Where Do I Stand in Blogland?

Last Thursday, I went to another blogger event at Great Over Good. This time the event, Bloggers Unplugged, was less structured and more of a mixer.

Naadine and Sharon from Cupcakes and Cutlery did a wonderful putting it together. They had the cutest - and most inspiring posters hanging around the room, fun balloons for us to take home and some delicious snacks!

I loved meeting the bloggers that came to the event - besides the few bloggers I talk to on a daily basis - Kriselle, Jess, and Yvonne - I didn't really know anyone. I met some super awesome bloggers that are out there changing the world like me. I met some awesome bloggers who focus on photography, fashion and travel.

I am so excited that I have these opportunities to meet other bloggers, and that these bloggers are all so wonderful. I know it's not always the case that you can find bloggers nearby to meet.

Being at this event has made me realize something I've thought about for a long time. I'm not like most bloggers.

Oh, I still love all of the #BasicWhiteGirl things that us bloggers love (I like to make fun of this #BasicBitches idea...As if liking these things mean I have no IQ or brain...). I'm outgoing and pretty good at networking. I'm slightly awkward - which is one of my favorite blogger traits.

The ways that I am different - as far as I can tell - falls in my drive for content and the reason I started my blog.

Most bloggers start their blogs as lifestyle or fashion or DIY or food. Bloggers start it as a hobby - but I started mine as a mean to my dream end. My blog has always been a little bit bigger - a little bit more focused on a movement than on my blog.

Sometimes it makes it hard for me to explain what I'm doing with my blog and it makes it hard for me to feel like I fit in at blogger engagements. I usually tell people "my blog stands to empower women" and I know that I could be more clear on this.

I'm still searching for the perfect term to describe my brand and how it fits into blogland.

It makes it difficult for advertisers to work with me, sometimes. It makes it difficult for me to accept some campaigns that are offered to me. I need to be true to my goals and to my readers when I pick up these campaigns.

Last week I wrote a Fall Handbag Essentials post. It was so much fun to write, but I felt a little bit like I was selling out. Heck, these are things that I personally love, but how does it fit into my goal with my blog?

I label myself as a lifestyle blogger, with many different facets. I definitely do not regret taking my blog from only female empowerment posts to more lifestyle posts. It has opened the door for me so much. I'm still trying to find the balance though, and I think I'm doing a decent job.

What do you think? How do you think I'm doing in balancing personal with my dream movement?

I also want to congratulate Angie for winning the Diva Gone Domestic custom stamp giveaway!! 

a Rafflecopter giveaway

If you did not win, you can still use code BAWQ10 for 10% off of a custom stamp!

25 Before 25

On Mondays I like to post lists. It makes me feel more organized in my week, plus it's a fun way to get through a dreary Monday. Over the weekend I saw Paulina @ Color Me Brave 's post with her list of 24 before 24. Twenty-four things to do before she turns 24. Well, since it's only 2 months after my 25th birthday, I think I still have enough time to do a 25 before 25!

This was a LOT harder than I thought it would be, but I love that it made me sit down and think about my goals. I also didn't want anything to be wedding related, because that is a given. So here it is. I'm going to update my progress monthly, hopefully. Which leads me to the notion that I have to update my blog goals! I didn't do that for August, but maybe I will just do a 1/2 through August - October thing. Every 6 weeks?

1. Keep my room clean every day. This has been a goal since childhood -__-
2. Create and keep a Bedtime Routine. 
3. Do a 30-day Challenge.
4. Read 25 books. 1 down!
5. Blog 10-15 x a month.
6. Become confident in my design ability.
7. Make healthier eating habits - don't eat take out for 1 month. 
8. Jog 5 miles without stopping.
9. Take my quad up China Wall. This ties in with wanting to go to Glamis more.
10. Donate Blood. This is a big deal as I am afraid of blood / entering the Red Cross buildings
11. Give Chuck some TLC. Most notably - attempt to have $$ to fix exhaust leak, definitely at least replace the Roll Cage Cushion and put in the regular seat belts, detail the inside
12. Find something for Iman and I to do together regularly (i.e. cooking class or a team)
13. Wear an "outfit" to work every day for a month. Including accessories and makeup
14. Sell something for WQ
15. Cook dinner every day for 2 weeks
16. Meet a blog friend in real life. Megalin??
17. Organize my stuff in the garage / storage unit. 
18. Go Paintballing. We have already purchased 2 packages...we just haven't used any.
19. See a meteor shower with Iman
20. Ride in the Great Orange Balloon.
21. Learn to cook on the Weber
22. Decorate a cake.
23. Make a difficult recipe.
24. Send my OSU friends a letter/card once a month starting in September.
25. Start to Vlog again.

