4 FREE STOCK PHOTO WEBSITES

It is not possible to post the perfect original photo for your blog every time you write. Sometimes it is quite nice to have access to other images that are perfect for you to use, especially if they are free. Many are free from copyright but you need check you need to check their attribution criteria upon their individual licenses.

GETREFE is filled with real life images free for personal and commercial use.

PICJUMBO is my personal favourite filled with loads of fabulous images covering fashion, nature, technology food and more. They are free to use for your own projects with attribution appreciated.

SPLITSHIRE photos from Italian photographer Daniel Nanescu who offers his images for free covering loads of different topics.

FREE FOOD STOCK IMAGES amazing food images with attribution required.

Where do you love to get your stock images from?

WEEKEND IN MELBOURNE | KIDSPOT VOICES 2105

Friday I was sitting on the plane ready to fly to Melbourne with mixed emotions of travelling without my girls Miss R + Miss B. My eldest was at work and youngest at school and although they are old enough to look after themselves I still feel the major pull at the heart string and feel a little guilty on leaving them for a whole weekend. Well guess what they survived. They both had a fabulous weekend together ordering takeaway and going to the movies.

Sunrise

But as many have been telling me for a long time I need to follow my heart and take that leap out of my comfort zone and go for it. Life is for living and accomplishing those little milestones that we would never normally consider doing.

You know what people are so lovely and so accommodating to make you feel comfortable, but I still have a little inferior complex that I am always being judged for something and get a little taken aback and overwhelmed in meeting new people. 

I was overwhelmed and wanted to connect with loads more bloggers than I did. But I held myself back and stuck within my comfort zone with some wonderful ladies that I feel so privileged to have connected with. 

The Kidspot voices for 2015 Breakfast sponsored by Garnier provided me with new insight to extraordinary people. Listening to how and why they started was so inspirational and to know that they are superstars in their own right. These lovely ladies are just like ourselves with a little celebrity status attached to them. 

Next we moved onto the mastercalss which was a haven of information from brilliant people. you can read most of went with a brilliant read up here.

I am so happy that I was able to go and meet so many fabulous and extraordinary people. 

Would I go again? Yes I will. Although all was quite overwhelming for me I had a great time and came home feeling I had taken the next step to making my blogging dream come true.

Step out of your comfort zone and follow your dreams. X

getting to know A LITTLE MORE ABOUT ME

I was a little excited a little excited when the lovely Kirralee who blogs over at Escape With Kids kindly nominated me for a Leibster Award. The Leibster Awards are rewarded from fellow bloggers to another blogger to find and enjoy new blogs. A way to say you like what they bring to the blogosphere. Also a fabulous way to find and share new bloggers and to be rewarded for what you do.

1. What is your favourite memory of travel or exploration from your own childhood? I have many memories taking road trips up and down the east coast of Australia, but the one that sticks out the most is camping at Rainbow Beach with family and just enjoying everyone and everything.

2. One item that I can never leave home without? Umm that would have to be my iPhone - my connection with the world.

3. What was the last book you read? I am currently reading Gone Girl (this is the third time I have started it). Should I continue reading or just go and see the movie?

4. What was your first paid job? Working at my local General Store in a small country town, where I spent my teenage years.

5. What skill or talent do you wish you had? I wish I could sing, i mean I do sing, but not in tune I am a little tone deaf I would say.

6. Which celebrity would you most like as your best friend? Rachel Zoe an amazing stylista from which I could learn amazing skills from. The friends, the acquaintances, the fashion, the designer labels. Sharing a little of her lifestyle.

7. Favourite breakfast food? Crunchy sourdough bread with a perfectly poached egg and rocket and a glass of freshly squeezed orange juice with a skim milk latte, extra hot.

8. Describe your ideal Saturday A long brunch with family and friends.

9. What is your favourite type of accommodation? An apartment resort style where you can cook if needed but still have the convenience of restaurants, room service.

10. What was the first trip you took with your children? Flying to Melbourne to visit family.

I would like to nominate these fabulous ladies - 

Bev from Iris May Style

Barbe from Fashionista In Suburbia

Rachel from Nourish

Monica from Lifeastyled

Yvette from The Stylist Splash

Belinda from Gallerie B

My questions for you lovely ladies

1. What are three words that describe your blog?

2. Who is your idol and why?

3. If you had a choice to holiday anywhere in the world, where would you go?

4. Are you a morning or evening person?

5. If you were granted a wish - what would that wish be?

6. You cannot live without ______________

7. Your favourite fragrance is _______________

8. Best blogging moment?

9. What was your favourite memory of school?

10. whose style do admire most - Carrie | Audrey | Marilyn?

225 YEARS OF PEARS

I was lucky enough to be invited to a breakfast to celebrate '225 Years of Pears' on Monday morning. This was the first time I did not back out after accepting a request to  do something special. I have turned a new page of my personal endeavours and I am going to embrace every opportunity I get along this blogging journey. I have hesitated and held back for so long and I will be saying yes more often and actually attend all I can in the future.

Early Monday Morning I travelled by bus and train to Green Square and then walked to The Grounds of Alexandria for breakfast at The Atrium. I was welcomed, had a glass of sparkling water and ordered a skim milk latte while other guests arrived. I have to say that I wanted to say hi to so many but I am super shy and took a step back to wait for the lovely Ada Nicodemou, while enjoying a lovely muesli and fruit salad. I eventually got mingling and met a few lovely young ladies. So I left full of confidence and happy that I attended and thank Ogilvy for the opportunity to attend.

