Joyful Messes
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Ashling Drew

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Best Places to Take Instagram Shots

I am full of lust for those Instagram accounts that have amazing, professional, bright and happy photos. I follow them because of pure love for a great photo. I guess I am actually not one of those moms who is always taking photos of everything everywhere. You would think it might be the opposite because of all the photos I post on my own Instagram, but I am actually very intentional about when, where and how I photograph. It is very important to me that I am present with my children, and they don’t feel like they are always on camera. I also just have a lot of photos in the post to show you what I am talking about. That’s easier for me to explain. I have a method of how I set up my photo opts, which I talk about in my eBook. It allows me to gather…

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Travel The World and Get Cash Back with DOSH

this post is sponsored. All opinions are mine!  I recently introduced you all to DOSH, a new cash-back app that offers some fantastic cashback options that aren’t just online, but also for nearby restaurants, and my favorite, traveling! We actually have traveled quite a bit as a small family, and we would love to do more if we didn’t have three little wild boys to pack and keep track of. Well, I did some dreaming with my new app because this time of year, some families are looking to book a fun vacation. Well, DOSH boasts some fantastic cash-back opportunities ALL OVER THE WORLD! I was so excited, I took some screen shots of various locations we might want to pretend we are going this summer, or you might really be wanting to book! Let’s start with Barcelona, Spain. If you put in that location, and the dates you’d like…

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The Real Reasons You’re Craving Sugar While Breastfeeding and What To Do About It

Breastfeeding has a magical way of injecting some sort of sugar monster into our bodies. It is a beast that doesn’t sleep unless it’s had some sort of sweet treat every couple of hours. Well, at least that’s the beast inside of me. I have heard many other new mothers mention their sweet-tooth intensity while breastfeeding. It’s a common side effect we all deal with or give in too. But do we know exactly why this is happening? In order to combat the sweet desires that consume our minds and control our taste buds, we must understand why these type of food cravings are happening. Now, if you Google this problem, most articles are going to tell you a number of vague, over-generalized answers like its just because you’re a nursing mom and tired from lack of sleep. It is true that being tired causes you to crave all sorts…

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My Massive Traffic Boost: 6k to 40k Page views in Two Months

I wrote a post a couple weeks ago about the two investments I made in my blog, which substantially increased my traffic. I am writing again about my traffic because I want you all to understand how completely honest and sincere I am, that these two resources have dramatically increased my page views. In the previous post, Pageview Breakthrough: How I Went from 6k to over 17k in One Month, I talk about the giant leap in page views I accomplished for April. Update: I made it to 100k pageviews in August 2017, and I was accepted to Adthrive, one of the top ad agencies! I also make over 3k now woot woot! Scroll to the bottom to grab my guide on making money blogging, without teaching people to blog!  Second Update: Since I wrote this post a year ago, I have gotten myself in the 5k range in terms of income…

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Our South Florida Science Center Experience

We were so excited to get an invite to the local, South Florida Science Center a couple weeks ago. If you saw my Instagram stories, you were able to experience some of the fun with us! I do need to mention that we probably didn’t chose the best day to attend. We arrived on a Tuesday morning, along with bus loads of school children coming for an end-of-the-year field trip. Literally, the front-desk person told us there were about 600 kids coming that morning. She offered to have us come back later, but because I had already packed up my three little ones, and they were so excited, we braved the masses. And, it didn’t turn out to be much of an issue at all! I can happily say that if you go there on a super busy day, and you have little children, you can still navigate through and…

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Welcome To Venndy A New Way To Tell Your Story

I was introduced to Venndy by another blogger, which then transpired into loving the brand-spanking-new sharing platform, and thus writing this post to share with others out there! *this post is sponsored, and all opinions and experiences are my own! Let’s Go Over Venndy Quick: In my opinion, Venndy is specifically set up for bloggers, but it can also be used as a sharing platform for anyone savvy with social media. This is a place to continue telling your story. A sharing network, where you can promote and recommend those beloved items you can’t stop blogging about. Particularly useful for fashion, beauty and lifestyle bloggers, I’ve also been sharing a lot of my lose-the-baby-weight posts in their Fitness section. My summer closet favorites are also linked up too. Where Venndy offers a uniqueness is in the contextual sharing, which will allow your products/stories to be in front of a more…

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5 Exercises To Get Your Booty Back After Baby

So here’s the reality of losing the baby weight. Once you do, you also lose your booty! Unless your keeping up with your workouts, which we all know is super difficult with kids, you most likely are starting to see a pancake butt, rather than what you used to have. You know, its just not quite as lifted. But, we can work to fix it! Here are the top 5 exercises I’ve found to really help build your booty back up like it was before those little rascals came along. I have been using this app to stay fit for a while now, and I highly recommend it because there are lots of lower-body and booty workouts that will really help you. You just listen to the jams and trainer, and go for it. I go into more details on my two favorite postpartum workout apps in this post. Let’s…

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Pageview Breakthrough: How I Went from 6k to over 17k in One Month

Cracking the code for page views is an obsession I failed to achieve. I couldn’t do it! I was stuck for months around 6k or less visits. I needed help. I finally made some investments for my blog, one being a Pinterest strategy book, and the other specifically a traffic book. Update: I am above 100k pageviews as of August 2017, and making over 3k a month. Scroll to the end to grab my free pdf on how to make money blogging, without teaching anyone to blog.  Making My First $1000 From Blogging I bought an eBook to help me with Pinterest. I literally was failing, and not understanding how to pin to group boards. This eBook transformed my game, and I got my first viral pin the month I bought that book. I wrote about my first viral pin in more detail, How I Got My First Viral Pin as well…

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How I Turned $17.99 Into Over $300 With One Blog Post

I was the blogger who was obsessed with reading income reports from other bloggers. Most of us are working hard when we first start our blogs, to figure out the famous equation. What plus what will bring in a decent amount of money. By studying other bloggers income reports, I was able to understand the different income streams that are out there. But, many bloggers, myself included, where always wanting me to buy something. They mentioned their referrals to Convertkit or BoardBooster, and I thought, great, but I’m not making any money, so I can’t buy anything yet. Update: I am above 50k pageviews and made my first $1,000!!!  Making My First $1000 From Blogging A couple months later, my pride was going down, and I was desperate to get my traffic up. I had been blogging six months and made $50. I found Carly’s book, Pinteresting Strategies, and because…

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How I Pin Over 800 Pins In One Week

Pinterest and blogging to hand in hand. If you are new to blogging, and you are just getting things going, I suggest you read the Let’s Start Your Blog and Make Money Now By Doing What I Should’ve Done I wrote that post for you. It goes over all the things I am so mad I didn’t do up front. Why did I want to be published on Huffington Post so bad?!! Read that post, and you’ll see what’s more important. More Blogging Posts: Pageview Breakthrough: How I Went from 6k to over 17k in One Month How I Got My First Viral Pin How To Connect With Brands For Sponsorship on Instagram How I Went From 0-60 Email Subscribers In Two Days How I Turned $17.99 Into Over $300 With One Blog Post Anyways, back to pinning. I’m sure you are tired of reading about BoardBooster and all the…

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