Behind the Blog: Weekend Fun and Upcoming Blog Partnerships

Happy Monday!  I hope your weekend was good.  In going with my recent blog changes (changing the tagline to "The Marketing Mama Blog," some design changes, & an updated content calendar), I have changed the name of my Monday posts from Weekend Wrap-up to Behind the Blog.  It will still feature my weekend plans and my life outside of the blog and work, but it will also delve into my upcoming blog goals and blog plans.  They say, if you have a goal, write it down and share it.  I'd say writing down my goals and sharing them with my readers is taking it one step further!  I hope you enjoy the changes.

Behind the Blog:  Weekend Wrap-up

This weekend was pretty laid back thanks to the weather.  We had LOTS of plans, but the weather said, naw, you're staying home.  On Saturday, we were supposed to go to my cousins birthday party, and on the way there a huge storm blew in.  It rocked our car, blew rain sideways to the point we couldn't see, and knocked down trees right in front of our car.  So, we turned around.  Not worth our lives!

Flea Market fun.  J is in a stage where he always wants to
hold hands.  Here, he decided he needed to hold both of my parents'
hands.

On Sunday, it was beyond humid.  It was the kind of air you can cut with a knife.  We went to the flea market, which has become somewhat of our Sunday routine, but it was just too hot and humid to enjoy the time.  Later, we were supposed to meet up with some friends and go to the art fest in Evanston, but J slept right through it!  By the time he woke up from his nap, our friends' daughter was one tot mess and had to go home.  Toddler life.  Their moods control everything!

What we ended up doing most of the weekend, is organizing the home.  My lovely H put organizers in my terrible, half thought out closet (our bedroom was an addition), and we did some bedroom redecorating.

Newly organized closet

New bedroom decor

My dad made this tree for my wedding.
Now, I repurpose it for my jewelry holder.

How do you spend your weekends?

Behind the Blog Goals: Amping up Instagram & BlogLovin

My goals this week are to work on amping up Instagram and Bloglovin.  My issue is, I had always kept my IG personal and private, so I really restricted who could follow me.  Since starting my blog, I have since gone public, and now I need to really work to get all of those followers I restricted when it was private.

My goal for IG this week is to get to 500 followers.  To do this, I will do link up parties where bloggers follow each other on Instagram.  I will post at least 10 comments a day on other people's pictures, follow at least 5 new people a day, and post one picture a day.  I also plan on trying to give my overall profile a look by posting similar style pictures, using the same palette for graphics, and using the same filter to provide cohesion.

For BlogLovin, my goal is to reach 20 followers by the end of the week.  My issue with BlogLovin growth is my RSS feed was broken after I changed blog platforms.  It took a few months to fix, so my growth on BlogLovin was drastically cut.  

To increase BlogLovin followers, I have changed my post signature to include a link and prompt to follow me on BlogLovin.  I will follow more bloggers I know and offer follow for follow.

Behind the Blog:  Upcoming Collaborations

I have Small Business Spotlights scheduled for three great small businesses that I am super excited about collaborating with.  I will tell you more about them soon :).

I am working on a guest post with the blog Helicopter Mom & Just Plane Dad.  I will be writing a post about choosing a pre-school.  I will also be featured on the blog One Active Mama as a Mom of Instagram.

Tell me, what are your blogging and social media goals this week and how do you plan on achieving them?

Thanks!