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Top 7 Beach Outfits for Summer
Filed under Fashion
Friday Favorites – Summer Outfit
This Summer I’m all about striped dresses and straw hats! I just can’t seem to get enough. All these pieces are light and breezy and work great on those hot Summer days when you still want to look cute. Take a peek:
moon + star earrings / straw hat
sunglasses / striped dress / pink iPhone case
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Filed under Fashion
Meatless Monday : Fresh Pesto with Zoodles Recipe
I’m excited to share with you another Meatless Monday recipe! This pesto recipe is perfect for Summer because it’s quick and can be served warm or cold, which makes left-overs just as tasty as the night you made it. It’s also naturally gluten-free, diary-free and and carries a decent amount of protein even though there’s no meat in it! (about 11 grams per serving) Scroll down to see what’s in it:
Servings: 3 – 4
Time: 30 minutes
Ingredients:
- 16 oz package of zoodles or 1 large zucchini per person
- 4 ears of corn or 1 per person
- 1 package of cherry tomatoes
- 2 cups fresh basil
- 1/2 cup walnuts
- 1/4 cup olive oil
- 1/2 cup water
- Salt and pepper to taste
Instructions:
- Start by shucking and grilling the corn. Using a high heat, turn the corn every 4 – 5 minutes until fully cooked. Set aside.
- Throw the basil, walnuts, olive oil, water, salt and pepper into the food processor and pulse. The pesto should be on the thick side.
- Steam your zoodles for 3 – 4 minutes. I used a double boiler set up. (If you purchased zucchini instead of zoodles you’ll have to spiral them first)
- While the zoodles are steaming, take a kitchen knife and stripe the kernels off the cob. Next chop up your cherry tomatoes.
- When the zoodles are finished cooking, mix everything together and dinner is ready to be served!
I really hope you enjoy this Meatless Monday recipe. I couldn’t stop eating it this past week! We had some really warm days and having this as a cold dish was the absolute best. Not to mention that you feel really healthy eating it. I also found the zoodles to be very filling, which is something I wasn’t expecting. Not to mention that the sweet smell of basil filling my kitchen every time I whipped up a batch of the pesto is perfection. I’m definitely going to be using fresh basil in a lot more of my recipes! Make sure to scroll down to the bottom of this post to check out some additional recipes.
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Filed under Recipes
21 Smart Strategies To Increase Your Pinterest Followers – Part 3
This is the last part in the series of posts, 21 Smart Strategies to Increase your Pinterest Followers. If you haven’t been following along, I recommend reading Part 1 and Part 2 first. If you’ve read the previous posts and haven’t started implementing the strategies, what are you waiting for? It’s time to take action! For those of you who have started to incorporate the strategies into your Pinterest, you may be noticing some growth but not quite the instant overnight success you were looking for. That’s why today I’m going to talk about growth and your following, as well as posting original content – what and how that should look. So let’s get started:
So you’ve read the previous posts to this blog series and you’re still not at 18k+ followers. Don’t worry and stop doubting! Trust in the process and keep at it just a little bit each day. With every social media platform there’s a certain number of followers that once you hit, the ball really starts rolling. For me that number was 1,000. It probably took me about 1 year or a little more to gain my first 1,000 followers on Pinterest but the next 1,000 came within a month! Why is that? Let me explain. When a potential follower comes across your Pinterest page, he or she is looking for things that resonate with them. The potential follower probably isn’t going to go through your entire Pinterest page, most likely just the top (where hopefully you followed the previous posts and put your best foot forward or rather best pins!). Your Pinterest page isn’t going to resonate with everyone but for the potential follower that it does resonate with, that person will be thinking about following you. If you have at least 1,000 followers, to that potential follower, there are 1,000 other people who loved your Pinterest page and clicked follow. This is called social influence. If everyone in the office is talking about a new TV show they watched last night and how much they loved it, you’ll be a lot more likely to go home and view it yourself, than if you just saw a quick commercial. Real people have real influence and your followers are real people. You just need to be patient till you have enough followers to gain that influence you’re looking for.
