My Filofax is my happy place. To me, its like a secret hiding spot that a child might find to store secrets and goodies from their day-to-day lives and retreat to when they want to be in their own little world. Since I have began using my planner(s) I have felt this huge sigh of relief in my life because I have this physical location (not inside a phone or computer) where I can keep my schedule, to do’s and all the other information that I need to keep my life in order. Since I have begun my Filofax obsession I feel like my life has had this sense of order, even if my days are chaotic, because no matter what is going on, my planner is a place where I can go to think, download my thoughts, and gather strength and inspiration. To me, my planner has this aura that I psychologically assign to it, a sort of reverence I apply to it, so it dawned upon me that I should start applying Feng Shui techniques to keep it filled with this positive energy, or chi! So, I did a little research and came up with a few little things I could do consistently to keep the positive energy rolling in to my life via my planner and since I know so many of my readers also feel this way about their planners, I thought I should share these tips with you!
1. Clear out clutter: a main principle of Feng Shui is to keep your spaces clean and neat. Positive energy can’t flow in a hoarded room, nor can it flow into a hoarded or messy planner. I regularly remove unnecessary pages from my Filofax and either discard them if they are not needed or save them in a pretty box that I use for the express purpose of achieving old pages.
2. Keep your planner open whenever possible: If you are working at your desk, keep your Filofax open, even if you are not actively using it or referring to it. This helps to clear the air around your planner and attract chi.
3. Store your planner in a clean and well lit space: Don’t keep your planner shoved in your bag or in a drawer for hours on end, leave it in a place of respect out in the open where it will not get damaged and will be like an ornament in your life.
4. Fill your Filofax with beauty and happiness: Make sure you leave pictures of friends and loved ones in your planner and keep tokens of happy memories tucked inside extra pockets or punched inside your planner. Taking notes of achievements and positive events will also help to make your planner a destination for positive energy.
You Guys! Recently, I have acquired an embarrassingly large collection of washi tape. Yep! I am Alexis and I am a washi-aholic! So, in order to legitimize my rather absurd number of rolls, I use it every chance I get! Here are a few ways that I like to use washi in my planners:
Add color to a bording divider, page marker or tab.
Mask mistakes written in pen in your planner.
Reinforce your punched pages.
Tape on notes or non-stick decorations.
Add an impermanent note to your calendar when you don’t want to commit.
How do you use washi tape in your planner? Have you found any other uses that I haven’t mentioned above? If so, please leave your suggestions in the comments!
Blogging 101 is a 10 part series where I share my tips and tricks for creating and growing a blog from scratch. This is the fifth installment in the series, and you can find more information on the topics of this series here.
Since I began this Blogging 101 series, I have covered a lot of fun motivational topics to help you get started blogging, and now its time for some utilitarian type posts. This week I am geeking out to talk to you about the software and hardware you are going to need to get started. Good thing is, if you are reading this, you most likely have much of what I am going to suggest. Then next week, I will be going in-depth with a list of some more advanced items you may want to pick up if you are hoping to bump up your blog and produce some major content. But for now, as promised, the basics!
The first thing you will need is {dun, Dun, DUN!) a computer! Yes, I said this was going to start out pretty easy! So, you need a computer, and pretty much any one will do! I use a Macbook Air, before than a Macbook Pro and when I first started I was using the original White Macbook, but those were just the machines I had. You can certainly use a windows machine if that’s what you have, and wait for it, even a tablet if that’s all you have! Since all you’re doing it writing and uploading pictures, there are a variety of options available to you!
The next item you will need is a word processor! Not sure what a word processor is? Think Microsoft Word or Apple’s Pages. A word processor is a piece of software where you can write and edit… anything! I use a program called Scrivener that I have written about before. Check out this post if you would like to use Scrivener on your computer in conjunction with your iPad! Scrivener is a unique program because it was meant for writing books and longer pieces like articles and term papers, but if you write a lot, it’s a wonderful way to organize your work!
Next, you will need a camera, preferably with some sort of video capability as well! You could use a smartphone, I frequently use my iPhone 5 to take photos and video, but I also use a regular point and shoot. My point and shoot is an older Canon Powershot, nothing fancy, but it takes great photos, has lots of options and controls for taking photos, as well as a 720 HD video capture feature! You could use a DSLR if you have one, I will go more in-depth on that in the next installment of this series, but a camera is a camera and as long as it can take a decent shot, it will definitely do!
