Failed DIY But A Productive Sunday

Because I'm such a good blogger, I decided to try a DIY project to share with you! Issue is- it failed.

I had this link from Erica saved in my email forever because I've been wanting to do it. I had a section on my counter of bottles I wanted to do something with and I figure this is something I'd have to do (at least partially) outside so I should do it while it's nice out. I didn't want to spend $20 on a glass cutting kit. So I figured I'd do it the hard creative way. Using Pinterest. Except my computer is being a douche and I'm on the blogger app.

Not like the pin matters. It didn't work anyway.

Also Tom was SUPER against me doing this because I am "accident prone" but I was like nahhhh it's fine. So I set out to turn a wine bottle into a drinking glass.

Instructions:
1. tie the string around the bottle where you want to cut it
2. cut off the ends of the string
3. slide the string off and dip in nail polish remover
4. slide the string back on to where you want to cut it
5. hold the bottle sideways and light the string
6. rotate the bottle as it's burning so it warms up evenly for about 20 seconds
7. dunk bottle in ice water. it should break in the place the string was

Except no. I had a completely intact, slightly warm wine bottle. I realized that the RELAX wine bottles have a kind of coating on them so I tried a regular bottle. Again, no. So I kinda smashed the bottle on the sink. Nope. Then I got super cranky. 

Then I decided I was gonna do something else crafty/creative because I didn't want to do dishes. 

So I put together this wine cork serving tray that I gave Tom almost 2 years ago. That was fun. Lil tried to help. 

Then I painted my nails all fancy while playing fetch with Lils grimy ball the whole time.

Glam Wine Bottle DIY

I actually posted this on my The Blog That Must Not Be Named.. aka my first one that I didn't like. But I figured I'd repost it here cuz why the fuck not?

My girlfriend had been having some boy issues and my biggest peice of advice was "just relaxxxxx!" It got to the point where she'd say something, then follow it up with, "I know, I know, 'relaxxxxx.'"

So I'm at the liquor store and I see a bottle of RELAX wine but in red. Red is kinda her color so I'm like YES. I was also going thru a "I could prob put glitter on this" phase and decided to do just that.

(excuse the horrible pictures. I was even more of a baby blogger then)

- jewels (I used the kind with adhesive already on the back)
- loose glitter (I used Recollections "Fine Glitter")
- Mod Podge
- one of those foam brush things

- spray sealant

- liquor/ wine/ beer bottle

 

1. use the foam brush to paint on a layer of Mod Podge (it dries clear)

2. sprinkle the glitter over the Mod Podge-d area

3. LET DRY!

4. repeat step 1, 2 and 3 until it looks the way you want

5. add jewels!

 

6. spray the sealant according to directions **DO THIS OUTDOORS**

7. LET DRY

And now you have an present for someone that is functional and fucking awesome. Or you can keep it yourself.

What's In A {user} Name?

Everyone uses social media.

12 year olds do. 70 year olds try. There are careers and acedemic majors dedicated to it. As of 5/7/13 there are about 554,750,000 twitter users and about 135,000 new users sign up every day (source) That's bananas.

Check the popular page on instagram lately? Gauranteed there is at least one 14 year old with 80k followers that just took uploaded a picture of they're new kicks and it has at least 100k "likes."

So you're over there trying to grow your blog right? DUH! Social media! And that's where the anxiety over picking a user name starts.

Do I use my name? Do I use my blogs name? A combo? Do I think of something clever?

Mis-er-a-ble.

What if you already have some social media but the names don't all match up?

Please tell me I'm not the only one that went thru that when I was trying to figure out my social media's place in this world. I had so much trouble picking user names to begin with and then when Stephanie changed her usernames I was like ehhhh okkkk I guess I'll start thinking about it.

It took me hours days to decide and only after turning to Tom and wait for it.. social media I decided on DHAccessory. I got a a few votes for DHAblog but in the end DHAccessory won out! Thanks everyone for your input!!

And now for the tutorials!

**you can only do this on a computer**

Before you do this- let your followers know you will be changing your username! 

Click the gear on the menu bar on the top left of the screen and when the drop down menu pops up, click "Settings".

Change your username to what you want it to be. It has to be under 16 characters and one that isn't in use.

After you have changed it, scroll down and click save! Alert your followers again that you've changed your username!

Go to your profile in you instagram app and tap "Edit Profile"

Tap on your current user name and change it to what you'd like it to be

Click "Done" and then let people know you changed your username!

