My Goal For Summer

Hello & welcome back to another post!

Well, summer is upon us! I was going for a walk around my backyard this morning, and as I was picking some flowers, an idea sparked for today’s post. I got rid of the post that was planned for today, snapped some pictures, and wrote this post. Today I’m going to be sharing with you my goal/mantra for this summer. Of course, I have a million goals: I want to be kinder, make more friends, etc, but I narrowed it down to one main goal.

Ready? Let’s get into the post.

If I had to sum up last summer in one word, I would say discovery. Last summer, I really learned a lot about myself and my personality. I hope I will continue to learn things about myself as the summer goes on, but I have one main goal for this summer: Personal Growth.

I would love to grow my hair longer while we’re talking about growth…;) But that’s not the kind of growth I’m talking about!

I want to grow in my interests and beliefs. I want to stop worrying about little things and just relax. I want to grow to be comfortable in my own skin. I want to grow my blog, and make it bigger and better.

I want to grow and develop my friendships with others. I want to grow to be kinder, stronger, more positive. Though I’m already very emotionally strong (I don’t cry or get affected by things very often), I want to grow to be even more emotionally strong, so that what people think of me doesn’t matter.

I also want to grow in my faith. I want to be even closer to God and read the Bible twice a day. (I’m currently reading it once a day.)

Therefore as you have received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in Him, having been firmly rooted and now being built up in Him and established in your faith, just as you were instructed, and overflowing with gratitude.

Colossians 2:6-7

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This was a quick post, but I hope you enjoyed. Thank you for reading! I hope that this summer will be a summer filled with growth for all of you. Have a fantastic day, catch ya on the flip side!

What is your main goal for this summer?

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Blogging Hacks That Will Skyrocket Your Blog Stats // Guest Post

Hello, hello, and welcome back! Today’s post is going to be awesome. Liv from livalittle.com is doing a guest post that you’re sure to enjoy. Make sure to check out her blog and give her a follow, because she has awesome content and an amazing design business! Her whole blog is seriously goals–the look, the posts, everything. Without further ado, I’m going to give Liv the spotlight! 

Greetings all! My name is Liv, and I am the resident blogger at LivaLittleBlog.com. Today I am writing a guest post for the lovely, Freckled Fashionista herself, Abigail. I have been a follower and fan of her’s for a while now and I have only good things to say about her blog! The design is flippin’ flawless and her posts are definitely worth my time reading. Not to mention the blogger is *amazing*. It has been so great to work with her!

Before I get into the post, I’ll share a couple facts about myself with you all:

• I have been blogging since July 2016 (almost a year *whoop-whoop*) and I am a lifestyle blogger & web designer.
• I love tea, popcorn, and food in general. (But, I mean, who doesn’t?)
• I’m short. Like, really short. I’m barely five feet tall. (#verticallychallenged)
• I have a slight substantial obsession with horses.
• I’m a ballerina and dancer at heart.
• Music fuels my soul and my memory is pretty much 90% song lyrics.
• I fangirl over Once Upon a Time, Marvel movies, Sherlock (B-Cumberbatch the best <3), and so much more. (If I typed them all out, we’d be here all day)
• Find out more about me here.

So, today I will be sharing my best advice on how to skyrocket your blog traffic in no time at all! So, without further ado, let’s get right into the post!

Blogging Hacks That Will Skyrocket Your Blog Traffic

1. Engage with readers & other bloggers

I have heard from many successful bloggers that the best way to build blog traffic is to comment and engage with your readers and fellow bloggers. Always, and I mean always, respond to comments on your blog. (unless they’re spam obviously) When people go out of their way to say something nice about your blog, the least you can do is leave a reply thanking them. Also, dropping a friendly comment on someone else’s blog shows that you are a fan of their work and a kind, outgoing person. They will most likely check out your blog in return.

You can also try following other blogs instead of leaving comments. Whenever I see that someone has followed my blog, I almost always check out their blog as well. If it looks like the kind of blog I would enjoy reading, then I will follow back.