The final item you will need is some form of image editing software. Most computers do not come with this sort of software installed, but there are plenty of options available to you based on your operating system. On my Mac I use Photoshop CS6, but there are plenty of options available like Adobe Photoshop Lightroom, Apple’s Aperture, Corel Paintshop, and even a great free photo editor that I used to use called GIMP. There are also plenty of iOS and smartphone applications that do this that are relatively cheap and I rely on a few of those for my iPhone photos, but those will be discussed in another post!
For now, that is everything you need to get started in my opinion! If there is anything else you have questions about please feel free to leave a comment about it below. Remember, next week I will be discussing some extra hardware and software items that you may be interested in using if you want to go above and beyond!
It’s no secret that I have been totally obsessed with Filofax’s for the last few weeks ever since I ordered my Kikki K Planner! In case you haven’t noticed, I call any and all of these 6 ring binder systems “Filofax’s” even though the term Filofax is a specific brand. It just helps me mentally distinguish between these 6 ring binders and other types of bound and spiral planners and agendas available. On top of my large Kikki K binder that is the equivalent to the A5 Filofax size, I also have a personal sized Kate Spade planner as well that has taken on the bulk of my day to day organization. Since I now work out of two Filo’s, I have been amassing different tips and tricks that I have found helpful as a new user. Here are some of the tips I use on a day to day basis to help keep my system organized!
Use old gift cards to easily store lengths of washi tape in the card slots of your Filofax. Simply wrap the tape around the card a few times and you can have a sample of washi with you at all times.
Use A-Z tabs to organize notes by topic for easy access. I do this in my Kate Spade planner and it helps me when filing and referring back to important notes or lists.
Use colored printer paper as scrap paper that will easily stand out against the white and creme of your regular inserts. It’s more affordable than using up Filofax or any other branded note paper.
Use sticky notes or page flags to enter in tentative plans to your calendar before committing to them in ink. This has been a lifesaver for me because my plans change all the time and I hate having to scratch things out.
Mark frequent reoccurring events with color coding dots. I tend to use them in my month on two page view, but you can use them however you see fit!
Tabs and dividers do not have to be arranged down the right side of your binder. Top and even, bottom tabs are also helpful ways to break up your sections and different information.
If you want to keep your work and personal calendars separate, try using more than one calendar style, one for each so everything has a place.
Create your own divided files for any large pockets in your Filofax using notecards or card stock. This will help to keep stickers, coupons, cash and more safety organized and contained.
Using a full sip Filofax as a wallet/planner combo is a great way to minimize the bulk in your bag! My Kate Spade planner is a full zip and sometimes I will run to the store with just my planner and a few cards stashed inside along with any shopping lists or reminders!
Using a multicolor pen can help you color code without having to carry around multiple pens. The Pilot Hi-Tec C Coleto Pens even have pencil inserts.
Use a magnetic paperclip or binder clip to hold together past calendar pages to keep them contained. This also makes it easy to flip to the first clear page.
Wrangle loose or small items in a clear zip lock pocket (usually sold separately).
If you don’t decorate on the go, leave stickers and excess supplies at home. Don’t feel the need to carry around excess stationary just because its pretty.
If you have handwritten notes that you refer back to often, type them up to save space and punch them into your Filofax (you can print smaller than you write).
Archive notes and calendar pages often if you don’t need them with you. You can use a secondary Filofax to store archived pages or even a box.
I hope you have learned something new from some of these tips. Which tips are your favorite and which other tips do you rely on to keep your Filofax planner system organized? Please feel free to share them in the comments below!
True story– for the past week, I have not been feeling too hot. I’ve been hit with a wave of migraines out of left field and it has me feeling pretty down. So, what’s a girl to do? Well, for me the answer is turn my frown upside down and do whatever I can to make myself feel fabulous! So, I gave it some thought and decided on a few things that I can do to make myself feel like a million bucks. Here is my list, short and sweet!
1. Get dolled up: Sometimes just the act of doing my hair and makeup and putting on a nice outfit makes me feel fabulous because I look fabulous.
