Blog Hops — Page 3

Stumble Tumble Tuesday – Join the Party!

Join the Stumble Tumble Tuesday Party!

Welcome to Stumble Tumble Tuesday hosted by Acting Balanced, Sunshine and Sippy Cups and Wyoming Girl Turned Coastie Wife! The goal of this hop is to use Stumble Upon to help you promote your blog posts and get more traffic. So read on, link up, and join the fun!

New to StumbleUpon?

Please read this post to learn how to check to see if your stumble was successful. Some stumbles aren’t showing up, which takes away the fun for everyone. Take a sec to read it if you’re unsure – thanks! Now learn – How to Join the Party:

Add a link. Link to a blog post that you would like people to stumble. It *must* be a link to an actual post and NOT just a link your main site.
Make sure your link is StumbleUpon appropriate. SU is for “evergreen” content – posts that are just as interesting and relevant next year as it is today. Topics like recipes, crafts, tips, and humor are all great. There are loads of categories that also work well on StumbleUpon too – to see more, check out your homepage on StumbleUpon for ideas.
Stumble other posts. You don’t have to Stumble them all – The whole point is to find posts that you truly do like. StumbleUpon only works well for you if you’re giving thumbs up’s to content you truly enjoy – so check out some posts, and thumbs up the ones you love!
Check to make sure that your stumble went through. You can do this by clicking on the “Info” icon. It’ll tell you if it was discovered or not. The great thing about Stumble Upon is that it is fast and easy to do with the Stumble Upon toolbar – most posts should already be discovered, so you just quickly give ’em a thumbs up, and move on to Stumble more fun stuff. Easy peasy.
Please – Do not add your link if you aren’t going to Stumble anyone else’s posts. That’s like showing up to the party and forgetting to bring the drinks. It’s just not cool, man. And remember – One link per blog please.

When everyone participates, this is a super fun way to find really cool new content, fun new blogs to follow, and learn new things. And, if you have a great post to share, StumbleUpon can be a wonderful tool to bring new traffic to your best work too. Love it, right?

The more the merrier!

Parties are more fun with friends – so feel free to post about Stumble Tumble Tuesday on your own blog, and help us spread the word. The linky code is down below! TIP: The first person to “like” a post on StumbleUpon has to assign it to a category. If your post has not been discovered yet, please leave the category you would like it to be discovered in next to your link title. Example: Strawberry Shortcake Recipe (food). Thanks!

Have fun with it and let’s discover and stumble some posts!

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Posted by Meagan Paullin on March 20, 2012 Filed Under: Blog Hops | No Comments

Join the StumbleUpon Party!

STUMBLE TUMBLE TUESDAY

This fun weekly event is hosted by Acting Balanced, Sunshine and Sippy Cups and Wyoming Girl Turned Coastie Wife! The goal of this hop is to use Stumble Upon to help you promote your blog posts and get more traffic. It’s fun, it’s a big boost to your best posts, and you can find new great friends to follow too!

Even if you think you are stumbling correctly, please read this post on how to check and see if your stumble was successful. Once you get the hang of it, it’s simple as can be, promise!

IT’S SIMPLE TO JOIN THE PARTY

Add a link to a blog post that you would like people to stumble to the linky below. It *must* be a link to an actual post and NOT your main site. Please do not list giveaways, time-sensitive coupons or deals, or other content that is not appropriate for StumbleUpon.
Stumble as many other posts as you care to, check to make sure that your stumble went through by clicking on the “Info” icon. If you’d like to, you can leave a comment on their post saying something like, “I’m stopping by from Stumble Tumble Tuesday and just stumbled you – great post! My post is _____(add link)”. That makes it easier for them to return the love! The great thing about Stumble Upon is that it is fast and easy to do with the Stumble Upon toolbar.
PLEASE DO NOT ADD YOUR LINK IF YOU AREN’T GOING TO STUMBLE ANY POSTS – Let’s all have fun and play fair
Remember, link directly to the actual post, not your home page.
PLEASE – Don’t list any giveaways. StumbleUpon is for Evergreen posts.
PLEASE – Only one link per blog.

