Strange & Charmed

On My iPhone {February 2015}

On my iPhone is a monthly feature on Strange & Charmed where I give you a peak into what I have been loving on my iPhone for the month! Covering topics like apps, games, podcasts, music, websites, books and more, I hope this series helps you all discover new and exciting content out there that can be enjoyed from your iPhone! To stay up to date with this series, make sure to follow the On My iPhone tag!

I think I have mentioned before that this is one of my favorite posts to write each month and guess what? Its getting even better! I get asked a lot about articles and inspiration I find around the web and so I have decided that I will also be adding a selection of my favorite articles that I have read this month within this post. So, you basically get it all. All my favorite apps, all my favorite content from around the internet and all my favorite articles as well! So lets jump right in because we have a lot to cover!

Currently Playing, Trivia Crack: What is it with people that we get so obsessed with trivia games? I think deep down inside we each think we are the smartest person to hit the planet and we like to show off our knowledge of random trivia. This new obsession started with me because of my husband who one day asked me the following question, “Who was Leonardo DiVinci’s rival?” “Michelangelo,” I replied. “Yes! That’s right!” He answered excited and surprised. Then later that night… “Who coined the phrase, the Iron Curtain?” He asked as we sat getting ready for bed. “Winston Churchill,” I replied. He sighed, “you knew that? I got it wrong,” he remarked disappointed. “Of course, Mike,” I responded. “I know everything!” And thus my obsession with Trivia Crack began!

Currently Reading, Hollow City by Ransom Riggs: At some point in 2013 I laid down to bed, thinking I would read a few chapters of Ransom Rigg’s first novel in this series, Miss Peregrin’s Home for Peculiar Children, and then a few sleepless hours later, I had finished the book. I think this was one of the few times in my life that I was so interested in the plot of a book that I actually couldn’t stop reading it until it was done. So, when I heard that the second novel in the series, Hollow City was released, I waited and waited for it to come to paper back so I could read it in the exact same manner I did the first. Well, I got a little impatient the other day and downloaded the book instead to my iPhone, and I’m very glad I did! If you liked the first book, definitely give this a read, I’m really liking this series!

Currently Watching, Adult Wednesday Addams: Yes, you read that right. Adult. Wednesday. Addams. I don’t know about you, but I love Wednesday Addams. I love the entire Addams family, but Wednesday was always my favorite. So when my husband sent me a link to a YouTube series all about my favorite little creepster, I literally said out loud to myself “there goes the rest of my day!” Of course I caught up on the whole series, which actually wasn’t very long, but I was glad to see it is still in progress, and I have to say, this is probably the greatest series to come out of YouTube in like forever! Just watch it! You will not regret it!

Currently Surfing, Dean Street Society: As you already know from my last installment of this series, one of my goals for this year is to find new bloggers to follow and one of my new reads, Dean Street Society, was a recommendation from a dear friend. The blog is an awesome blend of fashion and business advice from the writer Hilary Rushford, a notable female entrepreneur who is kicking butt and taking names online! Now, I know I said this was something of a fashion blog, but it is so much more than that! You know I am not one for fashion blogs, but this is totally something else. It’s original and fresh, and you should check it out as well!

Currently Listening, The Fearless Launching Show: In my quest to discover new bloggers and awesome business inspirations online, I recently came across Anne Samoilov who happened to be a fan of my YouTube channel. She and I connected online over planners, businesses, and a mutual love of Marie Forleo and I have been listening to her awesome business podcast The Fearless Launching Show, where she discusses aspects of launching and running a successful business. In addition to her podcast, Anne also runs a course called Fearless Launching, where she shows business owners the ropes of launching a product or business online. According to Anne, she will be opening up admission to her Fearless Launching program again soon, so head on over to her site and sign up for email updates if you are interested in her program. That is, after you check out her awesome podcast!

Things I Read & Loved

So now for the second part of this post, a selection of articles I read from around the web that I loved. You will probably notice a theme with these links, I read a lot of business advice and inspirational articles, but I will try my best to branch out in future installments to give you more variety!

Okay, well that was a nice long list! That should keep you busy for a while! But in all seriousness, I hope you enjoy some of these articles and that you find something from this list that speaks to you and helps to inform or inspire you! Let me know what you thought of this installment of my On My iPhone series and let me know if you like the new addition of the links. I’m hoping this can be a monthly occurrence either combined with this series or something that stands alone, so I would appreciate your feedback!

xoxo,

Productivity

Charmed Office Essentials

Today is a very big day, it is the day I unveil to you all my big collaboration video with Lisamarie of Paper & Glam! Lisamarie and I met via YouTube back in December. I guess you could say, I found her through her Erin Condren Life Planner videos and I was so struck by the quality and content of her videos and how we seemed to be very similar that I had to message her. After that we started chatting, discovered we are basically twins separated at birth and have since become blogging BFFs! To celebrate this, Lisamarie and I decided to do a collab video, the first for each of us! We decided it would be fun to do a swap of our favorite office goodies and then share in a video our Office Essentials; for me it is the Charmed Office and for Lisamarie it is the Glam Office. I’ll go ahead and link below to both videos for your viewing pleasure!

My Video

Lisamarie’s Video

Now, if you are not already following Lisamarie all over the internet, I highly suggest you do! This lady is definitely going places and you are going to want to be along for the ride! If you like my planner printables, you will definitely love Lisamarie’s as well, and she even sells lifestyle goodies and apparel as well! She also runs a very fun Paper & Glam Book Club and admins her own dedicated planner group on Facebook! This girl is on fire!