2. Wear a fashionable turban: I am completely sure that turban style head wraps are the most fabulous accessory a woman can wear (think Greta Garbo or Elizabeth Taylor). To me it screams old hollywood, full on globetrotting glamour and worldly elegance.
3. Use an obnoxious phone case:Any one of these should do! Look, if you want to feel fabulous, you need to exude fabulousness (is that a word?) and extravagance in every detail!
4. Put on some heels and learn to strut: I take this one from old hollywood starlets as well! Start walking around slow and steady like you own the room. Try it out in front of a mirror and start putting it into practice. Having a distinct walk is completely fabulous!
5. Stand tall, sit up tall, rest with your hands on your hips: Nothing says you mean business like the hands on your hips pose! Actually, this tip is something that’s been scientifically proven to make you feel more confident, and to me, confidence=fabulous! So, stand up tall, sit up tall, like you’re bigger than your actual body, and you will start to notice some fabulous positive vibes soon enough!
So, what do you like to do to make yourself feel fabulous when you need it most? Do you practice these sorts of techniques daily or only when you feel like you need a mood booster? Tell me what you think in the comments!
Nearly as soon as Apple released its recent iOS update, 7.1, complaints began rolling in that the iPhone’s battery life was being depleted to quickly. This is a common theme with iOS updates recently, and while we as the end users cannot control the way the operating system manages battery life, there are a few things we can do to help keep battery drain from usage to a minimum.
1. Keep your iPhone’s brightness at a third or less: Although there are times when we need to up our brightness (like in full sunlight), for the most part we can function pretty well with our iPhone’s screen turned down to the lower third of the spectrum, which will also help to keep our battery full longer.
2. Reduce motion in your system preferences: If you go to system> general> accessibility, you will find an option to “Reduce Motion.” This controls the iPhone’s visual animations and 3D effect of the app icons, known as the parallax effect. If you turn this option “on” the visual effects will be turned down thus saving precious battery life.
3. Turn off Bluetooth if you aren’t using it: Many of us use Bluetooth enabled devices in conjunction with our iPhone’s, but get in the habit of turning your Bluetooth off when you are not. Leaving the Bluetooth function on, even when devices are not connected, can drain the battery.
4. Shut down apps that are running in the background: I know most of us use tons of apps on our iPhones, but its important to shut down apps when they are not in use to cut down on battery drain. If you do not know how to do this, double-click on your home button with the iPhone screen on and you will be able to scroll left and right through your open apps. Swipe the app preview up to turn it off completely so it is not running in the background.
5. Keep a backup charger or portable external battery with you in case of emergency: iOS updates are frequently being released and issues with the iPhone’s battery drain issues are pretty much never-ending. Make sure you keep a charging solution or external battery with you for those emergency situations when your battery is getting dangerously low while you are out and about. I love these backup battery solutions from ban.do!
Do you have issues with the battery life of your iPhone? Do you already use some or all of these battery saving tips, and yet still have problems keeping your battery alive? Let me know in the comments below!
Since this week’s installment of my Blogging 101 series was all about Choosing a Platform and Identity for your blog, I decided that I should probably talk to you today about my blog color scheme and what it means and conveys for my blog and its “brand.” Look, I am by no means a branding expert, but one thing I do know about branding is that you can do all you can to produce a certain image to your audience, but ultimately your brand is decided by them! It’s sort of a funny thing, trying to control other people’s opinions, but that is where consistency comes into play. Having a consistent look and feel to your blog and social media posts really helps to establish the vision of your brand that you want to convey to your audience. As you can tell by looking around, I have a pretty specific color scheme for my blog and the colors I have chosen are significant for a reason.
So, take a look around. What colors do you see as being most prevalent in my blog? If you said teal & grey, than hooray for me, because those are the colors I want to stand out to you on my blog! I have chosen the colors teal & grey for a reason. Not only are they some of my favorite colors, but they also mean specific things that I hope transfer to your minds when you visit or think about my blog. But, how do these colors affect the way you feel about my blog?
