Favorite Reads this week!

I love promoting other bloggers when I think they’ve delivered helpful content, rich content, hilarious content or heartfelt content!  Every now and then I try to share some of my favorites with my readers in hopes that you’ll find a new blog to follow and read!

These were some of my favorite reads this week and my thoughts on them:

Bon talked on sponsorship and I truly appreciated it for a few reasons!  1. There are times when I wish I didn’t have to pay for sponsorship and I probably gripe about how much certain sponsorship spots can cost, but ya know what… she was completely right!  Bloggers shed blood, sweat, and tears into their blogs and they deserve to get paid for it too!  Yes, it seems pricey to me sometimes, but ya know what… I’m reading that persons blog every.single.day because they are that.good!  2. It made me realize that I shouldn’t feel bad about offering sponsorship.  If you don’t want to sponsor, that’s fine!  I will always try to put out the same type of material that I usually do in order to maintain my readership, but sometimes blogging is hard work… and it’d be nice to have a “blogging fund” if you know what I mean! – Just a little hint (sponsorship will probably be coming soon, but only so I can improve my blog and put the money back into my blog!)

Rachel is going to her first blog conference!  As am I!  I was excited to see her take that plunge when she has recently been talking about taking her blog to the next level and using her blog space more career wise.  My favorite thing about it is that she’s going completely herself!! Her business cards – adorable and from what I know of her, they’re 100% true to who she is!  I love it!  It was a reminder to me that no matter who I meet at this conference or what I do, my #1 goal is to continue being myself!

I just recently found out about Google Analytics, I know… where I have been!?  Well, thankfully…. Helene posted a Google Analytics Tutorial that was super helpful for me as I’m figuring out where everything is and what’s important to notice!  Thanks girl!

Jena re-upholstered this beautiful arm chair and 2 thoughts crossed my mind… When I first took a look at it “Oh my gosh… I totally need to find something to re-upholster like this!  It looks amazing!” and then when I finished reading the post “Oh my gosh… I’ll never be able to do anything like that in my life… I suck… bleh!”  So I’ll just continue to admire her piece of art as I’m sure you will and maybe years down the road when I feel more mature and wise, I’ll attempt something like this!

Katie posted about how life doesn’t always have a silver lining!  It’s completely raw and honest and I love it.  Life is painful at times… we all know that, but when you’re going through a tough situation, don’t you want to just punch the person who says “Find that silver lining!” ??? Well yes, yes I do!  There are just some situations that don’t have silver linings.  I know that you never know what the future holds and at times you’ll realize that things worked out for the best, but I do believe that there is one situation where that just isn’t the case here on earth…. death.  It’s painful for those left behind… it’s shocking sometimes and unexpected.  For those who lose loved ones, there isn’t always a silver lining.  Katie showed me that it’s ok to live in the moment of the pain and to realize that in a particular situation, finding the silver lining isn’t always possible!

Hope you ladies are having a wonderful Friday!! I’ll be off to Blog Elevated next week and I’m so pumped about it!! I need to figure out what I’m going to wear and probably buy a new pair of flats so I have something comfortable!  I’m also looking forward to seeing my cousin and her family and spending time with them!! Next week is going to be wonderful!  In case you’re wondering… still haven’t heard anything on the job front : ( but I’m staying as positive as I can and praying, prayinig, praying!  If you want to send up a little prayer for me, I wouldn’t mind it!  Thanks to all of you for your continued support and friendship!