Posts Tagged ‘blogging’

On My Mind, episode 7

laelene Posted in on my mind,Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,
2

Thursday Thoughts

It’s Thursday Thoughts time with Jennifer!

eight bottles of nail polishes lined up in a row

These are the ones I chose to send in.


~I finally, finally mailed off the nail polish I was trading in for the Zoya Earth Day Exchange. I know, I’m over a month late, but hey they didn’t say I had to mail them in by a certain date! I kept putting it off because I didn’t like the hassle of trying to mail in nail polish, but then as it turns out all I needed to do was wrap them tight and take them in to the post office. I guess when you know there are a ton of regulations around something, sometimes you make it seems worse than it is, you know? At first I had put them all into a USPS Small Flat Rate box, but then I found out you can’t mail them Priority, so I had to repackage into another box, but that one weighed over a pound and anything over 13 oz is supposed to be mailed Priority. This was quite the dilemma for me, but as soon as I took it to the post office, they gave it a proper stamp or something and it was all fine.

~After getting my May Ipsy bag and having some items I wanted to trade, I decided to also gather all the other things I have that I won’t really use. I put up a trade list on Makeup Talk and wow, it’s been great! I loving swapping/trading and I’ve already arranged 5. It feels great to get products I actually want and will use and send off things to someone else who will appreciate the products more than I would. There are a lot of things I’d like to try that I haven’t because online shipping always costs too much, so this is a way to save on the overall cost and try those products. So much fun! In fact, I put up my For Sale or Trade list on this site too, just in case you’re interested.

makeup talk trade of products from ipsy bags

My very first trade was of items from Ipsy bags – I sent a lipstick and perfume and got a lip gloss, spray mist, and nail polish plus samples.

makeup talk bb cream and massage oil trade

The second trade where I sent massage oil and socks and got BB cream and samples.

makeup talk trade with various hair care, skincare, and facial care products

The third trade with my sent items on the left and received items on the right.

~I have this tendency to want to know everything and not miss out, so when it came to Ramblings of a Suburban Mom, I decided to start from the beginning and get all caught up on her blog. There were 149 pages of posts to go through when I started about a week ago and I finally made it through them all. I admit, I mostly skimmed, but it was cool to see how her the blog has changed. Perhaps I should do that for my own blog sometime. I used to write a lot more and have less pictures, but now I make to try to include a picture with every post. There was also a period where I cycled through a text, photo, and video post to mix things up. Nowadays I have too much to write about to include as many video posts. How has your blog changed over the months and years?

sitting looking down at cat sleeping on my chest~I cannot get enough of my cat Missy! I just love how she responds to my touch – when I pet her while she’s sleeping, her tail will twitch, her arms will stretch out, paws will spread out, and I swear she’s smiling a little bit. 🙂 She’s such a happy cat and she’s happy to sleep on me/next to me/near me, which is exactly what I want. She also lets me rub and scratch and pet her any way I want. What an easygoing nature! Lately she’s been learning to tug at my heartstrings to get her way though, the sly fox. She’ll meow and meow in this sad little “feed me” voice until I give her the tasty (and more expensive) treats. She gets up on the island in the kitchen and then reaches out her paw to “grab” me. Those adorable little eyes look into mine and I give in almost every time. She’s too cute!!

~What do you do to keep hair off the carpet? Between my cousin and I, I’ve found we shed a ton of hair and it’s so annoying to find strands EVERYWHERE. Vacuuming doesn’t get it all out and I don’t have time to go around picking them up all the time. Sometimes in bed I’ll stretch out and get a strand in between my toes and for some reason that feeling really grosses me out! It’s funny how hair can be so wonderful and beautiful when it’s on your head, but the moment it falls out it’s icky. If you shed a lot of hair too, what do you do about it??

