The Perfect Gift For Dad: A Custom Coffee Mug

I had such a great Mother's Day that it got me thinking about a gift for my husband.

Our children are all grown up and I couldn't ask for a better partner in life than my husband. 

So, I was searching for something personal and found a mug. And, I'm glad I found it because I was *this* close to getting him a puppy!

I know, but I'm a poor artist and I can't afford to buy him the world like he deserves.

I mean, he helped me raise two children from birth to almost 22 and 20 years old, the least I could do is buy him a mug. We drink coffee like maniacs in this house so I know he'll use it! And because he gets to see all of the pictures I have to take, he already got to open his present. 

He loves it. Your move, KIDS. 

Take a minute to thank a dad. After all, they are raising citizens of the world, too. 

How do you plan on celebrating Father's Day? Post any gift ideas you have below!

S U M M E R

Consuming
these whispers in my house
are 
energy vampires

cannibals
the people that fill this home
do not enter

They will take your life
while whispering
I 
love
you. 

                                                               photo source

How Music Can Become Your Next Great Hobby

We all have such a diverse range of different hobbies these days, and it is important that we explore and enjoy these as much as possible. We all have so much to work toward in life, and hobbies are an excellent way of exploring our interests and doing what we can to stay motivated and inspired every day. Hobbies are a great way of getting inspiration, or at the very least letting your hair down.

Music is one of the biggest hobbies and interests in the world, and so many people from all different cultures and backgrounds love music. There is so much to music, and it can serve so many different functions for people. It is also one of the most fulfilling and engaging hobbies, so perhaps it’s time to take it to the next level. So, what can you do to make music your next great hobby?

Learn an Instrument

Flickr.com

There are so many great reasons to learn a musical instrument, not least because it allows you much greater creativity. You can express yourself and learn how to write music and play songs when you learn an instrument. It’s a great way to boost skill and stay disciplined, and you need to look at the different types of instruments you might like to learn. There is so much choice these days, but going for something like ambient acoustic guitar or piano gives you a much better range of what you can learn, and will open many more doors for you musically. Being as creative as possible is really important and learning a musical instrument is the best way to boost creativity, channel emotion, and could even provide a viable career path.

Start Recording and Sharing 

Source

Once you become a proficient musician, it will be natural to want to start making recordings and sharing your talent. You need to think about the best way of recording your music and where you might consider sharing. Social media is a great place to do this, and many artists have had success with this in the past. You should also consider utilizing YouTube to showcase your music. Now, there are a few things you can do here - you could upload to the video sharing channel, and you could use a YouTube to MP3 download conversion program to enjoy your music on the move as well. Recording and sharing is a big step and one that will help you elevate your hobby to the next level. 

Expand Your Record Collection

Pic

Aside from the instrument side of things, you need to think about how you can boost music as your hobby. And a big part of this is having an eclectic taste and enjoying loads of different types of music. So, you need to think about ways of expanding your record collection, as well as exploring different styles of music (vinyl, CD, etc). Having a range of diverse music to listen to can really inspire and enrich your life in an array of different ways, and this is important to think about.

Music is a hobby that has so much to offer all of us, and this is why it’s so great to embrace it. You can turn a magical hobby into something more by making it a focal point of your life, as well as listening to more music, and taking the time to learn instruments. What instrument would you enjoy learning to play the most?

An Analytical Situation

Most of us who create online are aware of what analytics are.

For anyone who wants to see their business grow online, analytics  are quite important.  I probably would have stopped blogging long ago if it wasn't for my analytics telling me that there are actually people looking at and reading my blog. I might not receive a lot of comments and/or engagement on every post, but at least I know that I'm not talking to my imaginary friends...
...again.

photo via 

Anyway, my point is that analytics are important because this is how businesses gauge how well their product/business/writing/etc. are being received online. It is also especially important for calculating your ROI which is defined by Entrepreneur.com as: 

"Return on investment, or ROI, is the most common profitability ratio. There are several ways to determine ROI, but the most frequently used method is to divide net profit by total assets. So if your net profit is $100,000 and your total assets are $300,000, your ROI would be .33 or 33 percent.

