Saying Goodbye to 2014

Awkward moment when I write a post about getting out of a blogging slump and I haven't written anything since.... 

ANYWAY. I hope you all had a lovely Christmas and are gearing up for an even better New Year. 

Since I last posted a few things have happened:

I officially became a brother of Phi Sigma Pi, Alpha Lambda chapter. It was a long and semi-grueling process, but it was so worth it. I can't wait to get back to school and start my first semester as a brother!

Me and the Beta Gamma class on induction night

Speaking of, I finished the Fall 14 semester with a 3.17 GPA which was a blessing considering how busy I was during the majority of it. I continued gaining more experience working with children at my job at Jumpstart Philadelphia. One of the parents told me that her son has my picture on the fridge and tells everyone that I'm his girlfriend! (I love working with preschoolers)

After the semester ended, I took a vacation to Oklahoma to meet my boyfriend's family and to see his hometown. It was a lot of fun, and we ate at almost every restaurant in Oklahoma (just kidding, but we did eat A LOT)

Ryan and I found a scenic turnout on
one of our drives around Oklahoma!

Pic of us at the OKC Thunder game...
they lost but I got to go on the court!

We flew home on Christmas Eve and I had a great holiday spending time with my family and opening gifts. I have a new prized possession: a MacBook Air. It's so different from my old, heavy, and slow Toshiba laptop. It's been a little difficult getting used to it but I love it still!

I wish you all a happy and healthy New Year. 

I am making a resolution to blog more often and start documenting things more. I hope that I will be able to find the time to do this with everything else that I am involved with! I want to link up with new bloggers, as well. Leave me links to your blogs/bloglovin and I would love to check your site out!

How to Beat the Blogger's Slump

I'll admit it, since the semester started I've not only been super busy, but I've also found myself in a blogging slump. I've thought about blogging often and I've even opened up a new post and started at the white space for a solid 5 minutes. But when it came to actually putting something down on the page, I was at a loss. That's why I'm bringing you...

There are 3 easy steps to beat the blogging slump. *These are all recent revelations.

1. Stop caring about what your readers will think (sort of). Obviously, you still want people to read your blog so you shouldn't write about things that could only possibly pertain to you. But you shouldn't be afraid to write something because you don't think your followers will read it. You never know! Post it anyway! The way I see it, posting something iffy is better than not posting anything at all.

2. Catch up with your favorite blogs. I spent the past hour browsing Bloglovin' and catching up on my favorite blogs. Reading new posts and scrolling through my feed is a great way to get some inspiration and get excited to start blogging again!

3. Write what you know. Obviously, I'm going through a blogging slump so I thought, why not write about it? If you're having issues organizing, write about how you're dealing with that. If you're super busy, write about how you are keeping up with your hectic schedule. If you are trying new recipes, make sure you take pictures and write about your experience! You can't go wrong with writing about what you know and what you're currently experiencing.

Hopefully these steps are helpful and will allow you to beat the blogging slump like I have! This is not an exhaustive list, if you have any other tips to help bloggers get out of a slump comment below!

How to Make the Most of College: 5 Tips for Freshmen

Chances are that classes have already begun for you or are starting shortly. (I started classes this week and had to put my blog on hold for a few days, so I'm sorry this post is so late!) During my first few months of college, I had no idea what to expect and was willing to take advice from anyone and everyone!

Starting my sophomore year of college has been stress-free and surprisingly really easy so I wanted to help those freshmen and transfer students who are in the same boat as I was a year ago. Here are 5 basic tips that worked for me during my first month of college. 

This post is geared towards freshmen but can be applied to any college student, of course!

1. Leave your door open. Whether you live in a dorm or a brand new apartment, it's always good to limit the amount of time you spend in your room. If you absolutely must be in your room (or have nowhere else to go!) leave your door propped open. It's much more inviting and chances are you'll make many more friends that way! 

2. Go to campus events. At Temple we have this thing called Welcome Week. It's mainly just for freshmen to get a feel for campus and see all the different things we have to offer here. I loved Welcome Week because it gave me things to do and places to go when I was bored! Take your roommate along or go alone and make some friends! Talk to everyone. Introduce yourself! You have a unique opportunity to reinvent yourself at college, so take advantage of it!

