MEET MY SISTER, HEATHER!

When I was in Ohio last weekend, I convinced my sister, Heather, to film the popular "Sister Tag" video with me for my Youtube channel. We had so much fun! Check it out below and be sure to watch the bloopers at the end, especially if you're a Friends fan! ;) haha

Have a great weekend!

Here is the list of questions if you would like to film your own:

1. How old are you both?

2. Describe each other in one word?

3. Do people ever get you mixed up?

4. What is something that annoys you about one another?

5. What is it like being sister with a youtube "guru"?

6. Do you ever argue?

7. Whats the best thing about one another?

8. Ditch the dirt?

9. Fave inside joke?

10. Fave memory together?

11. Full sisters/half/step?

12. Guess each others fave singer?

13. Who takes longer to get ready

14. Heels or flats?

15. Pants or dresses?

16. Favorite animal?

17. If your house was burning down, and your entire family was sure to be okay, what would you save and why?

18. Comedy, horror, or chick-flick?

19. Blackberry or iPhone?

20. Favorite movie?

21. What is something weird that you eat?

22. Do you guys have anything matching?

23. What's your favorite TV show?

5 SUMMER READS

I like to make reading a priority in the summertime. It doesn't always happen, but I try to make myself get off of the computer and read a real book out on the porch or before bed.

I'm not really into fiction books, though I have been known to binge-read a teen romance series or three (don't judge!). In general, I prefer reading non-fiction like biographies and advice books. 

This summer, I thought I would make it a goal to read these five books, written by women and for women to help inspire and reach goals...in other words, books for girls with gumption! :)

1. Thrive 

by Arianna Huffington

Summary Excerpt: As more and more people are coming to realize, there is far more to living a truly successful life than just earning a bigger salary and capturing a corner office. Our relentless pursuit of the two traditional metrics of success -- money and power -- has led to an epidemic of burnout and stress-related illnesses, and an erosion in the quality of our relationships, family life, and, ironically, our careers. In being connected to the world 24/7, we're losing our connection to what truly matters. Our current definition of success is, as Thrive shows, literally killing us. We need a new way forward.

My First Impression: This book seems to be about the importance of achieving a balanced life of health, career, and relationships. I love that a woman as successful as she is (co-founder and editor-in-chief at the Huffington Post) is able to keep life in perspective and learn from her past mistakes of focusing too much on career and letting stress control her life. I'm in!

2. The Skinny Confidential 

by Lauryn Evarts 

Summary Excerpt: Not sure how to keep it all together? Well, babes, you’re in luck. With my lifestyle tips and tricks you’ll be able to keep your bod, your love life, your personal style and everything else hot & sexy. Whether you’re trying to tone those bat wings, wanting to develop healthier eating habits, wondering about juice cleanses or curious about how to attain that Victoria’s Secret curl—I got ya covered. It’s all about learning to balance your life. 

My Opinion: I read this one first and finished it pretty quickly. I'm a big fan of the Skinny Confidential Blog (and the fact that Lauryn, who writes the blog, has one of my Hustle prints in her office!), so I couldn't wait to get my hands on this as well. It is a visual book, full of pretty photos, recipes, and lifestyle tips. I absolutely love the style of it, Lauryn's funny, down-to-earth tone, and the practical healthy-living tips that focus on balance rather than extremism. 

3. Do Cool Sh*t

by Miki Agrawal

Summary Excerpt: In Do Cool Sh*t, serial social entrepreneur, angel investor, and all-around cool sh*t–doer Miki Agrawal shows how to start a successful company—from brainstorming to raising money to getting press without any connections—all while having a meaningful life!

My First Impression: I just read the first chapter of this one last night and I can already tell that Miki is a girl after my own heart. I love her gutsiness and her attitude on life. I can tell that this book is going to be super motivational.

