Happy Halloween - Spooky Links For Your Weekend!

I wanted to make sure I was able to wish all of you a very HAPPY HALLOWEEN!

Since it's Friday, it is also a good time to leave you with some links to check out in honor of the best holiday of the year!

From pulpsushi.com - Guest Post: Fashion With Halloween Flavors
From pulpsushi.com - Guest Post: Macabre Home Decor For Halloween

From Little Nostalgia - Modern Halloween Party
From Hugs Are Fun - Super Easy Handmade Costumes
From Makers-on-Hudson - The Pumpkin Song
From Moon and Roses - Five Halloween Short Videos
From Design*Sponge - DIY Halloween Hanging Paper Lanterns

Blog ♥ : Links To Check Out

How has June been for your so far? This has been a super busy month so far with a bunch of stuff going on offline, not Pulp Sushi related, I've spared you the details on.  But I still make time to check out my regular blog reads and share some that I really enjoyed reading and think you would like too.

Beacon is just the next town over from where I live and where I took the train out of when I was commuting to the city. I feel really fortunate to live so close to such a hipsterific hot spot.  There are a lot of cool places to check out that's coming, and sometimes going, but I don't see the Beacon hype going away any time soon. If you visit New York but want a change of pace from NYC, take the Metro North up to Beacon and maybe I'll show you around!  In the meantime, here's a great guide from Design Sponge. 

What are you thoughts on competition? There sure is a lot of it out there.  Speaking from a jewelry stand point, ooooooh boy!  My friend Jess from Knot By Granma embraces competition, and you should too! 

This is such a great topic from The Nectar Collective and not talked about much.  We still get caught up with numbers sometimes.  My Twitter is pretty ridiculous where I'll get a few followers a day and the next day they're gone because I didn't follow them back right away.  Don't worry about WHY someone unfollows you, just focus on the people who stay!

Not quite a link but what do you guys think of Instagram's new look?  I'm glad they got rid of the mosaic headers and made the images larger. 

Blog ♥ : Links To Check Out

It's time for me to share my recent favorite blog links I hope you'll take a look at.  It's a little all over the place but it's all good!

"When you turn jealousy and comparison into a crush, it not only reframes your emotions as healthy and positive (and gives you motivation to improve your game)."

What a great approach to addressing jealousy with other bloggers/sellers from Love and Data. 

Everything has pros and cons.  I have only met ONE person who says they wouldn't want to work from home, everyone else says I'm lucky but there are times where I don't feel so lucky. I'm working on it. I'm so glad Ali Bee shared this! 

I am a total blogging advocate and think it's nuts to not have a blog if you have a business or trying to promote something.  Don't get caught up with the technicalities of blogging - how often to write, how much to write, what do I write about, etc.   Kayli breaks it down at The Freelance Hustle on why it should be a part of your marketing.

There are a bazillion lists out there for everything.  It can be overwhelming.  So why am I sharing this list? Because this is the list of all lists!!! =D  

The ladies at One Woman Shop worked very hard and spent a lot of time putting together the 100 Best Sites For Solopreneurs.  This list is not a rank list but grouped together by categories like Digital Marketing, Branding, Finance, Publicity, Productivity and more.  So bookmark this one, take your time going through it and store it for future reference. 

Link ♥ : Favorite Recent Blog Reads

Happy April Fool's Day! Don't worry, I have no tricks up my sleeve. Actually as I type this, I'm struggling a little bit because I smashed the shit out of my right ring finger yesterday which makes typing pretty awkward. Yeow! But I'm just being a big baby. Today I wanted to share some more great blog reads I've come across and wanted to share the love. Check them out!

I feel like my blog has been under the radar and probably not worth talking about, but I've seen other blogs where comments are left by trolls and it's not nice.  Mandy writes a very honest post about being an "ex" hater.

Can I turn notifications off on my phone? I feeling a pinch of anxiety just thinking about it.  Maybe I'll try it for just one day and see how that works out?  I recently started following Paul Jarvis, one of the co-hosts of the Invisible Office Hours podcast and I look forward to reading his articles and emails every week.

Need a new mobile and/or desktop calendar for April? Megan Minns has a really pretty one you can download. I just learned about this blog through #ellechat & #blisschat on Twitter Thursday nights - which I have to miss this week which stinks but oh well.

Link ♥ : Favorite Recent Blog Reads

From The Blog Society, as someone who is turning the big 4-0 this December, it's nice to be reminded that there are still bloggers out there close to my age. Where you at? I know you're out there! :) 

I recently wrote about owning who I am and what I do as a business owner and designer.  Braid Creative talks about how it's not a matter of waiting for when you accomplish A, B, and C.  Things never go the way as expected so we just have dive in and go with the flow.

Maybe it's time we re-evaluate just what we're trying to achieve, there's always a goal to achieve, it never ends and that's okay. Lisa from Elembee puts it in perspective nicely.

I found Taylor & Elaine's story on Design*Sponge really fascinating.  A fantasy story of just packing up and go, letting your dream develop organically while still facing the realities of being broke and uncertain of what will happen next. It's a testament of how awesome social media can be sometimes. Plus I can totally relate with keeping a part-time job just to make sure the bills are paid.

Link ♥ : Favorite Recent Blog Reads

I've been doing so much reading lately on developing as a business person and a better person overall and there's a lot of great material out there that makes me nod my head in agreement. I wanted to share a couple of those links today with you. The screenshots link to the posts.

