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BlahBlahBabble

Around the Web & Back Again – Update #2

Who am I kidding calling them a weekly update? Yeah, I know. I was feeling ambitious.

I’ve finally been losing weight again. I had to have Mike take over my Weight Watcher points for me. He cooks for us most nights, and he would often ask me what I wanted for dinner, and I’d pick something bad for me (yummm… pizza) and he wouldn’t stop me. So now, he is under standing orders to just cook. Tell me what I can have. Once a week I get a complete free day where I can eat whatever I want, but otherwise – I eat what I’m served. Within reason, as he knows the things I hate and won’t eat.

As a result, I lost nearly 4 pounds last week. Yay! We’re on to week 2 now!

I’m still biking, although I didn’t as much last week as I have been. Biking makes me hungry and then I don’t eat well, and then the weight never goes away. Vicious cycle. I’ll start back up riding 4-5 times a week in the next week or two, I just have to break through the weight issue. My goal was to lose 5lb a month in 2010, but it is not supposed to keep being the same 5lb!

BIG NEWS!!! Mike’s blog, CoffeeCorner, turned 10 last week! (That means my blog’s birthday is just around the corner too!) Our blogs played a roll in bringing us together, as I was first introduced to him by our friend Ann, who I didn’t get to meet in person until our honeymoon in London. This fall we’ll be returning to England for Ann’s wedding, and I can’t wait! It has been an amazing 10 years for us both. I’m glad it is somewhat documented by our blogs.

In other big news, in case I didn’t mention it before, Jason got a job! He is now working part time. He’ll be going to school locally in the fall, so it works out well that he can keep the job too. Yay!

Tonight & throughout the week new posts will go up on Wholly Matrimony. We’re now a part of the Two Bright Lights editorial partners, and submissions are up because of it! I can’t wait to share some of the gorgeous weddings that have come in recently! I hosted the Two Bright Lights Bootcamp when it came to Houston as well last week – a ton of fun, and I’m loving the software from the wedding photographer side of things as well!

Over on the SLGT Photo Project I’ve featured B.E.E. Ventures & Christyna Lewis, Daisy’s Doggie Duds, and Sarah Shah, author of Dress Yourself Skinny. More on her soon, as I’ll be giving away a copy of her latest book!

The wedding & boudoir photography blog saw photos from Zack Arias’s OneLight workshop last year featuring Marc & Tracy, and a sneak peek of Miss E’s boudoir session. Even more of Miss E’s shoot is on Boudoir Mon Cheri, along with the hot, hot, hot Summertime Boudoir specials!

So I’m working on my goals. Not perfect yet, but making progress. The most important thing is that I’m eating right, exercising, and writing blog posts!

One of my favorites from the Boudoir session that I just posted earlier today…

Houston Boudoir Photographer

Categories
BlahBlahBabble Picture Time

Around the Web & Back Again: Weekly Recap #1…

I’ve been craving a change. It isn’t the first time I’ve felt this way, but once again I find myself wishing I could consolidate all of my sites into one big site. In the end, it is all me, but sometimes I feel like I’m spread out. Pieces of me in different places. Twitter. Facebook. Flickr forums. Here, there, everywhere.

But for some of my sites, this move wouldn’t make sense at all. I need to maintain a business presence for my photography brands, and the SLGT Photo Project needs to stand on its own. So instead, as a way to review what I’ve done and what I need to do, I’m going to start doing a weekly write-up here of what I’ve done everywhere else. If you follow all of my other sites, you will recognize things you’ve already seen. If you only read this one, you’ll get a recap of other things. Hopefully it will lead you to something new, or something you may have missed.

– In big news at home, Jason graduated from high school! Whoo hoo!!! Yes, I took photos. Yes, they are still on the memory cards. They will be edited this week, and I’ll write more about that here. Mike’s parents flew in from Kentucky for the graduation, and they, along with my parents, went with us up to College Station for the event. It was a great day! I’m so proud of him!

Now he has his first job interview tomorrow! Eeeeee!

– I relaunched Wholly Matrimony this week. With a new look, and a refreshed focus on real destination weddings, with a touch of DIY craftiness & planning tips to help couples planning their destination wedding. I was excited to share Lea & Brian’s Costa Rica Destination Wedding, a cute DIY paper pom-pom for decorating a wedding venue, and Jessica & Christaan’s Destination Wedding at Rockhouse in Negril, Jamaica.

