DIY February 5, 2015

Alice in Wonderland Bridal Shower Details

It’s Thursday and you know what that means (on Twitter and Instagram at least)… Throwback Thursday! I like being different and thinking outside of the box, especially for party themes. I was really excited when I found a few ladies online, who shared their Alice in Wonderland themed bridal showers. All of a sudden, I didn’t feel so silly for choosing it as my theme. You still get a few people looking at you puzzled, like “whaaa? Alice in Wonderland? So, do you like, dress up as a rabbit?” Haha. That was the best response I got.

I compiled an album of images from my google search for ideas and inspiration. Here are some of them:

alice in wonderland — Tea cups, flowers & decor

alice in wonderland bridal shower theme — **Dress inspiration**

Teen Vogue Mia Wasikowska — **Dress inspiration**

As soon as I knew my theme, I was on a look out for everything that could work for decor. It isn’t hard to pull off this theme, especially around spring time when you have faux flowers, rabbits and green everywhere! I was fortunate enough when one day I got off the street car, at the wrong stop and accidentally found a tea shop that had dedicated their entire window display to Alice in Wonderland. They had tea pots, topsy turvy decor, clocks and more.

The store wasn’t open at the time, so I went back later. If you’re in Toronto you MUST check out this store for any of your high tea events; Pippins Tea Company on Queen Street West.

One of the items that I was SO in love with at this store was their tea cup clock. Kind of looked like this (Note: It’s not the size of an average wall clock, approx. 25 inches length and width):

The price tag was a bit much to be used only for the bridal shower and at the time not knowing where I would put it didn’t justify the purchase. One day though, I may hunt this piece down for a room dedicated to where my ladies and I can have our afternoon tea or even look into making this my DIY project.

The ladies who own and/or work at Pippins Tea Company are incredible! As soon as I told them the theme of my bridal shower they were giving me lots of ideas, tips and helped me out with letting me rent a large hot water dispenser for the event and gave me Alice In Wonderland boxes for free! (The boxes were used to put the prizes inside for the games we played.)

I bought all of my tea supplies and decor from Pippins. Best find ever!

alice in wonderland centerpeice — Pippins Tea Company: Key hole centerpiece

TIP: To give height to my centrepieces I added some books wrapped in colourful tissue paper. We did a poor job in wrapping them because we were last minute with this idea but it did the trick.

I got a styrofoam ball from Michaels and put these faux green grass pieces all around the top half and placed it on top of the pot.

TIP: If you can find a half ball, that would be so much better. The white part of the ball kept peeking through whenever a guest would brush their arm or hand against the top. A half would stay put and not move as much.

We left some of the loose tea we bought from Pippins Tea Company open and some already packed into tea bags for guests. Leaving it open allowed our guests to smell how amazing the tea was. It was hard picking only two flavours since they have SO many at their shop.

TIP: Label your teas. We forgot!

I used many different sets of tea cups for the event, just like the actual movie and story when all the characters in Alice in Wonderland are sitting around the tea table, notice how each one has a different cup/saucer?

I added a few other little Alice in Wonderland touches to the table decor. Clock, playing cards, rabbits and colourful food plates for the lunch that was served. If you choose to do this theme you could always just do high tea foods like sandwiches, croissants etc, however, I always like to do lunch as well. The lunch wasn’t part of the theme at all. I picked what the majority of my guests would love to eat, a fusion of Italian and Indian food.

I was bursting with excitement when my bridesmaids surprised me with an Alice in Wonderland themed cake, cookies, cupcakes and cake pops! What darlings to organize the very best themed sweets table I’ve ever set my eyes on. (Thank you loves!)

For the takeaways, I made these Alice in Wonderland themed gift bags THAT had AN
EYE SHADOW, EYELINER SET WITH LIP GLOSS. THESE BAGS ARE REALLY EASY TO MAKE.