Pears soap was invented ib 1789 in London. Over the past 100 years Pears has perfected the technology a bathing soap that preserves the youthfulness of skin using pure glycerine, oils and natural ingredients. 

Image  via The Telegraph

Ada Nicodemou is just beautiful and was very well spoken and fun to be around with her bubbly personality. Ada stated that "One piece of advice that her mum always gave me was to moisturise my body, including my hands, and it is true you know, it is simple but it is true Pears is honestly so gentle on the skin, it contains high quality ingredients and natural oils so it does not strip away your skin." 

"Women have realised that embracing their natural beauty - including grey hair, natural skin and fine lines - shows them at their most beautiful and depicts a life well lived."

"Inner purity and confidence are agreed by women to be the vital ingredients that make up what we see as timeless beauty. I truly believe that you can feel confident and vibrant no matter what your age, by embracing your natural beauty."

The breakfast was all about timeless beauty and we had to share one word of what timeless beauty means to you and my word is 'confidence.' 

In one word how would you describe timeless beauty? #225yearsofpears

10 ways to TROUBLESHOOT YOUR BLOG

As a publisher you like to create a seamless and simple experience for your readers and visitors to keep them coming back. I found these tips on IFB.

1. Check your blog's images. Images should not be too big as they can drag down the blog's load time. If so. take the time to resize your images to a smaller size. You should also check that the images load properly as you may not be seeing any glitches.

2. Access your blog from other browsers. Try to check your blog in each browser as they can all load fully. make sure your CSS [ cascading style sheets - the look and format of your presentation] is not acting up in a browser you do not frequently use.

3. Update your plugins. Certain plugins [software component which adds specific capabilities to a larger software application] need to updated to function properly. You need to update regularly to fix bugs and other errors to keep everything running smoothly. 

4. Test out your comment section. Spam filters and comment moderation systems can act up. If you do not know if the comment area works then how can your readers leave a comment. So take the time to leave a comment to make sure all is working well.

5. Clear out your dead links in your blog roll. Do not let the dead blog [blogs that are not posting} links take up valuable space in your blogroll. Delete. Update. Save.

6. See how long it take your blog to load. The key time for a blog page to load should be around 5 seconds. If it is any longer your reader can get impatient and may leave before your content has loaded. If it is taking a while to load then consider cutting the widgets you have active. Also limit the amount of posts you display on your main page. your blog should then load faster.

7. Optimise your blogs widgets. If you can live without certain widgets, then take them down. Then can distract your readers so stick to 2 or 3 that are your favourites and make sure they are coded properly and in tune with your blog.

8. Update your archives. If a reader would like to peruse your older posts they should be able to so in an easy way. Use the widgets available to make access easy.

9. Utilise your search bar. Try your search bar to make sure it is working correctly. Do your posts show properly are your images loading well? Try your search bar and see what happens.

10. Double check your RSS feed. We often forget about our RSS feeds [really simple syndication of web feed formats]. This tool delivers your posts straight to your readers, without this your readers could be missing out on posts. Try subscribing to your own feed to see if it is working. 

Blogging tips ~ HOW TO PITCH YOURSELF

A pitch is an email sent to a brands PR person or marketing contact letting them know that you are interested in promoting their product. I have been interested in the right way to pitch myself and thought I would share a few tips I found.

In your pitch introduce yourself and your blog. Be brief and to the point. Tell them what makes your blog stand out and why it is so special. We all have our own niche and their are lots of bloggers out there who are looking to pitch their own unique style and taste. 

Show your blogs value by including your blogs stats like your monthly pageviews and the unique page views. 

Include your social media accounts like facebook, twitter, instagram, Klout just to name a few. Your reader demographics should include age sex and location. Google analytics helps with all your stats and demographics.  To any company your statistics are very important. So be very upfront and let them know why they should invest in you and your blog.

Be brief and concise and write in short sentences showcasing a little about you and the value of your blog. Make sure you spell correctly and use the right grammar. I know spelling mistakes put me off. 

More tips on how to pitch your blog can be found on IFB.

I pitched myself on a facebook page this week and I received a package in the mail which I will share with you next week.

Have a lovely weekend. V xx

The Week That Was.....

When this post goes up my daughters and I will be in Melbourne spending time with family and visiting my favourite places. Melbourne city and I would also like to take a trip out to Chapel Street in Prahran to visit Top Shop. Prahran is my old stomping ground when I lived in Melbourne over 20 years ago. Melbourne was the place I moved to after finishing High school in the country of Victoria and going to the UK for 9 months. I chose Melbourne as my best friend from school was living there and I bunked down with her and a few other friends. More about my life in Melbourne at a later date.

BellaMUMMA make-up tip for make-up free Monday.



Tips from Nuffnang Blogopolis 2012


Finding your Voice from Edenland


The Tortoise and the Rising Star  Suger Coat It

What Opportunities Can Blogging Open Up For You?  Nikki at Styling You

Branding Your Blog  Nicole at Planning With Kids

Being a Newbie  Belinda at Billy and August

Spoon Porn and Other Adventures at Blogopolis  Five Frogs Blog

Blog Design Tips Katrina from the Block

Love these photo's of Montmartre, Paris.  

Have a lovely weekend I will be adding a few popular posts over the next few days, while I am away.


Vicki xoxo