Creating "Why All the Fuss"

Well, I finished my Ted Talk. I wouldn't say it was amazing but I don't think I did half bad.











I will say, it was rough coming up with a lesson I could share from this experience. Maybe this was because I picked a topic that was too comfortable, maybe I wasn't looking deep enough or maybe I wasn't viewing it abstractly enough. Regardless, I still managed to come up with something, even if it was not ideal. Because of my lack of confidence on what I was talking about I feel as if my talk was too short. When I practiced it was long enough but when I am presenting I have a tendency to speed up or forget to say things, therefore making my talk too short. While my TedTalk was rough in my opinion I do like how my blog turned out.









I have added an Archive tab to the menu to make it more user friendly and I think that I have managed to create a layout that both looks good and is easy to use. I'm also really glad that I have managed to create a pretty balanced aesthetic. The theme is elegant yet simple and my photos look professional and put together. The only thing I dislike about the set up of my blog is how big the header images appear.










The header images take up the entire screen and it makes the actual header seem very small and unimportant. I'm not sure if its the shape of the image or the actual file size but they are way too overwhelming. Once I figure that out, as long as I continue writing posts, I will be content with the outcome of this project. I have lots of ideas (though I doubt all of them will go through) that are in the works and I do believe that I will continue writing Why All the Fuss. 

They say we needed a vlog, so a vlog is what I made. If anyone would like to see my scrapped vlog in which I took pictures of things please comment below. Personally I thought it might be boring watching me take pictures but I could always include it as an extra post. So without further ado, here it is folks:

genius project vlog from Katherine S on Vimeo.

•          She started the blog because it was on her bucket list
•           At first she posted many times a week, however the posts were shorter
•         She does use social media as an extension of her blog (Youtube, Instagram)
•          The posts are decided on her everyday life, if she is doing a DIY for her home, she will make a post about it
•         Picmoney is pretty great for editing photos and creating graphics
•           Piktochart is pretty good for infographics (though it’s a little late for that one, am I right?)
•           It’s helpful to have someone read your post for you before you post them/help you decide if you should post them at all
•           When in doubt, more pictures the better
•          Most importantly, you won’t be comfortable with your writing until you practice.
• 
  

While some of these things I had already known, or at least guessed, it was very helpful to hear. I hope that I can now improve my blogging experience, to not only make it easier for me but more appeal to the reader. 

While I did plan out my next post and take some pictures for it, I mainly focused on research this week. For the post, I will be writing about some of my current favorite pieces of clothing. I know I had a hard time explaining my opinions on things in an earlier post, but practice makes perfect. While I haven't completely finished the pictures for this post, I have a few already and I know the pictures I still need to take, it's not like I haven't figured that out yet. The pictures were pretty good I think. I am way more comfortable with taking pictures of people, so photographing clothing wasn't super easy just because I take a lot of photos.


The article on photography was so helpful. Many article I found online were directed more towards how to photograph people. But I don't need to know how to photograph people. Instead the article focused on how to shoot objects, specifically ones for online stores. This is great as like an online store, I am trying to show of whatever I'm photographing, making it look as appealing as possible. It taught me the best lighting to use/how to adjust lighting, it explained how to choose a background, and it also discussed how to take the photo (i.e angling, focus, etc.).
The article I found on writing was also extremely helpful. This was because, as the photography article, it can be applied to my project. Many writing how-to's I found were meant more for formal writing only. However this article, while it can be applied to formal writing, can also easily be applied to more creative writing. Some of the tips it gave that I believe will be very important for me to remember are:
Strip it Down: make sure your writing is clear enough that anyone could understand it, don't write too much that it's confusing
Write From a Happy Place: try to relax while your writing, you don't write your best while your stressed
Give Yourself a Time Limit: don't try to dwell on a piece for too long, get to your point as quickly as possible
Say it Out Loud: try reading your writing out loud to make sure that it flows smoothly and is easy to understand
While there are six more pieces of advice in this article, I feel that these four are very important for me as a writer. I either never do them, or I often forget about them. Hopefully as I continue with writing for this blog I will keep these tips in mind.

I was right. My newest blog post was much easier to write than my first one. I'm pretty certain that this was because I didn't have to explain my opinion. I wrote the post and formatted it in about 45 minutes, and it took about 5 minutes for Alyssa to proof read it for me. Last time, it not took me about twice as long to write, and twice as long to proof read. While I'm happy with how it turned out, I want to stick to fashion from now on.


For my next post, I think I want to do "My Favorites This Season." I think I could do the photography for a lot of a post like this, as I don't have to actually wear the clothes. While this would be another post where I have to explain my opinion, I feel like this would be easier as I already know exactly what pieces I would include. However as I didn't want to spend hundreds of dollars on professional lights, I have to rely on natural light for my photography. I think it's supposed to be sunny on Sunday, but if the weather fails me, it's not supposed to be sunny again till Thursday. Taking photos on Thursday would be really annoying, as I have homework and clubs. I'd much rather take them on Sunday when I don't have to worry about time as much.

My blog is really coming together!

Also, if you didn't read my midweek special, describing my issues with changing the theme of my blog, here's a summary:
- I didn't like the theme of my blog
- I don't know how to apply a theme from an outside website
- All of the themes I like, you have to pay for
So that was a thing that happened, but I have resolved it for now. I changed the theme, so I like it more than the original theme, but I'm still not loving it has much as the theme you have to pay for. I do really like that it's black and white, and I love the way my homepage looks,  however I'm not a huge fan of how posts appear when you click on them. I'm going to try to see if I can resolve this, but it appears as if formatting is going to be a never ending struggle.

So, as you might have heard from my last post, I really want to change the theme of my blog. I think that currently the theme doesn't fit the tone and style I'm going for. This is what it looks like:

However, I have run into some problems into changing the theme.

1. I can't figure out how to download themes
While WordPress does have more ready-made templates on the site, I cannot seem to figure out how to apply templates from outside websites. On Blogger it was the opposite, they had very few ready-made templates, but it was very easy to apply a template from another website.

2. Changing the theme isn't in the normal settings
By now I know how to change the settings of my blog, its not that hard. However when you go to settings on WordPress changing the theme is not included in the options. You need to go to your blog, log in and then in the bottom corner there is a small icon, and when you put your mouse over it the theme option comes up.

3. I have expensive taste
Once I finally was able to find the available themes I was happy. Until I realized the one thing that all of the themes I liked had in common.




YOU HAVE TO PAY FOR ALL OF THEM!!!
Of course, out of all of the themes available through WordPress, the only ones I like, you have to pay for. I'm really indecisive so I'm not up for paying for a theme which I might want to change in a week.

If anybody knows how to fix this problem, I'd love to know.