Welcome to my home in Northwest Arkansas. I’ve been in my house for a year and a half and have loved every minute of making this house my home.

I like to update the wreath on my door depending on the season. I have a portion of one of my guest room closets dedicated to seasonal wreaths. Right away I give you a sneak peek into my favorite color within my decorating with my teal Welcome mat.

For this house tour I want to share with you some of the places where you may find me sitting in my home. We’ll begin in my living room. I have a sectional couch that is my dog’s favorite piece of furniture. She loves that one side of the sectional ends with a chaise side leaving her room to look out the window and bark at all my neighbors and their dogs. If she is not on chaise side of the couch, she is curled up next to me watching television with me. Next to the built-ins for the television, I have a mini-collage wall with my quirky find of deer head silhouettes.

I also spend a lot of time at my dining table whether it is working on my computer or hosting my family and friends for a meal. I found this table set through an online sales site and recovered the chairs with a floral print fabric in a golden color. Bess Eatin (my friendly cow artwork) keeps me company and keeps the atmosphere light and cheery.

Tucked in behind my dining room is my office nook. It is one of two rooms in my house painted in teal and it brings me joy. I love having this pop of color which shares a glimpse of my personality to those that come into my house. My office nook is where I keep my personal computer and where I’ll sit down to play on Facebook or do some online shopping. The French Doors allow me to close off the office nook and it really changes the look of the house to alternate between leaving the doors open versus closed.

My second teal room in the house is my downstairs guest room. I keep my dog’s crate in this room and also use the walk in closet in this room to hang dry my laundry. The bed in this room is super comfy so I often take a few minutes to sit or lay down on the bed for quiet time. This room is at the back of my house and it is super quiet and peaceful. I have decorated this room with my geographical history. Each picture framed on the wall is a map of somewhere that I have lived – displayed in order. I found the maps at a local junk store and combined a mixture of various frames to create the display.

The last place you’ll find me sitting in my house is in my exercise room. I always end a workout with stretching time where I’ll sit on the floor. With all my race photos and motivational sayings the workout room is one of my favorite places in the house.

My house is still a work in progress but it is definitely home and reflects who I am. I have added pieces and décor items that reflect me and my interests. My style is fairly traditional with a little dash of quirky and fun. Some decorating decisions have taken longer to make and others have come easily to me. I love having such different looks within the places where I sit inside my house! They all serve a different purpose for me and I enjoy the time that I spend in each space. Thanks for taking a minute to visit me and where I sit.

From Where I Sit – Our 1st #ARWB home tour @runningwhit

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Whitney Sutherland blogs at Running with Whit about the fun and adventure of an everyday athlete. Whitney works full time playing with numbers and products and unwinds by training for races. She loves triathlons and has completed three half ironman distance races. She completes many races each year and initially discovered blogs while researching different races. Whitney spends her free time with Sidney her runner dog and her family where she gets to be the cool aunt to three awesome kiddos.

You can follow Whitney on Facebook , Pinterest, Instagram, and Twitter.

February 12, 2016

Jacqueline Presley: Healthier Peanut Butter-Banana Ice Cream

Celebrate Cooking Together

Whether you are an ice cream lover, but can’t handle the lactose or you just want to cut fat and calories of your favorite sweet treat, I’ve got you. You can celebrate carving about 150 calories off your midnight snack if you make it my way.

Here’s what you need:

Chop up your banana.

Add it and a tablespoon of peanut butter (I used chunky.) to your food processor.

You will process it for a bit. Keep going until you get this texture:

Top with your favorites. I used chia seeds, but could also use sprinkles, peanuts, or chocolate chips.

It’s pretty delicious and it makes a great healthy after-school snack too!

Celebrate with this healthier peanut butter banana ice cream. #ARWB

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I am a work-at-home-mom of two little crazies: Katie (almost 7) and Jackson (almost 5) and wife to Spencer for 12 years. I blog at CreativeOutpour and I am a Social Media Manager for Rockwell Global.

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February 9, 2016

Growing an Email Newsletter for Your Blog

Growing An Email Newsletter for Your Blog

There are few things that bore me more than email newsletters.

Seriously.

Unroll.me has saved my life from the tedium of having my inbox constantly interrupted with the inane announcements that fill most email newsletters. Just in case you don’t know about it, Unroll.me is a brilliant service that a) helps you efficiently unsubscribe from everything you don’t want and b) rolls up the rest of your subscriptions so that you only get them once a day.

When I read my Unroll.me roundup, I delete almost all of it at barely a glance. I don’t even bother opening most of the emails, and when I do open one, I am usually irritated that I bothered.

Because they are so boring.

