Monday, October 20, 2014

Double Contest: Photography and Art





(why so many pictures? Mentioned below)


Heehee, I just realized this is my 30th post and I have 30 followers. How funny. No? Okay.

It’s the post most of ya’ll have been waiting for…!

Calling all photographers and artists!!!

Let’s celebrate 30 followers, okay? ;)

I’ve been wanting to do this for a while, but I limited myself, and thought a good time to do it would be when I have a certain amount of followers…30! I wouldn’t have been able to wait until 50, we can do something else then.

I chose something that just about everyone and anyone (or at least most people) can do. There are many more photographers than there are artists, but some artists are more skilled at art than they are photography, but I wanted everyone to have a chance and…

I LOVE CONTESTS.


Friday, October 17, 2014

Six Motivations to Cleaning your Room



Six Motivations to
Cleaning your Room!!

By Bree R.

(Sorry for no visual intro) :(



You roll around in your bed to face your alarm clock.
Its Saturday.
And that's the day your mom wants you to straighten up your cluttered room to the bone because you're so busy every other day of the week, with school projects, homework, sports practice, and such and such.
So she is giving you a bit of grace.
But to you, not enough.
Today is the day you face every week, one in which you have to stare at piles of dirty laundry, shoes strewn about the floor, papers piled to heaven on you your desk, and everything else you own that is “not in its proper home”.
Your first extinct when you look at this mess is, “I do not want to tackle this monster, and so I won't.”

Can you relate?

We all know that the want to clean your room is not something that comes naturally.

So how does it come?

I have come up with a list of things you can do to get you motivated to get rid of that monster you fear so much!

And enjoy it.

What?

Okay, so here they are, in order:



1. Let Everybody Know What You're Doing First
Go out to the living or wherever the people are, and announce, “I'm going to clean my room!” Ask politely if they can allow you to do this for however long you set your time (see step 2) without calling you out to do something else every ten minutes, which can distract you, or cause you to loose your motivation.


2. Set a Time Limit
Look around your room and estimate how long it might take. My room usually takes about 30-60 minutes to tidy if I include some deep cleaning and I keep at it. But I used to get distracted and dawdle a bit. :/ I'm glad that won't happen anymore! Anyway, say you think it will take 45 minutes, according to your usual timing. Now shrink it down 10 minutes. You can do this without dawdling. Add that number to the time right now and set your alarm clock for 35 minutes from now. This will make you want to “beat the beep”. LOL, I do this with the shower too, just for the record. I like to take long, hot showers, which was not good for our water bill. With a timer in there, I hurried to beat it and usually was out with 3 minutes still on the timer. Anyway, thought you might like that tip if you have trouble with this too, LOL.




3. Put on Some Fun Music!
Put on some music. I have a really great suggestion. Click: Jamie Grace playlist to listen to some very bubbly, fun, get-you-moving beats. (quick bite: White Boots is one of my faves!! Which surprises me because I'm not a country fan) XP I find that when I have this on, I unconsciously start putting things away in the living room or wherever its on. LOL! Its not rock-n-roll, and usually when I have on Britt Nicole, tobyMac, or something harder like that, I want to stop cleaning and just dance in front of the mirror. (There. Its out.) ^.^ But with music from Jamie Grace, I enjoy singing along and cleaning. I don't know why, and I don't know about you, but this is my #1 motivation! You should definitely try it. If you don't have a laptop, you can download the awesome Spotify app on your phone and play her album either “Ready to Fly” or “One Song at a Time”. They're both really great. And if you don't have a phone, you can ask to borrow your mom or dad's phone or laptop, and if they don't have an iPhone, well, then you're just down on your luck. XD


4. Have Something Good to Munch on
Get something like crackers or chips, but make it something healthy. Like...trail mix. A finger food is something you can easily grab here and there when you need a second. Have some sort of healthy refreshing drink. I like water, but you can have, like, vitamin water, a protein shake, anything that will boost your system. If you keep shoving Doritos or sour gummy worms in your mouth, or chugging down a soft drink with 50 grams of sugar, you are not going to want to clean your room. You'll find yourself nodding off in a lounging chair, not feeling good, and if you're not doing that, you'll find yourself either bouncing off the walls dancing along to the music or getting distracted. And even later you won't feel good, probably with a headache (I have learned a lot in the three-year journey of our healthy food conversion). XD So some really good snacky foods will do these two things: Make you feel fresh and energized, and just having a snack in there will give you the impression that you don't have to be so strict about having breaks. Have I gotten the point across? ;)


5. Change Your Clothes
This may sound weird, but it helps me. If you're wearing something tight like skinny jeans with a studded belt or a tight tank top with a vest, and a scarf, and a bunch of other accessories like you were about to go to the mall, you might find it hard to move around. Your clothes might get uncomfortable or in the way. Change into a big T-shirt and sports shorts, which are much comfortable and, of course, easier to move around in.