~I’ve been in a funk lately, bumming around. :-/ It’s been hard to get motivated to do anything and it makes me feel like a bad person. I see all these super high-achieving people around me and I wonder if there’s something wrong with me because I don’t care to be overworked like them. I used to be super ambitious and also want a fantastic career, but now I’m more inwardly focused and establishing a good family life has become my priority. Unfortunately, that side of things means spending money rather than making it and well, you still gotta make a living, right?

So what are your thoughts on this very fine Thursday?

Sunday Social: blogging beginnings

laelene Posted in general blog,Tags: , , , , , , ,
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Sunday Social
1. How did you come up with your blog name?

back of worn mead five star fat lil notebook

A well-worn notebook I’m currently using.

In middle school, I was looking for a small notebook that could fit in a purse, yet hold a ton of information. When I found Mead’s Five Star Fat Lil’ Notebook, it was perfect. The size of the pages is just right, it has a TON of sheets (200 to be exact), and the pages are perforated so I can tear them out when I’m done. I had one with me everywhere so I could write down things I wanted to remember. When I started blogging, I had pages filled with potential blog post ideas – the ‘fat lil notebook’ was vital to my blogging! I didn’t want to take the name exactly, so I changed it to “little fat notebook” and decided to add the double parentheses to make it visually a bit “fat.” I like to be different and I’ve never seen another blog with double parentheses. This also doesn’t limit me to any topic or type of blogging so I can write as I please. 🙂

2. What is your favorite thing about blogging?
I love sharing! Whether it’s a how-to (my most popular post to date is about setting up a Facebook page), a review/product feature, or just random thoughts, I like to share it with others. I think people like to know they’re not alone in things, so if you write about it, they’ll know at least one other person agrees/has experienced that too. I wish more people commented so I could get feedback on what they like to see on the blog.

3. What is one thing you have discovered because of blogging and now can’t live without?
It’s gotta be a tie between subscription boxes (which I learned from other bloggers) and getting free stuff to try (which I get to do partly because I have a blog). I absolutely love subscription boxes and I have quite a list of ones I want to try in the coming years. Right now a lot of it is focused on beauty and personal items, but I see my preferences changing towards household stuff once we get a place, then towards pampering again come wedding prep time, then a shift to baby and kid-oriented things as we start a family. Also, I’ve only recently discovered BzzAgent, Influenster, Pink Panel, and other similar sites that send me free things to test! It’s great and I definitely want to keep it going indefinitely (as long as I qualify for the stuff).

4. Facebook or Twitter? And why?
Facebook. I’m never on Twitter and pretty much only use it to promote my blog posts and enter giveaways. That’s it. Facebook, on the other hand, is where I can share pictures with my friends, get invited to events, interact with brands, etc. It feels less “busy” on that site because I can control the level of interaction. Twitter has way too many strangers trying to sell things or get followers or whatever. I pretty much just ignore it.

5. If one celeb read your blog who would you want it to be?
Umm… I don’t really know or care for celebrities, but maybe Ellen or Oprah since they could talk about my blog and hopefully that would bring more readers! Yeah, I know, totally selfish, but celebrities just aren’t my thing so if one did read my blog, might as well be one who can help me grow! I’d love to be able to share more things with more people and learn from them too, but it’s hard to do that when there aren’t many readers connecting. *hint* 😉

6. What is something you want people to know about your blog?
It is constantly evolving and I’m always looking for feedback on what you want to see! I seem to get a lot of lurkers and I’d really love to hear from you. 🙂 I mean, yeah I blog about what I want, but I want to also make sure I’m covering what YOU want! Please do share. It would make my day!

Sunday Social: past & future

laelene Posted in general blog,Tags: , , , , , , , , , ,
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Sunday Social 
I really like the prompts for yesterday’s Sunday Social so I thought I’d join in! I saw them when catching up on Ramblings of a Suburban Mom and hey, better late than never, right?

