OOTD: Teal Blazer & Boyfriend Jeans

Excuse the awkward bangs I have going on in these from growing out my straight across bangs!! Gah.

this amazing arrowhead necklace c/o melvin avenue

this gorgeous nailpolish c/o my lovely friend rebecca

And it's your lucky day today, because the sweet Amber of Melvin Avenue {you know, the place I got that awesome necklace I'm wearing in these shots?!} is giving away her best-selling gold Wishbone necklace. It is to.die.for. Absolutely freaking awesome. You guys are lucky ducks. Quack.

GIVEAWAY CLOSED

Ombré Hair Trend

What do you think of it? You know, the one where it fades from brown to blonde at the ends?  I have been pondering whether or not to do it for summer {it's spring currently in New Zealand. I know, backwards right?} because I wanted some more blonde in my hair but hate the maintenance and regrowth on blonde highlights. I spent a while perusing through Google images for some inspiration....

source

source

...and then took the plunge.

Blog Freebies #1

I have decided to start offering you some blog freebies every week. I spend half my life doing design work for people that were referred to me by YOU, so why can't I pay you guys back with a few freebies to spruce up your own blog?  All graphics are for PERSONAL USE ONLY. If you are confused by this, read the license info inside the zip file. If you have any questions, just send me an email! And of course - feel free to pin these to save for later! Just click on the image to download the zip file. I would LOVE to see how you use these - so definitely leave a comment to show me if you'd like!! 

Fashion Friday: Floral Fancies

I am/always have been in love with florals. I am attracted to anything with a floral print and some days I wish it was cool to wear floral on floral. But that would be about as cool as denim on denim...I just don't wear that well. Prepare to lust some florals...

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Blogging 101: Sponsoring Other Blogs

After a few questions I've had lately, I've decided to start a Blogging 101 series. I know these are very common amongst bloggers, but hey- we could all use all the help we can get! Now that I've hit 1000 followers, you can start calling me "O Wise One". Just kidding. The person who left a snarky comment on one of my outfit posts calling me self-absorbed probably wants to hate on me for that one.... hahaha. Anyways!

The topic this week is sponsoring other blogs. It seems so simple, yet is still such a puzzle to some people. And I totally understand why. I have spent mucho dollars on ads and mucho time on my own sponsors..and I'm here to give you some tips and tricks of the trade. Ooh, that was like an alliteration. Not really though.

Look out next week for Blogging 101 on sponsors on YOUR blog.

1. Yes, we all want to start a blog and on day one start raking in the cash for paid ads...but let's be real, it doesn't work that way. You need a decent following before people will want to buy ads from your blog, so get out there on the hunt for other blogs that would like to swap with you. It never hurts to send out emails to some of your favorite blogs, even if they do have some more followers than you because hey, we were all small blogs once and the blogging community is so supportive. Don't be upset if they turn you down for whatever reason, just keep searching for more people to swap with!

2. This is a totally personal choice, but a lot of people prefer to use Passionfruit these days. It's a website that you can set up all of your ads and promo codes on, as well as see all of the websites you've submitted your ads to. Not only is it useful for people to organize ads on their ow blogs, but it's also great to keep track of how many ads you have running at one time and when they will expire.

3. If you have it in your budget, set aside a small amount of money each month to spend on sponsoring other blogs. This does involve trial and error if you don't have any guidance of who to sponsor and why. Some of my personal favorites, not only because I love their blogs but also because they have proven month after month to be my top referrers {we're talking 100-200+ hits a month here} are:

Living In Yellow

The Wiegands

A Complete Waste of Makeup

4. I don't sponsor any of the above mentioned blog with a featured or super big ad. In fact, they're all small or medium ads. Yes, I'm cheap. I want the most bang for my buck {see the next point}. Sponsor bigger blogs with smaller ads and you will still get views. You don't always need the most massive ad possible {although this is great if you can afford it- but let's face it, I usually sure can't!} to get views from blogs you sponsor.

5. Passionfruit brought along with it the handy dandy use of promo codes. Who doesn't love saving 20% on their ad if you "buy this week only"? It's the best!! Keep an eye out on Twitter for discounts from your fave blogs and save yourself some cash to use on sponsoring another blog.

6. More times than not, if you send a nice email to a blogger whom you sponsor and want to keep on sponsoring, they will give you a discount on buying more than one ad at once. I have received a discounted rate on all of the blogs that I continue to sponsor month after month. The discount I have received is anywhere from $5 - $10 off each month, that's a pretty decent amount of savings. It never hurts to ask!

