Valentine’s Day is right around the corner, guys and gals, so make sure you pick up something sweet for that special lady in your life! I know it can sometimes be daunting to choose that special gift for that special person in your life, so I have put together a few ideas at variety of price points all under $100. These range from practical to geeky to fancy, so there is something here for every lady!
1. Urban Decay’s Naked 3 Palette: This is the perfect gift for makeup lovers! It’s like the hot product right now, and its oh so Valentine’s Day themed with a variety of rosy hues that are sure to have your gal making amorous eyes at you in no time!
2. Victor & Rolf’s Flowerbomb Perfume: This is my new favorite scent and I think its a nice rounded perfume that a variety of women would be interested in! Since it’s a perfume, it comes in a variety of sizes and price points, but I think this petite flower bomb is adorable and just enough scent to have her remembering you for the months to come!
3. Anthropologie Mod Dot iPhone 5 Backup Charger: This is one of those practical gifts that nearly any lady could use as long as she has an iPhone 5, 5s or 5c! Everyone wishes they could get extra life out of their iPhone’s battery and your little gift may be the lifesaver that they remember!
4. Kindle: Bonus points to you if you load this up with Jane Austen Novels before you give it to her, but what lady wouldn’t love an ereader to cuddle up with at night before bed, or to join her in a nice long bubble bath, or heck, just to throw in her bag as company on a long day! It’s the gift that keeps on giving!
5. Kate Spade Valentine’s Day Bangle: I may not be the kind of girl that’s into jewelry but this idiom bangle is filled with sweet little sayings that even I couldn’t say no to. Think about it, its like a love letter that you wear on your wrist. I don’t know if it gets anymore romantic than that! And yes, it comes in gold!
A few weekends ago, I took part in the first official online Blogshop class! Back in November or December, I had seen an update on Bri Emery’s blog {DesignLoveFest.com} that her infamous course teaching photoshop skills to bloggers was testing the waters with online courses. Normally, Blogshop, is an in-person two day workshop that costs around $700 dollars per person to attend. Earlier in 2013, when I came to the decision to attend Blogcademy (another two day in-person workshop, this one dedicated to helping bloggers create awesome blogs)I had to choose between Blogshop and Blogcademy because I just couldn’t afford both! So, when I saw that the initial test group for this online Blogshop course would only need to pay about $200 for the complete course online, I knew I had to jump on the opportunity.
Initially, I wasn’t 100% certain of what to expect from Blogshop. I had been using Photoshop for years and thought that I knew how to do everything I needed to know how to do. On top of that, my husband is a graphic designer, so usually when I don’t know how to do something, he does! Still, after watching a few of the Blogshop promotional videos and recaps, I began to get the impression that even those skilled in Photoshop would learn new tips and tricks to help them specifically with their blogs. So I went for it!
Now, after having finished the online course, which pretty much consisted of a solid 3.5 hours of video teaching and then breaks to work on our own examples, I can safely say that I did learn many new skills that will help me be a better blogger, however, a majority of the content I was already familiar to me and put to practice on my site. I was definitely glad that I got the chance to partake in this online course, because for me, its all about learning new skills and new ways to make my blog awesome, so the fact that a majority of the content wasn’t new to me really didn’t bother me because I did learn some pretty valuable skills that I don’t think I would have learned if it wasn’t for this course.
To give you guys an idea of what a seasoned Photoshop user learned from the course, I am going to list the 5 Things I Learned from Blogshop!
How to quickly (and easily) create a GIF!
How to add texture to text and just about anything else!
How to edit photo’s with masking (and achieve some really awesome affects)!
How to lighten and brighten my photo’s instantly (without the use of a Photoshop action)!
How to create a collage or mood board in Photoshop (bye bye Polyvore)!
Well, do any of those skills sound like something you would like to learn? I certainly didn’t even realize how monumental learning this skills would be for me personally! I can’t wait to start putting this knowledge to use on my own blog because not only did I learn new skills that will help me create better content, but everything I learned only took a few minutes to achieve. My mind was literally blown when I realized how quickly everything took once I understood the way certain tools worked!