1 year ago I was doing…
A bit of relaxing and enjoying life. I had just quit my job, was trying to find my way in the world of self-employment, but took a break to go back to China and attend my cousin’s wedding. Not long after, I had a grand vacation with Panda (our first time flying together!) in Hawaii before figuring out what to do with my entrepreneurial endeavors. I started by launching DeckMyPhone.com and later created PandaLoves.com. On the blogging front things were still tootin’ along as they have been since 2009, when I decided to do more “for the public” blogging. Prior to that, my blog was really more of an online journal/diary.

5 years ago I was doing…
Training for UCLA Orientation. I had not yet met Panda (wow, can’t believe I’ve only known him for less than 5 years when it feels like ages). I still had a month left before the quarter ended and I walked for graduation. It would be 6 more months before I finished up my classes since I took an extra quarter. Over the summer, I met Panda and we began our little romance, which has been tough but rewarding! I also went back to China at the end of this summer, getting a chance to check out the Paralymics in Beijing and visit relatives.

10 years ago I was doing…
A whole lot of adjusting and trying to grapple with living in California. I had just moved from New York the year before, was finishing up my junior year at my new high school, and still kind of hated LA. The weather was too dry (my skin hurt), I was still bitter that I had been torn away from my old high school and friends with little notice (we moved within 2 weeks of me finding out), I missed NJROTC (had to transfer to an AFJROTC unit since there was no Navy one nearby), and I didn’t like having to choose between track or swimming (they’re the same season in CA but not NY). Yeah, I was probably a bit of an angsty teenager. Oh, and I had just started to hear of this college called UCLA, which hadn’t been on my radar before.

1 year from now I’ll be doing…
Some sort of steady work. I’ve decided to get back into the “normal” workforce so I certainly hope I’d have a job by then! I’d love to continue my blogging and eBay sales on the side and hopefully will get my blog above the 1 mil Alexa rank threshold. I started off around 7.4 mil just over 2 weeks ago, when I decided I wanted to bring up my rank. As of now, I’m at 4.1 mil and I’m sure it will only get harder to move up but I’m confident that I can make it into the 6-digits range. Panda and I will be engaged, but I do not expect to be doing any wedding planning yet. We’ll both be living and working together (finally!) and building a nice little home life together before the craziness of kids.

5 years from now I’ll be doing…
The motherhood thing. I’ll probably have had my first child, if not a second as well (assuming there are no fertility issues). I’m sure Panda and I will both have our hands full. By this point we should have been married for a few years (whew, thank goodness! I will be glad when the wedding is over). I have no clue on the work front what I might be doing – maybe I love my career and keep it up, or maybe I decide I’d rather stay home. My ability to make money from home could help decide, or maybe Panda will decide he wants to be a stay at home dad. If we’re both working, our parents might come help watch the kids at times. I expect to have my cat Missy as part of our household too. Molly’s old so I don’t know if she’ll still be around, plus she loves my mom so maybe she’ll stay at my parents’ place.

10 years from now I’ll be doing…
Yikes, this one is the toughest one. I really can’t imagine what life will be like in 10 years. Ideally, Panda and I will both be working in careers that challenge and excite us. We’ll have a beautiful home with all kinds of personal touches we added over the years. We’ll probably have two little kids who are just starting the education journey and dreaming of their lives as adults. We’ll have a comfortable life filled with family activities and vacations and probably a terabyte of pictures stored away. I’d love to be getting a variety of subscription boxes so I can have a ton of mini projects to do, ranging from crafts with the kids to cooking with Panda. I’m sure I’ll still have way too many skincare items but a hopeless addiction to trying new ones nonetheless. I might still be trying to use up any single bottle of nail polish. I think I’ll still be blogging and trying to win stuff and selling on eBay on the side. We’ll see!

Languishing

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I’ve been in and out of a funk lately. For a time, I was focusing on a new project, but ever since I got back to the West Coast I haven’t really been able to concentrate on it. Instead, I found myself getting into my blogging again, with a big bout of inspiration. Also, I picked up a hobby obsession with entering (and winning!) sweepstakes/giveaways. Oh, and I’ve started to carve out a little piece of the reviewing world for myself, getting some products for free in exchange for feedback for those brands/companies.

sitting on front porch with legs extended working on laptop

Why wouldn’t I want to work on my front porch?


