Showing posts with label Other. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Other. Show all posts

Link Love: 01.17.14

I'm trying to get back into this whole blogging on the regular and the best way to do that is to go around the interwebz and find new blogs to discover. So here's 5 of my favorite posts that I've discovered this week!



By The Shore: I love her post here. It's got lovely pictures of her in the snow in a very casual outfit, which I love. I love that one of them is black and white. A lot of fashion bloggers forget to play around with their photos using sephia and black and white. They all like actions and filters but that's it. | X

Seven Lives And More: This blog is kind of a 365 project but what I loved most about this post was the focus on the cat stickers on her wall. I just want you to share in my Cat Craziness and fall in love with these wall clings too. She posts in English and in French so, w00t go me for brushing up on my French. | X

One of my favorite blogs ever is The Curious Cupcake. I found her last summer and was amazed that she loves to chase tornadoes! I do too! Living in the Mid-West until I was 12 and then having a very close run-in with a tornado when I went to my Family Reunion back in May. I just HAD to catch up with her and she's apparently feeling "nutty" and taking pictures of squirrels. THEY ARE SO CUTE! | X

I like to follow this blogger and designer Sarah, who recently moved her blog. Her most recent post is a tip about Pinterest and how to get your pins noticed more! I'm going to try it out and see if it helps. | X

Being in Cosmetology school I'm definitely more into hair and make up blogs just because that is what I am going to do from now on you know? So when I found Confessions of a Hairstylist I was like "yes, this is the tits!" The link I loved most was one of her reviews on a pair of shears. I just liked the style and there are definitely other product reviews worth checking out. | X

What are you reading?
What are your favorite blogs?

10 Things I Will Never Do



So I stole this from Nessa @ A Life of Our Own, who stole it from Shelly, who has the link up on her website. *phew* That was a lot huh? Anyways, I saw this on Nessa's blog and thought it was a cute idea!
  1. Not freak out when I see a cockroach
  2. Not stand up for what I believe in
  3. Eat an insect. (I mean willingly.)
  4. Not want to visit Ireland or the UK
  5. Say "it's ok" if a man hits me. IT IS NEVER OK.
  6. Not laugh at a joke
  7. Try and be a blonde again. It's just not a good look for me. Streaks yes, whole head = NO.
  8. Have more money than I can spend. Trust me, if I won the lotto I would know how to spend each and every penny of it.
  9. Go skinny dipping in the Antarctic. (Just not my style, LOL)
  10. Like Spinach. (It's just so gross.)

What are 10 things you'd never ever do?
Or do you never say never?

Customer Service Blues

I'm not sure how many of you check reviews on services or items (like on Amazon) but I think since you might often come here for my reviews on make up that you might like to be warned about something that I experienced with a company I was a long time customer of and am no longer willing to do business with.

I don't know how many of you have ever worked in Customer Service but it really is a thankless, shitty job. You get maybe one or two really nice people but those are never the ones that stick with you. You can be the happiest, bubbliest person in the best mood ever and one grumpy cat is sure to send you to your lunch break crying in your oatmeal. When I worked in retail if someone came up to me and said "I need to speak to your manager," I always smiled, asked what it was in regards to and then happily turned them over. Even if it was my fault and I knew this person was going to tear my manager a new one because of me I never hesitated.


I used 1and1.com for the last, I don't even know, 3 or 4 years? I've never had an issue until now.  I discovered yesterday that my domain was not working. It kept continually saying that it could not reach the server. I knew blogger was working so I tried to log into my account to check what was wrong with my domain or see if 1&1 was having problems. I had to e-mail tech support because I also could not log into my account.


I am first informed that my account has been deleted, due to non-payment. My billing and my contact information has not changed since my renewal last year. I never received notification that my renewal date was near. That is mostly my fault because I am supposed to keep track of that shit even though I never do I rely heavily on e-mails to remind me. I never received a renewal e-mail.  No big deal I'll just pay the renewal now and in an hour or two everything will be golden. Right?

Wrongo! I'm going to quote the rest of the e-mail now:
"Regarding your domain, if you wish to activate it, transferring the domain from inactive account to an active account is no longer an option because of the status of your account. However, you can transfer your domain from 1&1 to other registrar. We have sent you the authorization code of your domain to be able to transfer it away."
RUDE!

So let me get this straight; you'd rather me take my business elsewhere than just renew my domain and get it working? I immediately respond to this bullshit e-mail asking for the authorization code and definitely point out that you should never as a business tell your customer to go elsewhere (most businesses like to retain their customers) no matter how nicely you put it that is still insulting, not to mention a bad business practice. They reply with instructions to contact billing support.

So I call billing, try to explain the situation and am immediately cut off and transferred to tech support, who then try to connect me back to billing. I finally land back at tech support somehow and explain to the rep if I get transferred one more time I'm going to flip out. I get e-mails telling me to contact this department and that department and then I get transferred like a ping pong ball back and forth on the phone I was just over it.  I don't know why, I blame it on my horrid morning but this whole ordeal stressed me out so bad I cried. I'm trying to keep it together on the phone but I'm sniffling and know I sound all nasal so after a bit the guy was just like I just e-mailed you the authorization code and I think I waited like 20-30 minutes and I still didn't get it so then I ask if I can speak to a supervisor.

He gives me the run-around. I worked in retail dude, I know the supervisors are busy and they don't have time for this but they have to make time; it's part of their job and if everyone else had done their correctly I wouldn't be bothering them. He kept stalling and stalling and then told me I had to e-mail someone but I was firm and polite as I could be and kept insisting that I speak to someone.

NEVER ONCE DID I YELL. 
I DID NOT THROW A FIT LIKE I AM FIVE YEARS OLD.

I want to stress that those are not how you get someone to help you. Ever. You don't stomp your foot, or yell and cause a big scene (we were on the phone so they only ones amused would be my cats but I've seen this countless times in the stores I've worked at) because that gets you nowhere but barred from the store (yes they can do that).

Finally I got to talk to a supervisor, after about 20 minutes on hold and I tried to calmly explain the whole ordeal from yesterday to what I experienced today and let him know that it wasn't ok and that someone who in charge of the structure of their company needs to review their policy.

FYI: I was told by the supervisor that my case would be escalated as an apology and it has now been 2 hours and I still haven't received that e-mail with my authorization code so I can transfer my domain.

