Enhance Your Blog's Image with These Visual Tips

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Making your blog visually appealing is key to getting people to read it. If it looks boring, cluttered or out of date, it can put people off. Whether you write about your life or you try to offer informative posts about a specialist subject, your readers will be more likely to stick around if everything looks good. Don't worry if your blog isn't currently looking its best or you're just getting started with a new blog. You can create a beautiful blog that is pleasing to the eye and encourages people to keep reading. Here are some things you can do.

Motivate Yourself to Journal Daily

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Motivate Yourself to Journal Daily

Knowing why you should journal is just the beginning; you then need to motivate yourself to keep up with it. It is generally recommended that you write in your journal every day but doing it on a regular basis is also helpful. Look at these easy ways to motivate yourself to keep writing in the journal.

So You Want to Start a Blog? Blogging Platforms - A Simple Review

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If you have ever read anything on starting a blog, you've likely heard of Blogger and Wordpress.  Blogger was one of the first platforms created for the blogging world in the sense we understand it today.  It was also acquired by Google in 2003.  In 2003, Wordpress also began.  The latest statistic is that Wordpress.org runs 30% of the world's websites including big companies like CNN, Fortune, NBC, and TechCrunch.

Gratitude and Incorporating It into Everyday Life

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We all get into the rush and tumble of everyday life. When we do, we tend to forget being grateful for what we have, tend to only focus on the negative, and/or keep imagining all of the other stuff we want/"need". I am certainly guilty of all of these. In fact, as I reviewed my gratitude log, I realized in 3 weeks time, I only did 6 entries. I didn't exactly meet the everyday goal...

Why Everyone Should Have a Journal

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Journaling is not just something certain creative individuals do, but it should really be something everyone does. Journaling helps in so many ways, from finding triggers to your stress, to helping with physical and mental health, and of course being a creative outlet.

July Goals - Mid Year Review

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Can't believe June is coming to an end. I feel like the month just began and here we are at the end already. I kind of feel that way about the whole bloody year. Seriously, how can it be July?? I'm having a hard time believing that I've actually accomplished several big goals this year already.

2018 Reading Challenge Courtesy of @AnneBogel

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Best Places for Cheap #Bujo Supplies

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As you might be able to tell, I really love all things journaling.  I love pens, washi tape, glue sticks, glitter glue, markers, brush pens, notebooks of every kind, paint....you get the idea.  I am also very cheap; not to mention, if I bought every journaling supply I wanted, I would be broke.  I don't know why these supplies are so expensive but they are!  It's annoying, but I've found some workarounds.


The Wish App or Wish.com has been the best find I've found so far.  Now, granted you have to be patient.  The stuff I've received has shipped direct from China which means it takes 6 plus weeks to get to you.  That being said, Frixon erasable pens are $1 a piece!

A pack of 10 fineliners for $4!!!

Black Fine Line pens (6) for $5!!!

These I've all purchased myself and DO NOT get a commission if you purchase.  They all work fantastically.  Although the white writing on the outside of the black pens is starting to rub off within 2 months, but who cares?  The pen still works!!



Dollar Tree has great stuff and EVERYTHING is a buck!  They have washi tape, pens, glue sticks, markers, colored pencils, crayons, every type of school supply you could want.  The washi is cute too!  Just look at the picture below!

They even have PRINTABLES!  I didn't know that Dollar Tree had a loyalty program, but they do which is where I found the printables and TONS of other ideas for stuff!

They even have recipes!  Think I'll make these egg cups tonight!

Clearly, I love the Dollar Store!  💗💗💗❣

Of course, I have to mention Dollar General if I'm going to mention Dollar Tree.  The selection can be a bit limited, but for basics it's awesome!

$5 for a portable art set - sign me up!

They even have art pastels for $3!  I haven't purchased these yet because I didn't want to invest in pastels and end up hating them.  For $3, I'll try it!

