Sunday, December 29, 2013

What I've Learned From Everyday Blogging

Hello there!

I am dreadfully sorry about my lack of posts since the 13th, I wanted to blog everyday this month but this was the absolute worst month to try this for me. 

I had finals week from the 16th-20th and studied almost the entire weekend before and planned to continue blogging afterwards. Then I got a cold and then a flu on top of it which ended in absolute misery while sitting in class taking the most important tests of the semester. Not fun. And ever since then my days have been absolute chaos and although I realize I probably could have found nuggets of time to rush in some posts, I didn't so no excuses there. 

However, I am back with a few posts already planned for January and although I only blogged everyday for a little over 2 weeks and I usually blog at least every other day I learned a few things in my short time that I thought I would share today :)

It's really hard

So I don't get to sit at home and do this as an everyday job, I get to go to school, come home, work on homework, do my chores, work out forever, then work on blogging. I  love doing it but trying to work on blogging for about 2 hours a day along with everything else in my life getting paid solely in the happiness readers give me is highly difficult. I do really enjoy doing it but trying to pair it with everything else in my life and having everyone else think I'm wasting my time is quite difficult.

To me, blogging is like my job and I know many people can make full time incomes after getting many readers however I make no income. I spend 2 hours or more on my laptop everyday with what others see as no purpose. But I enjoy it so I continue.

I have no idea what I'm doing

I'm very new to this world of blogging and I know it will get easier with time. It seems like the past few months (I started in August) have flown by and I've been enjoying it so much, I've learned a lot along the way but I still feel like the new kid on the block still trying to figure everything out behind all of these amazing people with beautiful blogs and incredibly creative and well done posts, one day...

I am not an everyday blogger

Despite my other reasons for discontinuing the month, I couldn't do it. I got all of my ideas out and ran out of ideas half way through the month, I feel like even if I had tried to finish this month out, I would've written some very sad posts that I rushed through that no one would really care about or enjoy, really. Something I hope never happens. I don't know how much creativity I have left for this blog but I know it's worth trying for and I hope everyone sticks around to read my not-so-daily blog 

No closing today, I don't think this post needs one, unless this short paragraph of me explaining why there is no closing is in fact a closing in itself...

Have a Wonderful Day!
Mia B <3



Friday, December 13, 2013

Things I Don't Understand About Blogging

Hello there!

So I've been investing a lot more time recently into my blogging and it's been really fun but I've come to find that with more understanding of the wonderful thing comes even more confusion and questions so here are some of the things I have yet to understand about the world of blogging... enjoy!

Google+ and Google Friend Connect

I have this little widget on the right of my blog but it doesn't look quite like other's does and I have no idea how to find theirs though I've searched through the list about a million times. And I really can't find Google Friend Connect and when I tried to use it on someone else's blog I was hopelessly lost. I feel like a huge amateur for admitting all of this confusion but I pretty much am ;)

The Amazing Photography

So I am not rich, I'm blogging from a 6 year old breaking down laptop and use my iPhone for any and all pictures, which can take pretty good ones but not DSLR quality. Then I go onto other blogs and they have these absolutely beautiful pictures taken with a stunning camera. A new Canon is 3rd on my wishlist (a new MacBook and Guitar precede it) but I probably won't be able to afford a camera for quite awhile. It kind of baffles me how so many have such beautiful pictures...

The Creativity

Thinking of new blog posts, unique ones (something other than OOTD, review, or tags) is a daily struggle for me. And actually finding ways to execute all of these posts is even harder. But everyday I see such amazing, unique and creative posts and ideas from so many amazing bloggers. It always baffles me how they do it :)

Graphic Design

I always see these absolutely amazing headers and beautiful collages and organized lists that I don't think I could ever recreate. Though I'm going to attempt a header sometime soon as I've just been recommended a site to try out for a header... wish me luck!

The Planning

This week I was rather ahead but then I ran out of ideas and now I'm writing this right as I should be posting this and I have absolutely no idea what pictures to post with this. While other bloggers will have the photography and editing done days ahead of posting time and it baffles me, it really does

Blogger

Apparently my blogger thinks I live in the UK, I don't know if this is the same for other American or non-British bloggers but my days start at 4 PM instead of midnight, so I'm generally posting at 4 AM according to Blogger but it's really around 8 PM and I clearly wrote that I live in the US but Blogger doesn't seem to understand. 

Being such a new blogger there are about a million other things that I really don't understand but I feel like this is a sufficient list for one post. I hope this didn't sound offensive to anyone else, there are like a million (37140 overall and 2878 beauty) other blogs that are way better than mine and I'm just really baffled at their awesomeness :)

(and yes I realize I've said baffled a lot but it's just such a fun word!)

Comment below if you've had any of these confusions or anything you don't understand about this wonderful world of blogging!

Have A Wonderful Day!
Mia B <3

Gift Guide For Teenage Girls

Hello there!