A great way to find new blogs is to check out “Blog Button” pages on blogs you follow. On these pages, bloggers swap buttons which are like little advertisements for other blogs. All you have to do is click on their button to be magically apparated to their blog. Then you can drop a comment or follow and they will most likely check out your blog in return.

2. Make your blog aesthetically pleasing

This is *huge*. I’d hate to break it to you, but if your blog is unappealing and disorganized, people with leave instantly. Invest your time (and possibly money) in your blog design. If you want a professional design for your blog, then hiring someone is a great option. There are many blog designing services out there, including my own which I would greatly appreciate if you all took a look at!

On the other hand, you can always design your blog yourself. This month I will be releasing a number of posts on how to “brand” your blog and make a killer design without spending a penny. I have done a lotta research on the topic of web design, so feel free to contact me at any time if you have any questions!

3. Develop a posting schedule and stick to it

Ugh, I’m actually the worst at this. I am busy all day every day with blogging, keeping up with web design orders, school, chores, horses, etc. Sometimes blogging gets pushed to the end of my priorities because my posts take a lotta time to write. I mean it. A high-quality, 1000 word post takes me about 4 hours to write, and some days I just don’t have time for that.

However, it’s essential you post often enough to keep viewers coming back. You don’t want your blog to become this:

4. Invest in your blog

It never hurts to put a little money into your blog. Here are some things you can invest in to boost your traffic:

• Professional website design
• Website domain + hosting
• A “Pro” theme
• Marketing and advertising
• Webinars and resources that other bloggers are selling

Investing a little money in any of these things can help you build your blog. Just make sure you know what you’re doing before making a purchase.

5. Write a killer about page

The about page is one of the very first places new visitors go to, so it has to be well written and full of personality. There are plenty of good tips for killer about pages on the web that can help you build a beautiful, personality-filled about page that will make people hit that subscribe button instantly.

6. Be yourself

Write with voice and express yourself to your readers through your words! Show them the real you, and don’t pretend to be anyone else. :))

7. Plan ahead to avoid blog burnout

This is key to gaining subscribers. This goes along with developing a posting schedule: make sure that you don’t just disappear for who know’s how long and leave your loyal subscribers waiting for your next post. Plan ahead your blog posts for the month and carry out your plans to keep people coming back for more.

8. Use social media to your advantage

You can use almost any social media platform to promote your blog. One that I recommend is Pinterest. On my blog, I have a whole post on how you can use Pinterest to grow your blog traffic, so you can definitely check it out if you want to learn how to do so.

And that, my friends, concludes today’s post. I hope you learned a bit more about how to build your traffic and enjoyed reading it! You can check out my Pinterest for more blogging tips and tricks as well. Just remember to take breaks from blogging. You have a life to live beyond the screen. Go live it! :))

I would appreciate it so much if you would check out my blog, LivaLittleBlog.com, and drop a kind comment or follow – I will definitely return the favor! Have a fantastic day everyone!

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May Wrap-Up + Favorites

May, where did you go? Is it just me, or was May a super quick month? Maybe it’s just me. It’s actually been a great month for me. School ended in the beginning of May for me, so I’ve just been getting ready for summer and hanging out with friends.

In terms of blogging, though, I’ve been failing. Oops. Aside from hitting the big 1K, I’ve only posted a few times, and I’m not very proud of the posts I put out. Luckily I have amazing stuff planned for June, I’m super excited, so stay tuned!

Anyway, into the post!

My first favorite from this month is Revlon nail polish. I’ve really been enjoying putting aside time for myself to paint my nails and make them look pretty, and for almost every manicure, I’ve used Revlon. I did a review, if you’d like to check it out here’s the link.

Next we have this adorable flower choker. I bought this in a set with other chokers, and I’ve been obsessed. I’ve worn a choker almost every day since I bought the set. I just love how chokers can make your outfit look more pulled together & chic! Here’s the link to my review on them.

