Welcome to my new monthly series! Top 10 is going to be a series that showcases, well, my Top 10 in different categories! I find myself wanting to post lots of “favorites of” posts which can get a little redundant after the first few. I think this series is a great way to grab a Top 10 list once a month to round it all up!

This series is going to include Top 10’s of several categories including beauty, fashion, favorite Pinterest finds, books, movies, shows, songs, anything that deserves a Top 10 in my book!

Today’s Top 10 is one that is very close to my heart - Goals As a Blogger. Leave a comment down below sharing which goal(s) you also have in your Top 10!

ONE | Build A Following

One of my dreams when I first started blogging was to build my readership to a point where I felt like I was making some sort of a difference. While building a following is super important to me, I’ve realized that what’s most important is creating great content, which is a few bullets down on this list!

TWO | Grow My Email List

I think email lists are a great way to connect with readers that rely heavily on reminders. Some people check Bloglovin’ religiously. Other readers are reminded to check their favorite bloggers’ pages because they got a reminder email. I like both options! This is also a great avenue to outreach to those who may be interested in additional offers you have, like webinars, e-courses, or e-books!

THREE| Increase Engagement

To spin off the idea of #one, another dream of mine is to put up a blog post and wake in the morning to comments from readers. I’ve realized that this may take some time to build. It’s a great feeling to know that someone reads your content and feels inclined to add their thoughts or opinions. It’s wonderful. Increasing this engagement will come with successfully completing some other steps first.

FOUR| Collaborate With Others

I’ve collaborated with some really wonderful bloggers so far, as well as sponsored some of my favorite blogs each month. I think it’s so important to work closely with eachother as a community. For those of you who are huge into YouTube like me, you’ll see your favorite YouTuber collabing with their other YouTuber friends and they get some great success out of that. That is one of my very favorite things about this community, and my goal is to continue on this path.

FIVE| Provide Great Content Consistently

This is a given. Who doesn’t have this as a goal, as least those who take blogging very seriously! I am always trying to be creative in my photography, content, and blog design. Sure, it could use some work. That’s what this goals list is for!

SIX | Write An E-Book

This is a top goal for me. I absolutely love to write. If I didn’t, I wouldn’t be sitting here writing this right now! I am always brainstorming ideas for my first E-Book. I have been writing chapter books since I can remember. I would start out writing “Chapter One” and make up some story about a little girl and her middle school crush. Never got past that Chapter One. Ha! I have a passion for story telling or instructing on a topic to my peers. Keep your eyes peeled!

SEVEN | Host A Webinar Or E-Course

This spins off of #six. I love attending blogger hosted webinars and soaking up as much information as I possibly can from them. They all just seem so passionate. My goal is to release and E-Book and follow that with some spin off E-Courses. I think that would be so much fun. Again, keep those eyes peeled!

EIGHT | Utilize Social Media To The Fullest

I feel like I have Twitter pretty much down. I really want to master Pinterest, though. That is a goal for myself by the end of the year, to increase my Pinterest and Twitter following significantly. I just know that there are people out there to connect with - I just gotta do it!

NINE | Inspire Others

I am always aiming to inspire others with my work, and my goal is to connect with my readers in a way that makes them feel complete when they leave my little space on the internet. My goal is to make my readers feel like they know me, they want to know me, and they want to be my friend, which brings me to...

TEN | Make Friends

Of course my final goal is to make friends! And tons of them! I have connected with some amazing people through this platform and hope to continue that through my blogging career.

That's all for today. Thanks for visiting!

Carson Elaine

In just a couple short months I’ll be celebrating my one year wedding anniversary. You know, they say the first year of marriage is the most challenging. This is probably due to the fact that you’re really just trying to find your footing in life - trying not to mess up, trying to save money, trying to buy a house, trying to have kids (or not), trying to do this and trying to do that. I've learned a lot in the past year, but today I wanted to share with you some of my favorites.

1. You can’t (and shouldn’t want to) change the person you married.

My husband is the sweetest. No, really. He is my Prince Charming. But even Prince Charming has his days, doesn’t he? I’ve quickly learned that forcing change, in any way, can cause serious tension in a relationship. I’ve tried my best to learn to love the quirky things my husband does. The things that just make me want to run outside and scream at the top of my lungs. You know what I’m talking about. Just remember, you married this person because you loved them.

