Where oh where has the time gone? Next week is Memorial Day and soon enough summer will be upon us. Are you ready? I know I’m not nearly as prepared for summer as I would have hoped. I have quite a bit of shopping to do to catch up, so in the meantime, I thought I would share with you my pre-summer essentials checklist. Here are some of the items that I consider must have’s for the upcoming season. Check out the carousel below for some of my favorite picks!
An awesome beach bag
A big floppy hat
A statement beach towel
Sephora Sun Safety Kit
Caudalie Grapeseed Water
An awesome pair of sunglasses (Prescription sunglasses if you need them)
A cute water bottle
A tablet computer
A signature scent
A backup phone battery charger
A durable video camera (to capture all the fun)
Have a wonderful week and I hope you enjoy Memorial Day Weekend and the summer ahead!
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I am certainly not the only one who wishes they could see the future, but there are moments where I really wish I had a magic ball that could show me what was right around the bend. Usually, I feel this way when I am stuck in some sort of limbo, which could pretty much sum up my current state of mind. Do I move forward through my issues and take a risk or do I avoid them and stick to the familiar and safe. This has been on my mind as of late. I usually pride myself on being a person who can see the big picture, make hard decisions quickly and then make the best of what’s to come, but right now I feel paralyzed and unable to make any choices. When I get like this, I often think of these lyrics from one of my favorite songs.
“Well, something’s lost, but something’s gained, in living everyday.”– Joni Mitchell, Both Side’s Now
Joni Mitchell is right, everyday we have new experiences, learn and grow and because of that we loose that old part of ourselves. What’s done is done and can never be undone. We can’t move backwards, we can’t stand still, even if we wanted to. Everyday we have to make choices, some easy and some hard, but we can’t just stand still. I know this. But sometimes I want to skip through the hard parts to get to the end just where all the tough choices have been made and everything is resolved. I want instant gratification and its not always possible. I want things to happen without having to do the dirty work. It’s ironic because I read a lot of metaphysical books and they always tell you to think positively and let the universe guide you, and I really really wish I could let go of the reins and let someone or something else take over trusting that everything will turn out right, but I’m deathly afraid that if I loose control I will end up someplace I don’t want to be. I want control and I want to give up control both at the same time, how’s that for messed up paradoxes.
As I’m writing this I am getting that sense that I am supposed to wrap up this rant with some sort of lesson so that my readers aren’t left with an uneasy feeling, but honestly, I have no clue how to wrap this up because I too am uneasy. I don’t have the answers yet and maybe that is the answer. Maybe the lesson is you never know until you know. I have a gut feeling thats leading me and that’s about it. Perhaps, one day, if I ever resolve this matter in my mind, I will go ahead and write a follow up to this rather cryptic piece. But for now, you’re left in limbo, with me.
I apologize if this post seems weird or out of place here. I’m sorry if I am coming off vague and not being specific, but the problem is, there isn’t just one specific thing going on that is the catalyst for this, its like multiple different things mushed together to add complexity on top of complexity so its not something I feel comfortable discussing publicly on my blog right now. I would ask, however, that if you could, please send positive vibes my way. Thoughts, prayers, chants, whatever you do to get the positive mojo flowing, send it in my general direction please.
Spring inevitably means one thing, wedding season is here! I’m sure I am not the only one with some wedding related events on the calendar for the next few months, and with the fun of wedding celebrations also comes the stress of having to pick out gifts. Although a traditional couple will usually provide a gift registry, not all of us are the buy off the registry types. Whether it’s because the bride or groom is a significant person in your life or perhaps you would prefer the surprise of picking out an item yourself, I have assembled a few gift ideas that you may not find on your average registry!
2. Paper Source Custom Stamp Gift Set ($39.95): Once the bride and groom get back from the honeymoon they are going to have a lot of thank you’s to send out. Make the process a little easier and much more personalized by giving them a custom stamp gift set that they can have made with their address and name to reflect their new life and home together.
3. Mastering the Art of French Cooking by Julia Child ($22): Whether or not the bride and groom are already knowledgable cooks, this timeless guide to cooking is like a cooking school in paper form. Let them learn the basics or unleash their inner chef with this cookbook staple!
4. Glitzy Glam Initial Wine Glasses ($15 each): Although the happy couple may be registered for some fine china wine glasses, this unique and personalize gift will be a welcome treat, and well, you can never have enough wine glasses! Am I right?
5. Jonathan Adler All Occasion Note Card Set ($15): Beautiful stationery is one of those things most people don’t register for, but it makes a classic and very affordable gift. This set is a great staple to have around in case a last-minute note is needed or someone forgets to pickup a birthday card!