Log into Pinterest and click your name in the top left. A menu bar will drop down- select "Your Boards"

Click the little pencil in the corner of your profile section

A box will pop up and you can change your username there. When you're done, hit save!


Now- a lot of you have social media icons and bars at the end of your posts like this one:

I will have a tutorial on how to change those so they correspond to your correct/changed username on Monday!

Bloggy Blog Tips From A Non- Professional

I have 2 IRL friends that started blogs recently (Savannah @ Arizona Sunshine and Tori @ a little Leigh way! Go check them out!), and I've met a bunch of other brand-spanking-new bloggers lately and one of the first things I do is point them in the direction of this post from Sarah and this post from Beth. I also posted on Wednesday about GFC - how to use it and how to put it on your blog.

A couple days ago, Savannah posted about her feelings/thoughts on her baby blogger status. And not that I'm anywhere close to level of bloggy fame of Sarah or Beth, but I wanted to share some things that have helped me. Some of these are obvious, some you've heard a MILLION times before but I've found all of them to be either incredibly useful in growing my blog or they just make my life easier as a blogger!

Join A Picture Hosting Site
This isn't necessary, but it's a good thing to do. I use imgur but photobucket is also popular (imgur images show up on my computer at work, photobucket images don't!) It's a great way to keep graphics you use often in a place that isn't your computer's hard drive. Plus you can use it to get an HTML code or direct URL for your images which allows you to make buttons for your blog, link up graphics, put clearer graphics on your blog, and easily send photos to people

Have (at least) A Few Posts Started
When you have an idea start a post. I mean most of my ideas come at a time when I'm on or near a computer. Or I have the blogger app on my phone and start one there. Inspiration comes from the most random places and I've found the best way to avoid bloggers block is to get a bunch started. Some days I work on 5 different posts for 5 min each and then end up writing a whole new one that I actually publish. It's just handy and you can pick up where you left off so easily!

Take Notes
Like #2, write things down! I find I get a lot of my ideas from reading other peoples blogs. Usually it isn't the exact post but a tangent on something I read. When I see a post/website/article I want to reference again, I email it to myself with a subject line that I could easily identify. This also helps you credit people for thier work! If you got an idea from another blogger, almost everyone would love you to go as long as you just mention where you got the idea from!

No More Word Verification
This is prob not a big deal but it's SUPER annoying. It literally took me 8 tries to get it right when I was trying to comment on a blog yesterday and I was realllllly close to not commenting at all. It's a deterrent for spammers but it's a deterrent for real people too. I didn't even know I had a verification on my blog until I saw a post from Candice about it. She has an awesome tutorial on how to get rid of it!

Brand Yourself
I know y'all don't want to pay big money for a custom design but there are cheap designers that are REALLY GOOD. I promise. Laura at Sophie & Rory, who did mine was amazing. Plus you can always mix and match elements that you buy separately. And if you don't want to spend any money you can always learn and do it all yourself! I have designed Savannah's, Tori's and most of Katie's blog and I didn't pay anything for the software! (I'll explain in #8) Try and use a signiture color, font, or graphic and people will easily recognize (and remember) your work.

C O M M E N T
This is the easiest way to meet people and make connections. Make sure you aren't a no-reply blogger usuing Sarah's tutorial or Eva's tutorial. Then comment like crazy. Make them meaningful too! I respond to every email but I only get about 9 comments per post on average. People who get more may not have time to respond to everyone so make it worth it. When someone comments on your post, respond! You have to respond to their email not on the post so they know you answered them. And keep the email chain going as long as you want! Comments are conversation starters so don't be afraid to have a conversation!

If You Don't Know Something- Google It!
Bloggers do tutorials on pretty much everything. Learning a little HTML wouldn't hurt either but the basics are all you need. My most used HTML? <center>.....</center>. If you have a graphic or button you want centered and it isn't working, just put <center> at the beginning and </center> at the end of the objects HTML and they will be center aligned! People love doing tutorials/sharing what they know. If you can't find what you're looking for on google, use those connections you made by commenting and email a more experienced blogger! (You can always email me but I don't claim to know it all!) Also Sarah's tutorials are SUPER helpful.

