Sweet Treats
I got to enjoy some Starbuck’s which is always a nice treat to have. It is even better when you get to use your gift cards instead of spending cash on it. Every Christmas I get at least 1 Starbuck’s gift card and this past Christmas I was blessed with 2. My usual drink is a Venti Caramel Macchiato, layered with extra caramel drizzle. Sometimes an extra shot if I need some extra energy. (more…)
Some of the links in this post may be affiliate links which means I will earn a small commission (at no additional cost to you) if you decide to purchase something featured here. This commission will be invested back into hertaintedlips.com as well as help me buy a cheap bottle of wine or some Starbucks. For more information please read our disclosure page.
I enjoy sharing my personal experiences and discoveries with others in the hopes that it will inspire, help, entertain and/or inform them. I also absolutely love it when others do the same. The internet makes this a million times easier. Sometimes I will post on Facebook or Twitter and other times I will write a blog post. I thought it would be a fun idea to collect some experiences and discoveries that I have had during the week and summarize it for y’all here ever Friday. So here it is.
Flashback Friday’s: Episode 1 Family Time
On Sunday I got to spend time with family for most of the day. It was really nice to just hang out and enjoy their company. I always enjoy the time that we do get together and I always look forward to it. The adults talked, laughed and enjoyed some snacks together while the kiddles enjoyed some cartoons. I finally got to try the sour apple slurpee from 7-Eleven and it was delicious!
Becoming a Social Media Pro
Fast forward to Tuesday>>> I was going to different blogs and looking up tips and tricks on blogging like I normally do and I landed on Regina’s blog. She had so many wonderfully useful articles that I read a few of them and immediately subscribed and bookmarked her site. The next day I went back because I wanted to look around again and she had a new blog post just waiting to be devoured. It wasn’t just any blog post though it was a post about 33 Ways To Get Serious About Social Media. Her post is jam-packed with gems. Please take some time out and read it if you are serious (or even if you’re just a little interested) about blogging and/or building a brand by effectively using Social Media. If you are already fairly experienced with using Social Media a lot of the tips are good reminders, however, she breaks everything up into delicious chunks and offers so many great tips & tricks to take your Social Media expertise to another level.
Bake Sale & Game Time
Wednesday I spent some time editing blog posts (including this one) and baking cookies with my sister for a bake sale. I got to get a taste of all the baked goodies that were sold. Spiced brownies, chocolate chip cookies, coconut cookies, peanut butter brownies and rice crispy treats. Everything was absolutely delicious and it was a huge success. The bake sale was to raise funds for a Gaming Club at a local Community College. There were a ton of board and card games to play. I played Connect 4, King Of Tokyo (super fun game) and Apples to Apples. My sister won every game that she played!!
Gmail Inbox Zero… Not Yet
One of the things I have been working on lately is creating a more effective email system so that my inbox stays fairly empty and I can easily find what needs my attention right away. A couple of years ago I subscribed to a bunch of feeds and things just got out of control. I thought I would enjoy getting updates from my favorite websites, however, I never got around to really reading most of the emails. I found it easier to go to the websites when I had time to read or click on their Twitter link when they tweeted an update. I was so overwhelmed by all the clutter in my Gmail inbox that I basically stopped checking my email. I would log in and search for email from specific people (which were usually filtered into folders or labels thank goodness) and unsubscribe from as many subscriptions as I could. I have more than 1 email address but I wanted to get everything to come to my main Gmail account just to make life easier. I decided to take some time out and really tweak my Gmail inbox because enough was enough. Here is what I was able to accomplish:
♥ Mass deleted thousands and thousands of emails (over 30,000). I recently read someone cleaned out their inbox and they had nearly 100,000 emails to go through!!
♥ Unsubscribed from feeds and mailing lists that no longer serve me. I mostly used Unroll.me to make that process easier.
♥ Organized my labels to make my Gmail inbox work more efficiently for me.
♥ Worked on the filters to get the emails to go where I needed them go.
So far I am happy with the results. I will write a more detailed post about this topic later. I am so happy and no longer feel defeated.