6. Set a System
You might even consider sitting down with a piece of paper and a pencil. Or the laptop, and you can print this out and put it up on your pin board or wherever so you can use it next time. Look around for the most stressful or biggest part of the mess. Say, laundry. Write it down. Here is an example according to my messes:

1. Put dirty clothes in hamper and wash
2. Put all shoes on shelf
3. Put away yarn and needles/hooks
4. Clean up trash and/or unneeded papers

…....

One day I went to clean my room and didn't know where to start. \oOo/ So once I thought of something (What do I own the most of...? CLOTHES.) I took care of that, wrote it down and how long it took. I did this with every single other little step, including how long it took to find all my hair elastics and put them away, and at the end, I found it took me about 62 minutes. One hour! (Actually, I was in there for five, trying to write it all down and coming out a few times and such. AUGH!) I added ten minutes to this, and planned on diminishing my clutter in 70 minutes next time, but trying to get it done in 60. I typed it up and printed it out so I can easily see how long this took me last time, or what  I did in order. Makes it a billion times easier. You might even want to clean your room next time to test and see how your schedule works!

So you can make up your own list, this was just an example. This is something that will help you relax instead of turning around, ready to win, with your hands together and then loosing hope.

~

So, I hope these tips have helped! I know they did me.

Let me know how it helped you below, 'kay?

Thanks for reading!

~


(Psst, two more followers-right now I have 28-and hopefully in the next post you'll hear something about a.....contest...? Yes! A contest! My very first one! I'm really excited about it. If you like taking pictures and/or drawing/painting, I'm going to host a big double contest-two at once-so hopefully everyone can do something.) ;)


I'd like to thank Large Family Logistics for helping me get motivated to write this, but I tried not to copy anything exactly. :)


 


Unfortunately, this was the only picture I had to display. :( Sorry for any trouble if this pops up on Pinterest. :P



Friday, October 10, 2014

Autumn Doodles






I haven't shared this yet, but now I will. ;)

I LOVE ANIME AND CHIBI.

:3

Yes, its something I like have to keep hidden from my brothers, my secret liking for cute stuff.

I would buy anime everything and look at pictures of chibi 24/7 and all sorts of stuff if it weren't for my bros. 

But! I guess this teaches me to grow up faster......

Um....




Who else likes it?





Anyway!

It would have been too complicated to show you how I drew the girl, but here's the best I could do.




I drew a circle for the head first with pencil, and then little ovals for the legs, and two more ovals for the arms. When I was finished with the details, I outlined the pencil in a special ball-point "marker" pen, and colored it in with colored pencil.




And something that chibi artists do is outline the person with a thick, smooth marker line, shown above.

And then I went crazy with the chevron. If you haven't noticed, I love chevron. XD


Just thought you'd like that. :)

(I want to have a drawing contest, but first I need 30 members! Could you help me out? Thanks!)



Wednesday, October 8, 2014

I'm Now On Bloglovin'

<a href="http://www.bloglovin.com/blog/12986987/?claim=2p6bbnqjkm9">Follow my blog with Bloglovin</a>


Hey! I am now on Bloglovin'.

<3

Why don't you be my first follower?

Thanks! <3


Tuesday, October 7, 2014

B&W Writing Contest Entry | A Few Updates

Hello, all! <3

So I entered an awesome contest from the awesome Emily over at her awesome blog, Lynde Avenue. Just click the link to see the contest I entered and its rules, so that you understand. If you want to enter, you better do it quick, the deadline is October 10th

So, Emily, I entered this photograph which I took myself a few days ago and this poem I wrote that was inspired from the picture. I had fun writing it! :) Thank you for all the fun contests you do!

________________________________________



Let it be

By Bree R.




I


If wind be silent,
Let it be.
If straw be beige,
Let it be.
If the sun be bright,
Let it be.
But what about your family?


II


If they be rich,
Let them be.
If they be poor,
Let them be.
If they be protective,
Let them be.
Oh, my ever-loving family.