As we get closer and closer to the amazing day I'm getting ridiculously excited for Christmas and all it holds so today I thought I'd list out part of my Christmas wishlist and hope it helps any adults hopeless for what a normal teenage girl would want. But us teenage girls come in many different breeds so I'll be categorizing different presents to get for different types of girls

For the headphone-addicted



I personally don't mind getting gift cards at all, it shows some amount of care and doesn't leave the receiver with anything they dislike. Unless you know of a specific CD or set of headphones they definitely want, I would highly recommend an iTunes gift card which come in many different amounts. I've been the person who got a CD they didn't like and let's just say my mom listens to it more than I do. 

For the comfy clothes girl



You cannot go wrong with a good pair of yoga pants, they're like socially acceptable sweatpants! My and most girls favorite brand for yoga pants is PINK, a side brand of Victoria's Secret, but don't worry, they're completely appropriate. These do run fairly expensive at $35 but if  someone bought me these and these alone I would be completely grateful. The top (inseam) comes in many different colors and designs so choose carefully :)



If you're looking for something a bit lower priced big sweatshirts are always nice, especially if you find one with something they like (such as Harry Potter) or even lower, there is nothing better than wearing extra fuzzy socks so can't go wrong with either of these. 

For the beauty-obsessed



This one is a bit more difficult as every girl has very different beauty-related things they want, but I'm sure that applies to girls of all ages. This season I don't think anyone can go wrong with the highly anticipated Naked 3 Palette (aka PERFECTION), the receiver most likely doesn't have it yet and it's a palette that flatters almost any skin tone. Though it is rather high priced so onto the less expensive options...

Gift cards: Ulta is one of my favorites because the products are a lot more versatile, they have huge stores with hair, nail, makeup, etc products. There's also stores like Sephora and MAC

If you are one of the many who think gift cards are careless, it's a bit of hit and miss from here. If you've tried something and really, really enjoyed it but know that they haven't yet, that would probably be a good gift. I bet there are a million beauty products out there I would love that I've never even heard of.  

I'M GETTING SO EXCITED FOR CHRISTMAS... sorry just needed to note that :)

Hope you enjoyed! Comment below what's at the top of your wishlist this year! :)

Have a Wonderfully Festive Day!
Mia B <3

PS Sorry I forgot to upload this yesterday but there will be a second post later on today so that I can finish my month of blogging mission... :)

Wednesday, December 11, 2013

Nightly Routine! -Winter

Hello there!

So today I was going through my Youtube subscriptions since I am the only one awake this early which is pretty funny since I was also the last one to go to sleep... Anyways I was watching Bethany's nightly routine video and I was inspired! Here's my current routine!



Starting from when I get home:


So after a long day at school I will usually grab a snack and I tend to grab some fruit or cereal (my loves) or both!

Then I have about an hour before I leave for the gym so if I have any homework I'll get it done and if not I'll go on some sort of social media like Bloglovin, Pinterest, Twitter or Youtube. I know, I'm a really crazy teenager ;)




Having fun with Photography at the gym...
Delicious home cooked meal with some vlogs

After a good hour workout I'll come home and eat dinner which half of the time will be my parents cooking something and the other half I'll just grab a quick lean cuisine. Not that healthy but that's just my life :)




After dinner it's usually around 7 o clock and I start working on musical things, I'll play guitar for awhile, work on songs and look for new songs to either try to play or try to rewrite as I find this very interesting




I shower at 9 pm almost every night. Mostly because it's quieter than than playing guitar but loud enough to wake everyone up, which I try not to do. Before showering I usually take out my contacts and wipe away all of my eye makeup to avoid the skunk eyes.



Unless I've just straightened my hair, I almost always wash it since I work out once or twice a day which gets my hair all sweaty. I use the TRESemme split end treatment shampoo and conditioner, brush my hair in the shower, shave, wash with Tone's sugar exfoliating scrub, and wash my face with Proactiv facial cleanser.






Post shower is the most fun part. I moisturize the ends of my hair with Carol's Daughters leave in moisturizer, then put 2 products in my hair: one for curl definition (Paul Mitchell's Curl Defining Styling Gel) and one to tone down the frizz my hair so loves (L'Oreal Smooth Intense Xtreme Straight Creme) . 

Then I brush, floss, and wash out my teeth because they are far from white, I use Crest for them all as it's what my dentist recommends. I then use Proactiv's toner and repairing treatment along with the night cream which smells amazing! 


I then put my hair into a long fishtail braid as that's what gets my curls looking the best. If my skin is feeling dry (as it is now) I'll use Bath and Body Works Merry Marshmallow body cream, again smells amazing! And I can finally walk out of the bathroom...


Can't work without my cats!

By then it's about 10 pm and everyone else is asleep. I usually start to write and take pictures and edit until I've done some amount of work and go on social media and basically just be an internet kid... I have severe insomnia so I'll stay up until at least midnight sometimes up to 3 am and do random things I find to do in the middle of the night until I'm actually tired enough to go to sleep



Anyways, I hope you enjoyed this post, I know it was somewhat life-y again but I tried to focus on the beauty part of my night the most. 

What's your nightly routine? Leave me a comment below, I'd love to read!

Have A Wonderful Day!
Mia B <3