You need:

white gift bags
black and Red construction paper
hole puncher
black ribbon
red tissue paper

Directions:

Cut out hearts and clubs out of the black and red construction paper. Put aside. Punch holes into the hearts and clubs as seen in above picture and do the same for the white gift bags. Weave the black ribbon through the hearts/clubs (make sure the ribbon only shows behind the shapes) and then through the gift bag. Tie in back. Fill the bags with the tissue paper and gifts. Voila!

To bring this entire event to full circle I had to play the part by ~~wearing a rabbit outfit~~ wearing a blue dress like Alice does in her story. At first I looked everywhere for a blue dress and I found one but it wouldn’t come in time from Dubai for my bridal shower. So I got permission from the designer to have something like it made here in Toronto.

alice in wonderland dress

I found a seamstress on Queen Street who I read in an article had done many dresses for different stars who would come to Toronto for shows. Kingi from Peach Berserk took my design and created it beautifully. I was on a time constraint otherwise there were a few things I would’ve asked to have fixed but otherwise it was perfect!

The Benefits of Shiseido WASO Skincare

Marketing January 20, 2015

Social Media: Is it plagiarism or is it innovative?

The digital age where social media has become a huge part of our generation, the opportunity curve is going through the roof for the guy/girl next door becoming famous overnight over an uploaded video, tweet or instagram post.

My Facebook feed had this one article that was being shared over and over again by different people and even made it to a few of my whatsapp group conversations. A YouTuber becomes famous and some of the videos have a word for word resemblance with another YouTubers videos. Some viewers feel cheated and have shown their outrage via YouTube comments, twitter and other social platforms. Everyone has their opinion on whether this is unethical or not. If you ask me, before judging someone online for copying another persons content and resorting to cyber bullying take these points into consideration:

If you believe someone has done something unethical, being unethical back (ex. cyber bulling) does not make things right
The person copying others online content may not be aware that this is even wrong (or not allowed) and may not know that they should be giving any kind of credit to the person they were inspired by or copying (if that’s the case)
Person may have seen creating the copy of the video as their own variation of it

[Tweet “Fame = many responsibilities & few understand these responsibilities right away..”]

You can learn from making mistakes and either correct or continue to do the same and ignore all negative feedback from your fans and only take the good. Although if you ask me, any kind of criticism, especially bad, can be really good for you if you take it with a grain of salt and use it to build your online image into something even better. After all, if you win all of your fans hearts, it only feeds into your popularity even more. It can even be inspiring to other content makers and they may even follow suit.

Here are some guidelines to follow when sharing or creating content on social media platforms:

Twitter

On Twitter when you share someone’s tweet it’s called a Re-Tweet. Click on the Re-Tweet button under the Tweet.

You can also start a new tweet and start the copied tweet with ‘RT’ which is short form for Re-Tweet. When you tweet this way don’t forget to also add the person’s Twitter name. Should look something like this:

This is a great way to give the other person credit on Twitter and also you’re engaging with the user. That user might even appreciate you giving them credit and mentioning them in the tweet that they may even Re-Tweet your tweet. Especially if you added your own comments to the tweet.

Facebook

We are able to easily ‘share’ a post on Facebook by clicking on the share button. When you share a post, viewers of the post can see where that post derived from. (Facebook page, Facebook user, outside Facebook source)

Instagram

There are a lot of ways you can give credit to Instagram users you’ve either been inspired by or just want to copy the exact image and post it on your account.

Download a reposting instagram app (Ex. App called Repost for Instagram on Androids) Apps like this will automatically add a side bar with the repost symbol along with the original content creators name.
You can tag the person in the image before posting when in edit mode
You can also mention the original image post-er in the edit mode: #regram @piperlime

Vine

Vine has a one button share option or just like Instagram you can use a hashtag like #revine.

Tumblr

This microblogging platform and social networking website also allows you to press a button to share or use hashtag #reblog.