Return on investment isn't necessarily the same as profit. ROI deals with the money you invest in the company and the return you realize on that money based on the net profit of the business. Profit, on the other hand, measures the performance of the business. Don't confuse ROI with the return on the owner's equity. This is an entirely different item as well. Only in sole proprietorships does equity equal the total investment or assets of the business."

No one wants to invest more than they get in return for their business, whatever it may be. 

I was looking through my analytics the other day, and I came across something I had not heard of before. Embedded Analytics. 

Izenda.com defines embedded analytics as:

"Embedded analytics is BI [business intelligence] and reporting that is integrated directly into a business application or platform (think your marketing automation tools, EMRs, CRMs etc.) Embedded analytics integrates reports, dashboards and data visualizations directly into daily user workflows and displays the analytics users need to see inside their application. The ability to view data in context puts insight at the point of decision, and ultimately, leads to better outcomes."

This is genius.

Luckily, right now Izenda is offering a free thirty day trial that you can use to see how embedded analytics works for you. 

I would love to know how you like it so remember to come back and let me know what you thought of it! It's definitely something I am thinking about implementing for myself in the near future!

Keep A Stiff Upper....Back

As I have written about before, personal injury is something that I have seen from both sides.

The injury I received is something I still struggle with today. I have leftover muscle spasms in my shoulder and back that has caused me distress over the years and has gotten much worse with age.

photo via

Specifically, if I overuse my left shoulder or left arm (something that is done more quickly than you would imagine as a writer), my rhomboid muscles will spasm and stiffen up, and no more moving for me until ice, heat, a muscle relaxer, and rest are applied.  So, I can literally tell when I have been working too long because I won't be able to turn my neck.

It's a thing.

According to the Summit Medical Group: 

"WHAT IS A RHOMBOID STRAIN OR SPASM?

The rhomboid muscles in your upper back connect the inner edges of your shoulder blades to your spine. A rhomboid strain is a stretch or tear of these muscles. A rhomboid spasm is a sudden tightening of the muscle that you cannot control.

WHAT IS THE CAUSE?

A rhomboid muscle strain or spasm is usually caused by overuse of your shoulder and arm. This can happen from:

Overhead activities, like serving a tennis ball or reaching to put objects on a high shelf, rowing, carrying a heavy backpack (especially if you carry it over just one shoulder), and poor posture (especially while you are using a computer for a long time).

WHAT ARE THE SYMPTOMS?

A strain causes pain in the upper back between your shoulder blade and your spine. A spasm feels like a knot or tightness in the muscle. You may have pain when you move your shoulders or when you breathe."

It's lots of fun.

This, of course, exacerbated the whiplash that I received in my accident. Even with the excellent health care and knowledge that I did have, it is something that will stay with me forever. 

photo via

 According to The Hunter Law Group, P.A.:

"Permanent injuries, significant disfigurement or scarring, and enduring loss of important bodily functions all qualify as cause for legal action in the event of an automobile accident. Family members can also sue on a victim’s behalf in cases of death.

Compensation can also include economic damages, such as reduced future income, loss of appraised value to real property, and construction repairs." 

Considering that at the time and now, I absolutely do make my living sitting for long stretches of time in front of a computer which can trigger my rhomboid muscles to spasm, I was incredibly lucky to be able to have as much help as I did, legally and medically.

I can only imagine how bad off I would be if I hadn't.

Have you suffered a personal injury? What have you done to overcome it and do you still suffer because of it? Tell me about it in the comments below!

Could A Hobby Turn Into Something More?

