My Blog Made Buzzfeed!

Hey girls! Lots going on this morning as we zero in on our house hunt, but I did want to share something really cool.

I found out yesterday that my blog was on Buzzfeed! John Frieda, maker of Sheer Blonde, featured nine blonde bloggers that they would want to be BFFs with in real-life. I was pretty pumped to have made that list with eight other blondies!

If you have time today, go check it out and stop by the rest of the blogs on the list.

And thank you again to my friends at Buzzfeed and John Frieda for making my day!

Instagram "Don'ts"

Now, let's talk about Instagram. Lately, it has become my favorite, FAVORITE social channel. I love peeking at the daily goings-on of my friends and the brands I like. But.

But...

There are a few things that make me hit the unfollow button quicker than you can say "cheese". Now, I'm sure I'm guilty of a few of these myself from time-to-time, but for some, it's an everyday occurrence. In no particular order, here are some of the things that irk me to no end:

1. A paragraph of hashtags. When you have to take out an entirely separate comment from the caption and designate it for a blooming paragraph of hashtags, you need to stop. Seriously. I find myself scrolling down through 85 hashtags with ANY and EVERY possible word that might have something (and that's a giant "might"), just to leave a comment. 

Example: Someone posts a photo of a burrito with the caption "YUM!" 

Below it:

#burrito #mexifood #yum #yummy #yummyyummy #cheese #beans #glutenfree #paleo #ilovepaleo #myfavoritecolorisblue #theplateisblue #dogs #rocketscience #love #ChuckNorris #iforgotwhatImtalkingabout

Get my drift?

One or two, maybe even three hashtags? Okay. More than that? Quit. 

2. Tap my pic and I might tell you where I got my shirt. I'm fine and great with the Like to Know It thing. Pretty handy, in fact. I've even used it myself a few times to track down pieces I like. But there are bloggers who will flat out refuse to tell you where they got a piece of clothing unless you tap their photo. What happened to the olden days where we all just interacted with each other without trying to send someone over to an affiliate site? Just tell me where I can get pants like yours. Or don't. I'll track them down myself, thanks.

3. My coffee is better than yours. And so is my handwriting. And I'm going to show you. The whole trend of taking a photo of your coffee, posed next to your open journal with calligraphy scrawled on its pages, posed next to a vase of hydrangeas, posed next to a bunch of pointless knick-knacks in the background, like a J.Crew scarf, (because I love to keep my scarves at the ready when I journal and drink coffee...???) 

And the caption usually reads a little something like, "Brainstorming a few ideas this morning. So blessed." Huh?

I beg of you, WHO has time for this in the mornings???? Do these people have jobs?? Children?? Bills to pay?? Places to be??

So strange and so, so redundant.

4. Videos taken while driving down the road.  I saw a while-driving Instagram video recently where the girl talked about getting a speeding/hazardous driving ticket just two nights before. Yes, you read that correctly. She was taking an Instagram video while she was driving, simultaneously telling us about her bad driving.

For the sake of the rest of us on the road, please stop. 

.......................................

Alright, I'm dying to hear yours. What bugs the mess out of you in Instagram world lately? Any of yours similar to mine?

Worth a Follow

Do you lovely ladies Instagram? I held out for a while, but when I started my new job last March, all my co-workers were doing it, so I jumped on the bandwagon. {Sidenote: You know the old adage, "If everyone else jumped off a bridge, would you do it too?" Unfortunately, I probably would. I hate being out of the loop. Or out of the water, as it would occur.}

Anywhoodle, I jumped on the Instagram train and never looked back. Full speed ahead, all in, pedal to the metal...what have you.

Here are a few fine folks that I enjoy following and thought you might, too. (Note: I love following my real life friends far more than these cats, but I know some of them hold "private" accounts, so I didn't list those below.)

harpersbazzaarus

Why I love this feed:
It's awesome. And just like a mini version of the magazine. Plus, it gives you kind of an inside look at the goings on around HB.

honestlylauren

Why I love this feed:
It's fun, random and comes from the founder of one of my favorite blogs.

ariannahuff


Why I love this feed:
Because I really do believe that Arianna Huffington is one of the most fascinating people. Her Insta is like a little peek into her incredible life.

luisaviaroma


Why I love this feed:
Stylish, stylish, stylish.

thebaghag


Why I love this feed:
Beautiful photography and opulent accessories. 'Nuff said.

loveciate


Why I love this feed:
I dig the cool photos that inspire me to run out and buy more of the texture-happy nail polish of the same name.

theglamourai


Why I love this feed:
It's an inside look at the mega blog of the same name.

brian_atwood


Why I love this feed:
Because this famous shoe designer and I are best friends...duh.

ablondeambition is my name. Clever, huh?

Let me know in the comments if you're on Insta! Let's be Insta friends forever, yes?

The Weekend a Famous Designer & I Became Insta Friends

I'll explain the title after a brief prologue, but first...I'm back- a fact which you likely deduced from seeing this new {!!} blog post. I had surgery on Friday and spent the majority of my weekend doing this:

Pain medications! Icy Hot! After-care instructions galore!

I'm still really sore, but also very grateful for my doctor. Sometimes it stinks being a girl (men have NO idea what it's like to deal with "girl" issues!) This was an annoying, but very necessary operation and Dr. D made me feel so calm about everything. (As did the anesthesiologist, who looked just like Vicki's ex-husband Don from that show Real Housewives of Orange County. Thank God for that sweet man and his syringe of happy juice.)

Anyway, back to the real point of this very insightful blog post...