This bracelet was one of my presents from Christmas, and I’ve been wearing it so much this month. It’s actually hand made (I believe it’s from Africa if I’m remembering correctly), and it has so much personality. I always get a ton of compliments when I wear it. I love wearing this with a casual black dress and sandals.

– Other Favorites –

-My favorite Netflix show from this month is Lost. I’ve been watching it like crazy. It has so many plot twists and turns that I never see coming, which is part of the fun.

-My favorite blog of this month is Natalie’s blog (www.natalievinh.com) I’ve seriously been checking her blog every day, her posts are so down to earth and super fun to read. If you haven’t followed her blog, go check it out, you won’t be disappointed.

-This entire month, I’ve been craving dried banana chips and eating them like crazy. I also can’t stop eating chocolate. The addiction is real, people.

-Since school is out and I have even more time to read, I’ve been gobbling up books like crazy and reading them in a day. I’m currently reading Dualed. I can’t tell if I like it so far…I’ll let you know when I finish.

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Well, that’s a wrap folks. Thank you for reading, and I’ll catch you on the flip side! Have a splendid day.

What have you been loving this month?

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20 Things You May Not Know About Me

Heyo & welcome back to another post! I hope you all had a fantastic Memorial Day.

So, I’ve been blogging for years, yet I feel like I still haven’t talked about myself very much. Or maybe I’ve been talking about myself too much. (Oops.) In today’s post, I’m going to be sharing 20 facts about me that you may not know, so you’ll get to know a little more about me.  A lot of bloggers do this and it seemed like a fun post, so here goes!

1. I’m an actual human being with an actual life. Shocker huh?
2. I’m Scottish! I live in America, though. My dad has red hair…if only I was born with red hair, but my hair is brown with natural highlights. {insert sad tear}
3. Most of my wardrobe is neutral colors…I usually wear black because I feel most comfortable in it.
4. I do track and field, and I’m a little bit obsessed with working out.
5. I love arm wrestling people and have a mental list of all the people I’ve beaten.
6. I am obsessed with nature. I love forests and hiking. I used to hate hiking and thought it was gross because of the bugs, but now it’s just peaceful to me.
7. Rainy days are the best kind of days in my opinion.
8. I’m a very deep person and have deep thoughts, yet I’m not very emotional and don’t cry often.
9. I don’t own a phone.
10. I eat peanut butter out of the jar. And raw brown sugar. And raw cookie dough. And brownie batter. Not sorry.
11. I go to Cape Cod every year and love the ocean, but it scares me. I have a fear of drowning and sharks, so I’m always scared to swim in the ocean.
12. I’m pretty short for my age, only 5’3.
13. I will stand up for anyone or fight for anyone if necessary.
14. I try to watch the sun set every night. A few nights ago, the sky was the shade of cotton candy, it was so gorgeous. Too bad I didn’t have my camera…
15. I laugh too much.
16. If I get my hands on any sour candy or anything with chocolate and peanut butter, I’ll eat it all.
17. I have really thick hair, so I usually need two or three thick hair ties to hold up my hair. So, I usually end up putting my hair in a dutch braid or a fishtail to get it out of my face.
18. I’m a horrible dancer (I mean, I do track, what do you want from me?), but I love the feeling of dancing. If any of you are dancers, can you teach me something?
19. I’m running out of things to say…
20. I take really long showers. (Don’t we all, though?)

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Well, there you have it, some random facts! Have a fantastic day!

What’s something interesting about you? Surprise me!

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My Choker Collection & Review

Hello, welcome back!

I’m sorry I didn’t get a post up on Monday, but I try to stick to “Quality over Quantity”, and I felt that the post I was writing wasn’t very good, so I trashed it and decided not to do a post.

In today’s post, I’m going to be sharing with you my choker collection. Let’s get into the review!

Chokers are perfect accessories that every girl should own. They add the extra touch to an outfit and can make your outfit look more put together! I’m a little late to the choker trend, but after a while looking at chokers on Pinterest, I hopped on the bandwagon and got my hands on a set of chokers.

