A Blogger Meltdown Exercise

If you use Blogger as your writing platform, you may have noticed the two-day-long Blogger meltdown, wherein nobody could write posts, comment, or even see their dashboard. This was a problem for me. Not because I had anything particularly important to say, but I'm AMERICAN, dagnabbit, and need my freedom to express any and all thoughts whenever I want!!!

The First Amendment is THAT awesome.

After about a day of bloggy limbo, I was pretty fed up with Blogger and itching to write something, so I made a WordPress blog. This was a good opportunity to play around with WordPress and see if I liked it enough to switch platforms. I immediately ran into a problem, though-- every single name I could think of was already taken! Downright Domesticity was available, but I want a new, less chunky name that's still representative of my blog. Where all the words are real. ;-) Obviously, I was going to have to get really creative!

So for a little blogging exercise, I opened up a Word document and started typing a stream-of-consciousness list of words that represent my blog. I was really surprised by what came out.

The very top of my list was heavy with words like green, crunchy, and hippie. Mid-level was family, baby, housewife. As my stream-of-consciousness slowed down, I became increasingly more hesitant to put down things like cooking. When was the last time I blogged about food? (or better yet, when was the last time I cooked? Ha ha) Christian. Perhaps I'm shallow, but I really struggle with articulating my faith. Also glaring was what I didn't put on the list at all. Cloth diapers. I never intended to get so gung-ho about diapers, but I was so shocked by how much space they get on the blog that I didn't have the heart to put it down.

So it was a very good exercise. It helped to see what the blog has been, and what direction it should head in the future. It also helped me find an appropriate blog name! I finally settled on The Happy Hippie Housewife, which is a pretty accurate description, because- let's face it- I am a hippie.

But not THAT much of a hippie.

So we'll see where this WordPress thing takes me. I did write a post, if you want to see the best six-second video you will ever view. 

Have you ever done some sort of blogging exercise? WordPress folks-- what do you like about your platform?

My Acceptance Speech

As the saying goes, "Every dog has its day," and it turns out today is mine! Even if I'm not actually a dog. Bitterroot Mama has awarded me the Versatile Blogger award!

I've been following Bitterroot Mama's blog for a while and have enjoyed reading about delicious recipes, book reviews, and the unusual things Montanans do. ;-) So thank you, Bitterroot Mama, for the bloggy love and for your enjoyment of my goofy graphics! Sometimes it's hard to tell whether people think I'm funny or plumb crazy off my rocker. 

In a much, much less scary and bacteria-free version of Amish Friendship bread, I get to pass along this award! Here are the acceptance rules:

The Rules 
If you accept this award you must: 

~Thank the person who awarded it to you.
~Post 7 tidbits about yourself
~Award 5 other bloggers this award.

My seven tidbits:
1. I like to do woodburning when I'm feeling creative and want to see my hands in bandages for the next couple weeks.
2. My husband and I honeymooned in Banff, the heart of the Canadian Rockies and the most beautiful place on earth!
3. I'm a boss at Scattergories. Apples to Apples, not so much. :-(
4. My first words were "poo-cat" (my baby rendition of "puddy cat").

Say it right, or not at all. >:-(

5. I never had a dental cavity in my life until I went to college and started drinking juice every day. True story.
6. My college job was working at the university library.
7. I loathe dachsunds.

My Versatile Blogger Award recipients:
- That Married Couple: I love reading her amazing, thoughtful posts on natural living, parenting, and NFP!
- My Country Cupboard: Miriam is super skilled at saving money with coupons and gardening. I want to be just like her when I grow up. :-P
- Are We Still Cool? : Cool Mum and Cool Dad are always making me laugh with their tales of life in NYC.
- My Favorite Things: Ani makes the cutest crafts and has a wealth of great holiday projects!
- B is for Bissonnette: Laura and I have been close friends since our preschool days. We may be on different coasts, but I just love reading about her little family and all the creative projects she comes up with for her toddler!