Feel free to post about Stumble Tumble Tuesday on your blog too, and help us spread the word – The more people are stumbling, the more traffic we’ll all get, and, hey – the more, the merrier, right? It’s easy to add it, you can grab the code right under the linky below! {Feel free to use my image and copy too, just be sure to link back to the hosts. If you join us let me know in a comment so I can promote YOUR post too!}

LET’S GET TO STUMBLIN’ – AND HAVE SOME FUN!

The first person to “like” a post on StumbleUpon assigns it a category. If your post has not been discovered yet, please leave the category you would like, in your link to help the discoverer assign it correctly. Example: Strawberry Shortcake Recipe (food).

If you have ANY questions on how this works – remember to read the post above, which covers some great basics. If that doesn’t answer it, leave me a comment here or on my Facebook wall – and I’ll get back to your right away. StumbleUpon can be an uh-MAY-zing new way to increase traffic to your site – and this is a fun way to use it!

STUMBLE TUMBLE TUESDAY LINKY

Posted by Meagan Paullin on March 7, 2012 Filed Under: Blog Hops | No Comments

Click, Color, Capture Weekly Photography Challenge: Blue

THIS WEEK’S COLOR IS Blue

Welcome to Week 3 of the Color, Click, Capture photography challenge hosted by East9thStreet, A Helicopter Mom, Nap Time Is My Time and Sunshine and Sippy Cups. Each week we have a new color theme – and this week’s color is blue.

Source: weheartit.com via Dominga on Pinterest

“Use the talents you possess – for the woods would be a very silent place if no birds sang except for the best.” – Henry Van Dyke

This week, my post to share the photography challenge is a couple of days late. And, I don’t have a photo to share, so I used a favorite photo from Pinterest. Now, this isn’t all because I’m lazy. And it’s not because I forgot. It’s because I had a major crisis this week – Sunday morning, my hard drive failed. Yep. I restarted it, and got a message saying, “Hard-disk drive failure” on a big, mean-looking black screen. That’s all it would do – nothing more. The repair guy I use was out of the shop Monday. Tuesday afternoon I brought it in. Wednesday night he called with the bad news – there was no way to retrieve the 6 years of family photos, my files, or any of the information that I had on my computer – which I did NOT have backed up. Heartbreaking, seriously.

Movin’ On…

I am incredibly behind on all of my work, due to not having a computer for most of the week. I’m overwhelmed trying to figure out how to get things together, after losing the drafts of my ebooks I’ve been working on, and all my projects, graphics, media kit, everything. And I’m still devastated over the loss of all of my precious photos. Ugh. So – I definitely didn’t have a favorite photo to share this week. And I just didn’t have time to take any new ones either. But I LOVE this weekly photo link up, and have so much fun checking out your posts each week! So – Link up if you haven’t already. And if you don’t have a good backup system in place for YOUR photos, do it today.

This week’s Photo Tip

This week’s tips come from Jen Villa, photographer, collage artist and owner of The Little Beach Gallery in Hyannis, Massachusetts. She is a trained photographer and alumni of world-renowed photography school, Brooks Institute of Photography. She has been studying art for over fifteen years and worked as a food and editorial photographer for award winning publication, The Santa Barbara Independent. Her photography and artwork have a very unique style and combine her love for the ocean and passion for travel.

Light is EVERYTHING! Lighting really makes or breaks a photograph. A lack of light will leave the subject looking flat and produce a usually boring image. I love using natural light whenever possible. It’s best if you can set your scene or subject (not always easy!) near a window and use warm light coming in from outside if you’re shooting inside. The highlights and details reflected are usually wonderful! The best time of day to shoot is early morning and late afternoon. High noon sun is very harsh and creates shadows that usually create difficulties, especially when human subjects are involved. This isn’t always an option so if your shooting your subject outside at the peak of sunlight try and get them in “open shade” and you will have a more neutrally lit image.
Learn to operate your camera. If you’re new to manual options on a digital camera, memorize your manual and EXPERIMENT! Try out all the menu options. Always remember to concentrate on getting the main subject matter in FOCUS. Without a sharp focus, you don’t have a good image.