15% off sales. Lists of things I MUST have. Articles that EVERYONE ELSE has read. Places that I MUST TRAVEL THIS YEAR.

DELETE. DELETE. DELETE.

So, friends, I ask you…

WHY should we even bother having an email newsletter for our blogs?

Do we just hope that everyone else is not like me and they read rather than delete most of their emails? (I doubt it.)

Even if only 2% of the people who receive it open it and read it, should we just be glad that those 2% are reading? (Maybe.)

Do some of us have the ability to convert an email newsletter into sales if we are using our blogs to sell products? (Perhaps.)

Do we continue to try to collect our blog readers’ email addresses in the hopes that one day we will write a book and when that happens we will be able to email them all and beg them to buy it? (Just me???)

Actually, I am not sure why we are supposed to have an email newsletter. I think that maybe the answer to that question is as individual as each of our blogs. When I asked myself this morning why I have an email newsletter, in addition to the above and rather unlikely scenario, this is what I came up with:

When someone subscribes to my blog via email, they are saying to me: Hey, I like what you do! Keep doing it. Oh, and I don’t want to miss it when you do some more.

And I like that kind of feedback. I am delighted if someone reads something I write, and likes it. And wants to read more. It feels good. And it encourages me to keep writing.

Sidenote: However, it doesn’t happen very often so I have to find other encouragement to keep writing. If I was relying on email subscriptions for my motivation to write, well, let’s just say I would never write anything. Ditto comments and social media likes/shares.

So, that’s my reason for having an email newsletter. It’s probably not the greatest, but for what it’s worth, it seems like a good enough reason to keep having one.

What’s your reason for having an email newsletter?

I think it’s a good idea to come up with an answer to that question before you go any further.

But I’ll move on.

How do I get more subscribers to my email newsletter?

Let’s talk about how to build that list. Get those subscribers.

Here’s what I have surmised are the best ways to get email subscribers.

Pop-ups and Opt-ins.

Personally I have not used either of these methods because I really, really want people to subscribe to me out of a sheer sense of delight in reading my blog. (I live in a fantasy world.) Not because I interrupt them with a pop-up or because I dupe them with a free PDF of Camping Menus or Travel Tips. In my head, I am afraid that if I dupe people with these methods into typing their email addresses into a box, that they will be inclined to quickly unsubscribe when they have the option the next time they receive an email from me. (Because again, Unroll.me.)

But people use these methods because they work. And depending on the goals you have for your newsletter, you might want to grow that email base, so you should probably use them too.

Pop-ups and Opt-ins are relatively easy to add to your blog via plugins. Of course, if you want to use an Opt-in (something you offer for free in exchange for someone subscribing to your blog), you have to write it first. But after you have your Opt-in material, you can easily distribute it with the help of a pop-up.

Here’s a list of ten free pop-up plugins for WordPress users.

Sidenote: You can actually listen to a podcast where the man who invented the pop-up now apologizes for ruining the internet with this annoying feature. It’s pretty funny.

Also, here is an article on turning viral pins into email subscribers. Who’dda thought?? Annnnnnd, if you really want to go crazy with gaining email subscribers, you should probably learn how to use LeadPages.

Go get ’em!

Ok, now that you have all those email subscribers, what do you do with them?

Of course, that depends on what your goals are in the first place. See again: Why should I have an email newsletter?

But, as far as your future email missives to your readers go, I have some suggestions. These are not proven to work. They are based solely on my personal preferences, so you can take them with a grain of salt. But if you’ve gone to the trouble of creating pop-ups and opt-ins and collecting email addresses, I feel that at this point, you don’t want to lose those same subscribers by having a boring email newsletter.

Also, I have been playing around with a newsletter for my blog for a couple of years now. I use Mailchimp to send a little hello out into about 90 inboxes about once a month, and I am just beginning to get a feel for what makes people decide to hit the eject button. I still only have a 50% open rate (Mailchimp’s fancy statistics are free), but I keep trying to hit my email stride.

So here are my top tips for keeping your newsletter NOT BORING.

Keep it short.

I am a fan of Longform. And I am a big believer in blog posts being as long as you want them. (OBVIOUSLY! As I drone on and on here…) But emails should be short. Very to. the. point. Lately, I have even been experimenting with leaving photos out of my emails. Just one less thing for people to have to wait to load. However, if I do use a photo, I use only one. Not a collage my last 18 Instagrams. Simple is best.

Be consistent, but don’t overload.

