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Hi Friends!

You may have noticed that I haven't been around too much lately.  It's really due to a mixture of things, the biggest of which is that my work life is getting crazy busy right now (the joys of working in an accounting firm), but also because I've been rethinking the direction of this little corner of the world.

When I first started this particular blog, I had started it because I wanted to be able to focus on more of my geeky loves and less on the beauty stuff.  I had had a makeup blog for a couple years before this one and honestly, it got to be a little draining, both on me and on my bank account.  Not that I don't still love makeup, but I'm just not as passionate about it anymore.  I'm not running to the store when I start to hear about new collections, which is wonderful, and I've actually been better about only buying things that I need.

On the total flip side of that, I have become part of the wonderful Funko community on Instagram and it has been one of the best things that has happened for me as far as a blogging/social media aspect goes, as well as on a personal level.  Not only has it grown my Instagram substantially, but I have met some of the most awesome and generous people.  I have been loving meeting other collectors and getting involved in other collector communities.  And, most importantly, it has made me so happy.  I genuinely love seeing other people's collections and diving into other collector communities, like Lego and Tsum Tsum.  

Also, to be honest, being a part of the beauty/lifestyle blogger community was getting to be a little frustrating for me.  While trying to grow my social media and my following, I just found that people would follow me, only to try to bait me in to following them so their following looks good.  A couple days later they would unfollow.  I'm not about that life.  And this obviously doesn't speak to all beauty/lifestyle bloggers.  There are many that I have genuinely connected with, but I'm just not feeling it for myself anymore.

What it all comes down to is this:  I am a kid in an adult body who loves playing with toys and talking about nerd things.  I have a wonderful group of people around me who I am able to do that with on a daily basis and it just was starting to get to me that I wasn't putting that into this space.  Not that I didn't talk about that kind of stuff on here, because obviously I did, but from here on out I really just want to focus on that kind of stuff.  

I can fully understand if that isn't your cup of tea, so if this means goodbye then I understand.  Not everyone is into this kind of stuff so it's fine.  If you're going to be leaving, I want to thank you for stopping by as much as you did.  You're awesome!  And if you're going to stick around, thank you! 

And I guess to make the decision easier, I should probably say what I'm looking to talk about, right?  I'll definitely be talking about Funkos, Legos and Tsum Tsum's, and you can still expect my unboxings of my geekier boxes.  I'm still going to talk about knitting since that is something on the lifestyle end of things that I truly love talking about.  I've been making time to read, so I'll be doing book reviews.  And that's what I have planned so far.  I'm sure there's going to be other geeky goodness thrown in there, but that's the general gist of things.

I'm unsure of what my posting schedule is going to be so stick with me while I try to figure it out.  I'm going to try to get back into two posts a week, but as things are only going to start to get crazier I'm unsure of whether that's going to happen.  So things might be a little irregular until May.  Sorry for that!

So yeah, that's my life right now.  I truly hope that you can all stick around and enjoy my childishness.  It's really fun, I promise.  I love collecting so much and I just love toys.  Being a big kid with adult money is the biggest blessing and curse I could have ever wished for.

How To Find Your Perfect Blogging Schedule

Blogging, I feel, is ever changing.  What works for you today might not work for you tomorrow, and an idea you were super excited about two weeks ago might make you roll your eyes today.  You might have wanted to write about that idea two weeks ago but you just couldn't find the time and didn't want to hold up your already crammed-into-your-life blogging schedule.  The trouble is, unless you're a really successful blogger who has hundreds of thousands of monthly hits, you probably are just using blogging as a hobby.  And with most hobbies, they are made to be fit into your day-to-day life as best you can.  

For me, I'm definitely in the hobby group right now.  I would absolutely love for blogging to be my full time job, but where I am right now that isn't happening.  Do I have some ideas that could take me to the next level?  Sure.  But I feel like there is some work to be done to put me in a position where that can happen before I implement those things.  So while I'm working toward that level, I am trying to find out how to make blogging work into my life so that I don't feel like I'm not giving it my all.

I have to imagine that this is a problem that most bloggers have.  Life changes on a daily basis and things can happen to make a schedule that worked for you last week not work for you this week.  This is essentially what happened to me the past couple weeks.  I've mentioned before that I work in an accounting firm and our busiest time of the year is January-April.  With it being January, I found that posting three times a week wasn't working for me anymore, so I bumped it down to two, which will be my schedule for the foreseeable future.  

Today we're going to talk about finding your perfect blogging schedule.  First let's talk about a couple flags to keep an eye out for that might mean that you should maybe change your schedule.

1/ You're running out of things to talk about

Coming up with original content on a regular basis is hard.  There are certain gimmes, especially for me.  I love to show unboxings and do reviews on different things, but coming up with actual original content is hard.  If you're feeling this way, or that you're just coming up with ideas you aren't loving just for the sake of posting, maybe try cutting down your schedule by a day.  Sometimes giving yourself the time away to breathe and think about things can actually help you come up with ideas.  As many other bloggers say, and I fully agree, you should be focusing on quality not quantity.  You should really try to avoid posting things you feel "meh" about.  

2/ You don't have time to focus on other things in your life

Working a full- or part-time job and blogging is a lot of work.  I've done both.  I feel like I've been blogging for roughly a million years, as I had a "personal site" in high school, a Livejournal in high school and college, and then a couple blogs along the way.  This one is definitely the one I've focused the most of my attention on though, and honestly it was kind of starting to get to me.  While I love blogging, there are a lot of other things I love, too.  I love to knit, I love to play video games, I love to read.  I've been making time to knit, but I can't tell you the last video game I sat down and played or the last book I actually finished.  When I first started this blog, I wanted to talk about books and video games, but it's a little counterproductive to spend all of my time on the blog and then not be able to spend time doing things I want to talk about on the blog.  So try to give yourself enough time to dedicate to blogging, but also to have a life and enjoy your other hobbies.