Use these great tips to help you improve your photo skills over the few days, and be sure to come back to link up again next week, so you can learn more tips from Jen Villa. I can’t wait to see what photos you share here this time.

Link Up Your Favorite Blue Photos!

Posted by Meagan Paullin on March 2, 2012 Filed Under: Blog Hops | 2 Comments

Color, Click, Capture: Fall Flowers

THIS WEEK’S COLOR IS GREEN

“Nature does not hurry, yet everything is accomplished.” – Lao Tzu

This is another picture from my garden – this time taken in the fall. I was learning to use the Macro setting on my camera, and I love the way the picture captures the tiny prickles on the flower stems and leaves.

This Week’s Photography Tip

This week’s photography tips comes from Emily Anderson of Emily Anderson Photography. Emily has been photographing children and families in the Northeast Arkansas area for several years.

“Don’t forget the details. Include more than just one image of the overall view. A wide shot of the entire object or scene may be necessary, but you can make it more interesting by including detail shots, too. Take a close up of an interesting button on a sewing project or one corner of the cake you baked, showing the texture of the icing. It can be very tempting to snap one or two images when you are in a hurry to get them uploaded to the computer for a blog or Facebook post, but challenge yourself to take several different images. This also applies to photographing people. Think about what details tell the story – wrinkled hands, grass-stained jeans, flip-flop tan lines, etc. You may find that you can take several different images in a row before you run out of ideas. Don’t give up then. Keep shooting. That’s when you turn on your creativity.”

WANT TO JOIN THE CHALLENGE?

Want to participate in our challenge? It’s super easy! Here’s how It Works:

Take a picture the represents the color of the week.
Write a blog post that features your picture and link it up.
Visit other people’s posts and hopefully find some inspiration!
You can put the button and link code on your blog if you wish but it’s not a requirement.

Join the Party – Link up your favorite Green photo

Here is the linky code:

Posted by Meagan Paullin on February 22, 2012 Filed Under: Blog Hops | 7 Comments

Join the StumbleUpon Party!

Stumble Tumble Tuesday

Even if you think you are stumbling correctly, please read this post on how to check and see if your stumble was successful. Some stumbles aren’t showing up, thanks!

It’s Simple to Join the Party

Add a link to a blog post that you would like people to stumble to the linky below. It *must* be a link to an actual post and NOT your main site. Please do not list giveaways, time-sensitive coupons or deals, or other content that is not appropriate for StumbleUpon.
Stumble as many other posts as you care to, check to make sure that your stumble went through by clicking on the “Info” icon. If you’d like to, you can leave a comment on their post saying something like, “I’m stopping by from Stumble Tumble Tuesday and just stumbled you – great post! My post is _____(add link)”. That makes it easier for them to return the love! The great thing about Stumble Upon is that it is fast and easy to do with the Stumble Upon toolbar.
PLEASE DO NOT ADD YOUR LINK IF YOU AREN’T GOING TO STUMBLE ANY POSTS – Let’s all have fun and play fair
Remember, link directly to the actual post, not your home page.
PLEASE – Don’t list any giveaways. StumbleUpon is for Evergreen posts.
PLEASE – Only one link per blog.

Let’s Get to Stumblin’ – and Have some Fun!

If you have ANY questions on how this works – remember to read the post above, which covers some great basics. If that doesn’t answer it, leave me a comment here or on my Facebook wall – and I’ll get back to your right away. StumbleUpon can be an uh-MAY-zing new way to increase traffic to your site – and this is a fun way to use it!