Five points to your house if you know where this is from.

This isn't the first time I have come a crossed this. I had a similar issue with AT&T but theirs was more a money issue. They wanted to charge me $500 to turn my cellphone back on after I lost my job and had it as a suspended line instead of the $300 it was to cancel my contract. I took the cheaper route obviously. I wasn't going to pay more to be a customer, I didn't like them that much.

Moral of the story; if a company treats you like you are a dime a dozen take your business elsewhere!

Have you had a similar bad customer service experience? 
Where was it? What happened?

13 Ways To Drive Me Away From Your Giveaway

You know what I discovered? People are actually driving me AWAY from their giveaways. After hosting a few giveaways I can't say that I'm an expert at doing it. Apparently, neither are a lot of other people. I've entered more than I'd like to admit and it's actually cluttering up all of my social media. I had to spend 3 hours combing my twitter to purge it of all these junk accounts that I only followed because of a contest. Same with my facebook and now I'm getting that way with my Google Reader/ Bloglovin and other readers. I'm compiling a list of reasons why I am NOT entering anymore giveaways no matter how delicious the prize.

  1. This should be the most important thing for any giveaway: KEEP IT SIMPLE.  We aren't trying to win the cure for cancer or a vial of water from the fountain of youth. Unless you are giving away $1000+ the requirements to enter should be simple, one click ordeals and not a scavenger hunt for the lost city of Atlantis.
  2. Don't have me follow anyone who isn't in the giveaway. For example, if there's 3 different blogs who are giving away ad space I shouldn't have to follow 13 different facebooks, twitters and blogs when 10 of those aren't giving anything away. 
  3. It shouldn't be mandatory to complete all tasks before I am fully entered into the contest/giveaway. If you have 50 tasks that's too much. See number 1.
  4. Don't have me follow you on Bloglovin + GFC + Hello Cotton. PICK ONE, I shouldn't have to get 3 alerts about your one blog post. I also shouldn't have to suffer & get 3 alerts for your 3 blog posts a day.
  5. Speaking of GFC, don't make me hunt you down. You want me to follow you remember? If I click "GFC" on rafflecopter, it better take me directly to the thing that says "follow publicly/privately" or to Feedburner to add to my Google Reader. DO NOT send me to the main blog page.  See last sentence of number 1.
  6. If you do require GFC and send me to the blog make sure they have an RSS icon or the little GFC box. If all they have are FB, twitter and e-mail social media icons WTF is that? BYYYEEEE
  7. Do not make me follow a twitter that posts more tweets about other giveaways or just promotional bullshit. Especially if that number of tweets is more than once per hour. You're clogging up my timeline and I will delete you. The point of gaining twitter followers is to actually retain them, not drive them away. CHILL OUT.
  8. Make sure the links work. Don't tell me to go follow your boards on Pinterest only to discover the link doesn't work. I will sometimes go to the blog to see if maybe the person has a pinterest link there. If they don't - SEE YOU LATER!
  9. If you make me post to someone's FB. Unless it's a contest being run specifically on FB I'm not posting to their wall. They can check to see that I liked the page. They'll know if I'm fibbing
  10. Make me subscribe by e-mail. Maybe I have enough shit clogging my inbox that I don't want your 16 blogs a day also begging to be deleted too, okay?
  11. My computer runs pretty slow these days, make sure the blogs you are asking me to visit for whatever reason are optimized for their content. If you are crazy with the graphics or if it's a photoblog just loading your page is going to be a nightmare for me. Try breaking up your picture posts with the "read more" link. Everyone who uses blogger has one of those and if you use wordpress then you can either add a plugin or you should have something similar. If you make my computer freeze I'm going to give up completely. I'm not coming back for extra entries. Fuck that noise.
  12. I'm not jumping through hoops for an entry. Keep it simple. That means a blog comment, like on FB, follow on twitter, follow on pinterest and ONE subscription site PER blog participating in the giveaway. Anything else is just greedy and I'm not down for it.  SEE NUMBER ONE!
  13. Is your time precious? Yeah, so is mine. I don't want to spend 6 hours trying to get through all your requirements. The max amount of time I'm willing to spend is 5 minutes. If it takes me longer then that, bu-bye.
Seriously you guys. You are driving me and I can bet a few other people away. Look at your analytic pages. If your bounce rate is particularly high or if your page views are significantly high but your entries are low during the giveaway period you've driven people off with your ridiculous requirements.

Don't get me wrong, I do understand that for some of these prizes, like giving away $500, you would need a large number of people to chip in to help keep the cost per person down. But you know what? Don't give away $500. Just don't. It's not worth my time to enter and maybe get it. I'd rather win something small like a piece of jewelry or a $5 Gift Card to Starbucks than have to follow 50+ blogs just to have to go back and unfollow them because they don't fit my tastes and they are clogging up my feed. I want to follow people who's writing I enjoy not for a contest entry.

I would also like to add that I am aware that no one is forcing me to enter these giveaways. I've passed several of them up do to their entry requirement. I'm more concerned with my next point.
Bloggers are getting particularly greedy lately and I don't like it. Why is your whole life about page views and readers? What happened to the joy of blogging? Of doing something you love just to do it and not because it helps you get money? I'm unemployed right now so I understand needing money. I do. But I also have a strict moral obligation to myself to retain my voice and the integrity of my blog. I don't want to become a corporate machine. That is important to me. You may not see yourself that way and that's fine. I'm simply offering up a point of view that may not have crossed your mind.


What is the craziest amount of entries you've had to endure for a prize you really wanted?
Did you win?

Currently: Fuming


Hating;  I don't know if you've noticed that I changed this from Loving to Hating but I did. I'm not in a good mood. I received an e-mail with "unsolicited" advice from a complete stranger who went down a checklist of sorts telling me everything I am doing wrong. Excuse me but who the fuck are you and what gives you any sort of right to point out anyone's flaws and judge them? You aren't my friend so your unsolicited advice isn't welcome, it's rude and offensive so here's my unsolicited advice to everyone - unless someone asks for your critic do yourself a favor and don't give your opinion. It will save you and your intended some grief. I've had to chalk it up to "there's always one person who isn't trying to be your friend and give you some advice, they are trying to tear you down. Take a deep breath and move on." Or in my case write a blog about it, promptly telling them to go fuck themselves and call it a day. In case you are wondering I didn't respond to the e-mail but I should have. I'm just ignoring them.