Netflix Goodies
I always enjoy discovering shows I never watched before so when my sister suggested National Geographic’s 3-part series Brain Games I was excited to check it out. This series explores the brain and how it processes what it takes in. It includes a bunch of cool illusions and explanations of why we “see” things the way that we do.
Another cool series we watched was Stan Lee’s Superhumans. This series explore’s genetic mutations and the possible Superhuman abilities that may occur because of them. Both series are pretty cool and I enjoyed watching them.
What great things happened to you this week?
What are your favorite board or card games?
How organized is your Gmail inbox?
What series did you check out this week?
Some of the links in this post may be affiliate links which means I will earn a small commission (at no additional cost to you) if you decide to purchase something featured here. This commission will be invested back into hertaintedlips.com as well as help me buy a cheap bottle of wine or some Starbucks. For more information please read our disclosure page.
Big Women Big Love Cast (source: LifetimeTV)‘Big Women: Big Love’ is a new reality series on Lifetime that premiered at the beginning of this year. The series follows the dating experiences of 5 plus size women, each with different relationship backgrounds. Some have had serious relationships in the past others are new to the dating scene.
In the beginning I was hesitant to watch. Bigger women get enough crap for their size and I wasn’t sure if this show was just another way to show how horrible and miserable it is to be a larger woman. We don’t need pity from anyone and we certainly do not need anymore negative portrayals of plus size women anywhere else. There is enough hullabaloo floating around as it is. (more…)
Some of the links in this post may be affiliate links which means I will earn a small commission (at no additional cost to you) if you decide to purchase something featured here. This commission will be invested back into hertaintedlips.com as well as help me buy a cheap bottle of wine or some Starbucks. For more information please read our disclosure page.
I was reading a post on Brown Girl Bloggers titled Blogger Discussion: Is The Blogroll Dead? and it reminded me that I have not added my blogroll back since I revamped this blog. It also got me thinking about how this “trend” has became a thing of the past.
For those of you new to the blogosphere a blogroll is a list of favorite/frequently read blogs. The picture is a screenshot of the blogroll on my other blog.
I am what some folk call an “old school blogger” I have had an online presence since around 1998 and have seen trends come and go. From the types of templates used to the topics that people blog about. Having a blogroll was a way for bloggers to share the blogs they enjoyed reading with their readers. Sometimes it would strictly be their friends but other times they would break it down into categories/topics. A long time ago I had mine separated into categories. For example I would have:
– personal blogs
– webdesigner portfolio’s
– fashion blogs
I commented on the Brown Girl Bloggers post noting how having a blogroll is a norm (to me) and that I noticed it has died off. It is such a norm to me that when I started discovering new blogs in the past couple of years I would search an entire blog and be confused about where their link section was.
I now realize that the idea of a blogroll really was a trend and a lot of bloggers not longer have them on their blogs. What is popular now is link roundups (which I do plan on doing again), guest blogging (not as popular as it originally was) and/or doing spotlights on one or more bloggers at a time.
Part of it makes me think bloggers are afraid that they will lose their readers to other blogs. I understand this and I fear that as well sometimes. However, I also believe that if someone likes your blog they will eventually come back to see what you are working on. Focus on giving your best and doing what brings you joy. The readers will come.
Personally, if I really like a blogger I will come back again and again. I have been a fan of some of my favorite bloggers for years. I have seen them go through career changes, marriage, divorce or build businesses and break down barriers as well as so many other events and circumstances. Them linking to another blog has never changed my adoration for them.
For the bloggers that I really love & inspire me I am always interested in what inspires them and brings them joy. It is sort of like when your favorite person (family member, friend, celebrity) shares who inspires them the most. When a blogger links to another blogger it makes me appreciate them even more. They are giving me something fresh and new to discover.
One of the best things about a blogroll is that it is usually a static page or list on the blog so even if the site has not been updated recently, I can check out some of the links they posted until there is a new blog post on that blog. When someone links to something within a post if you miss the post or it gets archived you have to do some digging but if the link is on a blogroll it is right there for you to visit.