4. #GIRLBOSS

by Sophia Amoruso

Summary Excerpt: #GIRLBOSS includes Sophia’s story, yet is infinitely bigger than Sophia. It’s deeply personal yet universal. Filled with brazen wake-up calls (“You are not a special snowflake”), cunning and frank observations (“Failure is your invention”), and behind-the-scenes stories from Nasty Gal’s meteoric rise, #GIRLBOSS covers a lot of ground. It proves that being successful isn’t about how popular you were in high school or where you went to college (if you went to college). Rather, success is about trusting your instincts and following your gut, knowing which rules to follow and which to break.

My First Impression: Wow, Sophia's story is so inspiring! She founded Nasty Gal at the age of 22 for crying out loud! She seems to be all about going against the grain (in a good way) and paving your own path. I can't wait to read this one.

5. Lean In

by Sheryl Sandberg

Summary Excerpt: Sandberg is the chief operating officer of Facebook and is ranked on Fortune’s list of the 50 Most Powerful Women in Business and as one of Time’s 100 Most Influential People in the World. In 2010, she gave an electrifying TEDTalk in which she described how women unintentionally hold themselves back in their careers. Her talk, which became a phenomenon and has been viewed more than two million times, encouraged women to “sit at the table,” seek challenges, take risks, and pursue their goals with gusto.

My First Impression: This isn't a new book, but it's one of those books that is referenced frequently (not to mention it was a #1 bestseller!), so I felt like I needed to see what it was all about. It seems to be all about girl power and female leadership in the workplace, which is a topic that I think we all need to hear more about, so I'm excited to see what she has to say.

Do you like to read more in the summertime? Let me know what you're planning on reading this summer in the comments below! xo

MEMORIAL DAY WEEKEND

This past weekend, Wes and I went up to Ohio to visit our family, and I thought I would share some of our trip.

On Saturday, I went with my sister, mom, and mother-in-law to get mani pedis and frozen yogurt and we had so much fun. It's nice to have a girls' day every once in a while!

On Sunday, Wes' aunt had a cookout at her house. After eating my weight in pasta salad and watermelon, I took some clips on my camera (which I'm still getting used to using) and made it into a video, which you can see at the bottom of this post.

It was a weekend full of food, babies, and sunshine...what more could you ask for?!

What did you do for the holiday weekend? Let me know in the comments!

MY EDUCATION & CAREER BACKGROUND / COFFEE CHAT!

A lot of you have asked about my educational background, and wanted to know what jobs I had before opening my own business. I will warn you: I wouldn't look at my story as a road map to get to entrepreneurship. haha - I kind of "took the long way around".

For me, my career has been a process of trial and error; narrowing down what I wanted to do based on trying things and identifying what I definitely didn't want to do. It's not the most efficient way of doing things! But I always find it interesting to hear other people's stories, and if this is of interest to you, grab yourself a cup of coffee and check out my casual "coffee chat" video below!

A PEEK AROUND MY OFFICE

Today I thought I would show you around my office, where I spend...pretty much every single day!

You may think that I would want my workspace to be a little bit more decorated or colorful, but I actually get very, like, mentally stressed by clutter, and I need my workspace to be a little bit on the boring, sparse side or I won't be able to think! The most important thing about my work area is that it is clean and tidy, just for my own sanity. Also, we don't know how much longer we will be in this house - we know that this isn't our "forever" house - so I didn't want to do anything crazy with the walls and then have to redo it before we leave. 

I definitely have plans to frame a whole bunch of my prints though, which, HELLO, are made for decorating your office, so I realize how ridiculous it is that I don't have any of them displayed. I guess just with all of the other decorating that we've been doing in the new house, my workspace has just been last on my priority list.

Anyway, enjoy this little mini tour of how my office has been looking these days! xo

Desk Area

This is where I obviously spend most of my time in my office. I try to keep my desk as clean as possible with a tray to contain the little things that I need to keep out, rather than stored away in the drawers. I like to have highlighters and a ballpoint pen ready to go, as well as a notebook. I love this phone handset thing that you plug into your cell phone - it's so much easier to have it to rest on your ear and it is supposed to prevent radiation, which is always a nice benefit!

I would love to eventually get a legit desktop Mac computer, but for now I have my MacBook and a large monitor combo that works just fine. 

