Teacher Week: 5 Fun Facts

Hey Everybody!
I'm so glad that you're here!  I know it's been a little quiet lately...August has been kicking my butt. 

 

It's Teacher Week over at Blog Hoppin', and today I'm sharing 5 Fun Facts about myself.

1.  I LOVE dogs.  Seriously, love dogs.  Big dogs are my favorite, especially big fluffy ones, like golden doodles!  My family has a 5 year old golden doodle named Reggie, and she is the best.dog.ever.  (Minus the occasional underwear eating.)  I'm also a big fan of Golden Retrievers, St. Bernards, Great Pyrenees, and Great Danes.  My husband laughs at me and is occasionally embarrassed, because I must pet adorable dogs whenever we see them out.  Dogs know a dog lover, and they are always excited to see me. He thinks I'm ridiculous.  LOL! My dream is to work with service dogs once I retire, about 25 years from now.

 

 

2. My family is my everything.  I'm a mama to two little ones.  Julia just turned 3 last Friday, and Bennett is 18 months.  They keep me on my toes and super busy, but they are the greatest.  My daughter looks a lot like me, and my son looks just like my husband.  Everyone seems to get a kick out of it- a little mini-me for each of us.  My husband, Chris, and I have been married for 4 years.  We were friends in college and eventually started dating after we graduated.  I was secretly in love with him for many years.  :)

3.  I'm a football coach's widow wife.  My husband has coached high school football for the past 12 years, and he is an excellent coach.  It is very time consuming and can be challenging during the season, especially now that we have Bennett and Julia.  I support him completely as a coach, and although I complain about it, I do love it.  I love seeing him in that role, because he is just so darn good.  The kids love going to see Daddy at football.  There's just something about Friday night football, right?  Football is a huge part of our lives.  Chris and I actually met through football in college- He played, and I worked in the athletic department.  We are big Philadelphia Eagles fans.

4. I am a clothes horse.  I just cannot help myself when it comes to shopping.  It is my very favorite hobby- It is a hobby, right?  I love participating in style challenges on Instagram.  It has challenged me to step outside of my box and really learn to remix my closet.  My budget is small, so remixing is really important.  I love planning my outfits out each week.  I do it every Sunday evening.  I'm thinking of stepping outside of my comfort zone to start a linky for teacher style/outfits.  Would any of you be interested in that? 

5. I am a huge advocate of breastfeeding (I'll spare you the photo on that one).  I have been fortunate to be able to nurse both of my babies for a combined total of 27 months.  It was not always easy or the most convenient---pumping 3x a day in my classroom with the shades pulled= not fun.  I loved nursing both of my kids, and I look forward to being able to do it again with any future babes that we may be blessed with.  I realize that breastfeeding isn't for everyone, nor does it work for everyone, but I love it and encourage all new moms to just give it a try.  I had no idea that I would become so passionate about it.

So, that's a little bit about me.  I hope you learned something new and were able to make a connection.
Thanks to Blog Hoppin' for the fun, fun linky this week.  Click here to see all of the blogs participating in Teacher Week.  I can't wait to find some new favorites and connect with all of you!!!

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It's Follower Friday #tptSMsurge

Hey Friends!
Welcome back to my blog! Today I'm going to introduce you to two bloggers and TPTers that are killing it on Pinterest.

First, though, I have to admit to you that I found this to be a little tough.  I think it's actually hard to tell who is really a good Pinterest-er, because so much of it looks the same at first glance!

Anyway...
Let's take a look at Malia Hollowell from Playdough to Plato.  She was featured in the Pinterest Powerhouse chat hosted by my pretty friend, Kelli Alaina, last week.  You can catch the chat here. 

Malia has over 37,000 followers on Pinterest  Amazing! She must be doing something right. 

 

If you head over to Malia's Pinterest page, you'll notice a few things about her.  First of all, she has an excellent description of herself.  It tells the pinner what she is all about.  Be sure to include a description of yourself.  Mine says "2nd grade teacher, TPTer, and blogger pinning fabulous ideas to improve myself as a teacher, teacherpreneur and person." A great description gives visitors a quick peek of who you are and what you're pinning before they even scroll through your boards.  This can make a difference of whether they follow all of your boards, some of your boards, or none of your boards (hopefully not). 

The majority of her boards are related to education and parenting.  Her page show cases her brand.  Malia uses photos from her own blog posts as board covers.  The use of board covers seems to be a hot debate right now.  Photos or graphics, which is better?Some people like to use matching board covers so that the pages look neat and cohesive.  Others are using photos of the idea or product in use.  Malia's photos are interesting and showcase her great ideas.  She rotates the photos that she uses as board covers, but all of the photos come from her own blog posts.  This is a terrific way to lead traffic to your blog.

Malia does a great job with her pin descriptions.  Take a look a few of them.

I noticed right away that her descriptions are detailed, but they don't give away the entire idea.  It just gives enough information with to give someone an idea about what they'll see when they click on the pin.  This kind reminds me of the old saying about buying the cow when you can get the milk for free! In the Pinterest chat, Malia showed viewers how to use Google to find key words that are most searched.  By using key words in pin descriptions, you're increasing the chances of someone finding your pin.  When you repin something to one of your boards, be sure to edit the pin description to match your style.  Stay away from generic descriptions or those that just showcase your opinion. 

Those a just a few awesome things that Malia does and are really good practices for all you who are pinning to improve your brand and grow your business. 

Next, let's look at Mel Dillard from Seusstastic.  Mel has 74,000 followers!  Seriously.  In addition to the things that Malia is doing, Mel is also doing some really notable things on her Pinterest page. 

Mel has 224 boards on her Pinterest page.  Most of her boards are education related, but she has a few boards relating to her personal life, too.  One thing that I like about Mel's boards is that the board titles are specific.  Instead of just Math, she has Math- Addition.  I love this, because you don't have to go weeding through an entire page of math ideas just to find the addition ideas.  Pinners will be more likely to follow boards with specific titles than those with titles that are very generic and over-used.  Going along with that, you'll notice that some of her board titles are catchy.  This is a great way to showcase your personality.  You don't want to get too wacky though, stay on topic. 

Watermark your photos!  On many of Mel's board covers, she has watermarked the photo with her blog address.  This not only spreads her ideas, it spread her name.  Watermarking your photos is highly recommended to avoid your photos being used without your permission.

There are several ways to watermark your photos.  If you're using photos from your phone, you can easily use an app like PhotoMarkr (free) Marksta ($2) or iWatermark ($2).  On your computer, you can add a watermark or your blog/TPT store using PicMonkey or Canva. 

I'm going to stop there for today.  I hope that you've gained a few bits of knowledge from the two ladies above.  To recap, here's what they're doing well:

• Strong page description- Tell who you are!
• Cover photos from your own blog or store- Market yourself!
• Watermarked photos- Claim your work!
• Specific board titles- Don't send them off searching through generic boards!
• Detailed pin descriptions- Best ever?  Maybe, maybe not. Give a little info!

Yesterday, Kelli Alaina Wise blogged about some tools for Pinterest to save you time and money.  It's definitely worth your while to check it out.  I learned a lot from her!

Thank you again for stopping by, I'm so glad that you did! 
Have a great day, and happy pinning!

~Lauren

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