Earlier this week, I came upon this image on Pinterest and fell in love with it. I am NOT the most artistic person, though that should probably run in my blood, but that doesn’t mean that I don’t know how to appreciate it and promote it. Check out the video of how this installation came to be below!
[Source]
When you say the words, “Social Media Anxiety” out loud, it may sound kind of silly because after all – how can we take social media all that seriously? But it exists. I know because social media anxiety is exactly what happened to me yesterday morning when I was trying to promote a Yow Yow! post on Facebook. First I posted it. Four minutes later I took it down. Then I posted it to a friend’s wall and deleted it. And then I re-posted it to my own Facebook again. It was so ridiculous and I’ll admit I was a little bit embarrassed, but that is in fact what social media anxiety is at its finest. When you know that what you post will be seen by others that you are connected with, it’s hard NOT to feel self conscious. Is the status your posting witty enough? If it doesn’t have enough likes, is that a bad thing? Is my Instagram shot artsy enough? Will my tweet garner any re-tweets or replies?
The Today Show recently conducted a study in which they surveyed 7,000 American mothers and have discovered that 42% of them suffer from “Pinterest stress” – the worry that they are not crafty or creative enough. Yeah, that’s a real thing.
New York Magazine just wrote up an entertaining piece about the 6 Major Social Media Anxieties and it couldn’t be more spot-on. Check it out here.
If you are an avid Pinterest user, you often times will forget when you’ve already pinned something. When re-organizing my boards, I sometimes would find that I had pinned a pin not once, not twice, but three times! I was being inefficient. Luckily for people like me who kept running into this problem, Pinterest has created a feature to make our lives easier. Now, if you’re pinning something that you have pinned before, you will be notified with a message. Repetition crisis averted!
[Source]
It was just a year ago that Pinterest made the move from Palo Alto to San Francisco and now they’ve moved again, but within the city! Today, the Pinterest team moved into their new home and with open spaces and bright windows, the place is gorgeous. Gigaom caught up with founder Ben Silbermann and had the chance to tour the new location and capture some pretty spectacular photos. With over 100 strong and new improvements to the website, the social media network isn’t showing any signs of slowing down.
[Source]
It’s not often that I find a song I love off of Pinterest, but today was kind of that day. Yes, I just listened to this 6 times in a row. Not ashamed.
Yow Yow! is all over romanticism today.
I meant to post this a couple of days ago, but Kevin and I have been cooking up a storm lately! For some time, we have been searching for a way to make a pasta dish without always using sauce. I found this recipe via Pinterest via Canadian Living which is one of my favorite recipe sites. Making the dish was really a team effort for the two of us, but even though it was a pasta without sauce, what I loved about this most was that it was very home-y. It reminded me of something my mom would make or a meal that I used to eat at the “Hearty Classics” station in my university’s cafeteria. Check out the full recipe here. As always, I made the recipe my way and eliminated mustard…cause I don’t like it. We think that maybe taking that ingredient out made it less flavor, but we did our best to gain it back with lots of seasoning.
Maybe someday I’ll follow recipes the way I’m supposed to.
It takes some serious ambition to be cooking on a Monday night after work. Somehow I thought I was up to the challenge. I’ve always loved sun dried tomatoes in pasta so I was thrilled when I found a recipe that would combine it with my other two favorites – bow tie pasta and broccoli.
As always, I made this the “college way” or the “Katie way” and eliminated a few ingredients just because. Kevin and I have never been too fond of goat cheese or those olives so we thought we could do without it. Another thing I wish I would have done is use less olive oil. My mother has always said that olive oil is the healthiest, but in this case – less may be more. Part way through cooking, I realized that it needed some more flavor so I did not go easy on the chili powder. It definitely adds a little something extra! Altogether it was a great recipe. I am currently induced in my own food coma right now, but at least next time I make this recipe I’ll know what changes to make.
Check out the full recipe here
This year has been a very exciting time for Yow Yow! We are so grateful for all of the subscribers, emails, comments, interactions, views, and support. In case you were new to the blog or didn’t already know how to connect with us through social media, I wanted to give you an update on how you can keep track of us online.
Want Yow Yow’s posts sent directly to your email? Subscribe to us at the very bottom of this page by clicking the button that says “Sign me up!”
Additionally, you can follow us on Bloglovin, Pinterest, Twitter, and Instagram!
I’m also excited to announce that soon you will be able to follow me on Facebook for our latest blog updates on posts that we are working on or featured posts.
Got a question for me? Reach out to me via email on my About page.
Thank you so much again for all of your support! I’ve had such a wonderful time being a “Seattle blogger” and feel so lucky to have had the opportunity to work with certain companies, Seattle businesses and events, and interviewing some of the most amazing people.
When I am on Pinterest, some of my favorite things to pin are little quotes that I find matched up with awesome print designs like this one above. They can all be found on my Truth and Words board. Last night, I stumbled upon this great site called Recite This in which you can do the same thing with quotes that you pick yourself! While at dinner last night, Stephanie said the above and I thought to myself, this would look pretty great as a print…better turn it into one.
Have fun with the site you guys! I know I”ll be keeping it around in my back pocket for other moments in the future.