It is up to you as a blogger to decide how you want your blog to look. You can have a short list of your favorite blogs, a long list or no list at all but for me the blogroll is not dead. It is very much alive. Don’t be afraid to try it out and see how it works for you.
I am going to add a list of my favorite blogs somewhere on the site in either a blogroll or on a static links page within the next couple of weeks and I hope y’all discover a new blog to enjoy because of it.
Note: Since posting this the Brown Girls Bloggers website has been closed.
What are your thoughts on having a Blogroll?
Do you have a list of your favorite blogs on your website?
Some of the links in this post may be affiliate links which means I will earn a small commission (at no additional cost to you) if you decide to purchase something featured here. This commission will be invested back into hertaintedlips.com as well as help me buy a cheap bottle of wine or some Starbucks. For more information please read our disclosure page.
Even though I have certain blogs that I adore and frequent I am always on the lookout for new blogs to read and decided it would be nice to give my readers more ways to follow my blog as well. You can now follow hertaintedlips on Bloglovin.
What other websites do you use to discover new blogs?
Some of the links in this post may be affiliate links which means I will earn a small commission (at no additional cost to you) if you decide to purchase something featured here. This commission will be invested back into hertaintedlips.com as well as help me buy a cheap bottle of wine or some Starbucks. For more information please read our disclosure page.
Valentine’s Day is on a Saturday this year, which means places during the day (nail salons & hair salons) and evening (movies, bars and restaurants) are going to be busier than usual. If you are single and not interested in being out there with the craziness there are other ways to enjoy your day. It is not too late to plan some indoor activities for yourself and/or your other single friends. Being single on Valentine’s Day is not an issue! Here are some ideas to begin with.
Girls Night In Ideas
♥ Get together with with a group of your other friends that are also single on Valentine’s Day. Each person can provide a snack, beverage or cups/utensils. You can have girl talk, play games like Cards Against Humanity, or any other card or board game that one of you own. And of course chick flicks are always a great option.
♥ Plan a Skype or FaceTime date with a friend or family member that you haven’t been able to connect with in a while.
♥ Offer to cook someone a meal or bake them something special. The elderly woman that lives down the hall may be single on Valentine’s Day and would probably appreciate something from your recipe box.
♥ Organize. Pour a glass of wine or shake up a margarita and clean out your closet, desk, laptop or whatever else you have been putting off lately. You can do it on your own or with friends. We all have that one friend that likes to organize and re-decorate things.
Sometimes being single on Valentine’s Day just means more time for YOU. If you’re more into spending time alone there are a lot of things you can do as well.:
♥ Grab a good book, light some candles and prepare a soothing bubble bath.
♥ Write. If you journal, kick your feet up, snuggle in and write your heart out. If you have a blog, write a blog post or work on some of those drafts that you have been avoiding. You can even write about your thoughts on being single on Valentine’s Day.
♥ Watch something. Between cable, Hulu, Netflix & YouTube (or PornHub if that floats your boat) there are thousands of things for you to watch. Catch up on your favorite shows, watch a movie (or five) and snack on something delicious.
♥ Take a nap or meditate. Use the day to just unplug & unwind.
♥WINE! Drink it… try a different one than you normally would or try a new mixed drink recipe.
Whatever you decide to do I hope that you enjoy yourself. You have a whole day to do a handful of things (or nothing at all if you choose).
Note: I am spending my Valentine’s Day watching my niece and nephew so that my sister & her husband can have a nice evening together. Movies, snacks and games are on our menu. Let me know what you have planned in the comments section.
Some of the links in this post may be affiliate links which means I will earn a small commission (at no additional cost to you) if you decide to purchase something featured here. This commission will be invested back into hertaintedlips.com as well as help me buy a cheap bottle of wine or some Starbucks. For more information please read our disclosure page.
Sweet Treats
. My sister won every game that she played!!
I was excited to check it out. This series explores the brain and how it processes what it takes in. It includes a bunch of cool illusions and explanations of why we “see” things the way that we do.
. This series explore’s genetic mutations and the possible Superhuman abilities that may occur because of them. Both series are pretty cool and I enjoyed watching them.
, or any other card or board game that one of you own. And of course chick flicks are always a great option.