Found Favorites #25

This silver onyx thigh piece from Zephyr Jewelry is beautiful. I got my hair chains for my wedding from her. (Thanks Alyssa!)

(via. Zephyr Jewelry)

I'm debating trying out the color pin trend. These bee pins are adorable (...but maybe I'll make my own.)

(via. Modcloth)

This Monday (8/31) is the last day to get some of these soon-to-be-retired Jamberry styles! So many beautiful designs. *cries*

(via Jamberry)

You can now get the 'Consent Is Necessary' button on it's own in my shop!

(via Nerdy Monsters)

Link Love
◈I need to test out this 25 Best Inexpensive Restaurants in Washington now that I live here.
◈Kristina blogged about getting ready for Vloggerfair and PAX, I ca't wait to see her RWBY cosplay!
◈Something about seeing people dance and move like cats but sing a pop song that is just so weird and hilarious.


Happy Friday!

Who Inspires You - Video

Who inspires you? I'd love to hear your thoughts, let me know in the comments or on Twitter!
Click here to watch my introduction to filming myself every month for a year.

Hawaii Haul - Limiting My Souvenirs

In an effort to live more lightly, I was very careful with what I purchased on my honeymoon. I wanted enough things to remind me of the wonderful trip but not too much junk that would only be hard getting rid of the next time we move. So I had one major rule for myself, the item had to be useful. With that in mind, I think the few things I took home were all I needed. Here's my haul!

The first thing is a mango and papaya scented candle in a coconut shell. It's useful, smells amazing, and when it's used up I can use the shell to hold things. The shell necklaces wrapped around it were a free gift at the first cottage we stayed at.


The next things are these cute note paper pads. I use note paper often in snail mail and in my planner, and I could not resist the happy ukulele! The flower earrings I bought on our first day and I wore them to the wedding.


These next two images are favors from Franz and Tina's wedding, very special Hawaiian traditions, rare salt, and some little journals made from the pages of various books.


Lastly was the shirts. Jim and I both got one. We could not resist the rooster (they were all over the island)! Overall, it's probably the smallest haul from any vacation I've ever took but I think it's the perfect amount. The real souvenirs are the memories (and photos and video).

Our Hawaii Honeymoon - The Video

Travel video! Our Hawaii Honeymoon was on Kauai and it was amazing! (More photos and post about the souvenirs I bought coming soon!) Thanks for subscribing!

Thoughts About Lo-Fi One-Take YouTube

Once upon a time, perhaps two years ago, a trend appeared on YouTube called 'lo-fi week.' From what I remember it was to remind people that you don't need high-end equipment to make videos. When YouTube was new no one was using DSLRs and fancy editing software and creative things were being made all of the time. Since I've been without my 'fancy equipment' this month I thought I'd return to YouTube via my husband's webcam in all its lo-fi one-take glory. I think it's something I want to do every so often, just to remind myself that YouTube was not always this race for visual and auto quality. The actual content is what matters. Below is my return video, thanks for watching! (as I say at least 3 times...not editing is really hard, ha!)

What do you think of lo-fi and/or one-take videos? Should they make a comeback or should they remain in 2006? Tell us in the comments below!

What do you need help with right now?

Seriously, I want to know! In the form of a blog post/PDF/course/email/etc. what can I help you with right now? I've been very self-absorbed since my hard drive crash that I have not done anything for anyone else (besides my husband) in the past few weeks. What do you need? What kind of blog posts do you want to see? What can I provide in blog form?

Please comment on this post, send me a Tweet, Facebook comment, Email, or however else you'd like to tell me. I can't wait to read all of your responses and perhaps even help a few of you out. Thanks so much for reading!

How to Come Back from a Hard Drive Crash

This is going to be hard to write, but here we go. So, the unthinkable has happened, (for whatever reason) your hard drive has crashed. Everything is gone. You can try and get it restored, but that can get expensive or even impossible. For your own mental health, try not to entertain the idea. So your files are gone and with it, your will to continue to blog even after your computer is fixed. What do you do? (Well...? I'm waiting for an answer. I need help!)

The only thing that seems to be working for me is to create a list of the downsides and then find a stronger and more important upside for each. Everyone's list will be different but I want to share with you mine:

Downside: My files since May are gone.
Upside: ALL my files from before then are safe on external hard drives.

Downside: My personal photos are lost.
Upside: My professional wedding photos and video are safe with their creators.

Downside: I can't make videos until my computer gets fixed.
Upside: I can use my husband's computer every so often to update my blog.

Let yourself learn from this, don't let whatever happened, happen again. Spend some money to make sure your computer files are backed up online or on an external hard drive, and NEVER save things for the last minute again.

I hope this helped you emotionally start to heal, it's what I am attempting to do myself. If I am slow to reply to comments or emails it's because of this. I will be back to making videos as soon all of this gets sorted out. Then I'll be sure to re-read my post about how to get back into blogging after a break, I think I'll need it.

To cheer myself up (and hopefully you get a giggle out of it as well) I'm picturing Brad Pitt singing Let It Go. Here's a pinnable for you...if you happen to share my particular brand of humor. :P

First photo used with permission from FreeImages.com/len-k-a.