So, you’re probably reading this waiting for the part where I tell you whether or not Blogshop is worth it for you? The answer is really up to you, and the IHeartBlogshop website does a better job than I at explaining what you will get out of the course, either in person or online! For me, I think I made the right choice with the online class where I picked up a few valuable skills I was missing that will really help me boost my blog! I do think there is something to be said for taking the in person course, however, where you really get a chance to network with other bloggers in your area and bounce ideas off each other! As for a Blogshop vs Blogcademy overview, I will be working on that for you guys, so expect that in the near future if you are on the fence whether to take Blogshop or Blogcademy (if you can only afford one)!
This has really been quite the interesting week so far! Monday I had off for MLK Day, which was a nice little three day weekend that of course flew by! Yesterday, my area was hit with a major snow storm that supposedly dropped something like 16 inches of snow in my area (crazy!) and today I have another snow day at home with the hubster which is awesome! So, I know I don’t normally post on Wednesday, but I have been playing around with some different content and made this awesome little GIF of my Kate Spade iPhone 5 cases that I just had to share with you guys! I kept thinking I wanted to save this for something special, but by golly, today is something special!
Anywho! I hope you enjoy the GIF and if you too are working from home or get a full blown snow day (yay!) here are a few other recent posts of mine that I suggest you catch up on while you are stuck at home all warm and cozy in your pj’s and your fluffy socks!
Hope you guys enjoy the snow day if you have one or just have a fabulous day in general if you live in an area with fairer weather! Let me know how you’re spending your day either way in the comments below! See you all tomorrow with our regularly scheduled posts!
Letter writing really is a lost art and sometimes I think a very undervalued one in our modern digital society! What is not lost or undervalued, however, is the art of writing a thank you note. Since the new year and plenty of holidays just passed, I thought this would be a good time to urge everyone to write someone a thank you note. Perhaps it is for a gift you received, or a favor someone paid you, or perhaps its just to thank someone for being there for you when you needed it, but right now I urge you to add sending a thank you note to your to do list for the day!
How To Write a Thank You Note
Writing a thank you note is easy once you know who you are sending it to and why. They don’t need to be long, drawn out letters, although they can be, but just a sentence or two written in gratefulness will do! It is very important, when it comes to thank you notes, that they be written by hand. That is really the only rule I think worth following when it comes to them. Timeliness is also important, but I always think that when it comes to gratitude, better late than never! So, here are a few rules for writing thank you notes that you can keep as a little cheat sheet for yourself!
1. Always write a thank you note by hand (You may need to decide which form of handwriting of yours is best and most legible, it doesn’t matter if you write in cursive or not!)
2. Mail a thank you within two weeks of receiving a gift (unless its a wedding gift in which a 2 month span is allowed for larger weddings).
3. Be sincere when writing the note, your tone will show!
4. Send thank you notes often, even for simple things and favors!
Now, to get you started, I have written a few little excerpts that you can copy and use for your own thank you notes in case you have trouble giving words to your feelings. Don’t be ashamed of this, people often find it difficult to express gratitude, and after a while of using the words of others, you will be able to develop some words of your own.
Dear NAME OF RECIPIENT,
Thank You so much for the GIFT HERE! I am very grateful and appreciative of your generosity!
Best Regards,
YOUR NAME
Thank you, NAME OF RECIPIENT, for the lovely gift! I am so grateful that you thought me on my NAME OF EVENT!
Thanks again,
YOUR NAME
Dear NAME OF RECIPIENT,
I just wanted to take a moment to thank you for DESCRIPTION OF FAVOR! I truly appreciate that you were willing to help me and I am very grateful for your FRIENDSHIP OR SUPPORT!
Thoughtfully,
YOUR NAME
I hope this inspired you to start writing thank you notes to those in your life who show you their generosity and support! Do you have any tips for writing Thank You Notes that you can share in the comments?
This weekend is the first three Day weekend of the year if you live in the US! YAY! I love three day weekends because they are like mini vacations spread throughout the year. They can be a great time to catch up on sleep, binge watch your favorite TV shows or finish a home project. So, here are my tips to making the most of your long weekend!
