Laina Turner's Blog, page 59

How to Improve Your Instagram Stats

I am hoping you can tell me!

Instagram has exploded. Much like Pinterest people LOVE LOVE LOVE images. A picture is worth a thousand words and all that. Which is true and who doesn’t love to look at other folks pictures? Although based on the demographics more so for people under 35. I’m over that demographic and I like Instagram though I admit I look more than I post. But only because I forget to take pictures and post them until after the fact most the time.

Instagram is one of my weakest social media platforms. Both in terms of followers and engagement and I know it’s because of what I mentioned in the earlier paragraph. I forget to take pictures of the exciting things happening in my life.

Maybe that’s because my life is BORING?

So what to do if you’re outside the main demographic of Instagram and have a boring life yet want to raise your Instagram stats?

I’m not sure, but I have to do something because right now my stats SUCK.

My likes are at .76% and engagement is virtually non-existent. I know. Pathetic.

But that’s why I writing this post. Because I’m hoping someone out in the blogosphere can give me some tips on how to improve my likes and engagement then I can write a follow-up post. Kill 2 birds and all that.

So what is my current Instagram strategy (and I use the word strategy loosely)?

I post cute meme’s I make on PicMonkey of sayings I like and quotes from my books.

A few pictures of my life when I can remember to take them.

Spend time daily liking and commenting on other photos of people and living vicariously through what seems to be their exciting day.

And that’s about it.

So you tell me.

What should I be doing?

HELP!!!!!

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Have an amazing day!

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Yummy Chicken Spinach Alfredo Lasagna

This is a sponsored post but all opinions are mine.

 I got the chance to try some Hooray Puree product and the opportunity to sneak some vegetables in a dish without the kids knowing.

How cool is that?

Hooray Puree is what it sounds like. Purred vegetables that come in a pouch that can be added to almost anything so you can bump up the amount of veggie servings you’re getting.

The family likes lasagna and they like chicken alfredo so I thought I would kind of make a combo and then add some Hooray Puree.

 

Chicken Spinach Alfredo Lasagna 2015-02-16 12:29:13






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Save Recipe Print Ingredients 1 box pre-cooked lasagna noodles 1 jar alfredo sauce 1 lb chicken breast 2 tbsp olive oil 1 pouch Hooray Puree - spinach 8oz shredded mozarella cheeese
Instructions Cut chicken into bite size pieces and saute in olive oil unitl cooked. In a square 9in pan line the bottom with noodles. Sprinkle with cheese. Spread chicken evenly. Sprinkle more cheese. Pour on the pouch of spinach. Cover with 3/4 jar of sauce. Sprnkle more cheese. Cover wiht more noodles. Sprinkle with remaining cheese and rest of sauce. Cook in 350 degree over for 35-40 minutes.
Laina Turner http://www.lainaturner.com/

 

The kids didn’t even notice the spinach which in some ways I found odd as it is green and you could see it. Shows how observant they are.

I paired it with some cheesy garlic bread and it was a hit. They said on a scale of 1-10 (10 being good) it was an 8.

Definitely a win in my book.

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Enjoy Being a Kid

If you’re a parent, you’ve undoubtedly heard your kids say “I can’t wait until I grow up.” My daughter said this to me the other day and I had to be honest and tell her that being an adult wasn’t all it was cracked up to be.

Of course, she didn’t agree with me and listed all the things that she felt were awesome about being an adult.

No bedtime.
Can eat what you want.
Can buy what you want.
No one tells you want to do.

The list went on, but you can see a common theme here. It’s all about freedom. Her perception is that being an adult means doing whatever you want. I tried to explain that adulthood wasn’t exactly like that. In fact, it was quite the opposite.

Staying up isn’t all it’s cracked up to be. I would love to go to bed when I want. Usually at about 8pm after a long, tiring day, but I can’t because there is so much to do.
I could eat what I want but then I would weigh 500 pounds. The older I get, the less of the chocolate and Doritos I can eat. So instead I try to eat salads and water.
I can buy many things but since money doesn’t grow on trees I also have to pay for those things. And of course I can’t buy everything I want. Like my own private island or a Louis Vuitton bag.
Lots of people tell you what to do. There are many life rules and regulations. From the government to your boss. Life’s not a free for all.

As we talked I explained to her there were many great things about being an adult but along with the fun came a lot of responsibilities and that she should stay a kid as long as she could.