Now, I don’t want to spoil the videos for you and tell you all my office essentials before you’ve had a chance to watch the video, but there was something very special I wanted to tell you about that is featured in the video! I am launching a new product to my Strange & Charmed Shop, Inspirational Wall Art! Yes, I have been at work designing a series of printable posters for your office or home decor! Of course they are themed with all of my favorites and I hope you love them as much as I do! Right now I am launching with two unique designs in the 8″ x 10″ size, but by March I should have three finished and up on the shop! So hop on over to my shop via this quick link and take a look at my new additions for yourself!!

Thank you all so much for your visit to my blog today and for your ongoing support! I really do appreciate each and every one of you who reads my blog, watches my youtube channel and follows me on social media! Let me know what you thought of the video in the comments below and also let me know how you like the wall art designs! I truly hope you love my printable creations because I love designing inspiring items that help you keep motivated and organized throughout your day!

xoxo,

Photography

{Picture Perfect} 3 Tips to a Better #OOTD

Apart from #selfies, I would have to say that #OOTDs are probably one of the most popular categories of images you will see out there on the internet! Obviously, if you are a fashion blogger, #OOTD (aka Outfit of the Day) photos are your bread and butter, but with so many fashion bloggers and style enthusiasts out there, its hard to stand out and really create a unique and beautiful image from something as simple as your outfit! So, I thought I would dedicate this latest installment of my Picture Perfect series to sharing my top tips to taking a better #OOTD!

Tip #1: Take it Outside

I think we are all familiar with those very common #OOTDs taken inside a bathroom or through a full length mirror, and no matter how cute the outfit, these pictures are inevitably underwhelming with bad lighting and a poor overall scene. If you really want to show your outfit in the most positive light, take it outside! Not only will the natural light be super flattering on the clothing, it is so much nicer to look at an #OOTD with some pleasant scenery. Just make sure that you aren’t taking the photo at mid day or in direct sunlight, unless you want that overly bright, ethereal look for your image.

Tip #2: Show your Outfit in Action

For the most part, staged photoshoots for #OOTDs rarely seem relaxed or natural. If you really want to give your audience a sense of the experience your outfit conveys, you need to show it in action. Go run some errands, have brunch with your friends, or get some work done in the office and in the midst of it, take a moment to snap some pictures of you living in your outfit. You might not get all the details of the outfit in your shot, but you will tell such a better story and create a much more compelling image!

Tip #3: The Devil’s in the Details

Just because it’s called an #OOTD doesn’t mean that you need to show your entire outfit! Sometimes focusing in on the little details like jewelry or a handbag, while providing just a suggestion of your outfit can be a very powerful way to help your audience imagine they are in your shoes. Next time your contemplating an #OOTD, consider getting a close up of your accessories and the texture and patterns of your clothing. It may not be the most traditional #OOTD, but when you do it right, it can be a work of art!

Those are my top three tips for taking a better #OOTD. Whether you are a budding fashion blogger, stylist or an amateur fashion connoisseur, I hope these tips help you to stand out amongst the many #OOTDs out there on the web. If you liked this post and want to put these tips into practice, make sure to tag me @MissTrenchcoat and let me know which tip you are trying to recreate in your own images. I’d love to see your outfits and how you are putting this information into practice on your own feeds.

P.S. Thanks so much to the sweet Chelsea McDonald and her talented photographer Paige Vaughn for providing me with the images featured in this post. Below is a little intro from Chelsea if you would like to get to know her better, definitely check this fabulous lady and her talented BFF out online!

About Chelsea McDonald “I’m currently finishing up my degree in English Literature at Texas State University. I also work full time in Austin, Texas at an online fashion retailer called Stitch Fix. When I’m not working or studying you can find me brunching in Austin, at home with a good book and glass of wine, or baking some sweet treats for the office. I would love for you to follow along on my Instagram: @chelseanmcd “

xoxo,

lifestyle

The BEST Edible RAW Cookie Dough Recipe!

Confession time. I really love eating raw cookie dough! I know, I know, although it may be delicious, its not always a wise choice because cookie dough it intended to be baked for a reason, but it’s just so delicious I have to admit, it has been one of my guilty pleasures in life. That is, until I came across this awesome recipe for RAW Cookie Dough that is 100% safe to eat and actually a very healthy and nutritious alternative! Oh, and did I mention, when I saw RAW, I mean made with natural ingredients, no sugar, eggs, flour- basically, none of the bad things that real cookie dough contains! Although I absolutely love the original recipe as I discovered it a few years ago on Pinterest, every now and again I like to switch up the recipe and play around with it, and I think I have uncovered the perfect blend for me, so I thought I would share it. Now, just a quick warning, this is one of those weird “healthy” recipes where you pretty much have to ignore the ingredients that you are using so that you can really enjoy and appreciate the end result! Yes, the base of this recipe is weird, but once everything is mixed together, the flavor is so good that you will question your grip on reality! Okay, so let’s just jump into this, shall we?!?

