Tasting Sustainable Food at Bella Green

Hey everyone! I’m super excited to share a few photos from the latest Dallas Blogger Brunch event and talk about sustainable, tasty food! On my journey to losing weight for our wedding I’ve had a few hiccups here and there. I’m so tempted by yummy, unhealthy food! At work, we have a snack bar that’s totally free and just sitting there staring at me. Needless to say I indulge way too often and then feel sick afterwards.

What’s sustainable food?

I fully expected to feel tired and full from our brunch at Bella Green in Dallas, but I felt the opposite! Bella Green focuses on creating delicious food while reducing their ecological footprint through sustainable food practices. I love that!

My grandma grew up during the Great Depression and instilled in me the importance of not wasting anything! She and my grandad saved everything and if it was broken, they’d fix it. I like finding ways I can save money and be more conscious of waste! Bella Green has made an effort to conserve water, use alternative power, reduce chemical use and pollution, and use sustainable furniture for their restaurant. How cool is that? Everything I tasted felt healthy and tasted delightful!

The sweet potato hash was full of flavor and nutrition! The lemon poppyseed gluten free pancakes were to die for! And don’t even get me started on the delicious desserts. Holy smokes. The tres leches cake was amazing! I love how good, wholesome food can just send your spirit soaring!

So we have to talk about the gorgeous calligraphy place settings and the flowers! White Wing Floral created the lovely centerpieces and Elizabeth Denniston Design did the calligraphy. I admire these ladies so much for how they can create beautiful things. I’ve always wanted to learn how to arrange flowers and write perfectly like that.

Our brunch was absolutely delicious and meeting up with so many inspiring ladies makes Dallas feel more like home! And inspires me to keep writing and sharing things with you guys!

The 4 Worst Things Bloggers Do to Themselves

Being a blogger starting out is the worst. It’s like taking 3 steps forward and 2 steps backward constantly. I mean it when I say the struggle is real. Fashion blogging can be lots of fun at times. When I get the perfect shot of my outfit or a brand wants to send free product to me, it’s like Christmas day! I honestly love doing it and wouldn’t dream of giving it up. However, there are days when style blogging gets me down in the dumps and just puts me in a bad mood. Here are 4 of the worst things you can do to yourself as a blogger.

Play the Comparison Game

Oh. My. Goodness. This is the worst and I do it all the time. I’ll start out having a good day and pop over to one of my favorite blogs and think to myself “wow, why can’t I be like her?” BOOM. My whole day was just ruined. I always end up trying to convince myself that if I had been “born into money” or if I had “better luck” I’d be just as successful as the blogger I’m comparing myself to. As any blogger knows though, it’s a lot of work no matter how much money or luck you have.

Doubt Your Own Beauty

Similar to the point above, being a style blogger involves pretty pictures and makeup that looks just right. I keep my face and hair pretty natural. I don’t do fake eyelashes or hair and I definitely don’t edit my photos to look thinner. However, the camera is so deceiving to the naked eye. One of my favorite bloggers has been honest about her false eyelashes and hair but every time I see her gorgeous photos, I start feeling bad about myself and how I look! That’s a terrible thing to do myself and I know I’m not the only one who does it!

Place Your Value in How Many Followers You Have

Growing your following is so important to your success as a blogger. If you’ve ever experienced slow growth though, then you know how frustrating it can be. When I go to check how many Instagram followers I have, I’m hoping to have gained some and not lost any. Unfortunately, often enough I’ll have lost 15 or so overnight. My heart sinks a little and so does my self-worth. Placing your value in how many people follow you on Instagram is detrimental to your mental health and it’s sadly something I find myself doing all the time.

Wonder What the Point Is

During the regular work week, I have my 9-5 job that keeps me busy 40 hours a week. My 2nd part-time job is my fashion blog, Witty n Pretty, which keeps me busy pretty much every evening and weekend. Needless to say, I’m pretty booked up all the time. When I find myself running around like crazy trying to get pictures taken, a blog post written, and social media posts posted, then I want something to show for it. That can be in the form of traffic, social shares, or something else. Often enough, I find that I don’t have much to show for my efforts and I begin to wonder “is this worth my time?” Obviously, it is if I’m writing this blog post! But believe me, I have those dramatic moments when I question everything.

Please, please leave me a comment if you’ve ever experienced any of these thoughts! I find that it’s so much better to be honest with ourselves and others and say “yeah, sometimes this really sucks!” It’s nice to know you aren’t alone in your blogging journey!

Here’s to the New Bloggers

I have some really exciting news to share with you guys! Since I started my blogging journey, the whole experience has been a series of ups and downs and wondering when success will start knocking on my door. I read countless articles from other bloggers talking about what led to their success and what I needed to do differently. Years later, I’ve come to figure out that each blogger has their own journey, including you.

