Gardening in High Heels

cultivate a beautiful life

Fleetwood Mac Sex Pants

I’m in a band in high school.  It was huge and we rocked out every Friday night and sometimes on Saturday, too.  Yeah, I was a band nerd.  I think I’m a pretty good car singer, but I doubt I can front a band.  I know I could pick out a pretty good band name, though.  Like, Andy Dwyer good.

http://nbctv.tumblr.com/post/42692452964/everyone-needs-a-pair-of-fleetwood-mac-sex

My band would be called I Sound Tall on the Phone.  I would totally be a really cool rocker chick and always have the coolest accessories to go with my endless supply of destroyed denim jeans and impossibly comfortable yet totally hot shoes.

The personality of the band is just as important as the name itself.  I can’t decide whether I’d be sassy, classy, and a bit smart assy or if I would be punny and awkwardly adorable.  I think either would be true to me.

I would love to have all girls in the band (girl power and whatnot) but I’m afraid that it would get catty.  Does anyone remember the episode of Sabrina, The Teenage Witch when Sabrina, Amber from Clueless, and Soleil Moon Frye made a way autotuned girl group for a talent TV show and then they ended up hating each other?  Yeah, I don’t want that to happen.

I’d also have a signature lipstick.  Always bold, bright red.  Sometimes and orange-red.  Always perfectly applied.  The nail polish would change just about every single day (are you shocked after yesterday’s ode to polish?)

What’s your band name? What would the band be like?

Be a Better Blogger is a weekly link up dedicated to helping you be a more intentional blogger. Want to be a better blogger but don’t know where to start? Head over to the Be a Better Blogger page for daily prompts and a weekly linkup to help get the creative juices flowing! Oh, and use #beabetterblogger on Twitter/Instagram/Facebook to keep the fun going even after you hit Publish!

Holding Out for a Hero

There are so many great people out there in the world who deserve to be recognized.  They don’t do things for accolades, awards, money.  They do it because they know they have to.  Or they want to.  There is no outside pressure on these heroes; they have a pretty strong moral compass and operate in there.

As you grow older, you will discover that you have two hands, one for helping yourself, the other for helping others. - Audrey Hepburn

This post is dedicated to any hero who needs a little kudos.  The hero who…

  • Stops at stop signs. #DontDoTheCaliforniaRoll #AndPutYourPhoneDown
  • Mows three lawns in the neighborhood just to be helpful. #ThankYouKarmaForThisOne
  • Helps out a neighbor when someone runs over their mailbox. #ThereAreSkidMarksOnTheDriveway #HowDrunkWereYou #OnSundayMorning
  • Tears out a board on the deck and manages to replace it even though I purchased it a foot too short. #IKnewIShouldHaveSaidEightFeet #MeasureOnceCutTwice
  • Flourishes in customer service. #BlessYourHeartImNotThatPatient
  • Takes a little blog and turns it into something awesome. #TellMeYourSecretsPlease
  • Manages to keep their tupperware lids and bottoms together. #WhereDoTheyAllGo
  • Lets the world see that they are real and not Pinterest-perfect all the time. #RealBloggersLiveInTheRealWorld

Who is your hero?

I’m linking up with Life With Lolo for Hashtag Humpday and….myself, Katy, and Meghan for Be a Better Blogger!

Be a Better Blogger is a weekly link up dedicated to helping you be a more intentional blogger. Want to be a better blogger but don’t know where to start? Head over to the Be a Better Blogger page for daily prompts and a weekly linkup to help get the creative juices flowing! Oh, and use #beabetterblogger on Twitter/Instagram/Facebook to keep the fun going even after you hit Publish!

What I Learned from Blogging Every Day

Guys, I’m so excited today.  I wanted to keep writing every day and Katy and Meghan are so fantastic, that they were like, “Hell yeah, we’ll keep going too!”  So we’re launching a weekly link up dedicated to helping you Be a Better Blogger.

If you know anything about me, you know that I want to bring people together and make connections.  I love that this is encouraging and elevating other bloggers.  Part of that support is sharing what we’re learning.

Blogging every day is a huge undertaking but it is possible to do well. After a month of every day blogging, I'm sharing what I learned in the process.

Planning is your friend

I know that I should have an editorial calendar and a list of posts that I’m committed to at the beginning of the month.  The closest I’ve gotten to that is having certain themes for the days that I posted.  It helps so much when you have a plan.  Using Katy’s prompts in May was so helpful because it allowed me to focus my thoughts when I was writing.

Ride the creative wave

For me, much of blogging means spending time figuring out what to write about and then actually writing it.  There are times when I didn’t have a post written for the next day and I’d be sitting here at my computer saying, “Okay, brain, what’s it gonna be…wanna give me something good now?”

When you get the creative spark to write, do it.  And write as much as you can to get yourself ahead of the game.  Even if you end up using a different post (I’ve had 3 different posts written for today), at least you have some writing that you can pull from later.

Batch posts

This is another thing that I know is necessary but never really did.  Write everything, then work on figuring out what photos you want to take, then go in and edit them all, and finally add the correct tags and information to them.

This helps so much when you can just open up Photoshop, load in a few post’s worth of photos, and plug them into the post.  Then schedule away.

Schedule your social media

When I get busy, the first thing that goes is updating social media.  That’s why scheduling is indispensable for me as a blogger.  I can write my posts and then as I’m scheduling them, I’ll queue ’em up for Tweetdeck.  That way I know that I’m taking the necessary steps to have a successful blog without stressing too much during the day when I should be focusing on work.