I recently bought this set of 9 chokers from Amazon (not all of them are pictured in the photo), and I’m in love. I did my research and this set got amazing reviews, so I couldn’t pass it up. Plus it was only $7 for 9 chokers, which is pretty awesome.

This choker is my favorite, because it’s simple, but really adds the extra element to an outfit!

You get a really good variety of chokers in the set, like a basic black choker, a tattoo choker, and a yin yang choker. But you also get some creative chokers, like a flower choker and a choker that comes with a necklace. (Pictured above)

A few people were saying in the reviews that the clasps broke easily. Luckily, the clasps have worked perfectly for me, I haven’t had a problem with them so far. Fingers crossed, though, because these chokers do seem delicate.

I usually don’t like stuff to be on my neck, but so far so good, because the material that the chokers are made of is super smooth (a few are made out of velvet), and not itchy, which is a plus.

| Pros |

• Extremely inexpensive
• The shipping is super fast
• The set has a good variety of chokers
• The chokers are lightweight and not at all itchy

| Cons |

• The chokers aren’t extremely high quality or extremely well made, but they are inexpensive, so I wasn’t expecting them to be high quality. They aren’t low quality, though, which is good. They’re in-between. 😉
• The chokers honestly feel delicate to me. Maybe that’s how chokers are supposed to be? Help me out, guys.

All in all, I’m super happy with this choker set. If you’re looking for some cute chokers, these will work perfectly for you!

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Well, that’s it for today, thanks for reading!Catch you on the flip side.

Do you own any chokers? What is your opinion of chokers?

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How To Make Your Blog Posts Stand Out

Hello & welcome back to another post! Since I really enjoy writing posts on blogging, I have another one of those for you today.

Let’s say you’re scrolling through the WordPress Reader. Your eyes naturally go to the posts with interesting titles and good pictures, right? You’re more likely to click on the posts that look appealing. Now let’s flip this around. Naturally, you want your blog to look appealing so other people will want to read your posts! Because when your posts stand out, people are more likely to follow your blog and be involved in it.

So, in today’s post, we’re going to be talking about how to make your posts stand out. Ready? Let’s get into it!

-Have A Specific Title-

When you have a title that’s specific and relevent, people are more likely to click on your post! Slow down on the emojis and symbols and make the title look neat and clean.

-Have Well-Taken Bright Pictures-

The lighting, camera, props, etc is super important if you want well taken photos! If you’re using your phone, make sure you edit the pictures so they’ll be sharper and brighter. Use natural lighting as well, it makes a big difference! And try to use a good background (I really like using my white table) and lay out the props so they’ll look aesthetically pleasing. Here’s a post on how I take my pictures.

-Have Your Post Be Well Written & Helpful-

Each of your posts should always benefit your readers in some way! Doing a makeup post? Share a bit of advice on your makeup! Is your post about your favorite hairstyle? Well, share how to do it as well. Or, maybe your post is all about you, and that’s okay! However, you should ask your readers a question at the end or do something so they’ll feel like they gained something from reading the post, and feel involved.

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Well, that’s a wrap for this post, but stay tuned because I have a lot more awesome posts coming your way. Thank you for reading!

What are your tips for making posts stand out from the crowd?

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Revlon Nail Polish Review

Heyo! Welcome back to another post.

It just occurred to me that I’ve been using Revlon nail polish for a while, and I’ve been building up my collection–yet I haven’t done a review on them. So, today, I’m going to be sharing with you my thoughts on this nail polish.

Let’s get into it!

First things first, just look at these nail polish bottles! I am obsessed with their packaging. It’s sleek and shiny, and honestly, it’s really pretty to display in my room compared to other nail polish bottles. I also really like how the nail polish brush has a long cap so it’s easier to hold. A lot of nail polish bottles have really small nail polish brushes, so it’s harder to grip.

