New Blog Reader

Google Reader getting the ax has been all over the place, and I was not initially thrilled.  I mean, WTH Google, I'm one of your biggest fans and I love Google Reader?  I figured I'd better rip the bandaid off quickly and make the switch.

I heard some good things about Feedly, so I gave that one a shot.

I really wasn't nuts about it.  The import process was a piece of cake, and it had an Android app so I could read blogs on the go.  I had to click over to one of my favorite blogs and that was annoying, plus it tracks all of your browsing which bothers me.

So I went back to Google Reader, grudgingly, only to hear good things about Bloglovin.  I signed up and started the blog import process, and after about 2 days of tinkering around and getting comfy, I am now a much bigger fan of Bloglovin than I was of Google Reader!  I really love that you see the blog as it appears-the pretty designs and features people put on their blogs weren't stripped out, like they were in Google Reader.  But most of all, you could leave comments on people's blogs within Bloglovin itself, which is a huge improvement over Google Reader!

Have you found a new blog reader system after Google made the announcement that Reader was disappearing in July?  Which one are you digging?

Making the Switch

Lately I've been feeling squeamish about the products I put on my skin every day, especially with us thinking about kicking off the "let's try for a baby" process in the next 2 years or so.  I'm really hoping that this doesn't come off as self-righteous and preachy, but when I started switching my normal beauty products to cruelty free/harmful chemical free, I had to do a stupid amount of research and thought if I share it maybe it will save someone else from having to do the same!  I don't like to spend lots of money on products, so everything I use can be found at the drugstore and is cheap (like I think $10 for mascara is expensive).  Also, ingredients/cruelty free products can be a little bit like falling down Alice's rabbit hole; sometimes it feels like there aren't any "perfect" products out there, so some of these involve compromises.

I started off with baby steps...my mascara ran out, and Target just so happened to carry Physician's Formula organic mascara.  I was a Covergirl Lash Blast user, and this swap took a few weeks to get used to the texture/consistency of the new mascara, but now I'm a big fan.  It is not at all waterproof, which I actually prefer as it's easier to get off but I know that's deterrent for many.

Then I started switching over my concealer and my powder.  I don't wear all over foundation on my face, and I use a day time SPF moisturizer from Trader Joe's that is paraben free/cruelty free.  After hitting up Drugstore.com reviews, beauty blogs, PETA's website and more, I found out that the E.L.F. (Eyes/Lips/Face) brand at Target is actually vegan and cruelty free.  I use the Cosmetics Database on a product by product basis to see where the E.L.F. products fall on the hazard scale, and I stick to products that are low on that scale (under a 5).  I love how cheap they are, and I've been really happy with almost everything I've bought (and if I haven't liked it, I spent all of $3 on it so it's not a big loss).  It's not a perfect system, but it's within reach and better for me than where I was 6 months ago, so it's enough.

I also picked up this all natural toothpaste from Trader Joe's, but I'm not nuts about it.  I ordered this Nature's Gate Glow Lotion for pasty light skin tones off of Amazon (I couldn't get it in town) to work on my translucent skin.  I'm so pasty I'm embarrassed to show my legs right now, and I don't use tanning beds anymore.  I smoked for four years, I don't need to do anything else to add to my cancer chances!  The lotion was highly reviewed and I put it on this morning after my shower....keep your fingers crossed for me that I'm hellaz tan when I wake up tomorrow (it takes 24 hours to work).

And last on my list was shampoo (I need to start researching lotion but we have a big bottle of St. Ives that's only 30% used up).  I had a rough run-in with the sulfate/paraben-free cruelty free Burt's Bees shampoo that sucked SO BADLY that I would give up after a week of dull, icky hair and use my husband's Herbal Essence and then have the best hair day of my life.  Right now I'm using Tresemme Naturals shampoo/conditioner.  It smells awesome, is cruelty free and falls on the lower end of the hazard scale.  

I still use the Bath and Body Works shower gel I got for Christmas...I figure it isn't on my skin for very long at all, and it was a gift.  I also haven't looked into vegan/chemical free nail polish or remover yet.  I do make our laundry soap and some of our cleaning products.  We don't buy organic everything at the store; we just can't afford it, but we do participate in an organic CSA every summer and shop at the Farmer's Market when they're in season.  We are far from perfect but we try to be conscious about what chemicals we surround ourselves with.  I hate that we have to; up until 6 months ago I just assumed that if it was on the shelves then it was safe (aside from not putting much thought at all into it).  That's just not the world we live in, and I feel much better about what I slather on my body, face and hair every day now that I've made some switches.  

I am REALLY hoping this doesn't sound preachy or condescending, and if it came across that way I'm really sorry, it wasn't at all my intention!

Have you done any product switching lately?  