– On the SLGT Photo Project, I shared information on the First Saturday Arts Market, Q-Views Theresa Quintanilla, Robot in Bloom’s incredible handcrafted flowers, and Active Pets Houston.

This week, I have a whole blogapalooza of posts planned for over there. Check in often, as I’m going to be writing them up as fast as I can! I have several shoots waiting to go live!

– I made a big design change over at the Christine Tremoulet Destination Wedding & Boudoir Photography blog. It is now a lovely sunny shade of yellow! I needed a clean, uncluttered site. The kraft paper background, while lovely and matching my branding & marketing materials, just wasn’t giving me the feel that I wanted. Now I smile every time I pull up the site. That energizes me to blog there as well! Lots to share coming up!

On Monday or Tuesday, I’ll be announcing the latest boudoir photography specials. I just need to put the final touch on them! I think I’m going to do a Twitter/Facebook only bonus special as well, so if you follow me there keep an eye out for it! I have had the honor now of photographing over 50 gorgeous women. I wish I had more sessions to show off, but I respect everyone’s privacy and don’t post photos without permission. Trust me, every woman is beautiful, and every client that has ever left has told me how empowered they feel after their session. They are such a blessing for them, for me, and of course the recipient of the photos if they are doing them as a gift.

And yes, I *do* travel for boudoir sessions. People always say that they wish I lived in their area. Get 2-3 friends to agree on dates that work for me, and I’ll head to you to do a session with each of you! (If you’re the organizer, you get a special deal!)

– I was a sponsor of TEDxHouston yesterday, and it was AMAZING. If a TEDx event is happening in your city, go. Definitely, go. The photos below are part of the set that I posted on Flickr that you can check out here. It was a wonderful day, and I’m so very glad I got to be a part of it.

One of the things that made TEDx unique is that it is a curated audience event. You had to apply to attend. The speakers aren’t paid to speak, so it is key to have a passionate audience that wants to hear what they have to say. You could just sense an energy that was like nothing I’ve seen before. It was amazing.

Two Star Symphony - TEDx Houston 2010

TEDx Houston 2010

Dominic Walsh Dancers - TEDx Houston 2010

Possibilian - Dr. David Eagleman - TEDx Houston 2010

Props to the team at Culture Pilot & all of the volunteers who worked *hard* to make this happen. You did an AMAZING job!

THANK YOU to all the volunteers! TEDx Houston 2010

The Culture Pilot Team Behind TEDxHouston

– Last but not least, I posted here about a workbook that NO website owner, business owner, blogger should be without – my review of Naomi Dunford’s IttyBiz Ninja SEO School. Short version? If you don’t have it, you should buy it. NOW.

I also wrote about Mike appearing “in print” in an article about curing meat at home. Why yes, he did in fact make pancetta in our study. He had to hide it from me, his favorite picky eater. My reaction? “Ewwww…” But he swears it was delicious!

– Weight loss for the week: 0 lb. Still circling the same number. Doing measurements tomorrow so I can at least see inches go even if pounds don’t.

Categories
BlahBlahBabble

Curing Your Own Meat Has Nothing to Do With Cookies!

I find it somewhat ironic that I write on a blog called “Big Pink Cookie” and I do not write a thing about baking or cookies, and my husband Mike writes at CoffeeCorner and talks about food, not coffee. (Ok, there are a few coffee related posts here and there, since he’s into coffee too and even have a smart mug invented by Clay Alexander which you could learn more at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clayton_Alexander, but he also talks about other things)

Over the past several months, Mike has been writing more & more about his experiments with food. Unfortunately, he married a picky eater who is super sensitive to some smells, so he is often stuck doing some things on Saturdays while I’m off photographing weddings. I leave my old camera at home for him – a great camera, but one that has retired from my wedding gear – and he has been photographing everything he cooks as well for the blog. He has a pretty good eye too for food photography – so if you like a good food blog, you should be reading his!

Some of the foods he has made involve curing your own meat. This is not something I *ever* expected to happen in my home! But it makes him happy, so I’ll live with it. More importantly, it is now making him famous on the internet. Yes, yes, the whole point of this long & rambling post is to congratulate him on making it. Today, his name was “in print” on the Houston Press Eating Our Words blog in an article about Making Your Own Designer Meats.