I vote for once a month. Or less. Be succinct. Choose the best of your blog posts to highlight and let your readers wander around to the rest of them once they are on your website. Don’t include a bunch of partial feeds. I don’t want to read the first paragraphs of four different articles. Just tell me about the best one. Oh, and maybe tell me a little bit about you. It’s been a minute since I subscribed and maybe I can’t remember who you are. But briefly. (Remember, keep it short.)

Keep it delightful.

Every time you land in someone’s inbox, they are giving you their attention, even if it is only for a second. I want to be the email that is a “Daymaker.” I know I am just one person writing my heart out in one little corner of the internet, but I still want to use my words to bring light and love and joy into the lives of whoever reads them.

So when I sit down to craft something that is going to land in someone’s inbox, I am going for delight. One thing that helps me is that sometimes I pretend I am just writing a quick email to a very dear friend. Of course, I don’t want to bore my friend!

So go forth and write email newsletters friends! (If you want to.)

Oh, and if you want to subscribe to my blog or email newsletter, well, you can do that right here.

(See what I did there? Tricksy.)

I think it would be super valuable for all of us if you were willing to share in the comments a few words about your experience with or questions about email newsletters. Do you have one? Does it work? What service do you use to write it? How do you get your followers? How do you keep your followers? Tell us all about it. Collectively, we probably know LOADS about email newsletters!

Alison

February 8, 2016

Create Together

by Jeanetta Darley, Miss February 2016

For someone who constantly craves the times when I can be by myself, togetherness is not always met with fanfare. I may have more than once looked through the want ads for listings labeled “Hermit Wanted.” The idea of being in a remote location with all the time in the world to work on my art uninterrupted is my dream life. But we don’t live in our dreams. We live in a reality that includes people. People we are daily both inspired and irritated by.

Creativity is fueled by experiences and ideas. These experiences and ideas are never as fruitful as they could be when we subtract human contact. I reluctantly admit this. Many times as an artist and blogger I want to keep my ideas to myself until they are finished either out of fear of rejection or imitation. Our creations become part of us and any critique is felt personally.

But I am learning to give my peers and friends the benefit of the doubt. Surround yourself with sincerity, trust, and encouragement. These aspects are not always easy to find and can take time. This very realization is why I cherish the community of bloggers and influencers that create under The Women Bloggers umbrella.

Daily I remind that grumpy curmudgeon the lives in my head (she’ll never leave completely) to give people a chance to prove her wrong. That sharing ideas and experiences can bring more inspiration and more creativity. Which leads to more art, more writing, more parts of me that can inspire others.

Find your creative collective.

Give as much or more support and encouragement as you receive.

See what you can create together.

*All photos were taken on a trip to the Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art in Northwest Arkansas.

February 7, 2016

Sunday Link-Up {Feb. 7, 2016}

Show us some love. Link up on #ARWB #Sunday #Link-up!

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February 3, 2016

We’re Together {Wordless Wednesday}

By Lisa Mullis of Arkansas Outside

Lisa Mullis is a microbiologist at The National Center for Toxicological Research by day; a runner, cyclist, backpacker, and occasional paddler when time allows; and an unapologetic cheerleader and finish line hug giver for friends who share her love of trails and all kinds and outdoor recreation. She and her husband Joe own ArkansasOutside.com, a website built around promoting outdoor participatory sports on the roads, off the roads, and in the waterways.

February 1, 2016

Miss February 2016 – Jeanetta Darley

Hello there, I’m Jeanetta: an artist, writer, and sometimes homesteader (yes, totally made that last title up myself). Arkansas Women Bloggers (and the other state communities it has birthed) have been an amazing support to me over the past few years and I am thrilled to share some things with you here.

So if I’m being completely honest, when I was asked to wear the crown of Blogger of the Month my first reaction was, “What took so long?!” I can be a little full of myself. Then my second reaction was, “CRAP! Now I’ve got a lot of work to do!” I am also a procrastinator. Here’s a quick overview. I drink coffee. A lot. All day. I can be bribed with boxed chocolates. I’m a Whovian-Star Wars-Harry Potter fanatic. love my garden, good food, good beer, and a good fireside.

I am a maker (I honestly have no idea how to turn that off). I believe all humans really are no matter how loudly they protest. We were made in the image of the Great Creator after all how can we not be driven to create. I have been doodling and painting and creating little things out of anything I could get my hands on since I can remember. My subjects range from whatever catches my fancy — vegetables in my garden to mythological beasts. My style may change with my mediums or just what I am feeling at the time. I dislike the concept that artists must box themselves into one particular “style” or way of creating art. Being creative is an outpouring of ourselves. Why would we want to contain that!