These are the shades I have so far. I hope that over time I’ll be able to grow my collection even more! The shades I have, from left to right, are Diamond Texture, Graffiti, Coy, Bewitching, and Socialite. I couldn’t find some of the shades online, so I gave the links to colors that are similar.

Pros:

• Pretty inexpensive
• Has gorgeous packaging
• Has a long nail polish brush, so painting your nails is a lot easier
• Has a large variety of colors

Cons:

• It only lasts about three or four days before chipping
• It takes a while to dry
• For some reason, little dots (they kind of looked like small bubbles) were appearing on the nail polish and it made my nails look like they have acne. Which, as you can guess, isn’t pretty! Maybe I just need to use a top coat & base coat.

Would I buy more? Yes, I would. I really love Revlon nail polish, mostly because of their huge variety.

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Well, that’s a wrap! Thank you for reading, and I’ll catch you all in the next post.

What is your favorite nail polish brand?

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Happy Mother’s Day!

Mom, thank you for raising me to be strong, independent, and humble. Thank you for encouraging me when others would not, thank you for seeing the beauty in me when I cannot see it in myself, thank you for always smiling and being positive and having a joke to make me feel better. Thank you for loving me no matter what. Thank you for having high standards for me, so that I will always do my best. Thank you for encouraging me to workout and eat healthy and do yoga. And thank you for all the little moments–reading to me every day when I was younger, sewing me costumes, teaching me to have an imagination. Thank you for letting me try new hairstyles on your hair. Thank you for showing me how to reach for the stars.

Thank you, Mom, for everything. I love you!

Happy Mother’s Day to every mother out there!

No-Bake Chocolate & Nut Treat

Hello, hello! Welcome back to another post!

I have a super fun treat to share with you guys today. In my opinion, anything that includes chocolate and nuts and doesn’t need to be baked is the best thing ever.

Take a look at these! Some people call this treat cowpatties, but that’s gross (sorry, but it is). This treat takes 10 minutes, needs only a few ingredients, and creates a small amount of dishes. Could it be easier?

Ingredients:

• One bag of dark chocolate chips
• Nuts of your choice (I used peanuts and almonds)
• Coconut (optional)

Begin by placing your chocolate chips in a microwave safe bowl. You may not need the full bag, it depends on how many you want to make and how many nuts you have. Just in case, I used the whole bag, because I wanted to have an extra-chocolatey treat.

Next, microwave the chocolate for as long as it needs until it is smooth & fully melted. You will need to mix the chocolate chips every 30 seconds to make sure the chocolate does not clump together.

I unfortunately didn’t get any pictures of the process, but all you do now is mix the nuts together with the chocolate. I just used a regular spoon to plop them on a tray lined with wax paper.

This is how they looked! I put coconut on some of them for a nice garnish.

Put the tray in your freezer for 10 minutes, and then voila! You have a yummy treat that will disappear from the tray quickly! Make sure you store them in the fridge, not the freezer. My family ate these in a day, they’re so good. These treats are also guilt free! The dark chocolate and the nuts are healthy, so don’t worry!

Thank you for reading, I’ll catch ya on the next post! Have a fantastic day!

Have you made these before? Do you prefer dark chocolate or milk chocolate?

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1000 Followers

Holy what?! Yup, it’s official, thefreckledfashionista has one thousand followers.

Many bloggers get 1K followers in a year or even within a few months, but I have been blogging for years and I’m just hitting it. But I’m still super proud of myself and my blog, because my stats were at a standstill up until January. I was barely getting views. In January, I started posting more and got more motivation, and I worked harder and harder and harder and harder.

And I started getting more followers. Hard work really does pay off. If you don’t have 1K yet, you will get there. Just keep working so much, and then work some more!

To every single one of you: thank you. I can’t tell you how much this means to me, to have people that read my posts and actually care about what I have to say. (And for those of you that don’t care: thanks anyway for following in the first place).

I hope that my website grows and grows, and I hope that soon I will be able to say that I have two thousand followers. Look to the stars, people.

Thank you. That’s really all I can say. Love you all.

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