Hopefully all of this made sense to you and helps some of you out. If you have any questions on any of these, don't hesitate to email me. As per usual, I am always looking for blogs to sponsor- so if you regularly sponsor a blog that I didn't list above that gets you a good amount of traffic, please do share!! Remember to look out next week for a post on having sponsors on your own blog.

For Lauren and Lauren...

I have one of my favorite bloggers and lovely friend Katie taking over the blog today! Learn a bit more about her and see what little prize she has in store for you!

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Hello Yours Truly readers! My name is Katie and I'm so excited to be on Chelsea's blog today.  I've been reading Chelsea's blog since she started and I love it!  Chelsea even used her talents to help me with some of the designs on my blog!  

I blog over at for Lauren and Lauren and I started my blog as a way to share my daily outfits with my sister Lauren and sister in law Lauren. 

I had no idea how much I would love blogging and love the blogging community.

It has been such a fun new hobby! 

I use my blog as a place to share my love for clothes (and usually how cheap I find them for).

I also use my blog to share different projects I've made, like some of these: 

       sailboat                      maxi dress                 statement necklace

And of course I share things going on in my life, such as stories about my husband and my life as a third grade teacher. 

Today I'm excited to be giving away one of the headbands from my etsy shop. 

The flower comes on a clip so it can be worn on any headband or on it's own. 

Which means it can be perfect for a baby, little girl or yourself!

Winner gets their choice of color flower. 

 One of my favorite things about blogging has been getting to know other bloggers, so I can't wait to meet you!  Thanks for reading and good luck in the giveaway! 

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Be sure to go and check her out...and of course enter the giveaway for one of her gorgeous headbands below!!

GIVEAWAY CLOSED

DIY: Create A Blog Button

Let's start the week off just swell {yep I said that} by having a little tutorial that I have been told has been very helpful to some. If you have any questions at all, just shoot me an email. But please don't just ask me to make the button for you 'cause I have heaps of my own design work to get done :)

Now, if you're cringing already at the idea of doing your own "graphic design" and can't picture it not turning out totally cheesy, then you've come to the right person for help. By the end of this how-to, you will be able to create your own awesome blog button to use when sponsoring other blogs!

Step 1: Open up PicMonkey. Click the "edit a photo" button and open up an image you'd like to use for your button. 

Step 2: Click on "Crop" under Basic Edits. I recommend for starters, you make your settings the same as mine - 250 x 250 and have "scale photo" ticked (Fun geeky note: a pixel is the smallest piece of a digital image that is still controllable. A pixel is usually represented as a little tiny square, and all of these tiny squares put together equals your image. So when someone requests a 200 x 200 button from you, now you know that they're referring to 200 x 200 pixels!). Drag the box around your image (you can expand the box as well by clicking, holding and pulling on the corners) until you have the selection placed over the part of the image you want to use on your button. Click apply and your image will crop.

Step 3: Take a moment to play with some of the options under Basic Edits. "Exposure" is helpful to brighten up a dark image, and "Colors" makes the colors of your image look more natural if they are a bit off.

Step 4: On the very left sidebar, click on Effects (the little beaker with bubbles coming out of it). This is the fun and easy part where you get to play around with colors and different cool effects on your photo. Click on the name of each effect to try it, and if you like it, just click apply. Try not to get too crazy with your effects or they could end up looking cheesy. A couple of my favorites are Tranquil and Dusk.

Step 5: Now that you've made your photo all pretty, it's time for text! Click on the P on the very left sidebar for text. As a graphic designer, I find font choice a very important part to any design {#fontsnob much?} Luckily, PicMonkey has some really greats fonts for you to use. A few of my favorites are Francois One, Quicksand, La Belle Aurore and Lobster Two. Take a few minutes to play around with text and see what works best for you. If you have more than one word in your blog name, I would recommend doing one text box for each word so you have the freedom to move each word around to where you want it.

Step 6: Play around with your text. If you click on text that you have already created, a little pop-up box shows up and you can change the color and fade (the see-throughness of the text) and size. I like to adjust the fade on my text to make it a little bit see through.

Step 7: When you are happy with your text, it's time to add a little pop to your button. Click on Overlays on the very left hand sidebar (all the little shapes). From here you have choices from basic shapes, hearts, arrows. I like to put one of these shapes underneath my text by placing it on top of the text, then right clicking on the shape and selecting "send to back". I then adjust the fade on the image to make it blend a bit better. 

