Writing Career

Blogging 101: Are You Making It Hard to Share?

Blogging 101: Are You Making It Hard to Share?

So you’re writing this blog. It’s going well, and people respond to your cool projects, inspired photos and interesting stories. Search engine traffic is coming in (yay!) and your stats are on the rise. Still, for some reason you don’t see that many people sharing your stuff on social media. Why not? Could you be [...]

Introducing … Better Blog Writing: How to Improve Your Writing to Keep Readers Coming Back for More

Introducing … Better Blog Writing: How to Improve Your Writing to Keep Readers Coming Back for More

Introducing … (This makes me so excited. I am literally giddy with excitement.) My new e-book: Better Blog Writing: How to Improve Your Writing to Keep Readers Coming Back for More Available exclusively for the Kindle (and Kindle apps), Better Blog Writing is a short guide to improving your writing, finding inspiration for your blog [...]

Be a Bold Freelancer

Be a Bold Freelancer

This is an excerpt from the Dream. Write. Do. newsletter for freelancers. It’s a monthly newsletter filled with tips, Q&As and more to help you succeed. Have you signed up yet? The next issue hits inboxes tomorrow, March 1. Scroll to the bottom to join in the fun. Now, I have to ask you: When [...]

Going After Her Dream

Not a Fairytale Path to My Big Life Dreams

Not a Fairytale Path to My Big Life Dreams

At this time last year, I was at the beginning stages of creating Sarah by the Sea. I was writing a plan for the site, creating some preliminary content and shooting inspirational photos. There was only a URL and an idea to go on. But it was an idea that excited me more than anything [...]

How to Create Your Own Vision Board

How to Create Your Own Vision Board

I remember the first time I heard about vision boards (also known as dream boards). A childhood friend of mine mentioned creating a new one because she’d totally rocked her last one. At first, I was skeptical. But soon, I found myself creating one myself. A few months later, I realized that I had accomplished [...]

Going After Her Dream: Shekinah Monee

Going After Her Dream: Shekinah Monee

This year, we are all about the inspiration on Sarah by the Sea, so on Fridays I will be featuring inspiring women in Friday Q&As. This is one of my very favorite features, and I hope you love it too. Meet Shekinah Monee, a Brooklyn, NY, woman who is going after her dream of being [...]

Home

Can You Learn To Be Organized?

Can You Learn To Be Organized?

When it comes to my work, I am a master of organization. My prop cabinet has shelves organized by prop type (linen, bowl, accessories, etc). My computer files are divided into folders by type and client. I have spreadsheets for tracking everything from social media stats to income. They are up-to-date, and constantly monitored, to [...]

The Declutter Project: The Kitchen, Part 1

The Declutter Project: The Kitchen, Part 1

The Idea: What if my family were to try adopting the techniques in a book dedicated to being clutter-free and put them into action? Could that lead us to clutter-free bliss? It’s something I was willing to try, so a few weeks back we gave it a try. The book? It’s All Too Much by [...]

Ology All Purpose Cleaner Lemon & Lavender Review

Ology All Purpose Cleaner Lemon & Lavender Review

Do you use natural cleaners? After having Will, I became somewhat obsessed with using natural products because I developed some intense allergies — and I worried what those same things might be doing to his little body. Over the years, I have found some that work really well. Others? Not so much. And some tasks [...]

Life

Break the Hurry Habit

Break the Hurry Habit

Guest post by Zita Weber, Ph.D. Yes, it is possible to break the hurry habit and still get everything done!  It’s a matter of self-reflection and determination to change your life so that you have more quality time to do things, including those things in life that are crowded out when you’re always on the [...]

A Good End to the Week

A Good End to the Week

When the kids stepped off the bus on Friday, I was waiting at the end of our driveway in the car. It wasn’t crazy cold or raining — two things that typically lead me to wait in the shelter of the car. Instead, I wanted to be ready to roll when they arrived. I couldn’t [...]

Integrating Eco-Friendly at Home and The Honest Company

Integrating Eco-Friendly at Home and The Honest Company

Do you use eco-friendly products? I often do but I also pay careful attention to how well a product works. That’s an important factor. I mean, why use something that’s not effective? I first started thinking about products — and their impact on the environment — more than a decade ago. When I was moving [...]