What is on your list of goals for the year?

Wedding Wednesday: Budget Woes

Via

When I got engaged all of the websites and books and blogs and people repeated to me the importance of a wedding budget. It is THE most important thing to have a stress-free wedding. I've been engaged for 9 months and I do not have a budget.

Not because I haven't tried. I have forms up the wazoo and sit down to work on them all the time, but then I just get overwhelmed. I don't like to see the glaring amount of money I somehow have to save to have my wedding in 8 months. 

At first I was excited to see that it was possible to have a 4k dollar wedding with a bunch of people. All of these blogs boasted about it. I could do under 5k. Besides, I have a lot of people donating their time and skills to us.

Then Iman and I went to look at venues and we realized that to get married in Southern California...that 5k wedding would only work if we miraculously had a huge house and backyard to get married in. If we had a huge house and backyard...we probably wouldn't need to have a 5k wedding.

Our venue, including meal service and champagne, costs $15k. That is the cheapest we were able to find, and miraculously it has absolutely everything I wanted.

Our wedding photographer is a dear friend of mine and we're paying less than $2k for her and a second shooter [also impossible in Southern California...we're flying her in from OHIO].

We don't have to worry about: any of my attire, most likely his attire thanks to all of the suit places doing their buy the groomsmen, get the groom free, any of the attendants attire [they're buying them], DJ, cake, my hair, makeup is largely discounted, most likely we won't have to pay our officiant...and you see how the costs were cut low.

Yet, I'm still looking at a number around 24k. Which is roughly what I make in a year working 2 jobs and a million hours.

My other problem with the budget is that, I really have no idea how much anything is going to cost because I'm not paying for a lot of things and I'm too anxious about it to sit down and do the research on pricing. Our day of wedding coordinator [I won a discount in a blog contest!], is super helpful with giving me feedback on prices but she's not going to write my budget for me. I'm not paying her for that. I'm paying her for day of and anything she does extra is out of the pure kindness of her heart.

I can't rave about her enough. She is phenomenal.

But really, I need to just sit down and do the research and write the prices down in my own custom budget.

via

Only, I think I'm way too busy trying to work a million hours to pay for the wedding. I cut back my hours [I'm sure you've seen my rant post where I decided it was enough]. My room is finally clean.

I have no more excuses but to sit down, do my research and plan my budget.

I don't like budgeting. I don't even have a regular budget. The important part is that I'm trying at least?

Hopefully by next week I'll have something made up [and maybe even share].

via

Happy Birthday, Megalin!

Today I had planned on writing about rekindling friendships, but I believe I've written about that lately, and besides it's my blog BFF's BIRTHDAY! Therefore this post will be about Megalin - an awesome friend I met through blogging and who is a fantastic Warrior Queen!

We met through the Carabox exchange a few months ago - right before my birthday! 

Through chatting  we found out that we both have tattoos, drove 1988 pick up trucks in high school, have mutual friends [as So Cal girls] and love to read. 

Check out her awesome blog, My Random Lovelies, where she talks about her life as an army wife in far away land [I can't wait for her to come home so we can meet in person!]. She has the cuuuutest hedgehogs and entertaining posts. Go now!

Happy, happy birthday, my dear friend!!

P.s. For those of you in So Cal - I'm doing Run or Dye OC in November and I have a coupon code for you!

1) Head over to http://www.runordye.com/register/Orange-County-20132) Check out and use coupon code LETSDYEFRIENDS to take $5 off registration3) RACE THE RAINBOW with me on November 23

Wedding Wednesday Fabric Shopping

So, I never really do these link things every week, but I am super loving Wedding Wednesday. Mostly because it stops me from just gushing about wedding stuff every single day on my blog about being an independent woman...LOL. Also, I feel like I'm actually getting wedding stuff done by talking about it because we are in the patiently waiting time. Just under 9 months to go!

Today I wanted to tell you why I did not post last Wedding Wednesday...because I made it a literal Wedding Wednesday by going dress fabric shopping!!!

The Saturday before my mom got the almost pattern for my dress. I say almost because she is going to make some adjustments to make it specifically to my taste [obviously]. Which meant that the next day I had off [and fiance-free] was fabric shopping!!

My MOH/best friend came with my mother, god mother and I. My godmother is buying the fabric as my wedding present :)

We left bright and early and hit LA traffic, of course. But for this type of thing you don't mess around! We got in the cool new Toll Road/Carpool Lanes to get into downtown in my godmother's Crown Vic [I love driving in that thing, people think you're a cop and they move out of your way!].

