Seizing An Opportunity

I went on twitter last night and became totally and utterly confused by all this "dress" drama.  I quickly got myself in the loop but still couldn't comprehend what all the hype was. It was a blue and black dress end of story that was until I had friends equally as passionate about it being white and gold. Say whaaaat?!! I still don't know what the deal is with that although I am hearing it was indeed a blue and black dress. I am like I know I have perfect vision as does my hubby and that's what we saw but I'm sorry the point of the post wasn't to further this debate.

My real point here is how to take something as ridiculous as the color of a dress going viral and using it to your advantage. Most of you know I already that I design jewelry, I woke up with the idea of making blue and black bracelets and white and gold bracelets. I posted on social media saying support your team or which team are you and used hashtags such as #thedress #blueandblack and #whiteandgold. Because of this sensation and the utilization of these hashtags I am getting more traffic.

Do I really expect to sell blue and black and white and gold "the dress" bracelets? No, not really but that wasn't my purpose. My purpose was to get more traffic to my website and social media pages and I have been successful in doing so and hey if I sell a few of those bracelets it's an added bonus. Because of the heavy traffic flow from this idea (I wish I thought of last night) people are favoriting my Etsy shop, following my Instagram and becoming fans of my Facebook page which in turn will get my "real" designs more exposure and more sales.

Will something like this work for everything that trends on twitter and social media? No of course not but you should always have your brain thinking is this something I can put a twist on and incorporate into getting my business more exposure, Sometimes is the craziest things that do the most good.

In case you want to support your side go here.

Random Thoughts On The Dancing With The Stars Season 20 Cast

I was excited to find out the cast of DWTS season 20 was announced but as usual I found myself wondering who these people are and only caring about the pro dancers. Of course I will watch and will end up falling in love with a few of these people I know nothing about but until then here are my thoughts:

Who?

Witney Carson better be one of the pros this season and why is her supposed partner a secret.

Robert Herjavec!!! Love him from Shark Tank. Really hope he can dance.

Why do they use they same damn formula every year for picking the "stars." Let's walk on the wild side.

Nothing is going to beat "The Carlton" from last season. Nothing.

The dancers at this point are more famous than their partners. I get more invested in them than the pro.

Who?

Is Willow Shields, Brooke Shield's daughter?

Julianne Hough is a judge again. UGH. She's annoying.

How many more faces will we see from So You Think You Can Dance?

Why does poor Tony Dovolani always get old kooky partners?

Why do they always set up Derek and Marc for a win?

I need to become a HUGE blogger so I can be cast one year a la Bethany Mota.

I wonder who will appear to be romantically involved this season.

I miss Maks.

Who?

Will they start the season saying: "May the odds be ever in your favor."

I am anxious for the season to begin and to hear your thoughts on this season's cast.

Nothing Ever Goes As Expected

So my first week back from vacation didn't go as nice and as productive as I had envisioned. Besides being absolutely exhausted from a week of 16 hour days in the park the whole family was feeling a bit under the weather. We brushed it off to the drastic change in climate. As the week went on the hubby and myself were just getting sicker and sicker.

 By Wednesday my cough was so terrible that it was causing my stomach to have weird muscle pains. My stomach was feeling so odd that I needed to investigate further. Then panic set when I found a hard lump, mass around my belly button. After spending a few hours at the doctors office on Thursday it ends up the severe coughing caused me to get an umbilical hernia. And guess what? I need surgery. As if I haven't been put through enough these past few months. It isn't an emergency but should get taken care of. My stomach still hurts and is very tender to the touch.

 As if that wasn't bad enough. I woke up Friday with my eye crusted shut and red eyes, hello pink eye. I called the doctor I had just seen the day prior so see if they could write out a script for me but nope because I hadn't specifically come in for my eyes. Seriously? I went in the day prior for feeling sick and for my stomach and the doc looked at my eyes. I was furious especially since it's hard for me to get out since I cannot leave my dad alone. I couldn't get out for the doctor two days in a row. Luckily a family friend informed me about a CVS minute clinic that is super close to my house and they were able to help me out in a really short amount of time.

 Then on Saturday, I heard a weird noise coming from my dishwasher as I walked by it, the thing is it wasn't on. All of a sudden, water started pouring out of the thing and flooding the kitchen. We jammed towels underneath it while Joey tried to get the water turned off but since we are still getting used to where everything is in our new home this took a little while and the towels were getting soaked quicker than we could replace them. We eventually got the water off and mini flood cleaned up but again another mishap we could have done without.

 But one thing I am excited to share from the past few days are a couple edited photos from my nephew's newborn photoshoot. I took the photos before we went to Disney and my sis who is a master graphic designer and editor finished them off. The two photos I am sharing in this post I absolutely adore. They are different and really show what a snowy, cold winter it's been. What do you think?

 Anyway, I'm starting to feel a little better but still run down. I definitely did not accomplish everything I wanted to last week including all the blog posts I had up my sleeve. Oh well, it's a new week and hopefully things are a little less eventful. A nice boring week will truly do me some good.

