Now that we are firmly into November and the holiday season is nearly upon us, I wanted to spend a little time talking about holiday stress and how to manage it! The end of November thru December is often a very exciting and busy time due to the multitude of holidays scattered throughout the season. With busy times often comes stress, and I for one am definitely someone who feels it this time of year. Sometimes the pressure of wanting to please large numbers of people, mostly friends and family, can just build up. This time of year isn’t cheap, we all want to buy presents for our loved ones and the purchases add up causing mental strain and stress on our purses. Then there are the gatherings, and I don’t know about you, but if you get more than two members of my family together at a time, conflict often arrises over the silliest issues! It’s my ongoing mission every year to manage this stress the best that I can, so that I can enjoy the season instead of stressing about things beyond my control! So, I put together some easy steps, tips really on how to manage the holiday stress before it begins and during the thick of it! Hope these tips help you as much as they help me!
#1 Have an Attitude of Gratitude
Get your head in the right place before the stress begins!
Make your gratitude list and keep it with you!
Focus on what the season is really about- being grateful for your life, your family and friends and celebrating that together!
#2 Have a Plan
Know what is going on when it comes to events, parties, obligations etc
Don’t assume someone is going to tell you, make an effort to find information (people are busy after all, especially now!)
Know who is doing what and what you are expected to be doing for certain events.
Make lists for everything so you don’t forget anything.
Review your recipes (if you’re cooking) and make a schedule for when you will start them!
#3 Be Flexible
When it comes to getting large numbers of people together during the wintery months, understand that plans often change at the last-minute, so don’t get worked up about it if that happens to you!
Don’t fight the change, just roll with it!
#4 Prepare Yourself
If you know there are people, events or situations that will stress you out, avoid them or be prepared for them.
Try to enter tough situations with a positive mindset, often your negative thoughts going into these situations can blow things out of proportion and stress you out much more than the situation itself.
Don’t let anyone rain on your parade- these are your holidays too and you have a right to enjoy them!
#5 Spread Happiness
Go out of your way to help others and make them happy.
This sort of behavior will catch on and put those around you at ease as well.
Pay it forward as much as possible!
I sincerely hope that these tips help you to manage your stress during this wonderful time of year! If you have any additional tips or tricks you think I missed, please let me know in the comments below! I need all the help I can get- that’s for sure!
Holiday shopping, for many of us, can be something of a complicated process. If you have a large family or many people to buy for, purchases can start to add up quickly and keeping track of what you have purchased for whom can become really tricky when you are busy hiding boxes of presents in remote hidey holes in your home! You’ve probably asked yourself a time or two, is there a better way to manage all this? Well, yes, glad you asked, because I have assembled a list of 6 must have apps to help with your holiday shopping. Apps to help you save some cash, apps to help you keep track of what you are buying for whom and apps to help you have a little fun while you’re making those few hundreds of stops to the mall in the next few weeks! And best of all? All these apps are absolutely free!
1. Shopkick: I have written about Shopkick before, so I will try to keep this short and sweet, but basically, Shopkick is an app that you can use to help you earn rewards just for shopping and visiting your favorite stores. Through Shopkick, retailers market and promote their stores and products and offer Shopkick users “kicks” for various activities, like making a purchase, going to check out a specific product, and even just for walking into the store! These kicks add up and then you can redeem them for gift cards to a variety of different stores! So, with Shopkick, you can turn all those last-minute errands and repeat visits into real rewards for you!
2. Price Scan: Ever find an item in a store and then wonder if there was a better price at a competitive retailer or online? Well, with Price Scan you can scan a barcode with your phone and instantly find the best deals available for the product! Simple as that! This is a great resource to use if you are like me and enjoy “browsing” for gifts before you actually intend on making purchases because you can keep track of the gifts and products in the app and come back to them over time to see if prices have changed, making sure you are getting the best deal possible!
3. Wunderlist: If you have a long list of friends and family to buy for, keep your thoughts and purchases in order with Wunderlist. Touted as being one of the best list making apps available, Wunderlist has a simple and clean interface with just the essential list making necessities to help you keep your list in order. Use the app to keep track of who you are purchasing for, gift ideas and even budgets for each present. Now you have no excuse for purchasing duplicate gifts or going over budget!
