I’ve been thinking like a blogger. This weekend I instagrammed my food – twice! – before eating it. I use instagram as a verb. I use hashtags when I write (see below). I get blog post ideas and must. write. them. down. immediately. Even if that means breaking traffic rules or jolting from my sleep to scribble them down in the middle of the night.
I’ve been making small strides as a blogger but I’m still pretty happy with my progress. I hit 70 followers on Twitter this weekend and no I’m not being facetious when I say that I’m proud of that. (But yes I did shamelessly just plug my Instagram and Twitter accounts.) Exactly five of those followers are people that I know in real life. That means I made 65 online connections in the past four months of blogging part-time. Remember when I talked about recognizing small accomplishments? 65 followers in four months of blogging averages out to four new connections a week. Small but measurable steps! Chiara from The Indie Chicks personally invited me to guest post on their site and let’s just say that’s kind of a big deal for a newbie like me! I’ll be submitting some guest post ideas this month and am very excited.
Lately,
I’ve been reading a lot of books. Getting sucked into non-fiction travel memoires – particularly Love with a Chance of Drowning and The Lost Girls. Love with a Chance of Drowning was my favourite out of the two. A solid 9/10 as far as memoires are concerned, it tells the true tale of Torre DeRoche as she decided to follow her lover of nine months on a year-long voyage across the Pacific Ocean on a 32 foot long sail boat. Light-hearted, funny, and engaging, I devoured this book in less than 24 hours.
The Lost Girls also tells the year-long tale of the adventures between three girlfriends spanning four continents. Desperate for inspiration and a change of pace from their high-pressure jobs in NYC, Jen, Holly, and Amanda quit their city lives and embark on an adventure through South America, Africa, Asia, and the Pacific. I'd rate this book 7/10 because it felt like a lot of the stories were edited down to a PG rating. It was entertaining enough, but I didn't really have something to seek my teeth into and walked away from the book thinking... Is that it? Really? Something's missing. Too tame which sometimes came across as inauthentic.
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| Via Amazon: Love with a Chance of Drowning / The Lost Girls |
Lately,
I’ve been getting a lot better at doing my nails. Check out my white manicure! Normally my right hand looks pretty rough since I’m right-handed, but I think this is the best I’ve ever done. And yes I am proud of putting on nail polish properly #thankyouverymuch. And no I did not trim my cuticles so please ignore those. Just focus on the nail polish...
Lately,
I’ve been enjoying summer and quiet time with my man. Going on picnics together because we’re a cliché like that. Reading together. Well different books of course, but beside each other, in the same vicinity. Not talking to each other for hours at a stretch. That’s normal, right?
What have you been up to lately?
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Linking up with At the Pink of Perfection.
Your nails look so good! Let's just say I need some practice!
ReplyDeleteI'm so happy thing things are growing for you blog-wise - you 100% deserve it!
Thank you Ashley, that's very kind of you!
DeleteWhat a fun post to read. I want to read Love with a Chance of Drowning -- that's on my "to-read" list for sure. I've heard good things and your review just pushes me closer to making it my next purchase. :)
ReplyDeleteAs for the blogging stuff... you know, sometimes numbers can be impersonal. We think that they aren't enough or we wonder why we don't have more. But when we think about 1 new follower being 1 whole other human being to who cares about what we have to say, well then, it makes it so much cooler. And reading what you said about followers really made me stop and appreciate the fact that I have been gaining followers recently and that is SO COOL and it means so much! :) So yay for you -- 65 people -- that's a lot of people -- want to follow and stay tuned to what you have to say... and especially considering that this blog only started a few months ago? That's really great!!!!!
--Erika
http://www.chimerikal.com
Hi Erika! That's how I view my followers as well... people out there who most likely have no idea who I am in real life but have found posts on my site that connected with them in some way. Pretty cool when you realize the kind of inspiring interactions you can have through your blog, ya know!
DeleteIt means so much to read heartfelt comments like your own so thank you very much for your words of encouragement. I see that you're on year four of blogging now (congratulations!) and that is amazing that you've been writing top quality content and gaining followers all this time. Keep up the great work! I'm looking forward to following along as you continue :)
PS - Love with a chance of drowning - awesome beach read ;) but be prepared for the wave of wanderlust that follows!