You're done! At this point, you should have created yourself a pretty decent button that you won't feel so bad about sending all over blog-land! Click save at the top of the screen, and when the pop-up comes up, change where it says .jpg to .png for best image quality. If you need some more image sizes, simply save your current image, and then go back to the very first option on the left sidebar (Basic Edits) and choose Resize. Make sure "Keep Proportions" is ticked, and simply change the size to 200 x 200 or whatever image  size you want. If you plan on creating heaps of button sizes, it's best to start big and make smaller and smaller images in order to not lose image quality.

Pin this and save it for later!

If you need anymore help with these, feel free to send me an email at chelsea@oliveandivyblog.com or tweet me @chelseaoliviaxo. I would love to see what you create as well! Good luck, and have fun!

OOTD: Floral Dress & Bright Belt

gorgeous key necklace c/o Impossible Done

SHOP THIS LOOK & MATCHING ITEMS:

Fashion Friday: Nudes & Neutrals

This month I am absolutely loving nudes and neutrals. It's fun to wear a totally

simple-colored outfit in a bunch of different complementary shades. And statement

necklaces? I definitely want to own every single one ever. Cheerfully Charmed has

some super cute ones and a couple of them are even buy two get one free!

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The Fact Is...

Today I'm linking up with my fave, Nicholl from The Chiffon Diary, for her new lil' thang called The Fact Is...!

Fact: I daydream about being a real live grown-up with
a house and a baby. I can't wait for that part of my life, but I know now is not the time.

Fact: I am a crazy cat lady.

LOL awkward crazy cat lady since '91. With cool bangs as well. And center part. Together.

Fact: I live in New Zealand but am from Vancouver, Canada
and can't wait to move back home this coming February!

Fact: I want to be a web/graphic designer as my full-time job. 
I am slowly on my way to achieving this and am so happy about it.

Fact: I have a couple nailpolishes..

Fact: I am a hypochondriac. Like, legitimately. I have really bad health anxiety.

Fact: Drinking coffee in the morning before eating makes me very jittery and anxious. No good.

Fact: I am a helper. I want to help people and I hate when I don't know how to.

Fact: I would definitely consider myself happy.

Fact: My lovely friend Cassie from Live Laugh Love has started offering 
her time as a Virtual Assistant. She is such a sweet girl, I can't imagine 
anyone better to work with! Check out all her prices & services 
at www.cassiesvawebsite.com and be sure to mention Chelsea 
{Yours Truly} as the referral to receive 15% off your first package!

A Chelsea Life Update

Hi friends. Just a quick post today to say how much I love you all {new and old followers} and thank you so much for coming along on my little adventure that is life.

A couple exciting things happening for me right now..I have been flooded with design work which is amazing as the boyfriend and I are scraping every last penny together for when we move back to Canada in February. If you need any design work done, please hit me up because I would love to work with you! See all pricing and services on my design blog, here.

Speaking of moving back to Canada, I just checked online for info on Cole's residency application which is currently being processed and looks like a month has been knocked off the wait time, woo! Because we are ending up staying in New Zealand longer than expected due to his residency taking forever, I have to renew my work visa for here. I was in a panic yesterday about nothing working out in regards to that but now it's just all seemed to fall into place, it's great. Looks like my visa should go through no problem. Prayers, wishes, hope, luck and crossed fingers/toes/etc are much appreciated in Cole's residency application being approved. It would be a serious life-saver for our relationship.

Have a lovely week everyone! xoxo

OOTD: Sheer Burgundy & Tribal Print

Before I get into the actual outfit post, can we just talk about for a second how much I look like an anime character sometimes? Seriously, I get such anime character eyes when I smile. Maybe I'm just crazy, but look at this picture and tell me what you think. Anyways..onto the outfit!

 I was lucky enough to be sent a gorgeous watch from Feral Watches to try out. I chose the tribal print wrap watch {only $40!} and it fits perfectly and went great with this outfit. It was enough pattern to add a bit of a pop to my outfit and the colors matched great with my top. Be sure to check out their online store, their prices are ridiculously cheap and they have a few different amazing styles and colors to choose from. This turquoise suede fringe wrap watch was my second choice, it's such a nice color!

I was also sent this pretty necklace from my bloggie-friend Alli, who blogs at Allena Mistral. She has just recently started offering these little beauties in her Storenvy shop. It comes on a really tiny silver chain {which I LOVE} and you get to choose the letter that is stamped on the heart and what little charm you'd like as well. I have been wanting a dainty little necklace like this for a while now, so I was SO excited when I received this in the mail! I have literally been wearing it everyday with everything. Such a great gift idea as well!

You lucky readers of mine are being offered a 10% discount off this necklace in Alli's shop with the code YOURSTRULY.

SHOP THIS LOOK & MATCHING ITEMS