So, last Thursday night, I posted a photo on Instagram of a delicious pair of Brian Atwood heels. Here is what that Insta photo and caption looked like:

Saturday morning, two days later, I checked my Instagram and saw that Mr. Atwood himself had replied.

I had to have my mom double-check for me, just to ensure I wasn't hallucinating from the meds.

{I wasn't.}

How crazy, right? Just bananas, bunnies.

I'm off to...well, nowhere. My derriere is staying on this couch until tomorrow when I can return to work. See y'all tomorrow for an outfit post featuring a delicious little faux-leather skirt from Maude Boutique. You'll want to have your debit card nearby so you can purchase one for yourself.

Be blessed, lovelies-

The Matboard

You know how once in a while a great idea comes along and changes the way we look at things in web world ? That pretty much sums up The Matboard.

I am so humbled and proud to introduce you to my friends, Austin and Natalia Phillips, who recently developed and launched this new image bookmarking web app for the creative world. Austin is my co-worker at the communications firm in Fayetteville and is an amazing graphic designer. He has an uncanny knack for being able to take a concept and yield a brilliant design.

Austin and Natalia Phillips

Natalia is Austin's beautiful and sweet wife! She works for a local vendor and has an extensive background in advertising and business analysis. Natalia is incredibly smart and no doubt was instrumental in helping shape The Matboard from a marketing standpoint.

With a passion for innovation, and connecting people with inspiring ideas, Austin and Natalia saw the need to offer creatives a digital platform enabling them to connect with people based on their shared creative tastes and interests. And so, The Matboard was born.

What is the Matboard? 

The Matboard was co-founded by The Phillips with a vision to improve the way we explore the creative world.  The Matboard is a social, image bookmarking web application designed specifically for the creative world. We intend for The Matboard to become a community for creative collaboration, and professional growth.

In its simplest form, it's an almost endless flow of user-submitted, bookmarked, creative work organized into over 30 collections. It has full social integrations, personal profiles created through FB or Twitter and portfolio boards which allow users to promote and share their own work.


The Matboard will enable users to explore, share, and inspire creative work and provide a digital platform from which they can connect with others based on their shared creative tastes and interests. 

In other words…

So you might ask, what can I do here? For starters, The Matboard allows you to collect and organize creative awesomeness you find on the web –all in one place. It’s a powerful tool in itself, but only a small part of this creative, social hub. Use The Matboard to search for inspiration, or simply browse an endless flow of creative work. You can create a “moodboard” for a project by collecting your visual content on a Matboard, or browse work by location to find specific talent in your area. Promote your work for the world to see when you add your work to your portfolio board and Follow the creatives who inspire you, their work and the work they promote.





What can you do? Favorite features 


1. Collect and organize creative awesomeness you find. 

So, you've found something completely awesome and you want to save it to reference later. Use the Mat button to Mat it on one of your Matboards.

2. Search for inspiration.

Pick a collection of work, sit back with coffee-in-hand, and explore a nearly endless flow of inspiring, creative work.

3. Fine-tune the style of work you see when browsing.

Create a tailored browsing experience by following the content you love and blocking content you don't.

4. Create a "moodboard" for a project.

Collect your visual content on a Matboard to help you visually organize the imagery, typography, color and feel for the new project

5. Find specific talent in your area. (This feature is coming soon.)

Use the location filter to search through portfolio work produced in your area. The location filter is found at the top of every colllection page.

6. Promote your portfolio.

Add your own work to your portfolio board for the world to see. Connect your profile page to your personal website, LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter.

7. Become a featured creative.

Want to drive traffic to your portfolio? Have your portfolio work featured on the homepage. We can take care of that! Contact us for details.

8. Connect with other creatives.

Follow the creatives who inspire you. Visit their profiles to connect and learn more about them. Keep up with their work and collaborate with them on projects. 

...........................

Follow me (Leslie) and other peeps on The Matboard and start using this innovative new tool for your image bookmarking!

*The Matboard is a product of and owned by Matchstick Media LLC.

Be blessed, lovelies-

We're on Facebook!

via Kate Spade

Hey girlies! Just letting you all know that I FINALLY set up a Facebook page for le blog. You can check it out and "Like" it, if you fancy.

Have a great Saturday evening!

Be blessed, lovelies-

Junior League, Web Marketing and Beyond

Only 1 more day until the Junior League of NWA New Member Retreat at the Embassy Suites in Rogers! I cannot wait to meet the rest of my fabulous fellow leaguers and talk about upcoming projects for JLNWA. I really do strongly believe in this organization and it's motto to help the community. For this retreat, we were all told to bring clothes that we don't mind getting dirty and also to bring a flashlight : ) Not sure what the flashlight or scrubby clothes are for, but hey, I'm up for anything!

I'm sure it will be a great time.

I spent the first half of my day today at Rockfish Interactive in Rogers for my work, to discuss ideas for the upcoming year for our website. As some of you know, I work for a major financial institution in NWA and do marketing for their website. The amazing folks at Rockfish are always full of great ideas and today was no different! Meeting with a creative team like that always gets me pumped up about the web and social media.

If you love fashion as much as I do, go check out A New Mode...they have fantastic articles on fashion, trends, beauty and just about anything else a girl could ask for. Right now they have a great article up about how to get organized using household items. Sounds quirky, but honestly, I love their tips.

I try not to get sappy with family stuff, but sometimes we all need a little support and prayer. My great grandma suffered a really bad stroke about a month ago. Please remember her tonight; she had an especially bad day yesterday and needs all the prayer she can get right now.

On a positive note, tomorrow is Friday! Let us all rejoice ; ) Now go and plan your weekends accordingly.

Blonde Blessings,

Leslie