  Last, but not least, there's Amazon which of course has everything!  However, it isn't always the cheapest.  That being said, the huge value add is you don't have to leave the house and go to the store and search through a bunch of crap you don't need or want.  You type in the search bar and voila - there it is!  Here are a couple of my recent favorite finds for under $5:

Have I mentioned the Frixon Erasable Pens?  Oh Wait I Have, but I LOVE THEM!!

So, there are my top picks for cheap journaling/bujo supplies!

What are your favorites?

Best Places for Cheap #Bujo Supplies

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How to Simply Grow Your Journaling Practice

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As I've mentioned previously, in my post The Power of Journaling, I have been pouring my heart out to the pages of any notebook, diary, or journal I could find. It wasn't until the past several years that I became a more dedicated journaler with a daily (well almost) habit of writing.

Level 10 Life Explained: A 3 Year Journey of Discovery

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Level 10 Life

 I first heard of the Level 10 life from Boho Berry who heard from it from Hal Elrod. I've always enjoyed goal setting, self-motivation, dreaming, planning, and creativity. This seemed to combine all of those things! Needless to say, I was very excited to do it myself. So, what exactly is this Level 10 Life thing?

Social Media Automation Series - Part 7: Metricool and Sumall

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Metricool and Sumall are different compared to the other platforms I've reviewed. They are more tailored to analytics but each in its own unique way. Sumall is more automation with emailed analytics while Metricool analyzes both your website and social media but also allows you to schedule tweets.

Social Media Automation Series - Part 6: Commun.it

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Commun.it is an interesting tool.  It claims to help drive traffic, help you with analytics, and help schedule posts.  It does do those things kind of.  With the free plan,  you only get 3 days of analytics which isn't super helpful.  You can curate content with it, but I didn't find the algorithm to be that accurate.  Tweets were automatically published that had me asking...umm..I tweeted that why?

Social Media Automation Series - Part 5: Social Pilot

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I must admit - Social Pilot is one of my favorite scheduling tools.  You can view posts in a monthly calendar in the free version.  You can post 10 things per day in the free plan and schedule up to 30 total posts.  You can connect 3 social profiles including Pinterest!  Unfortunately, you can't curate content, but they do have a fantastic chrome extension so can schedule on the fly.  

Social Media Automation Series - Part 4: Buffer

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Buffer is one of the social media automation tools that everyone knows about, talks about, and uses.  I am definitely an avid user.  It is the ONLY tool I've found so far that really lets you Retweet a post within Twitter and with its Chrome Extension.  Anything else I've used treats the tweet as an original tweet unless you add "RT @handle" to the comment box.  In my opinion, this is BEST FEATURE of Buffer.

Social Media Automation Series - Part 3: Dlvr.it

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I just starting using Dlvr.it and so far, I've enjoyed it.  You are able to curate content by pulling from feeds or websites you like.  Since getting into blogging personally, there are several bloggers of

which I've really enjoyed their blogs, tweets, etc. They are :

@sanemommablog www.sanemomma.com

@ProductvePretty) https://productiveandpretty.com/ 

@SunnySweetDays https://sunnysweetdays.com/

@tinyrayofsun www.tinyrayofsunshine

@Littlecoffeefx https://littlecoffeefox.com

Social Media Automation Series - Part 2: Paper.li

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Paper.li has been one of the greatest tools I've found for finding content.  With the free plan, you can subscribe to 10 content sources.  These sources can be searches in Paper.li's Genius Source, direct feeds from sites you love, from twitter, really anything you want.  I use this for both work and BIG and so far, it's algorithm for finding content is the best I've seen in any app or tool.  It's "Genius" source truly is genius.

Social Media Automation Series - Part 1: Crowdfire

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There are so many social media automation tools out there. Each has its own merits, benefits, and pitfalls. As I've managed my company's social media as well as my own. I've learned a ton from a variety of different sources. Abby Lawson's Building A Framework has been super helpful as well as Blog by Number by Suzi at startamomblog.com. They both go through the how, what, when and why of starting a blog including of course some about social media.