1. Plan Your To-Dos before the weekend begins: On Friday afternoon, I often find myself thinking how exciting it is to have a three day weekend ahead of me! THREE DAYS OFF! That seems like so much time to do WHATEVER I want! But inevitably by Sunday night I find myself wondering where the weekend has gone? Tomorrow is the last day? HOW DID THIS HAPPEN!! I think you know the feeling! So, if you want to fill your weekend with fun and awesome things to do, you should probably plan out your time before the weekend starts (about Friday at 4:30pm)! You don’t have to make an hour by hour schedule, but have a general idea of what you want to do and who you want to do it with. Make sure plans with friends are hammered out before the weekend begins so you spend more time having fun and less time getting people to agree on dinner reservations!
2. Put your space in order:Whether you have your own place or share with roommates or family members, get your space in order and tidy up before the fun begins. Get your chores done, send off your bills, and get your life in order so that you can maximize your weekend time and not have to worry about the minutiae of daily life for approximately 72 hours!
3. Have at least one adventure: By this I mean, leave the house at least once! Yes, you can break from your Game of Thrones marathon weekend to run out for pizza or something, but make sure to get some fresh air! Lord knows you don’t get enough of it in the normal work week!
4. Manage your expectations: I know I am totally guilty of over hyping my weekends before hand and then feeling a major crash when everything doesn’t work out perfectly or when I don’t feel like I have done enough! Give yourself reasonable expectations of how fun/exciting/productive/amazing your weekend will be so that you can focus on enjoying everything!
5. Take time to breath and relax: The weekend is about decompressing from a week of work, and long weekends give you even more time to decompress. Make sure to relax and just enjoy your weekend, whatever it may bring so that you are recharged for work and life in general once Tuesday rolls around!
How do you like to spend your three day weekends? Share more of your tips for a great three day weekend by letting us know in the comments!
As you may remember, a few months ago I bought myself a mini gadget folio for work and travel, so I thought it was about time that I showed you all how I use it most frequently! This folio is great because it can fit an iPad mini as well as multiple other gadgets, chords, and other loose items, however, I have stopped using it to house my iPad mini (because I ended up picking up a new iPad mini folio from Kate Spade) and started using it as a quick grab pouch for my bag. This is what you will usually find inside the folio!
What’s Inside
1. A Personal Sized Agenda: Since this folio can hold an iPad mini or other small tablet, its actually perfectly suited for a personal sized notebook or planner! I find that keeping my daily planner in here is a great way to keep my paper planner safe from debris in my bag and means that even if I leave my bag behind, I can take my folio along and have my planner handy!
2. A Pen: Yes, it matches my planner, and Yes, I did plan it that way! A pen is practical for obvious reasons so we don’t need to dwell on this too much!
3. My Earbuds: My new favorite Earbuds are these black skulls that I got from 5 Below! I was worried about the quality when I bought these but they ended up be very reliable. I keep them in my folio to keep them safe from tangling in my bag and also so I can listen to music or a book on tape when I am in a waiting room or have downtime!
4. Business Cards: I like to keep my blog’s business cards in this folio so that they are separate from my work business cards, just in case I meet someone who wants to know the link to my site and social media feeds! You never know when your gonna find a new subscriber!
5. Other Things Not Pictured: At any given moment, this folio can also house my credit cards/cash in case I use it as a wallet (rarely happens but it does happen) and other miscellaneous bits of paper! If I end up carrying just the folio with me, I stick other business cards inside for safe keeping and other papers I may collect fit in fine if I fold them in half!
How do you like my mini folio? Do you happen to use a similar folio in your day-to-day life? What sorts of uses do you get out of yours? Let me know in the comments!
Whether you set resolutions for yourself on January 1st or not, goal setting is an important personal and professional exercise that will help motivate you to achieve your dreams or to discover them! This is an exercise that you can work on as frequently or infrequently as you want throughout the year, but I suggest doing this twice a year, roughly every six months to help you evaluate your progress in your goals or to adjust them as changes occur in your life.