I consider myself an emotional person and this post from Bionic Buddha helps me look into that. By "emotional", I don't mean everything makes me cry and sad, it's more like everything makes me angry.  Ok maybe not "everything" but my initial reaction many times to things that upset me is to get angry, get loud, curse, throw something, you get the idea.  I always know afterward that that's not the way to handle things and that it gets me no where, but that doesn't mean it won't happen again.

A very cool post from The Laughing Medusa about mentors. Mentors are important to have no matter who you are. They keep you motivated, on your toes, and give you much to think about especially when you want to throw in the towel. I've never met any of my mentors in person but you don't have to meet with them in person to still learn from them. Some of my mentors are Holly Becker from Decor8 (for blogging), Gala Darling (for empowerment), Dave Conrey from Fresh Rag (for business) and Betsey Johnson (for design & business) - seriously she was facing bankruptcy and bounced back.

Kyla Roma always shares some knowledge gems.  I fall victim to this, especially when I get all gung-ho about getting my shit together, you dangle something new in front of and say "This will help get your shit together!"  I'm all "oooooooh!"

I'm always looking for more great posts to read (and pin) so if you know of any, please share in the comments so I can check them out.

Blog ♥ : Have You Seen...

It's been a while since I've shared some favorite findings from the web but lately I've been reading some pretty good stuff! 

Updating your product photos is such a pain and something I've been dragging my feet on.  I'll do a couple here and there but yeah, I can feel Heidi's pain from Rowhouse 14 but her new images are sweet! 

This really hit home for me because I have a lot of internet friends.  Some of my internet friends go way back to the LiveJournal days of the late 90s and we're still in touch through Facebook.  Funny how that works out. I'm glad Kristen from Milo & Molly feels the same. :)

I've worried about this some times.  I think it's one of the reasons why I've scaled back how often I publish a post during the week.  I'm pretty comfortable with three posts a week and like keeping it business/life related and not have too much extra fluff.  I'm over the fluff, how about you?

Last but not least, Etsy Is Thriving Whether You Like It Or Not, at least that's what Julie Ann Art says.  Here is a different spin to all the negative attention Etsy has been getting lately.  Even with all my griping and hearing about it from others, there's still a reason why I keep my shop there and Julie Ann breaks it down perfectly.

 

Is Your Blog Responsive?

I'm here with a PSA for all my blogging friends in case you haven't heard about this neat site. One of the perks of working for Typepad is I get to hear about cool little tools like ami.responsivedesign.is.  It can quickly show you if your website design is Responsive.

Responsive design provides easy reading and navigation with a minimum of resizing and scrolling whether you're looking at a site on a phone, tablet, or desktop.  With my old blog layout, when I viewed my blog on my iPhone, it just appeared as a mini-version of my blog where I had to zoom in just to read the text.  Then I switched to one of Typepad's new Responsive themes because I wanted my blog to be easy to read on multiple devices.  

I'm much happier with how my blog functions now.  If you're wondering the same with your blog, give ami.responsivedesign.is a try -  it takes seconds and no sign-up required. 

 

Blog ♥ : Have You Seen...

Here's my special HALLOWEEN EDITION of Have You Seen....because there's so much spooky goodness out there to share.

Cornucopia's are a very traditional Autumn decoration but Hannah from The Homesteady put a creepy spin on her cornucopia. Keep it through Thanksgiving and freak out your relatives! 

Paige from Little Nostalgia has a good eye for design and spotting trends.  Earlier this month she had some Halloween predictions of what the hot costume ideas would be this year, was she right? I think so. 

Sugru! I was given some samples for jewelry making. It is a moldable glue that comes in different colors, and feels like playdough but dries as rubber. It sticks to just about anything. You can use it for home repair or make something crafty.  I'm horrible at sculpting so my first attempt was making a ring.  It didn't come out too bad, I think I'm going to paint it though.  The left overs I used to patch up a hole I had on my laptop cable.  You give it 24 hours to dry and you're set, really strong and durable!

And to tie Halloween into the mix, you can use it for decoration and costume ideas too!

Remember when I shared my Graham & Brown Halloween wall art last week? They included one of my images on their blog to get inspired by Halloween. I'm so glad they were happy with what I did with their wallpaper.  I hope you'll check that out.  If I didn't get the skulls, I would have chosen this pattern.

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Take advantage of Craftsy's Halloween Flash Sale happening now! Enjoy scary-good savings on select fabric, yarn and kits that are vanishing quickly. Hurry, this limited-time offer expires Friday October 24, 2014 at 11:59 PM MT. Shop Craftsy's Hallowen Flash Sale fast while supplies last!

Blog ♥: Have You Seen...

Happy Friday! Another linky share day and today I'd like to share some more fabulous finds from the web in case you missed it....

Jennifer Perkins has ALL the cool ideas for Halloween! Here she shares how to make a Pumpkin Planter from ILoveToCreate.

Holy moly check out these Candy Corn Sugar Cookies from Dessert Now, Dinner Later (I love that name!)

Pulp Sushi is not the only place with a new look, have you checked out Bubby & Bean lately? Oooh I see great things happening for them! :)

I've seen stone art before and it's lovely. But when I see it done by such a talent like Natasha Newton, I have to take a moment and really admire the details.  She also has them available in her Etsy shop. 

Hope you enjoyed my picks today and will check them out over the weekend, cheers!