I write about the day to day victories and failures (many of them) with my art, family, farming, gardening and life in general. So nailing what I blog about down to a couple of words as a description can be difficult sometimes. Writing is not my first avenue of expression. But there are times that the words and stories just bottle neck in my brain and scream to be let out. Thank goodness for blogging because talking about the voices in my head might have committed me in those early years of motherhood.

I say I’m a “sometimes homesteader.” Sometimes I get things right more often than I get things wrong but I keep trying. I am passionate about the self- sustainability movement and am fully embraced in the struggle to implement the practices in my day- to- day life. Growing, raising and preserving the food my family needs means a lot to me. I believe reviving the knowledge of craftsmanship and sustainable skills can bring everyone to a better understanding of what is important such as becoming better stewards, innovative problem solvers, and resourceful citizens of the world.

Ten years ago this coming summer I started blogging. It was such a different world on the wide web back then. My blog was for getting thoughts out of my head and selling the things I made at the time while I stayed home with the kids. Actually, not a lot has changed. Other than the kids are almost on autopilot and comment regularly that such and such friend found pictures of them doing some craft project online from some old blog post of mine. If I had to boil down what I like to blog about to one word, it would be “try.” Just try the things that interest. Try to draw or cook or grow your own food or raise chickens. Okay, that last one might be a bit more involved but if it’s something you wish and dream about more than a few times a day, then do it.

All of my snarky comments aside, I really am honored to be representing Arkansas Women Bloggers this month. I promise to “try” to be on my best behavior during my reign (I’m working on my wave just in case there’s a parade.)

Connect with me online:
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Website

January 31, 2016

Sunday Link-Up {Jan. 31, 2016}

Strut your stuff. #ARWB #Sunday #Link-Up time!

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January 29, 2016

Renee Birchfield: Throwing a Tapas Party {Foodie Friday}

The idea of throwing a tapas party has always appealed to me because I really like experimenting with new and different foods. A tapa is not a particular type of food nor is it always Spanish as many people probably think. Paella, bruschetta, shrimp toast – truly anything can be a tapa. Chinese and Moroccan cuisines are also known for their tapas-style dishes. In Mexico, they are known as botanas. Typically, as long as they are small and served with your drink it is tapas.

Tapas (plural) are not a starter in the same way as appetizers. Whenever you are eating these small plates, you plan to make them your meal. And it is not a large variety of dishes brought out on a large platter and intended as your main meal. A tapa (singular) may be as simple as a slice of cheese or ham. They are especially nice for cocktail parties or larger gatherings since they are designed to be eaten while standing if desired.

It is not uncommon to have 8 to 12 different kinds of dishes available in a tapas bar. Usually, they are strongly flavored with garlic, paprika, cumin, chilies, saffron and/or olive oil. Sometimes there will be seafood choices including anchovies, sardines, squid or mackerel covered in olive oil or fresh tomato sauce. It is rare to see tapas that do not include several types of olives and breads.

During college, I spent a lot of time collecting unique dishes thinking I would throw a fun small plates party. I never actually got around to that party exactly, being the broke college kid that I was, but I had a good itme serving mini plates on occasion to my boyfriend. It was a lot of fun but I still have wanted to throw a full-blown tapas celebration.

For our first effort with a tapas celebration, Hubby and I invited some friends who were in college (synonymous with “without funds”) to join us for party on the condition that they were to bring the makings of margaritas. Tapas and margaritas seemed like a perfect combination to me!

Since most dishes only feature 1 or 2 ingredients that are simply prepared, hosting a tapas party is easy. Many tapas are meant to be served cold so those may be prepared ahead of time.

A few recommendations when throwing a Tapas Party:

Have 5-6 dishes. Choose ones that are simple and can be made ahead of time.
Have a few cold tapas and 2 to 3 hot ones.
Have at least 2 drink options in addition to water. Wine typically accompanies the dishes in
a tapas bar, but you might prefer margaritas or sangria.
Allow enough for each person to have 5 to 6 bites per dish.

For our tapas celebration. I wanted simple recipes with big flavors. Here are a few for you to try:

Spanish Bruschetta: The Spanish take on bruschetta is a little different than the more familiar Italian version . Check out the recipe for Spanish Bruschetta found on Married and Hungry.

Common Spanish Tapas: Stuffed olives, marinated olive, goat cheese stuffed piquillo peppers, marinated mushrooms and Marcona almonds can usually be found in your market deli or salad bar and relieve you of making everything from scratch.

Roasted Rosemary and Garlic Tomatoes

2016-01-27 15:17:57

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Ingredients

3 Roma tomatoes
2 cloves of garlic, minced
2 sprigs of rosemary, stems removed and leaves minced
2 Tablespoons olive oil

Instructions

Preheat oven to 350°F.
Cut the tomatoes into ½ inch slices and place into a baking sheet or large casserole.
Brush tomatoes with olive oil and sprinkle with a little salt. Sprinkle with minced garlic and rosemary.
Bake for 10 minutes.

