Gardening in High Heels

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Five Valentine’s Day date ideas (And 5 in Pittsburgh!)

There’s nothing like the excitement of a mystery date, especially on Valentine’s Day.  But, there’s also nothing like having no clue what you’re going to do on Valentine’s Day

In the interest of love this week, let’s talk date ideas.  Jonathan does a great job of finding fun things to do and I’m told he already has something brewing for this year (darling, just tell me to wear).  In case you aren’t so lucky and are scrambling for something to do for the big day, these ideas should translate to almost anywhere.

Five date ideas for Valentine's Day (or anytime!)

If you’re in Pittsburgh, then you’re extra lucky because I have specific events happening in the ‘Burgh on or around Valentine’s Day!

Have a Fancy-pants Dinner

I never get to dress up anymore.  I’m thrilled to be able to wear jeans and Converse sneakers to work if I want to, but I do miss getting a little more dressy.  Dressing up is pretty much now reserved for weddings.

Take a look and see if your favorite restaurant is having a formal dinner and get get on those reservations, like, yesterday.

In Pittsburgh…

There are tons of special dinners, but this one at uber-popular Brew Gentlemen will be out of tickets fast.

Day Drink

As my drinking partner in crime for my guest posts over at PCBN, we have shared many, many beers together.  Since Valentine’s Day is on a Saturday, why not take advantage of that and do a little day drinking?  Wineries are great for this, but some of my favorite Saturdays together with Jonathan have been at breweries.

You get to learn something (how beer is made) and taste it.  Then bring home growlers/bottles of your favorites.  Bonus: breweries have their beer on tap.  You couldn’t get fresher beer if you jumped into the barrel.

In Pittsburgh…

There are tons of breweries and wineries sprinkled around.  And we’ve had great times at every one we’ve visited.

I also love stopping by Wigle Whiskey.  Their tour tickets are sold out for Valentine’s Day, but you can still taste.  There’s also a Cupid’s Cocktail Class on Friday, February 13th!

Get Creative

This is probably my favorite, next to day drinking (I’m young and have a disposable income, sue me!)  Jonathan and I have done some great creative things together and I love it because you have the memory of the time together, but then you also something to take home with you as a memento.

We’ve made glass tiles, painted (okay, it was a room in my house and technically not a date, but it was still creative!), and hopefully will continue to get creative.  There is no judgement from either of us so it really helps to foster the romantical connection.

In Pittsburgh…

Make flowers for your valentine at Pittsburgh Glass Center or get hands-on at TechShop and etch a wine glass (and then drink wine out of it with a wine/chocolate pairing!) or make plasma-cut flowers.

Do Something Nerdy

In case you couldn’t tell, I’m a huge nerd.  And I love museums.  There’s a thing in Pittsburgh every fall called RADical Days where museums (and the Pittsburgh Zoo and the National Aviary and….) offer free admission on select days.  Yes, we have gone to five museums in a day because free admission!

Take a look in your city for half off admission nights, deals, or community-sponsored admission programs.

In Pittsburgh…

The Warhol Museum is my favorite.  Every Friday night, they do Good Fridays and offer half off admission and late hours (5-10p).

Fun fact: my grammy rode the bus with Andy Warhol when he was still Andrew Warhola.

Go for Adults Only

Come on, not like that!  A 21+ night is a great way to explore somewhere that you only know from a kid’s perspective (or maybe you avoid a certain places because of all of the children running around.)

I love the 21+ nights at the Carnegie Science Center and we’ve also gone to Phipps when they’ve had one of their nights as well.  It’s definitely a cool vibe and things look totally different in the dark.  There are Chihuly pieces all over Phipps but I never noticed them as much as I did at night!

In Pittsburgh…

Have some adult beverages and then enjoy a late night skate.

The Carnegie Science Center, Phipps Conservatory, The Children’s Museum, and I think the National Aviary have 21+ nights.  Explore the museum, look at the plants, make something and do it all while enjoyed a cocktail.

Bonus: Find Live Entertainment

Support your local cultural society.  A concert, musical, play, mystery dinner…always great date ideas.  Pittsburgh Winery also lets you taste their full flight of wine and they have live music on the weekends, so you can get a two-fer here!

If you’re still looking for something to do, check out your local event pages.  Shout out to Yelp for having a great events board.  Yes, I was an intern for Yelp in Pittsburgh.  Yes, I stocked up our event board every week.  Yes, you should check out Yelp for your local city.  </PSA on Yelp>

What are you doing on Valentine’s Day?  Do you have a date or are you celebrating Galentine’s Day?

A few words about love

I’m not an expert about love and relationships, but I’ve crashed and burned enough to know what works for me.  And what I know is that love means you want to be with someone more than you need to be with them.

Does that make sense?

Love means you want to be with someone more than you need to be with someone

Jonathan and I were talking about this the other day and I don’t think I explained it properly to him (sorry, dear).  So I thought I’d elaborate.

Yes, I would be absolutely devastated and fall into a pile of mush if something happened to us.  It would take a long time to get back up and go on with my life, but eventually it would have to happen.

I know this because I’ve been there before.  The reason why I was there before is because I wanted to be in a relationship more than I wanted to be with the person.  I needed to have that comfort of knowing I was in a pair because I wasn’t okay with being just me.

And then (obviously) that ended and I was alone again.  And it was like, who am I?  What do I do with myself?  What do I like doing with my free time?  I don’t know how to be just me.

I know, it’s scary to just sit in a room alone with your thoughts, but the more you do it, the easier it gets.

So it took a while, but I learned how to be alone and I kind of liked it.  Then I started to go on dates because I wanted to date, not because I had to find my next relationship fix.

Guess what?  I learned what I liked and didn’t like and was okay passing on someone who didn’t fully work for me because I wasn’t focused on “must be a pair” anymore.  I could focus on, “Does this person complement me?”

In my relationship now, I want to be with him more than I need to have someone there with me all the time.  I found someone who complemented me for me.

Want and need are two totally different verbs.  Want is a choice.  It’s something that you decide to do/have/be.  I choose to be with this person.  Need is more situational.  I need water to live.

You don’t need a relationship to live.  That isn’t one of Maslow’s Basic Needs.  It’s actually more towards the middle of the pyramid.  Call me cold, but it’s true.  If I didn’t have Jonathan, I would be upset but I would live.  Physiologically, I could survive.

But I want to be with him more than I need to be with him.  And that’s how I know it’s love.

What does love mean to you?

 

Favorite beauty empties

One of my beauty goals for the year is to use up one product before I move on to another.  I don’t know about you, but I have a bad habit of purchasing new items before I’ve used up others.

I also have a bad habit of watching YouTube videos with things like “New at the drugstore haul” and “January favorites” in the title.  And I’m an only child in the sense of I see someone with a new beauty thing and I’m all, “Omg you have that? I’ve heard of it and it’s pretty and I want it too!”

Favorite recent beauty empties for winter skin

Anyway, for 2015, I’ve been trying to use up my stash so I’ve been doing the 365 Days of Empties challenge on Instagram and I thought I’d highlight a few of my favorite items I’ve used up.

Yes To Grapefruit Dark Spot Serum

This is a holy grail item for me.  I used an entire bottle of Clinique’s Even Better Clinical Dark Spot Corrector and didn’t see the results I saw from using half of a bottle of this.  It isn’t a miracle where things will fade overnight, but nothing is.  I love the way this smells, how it feels, and most importantly, how it works.

I also have the Yes To Grapefruit CC cream but it isn’t the right color match for me.  It’s really pink and I’m really yellow.  Any suggestions anyone?

Yes To Grapefruit is my holy grail dark spot corrector for acne scars and imperfections

Udderly Smooth Hand Cream

My hands get so dry in the winter, of course.  I get patchy red spots on the back of my right hand and swollen knuckles and cracks..my hands take a beating.  I was at the dollar store a while ago and saw this on the shelf.  I remember my mom using Udderly Smooth cream when I was younger, so I had to pick this up.

While I have other hand products that I love, I really enjoyed using this, too.  It’s light like water, but powerful like a heavy cream.  I am so in love with how moisturizing and soothing this cream is.

Udderly Smooth Hand Cream feels so moisturizing and is super light

Philosophy When Hope Is Not Enough Serum

I got a bundle from QVC and this was part of it.  I really got it for the Microdelivery Triple-acid Brightening Peel pads (another holy grail omg-Ineed-backups-of-this product) but I was pleasantly surprised with this.  It’s hydrating, makes my skin feel so smooth, and plumps it up.

My skin may be a little young for this, but I want to start taking care of it with good products early.  Spend on good skincare, save on color cosmetics is my philosophy…usually.  Sometimes the high end eye shadows are on sale and then it’s just a free-for-all.

Philosophy When Hope Is Not Enough serum adds moisture to dull skin

It’s a 10 Leave-in Conditioner

This smells great and it feels lovely when I apply it, but it wasn’t anything special.  I don’t have a brand preference when it comes to leave-on conditioner, so as long as it protects my hair, it’s all good.

It's a 10 Leave In Conditioner makes my hair smell great but isn't anything special

GlamGlow Supermud Clearing Treatment

This stuff is expensive but soooo worth it.  I can physically sense when my skin needs this mask because of how purifying it is.  It just sucks all the stuff out of it and leaves my skin so soft and so bright.

The dregs of this jar dried up and I may have shed a tear or two.

GlamGlow Supermud clearing treatment is my holy grail face mask for when my skin feels congested

Benefit The Porefessional

I have to say that I did not like this sample at all because of how hard it is to get the powder out of a packet, but the product was good.  It really absorbed oil nicely and I didn’t look as shiny by the end of the day.

That said, I was testing it and tried to use it on only one side of my face and left the other side with just my MAC Mineralized Skinfinish and honestly I didn’t notice a difference from side to side.

Benefit The Porefessional anti-shine powder sets makeup and absorbs oil like magic

Have you tried any of these / have you created any empties?  What do you think?

Since this is an Instagram challenge, I took these photos with my phone; excuse quality/lighting.

Sunday Lately, 5

Do you ever find yourself so focused on one thing that other (still important) tasks are totally left at the curb?  It feels like this week is almost like that.  Pure tunnel vision here.

Sunday Lately 5

Completing

Even though I have tunnel vision on one thing (must write more posts), nothing is quite “done.”  Do you ever feel that blogging is like studying?  In school, especially college, I never felt like I was done studying.  It’s almost like that with this blog; until the entry posts, it’s never “done,” it’s just “acceptable to post.”

Visiting

Doctors.  Nothing bad, just two weeks in a row of appointments.  I work a later shift on Tuesdays, so I have the ability to schedule appointments in the morning and not have to take off work.  But that means I get to haul my cookies to the eye doctor (ew) and the dentist two weeks in a row.

Embarrassing-slash-not-embarrassing fact: I LOVE the dentist.  I would go to the dentist every month if it meant I didn’t have to go to the eye doctor.  She’s nice, but I hate having my eyes dilated.

Repeating

My father is back in the hospital, so I’m repeating the fun path of working all day, driving to the hospital, staying there for a while, and then falling into bed when I get home.

Applauding

My best friend is close to finishing up grad school for a masters.  I am so proud of how far she’s come since we were in high school together and it seemed like getting to this point was so far away.  She’s a total rockstar.

We went to happy hour the other night and she was talking about where she wants to go after graduation.  It’s sad that she’s been away for years at school and in a few months she’ll be leaving Pittsburgh again, but you gotta follow your path.

Scheduling

Well, clearly not any more doctor appointments!  I’m trying really hard to have the next month’s Levo event nailed down before the current month’s event and I’m not there with March yet.  I know I have time, but it seems like I’ll have all the time in the world and then BAM there’s the event date next week.

What have you been doing lately?

Five ways to use social media to promote your blog today

Along with providing good customer service, my day job is spent consulting on ways to use social media marketing to promote their brick and mortar (and sometimes online-only) business.

Since blogs are basically a business, I took some of my best tips for business owners and made them work for bloggers.  Get ready for a quick refresh on some best practices to promote your blog online!

Five ways to use social media to promote your blog today

Be consistent

Consistency is key.  I’m pretty sure it’s my mantra at work.  This is especially true of Facebook (they’ll penalize you if you do anything they don’t like pretty much) but also on other platforms as well.

There’s nothing like going to someone’s Facebook page only to see they haven’t posted anything since March 2013.  That isn’t going to make you want to follow them, right?  Right.  So find a content calendar that works for you and schedule away.

I’ve bee enjoying CoSchedule, despite some early skepticism.  When you’re publishing your post, it’s so simple to schedule and promote that post today, next week, or next month.  You can also schedule social media updates that aren’t connected to your latest post.

Focus your attention where you enjoy it the most

If you haaaaate Facebook but are only on there because you think you should be, stop following the pack!  Same goes for Tumblr, Google+, or whatever isn’t serving you anymore.  If you half-heartedly throw something at the wall hoping it sticks but not really having any oomph behind it, it won’t do you any favors.

Your followers can tell.  And they will not care either, I promise you.

But, if you love being on Instagram and pinning your little heart away, your excitement will come through those networks.

You have better things to do than feel guilty for not updating Facebook, especially if blogging isn’t your full time job.  You have better things to do with your time.

Don’t ignore where your traffic is coming from

A caveat to focusing your attention where you enjoy it is to watch where your traffic is coming from and nurture that network.  Install Google Analytics and watch your numbers.  If you’re getting the most clicks from Twitter, spend a little more time there nurturing those connections.

There are free tools to help you maintain those networks.  Play around with what works for you.  As I mentioned, CoSchedule does post to other networks, but it doesn’t monitor the chatter.  I for that, I use HootSuite and Tweetdeck (I talk about them a bit here).  Buffer is also a great tool.

Don’t bite off more than you can chew

It’s impossible to stay on top of Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, Google+, Instagram, Tumblr, LinkedIn, Blog Lovin’, Stumble Upon, Digg, etc AND still write good quality posts (y’know, the whole point of blogging so you can get traffic through those social networks).

Like I tell my accounts at work, don’t add more when you can’t handle what you’ve already got.  So cut something loose.  It’s okay.  You can always add to it later.

It’s smarter (and easier) to introduce a new platform to a mix that’s already performing well than just spinning plates haphazardly.

Be social

Social media connections are just as valuable as a face-to-face interaction.  The beauty of blogging and social media is that you can make connections and learn new things from anywhere.  Be sure to post valuable content on social just as you would on your blog.

Facebook especially is going to reward you for that.  The goal is to inspire, educate, and entertain, not just self-promote.

Ask questions, post content that relates to your blog/industry, make yourself a hub of information.  Things that are “share-worthy” will be shared and you’ll get in front of a fresh set of eyes.  Go out and say hi!

What strategies do you use to promote your blog/business online?

Disclaimer: the CoSchedule link is a referral link.  If you try it out, I get a little help on the price of my subscription.  I wouldn’t be recommending it if I didn’t use it and love it!

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