For this recipe, as adapted from Chocolate Covered Katie, you will need more or less of the following items:

1 Can of White Beans, drained (I use cannellini beans, but you can also use Chickpeas!)
1/8 tsp of baking soda
1/8 tsp of salt
1 Tbsp Vanilla extract (I use the artificial stuff but pure is also good)
1/4 cup of vegetable oil (I use canola, and I highly suggest NOT using Olive Oil, but palm oil may work!)
1 Cup of Pitted Dates (You can use fresh or dried, find them packaged or in the bulk section of your grocery store)
1/2 Cup Chocolate Chips (the more the merrier, feel free to up this quantity if you wish!)
2 Tbsp Quaker Oaks
1 Tsp Stevia or another alternate sweetener in granular form (sugar is also an option, but use sparingly)

Directions:

This recipe is all about blending your two main ingredients, the dates and the beans so that they are smooth without turning to mush. In order to soften the dates for a smooth finish, soak them overnight in about 1/2 cup of water. I suggest blending the dates and their liquid in a food processor first to make sure there are no large pieces of date before adding the rest of the ingredients on the day of preparation. Once the dates are blended down, I then add the beans (drained) and blend the two together briefly before adding all the rest of the ingredients except the chocolate chips and the stevia. Blend so that all the ingredients are well mixed and semi smooth, but they still retain a bit of shape and texture! Once this is achieved, move the mixture to a separate bowl and add the granulated sweetener of your choice with the chocolate chips and mix those in with a spatula. At this point, I suggest tasting the flavor of the mixture to check for sweetness, and adding more sweetener as needed. At this point the mix will not have a fully developed flavor, but you can get a general sense of it. In order to let the final flavor develop, leave the mixture in a bowl in your refrigerator for a few hours so that it can sit and chill. The mixture will slightly harden, but will still be easily spooned out.

I literally eat this cookie dough with a spoon, maybe a half cup serving at a time! It’s delicious and makes the perfect guilt free dessert! You can also use this as a dip and eat it with sweet biscuits or fruit as you desire. Seriously though, I’m old fashioned and something of a raw cookie dough purist, so a spoon is all I need!

I hope you enjoy this recipe as it really is one of my favorite guilt free treats! Just make sure you drink a good amount of water when you eat this because this recipe is loaded with fiber which is a good thing if you’re trying to watch what you’re eating! Okay, so let me know what you think in the comments! I know the ingredients are a little untraditional, but in the end, the flavor and texture actually works really well for my sweet tooth! Make sure to check out the original recipe as well that I developed my variation from, because you may find it works better for you and your tastes, but mine is perfect for me.

xoxo,

Filofax

Meal Planning with a Filofax

Although there are many things that we Filofax lovers plan and track within our binders, there are few things that can have such a major impact in our quality of life as meal planning. For a few years now I have been dabbling with creating meal plans for myself and my husband. I have gone through periods of great meal organization, where I have had dinners planned out for the month ahead, cooked in bulk to save myself time and money and felt in total mental and physical control! I have also gone through times where I felt too busy to plan meals, wasted hundreds of dollars a month on groceries just to turn around and order take out for dinner, leaving me feeling stressed, bloated and out of control! Now, I’m not saying that meal planning is the key to all of life’s problems, but as a planner, it’s certainly an important part of our day-to-day lives that can easily be organized in such a way that we are saving money, eating better, and reducing stress on multiple levels.

Like I said, I’ve gone through the spectrum when it comes to meal planning, and I recently decided that I was going to light a fire under my butt and jump back in. Of course, now with the help of my trust Filofax, I needed a set of meal planning inserts that could help me get the job done quickly and efficiently. So, I made myself a set of meal planning inserts that I thought I would share with you now. If you are looking to get into meal planning, I hope these inserts help you get organized and on track, as they are available for sale in my Shop in both A5 and personal size. However, even if you don’t have any interest in my inserts, I hope that this post will give you some insight into meal planning using a Filofax, and inspires you to get started if that is something you believe would be helpful in your life as well!

Okay, so to start off, lets talk about the inserts that I made that are available in my Meal Planning Bundle! There are three inserts total, a Meal Master List, a Grocery List and a Weekly Meal Planner! The Meal Master List is what I consider the HQ for my meal planning process. It contains all the meals I like to make for breakfast, lunch, dinner and even snacks/desserts all listed out so when I sit down to create my meal plan, I have a variety of options for meals sitting in front of me. To me, this is step one of the meal planning process because when it comes to creating a successful meal plan, having a variety of options available helps create diversity in your meal plan, so that you don’t get bored with your food options and resort to take out!

The Grocery List insert is pretty straight forward. It’s a simple checklist where you can write down all the groceries you will need for your meal plan and of course any extras you need to pick up at the store as well. Having a complete grocery list may seem like a no-brainer, but your grocery list can be a make or break for you while you are at the store. Having a complete, well thought out list helps you to prevent missing any key items you need for your meal plan, and having that list helps you to excercise your self-control, teaching you to stick to the items on your list and not stray! Although this may be tough at first, an important element to the success of any meal plan is the ability to control your groceries so that you are buying only what you need and avoiding any items that may sabotage your meal plan by creating diversions for your appetite throughout the week. Making a complete grocery list and sticking to it has helped to save me hundreds of dollars a month on my grocery bill. Why? Because when you feel confident that you have made a complete list and know that you only need to purchase the items on said list, your mind begins to turn to autopilot and you don’t get any wild and crazy last-minute ideas for extra meals or new recipes you want to try while perusing the aisles of your grocery store! So get into the habit of creating a complete and thorough list for yourself and you will see that in the end, you will save time, money and a lot of hassle!

My final meal planning insert is the Weekly Meal Planner itself, broken down into a grid format so that you can easily plan out your meals, breakfast, lunch, dinner and of course snacks, for your week! Now, I think one of the great things about using print at home meal planning inserts like these, is really that you have an unlimited supply of these sheets on hand. Although the Weekly Meal Planner is roomy, even in the personal size, there are always situations where you may need to create more than one meal plan, especially if you have a large family to plan for or special dietary restrictions you need to keep in mind for separate meals. You could also use these inserts to actually track the food that you do end up eating, if for instance you don’t stick to your meal plan but want to track exactly what you consumed, in the form of a food journal. Again, just another reason why having a printable insert is so much more of a value than purchasing pre printed inserts or using separate journals or notebooks!