"Oh Sh*ts!" Of Blogging

I like to pretend I have my act together, I think we all like to try and put up that facade especially when it comes to blogging but in reality I think the majority of you are unorganized messes just like myself. Let's face it blogging isn't the only thing we do. We either have families, jobs or something else pulling us in a million directions that blogging sometimes needs to be put on the back burner. Because of that little fact I find myself saying "Oh Sh*t!!!" quite often due to the blogging world. Examples:

When you are being featured on a cool blog and you totally forget to have an awesome post scheduled for that day for all the potential new readers. This is me today. I have a lovely little feature over at Sage and completely didn't have a good post up this morning. Hopefully Cassie's readers are forgiving and will still give me a try. Total blogger fail.

When you forget your camera for a major event or visit to an amazing place. As bloggers I think we always look at everything we do as a possible post so we always have to be ready to document everything. Having to rely on your camera phone for Pinterest worthy photos is typically a bummer.

Missing a deadline. Whether it be for signing up to be a part of a fabulous giveaway with your best blogging buddies or linking up for a creative link up, missing these things is never fun. That is why I try to sign up for giveaways and such as soon as I get the notice because I know if I put it off I will forget.

When you actually have a super post written and you forget to schedule it or publish the day it was intended. Every once in a while I have my posts written a few days ahead of time but then I either forget to schedule it or hit publish the next morning. Bummer especially when the work was put in.

You have no clean place in your home for product or DIY photos. I work from home and have a toddler, not really the best situation for having a tidy home. Time to clear off half of the dining room table and anything that's in the frame of the photo. All around what's in the photo is pure chaos. Again it's all a facade.

You realize you need to start actually getting dressed more than once a week. All the other bloggers you follow seem to have fabulous photos of themselves in the cutest outfits in every single darn post or their Instagram is full of the greatest selfies. Meanwhile, I am over here looking for old photos of myself in something other than yoga pants and a t-shirt.

What about you, what are some of your "Oh Shit!" moments of blogging?? xoxo

Should You Invest In Disney's Memory Maker?

When I was planning our Disney trip I came across info for Disney's Memory Maker, a service that allows you unlimited downloads of photos taken of you and your family taken by Disney photographers throughout your vacation. This service costs $169 if purchased ahead of time. While planning I went back and forth on whether or not to invest in this service but ultimately decided to give it a shot because I wanted family photos of all three of us and didn't want to have to rely on bothering strangers. I am glad I went ahead and did go with this but was disappointed in a few things about the service. As with anything there were pros and cons and I will now break it down for you.

PROS:

You could check out your photos in a matter of minutes. Most photos were able to be viewed just minutes after they were taken through My Disney Experience. This was awesome because if we didn't like a batch of photos we could make sure we took them again.

The ability for us all to be in the photo. This was a big one for me. I didn't want a bunch of photos of Joe and Liv and a bunch of Liv and I. I wanted photos of the three of us as a family and we were able to get many of them.

Not having to lug around a camera. It was nice to be able to be camera free, plain and simple.

Character photos. There was a photographer with every character who got photos of Liv getting her autograph book signed as well as getting a posed photo of her with the character. This made things stress free for us, not having to worry about getting these photos and we have a photograph to to go with every signature.

Special Effects. A few of the photos that were taken had Tinkerbell and other characters added in the photo which created some fabulous Disney photos.

Memories to last a lifetime. So many times I bring my camera to special events and on vacations and I hardly ever take many photos because I am caught up in enjoying the moment. This is a good thing but leaves me disappointed when it's over with very little photos to capture the event. Getting this package was a way to make sure that didn't happen.

CONS:

Weren't as many photo ops as I thought there would be. There were a decent amount of photographer setups but not nearly as many as I thought there would have been. I was most disappointed in Epcot. We went "around the world" and only came across two photographers. I thought there would have been one in each country. Also in Magic Kingdom there were many photographers on Main Street to take your photo with the castle in the background but otherwise I felt there weren't many elsewhere.

No ride photos. I assumed there would be ride photos, you know the ones where you get those photos of everyone screaming at a certain point on the ride. Well, only one ride we went on had a photo available for download.

You have to ask to get photos. The photographers aren't hunting you down, you need to hunt them down. The first day we were there I felt awkward asking random photographers I saw to take our photos but by the following day I realized this was the only way we were going to get them.

No resort photographers. We stayed at the Art of Animation Resort which had so many amazing photo ops but there were no photographers on the resort property. This was a bummer because I would have loved family photos at the hotel.

Lack of props and original posing ideas. Only one photographer had some huge heart prop which was cute but made me think there should have been more props. And I must have at least five photos at different locations of Joe and I kissing Liv on the cheek. Each photographer had the same three poses they wanted you to do. You can tell each photographer has the same list of poses they are given in training but it would have been nice if they had some of their own ideas to add to the mix. A few did but most didn't.

Overall, I am happy we decided to get the Memory Maker package. Even with the cons I listed I am grateful for the photos we did get and we wouldn't have had them otherwise. If you are going to be at Disney for more than a day or two I believe it is well worth the $169. But you have the honest list of pros and cons above which will hopefully help you make a more educated decision. Below is just a small sampling of some of our photos from the package.