3. Go to sporting events. Sporting events are a great way to gain some school spirit and pride (if you don't have any already!). I love going to Temple games and cheering on the Owls! I have such a good time, especially if I go with a group of friends. Sit with the student section for an even greater experience!

4. Don't be afraid to join and try new things! College is all about experience. If you want to join a club that doesn't exist, start one! Get involved in as many things as possible (but don't join more clubs than you can handle!).

5. Don't sweat the little things. Always remember you're not alone! If you're stressing about something, call your parents! They'll love to hear from you and love that you thought of them. They miss you more than they let on. If you don't want to call your parents there plenty of other options. It's always beneficial for you to seek advice from those that have gone through it. And it's normal to doubt yourself and your abilities when you get to college. Try to remind yourself why you're there and the things that make you so awesome!

I hope these 5 tips were beneficial for you! If you're in college or even a college graduate, what advice would you give to those who are going through it for the first time? If you're a new college student, I'm always open to hearing your concerns and offering any advice I can give! Comment below and I'll get right back to you :)

DIY: Cushioned Storage Crates

If you're like me, you're spending your last week before college doing all of those DIY projects you put off until the last minute. This is a quick and easy project that I absolutely LOVE and get so many compliments on. I did this project last summer and covered the crates with black and white fabric to match my comforter. This year, I bought a new comforter so I figured I'd re-cover the crates and do a DIY blog post for you all!

This is what the crates looked like when I made them last summer... also here's a shameless plug for you to follow me on Instagram!

Cute, right?! I loved them, they were so useful last year. Now let me show you how I did it!

What You Need:

2 (or 3 or 4 or however many you want to do!) regular old crates. You can buy them in many colors at places like Target or Walmart. I bought mine last year at Walmart for super cheap! 

You will also need a square of plywood that fits right inside the crate's ledge. I took the crates to Lowe's and they cut the pieces for me so it was very easy! After I went to Lowe's I stopped at my local fabric store and looked through the scrap foam pile and found a piece that was big enough to cover the two squares of plywood. I had the woman at the counter cut it to the exact size I needed. I also got two quarters of fabric in those super cute black & white patterns you see above. The quarters were less than $2 a piece! The size of the fabric quarter is exactly the right size you need to cover the foam and plywood pieces. If they don't have any patterns you like in the fabric quarters, you can pick out a pattern and have them cut it! That's what I ended up doing this time since they didn't have much of a white & gray fabric selection.

You'll also need a staple gun, a hammer, and some scissors (if you would need to cut the fabric at all).

How:

Step 1: Glue the foam to the plywood. I used some regular old Elmer's glue and it worked just fine!

Foam/plywood SANDWICH!

 Step 2: Cut fabric to size (if needed) and lay the foam/plywood sandwich foam-side-down in the center of the fabric quarter and get your staple gun ready!

 Step 3: Staple fabric to the underside of the plywood. Make sure you're pulling it tight so the fabric doesn't get bunchy on the other side. To be honest, I sat with my knees in the middle of the plywood and stapled it that way to make sure it was plenty tight! I did about 4-5 staples on each side. To staple the corners: fold them in like you're wrapping a present and staple it twice.

Step 4: Hammer the staples down so they're flush against the plywood.  

The staple on the left has been hammered down, the staple on the right hasn't!

Step 5: Repeat for the rest of the crates you have!

Now you've turned some boring crates into some super cute extra seats/storage space for your dorm or apartment!

10 Tips for Brand New Bloggers

My first blog post was published on July 14th. I didn't really know what I was doing/getting myself into when I started a month ago, but I am here to tell you that I'm sure glad I did it. Blogging has opened up to me a brand new community of such happy, outgoing, creative, interesting people.
Having only been blogging for a month, I had to quickly try to catch myself up to other bloggers. Funny thing is, you can't. It's nearly impossible to know exactly what you're doing from the get-go. So don't stress about it!

Since I started my blog I have...

• changed my blog title 3 times
• changed my blog theme 4-5 times
• considered deleting twice
• changed my blog's twitter handle once
• made two different email accounts for the blog

At first, I was totally embarrassed that I kept changing my blog title but hey, you have to find something you love and something that sticks. Kayla Blogs is simple and generic but that's pretty much what this blog is! Simple, for sure. And its content covers a lot of bases (not quite yet, but soon). I needed something that would work with all of my content. Kayla Blogs does just that.

