I’m going to paint you two different scenarios, both of which to some degree or another I we can all relate to.

Both scenarios entail someone who works a normal 9-5 job. This person is a 25-year-old woman who is married and does not have any kids. Her name is Julia.

Scenario 1

In scenario one, Julia sets her alarm for 7am. As it goes off, she presses snooze two times.

Finally, at 7:20 am, she starts to wake up. She rolls over and grabs her phone.

The first thing she does is open Instagram to check her notifications. She sees that she didn’t receive as many likes on her post the night before as she thought she’d receive. She thought she looked really pretty. In fact, someone even posted a snappy comment on the photo.

Julia feels insecure before her feet even hit the ground. She deletes the picture and gets out of bed.

She feels bad so she skips making the bed and instead goes straight to make coffee. She realizes she’s out of sugar and is upset. She can’t decide what coffee mug to use today because she has 1,000.

Her sink is full of dishes, and her counters are a mess.

She finally makes her unsweet, not very enjoyable cup of coffee, and sits on her couch. She eats a pop tart for breakfast.

She turns on the news and watches the breaking headlines about all of the terrible things going on in the world. By this time, it is 7:45 am.

Julia leaves her coffee on her table in her living room and goes to the bathroom to shower. She takes off her clothes before her shower and looks in the mirror. She spews mean things in her head about how unhappy she is with her body.

She showers and digs through her wrinkly, unfolded laundry basket, and gets dressed for work. She leaves her house at 8:30 am.

She gets stuck in traffic per usual and starts swearing and getting frustrated with the other idiots on the road. By the time Julia gets to work, she feels like crap.

She is cranky, annoyed, groggy, and feels insecure about her looks, not confident about her body, sad about what’s going on in the world, unmotivated to work, and stressed about the mess of a home she has waiting for her when she returns in the evening.

This scenario might be an extreme, but I think in some aspects we can all relate to Julia.

Here’s an alternative scenario…

Scenario 2

Julia works at 9am. She sets her alarm for 6am. She springs out of bed because she knows how bad it is for your self-discipline to press snooze.

Everyday, it gets easier and easier to not press snooze as well. She has limits on her phone so she cannot access any social media before 12pm.

Julia makes her bed, opens her blinds and puts on her exercise clothes first thing. She rinses her face with cold water, and puts on her morning skin serum.

Julia walks into her kitchen, which she tidied up the evening before. She drinks a tall glass of water before her coffee. She pours her favorite cup of coffee, and sits in her favorite chair, next to a vase of fresh flowers she bought herself a few days before.

She leaves her TV off, and journals about her day. In her journal she writes what she’s grateful for, a few notes, some positive affirmations to herself, as well as her plan for the day.

She opens a good book and reads 10 pages. By this time, it’s about 6:45.

She rolls out her yoga mat and does a 20-minute yoga sequence. She then takes her dog for a 20-minute walk outside.

At 7:30, she showers while listening to a happy playlist on her Bluetooth speaker. She has time to pack a healthy lunch, make a breakfast smoothie to drink in the car on the way to work.

She leaves with extra time to make up for any random traffic jams during her morning commute. During her drive, she listens to her favorite, uplifting podcast.

When Julia arrives to work, she feels optimistic, energized, confident and eager to conquer her day.

How crazy are these two different scenarios?

Neither one is that far out of our reach. It’s a fact that we get to choose how we decide to prime ourselves for our day.

If we want to show up as our best selves in our lives, then we need to do the work to nurture ourselves and prepare to do so.

Redesigning Your Morning Routine

When it comes to redesigning your morning routine, it’s important to consider HOW YOU WANT TO FEEL.

In pretty much everything in life, it’s all about choosing your hard. It’s hard to be fit and healthy, and it’s also hard to be overweight and sick.

It’s hard to wake up early and incorporate a morning routine, and it’s also hard to roll out of bed and go through your day groggy and tired.

It’s hard to meal plan and be organized and it’s also hard to go broke on expensive last minute meals and eating out.

Choose Your Hard

It’s either hard now and easy later or easy now and hard later.

If you choose to have a strong, healthy and productive morning routine, it might be difficult at first, but in the end it will set you up for a much smoother, joyful experience throughout your day.

If you choose to be lazy and sleep in and don’t take the time to set yourself up for success, you’ll have a much harder time enjoying your days.