It all has to do with, wait for it… Color Theory! Now, don’t be afraid, I am not going to go all Art and Design 101 on you, but basically in society certain colors convey certain meanings and for me, teal & grey convey a specific message to you (hopefully!) whether you realize it or not. Teal or turquoise, as the case may be, supposedly conveys an image of femininity and sophistication. Grey, on the other hand, conveys a sense of security, reliability and intelligence. Since I write about lifestyle, career advice and issues that are geared towards women, I want my readers to feel a sense of reliability and intelligence in my writing. I also want them (you) to feel like this is a safe place as a sophisticated woman to share opinions with other like-minded women. These colors don’t just convey a message that I want to portray to the internet, but they also help me to attract the right reader to my site. After all, if I am writing for women but attracting only men, my message is lost!
Okay, so I have gone and explained to you what my blog color scheme means, but what good does that do you if your blog is blue and peach? Well, I can’t go into each and every color and what they all mean here, but I have a very handy one pager with the basic meanings behind colors pinned for you to review here. If you are still deciding on your color scheme for your blog, use this resource to help you design a blog that conveys a message that reflects your blog and your ideal reader! If you already have a blog, use this resource to see if your current color scheme is saying what you need it to say and attracting who you need it to attract! You may find that you need to make some adjustments to your color scheme if you aren’t projecting exactly what you desire to the internet!
So, did the colors work? You tell me? Are you a woman, either in college or with an advanced education who considers themselves to be sophisticated, intelligent and career minded? If you don’t fit that demographic specifically, don’t worry, it doesn’t mean you are in the wrong place! Although I write for a specific ideal of a reader, that doesn’t mean that someone outside that sphere wouldn’t also find my blog useful. Remember, none of this is an exact science. So, let me know in the comments below if you fit my mold or if you’re outside the box a little! Either way I’m glad you’re here adding value to this community!
So far this year, I have been ridiculously obsessed with productivity and since I have just started my Blogging 101 Series, I though now would be a great time to give you all a little bit of office eye candy! I love functional and feminine stationary and accessories that keep my desk looking cute and my mind focused on the tasks ahead of me. So here is a glimpse of some of my favorite items I like to keep around during my 9-5 hustle!
It’s no secret that I am a little obsessed with iPhone cases and I have quite a few. Since I happen to own a lot of Kate Spade cases, I like to store my cases in a way that helps me to keep them safe, but also displays them in a stylish way! Right now I store my iPhone cases in a Kate Spade gift box that fits my cases two wide in their original boxes.
Another way that I like to store my cases is in pretty gift bags! I found this lovely bag in the Target Dollar Spot back before Valentine’s Day! This is an inexpensive and cute way to keep all my cases in one place and it looks rather lovely out on my shelf!
This final storage solution also comes from the Target Dollar Spot! I love this bright storage bin because its cheery to look at and is the perfect width to store my cases standing up right! Again, this bin is another great one to keep out on display and it was only $1! Hopefully, these three solutions will give you some ideas on how to store and display your iPhone cases as well! You don’t have to own a collection of designer cases to want to keep them on display. These storage options are protective and attractive, but also incredibly inexpensive. If you have a few extra iPhone cases laying around, wrangle them up using one of these methods and keep ’em safe and sound!
Did this post give you some new storage inspiration? How do you store your iPhone cases? Let us know in the comments below!
In the last year, I have had the opportunity to experience both the Blogcademy and Blogshop (online) courses. These two day, in person (or online as the case may be for Blogshop only) workshops are geared towards bloggers and web connected business owners who are looking for the skills and know how to stand out in the ever growing entity which is the internet! As a blogger, I was very interested in taking both of these courses, but at $750* a pop, these workshops aren’t cheap and many of you have been asking me to break down Blogshop vs Blogcademy based on my own personal experience and decide which course is the more useful one to take if you only have the money for one!
So, what are Blogshop and Blogcademy exactly? Let me break each workshop down for you in my own terms! Blogshop is a course for bloggers and business owners to learn important basic and advanced skills in the popular Adobe Photoshop software. Photoshop is a program used by many to create and manipulate images and photographs that are used for web and print, and a firm foundation in Photoshop can help both bloggers and business owners create compelling visual content for their blogs or business sites. You don’t have to own a domain to benefit from the Blogshop course, as owners of Etsy shops and other online or brick and mortar retailers will learn tips and tricks for editing product images and creating advertisements that can help their business compete in the online market place. The course mainly focuses on designing for web, however, the topic of print is brought up and one could take the skills they learn in Blogshop and apply it to print projects as well!
