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Yes, I’m fully aware that I’m a girl and that I was in Girl Scouts NOT Boy Scouts, but if I had been a boy in Boy Scouts I probably would have been kicked out. This fact is becoming more and more clear to me lately.
Maybe this was kickstarted by a few nights spent reading over Know Prepare Survive, but the facts remain that I’m useless for this kind of thing! Here is my evidence:

– I am out of shape
– I have no sense of direction
– I can’t tie very good knots
– I chicken out at the site of snakes, spiders, creepy crawlers, etc…
– I have to have an air mattress and a lamp when camping
– I can’t read a compass let alone a map
– I’m not that good with being in the woods without freaking out that something will eat me, kill me, maim me, etc…
– I have no hand eye coordination
– I have gotten lost in my apartment complex three times (including today which is what inspired this blog post)
– You get the idea…

What am I going to do to fix this? Welp, I think it’s high time I work on all of these skills so that I can feel confident not only in a camping situation but also so I’m more confident for survival regardless of my circumstances. With that said, I’m going to begin my “boy scout” training ASAP. I’ll just have to bring my husband along with me because he and I both agreed that if I try to learn survival skills without him there coaching me I’ll probably end up dead. Due to my lack of survival skills, one of my friends said that it’s probably wise that my husband and I consider purchasing some walkie talkies to make sure that we can find each other if one of us gets lost. That’s not a bad idea, we might have to try and find the best walkie talkie in the market to make sure we stay safe when we start “boy scout” training! Apparently, it’s always good to take someone camping with you, just in case anything goes wrong.

If anyone has any tips for me to learn survival skills, that would be greatly respected!

Source for image above

One of the questions I’m asked A LOT is “How Do I Get Your Job?” It’s no secret I LOVE what I do for a living. In my short career as a writer and photographer I’ve gotten to do some pretty amazing things. Meet celebrities, have wild experiences such as jet skiing and parasailing, enjoy the best (and worst) meals of my life and have enjoyed every single minute of being a freelancer! So, I’ve decided to finally answer the question, “How Do I Get Your Job?” by telling you what I did. If you think it will work for you too, feel free to follow my steps. I feel like my tips can be adapted by anyone, no matter what industry they’re wanting to get into. For example, my friend that proof-read this article before I posted it was trying to learn how to get gigs in comedy and she said she had taken a lot of the points on board! However, not everyone is going to agree with me. If not, how do you think I could have done it better?

Step one- decide you actually want what you are after. I had to make the conscious decision that I want to be a freelance writer and photographer for the rest of my life.

Step two- decide who you want to work for and then immediately contact them to find out how to do just that

Step three- annoy the hell out of them until they let you work for them. Okay, this might sound crazy but my persistence is what got me some of my first paid writing gigs. I actually had one client tell me they would give me a story if I would just quit calling and emailing them.

Step four- be on time with every deadline. I have heard from so many of my clients how they have to cease working with writers simply because they don’t turn stuff in on time- some of them don’t even give a reason and worse some of them don’t turn their stuff in at all!

Step five- keep coming up with ideas constantly. One of my gigs dried up because I quit submitting fresh ideas. I fully plan to sit down and brainstorm a big list and try to get this gig back ASAP but I’ve got a lot of irons in the fire right now and I’m trying to figure out my next move.

Step six- have a back up plan when the chips are down. I started several of my own websites including this one as well as Tampa Bay Freebies, Living the Secret, and We Are Full of Bull simply to keep having a place to write daily. A lot of companies have stopped hiring me because they are short on funds and having my own sites allows me to keep writing and hopefully soon make more money. I’ve signed up for several affiliate programs and adsense in hopes of having my websites make me cash even while I sleep.

That’s really it. I still just knock on doors and make phone calls and send emails when there is some gig I want, I’m persistent and I follow through. I have a back up plan that may ultimately become my plan A if all works out.

As I mentioned recently, my goals are far from complete. My next massive goal for my career is to become a 6-figure earner annually. I will spill the beans in an upcoming post on how I plan to make that goal a reality.

What are your tips for success?

I’ve been saying to my husband for years that I want to make 6 figures a year. When I say things like this he generally replies with a snarky comment like “I want a Mustang convertible” or “I want to fly to the moon.” I usually reply back with a snarky comment of my own and that’s the end of the conversation.

Last night, however, I had had enough. We ride together because we work in the same building right now and on our way home from work we were chatting together about life and our goals and I once again said “I want to make 6 figures a year by the end of this year.”

Just like always the snarky comments began. I got so mad I just about lost my cool but I forced myself to stay calm and I asked him why when I tell him my goal is to earn 6 figures a year he acts sarcastic like that instead of giving me words of encouragement. What he said back hit me so hard I nearly had to pull the car over (I was driving) because I realized just how right he was.

He said, “You say all these goals and wishes and dreams all the time but you never say HOW you are going to accomplish any of them.”

Whoa! He’s right. I say things like “I wish I was thinner, I wish I was richer, I wish I worked out more often, I wish I cooked more at home, I wish we were debt free, I wish…” but it’s only when I put together a plan for anything that I ever FOLLOW THROUGH.

A goal is just a wish/pipe dream until you have a plan to make it happen. So, today I’m going to sit down and begin brainstorming about HOW I will make 6 figures a year and PLAN it out on paper to make it happen. I’ll break it down into tasks I can accomplish to make my fantasy my reality.