No matter how hard I try to test out a new recipe on Pinterest, I always kind of fail miserably. Because it was Opening Day and the sun was out, I decided to head over to the grocery store after work to try out this recipe for gnocchi with corn, green beans, and a cream sauce! First off, let’s talk about how I cheated this recipe. I bought the gnocchi from the store already packaged. I used corn out of the can (not fresh like the recipe calls for) and I threw in green beans because I like them! I also omitted the arugula and spinach…because I forgot about it. Whoops.
I can already tell that when my mother reads this, she’s going to be disappointed that I can’t even follow a recipe correctly. The whole process of making this meal took so much longer than I anticipated, but it was definitely filling and I still had leftovers! It was a good experience, but I have to be honest – I am terrible at cooking. Your girl needs to take some classes – why not be honest about it?
However, please feel free to test out the recipe yourself here and let me know how you succeeded where I failed.
PS: My meal looked NOTHING like that photo above. #Life
When it comes to numbers and data, I am such a geek. I guess that kind of goes hand-in-hand with blogging though right? Readers on Pinterest, have you checked out your analytics yet and if so what do you think? I’m obsessed with my WordPress stats and check everyday mostly because I’m so curious where all of y’all are coming from!
Also, if you’re not following me on Pinterest yet, please feel free to do so :)
It’s been awhile since Yow Yow’s had a “Food Nomz” post. It’s not because we’re not eating – it’s mostly because I haven’t had the motivation to try any new recipes. I’m learning everyday that buying all the ingredients you need for one meal is time consuming and cooking it after work is even more trying. Luckily for us, Kevin bought the groceries today and with me finding the easiest recipe for salmon, I thought we were solid.
For the longest time, I’ve been cooking salmon one way. I’ve pretty much perfected that, but I’ve been itching to try a new one so when I saw that the only ingredients required were lemon slices and butter and tin foil to hold it all in was all that was required, I was sold. Hi, no messy dish? We followed the recipe exactly, BUT I think we were a little bit off on the timing. After the first 25 minutes, we noticed that it wasn’t all cooked in the middle (scary!) so we put it in for another 15?
It’s a great recipe because it’s so simple and refreshing – more fitting for spring or summer, but I’d love it if one of my own readers could test it out and let me know what they thought. Maybe next time we’ll just ditch the foil and put it in a baking dish as usual.
PS: Forgot to say that we added both pepper and chili powder to the mix on top to give it an extra kick.
There were just too many fantastic reads today that I couldn’t make a post about every single one of them. Seriously, they are taking up all my tabs so I decided to turn them into a roundup post for your viewing convenience.
1. Facebook Prototype - Swedish designer Fred Nerby created this awesome prototype of a possible Facebook user interface that looks nothing like Timeline. Instead it resembles something more of the renovated MySpace, but damn, this looks. good. If you want to see the details clearer, watch the Vimeo in full screen. [Source]
2. Saving Your Instagrams – - – > Instaport
3. “Why I Left My Fancy Magazine Job” – Former Fashionista Editor Lauren Sherman explains why she left a gig at Lucky Magazine that many aspiring young women dream of.
4. Pinterest Acquires Punchfork – Pinterest makes its first big move in 2013 by acquiring one of my favorite recipe sites. [Source]
5. Seattle Music Ruled Today – Allen Stone performed on Ellen and Macklemore and Ryan Lewis’ “Thrift Shop” went platinum.
6. Modern Style Offices Thrive in Seattle – I couldn’t agree more that this open floor plan does wonders for productivity. [Source]
7. The 5 Innovative Social Media Campaigns of 2012
8. Starbucks is revealing their new $1 reusable cup. Will it catch on? [Source]
9. Man moves back in with his family to allow a homeless family to live in his home – such an amazing story about kindness and generosity. The video to accompany this post is a must-see. [Source]
10. McDreamy wants in on the Tully’s on Broadway in Capitol Hill. [Source]
Avocado has always been one of my favorite ingredients. I tell all my friends that I refer to it as the glitter on top of sandwiches, but we can’t just limit it to that. It’s the foundation for guacamole – the support for any salad – and a great source for vitamins, fiber, potassium, etc. It’s the kind of fat you actually want to be eating.
Ever since I became a member of Pinterest, I’ve been stocking up on ALL recipes including avocado. So the other day when I was at the grocery store, I picked up three of them with the intent to make something truly spectacular. I didn’t exactly have all of the ingredients I needed to make one type of avocado salad so genius little me decided to mix three different recipes to see what I could conjure up.
The result?
Turns out, you can just “guess” on the dressing so don’t follow my advice above and follow one of these real recipes instead. I’d like to note that my made-up recipe wasn’t bad or anything, but sometimes you are better off following instructions. However, with salads, you can’t go wrong – it can go either way which is…bad or good. So…
Favorite Style Icon: Taylor Swift
T. Swift has seriously stepped her game in 2012. Yes, she’s still sticking to the neutral colored dresses – but hey! That’s okay. It works for her. Taylor Swift is really just doing all the right things when it comes to her style these days and it helps that there are a handful of fabulous designers throwing their pieces at her. It’s awesome. I, of course, am jealous.
Runner Up: Michelle Obama / Kate Middleton
