Weekend Getaway to the North Georgia Mountains
Reason for going: quality time with family, something different to do, visit Helen, Georgia
Those who went: Duncan, myself, his parents, his sister, her fiancé, the best man from our wedding
Favorite memory of the weekend: it was all so much fun
So, friends, I’m participating in Blog Angels again! I can’t believe it’s already the middle of October! Blog Angels is functioning a little different this time: we are revealing our Angel in the halfway point so that we can better help and link up with them because it seemed to be challenging with anonymity and not wanting to ruin the surprise. I’m super excited about this change!
In October, I was linked up with:: Miss Jessica McCoy from Forever And A Day
(doesn’t her name sound like the wicked awesome hero-ette in a fabulous book series?
I’m thinking some kind of mystery series…)
I always get super excited to get matched up with my blog angel, and I still love following my last one, so as soon as I got paired up I went over to subscribe to her blog. Rosie did a good job pairing me with her (she must have magical powers) because Jessica just launched Let’s Get Fit, a community group on Facebook. This is super brilliant because I’m still working on losing the last of the weight I gained in 2011. If you’re like me and needing a little extra boost: go check out the Facebook page!
So, Mrs. McCoy, let’s get in touch. I’d love to chat!
Hello, friends!
How is your day going?
I recently decided to start growing my blog.
I found that I love reading blogs and I love blogging and finding my voice in this world.
Therefore, I am offering various advertising options to those who maybe also want to grow
their blog and voice in the blogging community as well. In return, please feel free to take one of my buttons to display on your blog!
Statistics
Google Friend Connect = 648
Bloglovin’ & Hellocotton = 140+
Twitter = 613
Facebook = 377
Pinterest = 120+
Instagram = 150+
Total reach as of December 30, 2012 = 2,000+
I have 3-5 posts per week and I focus on art, inspiration, and wellness with the occasional post on fashion, life, recipes, and DIY.
Though my statistics are still pretty humble, they have definitely been growing!
This is a full circle blog, which means that ad money I receive goes right back into me sponsoring other blogs that I believe in and want to help out, but that will also bring traffic to your blog. =) Also, the money goes into giveaways both on this blog (milestone giveaways) and on other blogs.
How advertising on TC works
I advertise to help out fellow bloggers in this wonderful blogging community. I don’t want to get my advertisers and sponsors lost in the crowd so I don’t want to do group sponsor posts or have too many bloggers contribute to a giveaway, because I value each and every one of your and want to have a place for you to shine as much as possible. With that said, I will only have four sponsor spots available each month to bloggers that one more individualized attention. All four of these sponsors can have an individual guest post, have the option to do a giveaway, and will be given social media love. Three of these ad spots are Large Ads and one of these spots are for Featured Ad sponsors. The Featured Ad, though we’ve had the name in the past, is an updated and improved concept. You can read below for more information, but it is essentially everything you get in the large ad space, but more personalized love and attention from me.
Reviews
I am accepting products for review. I will post examples for my reviews on this page shortly. Since I have a wide variety of interests and since my blog has a diversity of topics as well, I am more than willing to review a variety of types of products. Though I do try to find positives about every product, I do make sure my reviews are 100% honest and reflective of my opinions. Contact me if you would like me to review your product!
Review examples:
Digital Scrapbook Software | iPhone 4/4S Case | Eyeglasses | Picaboo v Shutterfly
Thank you & have a charming day!
I don’t know about you, but there are a plethora of options for holiday greeting cards. My husband and I aren’t the types of people to send out holiday cards with our faces on them, even now that we have a cute little munchkin. But we do like to send out personalized cards, and typically I do the boring thing by just picking up a standard greeting card from Walmart or Target. This year, I’m getting a little more creative and personal.
Plus, it’s that season after all for fun shaped cards with beautiful graphic designs (and deals galore!).
Be Merry • Dots of Love • Falling Leaves • Geometric Joy • Golden Season
Happy Hanukkah • New Year Glow • Peace Joy Love • Royal Stripes • Snowbells
Holiday Quality with AdoramaPix
I’ve worked with AdoramaPix both as a consumer and as a blogger and I have to say I love the quality products and the different options for photo products. You can see my gallery wall makeover using AdoramaPix here. Each of the prints is always on beautiful paper with excellent, rich color. The company is wonderful to work with and really makes it easy to shop. I highly recommend them and to prove all of this to you AdoramaPix is giving away a $30 credit for you to go do your own holiday card shopping!
The giveaway is open to US residents only and will be for a $30 shop credit to AdoramaPix. To enter, simply enter and tweet about the giveaway.
Feel free to comment and tell us about your holiday plans, where you’ll be celebrating, but definitely check out AdoramaPix.com and browse around and let us know what you would spend your credit on! This giveaway ends on Wednesday with winners to be announced on Thanksgiving!
Disclaimer: this post has a sponsored giveaway by AdoramaPix; however the blog post topic, content, and opinions are 100% in keeping with my own thoughts.