Even though I've only just started this blog, I've already learned QUITE a few things (stemming from mistakes, mostly) and I'd like to share them with you. 

Here we go.

Kayla's 10 Tips for Newbie Bloggers

1. Wait until you have posted at least 2-3 blog entries BEFORE you share your blog. No sense sending people to your blog when you have 1 post titled "About This Blog". If you have more than one it makes you seem like you know what you're doing a little better (even though you probably still have no clue, it's fine).

2. DO YOUR RESEARCH when it comes to hosting, domains, etc. I was a total dumb-dumb and paid for hosting when I realized that I just wanted to use Blogger. Poo. Side note: if you need help switching from yourblogname.blogspot.com to just yourblogname.com without having to switch your host (ex: Blogger to Wordpress) THIS article was super super helpful! The best step-by-step guide I found!

3. Don't worry when you can't think of anything to blog about. Because chances are, you  have a really good idea but you just don't think it's good enough. When in doubt, just start writing! If it ends up being a terrible post, then scrap it! But at least you got some words flowing and maybe a new idea popped into your head while you were writing the not-so-good post.When I'm completely stumped, I browse other blogs for inspiration and Blog Lovin' is a great resource for that which brings me to my next tip...

4. MAKE A BLOG LOVIN ACCOUNT! It makes it SO easy for others to view your blog posts all in one spot! It's also helpful for you, too, so you can keep up with your friends and favorite bloggers.

5. Make a separate Twitter account for your blog. I have a personal twitter, but I know not all my followers care about my blog and want to see me tweeting about my blog posts every 12 seconds. INSTEAD, make a separate Twitter and link them! In the Twitter app, you can click the little button next to the gear on your profile and link two accounts. Some people prefer using two separate apps for their accounts so they don't get mixed up. Personally, I haven't had this problem yet so this works for me! Once your accounts are linked you can tweet your blog posts and use your personal account to RT yourself every once in a while. Advertise your blog's twitter on your personal page a few times to give your friends the option to follow you there as well. If they follow you 1. that means they're an awesome friend and 2. they WANT to see your blog posts all up in their feed. So don't feel bad.

6. On your new blog's Twitter account, follow as many blogs as possible! @FemaleBloggerRT is an amazing account! Tweet your latest blog post and tag them and they'll RT you to all of their followers! I've followed a lot of people because I saw their posts RT'd by @FemaleBloggerRT so it definitely works. Check hashtags such as #lblogger if you're a lifestyle blogger, #bblogger if you're a beauty blogger, etc. Follow people who have those hashtags with their blog posts. You want to make as many friends as possible. That being said...

7. Tweet at people! Don't just post about your blog all the time. Make some friends! It's like the first day of school out there for us newbie bloggers. Nobody wants to be friends with someone who is ME ME ME all the time! If someone tweets a question, answer it! Use smiley faces, people like that. If someone posts a selfie tell them they look cute, compliment them (only if you mean it, of course)! Chances are it will 1. make their day and 2. they'll remember you as that super nice person that said they looked pretty. Also, if you see any Twitter chats going on join them! That's an AMAZING way to meet new bloggers. I haven't joined any yet but I'm looking forward to doing some in the near future.

8. If you're too shy to just tweet at people then thank them for following you! The more blogs YOU follow, the more people that will end up following you. If you see a few new people following you, tweet out a "hey thanks for following!" and chances are they'll appreciate it. Don't DM people, it means a little extra something when you're willing to publicly acknowledge their follow. You know what I mean, right?

9. Add your blog to ALL your social media accounts. Twitter bio, Instagram bio, Pinterest, Linked In (if it's not something totally unprofessional. Having a blog could definitely set you apart from the competition!), YouTube, Facebook...

10. Last tip is make a FB page for your blog and invite everyone on your friends list. Seriously. Almost everyone will be willing to help you out and click "like". Post regularly on it, and thank your "likers" when you reach a milestone!

Phew. This was a lot longer than I expected it would be, but the ideas just kept flowing!
If you're a newbie blogger comment below and I'd love to check out your blog! Also, include your Twitter handles as well I love following new blogs on Twitter!