1) Give yourself a deadline for personal projects. Better than that, tell the world when your deadline is. When working on my new travel and lifestyle blog, Loose Leaf Dreams, I can up with a tentative date of when we wanted it to launch. And then we told the world when the first post would be, so we had to stick to it. For my new 5 Chances Challenge, I was working away at it and decided to just post the introduction post and announce when it would start, or I would have kept working forever and never made it into something real.

2) Use lotion as a make-up remover. I almost never own a nice make-up remover but did you know that lotion works really well? Especially on mascara that’s tricky to get off! I usually put a few dabs of lotion on a napkin and rub it in a little, paying most attention to the lashes and then use a mild soap and warm water (on a napkin) to finish.

3) Forget the Camera. As bloggers, we sometimes get so focused on taking pictures to share on our blog, of spending the weekend thinking about how to write out our adventures to share with our followers. But sometimes, you just need to forget the camera, forget that you are a blogger and have some fun. I forgot to post Photo Friday last week because Scott and I took the weekend to ourselves to celebrate our Anniversary. I didn’t take pictures of our adventures and our date, and that’s okay. We don’t have to share every little detail and you don’t need every single moment down in a scrapbook.

4) Buy Patterned Duck Tape. And then proceed to use it EVERYWHERE. I ran out of the duck tape I used on this * journal, so I bought a cheetah (I think?) print one this weekend. So far, I fancied up a cheap 35mm re-useable camera, pretty-fied Scott’s backpack a bit and am now plotting other things to decorate. I heart duck tape.

5) Take Control. (maybe a little shameless plugging here.) Sometimes, we are looking for something different, we’re waiting for something in our lives to change and become better, we’re hoping to grow up and just know how things work. But, life doesn’t work that way. We have to take control and be in charge of our lives. Things won’t change on their own, sadly. So I introduced the 5 Chances Challenge. It’s a new project/challenge all about taking control of your life and becoming a better you. It officially starts today but you can still join until the beginning of next week and still take part. Join in and Take Control! please spread the word if you are taking part!

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1) Shower in candle-light. Everyone always talks about taking a bath by candle-light, well my bathtub isn’t one I’m willing to sit down in but the light in the bathroom is right above the shower and is super bright. Last Friday I was feeling sick and had a really bad headache, so light was awful and I decided to shower by candle-light, super relaxing.

2) You can never have too many bookshelves. Nope. We went to Goodwill this weekend and they had a bookshelf for $10. I had to buy it! So now we have…10 bookshelves. The new one is my second favorite now though. I love the big one because it’s a huge statement piece but this one is a bit taller than the normal “short” shelves and it’s an espresso color. I LOVE dark wood.

3) Re-arrange your rooms. After buying the aforementioned bookshelf, we couldn’t figure out where to put it. So it set into motion re-arranging our entire living room. Yes, it can be frustrating especially when you have an odd space to work with and we went through about 3 or 4 positions of the furniture before we landed on something I think I like. But it’s so refreshing to have a newly arranged room, it feels like a whole new space!

4) Eat Fruit. Maybe this is random but on Friday we were out driving around and I got a HUGE craving for fruit so we stopped at a local store that sells mostly organic fruit and bought a bunch. So delicious!

5) Take a million pictures of your cat (or dog, or whatever other pet you have.) I think this must be a law or something because I can’t stop!

♥PS- I’m working on a new project/challenge and I’m super excited about it! I’ll be announcing it here on the blog soon (I hope) but wanted to see if anyone was interested now. I’ve been talking about it on twitter and have a handful of people who want to participate. It’ll be life changing, I promise. Contact Me if you’re interested in knowing about it now, but you can always wait until I announce it too.

It’s spring, which means spring cleaning! We suck at cleaning around here but I just kept telling myself how much better I would feel when it was over!

1) Make a list. I love lists. It helps to make a detailed list of all the things you want to get done for spring cleaning. My list was broken down by rooms and then I had a misc section (which contained things like cleaning the windows, the car, and the cats). I actually made my list in the beginning of March, but like I said..we’re pretty lazy and ended up doing all the cleaning last week, right before my sister arrived! Also, check out this cool checklist from Martha Stewart: Spring Cleaning Checklist

2) Do one room/thing at a time. Or if there’s two of you, do two things! We worked on the living room and hallway (bookshelves) at once and then the kitchen and bathroom at the same time. It’s easier if you think, “I’m just going to finish the living room today and then I can relax.”

3) Get rid of things. It won’t be the end of the world. We picked out probably 10 books we know we won’t read again to give away. We still have to sort through all the drawers in our bedroom, which will mean more stuff to get rid of.