So, now that we've identified some things that can cause you to switch up your schedule, here are some things you can do to make blogging work for you.

1/ Bulk write and take pictures

This one is huge for me, mostly with the pictures and less with writing.  I generally take one day on the weekend and take all of my pictures for the week.  I plan out pictures for my blog, as well as what I want to share on Instagram and other social media platforms.  This is such a big help because generally by the time I get home from work, all I want to do is sit on the couch and turn my brain off.  I'm not so great at bulk writing, although I would like to be.  I think it would be helpful for me to do advance writing when I feel really excited about an idea at a specific time.  Often I'll write down ideas and then by the time I go to write them, I don't feel that same excitement that I did before.

2/ Schedule your social media posts

Social media is an equally important part of blogging as actually making your blog.  Nowadays there are endless ways to get your blog out there so take advantage of them!  But they don't have to take up all of your time.  I only really enjoy using Pinterest and Instagram.  I'm much more of a visual person, so Twitter and Facebook are pretty lost on me.  I just don't care much for them.  But, I should, and this year I plan on using apps to help me plan out Twitter posts, and Facebook itself to plan out those posts.  As for Instagram and Pinterest, I like to be more hands-on with them and actually scroll through and pin things.  I've spoken before about how I'm trying to grow my Instagram and I'm getting there.  I hit over 500 earlier this month (huzzah!) and I'm actually growing a little faster since then than I have in previous months.  I would love to hit 1,000 followers by my birthday in March so I have been paying extra attention to growing that.  But, scheduling your posts certainly helps for both of those platforms as well, and programs like Tailwind can help you out with that should you be interested in making your life a little easier.

On a side note, I'll probably be doing another Instagram post soon because I've found some interesting things and approaches that I would love to share with you guys.  Let me know if you're interested in the comments!  While I am far from an expert and don't necessarily have the following of other bigger bloggers, I think you can never have too much advice on growing your following!

3/ Write about what you love

This one seems like a no-brainer, right?  But I think that people can get caught up in the shuffle a little bit.  You should have a vision for your blog that is cohesive and a total reflection of you.  For instance, I definitely consider myself a total geek.  I love to read comics, I love Disney movies, Harry Potter is pretty much something that comes up in conversation on a daily basis for me; but I also love makeup and talking about lifestyle stuff, so it's easy for me to make a blog about that.  It gets tempting sometimes, and I'm sure I'm not the only one, to talk about the things that are "click bait" or things that typically get a lot of hits.  It can also be tempting to jump at any and every sponsored post or collaboration, even though it might not have anything to do with what you love to write about.  Things like that are very transparent, and it isn't fair to you or your current/potential readers to be anything but true to you and what you love.  If you work hard and put yourself out there, people who love what you love will find you and come to you.  It gets discouraging and sometimes you will want to give up, but trust me when I say that in the end, it will all be worth it!

Do you have any tips or tricks to finding the perfect blogging schedule or finding time to fit everything in?  Let us all know in the comments below so we can be blogging scheduling pros in no time!

Life & Blog Recap | December 2016

Blog Recap;

Posts;

10 Wise Gifts For Your Ravenclaw |  Weekend Haul II | 10 Gifts For Your Brave Gryffindor |

Christmas In Philadelphia |  Glossybox Unboxing |  

 30 Last Minute Gifts They'll Actually Want | Easy & Delicious Christmas Treats

Monthly Page Views:  1,418 | Most Popular Blog Post:  10 Wise Gifts For Your Ravenclaw

I'll be honest in saying that those Harry Potter themed gift guides were a bit of a challenge for me.  I also was worried that they wouldn't get a ton of traction since not everyone is looking for Harry Potter gifts for Christmas, but I was happy with how they came together and they seemed to do well enough.  I'll certainly be re-promoting them in the future since I'm sure most Harry Potter fans won't mind getting Harry Potter gifts all year!  I also am going to try to not do a Harry Potter post for a bit... at least a week or two... because I may or may not have something Harry Potter to talk about!  But since I did so much I don't want to overdo it.

I'm also not too bummed about the page views going down.  Last year there was one day where I checked my stats and I was at one number and then I checked a couple hours later and I was hundreds above where I was before, so I'm not shocked that they dipped back down.  But I'm grown over my October stats, which are more true to the day-to-day stats I was having that month.  Either way, I'll take it!

 Life Recap; 

Life was crazy this month, as I feel most Decembers are anyway, right?  The first weekend we hosted our annual Friendsgiving festivities, which is always a good time.  We had a bit of a turkey situation but we were able to get everything resolved and we had a nice night.  The next weekend I did all of my last minute shopping.  John was busy all weekend long so I was able to get a lot of wrapping and other secret stuff done.

That next week I woke up one day with a swollen spot on my cheek, which was literally just a little spot.  I didn't think much of it, but woke up with a more swollen cheek the next day, and the following day had an even more swollen face.  I went to a Minute Clinic and found out I had cellulitis in my face.  It sucked.  I woke up with the most swollen face ever the morning of my work holiday party and I just wanted to cry forever.  I got some medicine for it that I was taking and while the swelling started to go down, my skin just freaked out like crazy.  I had dry patches all over and my skin was breaking out everywhere.  It was not a fun time at all.  I'm still dealing with a couple dry patches so we're still getting there but it is leaps and bounds better than it was.

That same weekend we went down to Virginia to do John's family's Christmas celebration.  Unfortunately he wasn't able to get off on Sunday so we went down on Friday night and left late Saturday afternoon, but we enjoyed the time that we had down there!