She said maybe I was right.

I can’t wait to ask her when she’s 30 if being an adult is what she expected.

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E is for Eccentric

Departing from a recognized, conventional, or established norm or pattern. Based on this definition I would say I am eccentric as is most of the people I know.

I mean really who isn’t strange in their own way?
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What I Love About Valentine’s Day

When you think of Valentine’s Day, you think of conversation hearts and Cadbury eggs. Oh, wait that’s me and yeah I know Cadbury eggs aren’t Valentines but damn they’re good and you can buy them now so why not make them a Valentine candy. Heart shaped Cadbury Eggs. Or more aptly described Cadbury Hearts.

But I digress. This post isn’t about Cadbury Eggs although now I really, really want one.

I realize Valentine’s Day is a Hallmark holiday to many but personally I don’t see anything wrong with a fun day to celebrate. I mean who doesn’t like celebrations?

So to get me in the mood I thought I would make a list of what I think about when I think about Valentine’s Day.

Conversation hearts
Chocolate Covered Cherries
Flowers
Wearing something red
Special dinner (with dessert, of course)
When I was a kid knowing my dad would make the day special
Being made to feel special by the ones who love me
Doing something special for my kids (I know I’m overusing the word special)

This weekend we are going to celebrate as a family with a special dinner, and I am going to bake something, not sure yet. Going to let the kids pick. Then have a family movie night. I might make my favorite chocolate covered popcorn or chocolate no bake cookies. Easy to make, yet a family favorite.

What stands out in your mind about Valentine’s Day?

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Stella & Dot Clutch

**This post contains affiliate links and I will be compensated if you make a purchase after clicking on my links.

Dust off those snowflakes and shake off those winter time blues! Add a pop of color to your wardrobe with the Capri Pouch from Stella & Dot. Starting today through 2/17, this Hot Pink/Poppy colored pouch is only $9.95 with a $50 purchase! Hurry, this offer is only valid until supplies last or 9pm PST on 2/17. Check out the picture below!

*The Capri Pouch must be manually added to the cart after you have reached the $50 threshold. The discount will occur in the cart.

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Fab 5 Friday

Here are some of my fav posts from the week. Enjoy and have an awesome Valentine’s Day.

A Fresh Start on a Budget – My 2nd Attempt at a Vlog…I admire anyone who vlog’s. It’s been on my to-do list forever.

The Lean Green Bean – Spicy Roasted Garlic and Walnut Hummus.…what a tasty sounding treat.

Autumn Leaves – 15 Free Fonts…I love free things.

Frugal Beautiful – 5 Money Mistakes to Avoid in 2015…I really need to follow some of these. I waste too much money for convenience (or at least that’s how I justify it).

Pink Heart String – Book Review 7 Things Every Wife should Know...I’m not married anymore but I was and it’s hard.

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Being a Positive Patty

Being positive isn’t always easy. Life can be challenging and throw us the unexpected curve ball that can take us off our game. But what’s important is knowing how to bounce back and tackle the issue rather than be upset over it and do nothing but feel even worse about it.

While I am happy most of the time the person who I admire most, and can learn a lot from, is my daughter Sydney.

Sydney is one of the happiest kids I know. Much more so than her older brother who tends to be a glass half empty person. Which is odd as neither me or his dad is like that.

Sydney is positive through and through. She’s is not only happy all the time but even at 8 (almost 9) she talks about being positive and how thinking positive thoughts will bring you more positive thoughts. We’ve had several conversations about how thinking positive about something won’t necessarily just make it happen every time but that whatever thoughts you put out in the universe is what you more often get back.

Yeah…heavy conversation for me much less having it with a child.

What’s it’s done for me is realize how important it is to think positively and to show my kids that positive Patty gets more donuts than negative Nelly (bad analogy I know).

Along those same lines, I was having a conversation with a friend of mine about that same topic the other day and we both agreed that sometimes we’re afraid of finding the positive or putting on a happy face because we don’t want to hide or mask our real feelings by pretending things are ok. While that can be a bit of a risk I believe it’s an acceptable one. Mostly because who wants to be a negative Nelly? That makes life depressing.

When I’m in a negative Nelly mood I go take a yoga class, get a venti sugar-free vanilla Americano from Starbucks, or read a good book. It gives me a chance to recharge and reprioritize what I need to focus on.