I also have a bulletin board that displays my business license and other tax related papers like that (because I'm always afraid I will lose them and freak out). In the corner, I keep rolls of wrapping paper in a large trash bin, which I very rarely need but my office seemed like the best place to store gift wrapping type things. 

This is the only area of my office that has much decoration, with the tassel garland on the wall. If you watch my Youtube videos, you would probably recognize that this is where I usually film those.

Shipping & Inventory Station

I have shown you guys this part before, but this is where I sit and fill orders. I love having all of my supplies in one area so that I can quickly fill orders without having to waste time looking for things. All of the pretty products that you see are available in my shop, and you can find links for all of my shipping / packaging supplies in this post.

Photography Cart & Extra Storage

The cart in the corner is where I take photos for my shop and such. I feel so lucky to have two huge windows right there in the corner of my office! I store extra shipping labels, mailers, and other random things in the little shelf-cart things and then I store my printer and extra printer paper in the other wooden cart (maybe one day I'll get around to painting those!).

SURVEY RESULTS

Thanks so much for taking the survey that I posted last week, you guys! You have no idea how helpful it is to get your feedback.

Sometimes, as a blogger, it can feel like you're just putting stuff out into the world of "The Internets" and not getting any response. It's hard to gauge what people are liking and not liking without doing some type of formal survey, which is why I put one out every so often - thank you for your help!

If you are interested in the results of the survey, here's a summary of what I learned about you lovely ladies.

Most of you...

1. are between the ages of 18 and 24.

2. have been reading my blog / watching my youtube channel for 3-11 months.

3. found my blog through the Charm & Gumption website or Youtube (I found this surprising, as the youtube channel is quite new).

4. follow along through a blog reader, instagram, or youtube.

5. enjoy reading about small business tips, decorating, and style the most.

6. would like to see more small business tips, decorating, and personal posts.

7. didn't have any specific topic that you'd like to see less of (yay!).

8. think that the frequency of my posts is just right (yay!).

9. like having videos to go along with posts, at least some of the time.

10. stay updated with youtube or a blog reader.

There are a few changes that  I will be making in response to your feedback:

• I am going to be making an editorial calendar for the first time since I started my blog. Doing this will allow me to balance out the topics that I cover by seeing in advance what the topic will be. This will ensure that I don't cover one topic too many times. Most people seemed to be okay with the topics that I cover, so I just want to make sure that I keep the topics balanced throughout the month.
• I am making a weekly goal of posting on the blog 3 times per week, with one of those posts including a video. This seems to be what you guys are interested in, in terms of frequency and video posts.
• I am going to post a little more of the things that you like: small business tips, decorating, and more about my life and what's going on with me. This was one of the things that I found surprising. I always assume that posting about my life will bore you guys! So thank you for your interest in my life! :)

Thank you guys again for taking the survey, and for your continued support. xo!

TAKE THIS SURVEY? PRETTY PLEASE?

I would love, love, love if you guys would take a few minutes to answer this super quick, 10-question survey, which will help me gain feedback about what you want to see more of on this blog. Thank you in advance! xoxo


Click here to take survey

FASHION FRIDAY: NAVY, BLUSH, AND A BRAID

Don't you guys just love my super-fancy, professional photographer style posts? haha I'm sorry! These outfit of the day posts typically have to just be taken by me on my iPhone. But I'm hoping that you like them anyway!

This outfit is so me: simple, solid color top in a silky fabric with skinny jeans (these jeans are from Gap but these ones are really similar) and a statement necklace (from J.Crew, no longer available - similar). As you guys probably already know, I'm all about simple and classic with a little pop of somethin'-somethin' - in this case the necklace and red lipstick.

simple blush pink pointy-toe heels (these are from Shoemint).  Oh...and check out our brand new landscaping that we did last weekend!

this Target bag was such a great find!

My favorite thing about this top is the high-low length. I looovve tops that fall a little lower in the back because, I don't know about you guys, but I'm always tugging at the bottom of my shirts to try to make sure everything is covered.