Having a hobby is a great way to spend extra time and work on skills that you already have, but sometimes a hobby can turn into something more. It can be a great way to hone your skills and make something more like turning into a career or making money from something you enjoy doing. I wanted to explore some of the options you could consider if you have a hobby or a skill in any of the areas below. 

image source

Writing

Many people enjoy the creative outlet that writing can offer. It may be that you have a blog inline just so that you can keep those creative juices flowing, but a lot of people like the idea of writing a book. But where do you start if you have an idea and don’t know where to go with it? This is when websites like Jericho Writers could help you get started. A blog could also be something that turns into a book or even be monetized in some way to eventually become your job. People also take their writing skills to other levels such as working on freelance projects to earn extra money alongside their day jobs. So, grab your pen, paper and a gorgeous pair of Silhouette glasses and start writing.

Being artistic

Maybe you find that you are a little artistic, perhaps enjoying drawing or being creative in art classes. It can be a great hobby to have, and it can be one of those things that are really helpful for your mindset. You can choose things like attending art classes, or putting your creativity to good use in other forms like drawing and painting at home. There is much to learn so it can actually be a real diverse hobby to have and with technology today you can even use your art skills in terms of web developments and logo branding. 

Keeping fit and healthy

Many people love to exercise and keep fit, and while it can be a great hobby, you may also find that it becomes a way of life as it can have positive impacts on your lifestyle. You have more energy, you look and feel better about yourself and this as a hobby could turn into so much more. People have gone on to create livelihoods from their health and fitness passions, perhaps starting a blog or a youtube channel sharing hints and tips, or it may even have pushed you to train as a personal trainer to help specific people. 

Photography

Finally, do you have a passion for taking pictures? Do you like to capture your family life as well as scenes and images of beauty? Photography can start off as a hobby such as learning to shoot not in automatic mode on your camera, etc. But it could turn into a job where you use this passion to capture other people's memories such as special occasions like weddings or family portraits. 

I hope that this has given you some ideas on how you can turn what was a hobby that you enjoy into something more. 

What are your hobbies? Let me know in the comments below!

When An Injury Is Personal

Many years ago, I worked as a legal assistant. I was a young mother at the time and going to school to work as a paralegal. 

It was incredibly interesting and exhausting at the same time. 

The attorney I worked directly under took on a lot of personal injury cases. These cases were sometimes so heartbreaking, I didn't think I would be able to separate my emotional mind and logical mind.

According to HG.org's Legal Resources:

"Most personal injury cases are based on the doctrine of negligence. In essence, negligence requires every member of society to act responsibly and avoid putting others at risk. That is not to say that negligence will result each time someone gets hurt. The doctrine recognizes that some accidents are unavoidable. To establish liability, the plaintiff must show that a reasonably prudent person in the defendant’s position would have acted differently under the circumstances. 

Examples of negligence include car accidents caused by drunk drivers, medical complications resulting from a physician’s carelessness, and dog bites that occur when vicious animals are permitted to roam free. In each instance, the responsible party ignored the risk posed to others, and as a result, the plaintiff was injured."

The American Bar Association also notes that other definitions of personal injury besides negligence are strict liability and intentional wrongs:

"Strict liability is an important and growing area of tort law. It holds designers and manufacturers strictly liable for injuries from defective products. In these cases, the injured person does not have to establish negligence of the manufacturer. Rather, you need to show that the product was designed or manufactured in a manner that made it unreasonably dangerous when used as intended.

Intentional wrongs can also be the basis of personal injury claims, though they are rarer. If someone hits you, for example, even as a practical joke, you may be able to win a suit for battery. Or if a store detective wrongly detains you for shoplifting, you may be able to win a suit for false imprisonment. While perpetrators of some of the intentional torts—assault and battery, for example—can be held criminally liable for their actions, a tort case is a civil proceeding in court brought by an individual or entity and remains totally separate from any criminal charges brought by the government."