Since I just posted my best tips for taking awesome photos as part of my Blogging 101 series, I decided to also give you guys a tutorial of sorts on how I edit my iPhone photos for the web! I do frequently use my iPhone for photos I post to my blog because my iPhone takes great pics and I have an array of apps that help me achieve multiple different effects from my phone.
The apps I use in this video are AfterLight, BigLens and Rhonna Designs! Please make sure to click through the video player to Youtube and give me a Like and Subscribe to my channel if you aren’t already! Thanks so much and I hope you enjoy the video!
What other iOS or Android Apps do you use to edit photos from your phone? Let us know in the comments below!
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 eighth installment in the series, and you can find more information on the topics of this series here.
If you are thinking that blogging has more to do with writing than pictures, you are dead wrong. There was a reason I listed a camera as a piece of necessary hardware in my basics guide, and that’s because pictures are a major component of blogs and blog posts in 2014! Think about it, do you read any amazing blogs that use images in their posts? Are those images relevant and interesting aids to the content itself? I’m pretty sure that would be a yes and a yes! Why is that? Because people love pictures. Images tell stories just as much as your blog posts do, and in this era of the 5 second attention span (thanks Twitter & Instagram) leading with a great image is the best way to capture someones attention so that they want to stick around to read your posts. Now, if you haven’t been very interested in photography before and are totally worried now that you don’t have the right equipment or skills to add great photos to your blog, worry not! With a few simple tips, I am going to instruct you on how to take great photos for your blog no matter what your current skill level with a camera!
First and foremost, lets discuss the camera itself. Like I mentioned in a previous installment, any camera that can take decent shots will do to start you off on the road to taking supporting blog images. I myself use an old Canon point and shoot, which surprises some people who think I must be using a higher end camera. Nope, I just use a few solid photography techniques that I am going to share with you today. You can even use a smartphone camera, again, only if it shoots decent photos, meaning you can get a good focus on your subjects and the photo comes out clear and without any pixellated distortion. I use my iPhone 5’s camera more often than you may realize, again, because I use specific techniques that help me take better photos!
Okay, so you have a pretty decent camera in your hands and you’re ready to take some photos, what are these important techniques I keep talking about? Well, the first one is to shoot in plenty of light! Most of the photos I take are shot in my living room because I have a big window that lets in beautify natural light. Natural light is your friend, so use it! If you are like me and take/need mostly still life sorts of shots, make yourself a set up by a window that gets lots of light pouring in and take your photos in the afternoon when the sun is at its highest and brightest in the sky. The more light you get in your shots, the clearer your photos will be and using natural light means the objects in your shots will be true to color more often than not!
Another technique I use that relates to lighting is that I like to shoot my pictures on a light reflecting surface. Ever notice that most of my images have a white background or that my objects are sitting on a white surface? That’s because I am trying to maximize light and light bounces off white surfaces really well! If you don’t have a white surface in your home near a window, go out and pick up a few white foam core boards from your local dollar store or craft store. You can use the boards as your surface and even set up other boards around your photo set up to reflect even more light! One great tip I have for shooting in natural light is to keep your objects facing the direct source of your light (facing the window if that’s your light source). This means that shadows will be behind your objects so that they don’t interfere with or darken the image.
If shadows are too heavy in your images, like I said above, use a piece of white foam core board and set that up facing the shadow so that light bounces off your board and towards the shadow you want to dissolve. Hand mirrors are also great for dissolving dark shadows or even for highlighting objects in a spot light type way. Just point your hand mirror towards your object, making sure it’s also picking up light from your source and you will see that the mirror focuses light wherever you point it. Experiment with moving the mirror closer to and further away from your objects to see how it affects the lighting in the scene.
Okay, so I have explained how to work with natural lighting, but what happens if its dark outside or if it’s night-time and you want to take a picture? Now, this gets a little tricky because the answer is not to just turn on your household overhead lighting and shoot with that because the quality of most people’s home lighting isn’t photo quality! You could buy a photo lighting kit, I use this one from Amazon which is very inexpensive, but I still think that natural lighting is the best light to shoot in! One tip I have already mentioned in an earlier installment is to schedule yourself a date and time to shoot a bulk amount of photos so that you are not taking your photos piece meal, some one day, some another day, and on and on. One of the benefits to doing this photo shoot style session is that you can choose a time of day when the lighting is great and plan out all the shots you need for upcoming blog posts and just go to town taking all the pictures you need and it avoids the situation of having to take a last-minute picture in undesirable light.