Reading;  I'm doing a lot of reading and researching on doing Craft Shows and selling soap. I have quite a bit to learn in that aspect but I've read 5 books in the last two weeks. More than I read all year last year. (BTW I still haven't gotten any farther into An Abundance of Katherine's by John Green even though it's by my bed and I made it a goal at the beginning of Dec to finish it by the end of the year. Oops!)

Watching; I'm getting ready to catch myself up on Monday and Tuesday nights TV shows before Criminal Minds comes on. w00t.

Anticipating;  Next Tuesday my mom and my grandma are going to Paula, CA on a girls bonding excursion and we're going to gamble. My grams has lots of luck in Casino's and every time I've ever won at a Casino it was with my Grams money. She have me $20 for my 21st birthday and for my birthday my mom took me to Vegas, which was something we had planned since the first time I went there when I was 18. I won $300. Then just before I left California Tracy, my mom, my grams and my gramps went to Vegas for my Gram & Gramps anniversary. My gramps quit when he lost $100, my grams did well, my mom lost the whole $200 she took and I didn't have money to gamble so my gram's gave me $20 and I won $100 on the first spin and $75 on my second. My gramps went bananas and was like "let's go play poker." I quit while I was ahead because even though I won $300 on my birthday I blew it on the machine literally right before the cashier (to my defense when I was looking for a machine I wanted that one but it was out of order. I thought because it was up and running again it was fate. Eh, maybe it was. Whatever).

Listening to; I am not really big on anything right now. Not a whole lot of new albums at the moment and I'm still listening to stuff from my road trip mixes.

Planning; I'm planning on re-designing my soap website. I think I'm going to bite the bullet and hire a legit designer to do my website and I am trying to decide on whether I want to stay with Big Cartel or if I want to move to Store Envy.

Working on; Perfecting my Soap recipe and as always my business plan. I've actually started writing it and it's coming along nicely. Before all this though I really REALLY need to look for a job. I am absolutely just not trying a hard as I need to. I keep making mental excuses but in reality I've just been lazy. That ends now. Literally. My resume has been fine tuned and while I'm watching TV tonight I'm going to send out resumes and hopefully schedule a few interviews for Friday or Monday.

Wishing; I wish I had a job already. I haven't been trying lately so I need to get on that as I've said.

What are you up to?

Soapy Saturday: Handemade vs Commercial



Why buy handmade?
There's a multitude of reasons, in fact here's 101 Reasons to buy Handmade! Mainly you are supporting small business (ME!) rather than a corporate giant. When you have an issue you will be talking to me. Not an outsourced customer service rep to whom you are just another phone call during an 8 hour shift. I care about you

Handmade has a sense of value. It means more because it is more. There is care, thought, effort and endless amount os creativity poured into every bar of soap I make. I'm not just thinking about profit margins, decreased overhead and marketing strategy I am also thinking "Does this benefit my customer? Is this product something I would use myself? What are the health repercussions?"

The soap you buy from a huge retailer is not actually soap. It is a mass produced harsh detergent filled with chemicals and synthetics. Handmade soap is created in two ways: Melting Glycerin base  or by a method called the Cold Process. (There is also hot process and rebatching but those both work off the cold process initially.) These are then combined with FDA approved essential oils and/or fragrance oils and FDA approved colorants and/or natural colorants to create beautifully crafted and scented soap.

Soaps made by the cold process are made by mixing sodium hydroxide (lye) with oils and butters warmed to a certain temperature. When these two substances mix together a process called saponification takes place; this is the sodium hydroxide turning the oils and butters into soap. During this process a substance called glycerin is created.

Glycerin is a humectant, meaning it attracts water to your skin and keeps it moisturized and supple. Handmade soap retains all this natural glycerin and deposits it on your skin as you use the soap, along with scrubbing away the dirt and germs, of course. This leaves your skin moisturized afterwards, and moisturized skin looks and feels younger, retards fine line and wrinkles, and is less irritable.


"Treasures are handmade with love and thought,
not mass produced.
"


Commercial soap starts out the same way. But instead of using vegetable oils, manufacturers use animal tallow and lard (these come from the fatty areas of butchered livestock).  After the sodium hydroxide is mixed with the tallow or lard, all the natural glycerin is removed and sold for use in other high-end products. Then the soap goes through a milling process, where it is first shredded and then chemicals and preservatives are added to make it smell good and to retard mold growth. Then it is re-melted down into the typical bar shape you find in the stores.


Skin is an organ, the largest one human beings have and it needs to be protected and nourished as much as any other organ. You don't eat rancid food just because it's cheaper, why is this any different?

If you are interested in buying handmade, summer is a great time to start with all of the craft and community festivals, art shows, farmer’s markets, and open air events. Make sure to check out activities in your area. 

Spellbound Soaps Giveaway

Hi guys, so I've been warning you like crazy about this giveaway. If you follow me on instagram then you'll have seen a while ago a couple of pictures of some stuff I was working on, you know before I decided to make an individual account for my soaps. That account is @spellboundsoaps and if you'd like pictures of newest products, that would be the way to get them. There is also the FB/Twitter pages if you do not have instagram.

Pinning this image using punchtab earns you an entry into the drawing!
I've decided to do a cute little giveaway to help promote my business. First, there are two prizes to giveaway, so there will be two different winners on two different platforms. One from here on the blog and another from the Spellbound Soaps Facebook Page (Not the page for this blog & yes you may enter both).

TO ENTER THE BLOG CONTEST:






TO ENTER THE FACEBOOK CONTEST:
Please see the Spellbound Soaps Facebook Page for details.

Open to U.S Residents only! Both contests will be open from 12:00AM ET on Feb 1st, 2012 and will end at 11:00PM ET on Tuesday Feb 5th (Punchtabs settings not mine). I will announce the winner with next Wednesday's WWL and e-mail them. The winners will have 48 hours to respond, if they don't respond within the time frame I will be forced to select a new winner.

GOOD LUCK, ONE AND ALL!