So now that you know about the meal planning inserts, let me give you a brief description of how I use them and my process for meal planning! Of course, you may use your inserts differently or have your own process, but this is what I do! First of all, when I am sitting down on Sunday to organize my grocery list and create my meal plan, the first thing I do is take stock of the items I already have in the house. I compare that with my Meal Master List and decide if there are any meals I want to make for the coming week that include those ingredients. If so, I make a note of the meals on some small sticky notes or page flags and then I add any missing ingredients to my grocery list. After I have decided on meals that are already stocked (or mostly stocked) at home, I check my master list to see what else I want to eat for the week. I consult with my husband and see what he has been craving and then we pick out the rest of the meals for the week and write them out on their own sticky notes. Again, I will add any items to my grocery list that I may not have in stock for those meals. Then, I will add any other miscellaneous items I know I need to buy before heading out to the grocery store! Finally, I will take the sticky notes with each meal listed on it and map out my meal plan for the week. I do this on sticky notes because often, my husband and I will change our minds about when we want to have a meal, and that’s absolutely fine, but I need to be able to switch around my meals so that I know what I have left to make if I bump up a meal that may have been scheduled for later in the week!

That, in a nut shell, is my meal planning process. Like I said, you could do it differently to suit your needs, but this is what works for me! I love having these inserts in my Filofax, in their own dedicated section, because it helps me to keep my meal plan at the top of my mind, making it harder for me to just ignore it and order take out! I was previously using a small Sugar Paper for Target bound notebook to house my meal planning/food diary, but I found that because it was separate from my planner (that houses everything important to me and current in my life) I found it easy to forget about it, forget I had a meal plan and forget I was prioritizing this process! Now, that leads me to the final little portion of this post, which is keeping inspired to continue on with your meal planning! The final goodie that comes in my Meal Planning Bundle is a set of journaling cards that you can use in your planner or around your home to keep this process on your mind. There are four designs of journaling cards in the kit, one is a great little portable recipe card that you can keep in your planner in case you hear of a great recipe while you are out and about and want to write it down (how often have you found an interesting recipe in a magazine in a waiting room but couldn’t rip it out and take it with you? Happens to me all the time)! The second card is a hydration tracker where you can track how many glasses of water you have drunk each day in a week! I know there are a lot of folks out there who track their water or want to do a better job of tracking their water, and this little journaling card is the perfect thing to get the job done- and it fits nicely into a planner pocket or can be punched and inserted into your calendar pages so you see it frequently! Finally, the last two designs are two inspirational quotes that I think sum up meal planning perfectly! I absolutely love these cards, having punched them and inserted them into my planner as a daily reminder of my meal planning process!

Well, this was a very comprehensive blog post and I hope it gave you some good inspiration for beginning your own meal planning process with your Filofax or planner system! In case you found this post too long to read, I also filmed a video on the topic that I will go ahead and link for your convenience! If you are currently meal planning in your planner, please let me know about your system in the comments or if you would like to start, feel free to ask me any additional questions and if I can help, I certainly will!

xoxo,

My Productivity Playlist

My Productivity Playlist #6 {Love You like a Love Song}

This month has really been like the greatest February of all time! Well, maybe not of all time, but it’s shaping up to be a really cool month! Not only is it the perfect calendar month with four straight weeks from Sunday to Saturday, but Valentine’s Day is also on a Saturday this year, which is very convenient! Speaking of Valentine’s Day, I decided to theme this months Productivity Playlist with some great love songs! If you’re a fan of romantic tunes or just need a playlist on hand for your Valentine’s evening, definitely check this out! As always, you can listen to my full playlist for free via Spotify!

Here’s what you’ll be enjoying in this months playlist:

A Thousand Years by Christina Perry
Such Great Heights by Iron & Wine
Somewhere Only We Know by Keane
The Scientist by Coldplay
Unforgettable by Nat King Cole (duet with Natalie Cole)
At Last by Etta James
Dream a Little Dream of Me by Ella Fitzgerald
Someone to Watch Over me by Ella Fitzgerald
These Foolish Things by Nat King Cole
Come Away with Me by Norah Jones

These are probably some of my all time favorite love songs! I know I could have chosen dozens upon dozens of great classics, but these have been on my mind lately! I hope you like the selection and that you use it this Valentine’s Day, either as some nice music to relax to or something to add a little ambience to your evening! Let me know in the comments your favorite love songs and if you also share a particular love for the ones on my list!

xoxo,

Solutions

The Key to Finding Love

I know February can be something of a controversial month. Most people in relationships claim this month as a chance to celebrate their love, while those currently in between relationships complain that February is nothing special and that Valentine’s Day is just a product of the greeting card, chocolate, floral and jewelry industries! Whatever your stance, I thought that this would be the perfect opportunity to share my wisdom with my readers when it comes to what I have learned about love thus far in my short existence! I don’t claim to be a professional or highly schooled on the subject, but I have a few common sense lessons to share that will hopefully help any of you out there who are looking for a deep, meaningful relationship. Whether you are currently single, or in a relationship lacking that special something you are longing for, I submit this post to you like an old love song dedicated to the lonely hearts club!

First Key to Finding Love: Stop Looking

You know the old adage that “you find love when you aren’t looking,” well it is completely true! I have said it before and I will say it again, but love is invisible (obviously) so you can’t go around searching for it. It’s not a shoe that you lost in the back of your closet, it’s not the perfect little black dress hanging out on some rack in a department store waiting for you to spot it, and it certainly isn’t something you can concoct with a spare guy and a quick recipe! Love, in fact, is an energy! Which means it must be attracted! Because of this basic principle, it is possible for you to repel love through the act of searching, the way a magnet repels another if it uses a similar charge. So, if you have been searching high and low for Mr./Mrs. Right and have come up short, this is why! So, halt all efforts immediately and jump straight into the next lesson!