PS: J.Crew Factory is having a 30% off sale with the code SALE30 if you're interested!

SHOP THE LOOK:

MOTHER'S DAY GIFT GUIDE

ONLINE SHOP PACKAGING BASICS, WHAT YOU NEED

When I was getting started with my business, one of the biggest challenges that I ran into was figuring out how to package my orders and where to purchase packaging supplies. I thought that a post covering all of the basics might be helpful for those of you facing the same thing. Let's get started! Here's an idea of what you will need, along with photos of what I use for my shop...

1. Inner Packaging

This is the more "pretty" packaging for your items. If your item was being sold in a brick and mortar store, this is the packaging that it would be shown in. The purpose of this is first of all to make the item look nice and professional, and secondly to protect it a bit as it's sliding around inside of the outer packaging / shipping materials.

Inner Packaging Ideas...

• Prints / Stationery / Flat Paper Items: clear sleeves (I get these ones)
• Jewelry / Accessories: jewelry boxes or small stamped bags
• Stamps / Other Small Items: stamped muslin bags, tissue paper with washi tape or a sticker

2. Extra Protection 
This is the stuff that has no "pretty" factor at all - it's purpose is simply to protect your items.

Extra Protection Ideas...

• Prints / Stationery / Flat Paper Items: Cardboard sheets to keep the item from bending (I get these ones)
• Fragile Items: Bubble wrap, inflatable protective stuff, recycled paper, kraft paper, newspaper, etc.

3. Promotional / Branding Materials 
This usually includes some type of card that portrays your brand and provides links and other information to keep your customer coming back and/or subscribing to your social media. It also might include a logo stamp or stickers for the outside of your packages. I design my own and have them printed by my printing company that I use for all of my shop items but there are lots of places online that can print these types of items for you, or you can contact a local printing company in your area.

Promo Material Ideas...

• Business cards
• Larger cards that tell your story / show photos
• Stickers
• Stamps
• Custom tissue paper
• Custom packing tape

4. Shipping Materials 
This is the outer protection for your package, and what will be arriving at your customers' doors. Depending on the size and shape of what you sell, this might be either a box or a flat mailer. Shipping materials also might include a shipping label printer (I use this one), sticky labels, and the invoice for your order. Rather than including an invoice with prices, I always just include a gift receipt. I get a lot of requests to not include prices in the packaging so since I already send a full receipt via email, I don't include the prices in any of my orders. This is your personal preference.

Shipping Material Ideas...

• Flat mailers (I get these ones)
• Bubble / padded mailers
• Boxes (I like these)
• USPS flat rate boxes and mailers (note: this can be a great option depending on the weight of your items. I recommend weighing the cost of shipping flat rate vs. using your own box or mailer and seeing what works for you.)
• Shipping Label Printer and Sticky Labels (Etsy offers a discount on this one, and it is the one that I use)
• "DO NOT BEND" self-inking stamp - this is a MUST for those of you who sell flat items that cannot be bent. I designed my own - email me if you would like the same one that I have, and I can have one made for you.

My Favorite Places to Buy Packaging Materials:

- Clearbags (Protective sleeves)

- The Boxery (Protective Cardboard Sheets, Boxes, and Mailers)

- USPS (Flat Rate Mailers)

- Amazon (Dymo Labels)

& check out my video on the topic as well!

FASHION FRIDAY: MIXING PATTERNS

striped top | translucent stone necklace | teddy loafers | textured bangle set

Today's Fashion Friday outfit post is from last week actually when I was in Ohio visiting my family (check out my mom's pretty tulips in the background!). This outfit is definitely nothing fancy - just a simple, comfortable outfit for hanging out, walking around, grabbing lunch, etc. The mix of patterns adds a tiny bit of a fashionable feel to the very basic pieces.

Also, I've noticed that all of the shopping that I have done over the last season or two has been from J.Crew Factory! haha I'm a little obsessed. Do you guys ever order stuff from there? I feel like it has the great quality of J.Crew without the outrageous price tag.

I hope you guys had a great week! xo

shop the look: