NEW Blogger Template Day // Peek-A-Boo Colors

This is always one of my favorite days here on the blog! I'm always excited to add to my Etsy shop for you guys. Also, if you would like to see any additional designs or patterns feel free to leave some ideas in the comments and I'll see what I can come up with. :) Think of it as a game where we both win. :)

Peek-A-Boo Aqua // $35

Peek-A-Boo Lime // $35

Peek-A-Boo Pink // $35

Peek-A-Boo Sherbert // $35

(And yes, I know it's spelled wrong. It's intentional.)

Happy Freelancer // Read. Know. Forget. Do.

When I started out freelancing, I went to Barnes & Noble, and logged on to Amazon, and went to the library (two actually). I found as many books as I could on the what and how and I spent hours upon hours reading. I studied pricing. I studied forms. I studied contracts. I studied layouts and designs. I studied the "Do's" and the "Don't's". I studied rules and guides. I read every success story I could find trying to gain perspective and understanding. I read every failure story I could find trying to learn from their mistakes so I wouldn't make the same ones. I studied everything I could think of, and then some! 

By the time I actually started my business I was practically burnt out on the inner workings of freelancing. I didn't even have a client yet and I was tired of dealing with them. I knew the basic rules, and had a really good understanding of what I needed to know and how to do it.

So BAM. I opened shop...

My first customer came around and I did everything by the book... 

...and I hated it! 

It felt so constricting. I was so frustrated and almost quit after that. It was like working for somebody else, but worse because they weren't actually there to answer my questions or to clarify anything. 

That's when I realized that freelancing is just like anything else. It's yours. It's up to you to figure out all the best ways. Yes, there are simple things that you need to remember and always do, but then there are other things that just aren't going to work for you. I's really ok to color outside the lines as a freelancer. Make it your own. That's the only way you're going to stick out from the throng of other freelancers and do-it-yourself-ers.

It's good to do your research; to know all the basic rules and to  understand why they are out there. It's always important to know the same things as your competition; however it's how you forget about or bend those rules that will put you outside the box. That's when you'll start to grow your business for real! And THAT's when you'll start to really have fun and love your new found freelance life! :)

Blogger Template Day: Carved -n- Colored

Today's new Premade Blogger Template is called:

Carved -n- Colored

Carved -n- Colored // $40

This is always one of my favorite days here on the blog! I'm always excited to add to my Etsy shop for you guys. Also, if you would like to see any additional designs or patterns feel free to leave some ideas in the comments and I'll see what I can come up with. :) Think of it as a game where we both win. :)

How To: Get Better Picture From Your Phone

It's time once again for: 

So I know you've all heard the old adage, "The best camera is the one you have with you."
Well for me, and I'm betting for most of you, that would be my phone. However, the one that comes with the phone's software doesn't do it for me. It's to bland and doesn't offer nearly enough buttons to play with. 

As an amateur photographer, I love editing and messing with my photos. So when I take a picture, I want ALL the options! That's why I love using the Camera+ app for iPhone (I've heard that FxCamera is the Android alternative, you'll have to let me know how you Android-ers like it.)

Here's why...

This app has a ton of edits and features that make your photos so much nicer!

First up is the focus and exposure feature.

When you tap the screen a box will appear. This is the automatic focus and exposure box. It will do all the work for you if you'd like. However, if you feel like playing around and having more control, you can use two fingers and the focus and exposure will separate so that you can adjust each separately. This alone can make your photos so much more dynamic!

It also has a stabilizer, self-timer, zoom, flash & flashlight feature, and a burst mode that will take several pictures in quick succession. (For those fun action shots. :))

Next is the menu.
Camera+ gives you so many options and customization possibilities. One of my favorite is that you can choose to save the photos  to your original Photos app (like normal) or you can create a Lightbox within the app itself to save all of your newly edited photos to. Or you can do both. There are a ton of other options as well including, quality, syncing, sound, look, etc...

Now I'll show you all of the Editing Possibilities.

After you've taken a picture, from the Lightbox screen select "Edit". From here you can choose different scenes, rotate your picture...

crop it, add effects...

borders and even captions.

 See... now even without photoshop, my Super Team of Super Heros look so much better! And it's all done on my phone. I couldn't be happier with an app.

For more editing capabilities (cause I love my photo editing) I'll show you how to use Snapseed next time. It's amazing too!! It's my other photo editor that I would be lost without! Try it out if you'd like and stay tuned for it's feature post in the next few days.

Click HERE to see other GEEKification Tutorials & How To's.

*All of the opinions in this post are solely mine. I was not reimbursed in any way for this opinion. Just felt like sharing this cool app with all of my photogeek friends in hopes that your pictures can become more like what you vision when you take them. :)