And then, of course, the next weekend was Christmas!  Christmas Eve is always the big night out for our family, so we go out to dinner and this year, did some gifts afterward since my brother and his girlfriend were going home on Christmas morning to spend the day with her family since they spent Christmas day with us last year.  Christmas morning John and I exchanged gifts before heading back up to my family's house to do gifts up there and some food.  We have been doing just easy foods on Christmas day.  We eat such a big meal on Christmas Eve and then we head up to Buffalo after Christmas day and eat all sorts of delicious junk so we just do lighter food on Christmas.

The day after Christmas we headed up to Buffalo.  I grew up there for I think 13 or 14 years and most of my extended family still lives up there so we go up there to have more Christmas festivities.  As I've mentioned before, my Aunt Ginny is the one who convinced me to read Harry Potter a couple years ago, so obviously we just talk about Harry Potter the whole time I'm up there (or as my Mom puts it:  "Harry Potter blah blah blah Butterbeer blah blah blah").  It's always nice to see my Grammy and my Aunt and Uncles and cousins.  We always have a great time filled with amazing food.  My Dad and I finally tried 716, which is a sports bar/restaurant in downtown Buffalo that we've been wanting to try.  It was a super fun trip, as always!

Favorites;

I'll be honest, I haven't touched this Hourglass palette yet because it's too pretty, but I'm including it anyway.  I just love it!  I'm going to start using it soon though.  Since my skin was having its moments throughout the month, I wasn't using a ton of products because I didn't know how they would react to my skin in the first place.  I didn't want to aggravate anything more than it already was.  I will say though that I'm pretty much in love with the L'Oreal Infallible Pro-Glow Foundation.  I wore this the day of my holiday party and it covered up everything I needed to cover up.  My face was super red and blotchy and this stuff evened out my skin perfectly while making it look really healthy and not so dried out.  I put this on around 8am and it didn't start settling into my dry patches until around 3pm.  I don't know how typical that is of foundations on dry skin since that isn't something that I deal with often, but I would think that's pretty good!

I also forgot how much I adored the L'Oreal Age Perfect Cell Renewal Serum.  It has this gorgeous finish that gives your skin that lit-from-within look all day long.  This is perfect for when you don't want to wear a lot of makeup but you still want a glow.

As I mentioned, I died my hair this month.  I went with a burgundy type color so I definitely needed to do something with my brows since my natural color is quite light in contrast.  I picked up the NYX Micro Brow Pencil in Chocolate and the Eyelur Brow Amplifier in 20 - Mid Brown.  This gives me a complimentary color without being too matchy-matchy.  I also gave my Maybelline The Falsies Pushup Angel mascara another try and I have really been enjoying it!  I didn't initially but maybe it just needed to try out for a bit before it got good. 

 
On The Needles;

The past couple months have been all about working on Christmas gifts for people.  The scarf pictured up above was made using this pattern, which I absolutely loved.  I haven't worked with bulky or super bulky yarn in so long, and now I'm obsessed with it.  All I want to do is work up this type of yarn now.  I had a 40% off total purchase coupon for Michaels and bought a ton of bulky yarn for future projects.  

I also learned the valuable lesson of time management while working on gifts.  I really stressed myself out as I was working on a blanket (that I will be showcasing in a later post), and then I realized I never made this scarf that I would be gifting before the blanket.  I was having a mild panic attack about it but everything worked out.  As crazy as it is, I will be sitting down in the next couple weeks to plan out my Christmas projects for 2017 and working on them much earlier than I started working on them this year.

 And that's that for December!  Let me know how your holidays were and what some of your favorites were.  I hope you have a happy, safe and healthy new year!

 

Life & Blog Recap | November 2016

Blog Recap;

Posts;

Sonia Kashuk 2016 Holiday Brushes | Glossybox Unboxing | 

10 Harry Potter Gifts Sure To Bring The Magic | Weekend Haul |

Easy & Affordable Holiday Gift For Women | 10 Cunning Gift Ideas for Your Slytherin |

10 Fantastic Gifts For Your Loyal Hufflepuff | Loot Crate Wizarding World Unboxing |

Stats;

 Monthly Page Views:  1,797 |  Most Popular Blog Post:  Glossybox Unboxing November 2016

Life Recap;

This month was quick!  I love fall, which sucks since I feel like it just flew by, but it's okay because it means Christmas is right around the corner!  This month was relatively uneventful.  My Mom had a big birthday this month, so that was exciting!  We ended up spending the day in Queens, NY with my brother and his girlfriend.  My parents had gone on a west coast trip the week leading up to it so that was her big gift to herself so she just wanted to do something a little more relaxing.

Thanksgiving happened, which was delicious and wonderfully low-key, as usual.  We saw Doctor Strange and loved it!  And I think that was pretty much it, aside from just some stuff we worked on around the house, which I promise you is pretty unexciting.  

Favorites;

I have some random favorites, and then we'll get into some beauty stuff.  I've been going back and forth with taking morning showers and night showers for years.  I'm on a kick of night showers and I am loving it.  There is nothing better than a super hot shower before you go to bed, especially in these colder months.  I also got some organic and handmade soaps from Hippy Dippy Soap Girls at Harry Potter trivia last month and I am obsessed.  I got five different bars that are all Harry Potter scented and they just make my bathroom smell amazing.  I've already used up my Pumpkin Juice and Butterbeer, and now I'm onto Seriously?  Black.  

Another thing I've been loving lately that I feel like I'm really late to the party on are bralettes.  Where have these been all my life?!  They are so pretty and comfortable and I honestly feel like I get more support from these than regular bras.  They are slowly but surely taking over my underwear drawer.  Every time I see them I keep buying more and more!  For now I've been wearing them to bed.  I like to wear a bra of some sort to bed but regular bras are just too much.  These are comfortable and perfect for sleeping!