While all this is good and well, it’s not exactly a career unless I get a mad following or something. I’ve been working on promoting my blog more and I’ve seen improvement, but still, it’s tough to make a good living as a blogger and few people can rely on it solely. I’m enjoying myself and doing what I like, but I can’t help but feel that others are judging me for my lack of career at this point. It makes me wonder if I should be more eager to get back into the work force and earn a more steady income.

I’m a stubborn one, so the more people try to push me towards “normalcy” the more I want to buck against it. But I do see the benefits – I mean, I don’t want to have financial difficulties in my life. I’ve been fortunate to never have been in debt or had anything I couldn’t pay back and I never plan on experiencing that. Perhaps it’s unfair to assume the “housewife” role and stay at home doing what I can online as Panda goes out to work each day.

sitting under cabana working photo edited rainbow filter

Enjoying the weather while working? Certainly!


Still, I can’t help but wonder why I need to join all those Americans who work too hard, stress themselves out, and don’t even have fun along the way. What’s the point of earning a ton of money if you’re risking your health and happiness? Why is it that career success is often seen as more important than personal success (like within the home)? Perhaps that’s what’s wrong with this society. There’s so much glamour in earning a big paycheck, driving a fancy car, owning a large home, and otherwise living the “high life.”

Meanwhile, the quality of life and your personal well-being is completely ignored. Is a crazy high income worth never being home? Is a super busy schedule worth the shortcuts you take for your health? Maybe I’ve been taking it easy for too long (a year), but I sure do enjoy this ability to sleep in or stay up as I feel and manage my time freely. Are you only “good enough” if you’re sleep-deprived, too busy for socializing or relaxing, and soaring in your career? It sure seems that way, what with people bragging about how crazy their lives are.

lounging by pool in cabana with view of harbor

Should I feel guilty I get to work like this?


It’s sad really, that I almost feel ashamed that I’m not overworked. In fact, it’s just guilt that maybe I’m not being ambitious enough with my earning potential that is causing me this stress right now. I’m perfectly happy otherwise – I get time with family, I get work done, I get rest, and I am pretty well-balanced with the areas of my life. But I bet there are those who would look down on me and my situation and think that they’re better off because they have a nice paycheck. It’s not that I don’t want to earn money – I’ve just seen how big the trade-off is and I’m no longer sure that all that insanity is worth it.

I’ll probably still end up getting into the grind, working at that rat race that never seems to end. Yes, even entrepreneurs who don’t enter the traditional rat race find themselves in one of their own. Anybody with a job in the US isn’t truly immune to the intense competition, no matter what your industry or role. All because our society has developed in such a way that we aren’t deemed “successful” otherwise. And gosh darn it, I’m not about to disappoint my family. If they see failure in no high-power career, then I guess I’ll try to build that nice little career. But I’ll probably still languish around from time to time since I can’t quite say that it’s what I truly want. However, I don’t want to be dead weight and/or a burden either. So I guess it’s time to suck it up and get back in touch with my work-related ambitions.

On My Mind, episode 4

laelene Posted in on my mind,Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,
5

Ready for another round of On My Mind? Here goes!

~Ha! I was just thinking about how my blog posts used to be so much more insightful/thoughtful/interesting when I started to get the inspiration bug again and went crazy preparing some draft posts. Tons of goodness to come!

~Sooo I had said I didn’t want to buy any more nail polish until I used up one bottle. Just one! Which shouldn’t be that hard since I rarely buy nail polish anyway, but then I came across a BOGO deal and I couldn’t resist! BAH. I bought it and then promptly spilled one all over my carpet (which took out about a third of that bottle). Karma for going against my word? 🙁 I did manage to mostly get it out (and better than I had hoped at least!).

collage of sally hansen insta-dri nail colors in clearly quick, pronto purple, lively lilac, and blue-away~That nail polish I got? Sally Hansen’s Insta-Dri. I’d never tried it before, but that coupon for buy one, get one meant each bottle was $2. While I may not want to pay $4 for some nail polish, $2 was a deal I couldn’t resist. I know, I’m terrible. But you know what? I discovered an AMAZING brush! Like seriously, why don’t all (or at least more) nail polishes have brushes like this? It applies so well, I just love it. Plus, I really love that these nail polishes dry so quickly, since clumsy old me would usually mess up at least three nails before they managed to dry.

~And if you keep up with the blog, you will see that I’ve decided to exchange some of my old nail polishes for some Zoya ones! At least I’m not accumulating more, right? That’s ok, right?!

~My family went out and got a bunch of Garnier Fructis Hydra Recharge shampoos because of the current deal for them! Only $0.86 in CA if you bring your own reusable bag. Less in other states since our tax is a high 9%, ugh.

collage of broken galileo thermometer

I cleaned the bulbs and put them in a vase.

~About two weeks ago, Missy (one of my cats) broke my Galileo thermometer when she knocked it over – RIP 🙁 – and I learned that the oil they use in it smells naaasty. It smelled like a gas station exploded on my carpet. I guess that’s the only material the bulbs will float in correctly. I cleaned and scrubbed and patted for an hour and the smell didn’t dissipate, so I had to move to another room to sleep. Took about a week of leaving the window open and spraying odor remover on it daily before I could move back. My carpet is forever scarred though – for some reason, it grew a bump that won’t go away.

long raised bump in carpet

It used to be a lot worse but it has since shrunk.

~Panda (the boyfriend) was in town earlier in the month and we got a pretty cool room at the Hilton Garden Inn LAX! I loooved the rocker, which was so smooth and made me feel lighter. Reminded me of the zero gravity chairs they have a Brookstone. The bathroom was rather sweet too, with a jacuzzi/hot tub (what’s the difference?) on one side and an electronically-controlled shower on the other. I got to set the shower water to exactly the temperature I wanted!

panoramic shot of large bathroom in a hilton garden inn lax room

Here I am demonstrating the rocking chair…

awesome smooth leather rocking chair from Mary Qin on Vimeo.

~I had told my cousin about the 1 Second Everyday app, which she was interested in. I’ve been having a blast with it! I was sad, however, that I had redeemed an iTunes gift card for $50 and wasn’t able to split it into two $25 gift codes so she too could get some apps without paying. Then a few days later it dawned on me: gifting an app! I hadn’t thought of it because I never used it (and really wasn’t sure it was even a feature), but I checked and it’s so easy to do it! But by the time I told her, she had already bought the app. Womp, womp… next time!!

~I’ve been doing pretty well with the giveaways I’ve entered and won a couple more, yippee! You’ll see pictures of them after I get them. One in particular I wanted to point out – I actually won another 3-month Conscious Box subscription and this time I got to share an additional one with a friend! I mean, what is more thrilling than winning for you AND a friend of your choice? I picked a super awesome, super supportive friend and she was totally excited. Coincidentally, her birthday was right around then too! Happy birthday!

~I’m so glad I went through that long, long DMV line to get a new picture taken because I am SO much happier with my new picture! The original picture was from when I was in high school and it looks like I have a fake orange tan when in reality I just swam outdoors a lot for our high school team.

driver's license pictures side by side comparison

The old picture looks a lot more orange in person.

~I’m STILL waiting to get my first Goodie box and Graze box. Waaah! I’ve held myself back from buying snacks because they were supposed to replace my snack food shopping and THEY’RE STILL NOT HERE… -___- I, being hugely reliant on snacking to survive/thrive, feel so forlorn… BUT I should be getting my Goodie box today*! *fingers crossed* My Graze box was prepared on the 11th and if I don’t get it by tomorrow I’m going to contact customer service. Yes, you can call me Cookie Monster.

~And finally, I was SO off-the-walls (maybe too) happy to get an email from the Pink Panel letting me know I’m in their nail care testing group. I had just signed up and filled out the survey for the latest testing group and it was awesome to get that invitation!! I can’t wait – I remember seeing Julep in the survey URL so I’m pretty sure we get to test some Julep products. I’ve yet to try anything from them, but I’d totally love to. I’m turning into a nail polish/hand care fiend. Plus, it doesn’t hurt that we get a $75 Amazon gift card (code, probably) for participating. I’m getting my cats a fun feeding maze I learned about from an article on Squidoo with those funds!

*Yay the Goodie box arrived! Time to rip through it. 🙂

How to: Create A Facebook Page (original)

laelene Posted in how to guides,Tags: , , , , , , , ,
104

pinnable quote image for how to create a facebook page blog post on maryqin.com

I decided it was time for me to create a Facebook page for my little blog, so I can really try to build it out and maybe get some followers! I’d like to think that what I’m putting out there is educating or entertaining someone, but I’ve never really promoted it so it’s time to take action.

When I went to create the FB page, I (for the life of me) could NOT find where to choose the “Personal Blog” category! And that’s what spurred this entry. Read on to learn the basics for setting up a Facebook page and how to select a category like “Personal Blog,” “Personal Website,” and more!

Creating Your Facebook Page

webpage to create a new facebook page First of all, here’s where you can create a new Facebook page. As you’ll see, right away they want you to choose a category. Your desired page may fit multiple categories, so it’s up to you to decide which one is best for your needs. Of the 6 types they’ve laid out for you (1. Local Business or Place; 2. Company, Organization or Institution; 3. Brand or Product; 4. Artist, Band or Public Figure; 5. Entertainment; 6. Cause or Community), all but the last one have a dropdown menu with category choices. Don’t worry if your desired category isn’t there – just pick what’s closest or tickles your fancy. In my case, I went for “Brand or Product”and chose “Website” from the dropdown.

You will be asked to enter your page name, which should be the title of your blog, the name of your business, or whatever you want the world to know your page by. Note that Facebook has certain rules in place about what is allowed in a name – for example, I tried to enter my blog name, ((little fat notebook)), but it was immediately rejected because I’m not allowed to use symbols. You are allowed one set of parentheses, but there can only be two words in it (like this) and obviously I’d have three if I went for (little fat notebook). Alas, I then tried just plain little fat notebook and that’s not allowed because the name must start with an uppercase! I didn’t like how Little fat notebook looked, so I went for the boring old Little Fat Notebook. Luckily, you can change it after the fact!

Setting Up Your Facebook Page

Once you agree to their terms and click Get Started, you’re prompted to fill in a description and add links to your site(s). Next upload an avatar/profile picture to represent your page. You’ll then be taken to your brand new Facebook page! A quick 3-step tour is given and then you’re given free reign. Feel free to add a cover photo, invite friends to like your page, and share your very first post!

screenshot of page to set up about section of new facebook page

Adding a basic description.

uploading profile picture to new facebook page

Uploading a profile picture.

Changing To A Better Category

dropdown menu to edit facebook page infoNow here’s what you’ve been waiting for: how to make the page exactly as you want it! At the top, you’ll see an option to Edit Page, with a dropdown. The first option is what you want: “Update Info.” Here you’ll see that the category and subcategory choices are far more plentiful than they let on earlier in the process! That’s where I found a previously unmentioned category called “Websites & Blogs,” which contains the subcategory option I had been hunting for: Personal Blog. The nice thing is that you can change this at any time, so as your site/brand evolves, you can update the category accordingly.

dropdown menu for facebook page categories

 

dropdown menu for facebook page subcategories

 

A few other tips:

Once you get 25 fans, you can reserve a vanity URL (or username, as Facebook calls it). This means that rather than an ugly URL like https://www.facebook.com/pages/little-fat-notebook/457453117668145, you can get a pretty one like https://www.facebook.com/littlefatnotebook, which is much easier to direct fans to. I still need to claim mine! (So hey if you don’t mind, please like my page so I can claim my vanity URL soon!) [Update: I was actually able to claim it when I had just 16 fans – check out my post on claiming vanity URLs to see how.]