2. Patience is key.

I am impatient. There, I said it. On the other hand, my husband is one of the most patient people I have ever met. He doesn’t have road rage, he doesn’t mind standing in line behind a family with carts upon carts of groceries, and he let’s me blab about my work days (which takes the most patience of all). I find that his patience is one of my favorite things about him. Me, on the other hand? This is one of my qualities I work on the most. Patience is key to any relationship being successful. Patience is giving your partner the chance to finish a sentence or idea before cutting them off in a discussion or argument. Patience is having the strength to go with the flow of life and understand that things won’t always go your way. Being patient is just good for your overall well-being.

3. Align your goals.

My husband and I are dreamers. We love to think about the future and talk about where we want to be in a year, 5 years, even 10 and 20 years. It’s so fun to even look back on the 4+ years we’ve been together and see how things have changed. The thing with dreams and goals is, once you get married, if your goals and dreams are on the opposite end of the spectrum it will be hard to move forward to the next step. Meaning, if my husband had the itch to travel to every continent within the next 5 years, but I wanted to start trying for a baby tomorrow, that would be a tough discussion to have. Or, if he wanted to save up for a new home but I would rather invest in a new Celine bag, another difficult discussion to have. It’s important to be on the same page and always communicate about what you want to accomplish as a family next.

4. “Me Time” is more important now than ever before.

I love spending time with my husband, and I should. However, there are days that I just really want to go and get a mani/pedi without talking to anyone! Always remember that there is absolutely nothing wrong with this desire or the way it makes you feel. Having a girl’s day is always something I look forward to.

5. Always value the big and little traditions you make together.

It’s funny when two people from completely different backgrounds come together and start a family. What traditions do we keep up that have been a part of us since we were young? What traditions do we do away with? What do we both see as a valuable tradition? It could be something as simple as watching the same three Christmas movies on Christmas Eve or Black Friday shopping as a family (yeah, like that would ever happen). I really love the idea of creating new traditions with my husband and my family. It’s something that is unique to you and really fun to look forward to.

6. Stay calm when you don’t understand each other and find a way to compromise.

This is something I’ve learned in the past few months. When big and exciting things start happening to you as a newly married couple, like buying a house, you reeeeally get to see what types of differences you and your partner have. Fenced yard? Garage? Colonial or Cape? You’ll quickly find that there are just some things you don’t agree on - and, wait for it - it’s okay! No matter if you’re married or literally stuck together with glue, you are two different people. With two different brains. With two (sometimes) different opinions. Differences can create some of the best conversation. “Why do you like that over this?” It’s fun to learn more about each other that way.

7. Stay honest, even if it hurts.

You know this already, but honesty is also key - in addition to patience. Honesty is the center of most relationships as it keeps it pure and safe. Honesty isn’t always peaches and cream, though. It can sting when your partner says, “No, love, that top looks awful on you.” It can also sting when your partner says, “I have never been so mad at you in my life. This is why I’m upset. Why did you do that?” Honesty is communication and communication keeps a clear mind. I used to have a hard time with my husband confronting me about certain subjects, things that maybe I did wrong or dropped the ball on. Now, I do try my best to hear him out, be patient, and learn from what he says. He does a great job at hearing me out when I’m frustrated with him, too.

Learning through relationships, and marriage, is never ending. I love that. If you have learned anything that you hold close, please share below!

XO

Carson Elaine

I was asked recently to create a bio for my blog for one of my social media sites, Pinterest. It asked me to create one sentence that ties the vision for my blog up with a pretty pink bow, and I chose this:

“A self-empowering beauty and lifestyle blog that focuses on self-love and building a healthy, happy life.”

The funniest part? I was really intimidated by the idea that one sentence was going to speak for my entire blog as a whole. I thought it was impossible. But actually, I started typing and that’s what came of it. First try, no drafts.