Uh Oh! Spaghetti-os

Who out of my readers like to cook or bake? Do you experiment in the kitchen? How many of your experiments turn out good? How many turn out bad? So tonight I may have made the best loaf of soap ever or the worst. I still consider myself relatively new when it comes to soaping. I've done a lot of melt and pour and I now have three batches of cold process soap under my belt. Well, I'd make that two because tonight's little incident may or may not mean I get to venture into the world of rebatching or the hot process.

I made a rookie mistake. I've been warned about it, I've read about it and now I can officially write about it. My batch tonight seized up on me. :(


I wish I panicked when this happened but I'm not one of those people. When something horrific happens I am always calm and collected - I freak out later. But in the moment I'm a cucumber. Now is when I'm ugly crying. Oh, I'm sorry. You have no idea what I'm freaking out about do you? For those of you who don't know what sezing soap is or looks like, don't you worry buttercup I got you.

Yum! Just kidding, don't eat that.

Soap can seize for any number of reasons but the bottom line is it heated up too fast and hardened too quickly. Soap is supposed to be a nice and thin pudding like substance when you pour it into the mold and after 24-48 hours it hardens into a cut able loaf and you can make bars which then harden further until they are safe to use.

Now the funny thing about this is it didn't have to go down like this. I was trying a new recipe (BAD IDEA) with a fragrance in which I hadn't used before (IDIOT) and had no clue what it would do (Now you know Brainiac). Worst of all it was a citrus blend which is notorious for accelerating soap but I can't help myself I love fruity scents! To top it all off I didn't make a test batch I made a full batch like an idiot! I was just going to fragrance part of it too but then when the first part hardened on me I put it into the soap that I hadn't touched and then BOOM all of it went nutso. I was able to beat it into submission. No literally, I beat it with the stick blender until it became workable and then I just globbed it into my mold.

It looks really bad being all lumpy but maybe I can say it is rustic? It looks like pureed pumpkin to me. I kind of wish it was pumpkin scented now. I used Tumeric to color it and it was supposed to make it yellow. It's not yellow, it's orange. :( It smells ridiculously good though, even my mom thought so. So either this is going to be my favorite bar of soap or the worst bar of soap ever made and a good lesson.

I'm going to let it sit for a few days before cutting it. At that point I'll determine whether or not to rebatch it, which is where I grate it down and then heat it up and put it in the mold to cool all over again or whether I keep it as is and have some lovely orange soap!

Update 01/30/12: I cut the soap this morning and it looks perfect! I was so lucky. It may have looked bad all together from the top view but now that it is cut it looks like I intentionally made the top look that way and it smells DELICIOUS. Seriously, if I didn't know it was soap I'd want to eat it. Yum.

What's the worst crafting blunder you've encountered before?

Double Post Monday: Welcome my lovely SITStahs!

Today is my turn to be featured by the lovely SITS Girls community. The SITS Girls is a huge community of web bloggers (over 40,000 - wowza) that basically help drive traffic to your website in several different ways.  For one you can sign up to be featured (which is probably why you're here. I DID IT!). Another way is to comment on the featured blogger of the day post (then their blog too).
The SITS girls also help with tips on how to  - do basically everything blogging related. They can tell you how to build up your social media, give you tips on things you may or may not be doing right like displaying photographs in blog posts or setting up a commenting system. If they haven't created a tutorial for it yet you can also go into the forums and ask for help. The forums are another great way to drive traffic to your website. There's a niche for guest blogging as well as help with contests and giveaways and all sorts of stuff.

If you already know about SITS and are coming from there then I thank you very much for stopping by and I am hoping you will stick around for a bit. I know that they give you a little intro about me but honestly, there's far more to me than a 300 or even 1000 word summary could ever cover. I'm sure the same can be said about you. So for a start, head on over to the About Me page and get your fill of my silliness (it's in the pictures). I'll wait.


Now that you've learned entirely too much about me I will proceed to tell you a little about my blog. You see, when I am a good girl I post a blog on MWF. Not all the time but usually. When I'm a bad girl as I have been recently due to a multitude of excuses I post, eh, once a week. This is a new thing I'm trying to nip in the bud before it becomes a habit.


Mondays are devoted to my love of Make up and thus I have dubbed them Make Up Mondays! Those posts can be found under the tab "Make Up." I either buy or am sent (courtesy of whatever company - usually Influenster. See my post here) make up and I review it. I either love it or I hate it and I give my honest opinion on it and let you know whether or not I would buy it again and if I recommend it for you too.



Wednesday's are devoted to my absolute love for clothing and fashion. I call these posts my Wednesday Want List ( or WWL. Can you tell I'm a fan of alliteration yet?).  Those can be found under the "Fashion" tab. Basically I pick 6 things usually surrounding a theme (Blazers, Handbags, Shoes, ect) and make a Polyvore collage showcasing them. I write brief descriptions of what they are, why I like them, if I'd even consider buying them, where you can get them and usually the price tag.

I'd say that my Fridays are called Freebie Friday but that's misleading as I don't usually give things away for free every Friday and they aren't exactly a free-write as I'd like them to be but that's basically what they are. I'm free to write about whatever, even though that's also what Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday and Sunday are for too.  Every now and then I'll write up a DIY, Food post, or some kind of rant and if it isn't dependent on a current event or time sensitive in any way I'll save it for Friday and post it then. Outfit posts when I do them (they are almost as rare as my DIY's these days) are usually on a Sunday or Saturday.

I also do a "Currently" post (Example) when I'm bored letting you know the obvious. My life is extremely boring these days without a room mate to complain about, a baby to fuss over and a job to supply an income with which I am able to do interesting things. So those are on hold until I can, you know, come up with a post that has some kind of sustenance.



My biggest hobby is making Soap. Seriously, I make it and it is pretty and it smells delicious.  I'm one of those people who burns through hobbies but I really love this one. So much so that I'm turning it into a business. It is small right now but I am hoping to grow it enough to where it can be a full time job.  I'm usually a nanny, personal assistant or receptionist and I really would just love to be my own boss and let my freak flag fly. I'm aware of how hard it is, how often small businesses fail and that being your own boss is more work than clocking in at a 9-5 and going home on Friday without having to think about work again until Monday morning. I've gotten all the lectures. I'm good.

What else? I use SHOUTY CAPITALS when I'm excited or stressing something. I don't know if I forgot that Blogger has the bold/underline/italic feature or if I'm just so used to using capitals on Twitter/Facebook/Texting to get my point across but it's imbued in me now.