YouTube

On YouTube it’s a bit more tricky because there are no share buttons and most YouTubers videos are not their own original content. YouTube doesn’t have the processes in place like other social platforms to encourage users to give credit. It’s kind of like a free for all. Built up of so many videos that tell the same story by different people/characters. It’s evident in beauty channels with similar looks being created by different beauty experts, comedians with the same punch lines, tutorials teaching the same technique and more. It really comes down to the YouTuber. Do you want to give credit to the content that was created by another that inspired you to re-create? Or would you rather just create the video and put it out there because it’s different enough that you’re in it? How about the fact that the video you created is different in your eyes because you had a different approach, a slight change in the story, different technique…innovative?

Plagiarism is the practice of taking someone else’s work or ideas and passing them off as one’s own.

With a platform that doesn’t give you the option to tag, share or promote to give shout outs to those who inspired you to create your content, it’s no wonder why there are so many copy cats. Not everyone has come to accept YouTube for what it is. Some viewers demand and criticize YouTubers to admit or share who they copied or were inspired by. However you will rarely read or see a YouTuber mention where they got their content from or who they were inspired by. Everyone wants to be an original, some with little to no effort. To each their own.

Friday Faves January 16, 2015

Friday Favourites: Games for the Gamer Life & more

Favourite Idea

The 22-year-old founder of shipyourenemiesglitter.com, Mathew Carpenter has a found a way to make money off of the annoyance of getting glitter on yourself and not being able to take it off. I thought this was hilarious, innovative and pretty darn cool. Pranks are meant to be fun! You need to have a sense of humour to appreciate things like this and not take it personally.

Shipping your enemies glitter in an envelope could be mean or you can laugh about it and enjoy the glitter for years. Imagine this, you get glitter shipped to you, you open it and it blows up and is now everywhere! After hours of clean up, months later, you see a lone sparkle that was left behind. Would you flash a smirk or cry? I would smirk and maybe even laugh. I tip my hat to you Mathew. Well done and according to reports due to the high traffic on your site you’re starting to regret launching this idea and have put it up for auction.

Favourite Link

NERD ALERT: Do you remember playing MS-DOS games? I certainly do! I found a software library of some games you may have played back in the day: here

Favourite Tech

Introducing a PC games hardware called Razer:

Favourite Game

After watching my husband play Clash of Clans for weeks I started to get an itch to try the game out for myself. I’ve been using my Lumia 1020 ever since I cracked the screen on my Samsung S4. This game isn’t available in the windows store. So that being said, I recently got it fixed and the first thing I did was download Clash of Clans and I love it!

Favourite Quote

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Motivation January 1, 2015

2014 Round-Up

Here we are in the New Year! Time for a 2014 Round-Up. It’s been a busy year and I can’t wait to start 2015 off with even more to do. Currently in nesting mode and getting ready to go from a family of two to three, setting goals and renovating our place are just some of the things on my to do list for January. Have you set any goals for the New Year?

Thank you for all of your love and support, that continues to motivate and inspire me!

Every Girl Needs: The Boyfriend Coat & Some Sister Love

I’m crushing on the oversize look. Oversized clutch, sweaters and of course the coat.

I love the fit of my yellow coat this winter and was on a hunt for something similar, but a more subdued colour. You may have seen it in my Naksan Park, South Korea post. So I did a little experiment for my day out with my sisters. Just before I left my house, I tried on my husband’s coat, rolled up the sleeves and added a clip on fur scarf I purchased from H&M last winter.

Ana & I having way too much fun taking pictures 🙂

Later tonight #OnTheBlog: Every girl needs a boyfriend jacket and some sister love ❤ #lookbook #whatiwore #igaddict #igdaily #bcbg #persona #pandora #Burberry #happy #sisterlove #bestoftheday #Prada #hm #instamood #igers #wcw #instago #fashion #style #igfashion #ootd #loveit #instalove #webstagram #me

A photo posted by Hum (@humjk) on Dec 12, 2014 at 3:32pm PST

A day out shopping isn’t complete until you come back home to a cozy cuddle-fest with your sisters and some AMAZING tea. I have a tea collection from Davids tea at home, but I wanted to try something different this time. My sister Mac, suggested I try their Forever Nuts latte. De-licious! Their website describes this tea perfectly; “Deliciously nutty, decidedly addictive. Caffeine-free.”