Now that we have discussed lighting, I would like to discuss another major point of photography which is composition. The way you compose your images is very important because you want your photos to be interesting and visibly legible. The default technique that I think anyone with photography knowledge would suggest is the rule of thirds. The rule of thirds is a principle in photography that helps to create balanced composition through the use of a visual guide. Imagine when you are taking a photo that there is a tic-tac-to board drawn on your image, breaking your image into three sections horizontally and three sections vertically. The idea is that you want to place your point of focus on a point on this grid where two lines intersect and if you have more than one important object in your frame, you want to position those all at places in the grid where lines intersect. It’s a pretty simple concept and its so popular in fact that many cameras including smartphone cameras have a mode that is already built-in to the software of the device that will go ahead and add the grid marks for you in case you’re not so good with imagining them in your head.
Of course, the rule of thirds isn’t the be all and end all of good composition. I always like to mix it up and try new angles to shoot my photos from and give unexpected views. Once you have good lighting in place you can try multiple different compositions for shots and all different angles and close-ups you can imagine! This leads me to the final technique I rely on to take great photos. Practice! Practice, practice, practice! Photography isn’t a skill you learn overnight, although I do believe some people have a natural knack for composition while others have to work on it, but the only way you will get great photos is to practice and experiment as often as you can! You never know what you’re going to get and you may play around with some different compositions and find that you create a few interesting ones that may not fit with a specific blog post you have in mind right now, but heck, save that cool shot for a rainy day or post it to Instagram to drive more attention to your blog! You should always be building up on the stock of photos you have available to you so get your camera and start shooting!
One of the most frequent questions I get from readers looking for advice on their own blogs has something to do with growing their blog. Whether you’re looking for more comments, more page views, or more subscribers, you are looking to draw more attention to your blog by engaging your current audience and expanding your audience. Now, let me be completely honest with you and say that this is a process that does not happen overnight. It normally takes a long time to do this and in my personal experience, you as the blog author need to be very hands on in this process or it will take even more time. I believe the consensus is from the blogging community and professionals that it should take you a year of solid attention to grow your blog to a decent following if you do a few key things regularly. So, I am going to give you some tips of some things you need to do in order to grow your blog, some you may do, some you may not do, but all of them are very important and require your sincere attention in order to work.
1. Post regularly: I am not sure where I heard this, but I was told that in order for Google to consider your blog an active, regular site that it will include regularly in search results, you need to post three times a week. This is why I upped my posting schedule from two times a week to three in the last year. Not only is regular posting good for your blog’s SEO {search engine optimization, which I will not be discussing in this series, but you can definitely research the subject online for more info} but it is also a very important part of developing a regular schedule to draw in viewers. You may get people coming to your site, but unless they see that you are posting regularly with interesting content, they won’t feel the need to return. Consistency is something I talk about a lot in blogging and it’s so important that you are consistently posting content for your readers!
2. Engage your readers: Like I mentioned earlier in this post, I am asked a lot about getting more comments. I know for some bloggers just starting out, the idea of getting lots of comments is a sign that your blog is doing well or at least moving in the right direction, but the truth of the matter is that with so many forms of social media communication out there, a comment on your blog isn’t the only or even best sign, of an engaged audience. Think about it, how often do you read a blog post and leave a comment? Most likely you read way more posts than the ones you comment on, even if you did like the post. So, how do you engage your readers without using comments? Well, social media is the answer for that. Make sure you are regularly tweeting out links to your posts, liking, retweeting, favoriting and just being completely active with your viewers. If someone online says something nice or shares a post or link to your blog, make sure you say thank you! Make sure your readers know you are alive and you can see what they are doing! This will reinforce the actions they have done and they are more likely to tweet you out to their followers or post your link to their Facebook or interact with you on Instagram! Okay, but what if you do want to see more comments? Well, the easy answer for that is make sure you are writing quality posts and asking your readers for their feedback. Have you noticed that I will usually leave some questions and prompts at the end of my blog posts asking for feedback? Yea, well before I did that, my comments section was pretty much nonexistent.
3. Reach out to other bloggers: The blogging community is so large and vast that it’s virtually impossible for you not to be able to find another blogger that you can relate to. I suggest reaching out to these bloggers and forging some social media friendships with them because it’s infinitely more helpful to have a friend who knows what you’re going through. For example, my blogging BFF is Kristen from My Life as a Teacup! We met in real life, but we mostly chat via Skype or our social media feeds and even through email because we live pretty far away from each other! I suggest connecting with a few bloggers online that you can relate to and even if they don’t become a BFF, they still add to the network of people you know online and that support can be immensely helpful. Now, just a quick common sense tip that I want to throw out there with this, is that you should probably find other bloggers who are in the same boat as you, as in they are also just starting out or have a small following. Not to say you couldn’t be friends with the worlds most popular blogger, but someone who runs a large blog may not respond directly to someone who is small and just starting out. I can only imagine the number of small time bloggers that message bigger bloggers on a regular basis asking for help or advice, so just try to stick with someone in your playing field because they are way more likely to want the relationship because it will also benefit them. Now, once you have a few blogger friends in your social media feed, don’t just stop there. Continue to reach out to new bloggers and grow your friendships and support system. Just like if you were networking for your blog or profession, you need to constantly (or should I say consistently) be talking to new people in the field of blogging!
Okay folks, that’s all! Keep doing those three things and you will find yourself with a pretty engaged audience and larger following in no time! Obviously with this, the more you do, the quicker you will grow, but it’s never an overnight thing, so plan to be spending a few months to a year on this before you see major changes!
Now for the comments section on this post, I would love if I could make some matches for blogging buddies so if you would like to meet some new bloggers (online of course) and would be open to be contacted, please leave a comment below with a link to your blog and let us know some ways we can get in touch with you like Twitter or IG (don’t leave a link to your email because that’s probably not a good idea)! I know I have a bunch of new and existing bloggers reading this series so don’t be shy, say hello and make a friend!
To be completely honest, I really love tax season because I know I will be getting my big fat refund check which is like an extra bonus to my income! I do happen to be one of those people who claims the least amount of deductions so that the maximum is taken from my salary because I am a complete weirdo who considers tax refunds to be a sort of instant savings account! I know this isn’t great tax advice and its not meant to be, but if you are like me and expecting a nice little sum of money and want to find a way to indulge, this post is just for you!
1. Spa Day!
Since you work so hard to earn that tax money you are getting back, you mine as well treat yourself to some well deserved relaxation time. You can go all out and book yourself a spa day at a high end Spa like the Elizabeth Arden Red Door Spa, or you can be a little more frugal and book yourself a nice morning filled with a mani, pedi and a massage from your local nail salon. My local salon does nails, waxing and some spa treatments like massages and facials at a budget price so you don’t have to spend all your money in one place!
2. Update your wardrobe with some classic high quality staples
If you are someone who would prefer to invest as well as splurge you may want to update your wardrobe with some classic pieces that may be too costly to purchase on your regular salary. A high quality suit for work, a designer hand bag or a nice leather jacket that you know you will get years of use out of is well worth the money and will still feel like a splurge.
3. Update your home with some new furniture
For the longest time I didn’t have a complete bed, all I had was a mattress and box spring on a simple metal frame. No head board, no nice looking bed frame, just raw metal that I used to cut my toes on if I ran into the corner of my bed. Buying a real bed frame with a fancy headboard was one of the most luxurious purchases I have ever made and its one that I never regretted. So, think about what areas in your home could use an upgrade. Are you still using mostly IKEA furniture and perhaps would like a grown up desk? Maybe you have a hand me down couch and want to invest in some nice new furniture for your living room. Think in terms of single pieces that you know you will need no matter where you move to. You don’t want to get a whole new living room with multiple pieces that you may not be able to use if you move to another place with a different layout, but single items like a good couch, a good mattress, or a good desk are pieces you will be able to take with you anywhere you go.
4. Get a new gadget
If your into tech like I am, you may want to put some of your refund money towards a new gadget. Maybe you have an old laptop and could use a new one, or have a really outdated camera but think you could get good use out of a nice DSLR. Whatever your needs may be make sure you do your research. A gadget is a major purchase and you want to make sure you are getting something of good quality that will last you a few years before needing to be replaced again. Try checking out sites like newegg.com or finding a professional to talk to about the device you need. A professional photographer will have some great insight on which new camera to buy (more so than the high schoolers at Best Buy) and an IT professional should be able to tell you what specs you will need on a new computer. So seek out the advice of others before making the purchase and also check into warranty information as well!
5. Take a class or attend a professional conference
Perhaps you would like to use your windfall to advance yourself personally or professionally. Its a tough market out there and if you want to find your dream job you will need to get some important skills under your belt. You may want to sign up for a night class at a local college or an online course that will help boost your resume and gain you some useful new skills. Professional conferences as well are great places to meet new people in the field you are working in or would like to work in. Networking with others is a great way to find out about hot job openings and get insider insight on what would be required of a good candidate. I am all for advancing yourself whenever possible!
So, what do you plan to do with your tax refund check! Let us know in the comments!
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!