4. Cartwheel: If you are already a frequent Target customer, you may already be familiar with the Cartwheel app. It is a dedicated app for Target shoppers to find instant savings on items in their cart while they are shopping. Simply scan the barcode of your item while shopping to find any extra deals or instant coupons that you can apply to the item. Once you go to checkout, give your phone to the associate at checkout and they will scan the custom barcode in your app and apply all the discounts and coupons you found while shopping! It’s pretty easy and can save you some extra money, especially if you are like me and bad about using coupons!
5. My Package:Online shopping for the holidays has grown exponentially over the past few years, so chances are you are going to have more than a few items coming in via the mail! Keep track of these packages to make sure you don’t loose anything but entering your tracking number and an item description into the app. The app will then begin to track your package with its geographic location and alert you as it makes its way to you! You can even set up delivery alerts, so you can be sure to check the mail before anyone else at home and tuck away any important packages like the gift giving ninja you are!
6. Retail Me Not:You may have already heard of or used the coupon site, Retail Me Not, but they also have a great app that can help find you coupons and deals for both in-store and online purchases! Add your favorite stores to the app or let the app track your location to find great deals near you at a wide variety of retailers. Again, this is an awesome app, especially for people who like to hunt for great deals or are always forgetting about coupons!
I hope you found this list of apps helpful as you proceed with your holiday shopping! I know we are all trying to save extra money where possible and make this stressful time of year a little easier and especially more enjoyable! If you have any other must have shopping apps that you think I need to know about, please let me know in the comments! Of course, don’t be stingy- go ahead and share this post in your social media feeds so your friends and family can make use of these great apps as well. I’m sure they will be very thankful you did!
Welcome back for another installment of My Productivity Playlist, aka Whistle While You Work 2.0! Since it’s October, I thought it would be super fun and festive if I themed out this playlist to fall favorites and haunting Halloween sounds! I’ve gone ahead and made another Spotify Playlist in order to share these tunes with you, and it seems that you guys like this idea because many of you told me so and began following me on Spotify which I do appreciate. Plus all you followers had the added bonus of actually accessing this playlist before I published this post!
Toccata and Fugue in D Minor by Johann Sebastian Bach
The Phantom of the Opera by Andrew Lloyd Webber
I Put A Spell on You by Nina Simone
Witchcraft by Frank Sinatra
Montagues and Capulets by Sergei Prokofiev
Sweet Transvestite by The Rocky Horror Picture Show
Told you it was festive! I hope you guys enjoy this playlist and of course I want to know what you’re listening to right now! So, leave me a comment or go ahead and send me a tweet and tell me what music you have been loving this month to get into the Halloween spirit or just to help get you through the day!
I recently received a very lovely comment from a reader and member of my online community about my life and the work I do creating inspiring and motivational content for others. The comment was truly sweet, and ever since I received it, I have been thinking a lot about my life and the way it must seem to others who follow me online. From the outside looking in, I seem to be living a very charmed life! By all means, I feel incredibly grateful and thankful for my life, because I know that I do live extremely well and am overall, incredibly happy with my situation in life. That doesn’t mean I don’t have bad days like everyone else, or struggle with things like anxiety or depression from time to time, but I know I lead a charmed life. Hence this blog is called Strange & Charmed because it encompasses the duality of my quirky yet blessed life, but I think you already knew that.
What you don’t know about me, the part I am not so open about sharing, is my past, most notably my life before I began blogging in 2008, and even further back than that. Truth be told, as much as I live a wonderful, happy life today, things were not always going so well for me. Growing up was pretty rough for me. For most of my childhood my family was lower middle class, my parents divorced when I was young and from that time onward, I was always moving from one place to another, never setting down roots or establishing friendships in any one place for too long. At various points in my life, I was exposed to some decidedly unfortunate aspects of life, like addiction, abuse, neglect and of course, poverty. It’s a little hard for me to even admit that here to you all on my blog because to be completely honest, it’s painful to even remember those times. However, I think it’s important for me to share this with you guys because we have all gone through bad times in our lives and although some of us have experienced different struggles, we all have them and they are all painful!
What I want you to really take away from this is that if happy well-adjusted Alexis can come from a a place in life where she didn’t have very much and then turn around and make something of her life- something lovely and wonderful- then you certainly can too! I gave it some thought, and put together a list of some of the things that helped me to get where I am today. If you are struggling right now or in a rebuilding phase, hopefully these tips will help you get inspired to make changes in your own life in order to fulfill your dreams and potential.