Here’s a closer look at my make-up for the day:

To achieve this look:

Concealer – NARS
Inner eye eye-liner – Smashbox waterproof (Cabana Green)
Eyeliner – Lancome Khol Pencil
Mascara – Too faced
Lipstick – MAC lipstick in Heroine
Eyebrows – Benefit

Outfit:

Pants – Joe Fresh (similar)
Fur Scarf – H&M (similar)
Coat – Banana Republic (similar)
Purse – Prada
Boots – BCBG (similar)
T-Shirt – JCREW
Watch – Burberry
Bracelets – Pandora & Persona

Beauty December 20, 2014

Miracle10 – 10 Day Skin Challenge

Using a sunscreen every day and a well formulated AHA is great for a more healthier, even-toned complexion.

What products do you use on a daily basis? Do any of your products contain AHA’s? A good AHA cream helps rid dead skin cells to bring a more radiant skin layer to surface.

I tried Miracle10 for 10 days and here’s what happened…

Just to catch you up to speed with my Miracle10 experience, read my previous post about the bloggers event I went too. I get really nervous about using new skincare or anything with AHA’s because of this one time I used glycolic acid around my eyes. A little too close to my eyes.

Side note: don’t put anything with AHA’s or glycolic acid close to your tear ducts. Apply in the outer area with gentle tapping motions.

I used the cleanser I, toner and serum. The cleanser I used every morning and night. Less amounts of the cleanser in the morning, because my face is still clean from double cleansing the evening before. The toner, I wasn’t a huge fan of, only because I’m sensitive to scents and didn’t like the way the toner smelt. But I did give it a chance and used it 3 times. By the third day I noticed my skin was a lot more radiant, but due to the change in my regular regime, I did start to break out. A few pimples is normal for my skin when I change routines, so I didn’t stop using the products. By the 10th day I started to use the Miracle10 AHA cream in the evenings. I didn’t do all 10 days with the cream, to avoid shocking my skin with too many new products. For my skin, (normal to combination, sometimes sensitive) the best approach is to slowly introduce the regime.

I’m a firm believer in investing in good skin care and know it can do wonders for make-up application. For the first few days of using Miracle10 my skin was shedding dead skin, which is totally normal when using anything with AHA’s (Glycolic Acid, Lactic Acid, Citric Acid etc) Because of this my make-up didn’t apply as nice. 10 days later and I can ditch my everyday powder and walk out with just a bit of concealer.

Overall, if you start using these products don’t stop using the product because you notice some dry skin or a few pimples. Give it at least 10 days before you decide yay or nay.

Here’s a vine I created of my first days of using Miracle10. Do you see the transition of radiance in my skin?

Travel December 15, 2014

REVIEW: The Conrad Hotel – Tokyo

stayed in a lot of hotels through my years of travelling and some hotels become your staple go-to’s, some you never want to go back and others you tip your hat too.

Food : Four restaurants, two lounges and room service. The choices are endless. Paying an extra amount to have breakfast included is a great idea. Plus, there are no breakfast places in Tokyo. Unless you’re looking for brunch, only on weekends or a sushi breakast. The locals say it’s because no one wakes up early enough for breakfast, so make sure you get a breakfast package at the hotel you stay at.

We enjoyed breakfast in the executive lounge and the Cerise restaurant, where you have a wide variety of foods to choose from. American breakfast, japanese and even some mexican, which I had the pleasure of trying. Never would’ve thought I’d try a mexican breakfast in Tokyo.

I discovered on the second day of having breakfast at the Cerise restaurant that you’re able to take your hot drinks to go. This is great if you’re short of time and need to start your day but want to also enjoy your tea.

Room service options are great! You can pretty much order food from all the restaurants in the hotel and the only disclaimer is time. I believe most of the best items on the room service menu you have to order before 10 pm. One evening, I was craving a nice CLT avocado sandwich. I hesitantly called room service to check if they could make me this sandwich because it wasn’t in the room service book. When they said yes and delivered, I was smiling ear to ear! As a social media specialist, I was giddy when I saw the butter in the form of the Twitter bird. I know, it’s probably just a bird. However, social media nerds alike, would understand and also see a “Twitter” bird instead.

