200th blog post…

This is my 200th blog post! I started my blog on January 24, 2021, unsure about everything…who, what, where, when, how, or why. I can answer some of those questions now. 

Who…what to name the blog and under what category. It took a while, but “Julzie Style’s A Journey of Cooking and Living” felt accurate, falling under the lifestyle blog category instead of a food blog. 

Who is going to read my blog? I knew my Facebook friends who have been pushing me to start a blog would; I wasn’t sure who else though. 

I picked up quite a few subscribers when my friend Jon Katz an award-winning writer, author, and photographer, gave my blog a plug on his called The Bedlam Farm Journal. 

I also picked up some other readers on my Julzie Style Facebook page when my friend, Jon’s wife, and belly dance student Maria Wulf mentioned my blog in one of her blog entries. Maria is a successful artist with many followers. Her blog is called Fullmoon Fiber Art. Check it out it’s fun to read and see what she’s working on or what’s happening on Bedlam Farm.

Over time I’ve picked up a few new subscribers and lost a couple. At first, I panicked about why someone unsubscribed to my blog; then, I realized I am not everyone’s cup of tea, and that is perfectly fine. 

What…Ok, so I wanted to write about cooking, belly dancing, travel, food, family, and business. A food blog alone would have bored me to tears since there I more to me than cooking. 

Where…I am not sure how to answer this one. 🤷🏻‍♀️

When…this can mean a couple of things; when do I write, and what time in my life would I be sharing. I like to write about some of my favorite memories growing up in NJ or whatever is happening right now.

How…how the fuck should I know? Seriously, I am one of the most ignorant people when it comes to technology. I don’t have the brain to compute how to do it or the patience to figure it out, back to me being a right-brained thinker.

Marty and Sam helped me set up my blog. My blog is straightforward, and I wanted to make it better as time went on. I also didn’t realize that the blog easily cost about $400 to get up and run. I needed to buy a domain name, find a hosting agent, and some programs I wanted to use, like Grammarly. 

Marty bought me a laptop so that I could work on my blog anywhere inside or outside. If I had to sit upstairs in our tiny office at our desk computer, I wouldn’t have liked it at all. Ah-ha! This falls under the where category!

Professional food bloggers use professional web designers, fancy and expensive recipe programs, real cameras and filming equipment, and lots of other bells and whistles. They rely on pop-up advertisements to get paid for their work, blog expenses, and then some. 

These ads and videos pop up multiple times whenever I read a food blog or a recipe. This makes me insane! It’s so hard to keep X-ing out of the videos and ads. After I click out of the first one and another one pops up, I am out of there. Before I started my blog, I knew that I didn’t want my readers to put up with that annoyance. 

I have support my blog button on my homepage that I felt uncomfortable putting there in the first place. I want to thank all of you for your donations to my blog. Every little bit helps; I have all my donation money in an account to put towards all the fees I’ll have to pay again when the blog’s year is up. 

I know that I should ask or remind people how important it is to support someone’s work. I want my blog to be free to everyone, but I have asked if you were enjoying my blog or recipes to consider a small donation. 

Whenever I receive a $2 donation from someone because they loved how my recipe came out makes me so proud and happy.

I recently looked at recipe programs that would help me with serving sizes, a jump to recipe button, a print button, nutritional counts, etc. Those programs start around $200 bucks, so that will not be happening anytime soon. 

Why…I used my personal Facebook page for 10 years as a cooking and lifestyle blog. I wanted to start a blog but didn’t know literally where to start. I read up on Blogging for Dummies and watched YouTube videos. The actual writing part came; naturally, the rest of it is still hard to figure out. 

My blog started during the pandemic when my life and our business wasn’t nearly as crazy busy as it is now. At least I had some extra time to figure out my voice as a writer. I was excited when I received my first donation because it meant I was a writer since someone paid me to write. Yay! 

My blog has had many ups and downs depending on what I was writing about. I didn’t expect my writing to become so emotional, bringing out good memories and, unfortunately, some awful ones that I had hidden deep inside me. 

My blog has introduced you all to some of my family, friends, and a list of regular characters I encounter. I have more people to introduce you to and, unfortunately, some that I can’t. I always respect anyone’s wishes who don’t want me to write about them. 

What do I want for the next 200 posts? I want to continue to enjoy writing and sharing myself with you. I want to stay honest and authentic as promised. I want my blog posts to keep jumping right from my brain to my laptop, with the words flying out easily and naturally. 

I am open to suggestions, comments, recipes, or how-to requests. I still have so much to share with you guys, and I look forward to writing, which I’ve done almost every day. If you don’t see a post on a certain day, my day was nuts, and I ran out of time. 

Thank you, Jon and Maria, for inspiring me and for all your input. Jon spent endless time with me, shaping me into becoming a better writer and to always think about my readers. 

Thanks to Marty, Sam, and Noah for being open to me and including them in my daily posts and for their continued support. 

I appreciate all of you for taking the time to read my blog. I love reading your comments that encourage me and help me not feel alone when struggling with emotional issues. When I read comments cheering me on, well, this makes my day a whole lot brighter.

Finally, thanks, guys; from the bottom of my heart, there wouldn’t be a blog if no one read it; psst…tell your friends about it, too I would love to pick up some new readers. ❤️