Second Key to Finding Love: Self Love Means Everything

If love is an energy that can only be discovered by being attracted, the best possible way to find it is to love yourself. Why? Because if you are truly, madly, deeply in love with yourself, who the heck wouldn’t want to also fall in love with you? Self love is everything when it comes to finding true romantic love. First of all, to love yourself means to truly know and understand yourself and your own mind and heart. Once you are in tune with that your heart and mind want, it actually becomes much easier to identify Mr./Mrs. Right once they are inevitably attracted to you! Secondly, when it comes to love, you will attract that which you believe you deserve deep down inside. So if you loath yourself inside and have a laundry list of flaws that you like to dwell on, and generally don’t have much esteem or confidence in yourself, guess what? You will find someone who is attracted to that weakness in you and they will latch on and exploit it! We’ve all see it before, maybe it hasn’t happened to you personally or to someone you know intimately, but I bet you know someone in that situation. Where they didn’t have any self esteem or self love and they got into a relationship because they were desperate for one and they ended up being used and abused. So, if you want to find a relationship, one with someone who thinks you are wonderful and amazing and will love you to the moon and back, you need to feel that way about yourself. You will attract a partner who will treat you the way you treat you, so make sure you are loving yourself to the moon and back first!

Third Key to Finding Love: Put Yourself Out There

One of the major barriers to finding love these days really stems from a lack of accessibility. If you don’t put yourself out there, you will never attract a loving partner. Common excuses for this range from work, to family obligations, to having too many friends, but when you boil it down, the truth is you are not prioritizing yourself and putting yourself in the situation to have love find you. This may be because you are truly a busy person, or it may be because you are afraid to put yourself out there, but either way, you are making no progress and should therefore not be surprised when no one comes knocking on Friday night! Another common defense I hear is that you do put yourself out there but there are no good available guys/gals. Untrue! The truth to this situation is that you are going out, usually with friends, and you are not actually putting yourself into the right setting. Putting yourself out there doesn’t mean going out to bars and clubs and to the movies with friends, it means prioritizing yourself, and your hobbies, and getting yourself involved in external situations without the crutch of a friend or another security blanket. The best way to meet people to start a relationship is to join a regular activity or group that interests you. Join it for the fun and for the heck of it, but make sure its something you like, whether that be spending time outdoors, or joining a book club, following your passions will always guide you in the right direction! Get involved with something, put yourself out there, be open to new friends and new experiences, that is the key to finding love!

I hope you found this post informative and helpful! Like I said in the introduction, I am no love expert, but these lessons aren’t ones you need a degree in to understand. For some people finding love is easy, its the part that comes later on that is really the difficult stuff! If you start to understand and practice these three simple tips, I think you will surprise yourself with the amount of attention you will begin to receive and theamount of eligible individuals you will start to notice!

xoxo,

Filofax

{Filofax Coffee Break} DIYs & New Accessories!

Hello my Strange & Charmed Ones! Good morning and happy Monday! It’s time again for another Filofax Coffee Break, where I catch you up on my planners and productivity as we sit around with a nice cup of our favorite hot beverage. Now before I officially start talking about what is new with me, I wanted to follow-up with a loose end from my previous post in this series. As I told you last time, I recently received a Webster’s Pages Planner and since then, I wrote up a review for the planner and posted it to my Facebook page! If you would like to check out the review, please head on over to my Facebook page here, give it a like and enjoy! From now on I am going to be creating exclusive content for my Facebook community, things like product reviews, behind the scenes sneak peeks, and personal/life updates, so if you want more dedicated content, make sure you are following me on Facebook!

Okay, so let’s jump into my latest updates! Over the last few weeks, I have made a couple of awesome planner related videos including a few new DIYs! Click below if any of these titles pique your interest.

These videos are filled with a lot of great information, tips and tricks, so I highly suggest checking them out. Specifically, I have been obsessed with making myself Reusable To Do Lists for my planner, and if you can only watch one video, this is the one I would recommend. With this simple method, I have been able to create a number of reusable task lists to organize my work, plan my meals, organize my groceries and even do a bit of mind-mapping! They are very easy to make and even easier to use because they are essential white boards for your planner!

Also, if you are new to my blog and videos and just getting started with the planner community, you may want to start with my How to Get Started with a Filofax Style Planner video! Here I outline the basics of choosing, organizing and using a 6 ring style planner. The video has been very popular and I’ve been receiving many messages from viewers who have told me how helpful it has been, so definitely check it out if you are getting your first Filofax and want to learn the basics.

Now, let’s move on to some awesome Filofax accessories I have been loving lately! First and foremost, I have been making embellished paperclips for quite some time. I know I shared a few that I had made in my previous post, but I have seriously stepped it up a notch in recent weeks with these gemstone clips pictured above! These are very easy to make, using some gems I purchased from my local craft store (AC Moore, also available at Michaels and I assume all general craft stores). To make them I used my very simple DIY Paperclip method outlined in this video and voila!

The final Filofax accessory item I have to talk about is a new on the go stationery pouch I have been using. You may have seen this image above if you follow me on Instagram, and ever since I posted it I have been getting many questions about where I purchased it. This awesome little pouch is actually from a makeup brush kit from Forever 21. I think this pouch is perfect for me because it’s nice and small, but it contains dedicated spaces for pens, as well as a nice little pocket to store sticky notes, page flags, and other flat accessories! The exterior of the pouch is a simple black faux leather, but inside, well, inside is like a dream come true for me with a bold print of black and white stripes! Stay tuned to my YouTube channel because I have a feeling this little pouch will most likely make its way into a video or two in the coming weeks, seriously, how can it not, it’s absolutely adorable!