1. Make a plan: So life isn’t great for you right now, but it doesn’t have to be that way! The first step to getting the charmed life you want is to make a plan. What can you do right now to make your life better? What is lacking in your life that you need to acquire to come to a better place? Figure out what you need and make a plan on how to achieve it!
2. Get to work: If you want something, you have to work for it, it’s that simple! I know this can be a scary concept sometimes because it means that we actually have to take control and get things done ourselves. Your wonderful life is out there waiting for you, but you need to work for it- the world isn’t just going to roll over and hand it to you.
3. Ask for help: I think one of the major things people get wrong when they are trying to build their lives is that they feel like they have to go it alone, as if having help diminishes what you have or can accomplish. This just isn’t true. Don’t be afriad to ask for help if you need it. Sometimes, we don’t know exactly what we need from others, but reaching out for a lifeline can often bring unexpected and positive results.
4. Get out of your comfort zone: We all know that change isn’t easy, and it certainly isn’t comfortable. However, if you want to bring change to your life, you are going to have to get outside your comfort zone and be prepared to feel very uneasy and unsure. Stick to your plan and understand that just because you can feel the pain of change, doesn’t mean that you are hurting yourself. In the long run, a little discomfort during the process is much better than staying in a bad situation.
5. Replace bad habits with new ones: Often times, we are our own worst enemy in our lives. If you complacently play the role of innocent victim, your life will never change. Instead, try to pin-point the areas in your life where you feel helpless, and make changes in your habits to develop confidence. For example, if you feel like you are always working but never have money and like to blame “bad luck” when you get a speeding ticket or a bill goes missing, acknowledge that the common denominator in those situations is you and that you need to become more responsible with your money by getting into the habit of paying bills early or making sure you practice safe driving. Whatever bad habits are holding you back, acknowledge your part in them and do what you can to build new habits in their place.
6. Always be ready and willing to learn: I believe that the people who have the greatest lives are the people who always keep their eyes open for new opportunities to learn. You seriously never know what important life lessons are around the corner, but if you walk around with blinders on all day you will miss them and in turn may miss important signs from the universe that may help you make the most of your life. Be open and always prepared to absorb new information and messages that can bring greater insight to your life.
7. Mix it up: They say the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results. If you have made your life changing plan and have gone ahead and broken out of your comfort zone but you still don’t see changes yielding any results, mix it up. Don’t be afraid to try something new, or to approach your problems from a new angle. Remember, the path of life isn’t a straight line, you may have to take a few turns from time to time!
8. Have a back up plan: So, you have made your plan, and you are determined to stick to it, but things just aren’t working. This is why you need a backup plan- something else to fall back on if your original plan doesn’t pan out. After all, it’s important not to rely too much on one single course of action. Like they say “don’t put all your eggs in one basket!” Options are good, just so long as you aren’t bouncing between options too frequently!
9. Stay inspired: It could take years for you to see major changes in your life, at least, I know it did for me! Don’t let this deter you or cause you to loose hope in your dreams. After all, this is life, and your in it for the long-haul! Make sure to constantly look for motivation and inspiration for your journey so you don’t loose steam. Even when things get tough, and they will get tough as you try to make major life changes, remember this quote by Kenji Miyazawa “We must embrace paid and burn it as fuel for our journey.”
10. Share what you have learned: As you take this journey of self-advancement, you will certainly learn a thing or two along the way. I believe that what we have learned, we must also share with others. Although this post may be titled “Secrets of a Charmed Life” there is nothing “secret” about it. The formula for a charmed life isn’t something that’s hidden from people, in fact, if you really pay attention, you are receiving signs and messages to uplift and advance you all the time. It’s just a matter of believing in yourself and trusting that you will end up where you need to be in life. As you go along on this journey, take a moment to stop and share your knowledge with others. It’s almost like leaving a trail of breadcrumbs behind so that you do not get lost along the way and so that others can also find you and see the direction you have headed.