Don’t leave the Conrad in Tokyo without making reservations at the Kazahana restaurant for a private sushi bar experience like no other. The master sushi chefs are world class. A bar of about 6 seats, you’ll enjoy an intimate dining experience, where you watch the master sushi chefs create your order right before your eyes at a perfect pace, so it’s all fresh. As soon as you finish one order, they give you a few minutes break to clear your taste buds with some tea and then start making the next order. Don’t be shy to ask questions about the fish or the process. It adds to the whole experience of learning about what you’re eating.

The wasabi isn’t like the wasabi we have here in Toronto at restaurants. It’s made into a paste, fresh, right before your eyes. Ground from the wasabi root, to your plate. The flavour was SO much better then the tube or overly green stuff we get here. Same texture, better zing!

The master chef goes every morning to the fish market to get everything he needs at the restaurant. You can tell he’s passionate about what he does, because he even lives near the Tsukiji Fish Market. The Tsukiji Fish Market is world’s largest, busiest fish market. If you go around 5 am you can catch a tuna fish auction and even sit at one of the sushi counters there for a sushi breakfast. The highlight of this experience was when we ordered prawns and the process they went through to get to our plate. As soon as I saw them alive, I have to admit I didn’t want it any more, but the reality of eating fresh is just that. The chefs here even made a delicacy out of the prawn legs. They were deep fried and presented to us when we finished eating, as an in between snack before the next order. Visually it was hard to eat, but tasted pretty good.

There are some orders the chefs would make in between us figuring out what else we wanted to order. At one point, the master sushi chef, started to put together an octopus order. Upon asking some questions about the process and the octopus, he prepared an order on the house for us. It was a very distinctive flavour, definitely not for everyone and didn’t taste like the calamari we get at home. However, that was really kind of him to sample it to us.

Rooms:

We had the King City room booked for 3 days on the 37th floor, right beside the Executive Lounge and then the 4th day we were suppose to move to another hotel but loved our time at Conrad so much that we decided to stay there and had our items moved to the 38th floor in a King City room. The King City room has a king size bed, panoramic views of Ginza and the Shiodome area, amazing bathroom and some cute surprises.

conrad king city room bears — Cute Conrad Hotel Teddy Bear Takeaways

conrad tokyo hotel washroom — His and Hers sinks, separate shower, stand alone tub, electronically controlled blinds for bathroom and bedroom.

conrad hotel tokyo — A takeaway rubber duck

Staff:

Everyone at the Conrad hotel were exceptionally nice and very accommodating. Nunzio, a manager at the Cerise restaurant was very nice to us and I had the pleasure of speaking to him about his experience in Japan, since he is originally from Italy.

Other Amenities:

Tips:

The hotel is located near the JR Shinbashi station. If you have a JR pass this will make travelling from cities and stations on the JR line very easy.
You enter the Conrad Hotel entrance on the ground floor but the hotel lobby is on the 28th floor.
Afternoon tea service 3-5 pm in the Executive Lounge
Bath room mirror is great for selfies 😉

Marketing December 12, 2014

SMXChat Recap: Successful Social Media & Community Managers

Every Tuesday at 3 pm EST the Social Media Managers, Community Managers and On-line Marketing communities come together to chat about all sorts of related topics. Everything from best practices in Social Media, new platforms and the future. This Tuesday’s Twitter chat was a bit different. Instead of the usual to the point questions SMXChat asked fill in the blank questions.

Here are some of my favourite responses including my own to this weeks questions:

Q1) As a Community Manager, my most important role is ______.