III


If friends be wise,
Let them be.
If friends are correcting,
Let them be.
If friends be encouraging,
Let them be.
I’m so blessed to have a friend as thee.



IV


If people be white,
Let them be.
If people be black,
Let them be.
If people be themselves,
Let them be.
For that’s how they were made to be.


~


By Bree R.


______________________________


So I wanted to let you guys in on a few updates. Remember that writing challenge over at Crescents and Cranberries? Well, you know how I posted chapter one, but I never posted two or three. Well...I had been writing it on my tablet and was working on chapter two when my tablet broke.

\oOo/
(my "oh, noes" face)

Yeah, plus, it was a pretty long chapter. So in case something happens like this again I'm just going to follow the rules given each week and write it, then post the whole story when I'm finished (I have no clue when that will be). I hope that's okay with you guys and sorry to disappoint anyone! :(

Another thing:

I started a Google+ group for my followers and I! There you can ask to join, I will make sure you are a member, and I will add you into the community. What the purpose of this is is you can get the "inside scoop" on my posts, see what's coming up next week or help me out with future posts, fun stuff like that. But followers can also share links to posts similar to something I might post on my blog, might it be a link to your blog or someone else's blog, just hence the name: Introducing... Inspiration! :) I just LOVE connecting with my readers!! <3it.

So please consider joining!

Click here



Wednesday, October 1, 2014

First Day of October Surprise: Guest Post | Emily



Hey, you guys!

I've got a little surprise for you for the first day of October,  2014!!

I'm having my very first guest post! Isn't that cool?

Well, I was excited to post this, and I'm sure my guest poster was too.

Today we have Emily from her blog over at Lynde Avenue (see below in her post for the link). She's got this wonderful "tip" post on how to increase your pageviews. Emily, this was a great idea, and I'm sure many will find this helpful.

So readers, enjoy, check out her awesome blog with a bunch of awesome contests and challenges and give it a follow! ;)

Let's hand the stage over to Emily.

_____________________________________


Hello lovelies! It's Emily here from Lynde Avenue, and I'm honored to be the first guest blogger to ever appear on Introducing...Inspiration. I'd like to thank the amazing Bree for hosting me; she reached out a few days ago after I left a comment on one of her lovely pieces of writing.

Today I'm going to be writing about increasing a blogger's pageviews. It's something that we want, something that's good, but unfortunately not always something we know how to do either! Read on for some tips on how to keep your readers engaged.

First things first - let's imagine the scenario.
You've reeled in a shiny new reader from the vast sea of bloggers out there, congrats! They're on your blog, they're reading the homepage post...but then what? What happens when they get to the end? Do they leave? More often than not, that is unfortunately the case. But you know what...it doesn't have to be.

Add a related within widget to your blog.
Related within widgets are the general name for those "You might also like..." widgets you can find at the bottom of so many blogs. Some popular examples include ENGAGEYA, LinkWithin, and nRelate. What they do is they go through your blog for posts that they thinks readers may also be interested in based on the one they're reading now, and guess what? If it's a good match, they'll give it a good click, and that's a pageview +1. 

Blogger offers a Popular Post widget. Use it.
Getting the idea? The more post thumbnails you can fit on your blog's homepage, the better. The more posts that are immediately available to your reader, the higher the chances are that they'll find something that looks interesting and head over to check it out. Pageview +1.

Insert jump breaks.
Jump breaks are the name of the "Read more..." links that have quickly become the first choice of many bloggers. They're a plus in two ways - first, you're offering more posts on your homepage for your readers to click through, and second, it teases the reader with just a snippet before cutting them off. In a situation like that, I as a reader would open that post in a new tab, keep scrolling down, and repeat the process.... Pageviews? Plus like 90 if you're like me.

Insert links within a post.
Are you writing a post about your everyday makeup routine? Well when you mention that Clean and Clear toner you love so much, it might not be a bad idea to link back to that review you did on it two months ago. If you love it, chances are your readers will want to love it, and give it a good click to see what all the fuss is about. But something to note, make sure it opens in a new tab. To be interrupted mid-read is not a good thing.

And there you have it! I hope you enjoyed this mini lesson on the statistical world of blogging; it was certainly an interesting one to write. Thanks again to Bree for having me; it was great working with you, girl!

On a day to day basis you'll find me either over on Lynde Avenue or working on vamping up my design blog, Twenty-One Designs. Click here for the rest of my Blogger-to-Blogger series, and I hope to see you guys soon!


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