon and then click the "Link" button. Highlight and add the corresponding link to that button. Simply copy the link from the webpage, and paste it into the box. I like to click the "open this link in a new window" button so that my original blog page doesn't disappear. Do this with each of your icons. If you plan on using the "mail" icon and would like to connect an email address, be sure to click the "email address" button and inset your desired email address.

SIX: COPY THE HTML FORMAT INTO A NEW HTML/JAVA SCRIPT GADGET You have been working in the "compose" section, so now you need to click the HTML button and switch everything over to the HTML coding. Copy that code. Open up a new page with blogger and click on the "layout" tab. On the lower right hand side, click "Add a Gadget", and select the "HTML/JAVA SCRIPT" option. Copy your HTML code into the box and give the box a label if you would like to, some prefer not to. Click "SAVE" > "SAVE ARRANGEMENT" > "VIEW BLOG" to see the completed project.

Test the buttons out to make sure each one correlates to the appropriate link.
Good luck!
I've linked Emily's video below. If you use Wordpress, she has a tutorial here that will help!