What do you do to get yourself out of a bad mood?

 

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Keep Your Goals Big and Your Actions Small

Last week I wrote about being overwhelmed by my inbox. I’m happy to say that so far the actions I took have helped tremendously. I got a lot accomplished last week and felt good for a change that I wasn’t behind. It’s been challenging to not fall into bad habits. So many emails come in that I do find myself wanting to put them off but I’ve been forcing myself to deal with them and I’m sure it will get to be more of a habit as I continue to work on it.

This whole email experience got me to thinking about how often I have a big goal and get frustrated when things aren’t exactly proceeding as planned toward that goal. Sometimes it’s hard to take a step back and look at the big picture. To relax and understand that some things take time and with most things

incremental movement forward is the most important factor in sustainable success
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.

The key to achieving your big goals is to focus on the small actions that will get you there. The daily movement of the needle in the right direction that will keep you motivated and excited about where you’re going.

Think about a big goal you have right now. For me one of my big goals is to hit 10,000 daily page views. Well there isn’t much I can do today to make that happen tomorrow. But I can make that happen a month from now by setting daily actions.

If I have those daily actions and can see my blog picking up momentum and each day bringing me closer to my ultimate goal that’s EXCITING! And if worse case happens and I don’t hit my goal in the intended time frame but can see how I’ve made progress it can help me to re-evaluate and set a new goal.

It’s the same with my fiction writing and setting a writing goal each day. I can’t sit down for a week and write 10,000 words a day and be done with a book. That’s unrealistic. But I can sit down and write 1000 words a day to get to my goal and feel good each day when I’ve accomplished it.

The morale of my story today is I can’t put too much pressure on myself and neither can you.

We all have big dreams we absolutely can achieve whatever it is we desire.
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 We just need to be smart about it.

Keep your goals big, keep your actions small!

 

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Red Velvet. The cake and the cocktail.

Red Velvet cake. What can you say about it besides it’s AWESOME!

Even more so than pumpkin flavored anything Red Velvet tops the list. Not only does it taste better than …well anything…I have childhood memories associated with it.

My grandmother, who was a fantastic cook and baker, made me a Red Velvet cake every year for my birthday and would also make my dad one. I just remember not only the blowing out of candles but digging in to this delicious 5 layer cake oozing with homemade buttercream frosting and it was heaven.

Strangely enough, even though I love to bake, I’ve never tried to make one. So I finally decided to change that.

I emailed my aunt to ask for my grandmother’s recipe but she hadn’t got back to me yet so I went online and found a recipe called none other than grandma’s recipe though I made it minus the nuts (and I am going to try it again with my grandma’s recipe when I get it).

Cake Ingredients

2 sticks butter at room temp

1 ½ cups sugar

1 oz red food coloring

3 tbsp cocoa

Pinch salt

2 eggs

1 c buttermilk

1 tsp vinegar

1 tsp vanilla extract

2 ½ c flour

1 ½ baking soda

Butter for 2 8in round pans

Cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy (don’t eat it because it looks quite tasty).

Make a paste our of food coloring, salt, and cocoa.

Then mix the paste into the fluffy butter and sugar mixture.

In a separate bowl combine the buttermilk and eggs and then add to mixture.

Next mix vanilla and vinegar then fold in baking soda and flour.

Grease the round pans and pour the batter in. Cook at 350 for about 30 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean.

 Flip cake over onto wax or parchment paper and let cool.

 Frosting

Heat following ingredients in a saucepan and stir until thickens – about 15 minutes. Let cool before using.

Now if you want to be fancy then cut your rounds in two so you can have4 layers. Or if you’re like me and that scares you…say what the hell…it’s just cake. It will still taste good even if it looks bad and 4 layers are so cool!

Plus you get more frosting that way.

 Frost all your layers as you assemble and voila. Yummy Red Cake.

Now you can’t have cake without a cocktail so I thought I would try to invent a cocktail that would compliment the cake.

 You can see by the pictures that it turned more of a pink than a red but it was still good and very Valentine’s looking.

 Red Velvet Cocktail

1 oz Godiva white chocolate liqueur

1 oz Cake flavored vodka

2 oz of milk or cream

Drop of food coloring (I probably could have used more than a drop and made it redder but I used too much on the cake and only had a drop left).

Enjoy!

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