Have you purchased the Memory Maker in the past? Or are you planning a trip to Disney? Is this a service you would invest in? Would love to hear your thoughts. xoxo

Back From Disney

I am back from our week in Disney and now feel like I need a vacation. It is so true when they say you need a vacation after your vacation especially one where it is "go, go, go" for 16 hours each day with a three year old. We truly had a blast but it was exhausting.

It was good for me to get away for a week to try and forget my new reality although at moments I had my mini meltdowns. We went to Disney with my parents when I was younger and a few things triggered memories that made me sad. I think I cried during the whole "It's A Small World" ride remembering that it was my mom's favorite ride. And normally I would have been calling my mom each night to tell her about our day and knowing she wasn't there to call hurt.

Don't get me wrong, overall I had a fabulous time but I guess you can't ever truly escape a pain so deep. But it was good to be carefree and see how excited my daughter was to meet all the characters and go on all the rides. It was nice to have some family time, just the three of us.

I feel like I have so much to tell you guys about the trip and learned some great tips about traveling to Disney that I don't know where to begin. I was trying to figure out if it would be best to do a post about each day we had there or just do a looooong post about the whole trip. I decided that over the next week or so I am going to be sharing about certain aspects of our trip and go into detail about each specific thing. So be on the lookout for posts about The Art of Animation Resort, The Disney Memory Maker, Flying JetBlue, The people of Disney and some things I find strange about Disney. I am very excited to go into detail about all of the above and hope to to help out anyone who may be planning a trip to Disney World any time soon. xoxo

Because taking selfies with Ariel is a must

Your First Birthday In Heaven

Dear Mom,

You haven't even been gone 6 weeks and the fact that this day is upon us already is like throwing salt on already very open wound. Each day I seem to feeling more and more lost and the fact that your birthday is here has me unable to think about anything without breaking into tears. Life is so unfair sometimes. You think you have all the time in the world and in the blink of an eye someone can be taken from you. You were healthy, you were young, nothing prepared us for that morning.

I know you would want us to be happy, to continue on with our lives and use all the happy memories to keep the tears from our eyes but it is hard because there should have been so many more memories, you should have been able to see your grandchildren grow up but instead we they need to get to know you from the stories of those who had time to spend with you and love you.

I promise you we will do just that. We will share all the happy memories we have. Tell them how you were loving, generous, a good time and a devoted wife and mother. Tell them how you were selfless and put everyone above yourself. I promise you, you will not be forgotten and everyone will celebrate you on this day every year but your memory won't be exclusive to your birthday, we will continue your traditions and share everything you loved and you will live on forever.

Happy Birthday Mom!! I cannot even begin to express how much we all miss you and wish you were here. How we wish we could tell you we love you just one last time. I hope you are celebrating up there with Nanny and Papa and dancing on clouds. We miss you down here but must find solace in the fact we will be celebrating together again one day. Until then. I love you mom.....

Love,
Jenny

Win A $400 Target Gift Card!

So I know I've been involved in a lot of giveaways lately, sorry about that but this is one I don't think you want to pass up. An opportunity to win $400 to Target!! I mean who doesn't fantasize about that because I know I can't go into Target without dropping at least $100 so this would be a major help. Well here are the details and good luck!! xoxo

GIVEAWAY DETAILS

Prize: $400 Target Gift Card

Giveaway organized by: Oh My Gosh Beck!

Rules: Use the Rafflecopter form to enter daily. Giveaway ends 3/4 and is open worldwide. Winner will be notified via email.

Are you a blogger who wants to participate in giveaways like these to grow your blog? Click here to find out how you can join a totally awesome group of bloggers!



a Rafflecopter giveaway

Creative Alternative To Wrapping

Does anyone else suck at wrapping presents? I am the worst. They never look nice and neat. I really don't know where I go wrong. When my sister came over with these birthday gifts for my daughter over the weekend I thought it was genius!

Simple white boxes, colored construction paper, a Sharpie and some glue is all that is needed to create these unique and fun boxes. My daughter and all our guests loved them. My sister definitely inspired me to try something like this instead of ruining gifts with sloppy wrapping.

Well I hope these photos inspired you with the possibilities of creating some characters out of gift boxes. Happy gifting!! xoxo

Loves Giveaways Giveaway Hop

Welcome to the Giveaway Hop for all of you that love... Giveaway Hops, hosted by the Blogging Mamas Network. You know BMN LOVES giveaways, so we've come together to bring you a fun, open-themed giveaway hop! Each blogger has a prize valued at $25 or more, so be sure to "hop" around on the linky at the bottom of the post to check out each prize!

I have decided to give away something everyone loves, a $25 giftcard to Target.  Enter below and be sure to check out all the other amazing giveaways listed below.

a Rafflecopter giveaway So Easy Being Green, Viva Veltoro, the Blogging Mamas Network, and the BMN Loves Giveaways participating bloggers are not responsible for sponsors who do not fulfill prize obligations.