So, onto some beauty favorites.  I've been using the Rimmel Volume Colourist Mascara, which is the one that is supposed to tint your lashes darker.  It definitely works!  My lashes are so light, and since I'm so fair I find that when I don't wear mascara it just doesn't look like I have any lashes since they just blend in with my light skin.  Now I have some definition all the time!  My only complaint is that I get transfer on my  bottom lashes.  I wish they would make a waterproof!

I've also been really into the L'Oreal Voluminous Liner Noir from their Feline collection.  I'd been using a brush applicator with a pot of liquid liner.  I forget how much easier it is for me to use a felt tip liner when doing liquid liner.  This stays quite well on me, considering my eyes do get watery throughout the day, so that is a definite plus in my book!

My last absolute, have to mention beauty favorite is this Stila Jewel Eye Shadow in Golden Topaz.  This isn't the most pigmented shadow.  If you really pack it on there you can get some color, but once you start to blend it out it just leaves fine silver glitter all over your lids, which I have been loving so much!  It looks really pretty and looks "grown-up" enough to be warn daily.

And, I'd be silly not to mention Gilmore Girls in this favorites.  I've said before that John and I have been binge watching this (me for the first time) and man, talk about devastating at the end.  I am firmly on Team Logan and I was so sad for him.  And then of course the new ones came out the day after Thanksgiving and we polished those off in two days.  I'm still uncertain how I felt about them.  They certainly didn't give us any closure, that's for sure.  I have to re-watch them before I can have an opinion, I think.  I was just so emotional through most of everything so I don't feel like I actually absorbed whether I liked it or not. 

 

How was your November?  What were you loving?  Let me know in the comments!

Life & Blog Recap | October 2016

 

November.  Sweet, sweet November.  It means it's almost Christmas, and I LOVE Christmas.  I enjoy Thanksgiving, don't get me wrong.  Any opportunity to gorge myself on food until I feel like I'm going to die is a wonderful time, truly, but Christmas is and always has been my ultimate jam.  But we are here to talk about October, aren't we?

 

I'll be honest, this is going to be a pretty lackluster post on the favorites end, as in there really aren't many that are too different from my September favorites.  Feel free to reference those should you be so inclined! 

 

Also, anything that's on my needles right now is a Christmas present, and therefore a surprise.  I am working on something that I'm SUPER excited about, and I can't wait to share with you guys!  It may already exist, it may be out there, but I kind of modified a pattern myself for the first time to fit what I'm doing and I'm feeling really good about it.  But that will be a post for January times. 

 

So.  Yeah, uneventful post, but I can talk about blog things!  And life things!  So let's do it!

Blog Recap

 

Posts;

Geek Gear World of Wizardry September 2016 Unboxing | The Beginner Knitter's Guide To Using Gauge |

Get Your Skin Ready For Fall | Harry Potter And The Chamber of Secrets Illustrated Edition Review |

Glossybox Unboxing October 2016 | What I've Learned While Trying To Grow My Instagram |

Harry Potter Wizard Chess Set Review | Marvel Collector Corps Doctor Strange October 2016 Unboxing |

Maybelline Super Stay 24 Lip Color Review | Harry Potter Festival & Harry Potter Trivia Recap |

 

Stats;

Monthly Page Views:  1,186 | Most Popular Blog Post:  Harry Potter Festival & Harry Potter Trivia Recap

 

 

It's so exciting since I've started doing these posts and actually solidly noticing how my blog is slowly but surely growing.  Every month it seems like my page views are growing, and while they aren't gigantic numbers, it still makes my little heart happy!

 

I started posting three days a week this month, which probably also has something to do with growth.  I said it before, unboxing posts are super easy hits for your site.  If you receive any subscription boxes, do unboxings!  It will help you so much!  And now that I'm back in the swing of doing 2-3 unboxings a month, it should help me grow steadily month-to-month!

 

Also, in that vain of doing three posts a week, I'm still trying to find a comfortable way to do them.  While I kind of blocked out my Tuesdays as my unboxing days, the mail doesn't always cooperate with me on that front.  So I'm going to take the pressure off myself going forward to just let the chips fall where they may and go with the flow.  If I get a box on a Wednesday and I can post about it on Thursday instead of a lifestyle post, I don't think it will be a giant deal.  Unless you guys riot with pitchforks and torches, then we'll revisit the schedule.

 

 

 

Life Recap;

 

October felt like a busy month, but trying to think about why it was I can't tell you.  Most of the month was consumed with studying Harry Potter for our trivia and running around trying to complete my Yaxley cosplay for the Festival.  Since I wasn't planning on dressing up for Halloween, this completely took it's place as my main source of stress, but good stress!

 

October also brought my Mom and I to say goodbye to the Phillies 2016 season.  We are partial season ticket holders, and from April-October, we're there multiple weeks throughout the summer.  It's always kind of weird once the season is over, but it only means that I can focus more on hockey, my original sport boo.  John and I went to a pre-season game and I went to go see my Sabres v. my Flyers with my Dad, so we're already off to a good start!

 

John and I also finally got a couple rooms in our house painted!  I moved in with John in January and he had owned the house for two years prior to my moving in but hadn't really done much with it.  I absolutely couldn't stand how it looked.  Our house is beautiful and was built in the early 1900's, so it has a ton of really neat features and original woodwork, but the people who lived there before John had been trying to restore the place to how it may have looked in the 1920's.  Lots of gaudy flowery wallpaper, emerald green carpet... yeah, not crazy appealing.  We're still stuck with the carpet for a couple more weeks until we can get that taken out, but we painted the dining room and the living room and it looks a million times better.  It's finally starting to feel like a home.  Once we get everything the way we want it to be, which is probably still a couple months off because EXPENSIVE, and aforementioned Christmas, I will definitely be posting some before and after pictures. 