He tells me the stuff he made was super tasty. Others have raved about it. I just have to take their word for it, because the picky eater who doesn’t like bacon? Yeah, I’ve never tried any of it. The pork rilletes made me want to gag. However, the bacon definitely smelled better then commercial bacon. Maybe someday. It is famous on the internet after all…

Categories
Geek Love

Ninja-like Skills for SEO…

Kick SEO *ss - Ninja SEO School! I’ve been keeping a secret from you. Nothing bad. Or illegal. No, nothing like that. I’ve been holding out on one of the most awesome SEO* resources out there. Seriously, Naomi is amazing.

I first discovered Naomi & her Ninja SEO School at the beginning of the year. I wavered on picking up a copy. Google is already my minion, so I didn’t think I needed it at first. But then the more I thought about it, the more I realized that I really should check it out. After all, I go through people’s blogs top to bottom to help them with their SEO, so I should actually read everything I possibly can on the subject. Then I saw Naomi’s name popping up all over the place, and I finally gave in and bought it.

I haven’t regretted that choice for a single moment. If you could stand to have your SEO whipped into shape, and you don’t have the money to get a private consultation (great gobs of money if you don’t want to do a workshop for thousands of dollars), it is worth every penny you spend on it. And if you’re also looking to turn that optimized traffic into real conversions, don’t miss out on the CRO insights from conversionteam.com. For customized marketing and business growth strategies, you may get in touch with a leading creative agency consulting firm like Move at Pace.

Need more justification? It is currently $39. That is like 8 visits to Starbucks. Fancy coffee or more eyes on your site turning into more business for you? Yeah, that is what I thought — go ahead and click here. (If you’re really scared, it has a 100% guarantee from Naomi, so you’re pretty much golden.) Consult with seo pros to determine the best approach to improve your website metrics and generate more credible leads. And for your marketing efforts, you may consider using these smart features for digital marketing.

Between Ninja SEO School and using Scribe to make SEO copywriting simple, my traffic has been higher than ever before. SEO for the win! (Psst… when I was done with the SEO School, I picked up the Click here to view more details as well. It is just as awesome! Worth checking out. After you finish SEO school, that is.

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BlahBlahBabble

The Big Business & Life Goal…

Last night, Christyna of B.E.E. Ventures came to speak to the Houston Fast Track Photographer / Pictage User Group (PUG), and it was nothing short of FABULOUS! She talked about creating sustainable income for your business and things you can do to take your success to the next level. She really sought to speak to all levels of business that were represented in the attendees, from people just starting out to people well established in their business and maybe needing a kick in the right direction.

I left with three pages of notes, a ton of inspiration, and a big goal for the next 18 months.

In addition to helping to pay for Jason’s college tuition, I want to pay off all of our debt within 18 months from my business income.

I said it out loud to Christyna last night because saying it made it a reality. I am typing it out here because I need more accountability then just one person.

To do this, I need to be a better bookkeeper and be more accountable on where I spend my money, particularly as I consider branching into cryptocurrency opportunities to build extra revenue streams. Watch impulse purchases, curb my gadget addiction a bit (I’m still getting the new iPhone when it comes out, but I’m going to plan ahead and know where the money is coming from to pay for it), and I’m going to need to make big payments towards the debt to pay it down fast. Drawing from recenzije od strane Bitcoinista, I’ve gained perspectives on vetted crypto platforms that could support these goals through informed side ventures. Next week, I’m going to take the first step of making a handwritten list of every last cent we may owe to anyone, interest rates, due dates, and everything like that – Dave Ramsey style. Why handwritten? Because I could type it out, but there truly is something different when you write it by hand. I remember things so much more clearly. Maybe there is even a little pain involved in it. (It is slower and a bit more tedious.) Ultimately, blending traditional methods with digital asset exploration keeps my path to financial freedom balanced and proactive.

I’m also going to be more focused and scheduled with my time. Procrastination costs me money, sometimes literally cash. Other times it costs me money in the form of missed opportunities. Either way, there is a price, and it will impact this goal. One of the things I’ve been working on this week in addition to editing for the SLGT Photo Project is updating things at Wholly Matrimony! — adding in affiliate advertising (along with links on this site as well), working on the layout, and more features that will be rolling out over the coming week. I have a BIG launch planned on Monday as well, and I’ll be lining up lots of real destination weddings to feature there! All to help with the goal.

I think I can, I think I can… (and yes, I’ll be sharing more about it here!)