Why I Had to Rehome my Puppy -Emma

Phewwww this a hard post to write...

Hello hello hello everyone! Today I am coming with some sad news, and I'm sure I will get some more hate about it.

I felt like I had to post this, because I didn't want anyone wondering "Where did Sadie go?" "Did she die?" Well I'm here to tell you that she is perfectly fine, and I am perfectly fine too.

I adopted Sadie in May 2017, when she was just a tiny puppy. I loved (and still do love) this dog with all my heart. This past month or so, I started noticing that I was constantly sick with a cold/allergies any time I spent a lot of time with Sadie in one day.

Some days were worse than others, but if I was to play with her for a long time or let her sleep in my bed, I would just feel miserable.

I am allergic to dogs.

I know this not only because of my experience with Sadie, but because of having allergies after going over to friends houses who had multiple dogs.

This came as very saddening news to me and my family of course, because we all loved Sadie.

But I believe my health is much more important than an animal.

I ended up finding the PERFECT home for Sadie, and I mean it, this lady was sent from God. Sadie now lives in a home with a wonderful 28 year old woman and her husband. They live over in Missouri. The woman runs marathons, which is perfect because Sadie LOVED to run. They also have a fenced in yard and Sadie gets to sleep in bed with them at night.

She even texted me and told me that Sadie went on a 4 mile run last weekend, and still had energy so they went on 2 more walks that day.

So bottom line, she is much happier there than she was at my home.

I have received so much hate these past couple of weeks, but I'm not listening to it anymore. I did what was right not only for me but also for Sadie.

I raised her from a puppy, took care of her when she was spayed, and taught her proper behavior and trained her. I am not guilty for my decision.

I hope you all understand and can support me in my choice.

Thank you!! *hugs*

-Emma

How to Make Money at Home as a Teen -Emma

Hey everyone! I am here with a new post!

Today I will be mostly talking about my online business, how you can start one of your own, and tips for teens wanting to start their own business.

Most of my friends don't know this yet, but this past August I started my own Etsy shop selling bandanas and bow ties for dogs and cats. And let me tell you, it was not easy.

I have gone through many different business plans, and still work out different problems and details everyday.

If you're creative and are interested in making things to sell online, keep reading.

The first step to starting your own Etsy shop is figuring out a product you can make to sell. You can research different DIYs on Pinterest that interest you, or maybe you already have something in mind that you have made before that you think you could sell.

Some things to think about when choosing a product to make and sell are:

-how long it takes you to make the product
-how much it costs to make the product
-if there are many starting costs you'd need to start your business
-if you can make the item in many different ways (the more items you have, the better your shop will do)
-if you can think of a select group of people who would be interested in buying your product

Some answers I had to these questions when starting my shop are:

-I can make 10 bow ties in 1 hour (pretty good efficiency rate)
-A half a yard of fabric is about $4, and I can make 8 bow ties with each half yard. I can also buy bulk supplies and packaging
-Business cards will cost around $20, but they will make my shop and packaging much more proffessional
-I can make bow ties in all kinds of different patterns and styles.
-I can contact people who have dogs or love animals to promote my shop.

Making an Etsy shop is pretty easy once you have a business plan, so I won't go into too much detail with this step.

Marketing is one of the most important parts of your new business. 95% of my sales have came just from Instagram. So, I highly recommend making an Instagram account for your new business, following hundreds of people who are in your "group" listed above, and hosting lots of giveaways and contests to make customers interested.

I have also started having brand representatives for my shop. I find these people on Instagram, they apply to be a model/brand rep, and their pets receive free bow ties to take photos in and promote my shop. I get to use these photos on my shop for marketing purposes too. So, it's a win win.

Having an Etsy shop while still in high school is NOT easy. But if you are looking for a fun way to be creative and make money from home on your own time, this is the perfect opportunity for you!

I know I didn't go into too much detail in this post, but I (might?) make this a series of posts for you all, and if you have any questions just let me know!

Also, be sure to check out Kathleen's new post talking about her inspiration for the blog and her posts. I really love her comments and she inspired me to write this post today!

Thanks for reading!

-Emma

Two Dorks with a Blog - Kathleen

Hi everyone!!

I have a bit of a different post today,  so I'm just going to start right away.

I had a friend email me this morning and she said that she started a blog back in like 2012 or something, but only posted 2 posts on it. She asked me what my inspiration comes from and what my view is for the blog. So I'm going to talk a little about how I write my posts, what the focus for my posts is, (grammar?) some tips, and what blogs I often read.

#1
How did I come up with the focus for my posts?

Honestly, I just write what I think is fun and I would enjoy reading. I write about what is interesting me in my life and what is happening in my life. Even for the small audience we reach, I'm astonished and honestly kind of weirded out by the fact that people are reading posts about my life and such. I try and incorporate a little of my deep inner thoughts into my posts as well. Honestly, as an INFJ, I have so many deep thoughts and it's hard for me to feel comfortable talking about them with everyone, even my parents. This is one of the few reasons why I can't wait to move out: because I can live a life that I want without being judged. And the life I want to lead isn't necessarily one of partying. Honestly, I want to stay as far away from that as physically possible. I can't wait to have kids and raise them, and make dinner for my family and just live my life as quietly and gracefully as possible. Grace and mercy is my motto. Sometimes I'm not so great at the grace part though...

#2
How do I come up with ideas on what to post?

This is my favorite part. Like I said above, I take a lot of my inspiration from my everyday life. Those posts, I like to call Vloggy-Bloggies. (I made the name up myself :P) I normally write about what interests me, or something that I think about a lot and want to share with people. The other thing I do somewhat often is take inspiration from Pinterest. The daily journaling prompts are a somewhat useful way to go, but the daily blog post/YouTube video lists are even better. My favorite prompts are those by Hello Neverland. (Link under my signature) These make some great inspiration for seasonal posts. After this I take inspiration from YouTubers. But it rarely ever gets to the point that I need that inspiration. Not that YouTubers aren't great.

#3
Blogger: My Opinions and Advice


 I love using Blogger. It's a very simple way to start a blog and get your mind wrapped around how this whole thing works. You can even start earning money using Blogger. However, if you plan on going big with your blog, I would recommend starting your own website using something more like Wix. While blogger is great, getting your own website gives you a little bit of a boost. In the future (after college) I plan on getting a site through Wix and using that.

My cons for using Blogger is that the designing options only go so far, and that videos don't post very well, if at all. Wix is better for posting videos I've heard.

I will be linking all the blogs mentioned in this post and some of my favorites below so you can access all of them.


On another note, I have questions about festive posts!! What kind of posts do you want to see coming from us this season? Also, how do you readers feel about Christmas music throughout late November and throughout December?

Thank you so much for reading and I will see you next week!!

Kathleen

twodorkswithablog.blogspot.com

Hello Neverland

Candidly Keri

Zoella