Now, before we begin, I suggest downloading my free set of productivity printables here and printing out the sheet titled “My Goal Tracker” on page 4 of the packet. This sheet contains most of the steps in this goal setting exercise and is a great resource to keep with you to track your goals! If you do not want to use the print out, no problem! You just need a pen/pencil and some paper to proceed and YES, it does need to be paper because this is a very personal activity and the act of writing on paper will help solidify your goals in a visceral way!
Step 1: Select 3 Life Goals
The first step in goal setting is to choose the goals that are most important to you! Some people may have multiple goals that they wish to set in motion now, but I suggest only focusing on 3 at the most at one time. Trying to track too many goals will make things more complicated for you and decrease your chances of success by diverting your attention to often! Now, if you would like to select 3 goals, you may want to choose one personal goal, one professional and one other of your choice. Remember, even if you think everything is going well in your professional life or perhaps in your personal life, that doesn’t mean that you can’t set a goal for that area of your life. I suggest thinking about what is important to you and how you can either a) improve that area of your life or b) continue an already successful or positive trajectory. Maintaining success in an area of your life is often just as difficult or sometimes even more difficult than achieving initial success!
Step 2: Decide on 5-10 steps you can take to set your goal in motion!
A good goal is one where you can see a path of success that can be taken through a series of steps! If you are trying to loose weight you know that these steps may include following a healthy diet plan that can be tracked via a daily caloric intake and an exercise regimen that includes working out a certain number of days a week for a certain amount of time. However, unlike a weight loss goal, many personal and professional goals are not as scientifically precise! Achieving a professional goal to get a specific job may include getting additional training that would make you qualified for that job as well as a discussion about your professional advancement with your supervisor or someone who can help you learn how to position yourself as a desirable candidate. If you do not already have an idea of how to achieve your goal, I suggest researching your specific goal and discussing it with those who may be able to give you insight on the matter!
Step 3: Set parameters for your goal.
It’s all well and good to set a goal, and list out the steps you need to take, but you also need to make sure you have set parameters for when you will start your goal, when you want to have it completed and most importantly, how you will reward yourself for achieving it! The reward is particularly important because this should be something that will highly motivate you and be a constant reminder of the goal you are working towards and why!
Step 4: Take your first step!
As I like to say “once begun, it’s nearly done!” I’m not sure where that comes from, or if I have simply created my own version of another popular saying, but I still consider it truth! Sometimes the hardest part of getting to a destination is starting the journey. Once you take that first step you are invested in your goal and you have made progress! Take your first step as soon as possible, while you are still highly motivated, as this will hopefully propel you to take the next step and the next, until you have reached your goal! Remember, its natural once you have started your journey to tweak your path as needed, don’t be afraid to add steps to your goal or adjust expectations as you go along! Good luck & may this advice help you turn your dreams into a reality!
So, will you be setting goals for yourself this year? Did you find my free printable helpful with helping you track your goals? Let me know any other tips, tweaks or advice you have to help others set and achieve their goals this year but leaving a comment!
Have you ever heard of an app called Everest? Everest is an app that helps you track your goals, so it’s a great resource to use to help you keep track of your New Year’s Resolutions! When you first open the app, it urges you to enter in your first goal. After categorizing your goal and deciding if you want it to be public (for friends to see) or private (for your eyes only), it then gives you options to add steps to getting to your goal. Each step can be given a specific time frame, where you can set reminders for yourself so that you are keeping on track to complete your goal. This app is a great way to manage your expectations and break down your goals into steps that you can take each day that will make achieving your goals a series of steps instead of a giant feat! After all, you can only climb a mountain one step at a time.
Now, the fun thing about the app is that in addition to creating your own goals, you can also accept challenges from the Everest community that range from health/physical challenges (like doing 50 consecutive push ups!) to personal challenges (like finding a job you love). These challenges are of course optional, however, they are a good constant reminder that everyday you could be taking steps to give yourself a happier, healthier and wealthier life!
So, this year I plan to use Everest to track my resolutions and set small realistic steps for myself to take each week to achieve these goals! Do you plan on using Everest or another similar method to help you break your goals down into small manageable steps and then to keep you accountable for achieving your goals?