Now, Blogcademy on the other hand is a course for bloggers and business owners to learn the basics of blogging. In the workshop, you learn the best blogging platforms, tips on choosing a blog and domain name, how to navigate and use social media to help support your blog, tips for designing your site and creating content, and how to monetize. You don’t have to have a blog to join Blogcademy, but it is preferred that you already have a blog set up in order to use your own site as a basis for examples and exercises throughout the course. When I attended, there was a mix of all sorts of bloggers ranging from mommy blogs, to religious blogs, to health and fitness, lifestyle and fashion blogs! There were also many business owners present who were using the blogging platform to help advertise and sell their products! During the course and lessons, the Blogcademy Headmistresses (as they are known in the class) go around and give personal one to one feedback to the students to help them apply lessons to their own sites and circumstances.
So, now that you know a little bit about the two workshops, you probably want to know which one I found to be a better value for the money in terms of the skills you learn for the dollars spent? That would be Blogshop! Surprised? Not surprised? Let me break down my decision for you guys. Blogcademy is a course designed to teach bloggers how to set up, maintain and grow a blog. The thing is, this topic is one that saturates the web. There are many, many places you can find this information if you want to start a blog. Now, of course it is easier to learn this information in an organized and fun way in the format of Blogcademy, but its a much more expensive learning experience. That expense isn’t something I think most bloggers can justify if you are just starting out, and the content of the workshop seems geared to people just starting out (or at least, I thought so since I have been blogging for a while and I didn’t learn much new information). The networking aspect of the Blogcademy experience, however, was definitely the most valuable part of the workshop for me since I spent two solid days in a room with nearly 30 other bloggers with various backgrounds, interest and knowledge levels when it comes to blogging. Now, just so you understand, I wasn’t the only person in my class or who has taken Blogcademy that thought it was underwhelming for people who have been blogging for a while. I have met some awesome bloggers through the course that have expressed the same thoughts to me, so I know I am not alone. I do appreciate the fact that Blogcademy brought me together with some wonderful other ladies that I keep in contact with and bounce ideas off of, but, like I said, other than the networking, there wasn’t much there that you couldn’t learn from reading Blog Inc, 4 Hour Work Week or The $100 Startup! My second, minor gripe about Blogcademy is that the Headmistresses are only teaching you their version of blogging. I sort of figured this out on my own months after my Blogcademy experience was over, but a lot of the content of the workshop was based on their own experiences of what worked and what didn’t work, but what worked for them may not work for me. The ladies who teach the course are all amazing and popular bloggers who have been around for a long time, but the style of blogging that was innovative years ago that helped their blogs grow, isn’t necessarily innovative now that more and more people have followed that lead. I don’t want my blog to feel repetitive, I want people to know what I’m about and feel like they find something new from me every time they stop by!
Now, what made Blogshop so great? Look, I only took the online version of the class and I got so much out of Blogshop that I wish I had taken the in person class for the networking aspect! The thing that I think made Blogshop great was that it actually taught you trade skills! I learned things about Photoshop that I never knew before and I had been using the program for years! Now, I think that applying the skills is something of a personal motivation which some people may or may not have, but I feel like my blog images are improving daily because of the skills I have been putting to use. I am saving time on my blog posts, not because of the repetition and shortcuts that the Blogcademy suggests, but because of quick time savers and templates I have been utilizing in Photoshop! What I actually found pretty interesting was that Blogshop did teach you how to blog, but in such a way that you were inspired to want to create beautiful and interesting things! Even in my online course, the instructors gave you tips constantly on applying certain techniques to your blogs and creating new and exciting content.
Look, I am no pro blogger, but taking either or both of these workshops won’t make you one either. When it comes down to it, the success of your blog is determined by your ability to innovate your content and make it unique. Innovate or Evaporate! When you boil it down that is what both classes preached as the method to a successful blog or business. One workshop gave you information and examples on how to do that by using the methods they had used to get to success and the other gave you the skills to create your own. The better method is really up to you!
As usual, leave me a comment on your opinions of either or both of these popular workshops or leave me a question if you have one!
*The Blogshop Online courses are available for about $300, but the in-person courses are around the $750 mark!