By Married and Hungry

Arkansas Women Bloggers https://arkansaswomenbloggers.com/

Meatballs with Mojo Picon Sauce

2016-01-27 15:15:30

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Sauce

4 dried red chilies
1-2 slices of stale white bread or use ¼-½ cup bread crumbs
3-4 garlic cloves, peeled, sliced and quartered.
1/4 teaspoon ground cumin
2 teaspoons red pepper flakes
½ teaspoon salt
¼ cup water
1 cup extra virgin Spanish olive oil
Sherry vinegar to taste ( I used 2 teaspoons.)

Meatballs

Use a preprepared 20-ounce bag of frozen meatballs or make your own:.
2 6-ounce tubes of chorizo
¼ cup bread crumbs
1 egg
½ teaspoon ground cumin
1 teaspoon red pepper flakes

Sauce

Soak the dried chilies for 10-15 minutes until softened. Drain; remove the stems.
In a food processor add in peppers, cumin, pepper flakes, garlic, and salt. Process until a paste forms. Drizzle with olive oil while blending.
Add bread and water alternately until the sauce is thick but no longer pasty. Add the vinegar to taste.

Meatballs

Mix all ingredients together until well combined. Roll into small balls of about 1 tablespoon each.
Place on a cookie sheet and bake for 10 to 15 minutes at 350 degrees;set aside.

By Married and Hungry

Arkansas Women Bloggers https://arkansaswomenbloggers.com/

ARWB member Renee Birchfield shares her favorite things in life at Married and Hungry hoping that her newlywed situations and thoughts will be of help to other new wives. A self-proclaimed food nerd with a degree in Food and Culinary Science, she enjoys sharing her recipes and other kitchen experiments. She and her husband call Central Arkansas home. You can often find her making a mess in the kitchen a mess, trying to cross stitch or playing with their dog and cat. Keep up with her over on Twitter, Instagram and Married and Hungry’s Facebook page.

January 28, 2016

Celebrate the Little Things

By Jamie Smith

Life is filled with big moments. Major birthday milestones, graduations, new jobs, major goals met.

I think it’s easy, in fact too easy, to get caught up in those big moments and let a lot of great little moments pass without notice.

I’ve often been told and even encouraged others to celebrate the little things in life. Life events in the last year have driven this home for me. Anyone who keeps up with me on Facebook knows I started battling health issues last spring, and while I’m doing better, I still struggle.

I had to put most of my goals on hold and focus on specialist visits and healing. I didn’t give up on my plans; I knew if I wanted to do them right so I delayed the full execution. Instead, I focused on doing what I could to reach the long-term goal and celebrated those accomplishments along the way.

For example, one of my goals was to create a new component to my business, Jamie’s Notebook. Full execution meant writing the curriculum, scheduling events and training for the events. I knew I needed to hold off on the curriculum, which made scheduling the events a moot point. I continued with public speaking training, however, which makes me feel confident in my ability to add the new business element soon.

I celebrate the mini goals I established towards the big goal. I’ve continued with public speaking training and exceeded my goal for leading volunteer seminars that help establish my “street cred” for the new business component.

I continued participating in Toastmasters, which has helped me grow my public speaking skills.

Another part of learning to celebrate the “little things” is something I call simple joys. Simple joys are the minor happenings in life that make us smile. For me, it’s realizing I had exact change available to pay for something in cash. Or beautiful sunsets.

I often try to take pictures of these moments and share them. I try to remember to hashtag them with #simplejoys but often forget.

Here are just a few examples from the last year:

My dog Flower (the shepherd mix with the ball) usually focuses on supervising the rest of the family. She enjoys playing keep away, however, and I have to admit I grin when she manages to steal the ball from our black mouth cur mix, Jazzy. It’s great to see her take the opportunity to be silly like a dog should be.I love aquariums, whether it’s in a doctor’s office or a restaurant. Ironically, I would never want to maintain an aquarium. I just find them breathtakingly beautiful when I see one in public.

These were both on the desk where I was about to have blood drawn. That’s never a fun activity, so it was a delight to turn the corner and see pumpkins decorated in such a fun way.

These simple joys may seem trivial, but they are a sanity saver. They help bring a small bit of happiness in what might be an otherwise dreary day. They remind me to be grateful for the good things in life and to acknowledge those things.

What do you consider a simple joy? What small goals on the path to a larger goal will you celebrate this year?