What I'm Loving Right Now - YouTube Channels

Do you watch any YouTube channels?  Is that only for teens and preteens (feels like it, right)?  Am I late to the game because I'm over 40?  So many questions.  Well, since we cut the cable cord and only do Netflix and Amazon Prime Video, I've discovered this whole new world of YouTube.  I became familiar with YouTube and the idea of content creation via my 8 year old who loves watching the people who open and review toys.  But I really had no idea about just how many people were creating content that would be interesting to me in any way.  And I had no idea about vlogs, I mean, I knew about them, but didn't think they would be interesting at all.  I was wrong, I'm addicted to them at the moment.  So here are the channels/people that I'm loving now.

Kristina Braly (formerly Pretty Shiny Sparkly) - she was my gateway YouTuber, she lead me down the rabbit hole and she doesn't even know it.  She's beauty, luxury, etc and I love her vlogs.




Lydia Elise Millen - I LOVE HER!  There I said it.  She's just so real and beautiful and lovely and sweet.  She's my #1 favorite right now, she covers beauty, luxury and her vlogs are so fun.  Her fiance is great too, love his channel as well.




The Gold Project - Nothing slick and chic here, just useful information about organizing, packing, planning and other "boring" stuff.  And honestly, the boring stuff is the stuff that can make your life easy or hard. So I'm always looking for ideas to make that stuff a lot easier.  Kristin is like a really good friend.  I totally have copied some of her photo organizing ideas.  And she's planning a gluten free series starting soon (her gluten free video is worth watching if interested).




How Jen Does It - So many good cleaning and meal tips on this channel.  She may have the cleanest house in the USA, seriously.  She's a wealth of information.  Her recipes and meal hauls/planning are great.




Allana Davison - She's adorable, funny and I love her makeup tutorials.  Follow her on Snapchat, she's hilarious, I mean THE best!




TJ's Ways - TJ is so darn real and I love that and I love her spirit.  Follow along with the KonMari method of decluttering her whole house.  No joke, she did it from top to bottom and talks through it.  She's so positive and inspiring in those videos, it's worth the journey.  She's slowed down posting a bit but her channel is worth keeping an eye on.




Iam CHOUQUETTE - Claire is a newish YouTuber and one of Lydia's friends.  She's all about luxury, beauty and just life stuff.  She's funny and honest.  I like how she's kind of scattered and rambles.




And last but not least, Nicole Guerriero - I mean I think everyone knows her beauty tutorials, etc.  But her vlogs are my favorite part of her channel. She's funny and I love her cats.




Do you follow any of these ladies?  Do you have any "must watch" YouTubers?  If so let me know, I'm always looking for more channels.  Have a great week!

Bigs And Littles Blogging Network

I'm a few days late with this post, but I wanted to share my experience with the Bigs and Littles Blogging Network.  I was a paired up with the lovely Jessica over at Afternoon Style.   We emailed back and forth a few times, I asked a ton of questions, she gave me some valuable advice.  This is my second round with the network, my first time I really connected with my partner Sheryl, we seemed to have more in common - in fact we touch base quite a bit even now!  Not that Jessica and I didn't connect, but I feel like we didn't have much in common (and let's admit, I'm just a wee bit older *ahem*).  And we just got busy, that's what happens sometimes!  Overall, I highly recommend the network, it's allowed me to "meet" some lovely ladies and discover a bit more about this sometimes very confusing life of a blogger!

What I Wore Wednesday 5-29-2013

Just a few outfits this week - and for some reason the pictures are super crappy.  Oh well, better luck next time.  Here are the details:

Left:  Sweater - F21 thrifted

Pants - Coldwater Creek

Shoes - MaxStudio

Necklace - giveaway win from ages ago

Right:  Tee - Target

Pants - Coldwater Creek

Shoes - Thrifted

Necklace - Birthday gift

And here's a super bad picture taken in the full length mirror of the outfit I wore to Bloggy Boot Camp in Charlotte a couple of weeks ago (I owe you all a recap, don't I? Yes, yes I do. In the meantime, Ricci Explains it all did a great "10 Things I Learned at Bloggy Boot Camp" post if you want to check it out).  

Please ignore the mess in the background, it was laundry day.

Top - Narcisco Rodriguez for Kohl's

Pants - Coldwater Creek

Shoes - MaxStudio

I'm linking up again with The Pleated Poppy for WIWW and Shanna for Random Wednesday today!

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"Blog Inc." Review

 

I posted this picture on Instagram (@spryonthewall if you aren't already following) this past weekend and got some comments about a review/what I thought of the book.  So I thought I would do a post about my thoughts of Blog, Inc. by Joy Deangdeelert Cho.  First of all, it's a super quick read, I mean I zipped right through it.  I found some useful information but I would really say it was steered towards new bloggers.  Look, I've been plugging away at this blog for a little over 4 years - 4 years!?!  And I'm still baffled by a blogging, I've learned a lot by observing, trying and just trial and error.  I think she oversimplified a lot of it.  If you don't have a blog and you read this book, it makes it sound like you can start growing and cashing in lickety split (and lickety split for me is a year or two).  There are so many blogs out there it's just not that easy.  Maybe it's just me and my current level of blogging frustration* (I'm sure you all have been able to tell because I just haven't been posting) but I didn't get much out of this book at all.  Have any of you read it?  What do you think?  Am I just sour grapes?  :o)

 

*My frustration has come to a head the past few months because I just feel so overwhelmed and saturated with blogs.  It's like information overload and I feel like 90% is just noise and not much use.  I struggle with whether to continue on a daily basis.  I'm going to re-assess my part in the blogosphere after Bloggy Bootcamp next month.  That will be the make or break time for me.

Happy Weekend!

What a crazy past couple of weeks.  Here's a bit of what's been going on.

As everyone knows Google Reader is going bye-bye as of July 1st.  Thanks Google.  Really, I mean thanks for throwing a wrench in my blog reading/organization world.  Jerks.  Anyway, feel free to hop over and follow me on Bloglovin'.  They are making it super easy to import all your Reader info (it takes a minute, seriously).  I also signed up for Feedly to just have another RSS Reader option (they are making it easy to import your Reader info too).

I signed up for Bloggy Boot Camp in Charlotte!

I'm so excited!  I'm ready to reignite my blogging fire and learn a lot of useful information.  Because, duh, I've been a super slacker blogger lately.  Is anyone else going to be there?  Let me know!

This happened:

I tried a new at-home haircolor and it messed up my hair in the most epic way, I had no less than 4 different colors at random locations around my head.  In over 20 years of coloring my hair at home, nothing like this has ever happened.  And you can tell from the picture how silky smooth my hair was after coloring *ahem*.  I'm debating on doing a post about this, I don't want to be crazy mean to the company, but the issues with this product are multifold.  Would you be interested in reading about it?

And lastly, kudos for PopSugar for taking over Shopstyle and rendering the site virtually impossible to use.  That's why I  haven't been able to do any outfit stuff because I can't create a layout for love or money.  I have emailed, tweeted, DM'ed, screamed, used two computers, a tablet, 3 different browsers and still the site is basically useless to me.  To say I'm angry would be an understatement.  Is anyone else having issues with the site?  It can't just be me.

Boy, I'm all sour grapes today.  Well, it all can't be rainbows and unicorn farts.  On to a better week next week!  Have a great weekend!