4) Get some help and dictate. If you have kids, significant other or a roommate, I think it’s important to get help and dictate what needs to be done. It’s easier for one person to keep track and cross things off the list. I suggest this be a girl because some things guys just don’t get. Example, Scott tries hard to clean and pick up when I ask but when there are papers and movie cases and just stuff stacked up on the bookshelf, he just doesn’t see it and doesn’t realize it needs cleaned. I think it’s a guy thing, they don’t see the details, so ladies…dictate and it’ll all get done without you having to do all of it. (of course, you have to put in some effort besides telling your man what to do!)

5) Re-arrange. Don’t be afraid to re-arrange your furniture from time to time! Maybe you’re thinking you need to re-decorate but can’t afford to right now, or like me live in an apartment and can’t paint…change up the layout of a room, move around knick-knacks and straighten up your books for a fresh look!

♥Do you have any other spring cleaning tips for us? Please share in the comments!

This week I decided to do more tips about blogging. You can check out the past blogging tips HERE

1) Pick a design and stick with it. At least for a while. I know we all get bored easily, some of us aren’t blogging professionally and might not care…but it can drive readers away. I’ve followed blogs before that change their whole design scheme at least 1 a month. I’m not a fan and it drives me crazy. Sometimes, it’s helpful to talk to a professional designer, you might not hire them but some might offer a consultation session (for cheap). If you feel at a loss of what to do with your blog design and want some advice and want to talk about it, feel free to email me at any time. Also, I too like change and when coming up with my blog design I factored that in. My header is rotating, it changes every hour (there are 12 headers) and I also have a Current Inspirations feature in my side bar that I change bi-weekly to keep things interesting.

2)Be consistent. You don’t have to post everyday to be successful but you have to be consistent. You don’t necessarily have to even tell your readers what your schedule is but have one for yourself and stick to it. Try blogging Monday, Wednesday and Friday or Tuesday and Thursday. Also, don’t just pick days, try to pick times as well. I try to post or schedule posts between 10am-12pm and I post Monday-Friday. It helps bring readers if your new content is consistent, it helps your current readers know when you check up on you and when to expect a new post.

3) Find your voice. It may be different than how you sound in person. My writers voice is not my actual voice/tone and my writers voice is not my blogging voice, although my writers voice and my blogging voice are much more close in style than my blogging and actual voice.

4) Credit. I know in the past I was guilty of using weheartit and just listing that as credit. But it’s not correct, at all. Now I stay away from weheartit, and when I use Pinterest, I try not to pin things from tumblr either, because no one ever gives credit. If you want to use a photograph or an illustration or even someone elses words…you must credit them, correctly. If you’re not sure how to credit correctly, check out this post about crediting photos on frolic!

5) Blog about what you love. If you have no passion, no interest in it…you won’t keep up with it. When Scott and I started talking about making a joint blog a few months ago, our visions didn’t match up and while I loved the idea of making a blog together…I knew what our ideas were at the time just weren’t right for me. I knew we had to dig a bit deeper, wait a bit longer to figure out what exactly our topic, our niche should be so that we were both passionate enough about it to keep writing about it for years. Not only should you blog what you love, your content should be something you would be willing to read. Do you love your blog? If you weren’t you…would you read it?

♥ Check back later today for an announcement and link to my second blog!

Each tip is from a different sub-category that will be on the new blog.

1) Travel – Stop at Tourist Traps. Some are really lame, others are lame and funny and others are just awesome. If you’re going on a road trip or just traveling to a new country, visit a few of those cute-sy tourist traps. It gives you something fun to do, often something awesome to see and a break from roughin’ it! When Scott and I took a road trip a few years ago we stopped at an underground waterfall, mainly because the signs/billboards were colorful and awesome. And it turned out to be a gorgeous thing to see!

2) Thrift/Antique – Make several passes through the store. The first time I usually go through a store, I’m doing a quick glance, looking for things I know I want (Pyrex!) and after that, I take another walk through and see if there are any hidden treasures. It really pays off sometimes.

3) Camping – Stay up late. I love camping, but I hate mosquitoes! If you stay up late (usually past midnight) it gets cooler out and the bugs go to bed so you can enjoy the fire, the company (family for my usually) and the stars.

4) Nature – Don’t be afraid of different seasons. I really hate being cold (I also hate being really hot) but I think it so great to go to the same park during different seasons. Go at least once each season, find what you enjoy, find the beauty of winter, spring, summer and fall.

5) Love/Relationships – Do nice things. This tip is brought to you by Scott. He says you should do nice things, but don’t do them so much that they stop being counted! I guess I’m guilty of telling him to be more romantic when he is, often. He holds open doors for me, makes breakfast in bed(even if it’s just coffee and toast) almost every weekend, buys me lots and lots of chocolate and gives me compliments daily. He also pretty much spoils me rotten and has a hard time saying no to me. But I still want more romance. It’s probably a woman thing, so maybe the tip should be…recognize and appreciate with your significant other does for you!

♥Hope you all enjoy the fun, different themed posts this week!
Do you read any travel blogs? What are your favorites?