You don't have to accept the award if you don't want to- I mean, what the heck is a Versatile Blogger supposed to be, anyways?- but I thought this was an excellent opportunity to highlight some of my favorite blogosphere folks. Thank you for your presence on the interwebs!

Hi, my name is Maria, and I'm a blog giveaway addict. (Pt. 2)

You can read Part 1 here.

So I've discussed how to enter giveaways; today, I'd like to talk about where.

And no, it's not under a rock.

There are several approaches to finding giveaways: blog link-ups, giveaway blogs, review blogs, search engines, and social media.


1. Blog link-ups
There are many blogs that host a weekly link-up, in which bloggers everywhere can post a link to their giveaways.

Pro: You have a zillion giveaways right there at your fingertips. You can pick and choose what you'd like to enter!
Con: You have to search through the long lists for the things you'd like to enter. It can get tiring!

Here are some of the blogs with link-ups I like to look at, and the days they're posted:

Tuesday: Mrs. Nespy's World
Wednesday: Busy Mommy Media
Friday: Fitteds, Pockets, and Snappis, Oh My! (this one is mainly for cloth diapers and baby carriers, but other bloggers will link up other stuff, too), The Cloth Diaper Report




2. Giveaway Blogs
There are blogs out there that exist solely to be your eyes-and-ears for giveaways going on.

Pro: If you're interested winning in a niche item, like cloth diapers or knitting materials, this is a good one-stop way to see what's going on around the internetz.
Con: Since this type of blog usually makes multiple postings in a single day, it will clutter up your blog reader horribly if you subscribe (a better option is to subscribe via email, which will deliver all the day's posts in one lump email).

A couple niche giveaway blogs I check:
Etsy Giveaways
Cloth Diaper Giveaways

3. Review Blogs
These are blogs in which the author reviews and gives away items herself, usually with the help of sponsors.

Pro: this is a great way to discover new products from up-and-coming companies. Also a good way to find products for your niche.
Con: Along with giveaways for products you want, there will be lots of giveaways for items you don't want. Also, these blogs often require that you follow them in order to enter a giveaway.

A couple review blogs I frequent:
A Mom's Take
Cloth Diaper Addiction




4. Search Engines
Sometimes, if there is a specific item I am looking for, I will turn to my good friend Google it to see if it's being given away anywhere. This was how I won my Best Bottom diaper, which I had been coveting for quite some time. I googled Best Bottom giveaway February 2011 to see what blogs were giving it away that month, entered the ones I could, and hoped for the best.

Pro: helps you find giveaways for a specific item.
Con: You have to read the taglines carefully,  because Google will sometimes put up links to old giveaways.

Must... enter... more... GIVEAWAYS!

5. Social Media
Rachel (who is coincidentally running a mineral makeup giveaway right now!) brought up a good point on my previous post: social media can be used to find giveaways, too! If you "Like" a certain company on facebook, chances are that they will post any giveaways of their products. Also, many companies will have special facebook-only giveaways when they reach a certain number of followers. I personally don't follow too many because it clutters up my facebook feed (can you tell I'm really big on streamlining feeds? :-P), but it's valuable for those certain products I absolutely want to win.

Twitter is also a good place to find giveaways. Use hashtags (#clothdiaper, #giveaway), and search for companies (@Ergobaby, @bumgenius). Often, tweets will have a link right to the giveaway page. In this way, twitter is even better than Google-- tweets are arranged chronologically, so you can see at a glance what is going on right now in the blog giveaway realm.


So now you know all my secrets for entering giveaways. Let me know if you found this little series helpful!

Hi, my name is Maria, and I'm a blog giveaway addict. (Pt. 1)

Since the subject of giveaways is still fresh in my brain, I thought I'd take the opportunity to talk more in-depth about them. A little backstory: I enter a lot of blog giveaways. Not surprisingly, I win a lot of stuff, as well. Here are some of the cool things I have won in the past few years:

-A Best Bottom diaper (just came in the mail today! I'm SOOOO excited to try it out!)

-$100 gift card to The Vintage Pearl

-$25 for Groupon (I am just WAITING for a massage deal to show up! :-D)

-A pair of stylish Crocs. 