We chose to go to the Fashion District in DTLA because it would be much cheaper and nicer than any of the other areas around [yet another reason why I love living in SoCal]. It's perfectly fitting, too, because Iman got my ring from the Jewelry District and we're getting our flowers from the Flower District. YAY for warehouse pricing!

As we walked in my best friend and I were pretty overwhelmed / didn't know what to look for. Luckily, my moms are experts. So we looked at a few pieces and then found this PERFECT fabric. Only, it was small...not enough to make a bodice. The lady told us that they didn't have any other sizes of that fabric and I was so so sad.

But we kept looking and found the same fabric but slightly wider! Still too small, but it was progress. Another lady came over to help us and then she pulled out the full size fabric!!!

That first lady did not know what she was talking about!!! The rest of the pieces of fabric were easy to find and we got some accessories...I'm not giving away too much for fear that Iman will decide to read my blog for once!!!

All of it happened in an hour. We didn't even have to pay for parking!! I didn't cry, but I got super super close. Which I think is a good thing. I'm weird and I cry at the most inopportune times.

After that we headed into Pasadena for some Afternoon Tea [which my MOH won a free tea for two today because she guessed the little prince would be named  George!] and then we all made it back in time for our afternoon appointments.

Successful day!



P.s. My mom totally injured herself getting into the car when we were leaving and we all got worried that we wouldn't make it on time because we had to stop and ice / butterfly her wound. Silly mama! I'd show a pic but she'd kill me!

The Never List

Sometime in high school during a peak in my list-making past, I created a list of the things that I had never done and wanted to do. It included silly things [like going toiletpapering] and serious things [like falling in love]. Throughout the years, I have updated it and posted it on my Xanga.

I've forgotten about it for the last few years [curse becoming a grown up!] but this past week I've redone it!

Never List 

• Had a surprise birthday party
• Broken a bone
• Been to an exotic country
• Written a full book
• Spent a day without worrying
• Kept my room and closet clean for a year
• Been to the Grand Canyon
• Made amends with family members lost
• Accepted that I can't control everything
• Gone to prom
• Surfed
• Been on the radio
• Had breakfast served to me in bed
• Gone toiletpapering
• Swam with dolphins
• Bought and worn dominatrix boots
• Learned to play guitar
• Raced a car
• Done strip-tease aerobics
• Driven up PCH from start to finish
• Played spin the bottle
• Rode a skateboard in heels
• Known more than two languages fluently
• Been seduced in a foreign language
• Gone paintballing
• Been serenaded in public
• Had a cake fight
• Gotten married
• Been to a Michigan Game
• Been a mommy
• Laid down in the middle of the street
• Watched Aurora Bourealis
• Seen a meteor shower with someone else
• Seen a Shooting Star
• Been to Mardi Gras
• Owned my own house
• Been in a hot air balloon
• Made my own fashion line
• Gone to an NFL or NBA game

What is on your list of things you've never done? What should I add to mine?

Friend Makin' Monday [Link Up Questionnaire]

If you’ve taken part in FMM then you know the rules. If you’re new, please take a moment to answer this week’s question on your own blog then add your link in the comments section here at: www.alltheweigh.com so we can all see your FMM questions and answers. Please invite your blog readers to add their links here too so everyone has to opportunity to be seen. The idea is to connect with other awesome bloggers so take a moment to post your own FMM post and comment on a couple of other posts. Now it’s time for this week’s topic!

Just Wondering

1. Do you wear glasses and/or contacts?

I wear glasses all day err day. I seriously cannot wait till my someday laser eye surgery. I would love to be able to see when I wake up! Truthfully, I will probably buy a pair of non prescription glasses and wear them anyway.

2. Do you have summer vacation plans? If so, where are you going?

No summer vacations this year. It’s all about working to save money for the wedding!

3. What is your favorite food to eat for breakfast?

My favorite breakfast side dish is definitely a taco. On that note, I could eat breakfast for every meal – sweet breakfast, savory breakfast, smoothies, etc

4. Do you enjoy window shopping?

Mreh, not particularly. Only if I need ideas for something.

5. What is your favorite candle scent?

Hmm, I happen to love cake batter and vanilla.

6. If you had to choose between going to a zoo or an aquarium, which one would you pick?

I love both! Probably the aquarium, though. I love to go to the tide pool part and see all of the different swimming organisms.

7. How many times do you plan to exercise this week?

I’m going to shoot for walking tonight and Thursday, moving tables tomorrow [seriously…I’m getting muscles from Tuesday night setups at Bdubs] and swimming on Monday and Friday

8. Do you speak another language fluently?

I bet if you made me speak Spanish fluently, I could. But I’m a chicken.