Ultimately, your morning routine has a very significant effect on your mental health and the way you go through your day and the attitude and mindset you have throughout it.

I hope this post opens your mind about creating healthier habits and considering what you need to do each morning to prime yourself and set yourself up for success and show up each day as the best version of yourself.

If you’re looking for tips on how to start a blog and make money in 2022, then this is the post for you! As the years go by, we see more and more people who are truly making something out of nothing. Nowadays, there are more content creators than we know what to do with, who are making legitimate livings and substantial incomes doing what they love every single day. If all of this commotion has sparked your interest and been in your mind for months and months now, maybe it’s time you gave it a shot. Here is a guide on exactly how to start a blog and make money from it in the modern-day world we live in.

I’ve been blogging for a few years now, and have taken countless courses, read books, watched videos, listened to podcasts, and read other bloggers’ posts about blogging. I’ve spent a ridiculous amount of time learning, perfecting, and trying to figure out the system. It turns out though, that there really isn’t some crazy secret formula on how to start a blog. All it really takes is time, commitment, and consistency.

How to Start a Blog | The Basics of Starting a Blog

Choose Your Blog Name

When starting a blog, there are a few pretty obvious things you need to do as your literal first few steps before you can move forward. One of them is choosing a name. Some people like to use their name, either first and middle or first and last. Some people prefer a made-up name that doesn’t include their personal name, like The Homebody Edit for example. I chose this name because I am a homebody and obviously love to write about all things home and lifestyle. I also liked how “The Edit” part made it feel like a newspaper or a place people go to read articles on the topic.

Choose Your Blog Domain

Once you decide on your name, you’ll want to make sure it’s available on the various platforms where you’ll post. For example, check Bluehost’s Domain Checker to see if your blog post name is available. Once you see that it’s available, check Instagram, Facebook and Pinterest as well. If your blog name is available on all of these then you’re ready to move forward.

Choose Your Blog Niche

Another thing to consider when first starting off and determining your name is thinking about what your niche will be. This is a topic that tends to really overwhelm people, but in all honesty, it shouldn’t be too complicated. The whole point of selecting a blog niche when starting a blog is to have some focus and identify what you want to be associated with.

For example, if you start a healthy, whole foods recipe blog, it doesn’t mean you can never ever post about anything else. What it means is that that is what you want people to think of the second they are exposed to your blog. Sure, you can post a bit of fashion and gift guides and maybe even a couple of not-so-healthy dessert recipes over the holidays. All in all, though, your MAIN focus should be on your niche. And either way, your target audience should always remain the same. You don’t want to one day post for 18 years old girls and the next day post for 65-year-old men.

Keep your niche focused, allow yourself a little bit of freedom, and always stay committed to your specific target audience. Most importantly, make sure your main niche is something you truly love to write about. This should be fun and exciting for you. It won’t be easy, but it should be interesting.

Consider Your Why

Something else to note here when starting a blog in 2022, is to think about why you want to do it. The real reason. This is so important. If you’re only doing it to make money or to fit in with the crowd, you probably won’t end up doing either. In order to be a successful blogger, you really need to have some pride and passion in what you’re doing. The content you create will show your intention right through it, especially if it isn’t pure. Just make sure that when you ask yourself why you want to start a blog, the reason is legit and authentic.

If you want to dig deeper into this, Simon Sinek’s book, Start With Why is a great, classic read.

RELATED POST: Top 5 Blogging Tools I Can’t Live Without

Get Your Blog Site Hosted

Once you have a name, domain, niche, and all that sorted, the next step on how to start a blog is to get it hosted. I personally highly recommend using Bluehost. They have great customer service, my site always runs very smoothly, their interface is simple and clean, and the pricing is phenomenal. Bluehost is the most popular blog hosting platform used by successful bloggers, content creators, and influencers.

Click here to secure your domain and begin hosting your blog with Bluehost!

Build Your Site

A big part of how to start a blog is getting a good website. Your website does not need to be complicated, especially when just starting out. All you really need is a simple, basic website, which is not that hard to set up. When doing this, Google and Youtube will be your best friend. You can learn how to set up a basic, cute website all on your own.