Now, to help you guys remember these little lessons, I have created a lovely free printable with a book mark, some journaling cards, some page tabs, and deco flags! Like I said above, you will need a lot of inspiration for your journey, and I hope these small reminders help you stay inspired. For best results, I suggest printing these on 98 bright, 32lb paper or a nice heavy card stock if you have it handy! If you enjoy this printable, I may start making more of these sorts of things and including them in my blog posts as little mementos that you can keep with you in your planner, a notebook, or on your inspiration board! Make sure to let me know what you think and what sorts of printables you would like in the future, and of course, make sure to share this in your social media! I would also love to see pictures of these journaling cards and deco items at home in your planners and notebooks, so please make sure to upload a picture to Instagram and tag me!
Welcome to my second installment of My Productivity Playlist aka Whistle While You Work 2.0! Many of you told me that you liked the first installment of this series, and I’m seriously thinking this may become a monthly series that I do because I like it as well! I love music and my tastes are so all over the place that I think I may really have something for everyone! Well, this time around, I got smart and realized that you can actually make sharable playlists via Spotify and I could then go ahead and share those playlists with you so that you can actually listen to the music I am suggesting for you. Novel, ain’t it?
So this is what you will hear on My Productivity Playlist this month. Click here for Spotify playlist! Also, if you have Spotify, feel free to follow me!
I have a lot of female role models that I love to read and learn about. What is their secret to success? How can I be more like them? What’s the magic formula that they have harnessed to make their lives so productive and interesting? Wouldn’t we all like to know? The truth is, as much as I look to other women, these role models for inspiration, I know deep down in my heart, that it really is just simple hard work that brings you from average to extraordinary. It’s all about the doing, making things happen and having the follow through to see a project from start to finish! You may be familiar with this popular quote seen all over the internet lately “You Have the Same Hours in a Day as Beyonce!” Yes, we all do, so it’s all about how you spend that time and making every minute count. So here it is, the not so secret 7 Habits of Highly Productive Women!
1. Exit bed as soon as you wake: How many times do you wake up in the morning and just lay around in bed playing on your phone or trying to catch a few extra minutes of sleep? I know I am very guilty of this one, but the truth is, when we wake up in the morning, it’s very important that we don’t waste those precious early moments. Get out of bed immediately to wake yourself up and just start your day without delay!
2. Read first & last thing everyday: The most productive women in the world all have something major in common. They are all readers. More specifically, they are all constant learners who read anything from the daily news, to industry updates, to popular literature on a constant basis. When you start to prioritize this sort of important knowledge, you begin to sharpen your edge and boost your personal productivity. For some, it can be a challenge, but give yourself a goal of reading something, even a short news story or a chapter of a book first thing in the morning and last thing before bed!
3. Drink plenty of water: Hydration really does play a major part in our overall wellbeing throughout the day. When I haven’t had a drink of water after a few hours I begin to lag and feel myself drying up, not just physically but physiologically! Although we are often told to drink 8-10 glasses of water a day, that is actually not a precise figure. To figure out how many ounces of water you need per day, take your body weight and divide it in half. That is how many ounces of water you need! So, get yourself a large water bottle or tumbler, keep it with you all day long and feel the energy and productivity boost a simple element like water can bring to your day!
4. Focus on one thing at a time: Although most women would consider themselves professional multi-taskers, when it comes to being productive, it’s actually better for you to focus on one thing at a time. Yes, we all have a lot on our plates, and yes, we will need to move between multiple different tasks and projects throughout our days, not just for work, but for many of us, home and personal obligations as well. But, when you go to complete a task or series or tasks, it’s much better if you onto do one thing at a time. This is precisely why I prefer to batch my work, taking care of all my calls at one time, my emails at one time, and doing certain receptive tasks in bulk, instead of moving from one thing to another more frequently. Give it a try to see how your productivity improves!
5. Recharge regularly: I think there is a major misconception out there that in order to be productive, you need to be focused on work. It’s all work, work, work, right? No time to dilly dally! Well, that’s not exactly true. You can’t expect to carry on non-stop forever, that would be a disaster, which is why it is so important to take time off and recharge your batteries. Throughout a busy work day, schedule in 5-15 minutes every 2 hours or so for you to just take a moment and gather your thoughts. Send a quick text to a loved one, play a quick game on your smartphone or browse a few pages of your favorite magazine, anything that will take your mind off of work and bring a little happiness to your soul. During days off, make sure you really spend a little time resting and relaxing. Go to bed early or schedule some time to sleep in, enjoy the company of friends and family, and just give yourself time and permission to turn off from work. It will do you wonders!