Speaking of social media: Facebook | Twitter | Pinterest | G+

I also use parenthesis as some type of aside (but you caught that already didn't you?) and I tend to over use commas. If you read my about me you'll know that I write. Just so we are clear, how I write on my blog is very different from my professional or academic writing. You don't write how you talk do you? Well, I don't write how I blog. If that makes any sense.

For now I think that covers introductions, except well,

Who are you? 
Where did you come from? 
Would you like to be bloggy friends? (leave links!)

My Apologies...

Hello guys, sorry that I have been so MIA lately. I have been trying really hard for a job and in the midst of taking care of my Grandma, my soap business and job hunting I have not had the time to devote to blogging as I should. To top it all off I went to a game show this weekend and completely lost my voice, my throat is so dry and sore that breathing is difficult, food is near impossible and I've had such bad migraines and been getting ill that I can't really do much. 

I'm also working against a time difference. Before I could get up and do a post and it would be ready for my East Coast viewers as they got up and everyone else in the U.S would be just waking or still asleep, ect by the time it was posted. Now I have to do it the night before until I want to get up at 6am to blog so it's ready for the East Coasters as they are waking up and heading to work. Yeah, not that much of a morning person LOL.

I fully intended on doing a vlog for today but being as sick as I am that would look awful and I haven't prepared much else. Boo, I know. :( I think my full list of excuses is run out now.

I did however get to facetime with Ivory just a few minutes ago and had a good healthy cry after because I miss that little girl so much. My mom says I need to apply for nanny jobs out here but I just don't think I can do it. I fall so easily for little kids that I don't think I could be as professional as I should be. I'm a blubbery mess whenever I think of Ivory and I still look at things and go "Oh my gosh, Ivory would look cute in that" or "Ivory would die!" Brittany said that she's had to buy batteries for the Puppy I got Ivory for Christmas five times. Insert Cheshire Cat like grin here. :D

That's the exact puppy I got Ivory for x-mas.
The box said 3+ but there isn't any small parts and I Ok'd it with Brit first.
I hope that tomorrow I feel better and I will do a Make Up Monday post then, even though it is Tuesday. I am also aware that my WWL did not post last week. It was for some reason still in draft mode and I forgot to check and make sure it published so I have that scheduled for this Wednesday and I'll be working on the following week so even though I'm a week behind, I consider myself a week ahead ;)

Also, next Monday I am scheduled to be the featured blogger for The SITS Girls network so my Make Up Monday post is going to be extra special and ON TIME. LOL.

Sorry, I've been such a lame-o with the blogging but I'm working on getting back into things. Bleh.

Hope everyone is enjoying their long weekend and if it's business as usual for you because your work doesn't observe MLK, well just be thankful you have a job!

Mama Osbourne VS Mother Monster

Ok so you guys know about this whole deal between Kelly Osbourne and Gaga fans right?



No? Ok, here's a recap:
  • Little Monsters are attacking Kelly Osbourne (as they have other celebrities and/or their fans) for the past year calling her all sorts of names, saying she should kill herself, ect.
  • Kelly says that she doesn't understand why Gaga hasn't said anything to her fans about the bullying because if Gaga told her Little Monsters to stop they would.
  • Sharon writes to Gaga's manager asking for him to take care of it, privately. Twice.
  • Gaga's manager says "I'm on it Sent from my iPhone"
  • Gaga then writes an open letter to Kelly saying 'I can't control my fans and I won't tell them to stop bullying you because while I think you're a lovely gal, I think you should get bullied because your job is to judge people's choice of clothing on television. So no.'
  • Sharon gets 1500 shades of livid and writes a response to Gaga, saying 'that was me who wrote your manager in private not my daughter, how dare you take this matter public. You call yourself a promoter of kindness but you're really just an attention seeking freak of nature'
  • Sharon also proceeds to call Lady Gaga out on basically everything, tells her to stop wearing fur and signs it with 'come at me bro.'
 Ok so I embellished a little bit for entertainment sake, here are the real letters for your reading pleasure:


This is ridiculous. Honestly, is this what we are about as a society? No wonder other countries hate America - the most famous of us have the same maturity level as a middle-schooler at best. I won't even go there with the Charlie Sheen's and Lindsay Lohan's of the spectrum.  How awful do we have to be as humans before we finally learn to react to an awful situation with an ounce of decorum?

I used to really enjoy Lady Gaga. She was eccentric and different from other celebrities and her first album was amazingly good. I'm still trying to find out if the reason things didn't work out with my last male friend was because I asked if he wanted to play a love game and then when he was confused asked him about his "disco stick." Yeah, I said it. Telephone is still my ladyjam ok, don't judge me.
But she's gone over the mark with her "I'm going to be an individual" campaign. Then, as if wearing raw meat as a dress (hello, vegetarian here) and popping out of an egg and wearing prosthetic embellishments to make herself look like a dinosaur didn't make me go "Ok Lady G, too far" she did, in my opinion, an unspeakable act. 

She exploited a group of people, ones she claims to respect and support, for a publicity stunt. I'm talking about her fake alter-ego Joe Calderone.


Don't even get me f$#@ing started with how awful it is to pretend to be transgendered. There are people who truly suffer from Dissociative Gender Disorder, and truly believe they were born into the wrong body and then there's Lady Gaga who thinks dressing up and pretending to be a dude is cool thing to do for attention at an awards show. NOT COOL GAGA. NOT ONE BIT. 
Oh and an FYI, Cher did it before you so you're not original at all. I told you not to get me started. So at this point I'm obviously not a fan of Lady G anymore. Every song from her latest album makes me skin crawl and it sounds too much like Madonna to even begin to take it seriously.

So anyways, back to the real issue. Kelly mentions something, somewhere, I don't know if it was in an interview or on Twitter (most likely because that's where Lady Gaga's Little Monsters like to badger and berate everyone) but she just asked that Lady Gaga tell her monsters to back off. Nothing happens. So Mama Osbourne privately goes and asks Gaga's manager if something can be done. In her e-mail she wasn't rude except maybe to remind him that this is now the second time in a year she's asked if something could be said to put a stop to the bullying (Gaga is anti-bullying). That's not even that rude. If you ask someone to do something and they say they will but never do, wouldn't you have a slight bit of a frustrated tone? Who likes to ask someone to do something twice?