 

We also did our Halloween-time tradition of hitting up a corn maze at one of the local farms, which I made us stop in the middle of so that I could pre-order the Storybook Cosmetics Wizard Wand Makeup Brushes... because, y'know, priorities and all.  I was terrified the reception was going to be crap and I wouldn't get them, but I did and all was well.  So much anxiety leading up to that.  And it was the absolute sweetest thing because SO MANY of my friends, and even people I don't talk to all too often, were sharing articles and posts about it because they thought of me instantly.  Makeup + Harry Potter anything = instant love and want and, ultimately, need.

Oh!  And speaking of Harry Potter things (which was pretty much this entire post), my friend Samantha, whom I talk about often when I talk about Harry Potter as she is one of my ultimate Potter Pals and fellow trivia champion, started a web comic that I have been waiting for for AGES.  So the story goes, when Samantha first read Harry Potter, she thought that Lucius was an animagus because someone makes some snide comment in one of the books about the peacocks in front of Malfoy Manor.  Cue us (she, Noelle and I) spending endless lunch breaks talking about all of the adventures he would go on if this was true.  Which led to Samantha creating an amazing comic about it!  You should seriously check it out because she is CRAZY talented!  These comics are seriously gorgeous and super funny.  Just you wait.  Oh, the things he's going to get up to. 

 

I hope you all had an absolutely amazing October!  Let me know if you did anything fun in the comments below!

 

What I've Learned While Trying To Grow My Instagram

Over the past couple months, I've really been trying to focus on two social media channels:  Pinterest and Instagram to grow my blog.  Twitter, to me, is a bit of a mystery.  I don't really like it, to be honest, so I don't really spend a lot of time trying to make that successful.  As for Facebook, well, I've been trying to stay off of that as much as possible until the election is over.  Maybe after that I'll care again, but I really feel like it's tough to get noticed on Facebook.

I think the reasons why Instagram and Pinterest appeal to me personally is that both of those outlets are incredibly visually driven.  They are both (obviously) heavily based on photography, something that I have been super passionate about since I can remember.  I spoke about how my parents were always carrying a camera with them in my blogging photography tips post, which I think influenced me pretty heavily growing up.  Even when I just had a small point and shoot camera with terrible zoom, I loved walking around taking pictures and doing little shoots.  Instagram is something I've always naturally gravitated toward.

While most of my Pinterest knowledge is coming from Paula @ Thirteen Thoughts, Instagram seems to be a little illusive for a lot of people.  Now, I'm not going to claim to be an Instagram expert in any way.  I am not.  I don't even have a ton of followers, but I've grown by about 60 in about two months, which for me seems pretty good!  I've tried a million different approaches to getting Instagram followers by reading a million different articles about how to get followers, some of which worked and some of which didn't.  I'm going to share with you what has worked for me, which may or may not work for you!  But I find that in the world of Instagram, nothing is certain so if you're trying to build your Instagram like me, anything is worth trying!

1/Use Your Hashtags Sparingly

While it may seem like an obvious thing to do to use a paragraph's worth of hashtags, that actually might be hindering your growth.  As with trying to grow your blog, when you're trying to grow your Instagram you need to be thinking about who your target audience is.  For me, I generally try to target the geekier market, so I aim for that audience with my hashtags.  I typically use #fangirl and #bookstagram whenever appropriate.

I also like to gain other bloggers as followers so that we can support each other.  I use #blogger, #lblogger (lifestyle blogger), #bblogger (beauty blogger) and sometimes #instablogger.  I try to keep my hashtags to seven maximum so that it doesn't look obnoxious under my pictures.  

2/It's About Quality, Not Quantity

Instagram followers are a fickle bunch.  Truth be told, I think they are the hardest followers to hold on to.  It's so funny because I never think to go through and clean out my Instagram that often as far as who I follow, but apparently a lot of people do.  I don't know if it's just bloggers trying to gain followers who follow you in hopes of getting a follow back and then they just unfollow you a couple days later so their ratio looks better, but I find my numbers fluctuating daily.   When I first started concentrating on this venture in mid-August, I thought it would be crazy easy to gain a steady following, especially after reading articles with flashy titles like "How To Gain 100 Followers In Two Days".  Let me tell you, it isn't that easy.

BUT.  Even though your goal is to grow your Instagram, it's more important to have a smaller, engaged following that a large following that doesn't engage with you, especially when you're looking to collaborate with brands.  G from Nouveau Cheap posted something on her Instagram that I thought was interesting a couple weeks ago about how important it is for followers of bloggers on Instagram to actually like bloggers pictures.  She has almost 80,000 followers on her account but said that brands look  at her Instagram and the amount of likes she gets on her posts and since she doesn't get a ton, it looks like she bought followers.  That's CRAZY!  So, in my opinion, I think if you have 600 followers who love to comment and like your posts, that's so much more important than having 10,000 followers, most of whom don't bother with engaging with you. 

 

3/Don't Expect People To Just Find You

As with anything on the internet, in order for you to get noticed, you're going to have to do a little work yourself.  Now, depending about how much time you have and how much work you actually feel like putting into this, you should really browse through the hashtags of your target audience (see tip #1) and like pictures that you actually like, and leave genuine comments.  It is so easy to spot comments that people leave on a photo that is just a canned comment to try to bait people into coming over to your profile.   I don't find it beneficial to just blow through a hashtag and like every photo in that category.  Maybe that's something that works for you, but I just want to be as genuine as possible.

Also, if someone follows you, give them a follow back if you are genuinely interested in their content.  Not everyone is going to be interesting to you, and that's okay!  Like I mentioned before, there are people out there who are only going to follow you to unfollow you in a couple days anyway, so don't feel obligated to follow someone just to return the favor.  But if they're into what you're into, it doesn't hurt to follow them and engage with them to get yourself out there.  You never know where you're going to find an ally!