When you reach 30 fans, Facebook will provide “insights” about your page, which includes data about the reach of your page and each post (how many people see it, pretty much), how many people are talking about (sharing) your posts, and how many posts you’re putting up daily.

Also note that I was able to update my page name from Little Fat Notebook to all lowercase. Unfortunately you still can’t add symbols, but as mentioned before, you can use one set of parentheses.

I highly recommend putting your website URL in the Short Description so users can easily click to your site from your FB page. Just be sure to input the “http://” so it becomes a clickable link, as shown. (Click for full size.)

screenshot of facebook page short description with embedded link

Now that you have a Facebook page, check out my tutorials on:
~how to manage your Facebook page
~how to link your social media accounts
~how to claim your vanity URLs, and more!

You can find all my “how to” posts for useful tips like how to make a favicon and random things like how to set your iPhone/iPad to stop playing music at a certain time or even how to win a Facebook contest!

If you have any questions or tips of your own, I’d love to hear them! Please do share. 🙂

Creativity with contraints

laelene Posted in general blog,Tags: , , , , , , , ,
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I’m taking a course on Coursera about strategic innovation, which started by covering creativity. One idea I found really interesting is that this whole “thinking outside the box” concept is flawed. Basically, our professor explains how to truly innovate, you need to work within certain constraints, or else your ideas are cast aside as too crazy, too weird, too something. And so, creativity at its best may not actually be thinking outside that box per se, but thinking within and working to alter the box itself. Certainly it’s more effective that way.

That got me thinking though – are people more creative with constraints than they are with none? I mean, if you think of a contest for example, it provides a certain set of guidelines and then lets contestants add their own personal flair or interpretation. Oftentimes, these challenges produce amazing results. I think this is because these people are given a focus. It’s not just about writing the best essay or taking the best picture – it’s about writing the best essay about pie and taking the best picture of a flower. The specific nature of these tasks also lend themselves to more diversity in a way.

I’ve found, for instance, that I can be creative in many ways, but one of the most rewarding has been writing my Wacky Wedding Ideas blog. When I have to limit all my ideas to the general structure of a wedding, it actually creates so many possibilities. Personally, I think ideas I have for wacky weddings would far exceed ideas I can come up with for any old party, or even events in general. Since I already have something to work with, it’s really fun to stretch the limits with what can be changed about a wedding while still preserving its essence. If I tried to write a blog about any cool event ideas I could think of, I’m sure it’d be far less interesting.

Similarly, I recently started participating in a photo challenge hosted by Chantelle of FatMumSlim. Each day, there is a simple prompt and we are encouraged to interpret it as we wish, then take a picture expressing that idea, which we can then share on various social media outlets. This has been a really rewarding experience and part of what inspired my 365great project. It’s always fun to think about different ways to interpret and convey the given prompt, whether it’s as ambiguous as “explore” or as specific as “shoes.” I definitely think it’s a fun thing for anyone to try! What a fun way to exercise your creativity on a day-to-day basis.

So the next time you need to be creative, try coming up with one constraint. It could be something like “there must be something round” or you’ll include the number 8 somewhere. Whatever you choose, I think you’ll find yourself viewing the world a little differently and making connections you might not have before. And as with most things, practice brings improvement, so go on and exercise that creativity muscle consistently!

(The) Cat Chronicles

laelene Posted in general blog,Tags: , , ,
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I was organizing my pictures the other day when I came to realize that I have far too many cat photos. Not that I’m sick of them, but for a blog like this where I want to have a good variety of subjects/topics, I don’t have enough real estate to dedicate to my cats. So, for that reason, I’ve decided to post up pictures of my cats over on Tumblr. Maybe nobody will ever go look at them, but at least I have an outlet somewhere where I can post up pictures of all things cat.