-Two Little Scholastic board books-- Baby's D's favorite!

-A wet bag, a reusable Swiffer wand filler, and 4 handmade bars of soap, among other things!


There are some amazing prizes to be had out there! So, as a veteran giver-awayer-enterer, I thought I'd share some tips on how to maximize your giveaway endeavors and minimize wasted time.

-Enter only for items you really want. This probably goes without saying, but sometimes, it's easy to get so caught up in playing the bloggy lottery that suddenly you find yourself entering contests for mechanical pencils and wart remover. Ask yourself, "Do I really need/want this? Can I just buy this fairly inexpensively at the store? Will I actually use it?"

-What would YOU do to win a Klondike bar? Most giveaways give you a plethora of ways to gain extra entries: follow the blog, like something on facebook, follow on twitter, subscribe by email, etc. Sometimes these are mandatory entries. You'd be surprised by how seldom I do them! And that is because I have a problem with selling my loyalty to win junk. I can see how offering free stuff should entitle a blogger to demand a following in return, but the little voice within me asks, Don't you want to know that people are following you because they genuinely like your blog, and not because they just want to win crap? So I don't follow blogs unless I love their content. I don't "Like" things on facebook unless I've actually tried the product and truly do like it. Actually, I usually follow after I win something, as a thank-you. But otherwise, if a giveaway requires that I follow in some way, I just walk away.

My one exception is Twitter. Maybe I'm just dumb, but I don't understand Twitter, so I never use it. But would I for the chance to double my chances of winning? Heck, yes! So I opened an account for the sole purpose of following sponsors and regurgitating tweets. And that is literally all I do with Twitter. And somehow, even with my limited and horribly abusive use of Twitter, I have nearly as many followers there as I have for this blog. Hmmm, maybe I ought to rethink that whole well-crafted and thought-out blog post thing. ;-)

All this to say, think about what you're willing to do for a couple extra entries. If you have no problem with spamming your friends' facebook feeds or having a cluttered blog reader, then be my guest! I hope it wins you something!

This came up in Google Images for "giveaway".
Who wouldn't want to win candy?

-Enter only giveaways that will email you if you win. Since I rarely follow these particular blogs, it doesn't make sense to enter a giveaway that will announce the winner on the blog itself. I don't keep track of the giveaways I enter, so one of the first things I look for is whether or not they will email the winner. 

-Leave an email. Make it ridiculously easy for the giveaway host to contact you. Even if the comment section has a slot to enter an email, I always additionally leave my email in the comment itself. Spammers like to pull email addresses from giveaway comments, so I enter my email in this format: myemailaddress at gmail dot com. And then don't forget to check your email! Most sponsors give 24 or 48 hours for the winner to respond, so be on the lookout-- even in your spam folder. I actually almost missed a prize recently because I wasn't checking my spam folder.

I love Picnik.com.

So now you know how to do giveaways the smart way; I talk about where to enter them in Part 2!

(you should start here... with my very own fitted cloth diaper giveaway!)

A Little Blog Upkeep!

It is a balmy 75 degrees out now, on a Saturday. While most people might be doing a little upkeep on their cars or houses, I'm here with the windows and door wide open, doing a little upkeep on the blog! Here are a couple new things you might notice on Downright Domesticity!

• A facebook "Like" button, which is now at the bottom of each blog post. I got the instructions and code here. After all that hard work, I'd love it if you started liking my pages! :-D

• A better comment box! Blogger's horrific comment system has almost pushed me to WordPress more than once. So I'm giving Blogger one last chance, with a little help from Disqus. I almost had a heart attack when I couldn't find any of the old comments anywhere, even after importing, but they finally showed up. WHEW! Oh my word, you guys, I am so psyched to finally have a Reply button! (proof that I've been blogging too long, haha) So we'll see how this works. Tell me what you think!

I'm pretty sure that you don't have to be a blogger/have some sort of account to post comments, so if you're just visiting, you can comment, too!