Comment, share, and support other bloggers

I’ve always tried to comment as much as I can, but blogging every day takes away some of the time to read other blogs.  This is something I want to work on more for the following month.

It’s also so valuable to have a network you can turn to for support and inspiration.  If you’re out there supporting other bloggers, you’re racking up good karma points.  It doesn’t go unnoticed!

Most importantly, keep learning, it’s okay to make mistakes, your job is never “done”

There are so many things that I learned from blogging every day for a month.  It taught me a lot about time management, having a clear plan, and that batching posts is your friend.

What tips do you have for being a better blogger?

 

Be a Better Blogger is a weekly link up dedicated to helping you be a more intentional blogger. The linkups will happen on a weekly level over on the BBB page. Link as many of your posts as you’d like! Join us as we support each other to be better bloggers!

Be aware

Happy Memorial Day!  It’s a perfect day to relax, spend the day with people you care about, and remember those who were brave enough to dedicate their life mission to protecting us.  So it’s the perfect day to talk about favorite quotes for today’s Blogger, May I theme.  There are so many good quotations, I had a hard time picking one and actually wrote an entire other post before this one.

To be a good quotation, I think it has to be short, simple, impactful, and incredibly direct..everything this sentence is not.  There are two quotes that usually ping around in my brain.  One by Abraham Lincoln, and this one from Baron Batch.

Be aware when your time is up.

As I’ve written before, I attended the 2014 TEDx talks back when it was TEDxGrandviewAve (now it’s moved up to TEDxPittsburgh, woohoo!) and heard some great speakers.  Of course, I was there for  Britt Reints, but I was captivated by Baron Batch.

I didn’t know much about Baron before the talk.  I saw on the bio page that he was a former Pittsburgh Steeler and gave that all up to paint.  I was ready for some, “Follow your dream, don’t let things get in your way” kind of speech.

But no!  It was much more, “Hunt your dreams down, work harder and faster than you ever have, hustle, and strong-arm things out of your way.”  I was ready to run through a wall after I heard him speak.

I’ll watch the recorded talk today and still want to run through a wall.  Seriously, watch it.

When I went to the Creative Soul Weeknight Retreat, we made boxes with paper or paint or stamps or little plastic dinos or fibers…whatever our little hearts desired.  In mine (which I’ll take a photo of and share later..oops forgot!) I have Baron Batch’s quote written out.

Be aware when your time is up - Baron Batch

Be aware that you only have a little time here on the planet, so make it count.  Be aware that there’s always a ticking clock getting closer to the end, so make something worthwhile now.  Don’t squander the precious seconds you have – in a relationship, a day at the part with your kids, when you sit down to write.  Be acutely aware that time is pulling you away.

I could go on forever, baby.  (Bonus points if you know where that is from.)

Britt took that energy of the Creative Soul Weeknight Retreat and unleashed it on a whole weekend.  I’m so excited for the Creative Soul Retreat this fall for more time to reflect and create and play with new things.

A weekend of nothing but this laser-focused creative energy sounds absolutely fantasticly like where I need to be.  And seriously, it’s at a gorgeous hotel in downtown Pittsburgh with other creative souls.  Who’s with me here?

So what’s your favorite quote?

The one that makes you want to run through a wall and get shit done.  Or the one that calms you after you’ve run through a wall and need to refocus?



I was not asked to gush about the Creative Soul Retreat in this post, but it seemed like the perfect time to share it. If you’re in Pittsburgh or can make it here, I’d love to see you there. And early bird pricing ends June 1!

Style is Subjective

This, like the defining beauty post, is a hard one for me to focus my thoughts.  You guys have seen some of my outfits, so that’s a pretty good feel for how I approach dressing.  But there are so many more ways to look at style than just your clothes.  What you do and say are just as important as what you wear.  So I thought I’d tackle this Blogger, May I prompt a little bit differently when describing my style.

Style is fluid and uniquely your own.

Of course, clothes are first thing that people notice 99% of the time, but there are more ways to look a style.  How do you act, carry yourself, speak, write, dare I go here…smell.  Style is entirely subjective and matters so much more of what you do with it than what you look like.

I’m still trying to figure out what my style is.  In real life, I try to be witty and I’m a lot sarcastic, quick to pick up on references that I get and turn of phrases.  There are times I think I could go into standup comedy, especially when I’m on a snarky rant about kids these days or the customers I work with.  It’s just one one-liner after another with a sharp bite and a cheeky attitude.

In writing, I’m still trying to work on making that liveliness come through all the time.  There are so many ways that tone can be misconstrued when writing and that’s what I’m worried about.  But I should sit here and say, Listen, if you don’t get it, that’s okay; you do your thing and I’ll do mine and we’re both gonna be okay.

It was easier when I was just writing for myself, back in the days of Moda Vivendi.  I loved those posts.  They aren’t particularly blogger-y, but they’re me.  I loved that quick bite that came through the screen.  I probably employed that style a lot more because back then, I wasn’t well known.  Well, I’m not now, but you know what I mean.

What I love about style is that it is constantly changing.  We aren’t stuck with one way of being.  It’s always moving and flowing from one iteration to another.

I’m so thrilled to have you come on the way with me during this, though; unlike Moda Vivendi, it’s more fun when I can communicate with people!

In a nutshell, style is more than just what you’re wearing.  It’s like beauty – the whole package is your style.  There are elements that are more pronounced, but they all work together to create your own unique style.

That said, I’m a jeans and tee shirt kinda gal.

What’s your style?


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