Bloggers+Work

I blogged my wedding, then dropped off of the blogosphere and am trying to ease back into it now-I miss it and all!  Partly because I blogged in the past and knew firsthand and partly because it's definitely the way things are going, but I'm starting to work with bloggers more and more in my job.  I'm a Dir of Public Relations for my hometown Convention and Visitors Bureau, and one of my Fiscal Year 2013 goals was to organize a press "fam" trip, where you get a bunch of jornalists/travel writers to come to your town and write (hopefully positively) about it.  It can be pricey, and you aren't guaranteed coverage.  So

I did some research and found a thriving community of midwestern family travel bloggers and now we're reaching out to them to host them for visits!  It's really amazing-we're able to find bloggers with interests that reflect our advertisting campaigns (Back in Time features all of our historic attractions, Family Fun is geared towards families with kids, and Great Outdoors highlights all of the outdoorsy-things to do in the area).  We're going to be promoting a "Family Fun Passport to Savings", and that's something I'm going to request that the blogger highlights in the posts they write about their visit here, and it will be pushed in our print advertising (Midwest Living, Missouri Life and Southern Traveler magazines, among others) as well as on our banner ads we purchase at Tripadvisor.  We'll basically pay for some of the costs of the bloggers trip here, and in exchange they'll blog about their visit, touching on some features we'd like them to highlight.  All of their posts have a disclaimer, and they share the content around on social media too.  We'll really get some bang for our buck in terms of promoting our destination, and they are relationships that I am really looking forward to furthering.

My town is right on the Mississippi River

Blogging encompasses so many different areas of interest; I'm really excited to be able to work directly with travel bloggers this summer!

No idea why, but I always love it when blogging friends talk about their jobs.  What do you do?  Is it what you went to school for?  Do you like it?

Long Time No See

It's been a while, hasn't it?

I'm on Instagram (follow me @stacydlane , I'd love to follow along with you too!) and it's my favorite social platform.  Here's what I've been up to lately:







Reading like a crazy woman.  The inter-library loan service at our library keeps me in great books.  Dragon Lady is taking me a while but it's really interesting (Imperial Woman by Pearl S. Buck is one of my favorites, and this is the true counterpart).  Illuminations was about Sister Hildegard and it's a new favorite.  The walling nuns in to be anchorites was new to me.  Are you on Goodreads?  I love it, I get so many new book ideas!









I've just wrapped up a few sewing projects.  I made this quilt for my niece, who will be making her grand arrival in May.  (I got the pattern idea from here)



















I made this fun fleece ribbon-tabbed blanket for Ryan's cousin Ashley, who is having a little boy in June.









For work, I've been helping to plan a HootUp, and it's the first of it's kind in the state of Missouri.  I'm overly excited about it!  I'm a huge fan of Hootsuite (are you a Hootsuite user?), especially after hearing one of the founders at a conference in November, and the planning process has been fun as the people I'm working with are a blast.  Plus, meetings in the sun with iced tea and views of the Mighty Mississippi don't hurt either...








I am so ready for spring, and sundresses and sandals and nice weather to walk Oscar and Ninja in.  It's so COLD here!  How's the weather in your neck of the woods?

And it's not a blog post without a gratuitous picture of my dog:

Rock N Roll Half Marathon, St. Louis

Sunday I ran the Rock N Roll Half Marathon in St. Louis with my Father-in-law!

Pat and I before the race.  It was early!

My father-in-law and I run together whenever Ryan and I are visiting.  We're solid running buddies-he pushes me just enough pace wise, and the conversation is fabulous!  So when he wanted to sign up to run his longest distance to date, the Rock N Roll Half Marathon, I was IN!

I've done a couple of half's before, but never one that was this big of a production.  The expo alone was insanely big, and having bands along the way and so many other people running was really neat.  The spectators were amazing, and had some hysterical signs-I loved "Run faster I just farted" and "Worst Parade Ever."  We also ran through parts of St. Louis I didn't know existed, and I got to ogle some pretty neighborhoods.

My sister Mary and I after the race.  She showed up at mile 4 and took our jackets, which ROCKED.

Anyway, it was a great race, we had a great time, and I'm so glad I got to do this with my father-in-law!  Also Ryan showed up after we finished with coffee, and clinched the title for husband of the year.

We also had a wonderful brunch afterwards, and the waitress didn't mind my needy substitution of a blueberry pancake instead of an English muffin and bacon.  My motrher-in-law and her sister walked the half, and Ryan's cousin Jessie joined us for brunch too.

My medal hanging up on my bulletin board at work.

 The best part about this half marathon was that it got me back into a working out groove.  I feel so much better all around when I'm active on a regular basis, and this got me back into that habit, which rocks!

Are you training for anything right now?