Because of our military life at the time, I ended up leaving the firm as my husband was assigned a new duty station and we moved away. I can not go into specifics on the cases I was involved in working, but there were a lot of injuries involving children that still haunt me today. 

I can only imagine the toll it takes on the attorneys who handle these cases. I began to wonder how they could reach out to their community to help in other ways. To the Google!

I found a Tampa area personal injury attorney practice that is heavily involved with the Make A Wish Foundation of Southern Florida. Not only are they committed to their clients, they are committed to their community in a wonderful way! 

Personal injuries go unreported in a lot of instances and that is truly a shame. Having worked and studied in the legal field, I know for a fact that these attorneys do everything they can for not only their clients but their community as well. Should you ever find yourself (unfortunately) the victim of a personal injury, I implore you to reach out to a personal injury attorney in your area. Know your rights, and use them. You really don't have to suffer. There is always help available! 

My Most Essential Blogging Tool

There are many things I cannot do without when it comes to blogging. The internet, a writerly brain, social media, a quiet room, a desk to bang my head on. 

You know, the important things.

The number one thing that I absolutely NEED is my daily planner! I would be 100000% lost without it! Since I am a freelancer, I have jobs coming in from all over the place with sporadic deadlines, certain guidelines I have to follow, and things I absolutely cannot forget to include. Without my planner, I would fail and fail hardcore.

My current planner is so perfect for the way I organize my work. First of all, it's not one of those planners that has the dates already written in. You can fill in the dates yourself. Along with the large area on the pages to write down what you have for that day, it has sections for notes, priorities, daily, weekly, and monthly reviews. It also comes with bookmark ribbons and a pocket in the back to hold the stickers that come with it or loose papers/notes/whatever. It is super convenient!

If you're a blogger and want to get organized, I highly recommend this planner! 

                                                                         affiliate link

What is your most essential blogging tool? Let me know in the comments below!

Nationwide Debt Reduction Services Has A Surprising Offer

Raise your hand if you're in debt.

Right. That's what I thought.

I, of course, am in the same boat. This is what happens when you send your daughter to Japan. When you own a car. When you breathe.

As I mentioned before, one of my goals in the near future is to buy a plot of land and either build a house (because, you know, I'm handy like that), or just buy a house. So, what's the first thing you must do in order to acquire a mortgage? Lower your debt and clean up your credit.

As you can probably guess, I have been searching for debt reduction services. Luckily, I don't have too much debt, but I have enough that it bothers me and I want it GONE.

I found some interesting information. For example, I was extremely confused about debt to income ratio but the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau explained it quite succinctly:

"To calculate your debt-to-income ratio, you add up all your monthly debt payments and divide them by your gross monthly income. Your gross monthly income is generally the amount of money you have earned before your taxes and other deductions are taken out.  For example, if you pay $1500 a month for your mortgage and another $100 a month for an auto loan and $400 a month for the rest of your debts, your monthly debt payments are $2000. ($1500 + $100 + $400 = $2,000.) If your gross monthly income is $6000, then your debt-to-income ratio is 33 percent. ($2000 is 33% of $6000.)"

Awesome. I get it. Now, more (not) great news via Debt.com:

"Americans now have record-high credit card and student loan debt. Auto loan debt also broke some records last year.
According to the latest 2018 data from the Federal Reserve:

Americans hold over $1 trillion in credit card debt ($1,023,000,000,000)
Nonrevolving debt (loans) total over $2.8 trillion ($2,842,400,000,000)
According to a Y charts investment company:

To kick off 2018, the total outstanding auto loan debt totals $1.22 trillion ($1,221,000,000,000)"

After I went outside and screamed into the wind, I came back in and continued my search. I came across National Debt Reduction Services and instantly breathed a sigh of relief. There is a plethora of information and resources AND they don't even charge you for their help until your debt is settled.

As I was perusing the website, I came across a great surprise! They are offering a $1,000 scholarship to any high school senior that has been accepted to any university or any college student not in their final year! To enter you just have to write a 500 word essay and fill out this Nationwide Debt Reduction Services entry form!

