Showing posts with label Social Media. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Social Media. Show all posts

Friday, May 4, 2018

5 Things I'm Super Excited about this May

Oh. My. Goodness. May is already off to the craziest start! I mean cah-ray-zy! I hope things calm down because I've got goals for May!

It's the first weekend of the month, which means it's time for COFFEE! Well, every day is a good day for coffee, but let's take a few minutes to catch up during the Ultimate Coffee Date! Ok, coffee isn't required. Perhaps you enjoy tea, milk, soda, water. Or maybe something a little stronger. 😜

Ultimate Coffee Date | What I'm looking forward to in May | www.enjoyingthecourse.com

Other than crushing my goals, here are a few things I'm looking forward to this month.

Saturday, December 6, 2014

Ultimate Coffee Date - December 2014

The last post I wrote before going on blogging hiatus was an Ultimate Coffee Date in Sept, so I was super excited to find out this link-up is still alive!

Coffee with friends can be so much fun, so I'm excited to grab a cup and catch up with all of you!!

The Ultimate Coffee Date

If we were having coffee today... I'd have to keep this short and sweet because I'm meeting some friends for a trail run this morning! I haven't hit up a trail in months, so I can't wait. If you're a long time reader, this might shock you because I used to really dislike trail running, but it kinda grew on me this past year after training with George for a half marathon/5K back in May. I'd ask if you prefer trail running or road running.

If we were having coffee today... I'd tell you all about how 2015 is going to focus on speed! I've had breaking a 25-min 5k as a goal for the past 2 years, and right now I'm not sure I could even break a 30-min 5k. I've got a lot of work to do in 2015, which means I'm committing to no marathons in 2015 and lots of speed work and strength training. :-) I'm toying with an idea of hosting some kind of a virtual 5k race series that would last all year long. I'd ask if you were focusing on speed in 2015 and/or if you'd be interested in joining a virtual race series.

If we were having coffee today... I'd tell you how I'm *this* close to 1400 followers on Instagram! How fun would it be to get to 1500 before the New Year?! You can follow me here and I'd ask if you were on IG as well.

If we were having coffee today... I'd tell you how excited/frustrated I am that we are planning on buying a house in 2015. (yes, 2015 is going to be one hell of a year!) I'm excited at the possibility of moving into a place all our own. Our current apartment is getting more and more ghetto. The people who are moving in and the people who are walking around aren't making us feel the safest, so we're definitely excited to get out of our current complex and area of the city. I'm frustrated that it's not happening right now! When you make a huge decision like this, you just want it to happen right away. We're trying to save a little more money and find the perfect (for us!) house. We're probably several months away from actually moving, and I'm sure there will be a lot more frustrations to come, but it's still very exciting. I'd ask about your first time home buying experience.

If we were having coffee today... I'd probably apologize that I haven't mentioned anything about the holidays - shopping, decorating, baking, etc. Truth is over the years I've gotten less and less into the holidays. Jeff really doesn't get into them, and when it's just me, it just doesn't seem as important. Maybe I'll start getting into all the holiday decorating and baking again next year when we're in our own place. I'd probably ask you about any holiday parties you have coming up.

OK I've got to get ready for my trail run! It's been fun sharing with you!! I hope you'll go check out everyone else who stopped by the Ultimate Coffee Date over at Confessions of a Mother Runner today!

Thursday, August 7, 2014

New Look

Did you know that it's my birthday weekend? OF COURSE you did! I've only been talking about it since June. :) With my birthday streak and everything. Only a few more days of my streak, and I'm so happy that I've been able to stick with it for all 37 days (well, except that one day that I only did yoga. Oh, and I kind stopped the yoga around day 25 or something). It's so liberating to do a run streak. At least for me.

To continue the birthday celebrations, I decided to give myself a new look as I officially enter the late-30s. Yikes! How did that happen?!

I went blonde.


I've dyed my hair many, many times over the years, but never have I gone blonde.