• This has actually been around for a few weeks, but you now have the opportunity to subscribe by email. Just enter your email in the little left-hand box, and my posts will appear right in your inbox-- no need to go to the blog itself! (unless you want to use that awesome new comment box, of course :-D) This feature is nice and handy if you're already following a zillion blogs via GFC, and your reader's getting cluttered; or if you're not sure you want to follow a blog yet, and you'd like a trial. 

Well, it looks like I'm on my way to having a Big Girl Blog. What other features do you like to see on a blog?

Help! I'm In Blogging Limbo

When I go for a while without posting, it's usually because I've hit a creative bottleneck. I'll have a blog post idea that I just love, but for whatever reason, I can't actually get it written and published. When this happens, my brain just won't let me move past it until I either finally get it written or forget about it a couple weeks later.

Right now, I have about four post ideas. They require either lots of pictures or very delicate wording. God help me.

What do you do when you've hit a blogging roadblock?

UBP: Spreadin' the Linky Love!

This was my first year of successfully participating in 5 Minutes for Mom's Ultimate Blog Party. By "successfully participate," I mean, I finally got my rear in gear about two days before the darn thing ended and put a UBP post (here it is). Special thanks to all of you who stopped by and joined in the party fun!

For those of you who didn't, and are wondering what on earth I'm talking about, here's a brief explanation: 5M4M put up a McLinky. Thousands of bloggers wrote a little post about themselves and put it on said McLinky, and spent the week jumping around on other people's blogs. There were giveaways, and for some reason, no one has contacted me yet, telling me that I won something fantastic. An oversight, I'm sure. ;-)

Anyways, I did my share of blog-hopping, and I found some really neat blogs that I think you should know about! Here they are!

~Busy Mommy Media. I have only scratched the surface of this massive blog, which covers almost every mothering topic available. From recipes to green living tips to beauty product reviews, this has it all. I dare you to not be sucked in!

~Once a Month Mom. I have always been interested in trying Once-A-Month cooking, but have always been too chicken to try. Once a Month Mom does such a great job explaining how it's done and doing all the hard work like planning the menu and composing the grocery list, that I may actually summon the courage to try OAMC soon.

~Silver Spoon, Paper Plates. Okay, I didn't actually discover her on UBP. I found out about her blog a while ago because she happens to be my cousin. But she did participate in UBP, so technically, I could have found her there. Just sayin'. Rachel is currently expecting her first baby in August, so her blog is all about pregnancy, parenting-related topics, and finding the CUTEST baby stuff on Etsy. She's a great writer and you should check out her blog, and I'm not just saying that because she's my cousin. :-D

~Spotted Smiles. Brandy is a soon-to-be mom of two who writes about her incredibly cute two-year-old, crafting, cooking, and other domestic endeavors. One topic of hers that I just love is the chronicle of Brandy and her husband's attempt to have a date night every. single. week this year. How cool is that?

~Simply Staci. This is the blog of a gal living in the South who writes about friends, family, cooking, and life as a teacher, among other things. She recently attempted Once-A-Month Cooking (see above), which is thoroughly impressive! And after reading this, I am trying very hard to refrain from making my next birthday party Sesame-Street-themed. That wouldn't be too weird for a 24-year-old, would it? Okay, yes it would. This is why I need kids.

So yes, I would consider this to be a very successful UBP year, if only because I discovered these bloggy gems! Happy net surfing!

NaBloPoMo: Baby-Talk? Tonguetwister?

Try saying it ten times. I bet you can't.

NaBloPoMo, or that thing I've been talking about for the past few days, is short for NAtional BLOg POsting MOnth (you can view the website here). What cracks me up is that this applies to EVERY month of the year, so why not call it National Blog Posting Year? Anyways, the premise is that you commit on their site to post something on your blog every. single. day. for a month. Now, if you've been following my blog for any amount of time, you've probably noticed that I do really well to post more than ONCE a month! So yeah, after almost one straight week of posting, it probably feels like I'm spamming your reader right about now. Sorry. :-P