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Amy Marie

Life + Style

My Favorite Songs from Beautiful: the Carole King Musical

This past weekend I had the pleasure of visiting the Bushnell Theater here in Connecticut to see Beautiful: The Carole King Musical. Beautiful it was! I was not aware of how many songs Carole King wrote for so many different artists. It is so weird to think about how different the music industry was, there were people who sat in a room all day working on songs for any artist to come pick up. The musical not only followed Carole King through her career, also shared the story of her life. She is a true inspiration. She worked so hard behind the scenes for so long until she had the confidence to go out on her own. I look forwards to reading her memoir. The show its self was amazing. It was hard to control myself from singing and dancing the entire time. Thankful after they bowed entire cast did a sing along with the audience – it was so powerful and fun! Now on to the music! The entire broadway soundtrack is so good, but here are a few of my favorites!

  1. Walking in The Rain
  2. You’ve Got A Friend (Gilmore Girl Fans you’ll love this)
  3. One Fine Day
  4. He’s Sure The Boy I Love
  5. A Natural Woman

Have you seen Beautiful yet? Are you looking forward to any musicals this year?

How I Became a Self-Hosted Blog in Minutes

This year I wanted to push myself when it came to blogging. I found success last year with my Etsy shop that when I worked hard my shop turned into a business. I did little things that turned my hobby into something profitable. I created business cards, I spent time creating new product, I cleaned up my shop appearance, and I spent time promoting my self on social media. This year I decided to take that same initiative and put it into my blog. The most important thing I did was make my blog look more official. I switched from a “.blogspot.com” to a “.com”. I jumped from Blogger to WordPress and I became a self-hosted blog. Already I have seen an increase in page views and I credit that to my new look and being self hosted.

Today I want to share how quick it was was for me to become self hosted and set up my new blog. Honestly this all happened within minutes. When I make decisions I make them fast and within an hours time I had signed up for siteground, bought a WordPress template from Etsy, installed it, and was busy setting up my new “About Me”.

First, lets talk about self hosting. There are a lot of ways you can become a self-hosted blogger. I looked around and read a lot of reviews on a variety of websites, but found siteground to be the most liked amongst bloggers. This was important knowledge to me as I was going to be using this for blogging. The three main reasons I chose siteground was that they are fast, secure and provide online support. I am not good with technology at all and they have people available to chat with when any problem arrises! They protect against hacking and provide additional add on purchases if you would like to keep your site even safer. Lastly, they are fast. I hate logging onto a site and it not loading – instant click out.

Interested? Cool, lets get you set up. It will literally take 2 minutes.

Easy! I then popped on over to Etsy and looked around. I bought a WordPress template for $25. And here we are! Self-hosted, official looking, boss blog lady! You are only minutes away! If you have any questions leave them in the comments, I’d love to help you get stared.

The Best Hashtags for Etsy Sellers

I find using Instagram as a tool to promote my Etsy shop to be very beneficial. By using the right hashtags you can pull in an audience that is looking for what you are selling. There are buyers out there that look to buy specifically from handmade shops, by using hashtags on Instagram you can drive those buyers straight to your shop.

If you are on a mobile device I suggest copying these and putting them in the notes section of your phone. The best and easiest thing to do is keep a running list of hashtags in your phones note section. All you have to do copy and paste them on your Instagram post however you please. Quick and easy! Also take some time to research the best times to post on Instagram to maximize your post views.

#custom #customgift #handmade #handmadegift #shophandmade #smallbusiness #shopsmallbusiness #etsyelite #supportsmallbusiness #etsy #etsyshop #etsyseller #etsygift #etsyfinds #shopetsy #buyetsy #etsyhunter #etsyusa #etsyfinds #etsylove #etsysellers #etsybestsellers

Another way to way to customize hashtags for your shop is to add tags specific to what you are selling. For example, I my shop I sell hair ties for bachelorette parties so I might use these:

#elastichairties #bridetobe #baccheloretteparty #partyfavors #hairties

Are you an Etsy shop owner? What hashtags do you use to promote your shop on Instagram?

New Year, New Blog

Hello! Welcome to my new blog! I have been blogging on and off since 2013 over on Champagne and Pearls. I lost interest a year ago with my blog and I posted very little over the past year. However, I still felt a passion for blogging. So I did what any sensible person would do and I jumped ship. I signed up for WordPress, bought a .com, and bought a blog design. All within an hours time. I decided I am not going to get good a blogging unless I continue to blog. I so desperately want to be good at it, so I am going to keep working at it.

I felt so trapped in my old blog. I was using blogger, which I thought was the best option – no, and I felt limited to what I could post. I was a self-proclaimed beauty and fashion blogger, but so much more inspires me. I want to share DIY projects, recipes I try, funny stories/experiences, Etsy tips, and a ton more. I do not want to feel limited by my blog, but that my options unlimited. I want readers to get the same feeling I get when I open up a new post from my favorite bloggers: The College Prepster, The Daily Tay, Helene in Between, Kelly in the City … and many more.

So here is to 2017 and a new blog!