4/Have A Theme, But Don't Feel Stuck

Look, every single post that you read is going to tell you to have a theme.  Every.  Single.  One.  And I won't be any different.  I do think it's beneficial to have a theme, whether it be color or content.  But don't allow you to make you feel like you're stuck in that theme.  If there is something outside of your "obvious theme" that you feel like sharing, share it!  For instance, I've mentioned before that music is a pretty big part of my life.  I love going to concerts and I love sharing my experiences.  When I go to a concert, I pretty much always post a video or a picture from the concert.  Does it fit with my flat lay photos on a pink furry rug?  Not really, but it's me.  And in the end, Instagram should be you!   If it doesn't get a crazy amount of likes, who cares?  You still have a right to show some of your personality through your account!  Don't get scared of going off-theme every once in a while.  It might bring in some people who never would've found your account otherwise!

5/Take Advantage of Tagging

If you are talking about a brand, tag them in your posts!  Always!!  You never, never know what could happen.  For instance, I've posted a lot of knitting posts on my Instagram while I was using AC Moore branded products.  If you aren't aware, AC Moore is a craft store chain on the east coast with their headquarters not too far from where I live.  I tagged them in one of my progress posts, and wouldn't you know they posted my picture on their account!  Like, what?!  AND they followed my account.  Total dream moment for me on that one.  I keep holding out hope that we can collaborate on something so I keep tagging them!  And I engage with them as often as possible.  Sometimes one tiny little crack of a door being open can be the beginning of something wonderful.

I talked in my lettering post about how using Instagram challenges (lettering, photography, etc.) can boost your creativity and get you inspired, but it also is a great way to get exposure!  While I was doing the Harry Potter lettering challenge, I was featured twice on the hosts account.  This gave me exposure to a whole new group of people that I might not have had the chance to reach.  

I hope that some of those tips are helpful.  Like I said, I'm still working on growing my Instagram account, and it is a slooow process.  It definitely is something you need to work at and make a priority if you want it to succeed, so don't get discouraged when it doesn't happen over night!  Just keep pumping out quality content and follow these tips.  Hopefully you'll gain a plentiful, engaged following!

Do you have any tips on growing your Instragram account?  Share them below so that we can all have millions of followers! 

 

Life & Blog Recap | September 2016

It is finally fall and I couldn't be happier!!  Like all basic girls, I am excited for pumpkin everything, sweaters, boots and rainy days that are perfect for binge watching a show and knitting and curling up in my window box with a good book.  Summer just doesn't inspire those things as much. 

Blog Recap

Posts;

Baltimore Comic Con 2016 Haul | Geek Gear Harry Potter Unboxing (August 2016) |

Gotham Girls Soho Brush Sets | Focus On Music:  Amos Lee | Adventures In Lettering |

Break Out of Your Blogging Slump Right Now!

Stats;

Monthly Page Views:  930 | Most Popular Blog Post:  Gotham Girls Soho Brush Sets

Life Recap

September was busy!  My Mom and I had a lot going on, as per the usual.  We're always up to something!  We had a couple of Phillies games to go to (and only one more for the season - sad face!), as well as some concerts.  We saw The Lumineers and Amos Lee in the same weekend, which is fantastic.  It was our second time seeing both of them this year (we saw them both over the summer - Amos in May and The Lumineers in June) and we enjoyed both shows, of course! 

John and I went down to Baltimore on Labor Day weekend to go to Baltimore Comic Con, which is the only Con we seem to be going to these days.  I love Baltimore and always want to get down there early to walk around the Harbor but that never seems to work out too well.  I got a ton of art, which you can see in my haul post, and it was our first time going on a Friday which will probably become the norm.  It was nice that it wasn't crowded and we were able to get everything we wanted in a short period of time.

My friend Noelle and I went to a Science After Dark event at the Franklin Institute in Philadelphia that was focused around Harry Potter.  The museum has these events monthly, and what's wonderful about them is that the events are 21+.  That museum is very kid friendly but is a really neat museum, but when you go on a weekend with a million kids running around, it's really tough to get a chance to look at the exhibits, and being that I'm not the biggest fan of kids it can get old fast.  The event was super fun and really cool.  They had different tables set up throughout the museum centered around the science behind the wizarding world.  They had muggle quidditch, which is hands down one of my favorite things in life, as well as a concert by Harry and The Potters.  It was our first time seeing them and hearing any of their music and we had so much fun.  They were hilarious!

And lastly, this past weekend my Mom and I went to the Pennsylvania Renaissance Faire.  We went for the first time last year but we went at the end of October.  It was freezing and it was a rainy, which turned to snow briefly, before turning into a downpour.  I think we only spent three hours there, which sucked because we were both really excited to go!  The weather was absolutely beautiful this time and we were able to spend most of the day there.  I dabbled in dressing up as an elf which was so much fun.  I got a headpiece and ears from this amazing shop on Etsy and a long dress.  I wore blue lipstick and had duochrome highlighter all over my body.  It was awesome.  The Queen complimented me on my lipstick so I chalked that up as a win.  I also threw a knife into a wall and it stuck.  I'm the most badass elf queen ever.

Current Knitting Project

I had such a productive knitting month.  Last month I said I had five projects to finish before Christmas, with three of them being blankets.  Guess who finished two of those blankets this month?  This girl!  I had started one of them in August and finished it this month, then started and finished one this month.  I'm feeling mighty accomplished and I'm going to be talking about them with you probably next week in a post.  Making all of these blankets has definitely been a learning experience! 