It then got me thinking about what exactly self-love means to me. It made me question what I meant by that. I want to portray myself in a light that is true and accurate to the real Carson, the real me - in other words, I want what you read to be exactly what I’d say if you were standing in front of me asking me the same question. Does that make sense? I read so many blogs that it’s really easy to pick out the ones who are simply writing to write. Reviewing to review. Posting to post. There are others, though, where you just get a true sense of passion and honesty through their words. Those are the blogs I gravitate towards most.

Anyway, I digress. Self-love to me is something that I built over time. I remember writing a post last year about my personal experiences with anxiety, you can read that here if you’d like. In that post, I wrote about the ups and downs, the struggles associated with social anxiety, and what it was like to lose myself for years at a time. I didn’t know who I was. I didn’t know what I wanted because I was constantly surrounded by the fear that someone may disagree with me or openly judge me for my decisions. I was so afraid of feeling embarrassed.

When I wrote that post, I mentioned that I wasn’t out of the woods yet. I was still grappling with the idea that anxiety might just cripple me for life.

After having gone through such strenuous, anxiety-ridden years, I really had to put everything aside and focus on myself. Self-love, to me, does not only represent one’s own acceptance. It also represents the ability to be confident in your decisions and follow through.

Do you like that dress in a color that your mother or best friend told you was not the best color on you? Buy it. Do you have feelings for someone who your best friend doesn’t think is good enough for you? Follow your heart, but respect yourself enough to deal with the outcome - positive or negative. Grow and maintain your independence - but the key here is to always promise yourself that you will turn back when things aren’t right.

Self-love, to me, is about self-respect and an understanding that you come first. Believe that with your whole heart and you will lead yourself to happiness.

XO,

Carson Elaine

Please share this post if you know someone who may benefit.

I was attracted to Emily’s blog from the very moment I clicked the link. Her layout is organized and easy to read, and her posts showcase her personality well. They aren’t just words she’s writing - they are her true thoughts and feelings on whatever she’s blogging about that day. Can you believe emilyloula.com was created about a year and a half ago? Emily is a pro - you’d think she’s been doing this for ages.

I asked Emily 8 questions centered around her and her blog. I love her answers - honest and encouraging.

Back in March last year, I started a new job as a technical advisor for a web hosting company near London. Basically, web hosting is what keeps people's websites online, and as I was training I quickly learnt that most of these websites use Wordpress. It was suggested that I should build a simple Wordpress site, so I could familiarise myself with how it worked, so in turn I could best advise our customers. I really enjoyed reading blogs, and I've always had a passion for makeup and beauty, so I thought I would combine the two and create my own little beauty blog. I didn't really plan to keep the blog up at the beginning, it was only to learn about Wordpress, but I enjoyed blogging so much I carried on. Originally I began blogging under the name emily's beauty blog in May 2014, but back in December 2014, I re-branded, and totally redesigned my blog to be emilyloula, which is what you see today!

Over the past year or so I’ve really started to focus more and more on my skin and it’s overall health and appearance. Through my late teens, I knew my skin was super sensitive to most new products I was trying, but I was not even beginning to attempt to fix the problem. I was basically just dealing with the fact that I had mediocre skin and that was just that.

It wasn’t until I really indulged myself into the beauty community, both in blogs and through YouTube, that I realized how important it is to take care of your skin and that… wait for it… I, too, can have beautiful, glowing skin if I tried hard enough.

This last week has been a breakthrough. I’m going to show you my favorite products at the moment and they coincidentally are my entire skincare routine, too!

Makeup Removal

I’ll admit - I was never a fan of cleansing oils to remove my makeup. There. I said it. The thing is, I was doing it completely wrong! I would take the cleansing oil to my dry face and work it into my skin to make sure that all of my makeup was being removed. I would then rinse, then use a gentle cleanser to wash my face. That’s it. I noticed that after I used the oil, I would have a new breakout the next day. I knew it was from this product. Once I started using my Clarisonic (more on that later), I noticed quickly that I was no longer breaking out, and it was because I was fully removing the oil with the Clarisonic, rather than leaving traces of it on my skin! The Boscia Makeup-Breakup Cool Cleansing Oil claims to remove makeup gently while leaving you with a cooling effect. I definitely don’t feel the cooling properties, but it does a great job at removing any traces of makeup from my skin.