6. Accept criticism gracefully and move on: Everyone faces criticism, that’s a fact! And the truth is, the higher you rise the more criticism you are gonna get because more people are going to be aware of you and your work. Is that any reason to stop what you’re doing or spend hours of your precious time worrying about what other people are going to think? No way! The most productive women in the world face terrible criticism each and every day and they just smile through it and move on.
7. Prioritize you: As women, we are often lured into something of a mart complex, a sense that we need to put everyone else above ourselves in order to be successful and productive members of society. Let’s be honest, we all know women like this, or are ourselves striving for this delusional ideal that a women needs to be everything to all people, a wife, a mother, an employee, a student, you name it, we have to become it! With all that time spent focusing on the external elements of our lives, we often find that we put ourselves last. Unfortunately, this leads to some devastating developments for women, health-wise especially! We need to stop perpetuating this notion that women must do it all in order to have it all, so that we can start putting ourselves first! I’ve written about this before, but one of my favorite examples of why it is important to put yourself first, comes inside a little safety pamphlet found in each and every airplane. You’ve heard the phrase before, “secure your own mask first before attempting to help others.” That’s right, in the event of an emergency during air travel, you are directed to make sure you have taken care of your own safety before attempting to help those around you. Why? Because if you aren’t taken care of, how in the world can you be expected to take care of others? It’s common sense. So, seriously, start putting yourself and your needs first! Make sure you do all those little seemingly insignificant things that help support your well-being, because in the end, all those little things add up to something very, very important!
If you remember, last September I challenged myself not to make any frivolous purchases for the whole month! It was actually a pretty successful endeavor for me, and to help keep my readers inspired to save their hard-earned dollars along with me, I spent the month writing about various money-saving techniques, tips and tricks! Well, fast forward a year and here I am this September doing an awfully bad job at saving money. So, I thought to give myself a little reminder of all the ways I should be saving my money instead of wasting it, I would do a quick little flashback of some of my favorite posts from that series! If you remember these posts, hopefully this will be a nice refresher for you to get your butt in gear and into money-saving mode, and if you missed it last year, hopefully this will give you a little inspiration to poke around these posts and learn some money-saving hacks!
One of my first posts from the Commercial Detox series last year was one of my most popular! It was my first installment of my Starbucks @ Home DIY coffee recipes, a delicious Salted Caramel Mocha! So, if you have a Starbucks addiction that is costing you too much, you may want to give this recipe a try!
Although I am not normally a big clothing shopper, especially now that I work from home, I have been addicted to the boutique clothing site Jane.com for the past few months and just can’t say no to some of their amazing deals. Sales or no sales, however, I really need to reel it in when it comes to my spending on clothing because I know I already have too many items in my wardrobe! So, I think I will have to plan a day this month to clean out my closet using the tips from my Rediscover Your Wardrobe post! If you are a clothing hoarder, you may want to start with this one!
Entertainment is another area that I often find myself spending too much money on! With one-click purchases enabled on my iTunes and Amazon accounts, it often seems too easy for me to buy a book or rent a movie on my devices! So, if you are an entertainment junkie and over spender, you may want to check out Finding Free Books and From Cable to Netflix! Oh and if you already have a Netflix subscription, don’t forget to check out my list of YouTube Series’ Worth Watching!
Last but certainly not least, I know I have a bunch of readers who are #plannernerds just like me! Did you know I created some custom project planning pages and made them available for download FREE on my blog? Yep, here is the link in case you missed it the first time around! You could even use these project planning pages to help you track a personal financial goal, smart eh? And if you are stuck with the basics of budgeting, don’t worry, I have that covered too! Happy Planning and Money Saving!
I hope this little blast from the past helped to inspire you to say NO to your frivolous spending habits! I know from time to time I need a reminder too! Oh, and of course, there were many more posts in my Commercial Detox series, so if you want to read them all, go ahead and click here! Tell me what you think of the series and let me know if you need any other more specific money-saving advice by sending me a tweet!