I'm going to be starting my last blanket hopefully this weekend and I'm hoping to have it done by the end of October/Early November.  This is going to be a bit of a bigger project since the blanket is going to be bigger than the other ones, and I'm going to be modifying an existing pattern to fit my blanket but I'm thinking it's going to work, and I'm thinking it's going to be cool.  I'm being vague about it because it's going to be a Christmas gift, but I'm excited to share it with you guys once it's done and given, so it will probably be the first post I do after Christmas.  That's how excited I am about it.  I'm going to be making a million of them!

September Favorites

When it gets to be fall, all I want to do it rock bold lips and this has been one of my absolute favorite lip colors!  It is one of the Maybelline Loaded Bold lipsticks in the color Blackest Berry.  It is so beautiful!  To balance out my lips I've just been doing a barely there crease color and winged liner. My eyes get crazy watery throughout the day and I have been loving this Milani liquid eyeliner because it doesn't go anywhere!  My eyes can water all they want and my wing stays put all day.  FINALLY!  And lastly I've been enjoying the crap out of the Rimmel Match Perfection concealer.  It has a brush applicator that you squeeze the product through so everything is easy to put on.  It blends like a dream and covers perfectly.  It's light enough to wear on my undereye area but also does a great job covering up the rest of the areas that need some extra coverage.

So this is kind of a random favorite, but I've been trying to stick to a more Mediterranean diet lately, and I absolutely love it.  I'm a lover of Greek food (without lamb - substitute chicken) and I've been really enjoying putting new things together.  Plus I have a new love for raw tomatoes which I have absolutely detested up until now. 

And to pair with my healthier diet is all of the amazing fall goodies, like these caramel crunch donuts and the caramel apple cupcakes!  They're a wonderful dessert treat.  And when I'm not looking for something full of empty calories, this Bigelow Salted Caramel Tea is delicious.  I don't even need to put anything in it; it's great just in it's natural state!

We've still been plugging away at Gilmore Girls, although it's been hard to fit it in.  With all of our shows coming back and hockey starting we don't have much free TV time.  I've threatened John multiple times that I'm going to watch it without him since he's already seen it.  I might make good on that threat these next couple weeks.  Most of our shows have started up again, save the CW superhero shows and The Walking Dead, but we get those back in a couple weeks!

How was your September?  Hope you had a good one!  Tell me about it and your favorites in the comments below!

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Break Out of Your Blogging Slump Right Now!

If you're a frequent reader of my blog, you may (or may not) have noticed that my blogging schedule has been changing a little bit.  I was posting on Friday's and Tuesday's, then it went to Saturday's and Wednesday's and now we're at Sunday's and Thursday's.  Except that today is Monday and there was no blog post yesterday.  That is mostly because I was at the Pennsylvania Renaissance Faire all day yesterday and didn't get myself prepared for being away all day, but also because I had no idea what to write about.

I have a different work schedule over the summer than I do the rest of the year.  I work in an accounting firm and our busy season runs from January-April and August-mid October.  After that things come to a mostly screeching halt and so our company allows us to work 4 day weeks from the beginning of June through the end of August.  As you can imagine, this is awesome for obvious reasons, but it also takes a lot of adjusting when I have to go back to my normal schedule.

Over the summer, I was super into getting myself prepared for blogging every week.  John works Sunday-Thursday and goes out every Friday to do some shopping stuff with his friend so I had Friday and Sunday to work on the blog.  I would take tons of pictures one day and write posts another day.  It was awesome.  Now that I'm back to a normal weekend and trying to cram everything into Saturday and Sunday, I'm finding that I don't have enough time on Sunday to do blog things because I'm busy just trying to clean or go do something with my Mom or just wanting to relax and knit.

BUT.  I will overcome, and guess what, so will you!  Because if you are a fellow blogger (because who isn't nowadays, right?), you probably get into blogging slumps, too.  So today we're going to fight off the slump and get ourselves motivated all over again!  I'm going to talk about some of the things that I usually find are the causes of my slump and what I do to overcome them and hopefully they will help you out, too.

I HAVE NOTHING TO WRITE ABOUT.

This happens to everyone.  When you're trying to publish original content multiple times a week it gets a little hard to think up fresh new stuff off the top of your head.  One of the things that I've taken to doing is bringing a notebook with me everywhere I go and writing down every single idea and thought that crosses my mind in it.  It doesn't matter whether or not it's something that I actually think I would write about or not because it might spark a new idea. 

Another thing I absolutely love?  Coming up with new series.  It is my absolute favorite thing ever.  Why?  It's a gift that keeps on giving!  You will always have something to write about.  Last Sunday I started my Focus on Music series, which will be super easy to write every month.  Like I said in that post, I'm obsessed with music and I'm always happy to write about it.  Monthly Favorites/Recap posts are perfection because, again, it's something that you can write about every month!  Sure, maybe you don't have a ton of new favorites, but new things are always happening in your life that you can write about.  Plus it's a way to get people into one post to have them see all of your posts for that month (which means more traffic to older content).  I also have my Girl Bosses In Pop Culture series, which will constantly be a joy to write since there are so many badass ladies around these days!  And there are even more in my notebook that I haven't started.  Series = Life savers.  PLUS, if you're someone who doesn't mind pre-writing content, you can always have these on the back burner ready to go for those busy days in your life where you can't get a blog post together.

MY CONTENT ISN'T HELPFUL/NO ONE IS READING IT.

Another thing that is hard is finding a balance between sharing your life and the things you love and providing content that is going to be helpful to your readers.  Once you're a more established blogger I think it's easier to get away with posts that revolve more around you and your life, but until you have a more dedicated reader base, people aren't necessarily going to come flocking to your blog to read a "10 Random Facts About Me"-type post.  In my humble opinion, when you're starting out as a blogger, you want to be providing helpful content that is going to reel people in.