I recommend looking for a WordPress theme on either Creative Martket, Etsy, or 17th Avenue Designs. Ultimately, it depends on how much you’re willing to spend. You don’t need to spend an arm and a leg, especially when starting out. Once you purchase your website theme, you’ll likely receive a PDF with instructions on how to set it up. That should help guide you on how to set up that specific theme’s features. So your website will be hosted on BluehostBluehost, build on WordPress and the theme will have been purchased from one of the three places mentioned.

Publish Your blog

Once your themes installed on WordPress, and you’ve figured out how to set it up and look nice, you’re ready to publish it. Try to think about how you’re going to promote your blog once it’s published and live. You can post it on social media, post stories showing people how to view it, email friends and family about it, or just tell people about it in person. You can get as creative as you want. The main focus of any successful blog should be to get as much real, human traffic to your site as you can. This is done strategically through a smoothly functioning site as well as consistent, quality content and marketing or promotion.

Create a Blogging Schedule

With that being said, a big part of blogging and probably one of the hardest parts is creating a blogging schedule and posting consistently over time. When you have a strict schedule and post regularly week after week, not only does it build trust with your audience, but Google also ranks you higher on searches.

Ideally, if you can, I’d recommend trying to post 2 times per week when first starting a blog. This will give you a good amount of content over time for readers to engage in and enjoy. It’s also a very feasible posting frequency that isn’t too demanding.

RELATED POST: 10 Home Office Essentials For the Perfect Workspace

Optimizing Your Blog for Google

When I was first learning how to start a blog, I remember coming across SEO or Search Engine Optimization and feeling like I unlocked this big secret that I had never even heard of before. Once you’re ready to take your beginner blog to a more intermediate level, you should research all about SEO.

There are entire blog sites all about SEO because the information on it is truly endless, but generally speaking, Google has an algorithm and is a machine that reads your site and the content on it, as well as a variety of other things, which decides how high to rank it. The higher you rank on Google, the more people will land on your site.

You can optimize every page and blog post for Search Engine Optimization using keywords and strategic planning and writing. Like I said, before getting into this, I’d recommend nailing down your posting consistency and website. Once you’re ready, start diving into SEO so you can get your site to rank higher on Google.

Share Your Blog

An essential aspect of how to start a blog is knowing how to share it and promote it. You want to take pride in your blog and own it and share it. Getting it out there is so important, and it will travel like wildfire if it’s good, once word gets out. You can share your blog on social media, interest, as well as when telling people about it.

Some people prefer to wait until their blog is a bit more established on the internet before they start sharing it with close friends and family. I personally shared mine right away, so it’s really up to you and what you feel comfortable with.

All in all, I hope this post inspires you and helps you learn how to start a blog and get it off the ground in the beginning stages. Something that is super important is to not overcomplicate things. Complexity is the enemy of execution. So the more simple you make this whole process, the more effective and successful your blog will be. Try not to get too caught up in the nitty-gritty details. You want to stay organized, but ultimately the number one thing you need to have a successful blog is to write blog posts. That is the most important thing. So just make sure you’re posting regularly and putting your heart into creating quality content that sparks joy in you to write about.

I wish you the best of luck and hope you feel more comfortable now with the basics of how to start a blog! Let me know in the comments below what you thought of this post and if you have any questions or other suggestions!

This post was all about how to start a blog.

Whether you’re looking for dramatic, unique, modern, or luxe powder room inspiration, you’ll find all the ideas you need with these 19 insanely creative power room ideas.

In need of personality-infused powder room decorating ideas? You’re in the right place!

When you have an idea of what you want, and what feeling you want to create, decorating becomes easier. That being said, when you don’t have any inspiration or direction to head in, it’s a lot harder to bring a gorgeous design to life. You’ll want to make sure you have ample sources of inspiration to draw from when designing a space, so you can prevent clashing styles or mismatched decor. Gathering inspiration will ensure your space is designed from start to finish in an efficient way that gives you the look you want to achieve in the end.

From wild patterned wallpaper and complex tiles to stunning light fixtures and breathtaking marble patterns, these power room inspiration ideas will be sure to ignite the inner wild, interior designer in you.

This post is all about powder room inspiration.

Best Powder Room Inspiration:

1. Airy With a Touch of Modern Elegance

This is such a great modern powder room idea because it’s neutral in colo and stylish and trendy in the finishes. The open, airy concept gives it a lightweight feel and really just a soothing vibe. The large vertical marble tiles on the wall add a beautiful pattern that is more budget-friendly than a large slab of marble.