As you may already know, back in July I purchased my first DSLR camera, then of course, being the internet loving, tech savvy chic I am, I went straight to the internet to learn everything I could about photography! Now, to be completely honest, although I had never owned a DSLR before, I did know quite a bit about photography from studying the subject in college as part of my Art History major and just being a general photography geek for years. But, being a photography geek with a new DSLR, I just had to immerse myself with as much information as possible, and let me tell you, it was like being swallowed whole by a leviathan! There is a lot of information out there on the web about photography, and it ain’t all pretty. Worst of all, there isn’t much out there geared towards helping bloggers or even Instagram enthusiast take better pictures. So, being a blogger, such as I am, I thought to myself that it may be helpful if I actually went ahead and shared the information I learned with my readers.
So, the first topic I want to tackle is my all time favorite photography subject: Bokeh!
What is Bokeh?
It’s just a term used in photography to describe the quality of the out of focus elements of a picture. Literally, it comes from the Japanese word ‘boke’, which means ‘blur’ or ‘haze’. If you have ever seen a picture with those little balls of light in the background, that is like the epitome of the word, but bokeh is so much more than great balls of light! So, if you would like to learn more about bokeh and how to achieve this affect in your own photography, you are in luck because this is going to be a fun little post!
Bokeh is All About Controlling Depth of Field
Notice that only the first pair of glasses on the tray is in focus, and the others are not, creating some nice bokeh balls towards the back of the image.
In order to get a good bokeh effect in your images (yes, there is good and bad bokeh, but we will discuss the difference later) you have to understand one of the major principles of photography, which is depth of field. Depth of field is the distance between the nearest and furthest objects in a scene that appear in focus. You can control depth of field three ways.
Aperture: Apertures of 3.5 or greater (3.5-1.2) normally create desirable blur
Focal Length: A 50mm lens is often considered a standard, but you can make do with other focal lengths thanks to the third point
Distance between the camera and subject (and the subject and the background): You can adjust your focal length by stepping closer to or further from your subject. This will help to create a shallow depth of field, but you should also consider the distance between the subject and the foreground or background that you want out of focus. This is less important when using a DSLR with a good lens, but more important if you have a point and shoot!
Don’t Forget Composition and Light!
The best type of background for a bokehful shot is one that would still be considered attractive even if it was in focus.
The composition of your image is very important when it comes to creating good bokeh. Remember, bokeh refers to the quality of the out of focus elements of the image and to a greater extent, how they interact with the in-focus elements. You may think your background doesn’t matter because it will be blurred out, but things like bright colors, lines or patterns in your background can be distracting even with a blur. The subject is always an important part of any image, and a distracting or overwhelming background can detract from your subject and create a mismatch between subject and background, thus resulting in bad bokeh! Try to think of your blurred background as a way of directing the viewer’s eye towards the subject and in turn, pointing the viewer’s eye from the subject back to the lovely blurred, bokehfull background!
And you also can’t forget the light! When it comes to creating great bokeh and especially bokeh balls, you need light in your image reflecting from your background. It’s a popular tactic in photography to use strings of fairy lights in the background of dark images to create an obvious bokeh ball effect, but you can still get great bokeh balls in broad daylight, as long as there is enough light bouncing off objects in the foreground and/or background of your subject. This is why thinking about your composition will help you find a great shot and create an image with awesome bokeh!
No DSLR, No Problem!
This tilt-shift style image was taken with a Canon point and shoot from the London Eye, illustrating that it is possible to get a beautiful hazy blur from a compact camera!
But what if you don’t have a DSLR? Well, good news! Although point and shoot camera’s don’t give you anywhere near the amount of control a DSLR does, they still have a few features you can use to control the depth of field! Many point and shoots come with various modes for shooting that can help you achieve a bokeh effect. Portrait modes are normally good for this because they expect for there to be a single object or person in focus and then, to help the subject stand out, the background is blurred. You may have to do some work adjusting your distance from the subject and the subject’s distance from other objects in the foreground or background of the scene, but portrait modes are generally a good place to start when trying to get bokeh from a point and shoot. A second feature of a point and shoot you can try is the toy camera or miniature effect. Canon point and shoots are notorious for having this setting, which basically blurs the top and bottom of the image for you, so that only the center plane horizontally is in-focus. This is like an instant bokeh helper because the camera goes ahead and adds a blur for you. A final trick you can try with your point and shoot is to shoot in macro mode. Macro mode is normally used when you are getting very close up to a subject and want to focus on detail, but it can also be used on a point and shoot to help you blur your background. Try taking shots with your macro option turned on and off and see what sort of difference it makes!