For example, I posted about the Soho Gotham Girls Brush Sets available at Walgreens a couple weeks ago.  That has steadily become one of my most popular posts.  Why?  Because it's helpful.  It shows the brushes up close so people can decide whether or not they want to trek around to their local Walgreens to find them.  Reviews are the thing to post when you feel like your blog is going through a hits slump.  I used to have a makeup blog and I would live at the drugstores so that I could find new products and get reviews up early.  

I also do unboxings for the same reason.  Subscription boxes are huge and often people aren't going to put their money into a subscription box unless they know they're going to like what's inside.  Again, on my old blog, I would unbox my Birchbox, Glossybox and ipsy bag every month and get all sorts of traffic.  It was so easy.  Now I pretty much only do it with my Geek Gear Harry Potter box but if you're a subscription box addict, add in some unboxings to your content!  They're SO easy to do and they have good payoff, which will in turn make you more motivated as you see your hits rise!

I DON'T HAVE GOOD LIGHTING FOR PHOTOGRAPHY.

This is something that I'm running into now that I've lost my extra day to take my pictures.  I used to work all day on Friday or Sunday and just batch take tons of pictures in different setups with great light.  Now if I need to quickly photograph something, especially with the days getting shorter, it's a little harder for me to get good pictures when I get home from work.  That's why I really recommend trying to take a bunch of pictures in one day.  You'll have great stock photography for the whole month in just a matter of hours.  This won't solve all of your problems, but at least it will help!

The other plus about this is that you'll have a stock of pictures at the ready to use on Instagram as well!  You're really killing two birds with one stone.  The only downside to this is that it certainly can feel a little more like a chore than art.  Sometimes I think it takes a little bit of the fun out of it when you have a set day to take pictures as opposed to letting creativity strike.  If you're lacking, go on Pinterest or Instagram and browse around for a little bit.  You are absolutely bound to find some inspiration.

But if you are someone who just can't take hours at a time to take a ton of pictures, I would highly suggest investing in some nice studio lighting, or at the very least, daylight bulbs.  There are ring lights and soft boxes available on Amazon that can certainly help you out in your unfavorable lighting conditions should you need them.

Related:  The Best Blog Photography Tips For Beginners

MY EQUIPMENT SUCKS.

I hear you, my friend, if you are struggling with feeling like you don't have the best equipment to work with.  The computer that I'm working with at home is one that I won in a raffle at work that is probably 5 or 6 years old at this point.  There are all sorts of lines down the center of the screen but it works!  It just isn't terribly fast or bright or necessarily the best tool for editing photos.  I really only use it to type up my blog posts and make my pinnable banners in Photoshop.  Otherwise, everything else is done on my phone, which is totally fine given how advanced phones are nowadays.

I do all of my photo editing in the app A Color Story, which has a ton of great filters and editing options.  And, of course, you can totally use your phone as your camera if you can't afford to get a DSLR.  I invested in one over the summer, and it was honestly the best investment for my blog (and my own personal photography) that I could have made, but that isn't in everyone's budget.  Your phone is obviously a great substitution.  While it has it's limits, it also has it's strengths and there are so many different apps out there that can help you get professional images.  

Fun Fact:  The less storage space you have on your phone, the worse quality your pictures will come out.  If you take a lot of photos on your phone, think about getting a higher GB phone so your picture quality will always be good!

MY BLOG IS NOTHING COMPARED TO [OTHER BETTER BLOG'S NAME HERE] SO WHY BOTHER?

Ah, comparison.  Truly the thief of joy, no?  I'm not going to sit here and tell you to stop doing it because I truly think that it is one of the most impossible things ever.  It just seems that we as humans are never happy with what we have, even if we have the stars and the moon in our pocket we'll want the whole galaxy and the next one and the next.  We always want more and we always want to be the best (or at least me, as an Aries, always does).  I have a terrible time of thinking that my blog is never going to be as good as any of the ones that I read on a regular basis.  The ones that are giant successes, even though I would love nothing more than to have this be my job and be my own boss.  It'd be fantastic!  But I find myself getting down on myself because I don't feel like my content or my photos or any part of my blogging/social media presence is good enough.  And I know I'm not alone.  Being a part of this digital world where you can see so much more than you used to be able to before is daunting.

However, why don't we take that comparison and turn it on it's head?  Let's turn it into inspiration!  Instead of thinking [Insert Blog Name Here] is SO MUCH better than me, I'll never be able to be that good, think [Insert Blog Name Here] is amazing.  What aspects can I get inspired by and infuse into my own blog?  It can be as simple as the way someone's side bar looks or their structure in their blog posts to something as major as content.  And again, this is being inspired, not copying directly.  We frown upon that pretty heavily!

If I can give a small example, let's take a trip back to my last post where I was talking about my lettering journey.  I've been taking part in a Harry Potter Lettering challenge where every day there is a new prompt and you letter something related to it.  I'll create something and post it, and then look through the hashtag and feel completely defeated because of how amazing other people's work is, which in turn pushes me to do something different the next day and the next.  This past Friday I got quite down on myself about my lettering.  I had worked on it for hours.  I was sketching it out and practicing it at work and then put it on good paper with nice markers when I got home.  I posted it, I looked at other people's and instantly felt like it wasn't good enough and would never be good enough and I would never get my work featured on the daily wrap-up post that one of the hosts does because it's no good compared to everyone else's.  John just kept telling me it was good and fancy and he liked it and I was doing a nice job.  Don't you know the next day I woke up to an Instagram notification that I had been tagged in a photo by the host who does the daily wrap-ups?  I instantly jumped on Instagram before I even got a chance to snuggle with Lupin, and sure enough, I had been featured.  I was floored and so happy!  It goes to show that even if you might not think you're good enough, someone else probably does.  So just keep working and trying!  Don't give up!

What do you do to overcome blogging slumps?  Share some of your tips in the comments below!  Share this post with someone who might need a little inspiration of their own!

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