A1) As a Community Manager, my most important role is to be dedicated, at ALL times.@SMXChat #SMXChat pic.twitter.com/urgrka5Kmx

— Humara Kausar (@HumaraKausar) December 9, 2014

@SMXChat A1: Engaging with our audience, social listening, sharing and creating relevant and helpful content, and following up. #smxchat — ThinkSEM (@ThinkSEM) December 9, 2014

A1 CMGRs are at the front line of everything – cust serv, sales, feedback, training..we are the go-to guys & gals for the brand #SMXChat

— Movy (@movystream) December 9, 2014

A1. Never ignore a mention/message. People always need to be responded to—even if you might not want to. #SMXChat — OUTSIDER (@outsider_nyc) December 9, 2014

Q2) When my Mom asks what I do as a Social Media Manager, I say _______.

A2) …I’m a part of the growing future of online #marketing. And then the details.. #smxchat @smxchat

— Humara Kausar (@HumaraKausar) December 9, 2014

A2: I help foster realtionships between companies and consumers. #SMXChat

— Stephen Willlis (@eclecticmkt) December 9, 2014

Good asnwer! MT @vegecomgirl: A2. When my Mom asks what I do as a Social Media Manager, I say juggle a lot of things at once hehehe #SMXChat — Mark Salke (@marksalke) December 9, 2014

Q3) If there was no internet and social media, I’d probably be a _______.

A3) Q3) If there was no internet and #socialmedia, I’d probably be a #marketing manager. Close enough ;”) #SMXChat @SMXChat

— Humara Kausar (@HumaraKausar) December 9, 2014

Q3 may be the perfect question to prove the fact that so-called social media marketing is just marketing. #SMXchat — The Gary J. Nix® (@Mr_McFly) December 9, 2014

A3. Nun? #smxchat

— Ernestine Chua (@tyna__c) December 9, 2014

Q4) If someone asks me how they could gain the skills required for my role, I tell them _______.

A4) If someone asks me how they could gain the skills required for my role- Step 1: dive right in! Learn from doing. #SMXChat — Humara Kausar (@HumaraKausar) December 9, 2014

A4) If someone asks me how they could gain the skills required for my role- Step 2: Study all platforms. #SMXChat

— Humara Kausar (@HumaraKausar) December 9, 2014

A4) Step 3: This is your checklist: Strong communication, empathy, be organized, know your analytics & find a brand you love #SMXChat — Humara Kausar (@HumaraKausar) December 9, 2014

@HumaraKausar Yes to the study all platforms and then determine where your audience is. #smxchat

— ThinkSEM (@ThinkSEM) December 9, 2014

@HumaraKausar Yeah, diving in and learning the platforms/becoming a real user certainly helps! #SMXChat — Top Ten Reviews Biz (@TopTenSmallBiz) December 9, 2014

@ThinkSEM @SMXChat “Nothing like turning yourself into a case study and developing your own portfolio” Great Advice #smxchat

— Katyan Roach (@KatyanRoach) December 9, 2014

Q5) My inspiration comes from _______.

A5) My inspiration comes from real life learning’s and interactions. I bring it all to the social world and it’s magic! #SMXChat — Humara Kausar (@HumaraKausar) December 9, 2014

Q6) If I was to teach a course on what I do, I’d call it _______.

A6) If I was to teach a course on what I do, I’d call it “Mastering the real struggle of the juggle with Social Media” #SMXChat

— Humara Kausar (@HumaraKausar) December 9, 2014

@HumaraKausar The juggle is real. #SMXChat

— Brandon Seymour (@Beymour) December 9, 2014

A6) Create, Tweet, Adapt, Repeat #SMXchat pic.twitter.com/xFIEnehMG7

— Stephen 'Paddy'Dyson (@SDXcreative) December 9, 2014

Desserts December 9, 2014

Holiday Gift Ideas 2014

Happy Plugs – I just got my first set last month and I love them! They really are jewellery and headphones combined! I have the rose gold and they look so good with my rose gold accessories. If you have a favourite colour or have a friend who loves a particular print, I’m certain you can find matching Happy Plugs for him or her. Makes for a great Secret Santa gift.

Vitabath Holiday Scents – Lathering yumminess. I love these holiday scents and they make for great presents because they come in a duo set.