So, it’s been some time since I have made a new set of wallpapers for you guys, so I thought I would create a special design for the New Year! This quote “Start Something New” happens to be on the first page of my 2014 Kate Spade Agenda for January and I think it pretty much sums up the start of a new year! This time around I went ahead and created a Mac or Macbook Wallpaper that should fit up to a 21″ iMac, an iPad/iPad Mini Wallpaper and an iPhone 5/5s/5c Wallpaper!
iMac or Macbook Wallpaper {right click image to open in new tab & save}iPad/iPad Mini Wallpaper {right click image to open in new tab to save, or if using your device, tap image to open it in new window and then tap and hold until save options appear}iPhone 5/5s/5c Wallpaper {right click image to open in new tab to save, or if using your device, tap image to open it in new window and then tap and hold until save options appear}
So, how do you all like these wallpapers? Let me know in the comments below!
Happy New Year Everybody! Is one of your New Year’s Resolutions to be more organized? I have to say that next to getting in shape, I think getting organized is a very popular wish for the new year! So, if you are looking to get yourself more organized this year, here are a few tips that I find can be very helpful!
1. Get yourself some new supplies: I recently went to Target to get myself a bunch of new office and organization supplies for the New Year. I think getting new notebooks and pens is a very easy way to get yourself excited for the task of organizing so that you will be more likely to stick to it! I would make sure to pick up an agenda, cute pens & pencils, some sticky notes, as well as any bins, file folders or other accessories to wrangle you daily tasks! It doesn’t have to be an expensive trip, but I believe that the act of buying these things signifies a metamorphosis that from now on you will be organized!
2. Develop your own system of organization: What organization means to you and what it means to me are most likely very different things. You have an idea in your head of what organized looks like to you and that’s your goal! So, you need to decide on a system to organize yourself that fits your goals and also the way you work. You can devise a system in which all new tasks are entered into a to-do list in an agenda, so that as you get things done you check off the items and add new items as they come in, or you could use a physical inbox where you organize tasks and papers, or you could use an app on your smartphone to keep track of everything! The possibilities are endless, but the point is, you need to find a system and stick to it!
3. Put new tasks into your organization system first and then go back and take care of the past: I think one of the big issues people have when they start to get organized is that they think they need to organize all the old items sitting on their to-do list first. What ends up happening though is that many people find the old “stuff” too overwhelming because they can’t see any progress for their new “stuff”. I say to start your new organizational process with today forward, making sure everything from this point on is organized, then once you feel like things are under control with the here and now, you can then go back to old items and incorporate those into your new system as well.
4. If you have a hiccup, don’t fret, just reset: Another major issue that prevents people from staying organized is that when they have an issue or they stop using their system for a little while, they give up on it as thought the system as failed! The truth is, even the most organized person in the world has breakdowns in their organization system and routine. People get lazy for a little bit or they assume they can go it without their system for this project or these tasks. Just because you do this, doesn’t mean your system has failed, you just need to recognize what brought you back to that point and get back on the horse and keep going. Organizational systems are never perfect, people are never perfect, forgive yourself and get back into your system if organization is truly a goal for you!
5. Continue to tweak: Like I said above, organizational systems are not perfect, they require effort on your part to make them work and to fix little bumps in the road and even major bumps in the road. As you come across issues, think about how you can fix them and implement those changes into your routine. And guess what? You may eventually find that the system you put in place in the beginning of the year is not the same as the system you end up with by the summer or even by the end of the year, and that’s okay! It’s okay to change, it doesn’t mean you’re not good at organizing, it just means that people grow and their systems need to grow with them!
So, is getting organized one of your New Year’s Resolutions? Do you have any other tips or tricks that you find useful that may help others trying to get organized? Please share your tips in the comments!
Valentine’s Day is right around the corner, guys and gals, so make sure you pick up something sweet for that special lady in your life! I know it can sometimes be daunting to choose that special gift for that special person in your life, so I have put together a few ideas at variety of price points all under $100. These range from practical to geeky to fancy, so there is something here for every lady!