After all, I’m really blogging for myself a lot of the time – for my unwavering desire to document and chronicle things.  So here’s to my cats!  And if you like them too, go follow the cat chronicles and get your daily dose of cuteness. 🙂  You’ll also find them on my corresponding Pinterest board.  I’ll still be posting some pictures and videos of my cats here, since they are an important part of my life that I like to share. However, there’s just so much cat-centric content that I want to put out there that it really needs its own channel.

Hosting scare

laelene Posted in general blog,Tags: , , ,
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Whew! I got an email this morning telling me account was deactivated due to malware or a virus, which made me freak out a little bit.  I reviewed the email and thought that it wanted me to delete a file called “malware.txt” but as it turns out, that’s the file outlining which files might be affected.  Oops!  I called up my hosting company, JustHost (which used to be Super Green Hosting but was bought out by JH), and they re-generated the file for me.

This time I opened it up and reviewed the listed files… they were all WordPress themes or plugins, most of which were inactive anyway, so I deleted all but one plugin.  I carefully checked the PHP code for that lone plugin and determined that there was nothing suspicious.  This time when I called up JustHost, they were able to reactivate the account for me.  What a relief!

Just for precaution, I updated the password for my WordPress account to something more secure, so hopefully that will stave off future hackers.

Fashion-un-ista

laelene Posted in general blog,Tags: , , , , ,
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Fashion and I have an awkward relationship.  I’ve never really felt like I was a fashionable person, or that I understood fashion, or even liked it.  I probably own some things that can be considered fashionable (or at least it was in its prime), but I certainly didn’t pick them out because I knew they were.  Most of my clothes fall into the categories of tacky, practical, free, and/or branded.  I’m a sucker for a free t-shirt or a UCLA-branded anything.  I also totally bought into the various groups I was part of – swim team, track team, JROTC, and other student groups – each of which had its own set of clothes that you could buy to show your association.

I tend to get the most “normal” clothes I can find at places like Charlotte Russe, Forever 21, and Kohl’s.  I don’t go for the stuff that makes me look indie or hip or preppy or whatever.  I don’t connect with those identities, so I don’t really buy clothes that would make me feel that way.  I’m also not into fashion brands of any sort and probably can’t identify most of them.  I saw a place called Bottega something by Rodeo Dr and I thought it was Bottega Louie, a restaurant I’m particularly fond of.  The only Coach or Louis Vuitton stores I’ve been to were in Vegas and they made me highly uncomfortable (who likes to shop with security guards staring?).

header image from tse parfait blog

Case in point: Tse Parfait blog. Full of creative partial shots and TONS of fashionable stuff that confuse me.


Yet, when I see people dressed so fashionably and taking cool pictures with their DSLRs or using Instagram, I kind of wish I had that sort of inspiration.  I am creative in many ways, but not with my clothes, accessories, and makeup.  In fact, I don’t even wear makeup and I rarely wear more than plain stud earrings.  I thought of this because I recently came across a bunch of blogs, all of which seem to have the same themes: fashion, photography, food (and a combination thereof).  These people take such creative pictures, or vivid ones, or just plain beautiful ones.  They’re the kind of people I’d expect to find at a lomography store, with thick frame glasses and really cool bangs and skinny jeans.

I don’t want to look like them, but I wish I had that kind of skill with a camera.  They have this ability to take pictures of parts of things and then piece them into a collage for a stunning masterpiece.  They turn Instagram into their personal playtoy and pump out all kinds of cool images.  Meanwhile, I’ve avoided using Instagram because it’s too overwhelming for me to decide how to take a picture and then filter it.  My pictures are practical – they show you exactly what I thought was interesting, but not really in an interesting way.  So I guess this isn’t so much about how disconnected I feel with fashion, but more about the creativity I associate with fashionable people and how they all seem to be pros with a fancy cam.  Photography is one thing I plan on learning more about, and while I plan on taking a class one day, I don’t know if I’ll ever be as innovative as the fashionistas out there.

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