Well, those are all the updates that I have for now! Make sure to stay tuned to my Facebook page and Instagram account for up to date information on my planners, supplies and productivity! Please let me know what you have been loving and playing around with in your own planner recently! I would love to hear about any new DIYs or planner projects you have undertaken and of course if you would like to share pictures of your planner or projects with me, feel free to tag me @MissTrenchcoat on Instagram so I can like your pictures and comment! Until next time loves!

xoxo,

Productivity

7 Lessons Learned from #GIRLBOSS!

Last spring the book #GIRLBOSS debuted on bookshelves in a marketing whirlwind. All of a sudden this book I hadn’t heard of was everywhere from blogs to the news and if you could judge a book by its cover, it looked seriously awesome! It was also written by a seriously awesome woman, Sophia Amoruso, the twenty something CEO of the wildly successful Nasty Gal online (and now brick & mortar) clothing retailer! Being a twenty something entrepreneur myself, I jumped on the bandwagon with the book and ordered it, read a bit of the book and then, like many books that had come before it, I shelved it and forgot to finish reading it!

Fast forward to the beginning of January when I spontaneously joined a book club organized and ran by my friend Lisamarie, of the blog and YouTube channel Paper & Glam! Her January book was #GIRLBOSS and I thought this would be the perfect time to pick the book back up and finish it, so I did! Now, you can read many a review of this book all over the internet, so I am not going to add one more opinion about the book out there, however, I did find that while I was reading the book, there were passages that really resonated with me that I wanted to share. Love it or hate it, this book did have more than a few insightful moments and so I wanted to share those with you in a post! So, here are the 7 Lessons Learned from #GIRLBOSS!

1. It isn’t what you do, but how you do it.

In the book, Sophia briefly explains the “business model” she used that brought her success with Nasty Gal when she was first starting off with her eBay vintage shop. Although there were many shops that sold the types of items she sold, hers was more successful for one reason, she put a lot of hard work, effort and thought into each and every item she listed for sale. From finding and styling models to wear the clothes, a good photographer to take the thumbnail shots, to using her knowledge of fashion and style to write awesome listings filled with styling tips, Sophia put effort into each and every aspect of her sale. This is a great lesson to learn because it really doesn’t matter what your job is, or what your business is, if you think about and put real effort into what you do, it will pay off! There is no substitution for hard work, even on the internet!

2. You don’t get what you don’t ask for.

This is a powerful one, especially for women to learn and really understand. I think ladies have a tendency to shy away from asking for things because we don’t want to come off one way or another, but when you boil it down for your business you won’t make any money or get any customers if you don’t ask for the sale or ask for the business. Sophia seemed to get everything she asked for, and while that may not be a fool proof strategy for your business, sometimes asking is the first step to getting what you want.

3. Never live above your means.

As someone who lives in a capitalist society, I witness commercialism and marketing all day every day! Things from food to luxury goods are thrown in your face and to be honest, I often find myself wanting everything I see, but that is no way to live. Sophia really does a nice job explaining that while she was building her business, she was very frugal and almost refused to spend money. Although she doesn’t really analyse this decision much, I believe it had something to do with her previous freegan lifestyle, mixed with a sense of apprehension that at any moment the rug could be pulled from under her and her business could fall apart. At any rate, this is a great lesson for young women (all women, and men too) to learn! You can’t spend money you don’t have, and you shouldn’t spend all the money you earn either. It’s common sense, but I think coming from a nation in massive debt, it’s apparently an important tip we are consistently missing!

4. Find ways to keep your goals in your face so that you’re manifesting magic!

This lesson is one I employ and believe in, whole-heartedly! I do believe in magic, and I believe that magic is something you make for yourself. How? Well, by keeping your goals front in center in your face, as well as hidden strategically within your daily life, you begin to ingrain them into your psyche and over time that results in you actually taking steps and actions to make those goals real. For example, in the book, Sophia talks about making specific goals into short phrases that she would use as her passwords for her computer. Unconsciously, everyday, she would be reaffirming those goals whenever she typed her password. Eventually, those goals in password form became one with her mind and her mind started acting accordingly so that she could achieve the goals. Now, none of this is science of course, that’s what makes it “magic” because it’s unknown. But boy does it work! Give it a try in your own life and see what benefits you reap by making your own dreams come true!

5. Don’t waste your time obsessing over people and things you can’t control.

This is another one of those difficult life lessons to learn, especially for women, whether you run your own business or not! The world is a really big place and there are billions of us living on it. Of course, from time to time, we are going to come across people and things we don’t like, and unfortunately, sometimes these things are unavoidable, as much as we wish we could just run away from them. They may be people or problems right in front of us that we can’t escape, and it’s so easy to fall into the trap of obsessing over them, wasting our own precious time thinking and worrying and guessing about outcomes we aren’t a part of. If we stopped focusing on the things we can’t control and started minding our own business and focusing on our own lives and the things we can control, we could do so much more. I know this is hard, I struggle with it too, but keeping your nose down and focused on your own work and your own life will really yield you so many benefits!

6. Define failure and success on your own terms.

In the book Sophia explains that failure is a concept of our own design. To fail means something different to each person and that definition is something you have established for yourself. When you go into a situation open-minded with the intent to learn and grow and experience something new, there is no failing at that. Letting go of expectations and results that are weighing us down really help us to lighten the load and soar higher. Likewise, success is also something we define for ourselves. If I asked each and every one of you to give me the name of a successful person in the world, I bet I would get more than one name. Why? Because what success looks like and means to each of us is different, so define your own success and redefine failure to something that doesn’t exist!