It's been nearly a week, and it's been lots of fun so far. Lots of co-workers didn't even recognize me when I came into work Monday morning.


I've now been likened to Marilyn Monroe, Patricia Arquette, and Brittney Snow.

Last night, N9NE Steakhouse at the Palms had a Tweet-up just for my birthday. OK, not really, but it was a doubly good excuse to start the celebrating early. Who am I to pass up free cocktails and hors d'oeuvres?

Plus I got to meet up with the lovely Katie from @itsjustKatie on Twitter and Chase This Skirt. She made me a skirt for the E.T. Full Moon Half Marathon on Sunday, and so she hand delivered it to me at the Tweet-up. Fun!


So, is blond better? I don't know, but I'm liking it so far. :-D

Have you ever changed your hair to where people didn't even recognize you?
How do you like to celebrate your birthday?

Tuesday, January 14, 2014

Tuesday's Tip #2 - Apps to Maximize Your Instagram

I ♥ Instagram. It's probably my favorite social media channel. Well, except my blog. Obviously. :)

Last week, for my inaugural Tuesday's Tip, I shared some ways to increase your Instagram following, and today I want to share a few of my favorite Instagram apps.

Tuesday's Tip #2 - Apps to Maximize Your Instagram


Apps to Maximize Instagram

There are a LOT of apps out there. I generally use the Instagram app itself most often, but recently I've discovered a few other apps that are pretty helpful.

All of these apps are available both from Google Play and the iTunes store. I've only used the free versions of the following apps. Most of them have full versions for purchase with more features, but here is what's available for free.

Apps to help with followers

InstaFollow (Google Play and iTunes)
This app allows you to keep track of who is following you, who recently unfollowed you, etc. It makes it really easy to follow people who you aren't following back I always try to follow back, unless it's clearly a spammy account OR to unfollow people who recently stopped following you.

Following/Unfollowing users is really quick and easy. Sometimes a little too easy. Instragram only also you to follow/unfollow 160 users/hour. This app makes it easy to get to that number and also prevents you from breaking any IG rules.

Statigr.am
This isn't really an app per se, but it is a very helpful tool. Just go to Statigr.am and log in with your IG username/password. Pretty much any stat you want on your account, Statigr.am will deliver - not only about who your followers ARE but which posts they are engaging with. Really useful info here!

Apps for collages

Sometimes it's fun to post a few pictures at once. I have tried a LOT of these types of apps, but here are my two favorites.

PhotoGrid
This is probably my most used app. I use it to watermark my pictures or add any other text. It also has great stickers and backgrounds. You can use it with a single picture or up to 9 photos. Lots of great layout options for multiple photos. You can even add filters and crop images. It auto populates the images, but it's really easy to switch them around.

Flipagram
This is a new-to-me app since I got my Nexus 5, and I was hooked right away! Instead of a static collage, this app takes your photos and flips through them in a slideshow video. You can choose which photos to include, and you can even find music to play along with the video! It's very fun!

Apps for likes

The following apps are very new-to-me, and I haven't played around with them a lot yet, but they are full of potential!

TagsforLikes
I used to use an app called InstaTag, but it was a bit complicated and cumbersome. I recently discovered TagsforLikes and found it very easy to use. Basically, you just choose a category and then copy the hashtags to paste into your Instagram post. So easy!!

InstaWeather, InstaFood, InstaPlace
Again, these are very new to me, and I haven't played around with them too much, but they are great! They all come with multiple overlays for your photo, and they come with Cool Hashtags, which you can copy and paste into Instagram. Most of the skins are very easy to customize. Just double tap on they text you want to change. Double tapping on the temperature on InstaWeather will toggle between °F and °C. I think the default is for °C, but you can change that in the settings in the upper left.

NOTE: Instagram only allows 30 hashtags per post. TagsforLikes generates a list of 30 hashtags, so if you want to use any of your own, you'll need to delete some of the copied hashtags. The Insta apps don't generate as many hashtags, so you're free to add your own as well.

What are your favorite Instagram apps?