Say Yes to Hoboken

Tips for Being an Organized Blogger

One of my new years resolutions this year was to get myself more organized as a blogger, particularly my finances. I wanted to give you an update on where I was at with all that- but also, I wanted to see if you had any other life saving ideas for being an organized blogger yourself. I’m a little nervous thinking that maybe I’m the last one to know about these things but hopefully there is something here that might benefit you and your blog/business (and if not please share any other organizational tricks you have!)

Just an FYI I’m not paid to write about any of these services, I just have loved my experience using them and would highly recommend them to other bloggers/small business owners.

1. Freshbooks.

A about a year ago I started to grow my blog (more about my job blogging as a career here) into a team of paid contributors, you can read all about them on my about page. And I started feeling a little out of control with my finances. There were so many people getting paid and money coming in from different places- it all made my head spin and I couldn’t tell you in one given month what I was making or spending. It was nuts! I did a little research and decided for 2013 I was going to change all that. The biggest change I made was using freshbooks.  I seriously can’t believe I functioned without it.  I’ve only used it for 4 months so there are still lots of things I might not use/know but here are a few things I  love about it so far (ps there is about a $20 fee/month but totally worth it in my opinion):

1. It organizes all of my income coming in and out each month into pretty charts and graphs

2. It makes a really easy way to send and keep track of invoices (even when you’re getting paid monthly via snail mail check). So much easier than making a time-sucking/soul-sucking pdf with your logo and more professional than paypal.

3. I can track expenses for paying my team really easily and organize them so I can fill out tax forms in a cinch when the time comes.

4. If you work hourly it’s super easy to track hours and then just click a button at the end of each month to create an invoice for unbilled hours and send it. boom. So much easier than counting hours and making a pdf.

5. I can also add expenses, track receipts and time track hours from a freshbooks app on my phone.

5 . During business hours I can just call a number and ask a nice person working for freshbooks a silly question about how to do something (life changing! I hate having a system I don’t know how to use well). This might be one of my favorite things! I’d definitely be frustrated without this. There are all kinds of video tutorials as well but I’ve found it’s so much easier just to pick up the phone and ask a quick question.

Keep on reading for a couple other organizational tools I’ve found…

(more…)

4

  

Hello Sponsors: Tea Party Ribbons

Excited to introduce to you a new sponsor on Say Yes to Hoboken.  Tea Party Ribbons is great resource for all kinds of ribbons including grosgrain ribbons, satin, sheer, decorative, etc. They also produce custom ribbons which is a fun option and I love all the metallics as well. In addition to offering a huge variety of ribbons from some of the best manufacturers they’ve also started to design their own grosgrain prints. I use ribbons all the time not only in wrapping gifts but crafts as well, seems like I can never have enough! Check out the Tea Party Ribbons site and show them a little love!

And for Say Yes readers, they’ve offering a 20% coupon code of SAYYES20, good for a one time purchase.

Sponsors and sponsored posts are what makes things run smoothly here at Say Yes to Hoboken so I can produce more quality content for you. Thank you for your support of these companies!

Interested in sponsorship at Say Yes to Hoboken? Email me at liz (at) sayyestohoboken.com for current rates 

1

  

Messy Art Projects

Remember last month where we had one whole morning where Henry and I did a bunch of crazy/messy/loud things we don’t usually get to do? We had so much fun last time we had another morning like that on Friday. This time I wanted to get into messy art projects since I’ve noticed that he’s gotten timid about getting his hands +body dirty. I wanted him to enjoy the mess (because, really, those are the best kinds of projects!)

First up was a large scale finger painting project!  Clorox has a funny list of ick-tionary terms to define all those messy, icky moments in parenting (car-posting might be my favorite: when a piece of food left in the car starts to compost. ha!).

I created my own ick-tionary term, marssy, for these messy art projects we did. The only instructions I gave him for this marssy was that he couldn’t use brushes and he had to cover the entire poster board with paint (don’t worry guys, washable paint!). I rolled out a huge sheet of brown kraft paper and he dropped paint onto paper plates for his artist palette.

At first he only used one itty bitty finger like the house trained city boy he is, and when I told him to try putting his whole hand in, he looked at me a little skeptically, but then went for it!

I also straight up suggested he could wipe the paint on his old jeans if he needed (what??), I think he first thought it was a joke- then when I insisted he was completely delighted! He even ended up finger painting on himself in the end (I still had to give him permission though).

Cleaning up was fun too- he wiped off the spots on the floor that were splattered with paint (there were surprisingly only a couple) and we wiped off his body a bit with a wet towel. We threw the pants in the washer and rolled up the kraft paper once dried to use again for scrap paper.

Why don’t we do more marssy projects like this? It was so much fun both for him and for me to watch!

Keep reading to see our messy art project, marssy #2…

_______________________________________________________________________________

This post is brought to you by The Clorox Company. I have partnered with them to spread the word about Clorox’s Ick-tionary program. To share Ick-tionary terms and real life messes, visit www.icktionary.com. All opinions and stories are my own.

_______________________________________________________________________________

(more…)

1

  

Weekend Roundup

We are having some friends over on Sunday for an Easter feast and a kiddie egg hunt in Golden Gate Park. Henry has been practicing hiding and finding eggs all week so he can be certain to fill his basket to the brim. Ham and scalloped potatoes are on the menu for sure, plus I might try this orange poppyseed cake. Hope you have a wonderful weekend, here are some links to explore:

Aren’t these fruity Easter eggs from The Alison Show so pretty? (image above)

Homemade grapefruit donuts (yum!)

Floral spring dress + floral blazer

Mini bunny pillows for Easter

Cute + simple sharpie eggs

A waffle wedding cake?

The prettiest Easter egg pinatas around

This summer dress looks beautiful and so comfy!

Also by me,

Spring Scarves: East Coast (by my sister Becca)

Spring Scarves: West Coast

10 last minute egg decorating ideas

10 spring shades under $15

Gender neutral kid rooms

0