7. You can’t take back your actions, so be smart about what you do!

My favorite quote from the book was when Sophia wrote “There is no AutoCorrect in life— think before texting the universe.” This was a very powerful message in my opinion because in our digital day and age I think many of us do and say things online and forget that our words and our actions have meaning in the real world. In life, there is no going back, the only option is forward, so it is so important to make sure you are thinking before taking action. Sophia documents some unsavory parts of her history within the book, things she’s done that she isn’t proud of, and these are things she has to live with. We all have things in our past that we wish we hadn’t done, and hopefully if we are lucky, these things didn’t have permanent or ongoing repercussions. Life isn’t easy, it just wasn’t designed to be, so it is very important that if you want to be happy in life and achieve all your goals that you stay focused, learn from your mistakes and try to make as few as possible of the bad kinds as you go along.

For those of you who have read #GIRLBOSS and even for those of you who have not, I hope you enjoyed this post and that it gave you some more perspective on the book overall! If this post has piqued your interest in giving the book a try, here is a link to where you can purchase it online! Let me know what you thought of the book in the comments below and if you didn’t read the book, let me know how you feel about the life lessons in this post. Did they give you any insight, or do you too struggle with any of them, like me! I’d love to hear your thoughts!

xoxo,

Blogging

{Bloggers Gonna Blog} The Do’s & Don’ts of Finding Inspiration Online

A good blogger has to stay constantly inspired in order to keep a steady stream of posts and content up on their blog. So, it’s important to take in a lot of various content, much of which comes in via the web and other blogs and bloggers! It is my firm belief that a majority of content when it comes to online and offline sources isn’t wholly original. It really isn’t uncommon for bloggers to get inspiration from each other and from other sources around the web or things they have seen or experienced in real life. That being said, it is important to properly credit sources and give credit where credit is due if you are borrowing ideas from other people or drawing significant inspiration from another source. Why is it important to credit? Well, honestly it’s important for a few reasons.

First of all you cannot expect to grow and develop your own brand based on the work of others, especially if you are consistently borrowing from the same or similar sources and not giving credit. I’l discuss more about consistent borrowing later on, but when it comes to the act of borrowing an idea from another online source, the web is a large place, but it can also be extremely small, and people will come to recognize if you are taking things constantly from one place or another and avoid your site. Secondly, if you become a blogger that borrows too heavily from one or more places, you will get a negative reputation, specifically if you are “ripping off” ideas. Now, I want to emphasize some delicacy when I say “ripping off” because there are definitely people on the internet that straight up take full blog posts and images from sites and repost them without permission and that is totally not okay, but there are also a lot of places where you see someone taking something seemingly innocent like the title or concept for a blog post and then writing their own version without asking the permission of the blogger who originally created the content or even linking back to the original post, and there is a real difference between the two situations. In the first example, it is full on plagiarism, but the second can seem almost innocent and can sometimes be done without even the blogger realizing what they are doing. The problem is, whether you are doing it consciously or unconsciously, borrowing without sourcing creates a bad reputation for your blog. Finally, when you borrow ideas from other sites and blogs without sourcing or asking permission, other bloggers and especially brands and companies, will start to avoid you, and blogging is all about community building. So without that lifeline, your blog could just die off!

Now, the interesting thing is, that if you actually do source your blog posts properly, you will actually find that you will get many benefits you may not have expected. When you properly link to a blog post and give credit where it’s due, you will find that other blogs and bloggers will be excited that you shared their content, more than happy that you borrowed an idea and it will cause a community to build around you where bloggers and brands will want to seek you out! So remember, borrowing ideas isn’t a bad thing, but there is a right and wrong way to do it and I am going to explain some of those differences to you today!

Photography

When it comes to photography for your blog, images are very important but using other peoples images is risky business. I always suggest using your own original photography whenever possible! Of course, sometimes it’s not possible for you to get a certain shot, and it becomes necessary for you to go to the internet to find an image. When this happens you do have a few solid options. First of all I suggest using creative commons images whenever you can so that you don’t get yourself or your blog into trouble! Photosharing sites like Flickr actually have dedicated sections for creative commons images that makes it easy for bloggers to find an image that is up for grabs. Now there are some rules associated with creative commons images sometimes, and those will be outlined at the image source so make sure to pay attention for those guides to know when and how you need to cite the image, and also whether or not you can use them for commercial, non-commercial or derivative purposes! Now, what happens if you find an image online that you want to use that may belong to a photographer or blogger on another site? Well, first and foremost, if you want to use an image that is not yours, I highly suggest contacting the owner of the image to ask permission to use the picture. If an image is on a blog, message the blogger and ask if you can use the image and make sure they have the right to give you permission. Just because the image is on someone’s website doesn’t mean they took it or have permission to use it or share it with you, so make sure to do your due diligence! If you find an image on a site like Pinterest and aren’t sure who it belongs to, you can do a reverse image search in Google to try to track it down and contact the copyright holder for permission to use it. Finally, if you really need images for your blog posts consistently and you want a quick and easy way to find them legally, try signing up for stock image sites that give you access to thousands of high quality images, but of course, this is at a price!