9. What are you currently reading?

Nothing because I’m horrible at time management.

10. What are you looking forward to most in the coming week?

Having time off with my honey!

P.s. Those promised blogs will be up soon!

Making this more personal

I think one of my biggest problems with blogging is that I get bogged down in making this representative of what I want the magazine to be, instead of making it completely personal. When it was completely personal in 2009 and 2010, I had a much easier time writing posts and thus wrote more frequently.

Don't get me wrong, I love researching and writing article like posts, that is after all what I went to school for. However, I just get so bogged down and don't always have a ton of time. You know me. I'm always running around a hot mess [especially when my challenges to myself don't work]/ 

I'm hoping that by making this more personal it helps me reach my goal quicker, stay true to myself more and help me to write more often instead of overly worrying about how my blogs are going to be received. I want to make this more like my old Xanga. So my writing might not be full posts, it might be a jumble of thoughts but these are my thoughts and my journey on staying true to my warrior queen self. Of course sometimes there will be guest posts and I welcome any and all posts on becoming more true to you and more of a warrior queen. 

In my attempt to become more warrior queen, I am always looking for ways to better myself. This month I have decided to take part in two different blog things to do that and to create a stronger blogging community [also in hopes of helping me write more. Let's face it, I'm much more centered and focused when I'm writing.] I have joined both the Carabox Exchange on Wifessionals, and also the Bigs and Littles that she hosts along with Mallory. They have been my inspiration to make my blog more true to me and less magazine like. :)

A Carabox is a way to meet more friends in the blogging community and to offer encouragement to others. It is very warrior queen!! I was matched with Amanda at Pixies and Periwinkles and Laura at Simply Me, As I See It. I was so excited to see that the three of us are all baseball fans!! Anyway, Amanda's other match had her do an about me quiz and post it on her blog. If you ever felt like exploring my high school xanga, you would see that I am OBSESSED with this type of thing. So I decided to do it, too :)

You'll Find in My Bag:

1. Phone

2. Wallet

3. The medicine cabinet

4. Straw Wrappers (the curse of being a server)

5. Pens

You'll Find in My Bedroom:

1. Clothes all over the floor [most days]

2. Books

3. A hilariously huge canvas closeup of mine and Iman's faces

4. A  cat or four

5. Lots of blankets!!

I've always wanted to:

1. Finish my Never list

2. Start my own magazine

3. Learn to ride my dirtbike

4. Be Organized

5. Be more confident in my crafting

I'm Currently Loving:

1. All my new jeans from Krystal

2. Hazelnut Machiattos at Starbucks

3. Wedding Planning

4. Our morning oatmeal smoothies

5. Fresh and Easy

Quirks I Have:

1.Sometimes I say really morbid things in a happy tone

2. I talk A LOT and often it doesn't make sense

3. When I tell a story it is similar to the way a newspaper is written

4. I cannot finish the last bite for the life of me

5. My socks have to be just perfect or my day is ruined

And that's just a little bit about me!  Tell me something about you!

Well, I've been sick + Half The Sky Organization

I haven't been deathly sick or anything, although since I continued to work I felt like I might die (I hate serving when I'm not on top of my game). Needless to say, every aspect of my "From Hot Mess to Organized Challenge" has fallen apart and I need the motivation to jump back on my organized / not hot mess life. Anyone want to give me some extra hours in the day to do this??

I hope you've all done better than I have. Did I mention that in the midst of my sickness and still working delerium I went to a job interview and I have a second one today for the same company. At least my blog hiatus wasn't out of laziness [which it has been in the past]. But blogging makes me feel better, I need to remember that. 

Today's going to be a short one, and a rambling one, like my blogs of the past. 

I stumbled across this image in an email this morning and had to share it and the link to its movement - Half The Sky. 

Happy thinking, Warrior Queens! 

P.s. Ariana is going to be partaking in Live Below the Line again and will be guest blogging! Keep your eye out :)

Bittersweet Tastes

Disappointment doesn't have to always leave a bitter taste in your mouth, though most days and most people will tell you it does. Disappointment is easy to come by with the high expectations we have for ourselves and others. Having high hopes is not necessarily bad though, it's all in how you deal with it.

Last night, I discovered that I cannot do the internship this summer that I so wanted to do. I thought this internship would be the next step closer to making this into a full blown movement and, of course a magazine. I want to help people and I want to see how a movement is run. What are the best ways for the grass roots to spread?

I had my hopes set on this internship and even began saving money for it (it's unpaid.) Last night, I was disappointed, heart broken and a bit discouraged; but today, I have decided this is more bittersweet than crushing. But wait a second, why?