2. Light With a Neutral Feminine Appeal

This style is very chic. It kind of gives me Kate Spade vibes, which makes it feel very cute and feminine. If pattern wallpaper freaks you out, it’s always a great compromise to do paneling on the lower portion of the wall and wallpaper on the top for more subtlety.

3. Herringbone Tile From Floor to Ceiling

If you like patterns but aren’t a fan of wallpaper, herringbone tile placement is a great alternative. The floor-to-ceiling concept is equally as dramatic as it is elegant. Make sure you hire a top professional to place your tile if you choose to do this complex laying pattern. Quality placement can truly make or break the feel of the space.

4. An Artistic Blend of Cohesive Patterns

If loud and interesting is your vibe, then this look has your name all over it. Be sure to get samples of all patterns and textures you choose prior to making your final selections. You want to ensure they all will blend together cohesively, especially once they’re on a larger scale. When done right, the result can be truly breathtaking.

5. Unique and Dramatic Marble All Over

If budget isn’t your top concern and you want something luxe and interesting, consider marble all over, and I mean ALL OVER. The continuity and repetition of marble on all 4 walls and the floor provide a truly stunning experience in a small powder room.

6. Repetition in Color, Variety in Pattern, and Texture

This powder room decor idea uses the repetition of the color blue. The strategy is to use blue in different textures and patterns. Overall though, the selections blend together beautifully and create a very balanced and tranquil feel in the space.

7. Monochrome Modern With a Natural Vibe

It’s always a good idea when decorating your powder room to add pops of nature if you decide to go with a monochrome palette. Adding greenery can add a sense of life and earthiness to an otherwise simple, and classic palette. Greenery is usually the perfect accent for an ultra-sleek and clean design.

RELATED POST: 11 Best Air-Purifying Plants for Newbie Plant Parents

8. Concrete Surfaces with Unique Lighting

Getting creative with lighting can add so much interest and excitement to a design. In this specific design, the point is to let the unique and special lighting truly steal the spotlight. The rest of the space is very muted and organic, while the custom lighting provides lovely appeal to the whole room.

9. Storytelling Wallpaper As The Star of The Show

If you find wallpaper that tells a story that you absolutely adore, go with it! The whole point after all is to tell a story and create an experience for those who get to experience your design. In this example, the designer chose a more muted, subtle selection to allow the wallpaper to really be the star of the show.

10. Neutrals With Attention-Grabbing Details

This powder room uses a monochrome, neutral palette with warm wood and lighting as well as many visual details that add interest to the space.

11. Classic Vintage Vibes

This powder room has an art deco style with vintage style tile and lighting. It feels like a hotel. A truly luxurious and timeless design.

12. Classy Antique Charm

This old-school powder room is so quaint and charming while still being elegant and classy. The unique window adds a lot of character along with all of the gorgeous selections and details.

13. Vanilla Ultra Glam

This modern, glamorous and neutral powder room will surely make anyone feel like a boss getting ready in it. The feel of the space alone inspires one to be their best, most elevated self.

14. An Efficient Balance of Texture and Pattern

When incorporating texture and pattern into a design, it can be tricky to find a perfect balance where one does not take away from the other. This designer achieved that beautifully in the selections that were made for this gorgeous, edgy powder room.

15. Bright, Youthful and Feminine

This powder room design is just gorgeous. It’s young, lively, and is sure to put anyone who enters into a good mood maybe even adding an extra pep in their step.

RELATED POST: How to Design a Space Using Your Five Senses

16. Eclectic and Fun

This powder room design adds so much personality to such a small space. It’s fun, exciting, and interesting. I know I personally would really enjoy entering this space. In fact, I might never want to leave!

17. Chic With an Open and Airy Feel

In this design, the wallpaper is quite loud and intense, which is why all other selections were made with a light and airy approach in mind. The balance of all of the features certainly was achieved.

18. A Modern Touch of Nature

Without bringing real plants or greenery into this design, one still might feel they are in touch with nature when entering this space. The natural materials and greenery on the wallpaper provide a beautiful organic experience.

19. Organic, Moody, and Intellectual

This elevated and classic powder room has color without being overwhelming or chaotic. It’s mature and gives a very intellectual vibe.

This post was all about powder room inspiration!