Travel

3 Reasons to Travel to Bali

3 Reasons to Travel to Bali

By Stefan Russel One of the reasons I fell so strong about Bali is because of the islands many faces. You can drive from one end of Bali to the other in three to four hours, but the relative short drive will take you through lively touristy beach towns and local villages where the Balinese [...]

Walt Disney World: Value vs Deluxe Hotels

Walt Disney World: Value vs Deluxe Hotels

Ready for more Disney talk? I could seriously talk about our trip to Walt Disney World for Food Blog Forum again and again and again. It was such an amazing experience. Before heading to Walt Disney World, I set a few goals: to make sure that I did enough that I could write about it [...]

On Our Magical Trip to Walt Disney World

On Our Magical Trip to Walt Disney World

When my family and I drove through the gates to Disney, I don’t know who was more excited — the kids or my husband and me. Since having our first child, our son Will, seven years ago, our family vacations have been infrequent and always close to home. Money hasn’t been plentiful so we’ve been [...]

Books

Review: The Paradise Guest House by Ellen Sussman

Review: The Paradise Guest House by Ellen Sussman

Before we jump into this review, I have a little confession. I didn’t love Eat, Pray, Love by Elizabeth Gilbert. In fact, while I really enjoyed the Eat section, the Pray section wore me out and I never made it far into the Love section. I tried to read the book on several occasions — [...]

Review: Someday, Someday, Maybe by Lauren Graham

Review: Someday, Someday, Maybe by Lauren Graham

Franny Banks is a 20-something in New York trying to make it as an actress. She’s starred in a commercial or two, and waits tables at a comedy club. It’s January 1995, and her self-imposed three-year deadline in New York is nearing. It’s a deadline she set for herself to break into Broadway and start [...]

Fun at the Library

Fun at the Library

I discovered the library one summer when I was a little girl. My voracious appetite for reading had grown so much that buying books just didn’t make sense. I read them too quickly and then craved more instantly (a good problem to have, as Cate says). So, my grandmother began taking me to the library [...]

Recent Posts

The Tale of the Kite

The Tale of the Kite

| May 8, 2013 | 0 Comments

Will was so excited to fly his new kite last summer. It was special — a sturdy, large fabric kite that would soar high. He waited and waited for the wind to be just right. Then, one day it was so he took the kite to the beach for its first flight. Once he had [...]

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Review: The Paradise Guest House by Ellen Sussman

Review: The Paradise Guest House by Ellen Sussman

| May 6, 2013 | 0 Comments

Before we jump into this review, I have a little confession. I didn’t love Eat, Pray, Love by Elizabeth Gilbert. In fact, while I really enjoyed the Eat section, the Pray section wore me out and I never made it far into the Love section. I tried to read the book on several occasions — [...]

Continue Reading

How to Be a Curly Haired Girl

How to Be a Curly Haired Girl

| May 2, 2013 | 0 Comments

This probably won’t come as a shock to anyone who has ever gone to the beach with me. Or the pool. Or seen my hair after a bit of rain touched it. But I have wavy-curly hair. However, if you have ever seen me beyond the confines of water-related places, maybe you don’t know. Lord [...]

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Can You Learn To Be Organized?

Can You Learn To Be Organized?

| May 1, 2013 | 1 Comment

When it comes to my work, I am a master of organization. My prop cabinet has shelves organized by prop type (linen, bowl, accessories, etc). My computer files are divided into folders by type and client. I have spreadsheets for tracking everything from social media stats to income. They are up-to-date, and constantly monitored, to [...]

Continue Reading

Review: Someday, Someday, Maybe by Lauren Graham

Review: Someday, Someday, Maybe by Lauren Graham

| April 30, 2013 | 0 Comments

Franny Banks is a 20-something in New York trying to make it as an actress. She’s starred in a commercial or two, and waits tables at a comedy club. It’s January 1995, and her self-imposed three-year deadline in New York is nearing. It’s a deadline she set for herself to break into Broadway and start [...]

Continue Reading