The response is the childish part. How hard is it to write 140 chars (not even) that say "To my lovely, loyal fans; if you are bullying or harassing anyone please stop. Celebrities are people too."? It's not. Gaga wouldn't even have to write it. Someone else could write it and as long as it shows up on Gaga's website or twitter her fans would still listen. Gaga does have loyal fans and they do worship her and follow everything she says. I have several friends, on twitter and facebook that are hardcore Gaga fans and while I've never seen them personally attack anyone, I have seen tweets that were like 'guys, stop attacking beiber/rihanna/madonna/katy perry/other people. Too far guys' and some of them have even been like "I'm going to unfollow the next Monster who says something rude to...." So don't judge these guys by a select group. Don't automatically go "Oh you're a Little Monster/Gaga fan you must be rude" because that's not fair to them.

So instead of doing that, e-mailing back "I can't control my fans and what they do but I have said something. I wish you guys well" and calling it a day she writes a slam piece against Kelly, going on and on about how she thinks Kelly's lovely but she can't stand behind her and won't ask her rabid bullying fan base to back off because she thinks Kelly deserves it because she critics people's fashion. EXCUSE ME? People deserve to get bullied Gaga? Are you kidding me? Are you also saying American Soliders deserve to be shot because they might have to shoot someone when they are at work? Or that a doctor who loses a patient deserves to die on an operating table the next time they have to get a bit of work done?

This isn't Babylonian times; eye for an eye does not apply. When someone is rude to you the answer is not to get rude back, but to politely tell them you don't appreciate their tone. When someone bullies you the answer is not to bully them back. That is a hideous and vicious cycle and it is that exact reason that bullying still continues. There is no reason whatsoever to condone bullying and for Gaga, who is supposedly so anti-bullying, that letter is appauling.



While I full support Sharon responding to Lady Gaga and telling her up front that it was her and not Kelly that asked for Gaga to say something and while I think it was brilliant of Sharon to call Gaga on her shit, doing it in the language and manner that she did is again a breeding ground for all of this to continue.

Why is it always our reaction to call names and throw stones at each other? Someone hurts you so you hurt them back. When does it end? You know we have those trashy tabloid magazines for this exact reason, because people love the drama.  Sharon called Lady Gaga an attention seeker and while this is a spot of old news (hello meat dress/egg arrival/ anything she's ever done) Sharon is doing the same thing. I guess, at least it is for a good cause? I'm not excusing either one of them for their actions. Both of them have in various ways, good valid points for their causes but both have acted childish.

Yes, criticizing people for their fashion choices is in a way a form of bullying if done the wrong way. But do you honestly think a woman who was bullied for her weight is going to turn around and bully someone else for the same thing? I've only caught a few episodes but I've never heard Kelly say anything about anyone's outfits that should be considered bullying.

In the same respect, are we supposed to keep our mouths shut when we think someone is making a poor fashion choice? I don't think so. If my friend looks ridiculous I'm going to tell them. If my friend picks a dress that makes her look fat I tell her that it's not flattering and in the end my friends enjoy my frankness and like that I'm not going to let them look horrible in public - it's called trust. My friends trust my judgement because they know I won't steer them wrong. Even though you, my lovely readers, don't have that option with me, do know that I won't steer you wrong with the things that I post here. I'm not going to present you with awful, hideous things and tell you they are lovely because I feel like telling you something is awful is a form of bullying. Ain't gonna happen girl fran.

What's lovely about this is that Kelly, who truly is the victim here, has actually acted with the most dignity of any celebrity caught in the cross fires of drama I've seen. I love when a celeb artfully dodges media fireballs and handles stressful situations with grace and composure. Because if it were me, I'd probably be more Jerry Springer than Grace Kelly  Truly, Kelly is a stand up role model. Now watch her go and post something or say something to completely debunk my praise of her. LOL.

Thank you for reading me bitch about a bunch of grown people acting like high schoolers. I know none of you lovelies would ever stoop to such low levels but I know a bunch of you have children and I hope that you teach them values like the response to being bullied is not to bully someone back but to stand up for yourself. Teach your kids to have self respect and dignity and others will respect them for that and think better of them. Promise.

What do you think of the letters?

Merry Christmas

I hope you aren't reading this one Christmas and instead are with your families... unless you don't celebrate Christmas and then well, sorry.



My family, though not extremely devout, celebrate Christmas as one of the few holidays where we try and get together. So I'm taking a shower, getting dolled up and heading towards Redondo Beach with my cousin, her boyfriend and my uncle from Iowa in tow. I like that even though they are only related by marriage from my gramps that they still invited us after my gramps died down for Christmas. I know that means a lot to my grams. She was sure they'd throw her out because my Gramps estate goes to them and not to my family after Grams goes.

Anyways, just popping in to say Hi, Happy Christmas and I'll be back tomorrow with my regularly scheduled Wednesday Want List!

It's The Freakin' Weekend

And I'm About To Have Me Some Fun!  

I do this - BEWARE!
Anyone know what song that's from? No? R.Kelly. Not that I listen to him ever... but it was on one of those radio songs that was ridiculously popular.

Fun Fact About Sara: I insert song lyrics into every day conversation as OFTEN as humanly possible. To the point of annoyance.

I just wanted to remind everyone that Monday I will be leaving for California from Florida. Tonight I will finish packing up my room, tomorrow I will do Christmas with Ivory and Brittany as well as say goodbye to some of my friends and then at 6AM I will begin the long drive to Cali with my car fully packed. Depending on where I make my stops this time it will take me about 4 days to get to Cali. During this time I will NOT be posting. Make Up Monday and Wednesday Want List are already done and scheduled but there will be no in between posts and I most likely will not be approving any comments or responding to them. Please follow along my twitter, instagram or facebook as I will be uploading pictures and sending periodic updates through those channels. Hopefully by Friday I will be in California and I can have a post about my trip up over the weekend. No promises though.

See you next week!

I'd Rather Be Soaping

So as you've heard I like to make soap. Actually, I should amend that last statement I love to make soap. I've been making Melt & Pour soap for the last couple of months and when I get to California I am going to try making soap using the cold process. That way is a little more complex and uses a little bit more science (yay) well chemistry (uh I never took chemistry) and it takes longer to produce a usable bar of soap but the benefits definitely outweigh those cons.