Debt is on the rise, but I am determined to stomp it out on my end. How about you? 

An Icy Future

As I have mentioned before, I'm pretty goal driven this year.

2018 is the year of SERIOUS BUSINESS.

I have been starting to amass the things I am going to need for these future goals and plans so I was super excited to try out this New Air Clear Ice 40 Portable Ice Maker!

It is seriously awesome!

Why would I need a separate ice maker, a portable one at that? One word. 
Camping!

RVing (is that a word? Well, it is now because I say so), specifically. This thing is going to come in handy, absolutely.

It took no time at all to set it up and get it going. The instructions are easy and you literally just fill it, let it go, and in thirty minutes...

It's really simple and you guys know how much I like simple. 

Once the ice is made, it sits in the reservoir and if not used it recycles back into the ice maker to make more ice. I've been running it all week to test it out and have had zero problems with it. 

I can not WAIT to get on the road with this thing! I will never ever have to worry about buying ice again! It's incredibly well made and not even close to as heavy as I thought. New Air Appliances has other great products as well and right now if you use my code STEBBINS, you will receive 20% off! https://bit.ly/2Fb8tsJ  Yay! 

Customer Onboarding And User Adoption Strategies For Your Business

Business strategies fascinate me. I could sit and read about how to run a successful business all day. I don't think I would ever have a business besides freelance writing/blogging, but a lot of these tips I read about are actually quite useful for my blogging "small business." 

For example, a lot of helpful blogging tools come as a free trial and after a set amount of days, weeks, or months, it expires and you begin your paid subscription. I am always thankful for the free trials and freemium products and usually keep my subscription to the most useful ones. I have even thought about offering my own tools or e-courses to help other bloggers and/or writers, along with my own freemium product or free trial.  Then, of course, I wondered how many people would actually stick with it once their trial was up.

Confidence level = 0

                                                  photo via

So, I decided to research and came upon User IQ and found a lot of great information! After searching and searching it was definitely refreshing to find a website that had all of the information I needed in one place!

According to this article on user adoption, I should utilize a WOW! moment:

"Once you know who your best customers are, you can start to identify the WOW! moments that got them there. Invented by David Skok, a WOW moment refers to the moment where your user suddenly sees the benefit they get from using your product and says to themselves WOW! Even better, a WOW! moment might result in a conversion activity for you, like trial to paid or an upgrade from one version to the next."

I had never even thought about that! As a matter of fact, there are so many really helpful things about customer onboarding there that I found myself reading long into the night. I learned about good user adoption and engagement, how to improve time-to-value, and how user adoption and customer onboarding are the most important for growth. 

I don't want to tell you everything about UserIQ, you should definitely visit their website and check them out. They have a plethora of strategies and information and they even have an User Adoption Toolkit that you can try for free!

These are great tips for the way business is conducted these days. I found it to be incredibly helpful, even for my business of blogging and freelance writing. I am much more confident in offering an ecourse and/or software as a service (SaaS), definitely. Now, imagine what this knowledge could do for you!

You Should Become A Blogger

A decade ago, people probably saw blogging as a fad, or, at best, a useless hobby, but it’s now 2018, and blogging has not only become one of the most popular forms of writing in the world, but it’s also a lucrative business. There are so many things that you can do with your time, but few of them have the potential to change your life quite like blogging does. If you’re considering starting your own blog, but aren’t really sure why you should, then here are six reasons for you to think about. 

To Promote Yourself

We live in a time completely dominated by technology, and as such, technology is often needed when you want to promote yourself or a product or service that you sell. Blogging is a perfect way to sell something, as it allows you to advertise and promote without being pushy and obviously looking like you’re trying to make a sale. 