Stumble Tumble Tuesday Linky

Posted by Meagan Paullin on February 22, 2012 Filed Under: Blog Hops | 3 Comments

Improve Photography Skills, Share Your Best Pics: Color, Click, Capture Challenge!

This Week’s Color is Yellow

Welcome to Week 3 of the Color, Click, Capture photography challenge hosted by East9thStreet, A Helicopter Mom, Nap Time Is My Time and Sunshine and Sippy Cups. This week our color is YELLOW! Yellow reminds me of sunshine – so this week is my favorite so far! The photo below is from the garden at my old house – I love the way the lighting is so incredibly bright and cheerful! I sometimes miss that garden – But we’re working on the one here at the new house, and in a couple of years it will be just as pretty as our old one.

This Weeks Photography Tip

This week’s photography tip is from Faith Massey. Faith owns and operate Images by Faith Portrait Art, a boutique studio nestled in the Lake Norman area, just outside Charlotte, NC. Her passion for art started early and she explored many different mediums but found her true love in photography after having my first child in 1994. After moving from California in 2004 she opened her studio in Huntersville. As a mother of 5 beautiful children, she is very comfortable working with babies and new parents alike. Her style has been described as natural, refined and unpretentious and she loves to highlight every sweet detail of children,using primarily natural light to capture the soft sweet beauty found in children.

When photographing small children, get out from behind the camera….

Children, particularly young children, react to your facial expressions. If they can’t see your face, they are less likely to make eye contact with the camera or have the expressions you are looking for. Try to engage with the child and move the camera up quickly, take your shot and then move it again quickly so you keep your subjects engaged.

Want to Join the Challenge?

Want to participate in our challenge? It’s super easy! Here’s how It Works:

Take a picture the represents the color of the week.
Write a blog post that features your picture and link it up.
Visit other people’s posts and hopefully find some inspiration!
You can put the button and link code on your blog if you wish but it’s not a requirement.

Our color for next week is GREEN! – So get started taking some new photos this week, so you’re ready to share your best next Wednesday!

Join the Party – Share your best Yellow photo

Linky code –

Posted by Meagan Paullin on February 16, 2012 Filed Under: Blogging Resources, Blog Hops | 3 Comments

Learn How to Use StumbleUpon for Your Blog: Stumble Tumble Tuesday

STUMBLE TUMBLE TUESDAY

Even if you think you are stumbling correctly, please read this post on how to check and see if your stumble was successful. Some stumbles aren’t showing up, thanks!

TO TAKE PART IS SIMPLE

Add a link to a blog post that you would like people to stumble to the linky below. It *must* be a link to an actual post and NOT your main site. Please do not list giveaways.
Stumble as many other posts as you care to, check to make sure that your stumble went through by clicking on the “Info” icon. If you’d like to, you can leave a comment on their post saying something like, “I’m stopping by from Stumble Tumble Tuesday and just stumbled you – great post! My post is _____(add link)”. That makes it easier for them to return the love! The great thing about Stumble Upon is that it is fast and easy to do with the Stumble Upon toolbar.
PLEASE DO NOT ADD YOUR LINK IF YOU AREN’T GOING TO STUMBLE ANY POSTS – Let’s all have fun and play fair :)
Remember, link directly to the actual post, not your home page.
PLEASE – Don’t list any giveaways. StumbleUpon is for Evergreen posts.
PLEASE – Only one link per blog.

Feel free to post about Stumble Tumble Tuesday on your blog and help us spread the word – The more people are stumbling, the more traffic we’ll all get, and, hey – the more, the merrier, right?

HAVE FUN WITH IT AND LET’S DISCOVER AND STUMBLE SOME POSTS!

If you have ANY questions on how this works – remember to read the post above, which covers some great basics. If that doesn’t answer it, leave me a comment here or on my Facebook wall – and I’ll get back to your right away. StumbleUpon can be an uh-MAY-zing new way to increase traffic to your site – and this is a fun way to use it!