Being a Dallas fashion blogger means I have more competition than I could ever dream of and very little space to fit in. My little corner of the Internet is my favorite place to be and something that still inspires me everyday! However, I understand what it’s like when you feel frustrated and no one is giving you answers or any help whatsoever. With the moderate success I’ve seen, I’d like to share my knowledge with new bloggers who are stuck, need advice, or simply would like someone to look over their content and social media profiles. In an effort to help other bloggers like myself, I’m offering up my expertise with some free consulting for new bloggers! That’s right- free!

Blogging involves collaboration, partnership, and often enough- mentorship. If you’re new to the whole fashion or lifestyle blogging scene, then I’d love to help you. You can drop me a line on my new consulting page (here.) I look forward to chatting and helping you grow!

Fashion Blogging: the Struggle is Real

Good morning loves! I’m going to dive right into my post today because it’s something that’s been on my mind lately and I think it will benefit all of us to talk and think about. Since I started blogging about 2 years ago, I’ve learned a lot. Starting out, I didn’t know what SEO or keywords were, brand collaborations were a mystery to me, and taking good blog pictures was something I just couldn’t do. Most importantly, I didn’t know how fashion blogging success was achieved. And here’s a secret: I still don’t.

If you’re a blogger like me, you probably spend a lot of time on social media (particularly Instagram) scrolling through your feeds, liking photos, and commenting. There’s always that one amazing photo that catches your eye and makes you want to learn more about the person behind it. When you get to their profile, you see that they have well over 100k followers and have achieved that in the same amount of time it’s taken you to get 1000. You spend the next hour wondering “how did they do that?”. After awhile, that question turns into self-doubt and a lack of confidence in what you’re doing.

Surely I’m not the only one who feels like this sometimes. The other day I found another Texas blogger on Instagram who’s literally living my dream right now. She’s my age and has had her blog for the same amount of time I’ve had mine. She’s been so successful though, that she’s had to hire a full time staff to help her with her blog. It reminded me very quickly that I’m still “the staff” instead of the CEO. *Boom* the self-doubt hit me like a ton of bricks. I thought “How am I ever supposed to see that kind of success when I can barely drive traffic to my blog?”.

Before I started writing this blog post, I was scrolling through my Insta feed and saw another blogger I really admire had gotten a collaboration with a major luxury car company. How on Earth did she score that?! After seeing that, I just laid down and had a good cry. Sometimes those help, you know? The thoughts running through my head were everything from “give up and say you tried” to “just give it a little longer”. Luckily, I’m choosing the latter of those thoughts.

The point of this post is not to provide a million reasons why blogging is hard or ways you can improve, it’s to have some real-talk about how hard it is to make it in the fashion blogging world. Nothing worth having ever comes easily, even though it appears to from the outside looking in. This has been my dream for awhile now and I can’t give up just because the success of others makes me jealous or fills me with self-doubt. I have to keep going until God sends me a flashing neon sign that says “stop”.

For the bloggers who are just starting out, it gets better, just stick with it. For the bloggers who’ve been add it for awhile, keep going. And for the bloggers who’ve achieved great success, don’t hold out on the rest of us, because chances are someone helped you get to where you are. Now, it’s your turn to do the same for someone else.

How to Spot a Scam

Happy Friday, y’all! Earlier this week I got an interesting email from a particularly famous brand asking me if I would be interested in doing a collaboration with them. As a blogger, I’m always on the look out for brand partnerships. However, I exercise caution for a very good reason. Once I expressed interest in the collaboration, the brand representative that had contacted me fired back an email outlining the project and what it entailed. Just by the description I knew that it was nothing more than free publicity for the brand. Here’s how I knew:

1. Key Phrases: The buzzwords that companies love to use to indirectly say that you will get nothing out of this “collaboration.” One of the most common is that they need you to help “spread the word” or give “tips to your readership” about what they can do with said product.
2. Lack of Marketing Budget: The first thing I ask is what the budget is for the project. When there isn’t one, they really can’t tell you anything else beyond “well we don’t have one, we simply wanted to generate some buzz about…” Boom. Sorry, but you won’t be “generating buzz” on my blog. That’s when you know this is for their benefit and not yours. Move on.
3. They Immediately Provide Links: While this isn’t always a bad thing, it can be a red flag. How do they already have links that will credit you with whatever referrals you give them? Oh wait- you don’t get credit for referrals. The brand is literally giving you a link to lead your followers a way from your blog and to the product. It would be one thing if you actually made a commission off of it, but in this case you won’t be.
4. Flattering Words: The brand rep called me a “guru” in the particular product category she was marketing. I had written a few things on topics similar but in no way was I a “guru.” Flattery will get you nowhere darling. Unless you plan on paying me, then it will get you somewhere!

I wrote this post specifically for the newbie bloggers out there. When I first started, I participated in a few of these “collaborations” and got nothing out of it. Many promised that the best posts would be shared on their social media pages. That never happened. Don’t fall prey to these scams. Instead, keep your head up and know that your blog is worth more than free publicity.

-Liz (follow me on Bloglovin’!)