Custom Graphics / Pictures
I've gotten a lot of compliments on my graphics. More so lately. Wanna know my trick? photoshop 30 day trial. Yea. It ends this weekend so I'm super bummed but that's what I've been using (with help from Sarah's tutorial). But there are so many ways to create custom graphics without paying a cent! Sites like picmonkey and pixlr are free and can do almosttt anything photoshop can (unfortunately not glitter letters). And even phone apps like A Beautiful Mess or collage apps like picstich work great and I use all of them in combinations to get great looking graphics!

Sponsorships / Giveaways
Spend some money. If you wanna grow your blog at a good rate, you gotta get yourself out there! Spending money on your blog seems like a horrible idea at first, but I promise it isn't. Sponsor a few bigger bloggers that you geniunely like and that will do a feature on you in some way and it will pay off. Giveaways are a great way to get more traffic to your blog because people love winning shit. Hosting a giveaway is even better! Get some awesome people to cohost and you're golden! Keep in mind, for this to pay off, you gotta have content people will want to come back to. If you're slacking on posts then it won't do you any good.

10. Social Media Your Face Off

If you don't have a twitter account, get one. That's the biggest thing. Even if you're like ehh I don't knowww. Do it. You get to meet people, get your blog out to people through a retweet who may not have known about it and you get to know people a lot quicker. Butt into conversations. Ask people questions. Reply to someone that you follow that may not know who you are. Trust me. It works. Instagram, facebook and pinterest are awesome too. Even if you're thinking "I don't have the following to get a facebook page" who cares. Do it. You'll be happy you did it sooner rather than later. It's a great idea to have all your usernames the same, and a lot of people use their blog's name. Not necessary but not a bad idea. Next week I'll have tutorials for how to change your twitter, instagram and pinterest usernames.

GFC, Bloglovin and Google Reader Walk Into A Bar...

Google Reader is gone. Whitney did a post about her bloglovin conspiricy theory. Helene did a post about how she still supports GFC. There are about about a bajillion posts from people saying "ZOMG f0ll0w m3 0n b10g10vin!" And I want to put in my 2 cents. Because this is blogland and what's the point of a personal blog if I can't weigh in on every topic I want.

Before I was became a blogger, I was an avid blog reader. Fashion blogs mostly and then I found AP. I'm not sure how I found her, but she is the super mom behind I Love You More Than Carrots. And I loved the idea of doing something like that (except mostly about my dog not babies). The things is, before AP inadvertanly convinced me to have my own lifestyle blog, I needed a way to keep up with my daily reads. At first I joined their GFC clubs, but I didn't have a Blogger account so that didn't do anything. Then I discovered Bloglovin. SO GREAT I could organize and keep up with the blogs I wanted to read regularly!

Then I started blogging and found out how important one's GFC number was. At that point I was already using bloglovin but it seems most people were using Google Reader. Then the dreaded news that google reader was going away. It didn't matter to me really but people we're appalled/ devestated. The thing is GFC stayed.

So, I have been using GFC as a gauge on readers/followers/supporters I have and everytime I find a new blog I like I follow them there! If I want to read them everyday I follow on bloglovin too but GFC, in my mind, is a way to show your support for other bloggers. Helene said similar things in her post. It's almost like a "why not?" it takes 3 seconds and it's gonna make that blogger smile when they see their number go up! Sarah mentioned in a tweet that she follows blogs on her blogger dashboard and not bloglovin, which is awesome too!

So when you go thru your daily reads, and when you find a new blog, join them on their GFC widget, it makes everyone happy and it's a great way to say "hey, I like the shit you say"

To newer bloggers: If you don't already have this widget, google is a bitch and made it more annoying to find so here is a quick tutorial!

Go to Layout in your blogger dashboard and click add a gadget where your sidebar is

When the new window pops up, click "More Gadgets" and then search for "Google Friend Connect"

Click on the "Members" gadget. It should be the first one that comes up

Set the height to whatever you like. You can either change, keep or completely delete the title. Click save and then rearrange the gadget to wherever you'd like by dragging it up or down in Layout



And now I want you to meet someone awesome, Stephanie from Drink On It has an adorable pup (see below) and is definitely the fun chick at the party. She's funny and silly and you're gonna love her!

1. When and why did you start blogging?

I started blogging in November 2012. I had previously blogged but deleted it for whatever reason. I wanted to start again and I'm so glad I did. I just love the blogging community.

2. What's your favorite post you've written and why?

My post about my breakup is one of my favorites...mainly because it's hilarious. And everyone seemed to love it.

3. What's been your favorite part of the summer so far?

My favorite part of summer has been spending a ton of pool time with my family. And of course all the booze we drink while swimming!

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