Hey There, Chelsie

Blogging & Business

The Best of Hey There, Chelsie 2016

Although this year was crazy, I definitely don't feel like it flew by as fast as others. Between all the crazy moves and huge life changes we made, this year definitely had times where time went by a little slowly, and other times where it sped right up. All in all, though, I am really grateful for this year and all the lessons I learned from it. But, I'm also really looking forward to 2017 (hopefully the year of NO major moves) and to continuing to grow HTC in new and exciting ways. I wanted to round up some of my best posts this year (a combination of those that did well on social media and some of my favorites that I wrote.) It's a really good way to look . . .

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Blogging & Business

7 Time-Saving Hacks for Bloggers

This shop has been compensated by Collective Bias, Inc. and its advertiser. All opinions are mine alone. #CentrumFunFlavors #CollectiveBias I know I might sound like a broken record, but ever since we moved to Utah back in September, life has become busier and more hectic than ever. Between our new jobs, only being 20 minutes away from some of our best friends and family, and projects for my blog, we have just been going non-stop. I won't lie, it's been downright exhausting at times and my health and blog have suffered from my lack of energy and endless to-do list. Thankfully, I've been able to implement several time-saving hacks into my life recently that not . . .

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Blogging & Business

The #myvibrantholiday Challenge + 30 Holiday Photo Ideas for Instagram

Instagram and I have a pretty complicated relationship. I mean, I started my Instagram years before I started blogging seriously and used it like any normal person would: to share 10 overly-filtered photos a day of Rosie and the food I was eating. No pressure to have a perfect picture or feed and no stress on how many people were unfollowing me. Just photos of my life.   When I started blogging seriously, I started a long journey on redefining my Instagram account. I knew I had to treat it more like a business and put a bit more effort and thought into the photos I was posting, but it was a struggle to find the balance between gaining followers, sharing “perfect” . . .

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Blogging & Business

The December Report (Personal & Blogging Goals & Stats)

It's my favorite time of the year (and the most wonderful time of the year, too, in my opinion.) I really can't believe it's the last month of the year, but at the same time, I'm excited it's here! I wish time would slow down just a tiny bit so that I can enjoy my Christmas tree for as long as possible. November was an exceptionally crazy month with the holidays and the people who live below me (if you get the Hey There, Monday newsletter, you'll know exactly what I'm talking about.) It started off a little rough but it ended with family, food, golden snuggles, and some exciting future projects in the works, so I'm stoked about what's to come! I'm going to . . .

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Blogging & Business

5 Ways to Get Re-Inspired to Blog

It's been no secret that I hit a bit of a rough patch with my blog this summer. I was in limbo, I lost my motivation and inspiration and couldn't see the bigger picture for a long time. I didn't have a clear focus on what my whole point was, I kept getting overwhelmed by what everyone else was telling me to do and I was frustrated with my lack of growth on social media channels. It was #badnewbears. And I pretty much just did the bare minimum to keep my blog running. But that was this summer. And now it's basically the end of November and I can say (very happily) that this is no longer the case. I'm feeling REALLY motivated and inspired again and wake up every . . .

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Blogging & Business

Why it’s SUPER important to OWN your Blog (and not rely on just social media)

I haven't talked about the actual topic of blogging in quite some time, but two different things happened a couple weeks ago that made me want to get on here and chat to all my blog/small business friends because they both scared the crap out of me. I apologize in advance if this get's rambly, but I had to share these thoughts! The first thing that happened that scared me? Well, it was a bit creepy, to be honest. Someone tried to Impersonate my Facebook Page I was searching for the Hey There, Chelsie Facebook Page and realized I had clicked on a page that wasn't mine...but my photo was in the profile and header picture. Yeah, that's right. Someone took photos . . .

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Blogging & Business

Hey There, September (Personal + Blogging Goals)

I think September may be my favorite month of the year. I mean, I love October more than anything, and November and December are awesome because #christmasmusic, but September may just take the cake. For the last couple of years, September has meant new beginnings, fresh starts, and the coming of the holiday season. September means days where the sun is warm on your face, but the breeze is cool on your arms. September means all the pumpkin candles and homemade stews in crockpots and dark berry lipstick. Every year when September rolls around, I feel inspired, refreshed and renewed and this year is no different! August was busy for us. You can read about all the . . .

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Blogging & Business

How to Start a Bullet Journal

This shop has been compensated by Collective Bias, Inc. and its advertiser. All opinions are mine alone. #PilotYourLife #CollectiveBias I'm not even kidding when I say that I have spent over 100 dollars in planners over the last 6 months, trying to find one that would work for me in this season of life. Each one has been used faithfully for 2-3 days and then ended up in a drawer of my desk or in the trash. It's been so frustrating for me, not only because I kept spending money on planners, but also because I needed a flexible system to keep my life and my blog organized. Since I'm not in school and work from home, having a pre-printed planner just wasn't . . .

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Blogging & Business

Why I Continue to Blog

First of all, Dustin, Rosie, and I are all safe and dry. If you haven't heard about what's going on in LA, here's the short version of it: Over the weekend, Louisiana got hit with 6.9 trillion gallons of rain, causing over 40,000 homes to be damaged, 20,000 people to be displaced and 13 deaths. The locals here are saying that this flooding is worse than Katrina. You can read about the flooding here. Thank you to everyone who reached out over the last couple of days to check in on us; your texts, facebook messages, and phone calls have meant the world to us. We live on the third floor of our apartment building, and while we did have a bit of a scare with the . . .

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Blogging & Business

Hey There, July (Personal & Blogging Goals)

I must have really been in a blogging rut because last month was the first month I didn't sit down and write out my goals in over a year on the blog! And boy, not having my monthly goals really did put a damper on the progress I made during this last month. I didn't realize how much writing out small, actionable goals that the beginning of every month really helped me accomplish some big things over the last 1.5 years. That being said, I am going to set just a few goals for July because Dustin and I are traveling at the end of the month to Chicago for my brother's wedding. I don't want to put too much on my plate and get overwhelmed, but I do have some specific . . .

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Blogging & Business

How I Rediscovered My Blog’s Identity

I'm sure you're all tired of hearing me talk about how much I've been struggling with my blog recently, but I'm happy to say that after the unplanned blog break, taking the time to get back to my blogging roots, breaking up with Passionfruit Ads, and embracing this season of life called limbo, I finally feel like I'm coming out of the fog. It took me a while and a lot of time away from the computer screen, but I've got a content calendar that's full of ideas again and I'm choosing to type this over watching 5 episodes of Grey's Anatomy, so I'm taking it as a sign that things are getting back on track. The Journey of my Blog's Identity As a human being, I am . . .

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Blogging & Business

Bloggers, BEWARE Passionfruit Ads

I'm livid. My blood is seriously boiling. And what's worse, after doing a little bit of digging, I've realized that I am not the only one. When I first started blogging in early 2015, one of the first things I jumped into was creating a sponsorship program for my sidebar of my blog. I'll admit, I was anxious to make a little money off of my blog as fast as I could so I could buy some equipment I wanted for my camera and running a sponsorship program seemed like the easiest and fastest way to monetize. (A sponsorship program is when other bloggers pay a small fee to put an ad on the sidebar of someone else's blog and have that blogger promote their content on their . . .

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