Gardening in High Heels

cultivate a beautiful life

Be a Twitter Chat Rockstar

Last night, while participating in the #CreateLounge Twitter chat, I got to thinking about what makes for the best chat experience.  I don’t do a lot of Twitter chats, but I try to attend the ones I know and love as faithfully as I can.

Why tweet and chat?  It’s a fun way to interact with like-minded people, learn some new view points and/or techniques, express your opinions, and grow your following on Twitter as an influential user.

In the process of tweeting and chatting, I’ve learned a lot about what makes for a good experience and what needs a little work.  Here are a few essential things to make sure you’re doing during a Twitter chat to be a gracious guest.

Twitter chats are so much fun! Love these tips for being a great chatter.

Make sure you’re using the hashtag

So you sent out a tweet without the chat hashtag.  That’s okay.  It’s a rookie mistake, but it’s still okay.  I’ve done it, the best Twitter chatters have done it, you’ll probably do it.  But use it because it allows the host and other chatters to easily find your tweets in the sea of lost message.

Oh and keep an eye out and make sure you have enough space to include the tag when you’re done making your brilliant point.

Also, don’t forget to number your tweets.  If you’re responding to Q1 (question 1), write A1 (answer 1) before your tweet.

Jump right in

Twitter chats aren’t the place to be shy.  Sure you can lurk around for the first few times while you get the hang of it, but the fun in chats is participating with everyone!

If you have something to say, hit reply and type away!  It always makes me feel good when someone starts a conversation with an answer I provided.  If a tweet does un-replied-to, does it ever get tweeted?

Try Tweetdeck

Native Twitter is hard to participate in Twitter chats.  I like seeing a running list of all tweets using the chat tag, my notifications, and any new topics coming from the host.  For this purpose, I use Tweetdeck when participating in chats.  It keeps me organized.

The only catch is that if you make a new stream (to track the hashtag perhaps) and the account you’re using isn’t the primary Tweetdeck account, make sure your favoriting tweets from the right account!  There was a chat I participated in where all my favorites came from the wrong handle.

You could also use your phone.  It’s convenient because it auto-fills the hashtag and handles, the favorites are always from the right account, and it’s easy to follow your new friends.

Follow interesting chatters

Like I mentioned before, you get the most out of a Twitter chat when you can interact with everyone.  Keep that momentum going after the chat by following the people you had a great conversation with!  I’ve met some great people from participating in Twitter chats.

And you know that you have similar interests because you’re participating in the same Twitter chat.  So if you’re in a blogger chat, most of the people are bloggers….with whom you can create a support network, find and share new content, etc.  See where I’m going here?

Some of my favorite chats are Kayla Hollatz‘s #CreateLounge on Wednesdays at 8p ET, CoSchedule‘s CoChat on Thursdays at 3:30pm ET, Megan‘s #TipsyChat on Tuesdays at 8:30p ET, and Blog Elevated‘s #BlogElevated chat on Tuesdays at 10p ET.

What are your tips for participating in Twitter chats? What’s your favorite to participate in?

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!

Proud times (plus a giveaway!)

Like I mentioned yesterday, it’s been one year since I purchased the domain GardeningInHighHeels.com.  It’s taken me a while to get this space going and a while for me to get where I want it to be, but I’m thrilled with it and how it’s turned out.

To say it’s one of the things I’m most proud about…well, I guess that would be accurate.  I don’t have a baby or a pet or some star-studded lifestyle, so I don’t feel bad saying that a blog is a big accomplishment.

It’s still a work in progress and I want to take it in different directions, but I’m pretty proud right now.

Last night, I was doing an exercise where I wrote down the things I loved about myself (step one in Molly Mahar’s The Joy Equation is to practice fierce self-love).

There are many things I’m proud of, like my get shit done attitude and my writing abilities.  I wrote a lot of good qualities about myself if I do say so myself, but not one of them included, “my adventurous spirit.”

Probably because I don’t think of myself as very adventurous.  I’m more of the stay grounded and work hard type.  In my mind, spur-of-the-moment and grounded are mutually exclusive.

Sure, I can be fun and adventurous, but in small doses.  Baby steps.  I would love to work up big, adventuresome muscles.  I guess it takes practice, just like anything else.

If you’re like me and need a little kick in the pants to be proud of the adventures you take in life, maybe this giveaway will help get you there.

And if you already are an adventurer, you’ll definitely want to check out this giveaway.

Some of your favorite bloggers and I are teaming up to give you the chance to win a $300 Delta Airlines gift card!  Talk about motivation to flex those muscles.  Enter using the Rafflecopter below and then fly by these fantastic bloggers to say thanks for this opportunity!

deltagiveaway

Brought to you by:

Life Could Be a Dream // A Prioritized Marriage // Life With Grace // A Beautiful Exchange
Hey Kerri // The Lady Lawyer // Gardening in High Heels // Boone & Owl
Aubrey Zaruba // Miss in the Midwest // Life in the Lost and Found Bin // Making Mrs. M
Becoming Adorrable // Wetherills Say I Do // T.O. & fro // Gold & Bloom
Two Places at Once // Twin Stripe

The giveaway will run from 12:00 am EST on June 17th until 11:59 pm EST on June 22nd.  The winner will be contacted by email and will have 48 hours to respond and claim their prize before a new winner will be selected.  Entries will be verified, so please be honest.  This giveaway is open to U.S. residents only.  Sorry, international friends!  Good luck!
a Rafflecopter giveaway

Where would you jet off to if you won?  And what are you most proud of?

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!

Budget battle

It’s easy to forget your wins, small or big.  Time to celebrate something for me.  Tomorrow marks one year since I purchased the domain gardeninginhighheels.com.  I didn’t do anything with it until….6 months later….but the idea is that I bought it.  I had the idea.  I went for something different.  And I loooove it.

And it took me a while, but I finally made the leap and opened a blog-specific Instagram account.  Can you tell that I need to mull things over for a while before I do them?

Ironically, for big things like buying a car, I decide I want a car, then I go buy it.  I can’t/don’t want to take time thinking it over.  I wonder what that says about me..

Sticking to a food budget is hard, but I love the accountability with Project:Food BudgetSo for this week’s Project:Food Budget, I was pretty good.  I spent $39.34 total at Giant Eagle.  I purchased a few cleaning products (on sale with coupons) so when I deduct $5.99 for Lysol (totally not edible so I’m totally not counting it!) and tax, I came in at $32.93.

I should have another dollar off of that because the sign on the hamburger buns said they were free at Giant Eagle.  Whatevs.

I also bought 4 lemons in the Strip for $2, so grand total for all food is: $34.93, $15.07 under budget.  Can I roll that over to next week?  I think it’s going to be stock up week.

I still haven’t made it out to Trader Joe’s or Aldi, but the Trader Joe’s circular did advertise chia seeds 12 oz for $4.99.  I normally pay about $10 for 16 oz and I go through chia seeds in my water, Emily’s banana bread, and these summer staple lemon ricotta chia muffins from Table for Two.

In case you’re wondering, I buy bananas just so they’ll get old and I can make banana bread.  I love banana bread.

Other things I made this week include this amazing chicken meatball recipe.  I cheated and used pasta instead of zucchini.  Also, instead of ranch dressing mix, I used fresh herbs from the garden.  I can’t wait until my zucchini is finally ready for harvest!  I split the pound of ground chicken and made patties for “burgers” and enjoyed on my not-free buns.

I also made Laura’s sweet and tangy macaroni salad.  It is amazing and a staple of my lunch this week, I’m sure.  I used flavored oil and vinegar from The Imperial Olive and it’s incredible.

I’ve also been making a batch of brown rice and using it for a side dish one night and any leftovers get turned into Emily’s rice and pear porridge for quick breakfasts that I take to work.

I put it in a mason jar and someone literally asked me if I eat anything not served in a mason jar.  The answer is no.  It was during my jar-salad kick.  I think I may have a slight hipster problem.

I still have to figure out a menu for this week, but I know at least on Wednesday,  I will again be mooching a meal off of my family.  For the past few weeks, I’ve been driving to my aunts’ house where my father has been staying and spending some time with them.  I always leave with leftover and they always ask me why I need to go grocery shopping afterwards.

Well this week, he’s moving back into his house for a while.  Mostly independent, with the exception of the first night getting used to the environment again.  So that meal is covered.  I think.  Either way, yay for independence and progress in health.

If you need some budgeting illumination, check out what these other budgeting beauties are up to! Emily Levenson / McGinnis and Bean / Red Pen Mama / Seeking White Space / facepalmmama / Gardening in High Heels / Melissa Firman / Copy & Post / Rachel Olive Miller / Shea Lennon

Have you joined the budget battle? How did you do this week?

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!

Refresh yourself

This weekend, I enjoyed myself very much.

  • I imbibed at the Tar and Feather 2015 event at Wigle Whiskey.  As pictured here.
  • I visited Spoonwood Brewing Co (look for a review soon on PCBN).
  • I watched a Pittsburgh Passion football game.  Those ladies are in full-on beast mode all the time.
  • I went to Jack’s for the first time.  There’s a blog post in there somewhere.
  • I checked out Neighborhood Flea.
  • I watched The Office and A Few Good Men.  I have to stop and watch that, Goodfellas, and Clueless when they’re on.
  • I read a little People Over Profit.
  • I talked to my mom.
  • I spent lots of time with Jonathan.

And I’m sorry to say, I didn’t write something for today.  Everyone needs a weekend to relax and repair and re-everything.

So while I didn’t write anything groundbreaking, I did an important step towards Being A Better Blogger, which is refreshing your mind.

It was so needed after the past few months I’ve had.  Guys, blogging every day is hard.  I never pretended like it wouldn’t be, but dang-nabit it’s a lot of work.

Since I’m pretty tapped today, check what my other co-conspirators are writing in our quest to Be A Better Blogger.

How did you refresh yourself this weekend?

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!

Sunday Lately, 24

This week I’ve been doing oil pulling.  It’s that thing in which you swish coconut oil around in your mouth like mouthwash for 20 minutes and it’s supposed to reveal a whiter, straighter, prettier smile that also opens into a studio apartment and a million dollars.

It’s kind of gross.  I’m trying to stick it out though.  In other news, we went to Wigle Whiskey‘s Tar and Feather party on Friday night.  It rained for most of the evening, but it got nicer at the end of the evening and we got to watch the tax collector get dunked.  It was a great time.

Tar and Feather party at Wigle Whiskey

Updating

Instagram!  I’ve been on the fence about opening a blog-specific Instagram account, but I finally did it!  You can find me at instagram.com/GardeningInHighHeels.  It’s going to be more focused on “blog stuff” like gardening, updates, and interacting with bloggers/readers.

Reminding

I signed up for The Joy Equation with Molly Mahar and I need to remember to take the workbook to Staples and print/bind it.  It’s beautiful, full color, so it would totally kill my printer if I did it myself.  I also would never get it bound.

Needing

To catch up on other blogs and leave comments.  That’s my favorite part of blogging and I’ve been putting priority on other things in my life.  What are your secrets for balancing all aspects of blogging?

Wearing

This awesome Blogger, Maker tank from Katy’s Handmade Escapade shop!  I love the way she’s laid out the words so each one is kind of different and the font that she chose to use.  And the fact that it’s totally comfortable!

I want to live in this shirt this summer.  It’s also really hot and swampy here, so the less layers, the better.

Being

Hot and swampy.  The humidity here has felt off the charts.  Today so far is a little cloudy and cooler.  I think this week is supposed to be rainy.  It’ll be great for my garden in terms of water and not so great in terms of weeds.I spent about 2 hours yesterday weeding that damn garden and I know it’s one of those fruitless jobs, like vacuuming, where as soon as you do it, you can’t really tell you did it anything.

Fresh Essie mani and fresh herbs

Weeding a garden is the best accomplishment.

What have you been up to lately?

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!

Let’s Play

           

People Really Dug These

We Belong in the Garden Together