What’s your wish? Make a plan to make it come true!

Did you know that April is Grilled Cheese Month? Well, according to Woman’s Day, April is “Grilled Cheese Sandwich Month (via Wikipedia). In honor of that I decided to hunt for some grilled cheese recipes.

First I will share how I do grilled cheese 🙂 My absolute favorite way to eat a grilled cheese is with Campbell’s Bean with Bacon Soup.
I take two ordinary slices of white bread and dollop butter (5 dollops
so it looks like a flower) onto it and broil it in the oven until the
butter melts and the bread is toast then I flip it over and add the
cheese until it melts and then add two more slices of white bread to the
dollop with some more butter onto the top and broil it until the butter
melts and the bread is toasted creating a gooey inside and only semi
crusted outside. I generally dip the sandwiches into the Campbell’s Bean with Bacon Soup. Nom nom nom!!!

While sitting writing this post someone who works with my husband
inquired as to what I was doing. Excited by the grilled cheese idea he
immediately informed me of his favorite grilled cheese recipe… He gets
two slices Rye bread and adds a little butter to both slices. To that
he adds Muenster Cheese and throws it on a griddle grilling both sides
until the insides are gooey and the outsides are crusty. Thanks Josh for
the recipe!

On Pinterest I
found a recipe for a grilled cheese that became my dinner one night.
Mozzarella and pepperoni on white bread grilled to perfection and then
served with a marinara sauce for dipping. It’s like a mini calzone. So
good!!!

Other recipes include:

Grilled Ham and Cheese

Parmesan Crusted Pesto Grilled Cheese Sandwich

Grilled Cheese Deluxe

Check out dozens of grown-up grilled cheese recipes via the Grilled Cheese Academy

What’s your favorite grilled cheese sandwich recipe?

Have a drink you want me to try or a product you want me to review? 

Contact me HERE! I’m PR friendly

This post may contain a link to an affiliate. See my disclosure policy for more information.

Last year I wrote a post called Things Pinterest Taught Me: Things to Do With Cadbury Eggs. This Easter I think it’s a Peeps kind of day 🙂 So, here are five things you can do with Peeps

3. Make a beach party peep that is “swimming” in Jello – perfect for Florida. Check it out HERE!

4.  Use your peeps to adorn a sunflower cake, a cupcake or even a cupcake peep push-pop.

Like the Cadbury Eggs post, if these ideas don’t tickle your fancy you could always just settle for eating them right out of their package =) Happy Easter! May your Peeps be a plenty and may all their calories not stick to you!

Follow me on Pinterest HERE!

Source for image above

Have a drink you want me to try or a product you want me to review? 

Contact me HERE! I’m PR friendly

This post may contain a link to an affiliate. See my disclosure policy for more information.

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On the Kentucky trip I’m learning a whole bunch of stuff about yard sales and here are three tips I’ve picked up:

1. Gather a bunch of stuff you want and offer one price to the seller. Start at half the tagged price and go from there.

2. Don’t commit too much to an item where the seller can see your excitement. If they know you really want it they will try to sell it for the full tag price.

3. Beware the sales that have multiple sellers that are not present at the sale. You are less likely to haggle a price if the sellers aren’t at the sale because people aren’t willing to speak on behalf of others.

Anyone who knows me knows lately I’ve been OBSESSED with Pinterest!!! Oh my goodness! Some might say I’ve even been PINSPIRED!!! Since joining the site I’ve made organizers, thrown out clutter, made homemade laundry detergent (future post coming about it!), made a knockoff of febreze, windex and hand soap and so much more!! I frikkin’ love the site. Lately on the site I’ve been learning a ton about Cadbury Eggs. In the spirit of Easter weekend I decided to share with you the things I’ve learned you can do with a Cadbury Egg!

1. Cadbury Cupcakes! Pinned here. Blogged about here. The shear genius of this is hard to deny. Add one Cadbury Eggs to the center of 24 chocolate cupcakes before baking and then add another after you ice them for a double dose of awesome with each cup of sugary heaven!

2. Cadbury Brownies! Pinned here. Blogged about here. Okay, so these brownies don’t ACTUALLY have any Cadbury Eggs in them, but they are inspired by them and the filling made for them is supposed to be very similar to what you would find inside an egg…

3. Make a turducken! Pinned here. Blogged about here. This highly caloric concoction may push you into a diabetic coma and frighteningly enough requires the use of power tools but effectively calls for shoving a mini Cadbury Egg into the body of a peep and then shoving those two into a hollowed out chocolate bunny.

4. Drink your egg! Pinned here. Blogged about here. The Caramel Cadbury Egg martini recipe calls for 1-1/2 ounces Baileys Irish Cream with Caramel, 1/2 ounce crème de cacao, 1 ounce caramel syrup, 1 ounce cream and 1/2 tablespoon Hershey’s chocolate syrup (plus extra Hershey’s chocolate syrup for rim). A few shakes and the garnishing of a Cadbury Egg on the side and there you have it!

5. Go gourmet with Cadbury Egg Brulee! Pinned here. Blogged about here. Four ounces of mini Cadbury Eggs, some heavy cream, eggs, sugar, elbow grease and some time in an oven will leave you with a ramekin filled with chocolatey goodness ready to devour!

If these ideas don’t tickle your fancy you could always just settle for eating them right out of their package. Happy Easter! May your Cadbury Eggs be a plenty and may all their calories not stick to you!