Jelly Doughnuts – Instead of the usual box of chocolates, why not get that someone gourmet doughnuts? They have an amazing selection for the holiday season too! Check their website for locations in Toronto.

Marsala – You heard the big news right? Pantones colour for 2015 is Marsala. So why not give your fashionista friends a head start and get them something in Marsala to rock right into the new year? I know there has been some backlash of why this colour was chosen. But you can’t impress everyone. I personally love the colour and it can be worn through your outfits to your everyday make-up looks.

Cuppies – Here are my fave sites to get a special someone that unique cup they’ll be using all winter season long for their hot coco’s and lattes: Creature cups, Davids Tea & Royal Albert for the dainty.

Happy Holiday Gift Shopping!

Events December 5, 2014

Goodbye November! Hello December!

November was amazing! What a month, full of adventure, meeting new people, travelling with my love, spending time with my besties and soaking in lots of information. Have you ever wondered why you have more busier and productive months than others? It’s actually very simple. You invest your time to be at places where you’ll get opportunities or that may encourage you to find them = a busier month.

It’s so easy to get stuck in a rut and find yourself going through your day, weeks, months and years in the same schedule, saying the same things. Things like, “I can’t wait to do this..” or “I’m going to build/make/start….” and then not do anything at all. Why do this to yourself? Essentially you’re holding yourself back. I’m sure you can think of a million and one reasons of why you are and how hard it is to start. Really, all it takes is you beating on your craft, talent and beating, beating until something comes out of it. Metaphorically speaking of course.

You’ll see that managing your life, your schedule and when you have time for particular projects will all lay out the way you want them too. November was a jam packed month for me, because I made the time for these events and I allowed the opportunities to come to me by being present. Whether it’s being present at a networking event, present on your social platforms or present to sit down and work hard at what you do best. Just be present. Put everything else you have on hold, if it really means a lot to you and you really want it. Everything else can wait.

November in a nut shell:

South Korea/Japan Trip

November started off with this amazing two week trip. I’ve posted a KYOTO OOTD and a summary of the famous Naksan Park in South Korea but that’s just the tip of the iceberg. I have so much more to share about this trip. I can’t wait for all these posts to go up. The cultures, people and experiences were amazing. People have asked me, would you go back? I most definitely, would.

Spark Sessions

First weekend back I was ready for a bloggers conference like no other. I was a bit sceptical at first, whether I should attend this event due to the agenda. I felt as if I already had a good idea of where I wanted my blog to go, what I was going to do in terms of short/long term goals and all that technical stuff I had down due to my experience with web and social media. After all, my day time job is being an Online Marketing Specialist. However this weekend was more than a weekend of passing knowledge. It was an opportunity to meet industry people, people I’ve already spoken to via emails, tweets and other forms of online communications. Best of all I met some great bloggers!

Google HQ

I’ve always wanted to go to Google HQ ever since the first tech site wrote about how modern and funky their offices are. Particularly the silicone valley head office. Especially if you’ve seen this movie:

Read more about my Digital Day at Google here.

Miracle 10 Bloggers Event

Miracle 10 is a line of clinical skin care products formulated by The Plastic Surgery Clinic in Yorkville. There’s so much to do in Yorkville. Shopping, restaurants and lots of boutiques. I’ve been to a few different hair dressers and spa’s in Yorkville and none have really stuck to me, where I felt like, I’m definitely coming back to this place. I’ve been using Miracle 10 products for 3 days now and I’ve got to say that I’m impressed. I’m using the Miracle 10 products for a 10 day challenge and can’t wait to share the results!

Elle Magazine VIP event

What a great event! I can’t wait for the next Elle Magazine VIP event. Events like these are the best to go with your girl friends. It makes for the perfect outing. Best combo to a great night out is a group activity and then food. Here’s the full post.

Hum

For the takeaways, I made these Alice in Wonderland themed gift bags THAT had AN EYE SHADOW, EYELINER SET WITH LIP GLOSS. THESE BAGS ARE REALLY EASY TO MAKE.