To Change The World

If there is one thing that I’m certain of, it’s that the world needs bloggers. Most blogs are written to provide advice and give opinions on certain things, and although you won’t be able to help everyone, your blog is going to be able to help someone, and it could help them in a huge way. The comments section also provides a forum for readers to talk and help one another. 

To Have Fun

Most bloggers write about something that they enjoy or know a lot about, and as such, blogging can be really fun. If you’re a fan of a particular TV series or love music and have Begin Your Drumming bookmarked on your phone, tell people about it. If you’re passionate about what you’re writing about, it will shine through in your posts, and people will enjoy reading them much more. 

To Improve Yourself

Blogging doesn’t just make a difference to other people, it can make a difference with you too, and it does so in a variety of ways. As fun as blogging is, it requires a lot of commitment, discipline, and a healthy lifestyle to be successful. You will also improve your writing and will learn a lot about specific topics the more you write about them in your posts. 

To Meet New People

The more your blog grows, the more comments, follows, shares, and emails you will receive, and the easier it will be to meet and develop relationships with like-minded people. You will also make connections with other bloggers and will be able to help each other and share ideas, which will further help to improve your writing and blogging. 

To Make Money

It takes a lot of work to turn blogging from a hobby into a successful business, but it can be done with hard work and dedication. Of course, you don’t need to be making money to love blogging, but it is incredibly rewarding to earn money  doing something that you genuinely enjoy and are passionate about. 

If you’re considering starting a blog, stop considering and get online. I promise you won’t regret it. 

Back And Forth And Around Again

Around this time last year, I was in the process of moving. And so it goes, I'm getting ready to move again.

City life is not for me.

We have been looking all over in quiet little towns to find our perfect place. Where I'm from and where I am right now, the noise never stops. I thoroughly enjoy our trips to the mountains because it's so very peaceful...

Yes, yes I am a little cliche...you know, a writer and shady forest hideaway...

Anyway, I think we have found our perfect little place, but I don't want to say it's ours for sure yet because I did that last year and we ended up in our current terrible apartment.

I lovingly refer to it as "The Box In Rat City."

It was hard for us to decide what we were going to do after my husband retired from the Navy. We want to convert a bus into a camper, we want to travel all around, we want to find land, we want to buy a house...

We ended up in the city where my daughter is attending college. It's her first year so we wanted to make sure she was all set. I thought it was going to be weird for her at first, but it worked out. Her best friend from back home got accepted and they are going to room together next year. So, now...

I will officially be an empty nester. All of my butterflies have grown up and flown away. 

My point is, it's gonna be weird.

Therefore, I am going to need to be busy.

All of the time.

No time to miss my sweet babies, busy busy busy.

I have been thinking about those goals a lot more seriously lately. 

I think my husband and I are finally in fairly stable financial shape. Well, better than we have ever been in our lives.

So, maybe we will convert a skoolie, maybe we'll get an RV instead (I've found some nice new campers for sale in PA). Maybe we'll buy a house on a giant piece of land or maybe we'll find something better. I have definitely been spending A LOT of time on living room design websites, that's for sure!

Who knows? It could all change by next week.

What kind of goals or plans do you have? Have they changed as life changed? 

You Should Call Your Mother

Hey, kids.

Mother's day is coming and since that is the best holiday ever in my mom opinion, I'm already thinking about gifts.

I got this amazing Mom ring from ThinkEngraved.com and I thought it would be a great gift for Mother's Day. My mother is so hard to shop for. I'm always ok with a gift card or cash as a gift.

My mom likes thoughtful gifts.

So, this seems perfect for her. Mine is engraved with my children's names and their birthstones. They have all kinds of other jewelry, and they will engrave anything you'd like.

I really hope my mom likes the gift I got for her as well. Finally, I can win most thoughtful gift. 

Maybe. 

There's some new items and all kinds of sales going on. Shopping for Mother's Day, DONE.

You're welcome!

Now, go call your mother.

This post contains affiliate links.