Things needed to make soap using the Cold Process Method
For example, you chose what ingredients go into your soaps. Don't want to use animal fats? Don't use animal fats. If you like shea butter, put some shea butter in there! Want to use all natural colorants? Go ahead. I'm not saying that you can't do these things with regular melt & pour but you are restricted to the type of base you use, sometimes the colorants and you don't get to control how the glycerin is made.

But you guys are lost aren't you? Most people have no idea how to make soap or what soap even is. I just told my co-worker today that lye was used in making most soap and he was like "Lye? Time to stop using soap." Lye isn't bad you guys. It can do bad things to your skin or any kind of organic matter yes but when you make soap properly all of those bad properties vanish. That's called letting it "cure" or "curring." All that means if the bar of soap was exposed to the air for a period of time to lower the pH levels (typically 4-6 weeks).

Let me explain a bit more. Soap is made by a term called Saponification (Sap-on-if-ication). Saponification is the name for a chemical reaction between an acid and a base to form a salt. When you make soap using the cold process soap making method, you mix an oil or fat (acid) with Lye (base) to form soap (salt). 

Told you it has science (and math - ew)

You don't have to use lye either. There are so many different types of soap like glycerin soaps, animal based soaps, castile soaps and different ways to make them like melt & pour (melt glycerin and add additives), rebatch (where you make the soap, grate it and re-mold it), cold process or  hot process (which is made the same way as cold process only the cold process never gets heated up - go figure).

There's so much to get into on soaping but I'm just going over very minimal stuff that is important and well, maybe share my story and my website. 


 I discovered soap making by accident really. I live in Florida and Florida has some God-awful storms.  While babysitting my room mate's baby I was trapped in Hobby Lobby without an umbrella or anything to shield the child from the torrential downpour. I decided to wait the storm out and went up and down every isle in the store. I discovered the soap making section near the candles and I became intrigued.
Once the storm had died down I went home and immediately began researching. I watched hours of video's on How-To.... basically do everything from melt and pour, to cold process to embedding and swirling and making fun shapes with cookie cutters. It opened my artistic and creative Goddess inside to a whole new set of possibilities.




I decided to start putting these creations up for sale as a way to make some space in my apartment, LOL. I came up with the name Spellbound Soaps for my business, bought a dotcom and have actively started advertising. I chose the name because as I said, I was intrigued by the idea but more over I became enchanted, like someone placed a magical spell on me and I am now compelled to make soap. More soap, better designs, cuter names, funky ideas and incorporate all of it into soap making. I am spellbound by making soap and I hope that you will be enchanted and spellbound by them too.

Have you visited my web store yet?

Currently: In Love With...



Loving;  I don't have much, just three blogs I'm loving. Click to be surprised and find out if it's you! 1 / 2 / 3

Reading;  I'm doing a lot of reading and researching on my soap. I'm really into all of this stuff so I'm trying to read about business and all the necessary steps into properly forming a business. So much goes into it, it's exhausting. I've never made a business plan before and some of the parts of how you come up with the numbers are so hard. Where am I supposed to find statistics on how many women shop online in a year? You'd think the government would have the stats on that but they don't.

Watching; I'm currently on Youtube watching videos about how to frost cupcakes. Sounds silly right? Well, there are these things called bath bombs or bath fizzies and I really want to make a cupcake one for Ivory. I think she'd go absolutely nuts-o over one so I'm figuring out how to ice cupcakes so that I can make a really cute one for her for Christmas.

Anticipating;  This weekend. Tomorrow is my friend Katelyn's birthday. We're going to the Salvador Dali museum tomorrow and then her party is at night. I am going to go to the museum, come home and pack and then go to her party for a bit then come back and pack... LOTS OF PACKING.

Listening to; I am on spotify, trying to make a list of everything I need to buy with my iTunes giftcard I got from a co-worker and prep for my 4 day road trip. Just me and some tunes and the open road. Yee-haw!

Planning; Moving & packing! I got some free boxes I ordered today and they are huge. Those suckers aren't going to fit in my car so I think I'm going to let Brit use them. LOL. Then I'm planning my Christmas stuffs with the fambam. I have all my girls basically coming to visit and then my family. The 28th we are all going to Disneyland so I'm super excited about that.

Working on; Soap, business plan, blogging and what I am going to do in California before the job hunt kicks up a notch.

Wishing; I wish I had money to pay for a mover and enough money to really jump-start my business. Baby steps though, baby steps.

What are you up to?

Dear Daddy: Letter 13

DOUBLE POST DAY! Today is a bitter sweet day. If you haven't heard, I announced my winner for my giveaway and contacted her.

But also because today is the 13th anniversary of my dad's death. He committed suicide when I was 11 and unfortunately I was the one who found him. Granted my mother and a police officer were with me, as the circumstances at the time were awful but I was the first one in the door, the first one to spot him and the first one to scream bloody murder. I didn't realize it at first. I just said "Oh, there's dad" and picked up my cat who ran and launched himself at me. I should have known then something was wrong. Because my dog didn't greet me and my cat did and because my dad's head didn't turn when we opened the door, because he didn't look at me.

It took my mom saying his name twice and him not moving before the hair on the back of my neck stood up and I realized something was really wrong this time. Then I saw my mom's face and the look in her eyes, the look of I can't shield you from the pain you're about to feel and I am so sorry before it truly registered. And then all hell broke loose. I didn't care who heard or who saw but I lost it. I'd never been so close to death. I heard about it and I'd read about it but I'd never truly felt it before. It was dark and it was cold and it was awful. I was in 6th grade and my school put together a group of kids to go see one of the guidance counselors. They let me take a month off of school and do my work at home, even let me stay at the school for the rest of the year even though we lost our house and I had to move out of the district. But when I got back, every wednesday for the rest of the year I went to group therapy with a bunch of different kids from school. We picked out how we were feeling from a worksheet that had different "feeling" faces with words underneath that matched the face. An angry expression for livid and a frown for depressed. Then we'd have to explain why we felt that way. Some of the activities helped. The last one we did was we wrote a letter to the person we lost and we read them allowed. We wrote them as if we spoke to the person. I still do mine every year on this day. I'm going to share this year's letter with you.