Software and Apps
This iPhone shot makes you question whether it was taken with a DSLR because of all the lovely blur and bokeh in the background created by using the Big Lens App.
Now, sometimes it just isn’t possible to get a nice natural bokeh effect from your camera. Either because you don’t have a DSLR with the proper lens to pull off the shot, or because you are working with a point and shoot or smartphone camera that just doesn’t allow you the control you need. So, the only way to get that awesome bokeh affect in your image is through software or apps!
Photoshop is probably the most popular way that even pro photographers edit and post process their images. But you don’t have to be a pro to own the application, and in fact, many photo and design enthusiasts already own this software. So, how can you use Photoshop to help you add bokeh to your photographs? Simple, go ahead and import the desired photo into the program. Use the Quick Selection tool to select the elements in your image that you would like to be out of focus and add a Lens Blur! Lens Blur is the preferred blur to use in Photoshop if you’re looking for a bokeh effect because it mimics the characteristics of a camera lens when creating the blur, so it seems more natural on the photo. You may also want to bump up the levels or brightness of the background as well before you add your lens blur so that you have more light to work with in your image.
For iPhone users, there is a great app that I often use to help me create the illusion of depth of field on my iPhone pics, and that is Big Lens. It’s basically a DSLR app for your iPhone that gives you the ability to select an area of your image to be in focus and then add a blur to the rest of the image. You can control settings like aperture, filter and lens to help you create an image that appears to have been taken with a DSLR!
Now, if big blurry bokeh balls are what you’re after, there are quiet a few apps available that allow you the control to add your own to an image, however, I like the app Bokehful. With this app you can load a photo and add custom colored bokeh balls to an image. One word of caution, however, if you want to go this route of adding artificial bokeh balls, is to make sure the image you are using has some bright spots and out of focus areas to begin with and then add the bokeh balls to those areas. If you don’t you will just be adding balls of fake light to your image and it will be extremely obvious (trust me, I made this mistake a lot in the early days of Instagram)! So, bokehful is definitely an app I would use as a final touch after you brighten up an image and then blur out sections with Big Lens.
Other Bokehlicious Effects
These lovely bokeh hearts were created using the DIY template for bokeh shapes linked below!
You have probably seen quite a few photos on Instagram and Tumbler where the bokeh balls aren’t actually balls, but hearts, stars or some other shape. Ever wonder how that effect is created? Well, there are two ways to add custom bokeh shapes to your images. The first is by using a custom template to cover your camera’s lens to adjust the shape of your camera’s aperture as it takes pictures. I actually found a great video on this topic on YouTube that also includes a link to some free templates you can download and make at home. Or, if you would prefer to purchase a complete die cut kit, you can purchase one here. It’s actually quite a fun little DIY for any DSLR owner, and you can create some fun and interesting portraits and even landscape photos using different designs and shapes for your bokeh!
The second, and probably easiest way to create these custom bokeh shapes is through an app! Again, Bokehful and Big Lens both give you options to adjust the shape of your bokeh, as do many other photo filter and lighting effects apps. You may already have such an app in your collection, or you could check out the apps I suggest!
I hope this has been a helpful and informational post for any bloggers or Instagram addicts out there who are as in love with bokeh as I am! If it was, please go ahead and leave me a message on Instagram or send me a Tweet to let me know what you thoughts! Although photography snobs will often say you need a full frame DSLR with a 50mm 1.2 lens to create the best bokeh, the truth is, even the best camera in the world can’t shoot photos on its own. It’s all about the photographer, their creativity and ingenuity in setting up a scene that will produce a beautiful image. So, make do with what you have and get creative. Don’t be afraid to think outside the box when you have a concept for a great pic! Your Instagram followers will thank you for it! So, what other photography topics can I help you tackle? Any burning questions I can help you address to help your photography reach it’s fullest potential? Let me know!
