The most important part of starting a blog is selecting the right name. This name needs to say something about what you’re going to blog about, as well as who you are. I know a lot of people who blog use it as a business, some of us don’t. Some of us just blog to express ourselves and possibly help others who have been through something that we have gone through. We also blog to just get all the daily stress out.
I fall in the section of bloggers who blog to share experiences, creativity and the randomness that is life.
Now, this is where I make myself feel old. I started blogging when I was in my early teens. Let’s just say I knew all about Geocities. It was the days of Livejournal and online diary services. It was where all the kids my age went to…be teenagers and complain about parents and talk about love interests. I was finally able to get hosted when I was in middle school. My first “official” blog was XangelxCompleX. If I remember correctly I did drop the extra X’s after some time.
After some time I was able to pay for my own hosting instead of being hosted for free. This lead to my first actual domain. My first domain was from the title of a song by one of my favorite bands. It was Right2Choose.Net. I stayed at that domain through the end of middle school and through much of high school. I stopped blogging around 11th grade because I just lost interest in it.
I graduated high school and bought a new domain – Stupid-Eyed.Net. I stuck with that domain for over 10 years. But that domain had some bad mojo connected to it. That was my safe place during a (too long) abusive relationship. I know I should have changed it a lot sooner than I did, but when you’ve held a domain for that long it’s hard to do. Some people change their domain on a monthly basis, making it hard to connect with that person because it seems as if they become a new person every month. I had connected to that domain and I was Stupid-Eyed.Net
The beginning of last year (February actually) I started thinking it was time to change. I wasn’t in the same place that Stupid-Eyed.Net represented. I was beginning a new job, expanding the person I am, and in the best relationship I’ve ever been in. All of that totally meant it was time for a change.
So I made a short list of name ideas I liked – all of them had something to do with cats. No joke. I took those names and had a poll between a select few whom I knew I could trust. The poll was pretty obvious and Cats And Cakes won.
Why Cats and Cakes?
I figure a lot of people who never came across me while I was blogging at Stupid-Eyed.Net have come across me now. I mean, who can resist a blog that has Cats in the name!? I can’t. Just sayin’.
First we’ll talk about the first part of the name. Cats. I am a cat lady. I’ve always had a cat my whole life, and at one time I had four. Growing up we lived in an area where people would drop unwanted cats off and leave them. I was the one trying to get the cats to come to me so I could pet them and feed them. My mom didn’t enjoy this because we ended up having a lot of outdoor cats. But at least we cared for them. We made sure they were fed and had somewhere warm to go during the winter.
For a tattoo fundraiser a local animal rescue was having, I even got a cat from outer space tattoo. I also have a strip of leopard spots as a tattoo.
Right now I only have one cat. I’m working on getting another. If you follow my Instagram, I post pictures of him all the time. His name is Ash. He’s black (with a little white) and his daddy is a maine coon – meaning he’s not a little guy.
He’s a spoiled (almost 3) 2-Year-Old (I think).
The second part of the name is CAKES. We all love cake. I mean, I love making it – not really eating it. Baking in general is my thing. I am slowly working toward opening some kind of small bakery. That’s my goal.
Now you know a little more about why I picked Cats And Cakes. ^_^
It’s so true that the most important part of starting a blog is the name. I never really chose my domain name so much as it has just been part of my life since I was a teen. I was obsessed in my teens and 20’s (and still am to a point) with a Canadian band Our Lady Peace. A Story About A Girl was one of my favourite song of theirs and I started using StoryBoutAGirl (I don’t know where the 2 A’s went. I just dropped them somewhere along the way lol) as a nickname/handle on instant messenger platforms and forums, etc. And still 20 years later I do.
I had my domain with a .com for a little while and accidentally let it expire and wasn’t paying the price they wanted for me to get it back. In 2008 I registered the .org and it’s now in its 11th year. I lost earlier posts but have everything from 2013 till now.
So yeah. I agree it’s all in the name. I love your domain name. From what you’ve said here in your post it seems like it would suit you. I remember your other domain (trying to avoid getting picked up by spam filters here lol). Years ago I used to read your blog a lot. I’m glad I found you again.
I have a maine coon as well. Or partial maine coon. His name is Max and he is 8 years old and I’ve had him since he was 8 weeks old. He’s a good cat and huge as well. I think most cats with maine coon are.
I love baking as well. So does my hubby. It’s funny looking at your first picture of the cakes and cookies we make cake mix cookies all the time. I am not sure if those are what you have pictured there but it looks like them. Anyways sorry about the long comment just for that I probably will get picked up by spam protection lol.