This was an Instagram post that I did showing some wire nail art I made for fun. It fits right in with my Nail Art Pinterest Board, but it also fits in with my beachy turquoise theme of my overall Instagram and Pinterest pages. You’ll notice that my original content got far more re-pins than my not-so-original-content.
Next I want to talk about original content. If you’ve spent anytime in the blog-o-sphere, you’ve probably heard this term before. Original content is content you created. Chances are if you have a Pinterest page, you most likely have some other forms of social media as well. Whether it be a blog, instagram or tumblr etc. If you have a blog or instagram, most likely you’ve already been creating lots of original (visual oriented) content. You absolutely need to take advantage of what you’re already doing and make sure to share these pics on your Pinterest. Since each social media platform was created for your business (or at least you should have one of each for your business) there should be a lot of overlap and similar themes going on between all of your social media accounts. What I mean by that is (this goes back to Part 1 about Pinterest Boards) we came up with Pinterest board names that resonate with the products that we sell. The images (non-business images) that you are posting on Instagram should be pinned to Pinterest boards that go together. For example, let’s say I gram a picture of the ocean. I’ll then pin it to my ocean board, my turquoise board, and maybe even my colors, background and inspiration boards too. Keep in mind that I’m not pinning the same image over and over again in one sitting. I’m spreading it out throughout the course of a day or even multiple days. Pinterest will warn you that you’ve already pinned this image. The only time it’s okay to pin an image multiple times is when it’s your image or original content (including business-related pins).
Every once in a while, show your face. Your followers want to see who you are but unless you are the face of your business, your social media shouldn’t be filled with pictures of you or your pet. You’ll notice that my Instagram account is mostly pictures of my jewelry line and other beachy related images.
If you don’t have any other forms of social media platforms, and you don’t have any original content, then it’s time to take action and create some! Remember that when creating original content for your business whether it’s product images or other original content images, you want them all to be in line with your business. It’s okay to throw some personal images in there every great once in a while. People want to see you and the lifestyle you have behind the brand. However, if you’re posting pictures of your cat every week, it’s time to give Tiger a break and get back to business. I also want to point out that since the end result is to drive traffic to your business site, remember that when you are creating other social media platforms, to have a link to your business there as well.
That wraps up 21 Smart Strategies to Increase your Pinterest Followers! I hope you gained a lot of insight and information into the world of Pinterest followers and I hope you feel inspired to take action. If you get stuck at any point or would just like a general critique of your Pinterest page, I’d love to help. Just leave a note in the comment section of any one of these posts!
Filed under Blog Love
Top 7 DIY for Summer
I spent all Spring thinking about those hot Summer beach days! Now that it’s warming up and Summer is right around the corner, I wanted to share from fun DIYs for Summer. These crafts range from home decor, to succulents and more! Click the pic to get the step by step:
Good vibes art via Sugar and Cloth
Watercolor pillows via Tidbit Cami
Citrus bath salts via Christina Williams
DIY embroidered fan via Sugar and Cloth
DIY Polish Chandelier via Oh Happy Day
DIY Donut Beach Umbrella via Studio DIY
Succulent Sphere via Burlap Wreath
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Filed under Crafts
Top 7 Summer Nail Art Trends for 2017
I’m loving all these new Summer nail art trends for 2017! Not sure which one is my favorite just yet but those holographic nails and the sequins are making it to the top of my list. Seriously, the holographic nails are the easiest and have the biggest impact. Poolside with holographic nails? Yes please!!
Love this look!
Grab these nail stickers for a quick polish change
This polka dot look might take some time but it’s still pretty easy to achieve
Simple with a pop of color
Sequins are the new glitter!
This is a new take on the wire nail art trend. You can get this look with gold wire, chain or sequins!
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