Summer is unofficially over and now it’s back to school for some and back to work for the rest! Although we have all grown more than a little comfortable with the summer schedule of lazy days, long weekends, vacations, bbq’s and social engagements, one after another, it’s time to get ourselves back in gear! So, how do we transition from the slow pace of summer to the faster rhythmic grind of daily life in the fall? Well, I will tell you how we are not going to do it! We will not be drastically changing our sleep schedules to wake up even earlier and go to bed even later to shove more into our days. We won’t be working excessive overtime, or packing in the appointments, meetings, and too many tasks into our calendars. No, we need a more reasonable, sane way to go about increasing our productivity for a more efficient tomorrow, without sacrificing too much of today!
1. Lay out your clothes, pack your bag and plan your breakfast, lunch, and dinner the night before! One way to have a more productive morning may be setting the alarm clock earlier and actually waking up with enough time to do it all, but a better way around that without sacrificing pillow time is to just take care of some of your morning routine the night before. That way you wake up with a plan, and everything nicely laid out and prepared. So, prep your breakfast, pack your lunch and set up your crock pot and dinner ingredients before bedtime, so that in the morning you can breeze through your tasks with a productive pep in your step!
2. Do a brain dump before bed of all the to-dos and excess items clogging up your head, then ID your top 3 priorities for the next day. You’re never going to be able to sleep right with all that information active in your mind, so write it all down with a pen and paper so you don’t spend half the night awake worrying that you’re going to forget an important task or detail for the next day. Once you have everything out of your head, take another moment to think about tomorrow and which 3 tasks or items are your priorities for the next day. Make sure to write those down, underline and highlight them for reference tomorrow!
3. Pick up your pace in the A.M. So, you got a pretty good night’s rest and you know you have everything laid out and set up to make your morning much, much easier! But that doesn’t mean you get to sleep in an extra 15 minutes, or get to mozy around the house at a leisurely pace! Get up on time and hit the ground running! All those short cuts you gave yourself yesterday were to help you stay organized and productive today, so feel the energy and put your pedal to the metal! You will be twice as fast, and twice as productive if you make a conscious effort to hustle in the morning.
4. Look at your to-do list and tackle the scariest item first! Remember that brain dump list from last night? Now is the time to pull it out and get to work. But don’t start with some whimpy little to-do, instead go for the challenge bright and early. Whatever item on your list is the biggest, most daunting item, that is what you need to start with. Why? Because once its over and done with, everything else is going to feel like a piece of cake and you will breeze through the rest of those tasks like a champ!
5. Batch your work and to-dos on a list, tackling like items together and refer back to your list for your priorities instead of deferring and taking on new items as they come in. You have a lot of work today and chances are, much of that work was a spill over from yesterday or items you already knew about. Make a full to-do list and keep like items together so that you can do them all at once and save yourself time. Have a bunch of calls to make? Dial them one at after another. Have a pile of faxes to send? Take care of all of them at once to cut down on visits to and from the fax machine. And be sure not to start picking up new tasks and completing those ahead of tasks already on your to-do list! Unless something urgent comes up that needs your attention immediately, you can put new tasks as the bottom of the pile or slot them in a batch with other like items, but don’t prioritize them before items that have been outstanding for a longer period of time!
So, those five tips should have you kicking butt and taking names in no time! Remember, being productive isn’t about working more, its about working more efficiently! There are simple things you can do the night before and throughout your day to cut down on the amount of time you spend on your work, making your 8 hour work day as productive as a 10 hour one! It’s all about maximizing your time by strategizing your effort. So, what other tips and tricks do you use to stay productive and efficient? I would love to hear all about your time saving techniques, so feel free to send me a tweet and we can discuss!
Hands down, one of my favorite skin care items is the Caudalie Beauty Elixir! If you’re not familiar, the Beauty Elixir is a facial toner & makeup setting spray made from all naturals ingredients that help to hydrate, moisturize and refresh your skin! Problem is, it will set you back about $50 for a full size bottle, and during the warmer months or during times when my skin is out of control, I can go through that bottle fast! So, I did a bit of research and decided that I would try my hand at creating my own recipe for a DIY facial toner spray that I could make at home for a fraction of the price of Caudalie’s! Here’s what I came up with!
Now, if you would prefer a step by step tutorial, I also made a video showing how I make this elixir so you can watch that in real time! I’ll link it below so you can take a look!
I hope you enjoyed this DIY skin care recipe I cooked up for you guys! I love facial toners and they are easy enough to make at home, but I am always up for hearing your thoughts and recommendations for similar products or alternate ingredients! Send me a tweet and let me know what you thought about this DIY!