This is why I am going to school for psychology. I want to help anyone who wants it. Please, if you feel like hurting yourself - TRUST ME - I tried to kill myself 7 times and I am thankful every day that it was 7 failed attempts because I would have missed so much. It sounds so freaking cheesy and I didn't believe it myself but life does - in its own way - get better. Well, manageable at least. I promise you there are things worth waiting for. Don't be like my dad, like I tried to be, don't be so selfish and put this pain, your pain on other people. Talk to me. I will listen, I won't judge you and I will understand.


Swagbucks Saturday - Sponsored Post

 

If you haven't heard of Swagbucks than you haven't been living or surfing the internet in the right way! Swagbucks is a website where you complete certain tasks (surveys, polls, games, web searches, shopping at certain retailers online, complete offers, cyber treasure hunts and more) to earn virtual money called, you guessed it, swagbucks. You can then exchange these swagbuckeroos for goods in the Swagstore. I personally use all of mine for $5 Amazon Gift Cards (450 SB each). You can get things like PayPal cash, Gift Cards to Sephora, Starbucks, Chilis, Walmart, and tons of other physical prizes. In the last month I have been able to complete tasks comprised of watching videos, searching for things I would have put in Google anyways, playing games (Fyoozd is my favorite), completing a few offers and finding SwagCodes (see below) to earn $40+ in Amazon Gift Cards strictly from Swagbucks. My Goal is to use the Amazon Gift Cards from Swagbucks (and coins from my change jar) to pay for at least half of my Nikon D5100 on Amazon. 

Here's a list of all the gift cards I've purchased over the years:

 
Also, if you have old game consoles or games you don't play anymore you can trade those in. I've traded in a few old cellphones (thought they don't do that anymore) and received swagbucks for them. Now you can also trade in books. Time to upgrade to an eReader for Christmas right?

You can earn at least 4 Swagbucks a day just by using the tool bar, answering the daily poll and completing the No Obligation Special Offers or  NOSO, which is a list of offers daily that you can elect to complete or skip & regardless you are awarded 2 swagbucks at the end. It takes a grand total of 5 minutes to complete all of these if you're really slow. 
 
Swagbucks is working to make the holidays even more rewarding with their Swagbucks Holiday Hundreds Giveaway. Starting at 12pm Pacific Time on November 14th every transaction you make through the Swagbucks Shop & Earn will get you an entry to win the $100 Gift Card of your choice from the Swag Store! As soon as the Swag Bucks show up as pending in your ledger, your entry has been earned! The first drawing will take place on the 19th and will run every day through the 14th of December - if you're the winner, Swagbucks will contact you at whatever email address you have on your account. Entries are cumulative, so the more transactions you make, the more entries you'll get. Travel Category is excluded.    Haven't joined Swagbucks yet? 

Sign up today and enter the code HOLIDAY100s to start with 100 Swag Bucks of your own!


Also, don't forget to enter my giveaway. Today is the last day!

NaBloPoMo Finish Line!

Hello again, just reminding you to enter my giveaway.
Lots of good beauty products to be won! 


Dear NaBloPoMo,
We are never getting back together. Like ever!
Sincerely,
Me :)

So I made it! I have completed National Blog Posting Month successfully; not one day was missed. Even though it goes on every month, November was the original month. It was kind of easy, especially since I wrote this post and tomorrow's post on Tuesday :) Made sure I would accomplish my goal.

I decided to actually use two of their prompts! The prompts, though I am thankful for a fall back, were very boring and overdone. "Write about a compliment you received" or "If you could travel anywhere, where would you go?" Really? Where's the fun in that? I can answer that in one word! So I came up with a whole month of my own essentially. I have to admit though, a few were handed to me and that made it very easy. Plus I already had Mondays and Wednesday planned out!

Favorite (spur of the moment) Posts:
Also, this was my favorite graphic I made (because I'm a nerd):


I already said the other day when I revamped the blog design that I wouldn't do this again. I might next year if I'm in a different state mentally but I doubt that. I don't like being forced into doing things. I wanted to do something to prove I could do it. I did; end of story.

Would you ever commit to blogging EVERY SINGLE DAY of the month?
Did you do NaBloPoMo? Send me your links!

J'adore votre blog!

There is only 2 more days left to enter to win a bunch of my favorite beauty items and some of my homemade soap and 1 month free Ad Space on the blog!



Today is going to be a short one. I'm going to link up three new blogs I found this year (even though since I've gotten into this particular form of blogging all the blogs I've found are new). These girls have exceptional tastes and I find myself typing in their URL just to check whenever I am bored. They have style that I envy, blog design to aspire to and personalities to adore.


Kayla from The Dainty Squid.
Photo: thedaintysquid.com
There are a few things to know about Kayla. She has awesome hair, collects brooches, has some really rad hair and is an avid mushroomer. Oh and cats, she likes cats. But who doesn't? Then there's her fashion, her photography and a million other things that I love about her. But I basically check her blog every day. Huzzah!


Jessica from I Rock So What?
Photo: irocksowhat.com
Jessica is a mommy to the cutest three year old ever. I actually wept when she told everyone that her son's goldfish died and he freaked out about it. She shares her weight-loss stories, tons of food recipes, DIY crafts (lots for those with kiddos) as well as tidbits from her daily life. She got me into NaBloPoMo and is very active on FB which reminds me to check her blog if I haven't already.  Jessica is also a graphic designer, as if everything else she does isn't enough. Her blog design changes almost daily if not monthly but that's ok it shows her depth. I highly recommend her if you need something done.


Zandi of Radical Possibility
Photo: radicalpossibility.com
This lovely blogger has my favorite section ever - Anthropologie Knock Offs where she like myself lusts after something in the horridly ridiculously priced store Anthropologie and then turns around and makes her own version of it at home for A LOT less than it would have cost to purchase it. It's a god-send. It's also how I made drinking glasses to match my antique Fiesta dishes from the 1920's. You don't just find glasses to match them. They make modern day versions but the colors aren't the same. Zandi is also a talented artist and makes cute portraits of couples. Definitely check that out.

It was really hard picking only three of these. I actually wanted to list every single blog I read and go on and on about you but that's far more time consuming than I have time allotted for. I'd be here til Christmas! ;)

What are your favorite blogs that you found this year?