Our Deluxe Porch Swing

Ryan built me this amazing over-sized porch swing for our first anniversary, and it was my job to get cushions for it sewn...which took me about 8 months longer than it should've.  I originally was going to sew box cushions with a zipper-I really wanted to be able to take the cushions off to wash them-but that's above my sewing ability.  Like way above.  And the whole project was intimidating the hell out of me.  We'd had the fabric/foam for months (purchased when it was half off at Hancocks), but it took a serious strategic session with my mom, grandma, Aunt Noelle and Ryan to get me moving.

Do you ever do that?  Something is hard, you don't really know what you're doing, so you just put it off for months and stress out about it daily.  Plus the fabric wasn't cheap (even though we got it 1/2 off) and I really didn't want to mess it up.

Anyway....thanks to lots of heads being put together, they are done, and I LOVE how it all turned out!

Ryan has been screening in the deck all around the swing this summer so I don't get eaten up by mosquitoes!

The pillows I sewed using a basic envelope pillow tutorial.  We went with bigger pillows than planned, so I was short on fabric, and it gaps in the back and you can see the pillow form.  I'm going to get some gray ribbons to disguise that, so that's an easy fix.  (Ruthie has the same pillow covers!)

The back/bottom gray cushions were what gave me such headaches.  We started with a rectangular piece of foam, then glued this mildew-resistant layer to one side, forming a thicker rectangle.  I used 60" wide home decor fabric, and had the fold of the fabric hitting the front (so you just see smooth and no seams) and saved all of the seams/velcro for the back and the sides.  The sides of the cushions I wrapped like a present and hand stitched.  The back I hemmed then added velcro so I can remove the cushions.

That is super unscientific and probably not in the least helpful, but we really just winged it...it was a lot of finagling, tacking this bit of fabric here, etc etc.  The back doesn't look perfect, but the cushions are removable, which was the goal-and no one's looking at the back anyway!

The swing is big enough that I can really stretch out and get comfy.  The dogs LOVE it!  I love sitting out here before work while the dogs play in the yard.  Overall, a killer anniversary present, and a sizable project crossed off my list.

Now I have a half finished skirt sitting in my sewing room; the invisible zipper has stopped me in my tracks.  I need to bring it to my grandma this weekend to get it finished up!

What have you been working on lately?

Surprise! And Crafting.

My wonderful Grandma turned 88 last Friday, and we'd be scheming for a while as to how to make her feel loved, appreciated and warm and fuzzy inside in honor of the occasion.  So we threw her a surprise birthday party!  I called her church office, and they generously gave me a list of people to call, and everyone really helped us rally the troops.  I also started a big Facebook message with all of my family, and my dad did some e-mailing...we ended up with 40-50 family and friends at a lovely drop in reception last Saturday afternoon in a room we rented in the church basement.

She had NO CLUE!  It was amazing.

My sister Alli and I had wayyyyy too much fun crafting.  We decided on pink and orange and went from there.  We found this scrap book paper booklet at Hobby Lobby for $10 in the right colors and grabbed that.  Alli made this cute scalloped bunting that we hung up:

Alli also bought fat quarters and made this adorable rag wreath that was actually her gift to grandma.

I had 2 vintage sewing patterns, and we drew 4-petal flowers, cut out 20ish layers at a time then stacked them on top of each other, folded in half then stapled.  Then we stuck a white floral stem through the staple and we had vintage sewing pattern flowers!  The fat quarters used in the wreath also acted as part of the centerpiece (we just cut the edges with pinking shears).  Parchment paper was on top of the tables and guests were encouraged to write Grandma notes, which we saved and are making into a book for her with the left over scrapbook paper.  Milk glass vases were left over from my wedding, and I snagged the orange pens from work, and then returned them.  The fat quarters were also given to Grandma to use for future quilts/projects.

Parchment paper also went on the dessert table, where we set out easy snacks purchased from Sam's that morning on more left over wedding milk glass.

My dad picked out the cake.  The circle bunting you see was made from scrapbook paper scraps that I traced circles onto with the bottom of a glass and cut out while watching Netflix.  I then sewed the circles together using pale pink thread and my widest zig zag stich.  Everything was sewing related, since Grandma is an avid quilter and an exceptional seamstress.  I don't think we spent more than $35 on decorations total!

Here's my surprised Grandma.  Isn't she sweet?

It all could not possibly have gone better.  It was so nice to meet Grandma's friends, and her friends were thrilled to meet some of her family that they've heard so much about.  The priest she speaks of in glowing terms made the time to be there too.  A huge success!  She is such a gift to us.

Not telling her was grueling, I'm so glad I don't have to keep this secret anymore!  Her quilting friends joked that she "doesn't get up to go to the bathroom enough!", as they'd scheme and visit about the party when she got up!

Thrown any parties lately?