Design Elements

As a blogger, it seems that trends with website design are ever changing and we often want to make sure our blog is keeping up with the Jones’ in a matter of speaking. It’s definitely okay for you to look around the blogging neighborhood and see what your peers are doing design wise on their sites and draw some inspiration from different design and structural elements you see on their site. However, you need to make sure you are not borrowing too heavily from a sites design when applying new features to your own, after all you don’t want your blog to look like a carbon copy of someone else’s (it’s just not going to make your blog unique and stand out)! So when gathering inspiration from other sites and their designs, there is an unofficial rule of thumb you can use to make sure you are taking the essence of the design you like, while also making it your own and that is to change the design up 80% from the original. Now, that means you should make changes to align the design to your own branding so that only a small essence of the original remains, just about 20%. I know this may seem difficult to gauge, but think of things like font, color schemes, sizes, shapes, textures, alignment and spacing. If you change most of those items up, you will come out with something that is your own creation instead of a copy of another persons design! Remember, good artists copy, great artists steal (Picasso), which means to be great you need to find what is at the heart of the design, keep that true to form and then change all the rest until it becomes something completely new and all yours!

Now, that being said, if you do happen to find a design element from another site that is totally unique and you want to use it as is, you need to get in touch with the designer and get their permission. Don’t be surprised if they ask you to pay for use of the design, that is not uncommon, but if you are really interested in it and want to use it as is, you need to have their permission. Some designers may let you borrow one small element without charge, but then may ask to be credited, it really just depends on the person and the element in question, but you need to ask before you take it so that you don’t get yourself into legal trouble!

Content

Content is obviously one of the most important parts of a blog and as a blogger it is important that although you may find inspiration for yours around the web, that you aren’t taking people’s ideas without permission or reference. For the most part I believe this has a lot to do with common sense and the Golden Rule, which states to treat others how you would like to be treated. If you read a blog post on someone’s site and then decide to write the same post in your own point of view, always source the original post that gave you the inspiration. You don’t necessarily need to ask permission to use someone’s blog post if you are just writing your own version, however, I do think it is polite to give the original author a heads up and share the link to the post with them. A simple email that states something like “I read x post and I was so inspired I wanted to share my own ideas about it on my blog but I made sure to mention and link to your original post as my source” can go a long way. You may even find that the original blogger will want to share or even link to your blog post as well, which will help you get more views! If you do happen to write your own version of someone else’s post, one thing you want to watch out for is to make sure you are of course making different points and using your own point of view. It is not okay to write the same post just in your own words, using the same or very similar points as per the original. Even if you link back and ask permission, this is still a shady practice! Also, at all costs, avoid borrowing content or finding too much inspiration from one specific source. Even if you are properly sourcing, if you find that many of your posts are inspired by the same blogs and bloggers, it may be time for an intervention. You really don’t want anymore than 20% of your content to be directly inspired by other bloggers because you need to come up with your own unique content in order to help build your blogs brand!

Now, if you are reading a blog post and you see a line or point in the post that gives you inspiration for a completely different type of post on that one little topic, this is one of those examples where you don’t necessarily have to give credit, but if you do, I bet it would be appreciated. In truth, I think this is the best way to find inspiration and borrow ideas online, where you are finding something small that resonates with you and extrapolating on it in your own post. Taking this very post for example, you could read the passage above relating to the Golden Rule and decide that you would like to write an entire post about how to apply the Golden Rule to your interactions online with blogs and social media and call it “The Golden Rule 2.0”! That post would be a completely unique offshoot of this one that really wouldn’t require a link back to mine unless you just wanted to give credit and build a relationship. Also that blog post would be awesome and now I think I am going to add that to my TBW (to be written) list! Feel free to email me if you would also like to try your hand at writing that post and maybe we can do a little link up!

Proper linking and sourcing doesn’t just have positive karmic benefits, but it also has real SEO benefits as well. SEO meaning Search Engine Optimization, which is basically the method by which you can positively affect your rankings in search results by creating good content (aka get more views on your blog)! When you link and credit an alternate source like a blog that may be more popular than yours, when people go to search for that topic, your post may rank higher in search results because you are affiliating your blog post with someone else’s! So really, it just benefits you and your blog to create interesting content and to source whenever you find inspiration elsewhere on the blogosphere!

So what do you do if you’re a blogger and you believe that your content is being borrowed without your permission or a link back to your original content? Well the long and the short of it is that if a single blog happens to be taking ideas, content or other intellectual property (photographs or design) from you and you are seeing a pattern enough to be asking yourself this question, the best thing to do is to politely contact the blog author and let them know you came across their blog and you have found a number of similarities between your posts and let them know that if they have been borrowing, you would truly appreciate a link back to your original post. Also, feel free to reference or even link them to this blog post of mine that explains the do’s and don’ts for them because they may not have been informed enough to know how or when to cite an outside source for their content! Of course, if someone is blatantly plagiarizing or using copyrighted images of yours, you do have legal options available to you, however, I would strongly council that unless the wrong doer is using your work for obvious monetary gain, to simply send them an email and let them know they didn’t have permission to use it and ask that it be removed if that is what you want them to do! Talk softly and carry a big stick is a great motto to use in these situations because I find that you can often resolve these issues simply by asking nicely and being reasonable first. If that doesn’t work, call in the big dogs!

Now, if you would like to get a little more perspective on dealing with someone who may be copying your work or content, I absolutely love this post and video from the incomparable Marie Forleo! It’s called How to Deal with Copycats and Marie brings up a few more points that I absolutely agree with so head on over to her site to find out more about those!

I sincerely hope this post has been helpful for you if you are a blogger looking for the best way to find inspiration online or if you are someone who is dealing with content klepto’s! Let me know your thoughts on this subject down in the comments and if this post was helpful I would love it if you tweeted it out or posted it to your Facebook feed!

Hope you all are staying productive and inspired!