My Favorite Memories From 2013:
Movies of 2013 that I Just Love:
Items/Gadgets that Improved My Life in Some Way in 2013:
Have you ever met an Amy, Aimee, Amie, Ami, or Amee that you didn’t love? nope. me neither. these are sweet girls. “beloved” actually & I promise, we are all nice!! 🙂 so, after being sick for weeks + a wicked busy quarter designing + blogging + blogging some more, I STILL said yes.. because this Amy is Charming and Lovely and Excited about life… and these…
my name is Aimee. technically with an accent & technically pronounced – (A-mae) like the French. needless to say, we are English and am often called Aim, Ames, or hey girl. I am —- a mom. a designer. a writer. a magazine-ripper-outer. a gardener. a spin biker. a lover of creative & unique… & classic design. coral & turquoise make me swoon. anchors make me smile. I am desperate to share my opinion & most often, with conviction. I love rules & guidelines and design within them in order to create lovely brands & websites. today I am sharing some secrets…
BRAND/LOGO Design: this is THE MOST IMPORTANT THING EVER! whether you just write a little online journal, a mega-blog, a darling blog, a business blog, a creative blog… it doesn’t matter. have a brand. a design. something. and then stick with it. add it to your social media platforms. use it on your business cards. notecards. everywhere. as your blog grows & develops & you connect with others, people will notice and begin to “brand” you with your brand.
it doesn’t have to be COMPLETELY the same as your logo but certainly inspired. use similar fonts, colors tones, uniqueness. it should truly set the stage for your site design. so make sure you love your brand!!
FONTS: I follow a simple font formula… more often than not, the cursive and the bold fonts are in the brand with the common font being the text. if the cursive font is gentle, I will add this as the post titles like we did at Fancy Little Things, or a BOLD font like we added to Liz Marie Blog’s navigation bar, but never with the intent to take away from the brand design. more than 3 fonts on a website design can be overwhelming and distracting to your readers. consider using easy-to-read fonts and test them out before throwing them up on your blog.
COLOR: whether I am starting a brand design, a website design, a PDF printable, custom notecards or even blog post graphics like this one, I ALWAYS begin with a color palette. my favorite place to search is Design Seeds but I also love hanging out on Pinterest and creating my own. today I’m using Tulip Hues. once I add the color palette to a new design board on Illustrator, I begin choosing fonts and which colors will be used primary, secondary and as accents! this helps to keep my design focused & intentional.
some of your sidebar titles or post titles might be your brand’s accent color like the deep plum on Woman’s InSite or the dark green text on Everything’s Abuzz. no matter what though, start with a color palette + great fonts and you’ll have lovely graphics that people will enjoy looking at, pinning, sharing & coming back for more!
SOCIAL MEDIA + SUBSCRIBE PLACEMENT: there are only 2 places that I would recommend these two items; the header or the very top of the sidebar. when new readers visit, they should be able to find this quickly without any fuss or scrolling. if they can’t find them quickly, they will leave and not come back… since they can’t follow you! my 2 favorite examples are Betsy Life & Liz Marie Blog. there is ZERO chance that you will miss these which means: a greater chance for the new visitor to come back again!
SIDEBAR: this might seem controversial… but it’s not. this is how I think; you can take it or leave it! but what I do know from over 5 years of designing websites and working with 100’s of bloggers & website owners: #1: we still read from left to right #2: we get distracted easily #3: if there’s something going on in the LEFT column, we’ll click on it and stop reading your post #4: if there are flashy ads, pop up boxes, drop down junk, pop up from the bottom junk, we’ll click on it OR get annoyed and stop reading your post #5: quickest way to remove distractions – REMOVE both sidebars and just have a good ol’ fashioned blog #6: but since that’s not going to work for 95% of you, I recommend:
CONTENT: use a classic sans or sans serif font. 12px-16px tall. add some white space between, typically 50% of your font height is good! use bold, and italic, and larger sized fonts for headings, sub-headings and more. add some color — but stay within the tones of your color palette. there is no reason that everything has to be centered anymore. use you’re align left and sometimes your align right. have fun with it! just don’t be boring.
CATEGORIES/SEARCH FUNCTION: a very important feature to any blog is ensuring your new readers can find your old posts, especially the topics that you write about frequently. most site designs begin with a bit of thought development about the topics you intend to write about; therefore forming categories. by choosing categories, you can add them into the navigation bar like shown here at Small Anchors & Ma Nouvelle Mode:
a search box is very important as well. keep it near the top 25% of your sidebar so your readers can find it and use it quickly!
COPYRIGHT & GIVE CREDIT: whether someone designed your logo or site design, or you borrowed a graphic from a source that allows for that, or you use images or quote content — give credit. if a design is seen on every page, credit in the footer. if someone on a post or a page, credit in the footer of that page. giving credit keeps your blog honorable and gives you Internet credibility. /// thank you for taking the time to read this post today. you can find me designing graphics, writing about friendships that suck, mom & son date ideas and much more on my personal blog, on Twitter or Pinterest!
please be sure to introduce yourself!!