Swim Through the Blues

Feeling blue? Climb out of the blueness by giving yourself a pep talk, clutching to your strengths, blazing through your goals, and delight in knowing that nobody is perfect.

Free Resume Review

I have a passion for business. I love creating relationships, concepts, marketing ideas and designing all aspects of a business. My undergraduate degree is in marketing and public relations, then I went on to get my MBA, but my drive doesn’t come from the degrees it comes from people. How people think and are motivated. When speaking with my friend Tessa about her photography business, and how to obtain more of a particular client, I simply eat up every minute of it. Something that I am naturally good at is consulting. Giving my opinion about anything has never been hard =) One of the best ways that I know how to help people is with giving them a career advice.

I worked for two years in a career center during my graduate school and most of the time was spent helping people obtain a job, internship, or entrance into graduate school. The very first thing that you have to have in order to get those is an amazing resume. I have learned the craft of creating the very best resume. I am also currently serving on the hiring team at my day job, so I know what it takes to land a job. I am not going to promise that I will help you land the career of your dreams, but heck I will try! So if you just want some feedback on how you could improve, I am here to help!

So here is the deal. The first ten people to comment on this post will get a free resume review. If you see you have made it in the top ten, send me an email at revelrey@gmail.com and we shall let the red pen bleeding begin, just kidding... kind of...

Finance, Moving, and Rats

Well, the weekend has come and gone sadly and has moved on to the crazy week! This weekend started with meeting Amelia to talk over finances. I am not doing what I should about saving my money, so I enlisted Amelia to be my financial accountability partner to make sure I stay on track.

However most of the weekend was filled with moving my boyfriend Glenn into the townhouse that Savannah and Jon are living in.

Then tonight I got to play with my friend Leah's pet rats! They are so sweet!

I am off to finish up my work assignments while drinking a glass or two of wine, and watching the olympics! Cheers to having another productive week to come!

Almost There

Via

For my job, all of my accounts have to be turned in and completed by August 1st! So this is the last push in my busy season. To say that I am stressed would be, well an understatement. I simply must get a ton done by next Wednesday! So all of you out there in blog land, pray for me this next few days. Pray that I will have the strength to get through it and the patience to deal with everybody in the process :)

Local: Swift & Finch

Stroll inside. Eye your perfect unoccupied comfy chair. 

Breathe in smell of fresh roasted coffee. Take in the colors and beauty of the room.

Walk past the bags of green unroasted beans and roaster in the middle of the shop. 

Then glance at the chalkboard menu to find your perfect beverage of choice.

Watch as they pour the perfect shots of espresso.

And enjoy your steamy hot or icy cold beverage of your dreams;

 from the shop owned by these sweet ladies.

Doing the local coffee shop right. Swift & Finch.

Photos by Andrew Lowry

Color My World

Black and white is not my thing. Neither is shades of gray (all 50 of them ;) I know that white is clean and simple, but it simply isn't me. My old roommate loved, I mean loved white. I like the idea of everything being white, but it just won't work for me in reality. I am a color person. I am at least wearing two different colors every day sometimes as many as six. Don't judge!

Color inspires me, it moves me. So today I wanted to show you some of my favorite color moments that I have taken.

My dress that I wore on my birthday! It made me feel so full of life!

Interestingly round, totally different color palettes but oh so lovely. A rose, radishes, and water spigots.

This photo was from the famers market that I went to this past weekend. I loved the bright blue with the orange tint from the cow. Something so soft, caged by something so hard.

What colors are inspiring you this week?

Chinese and Grandparents

After a wonderful weekend full of treasures at the farmers market, Glenn and I headed up to see his grandparents on Sunday. He is doing a grad school genealogy project and needed his Grandfather's wisdom.

On our way there we stopped at a could be sketchy but has just the right amount of authentic to be awesome Chinese restaurant. Sometimes I just crave those steamed pork dumpings, which are just simply not the same as the ones you can find in the freezer section.

Then we were off, with is mom and sister to Big Canoe which is this wonderful mountain resort that is just trees and more trees and more trees. I completely and totally enjoyed listing to his grandparents tell story after story. The good and the bad. It is amazing what you can learn from your ancestors.

Talking about history and relationships, love, death, laughs and scandal. I enjoyed listening and desired to find out more about my personal history. Sure you can find out about who your ancestors are on a website, but you can't find out what your grandmother used to cuss say to your mom when she was little.

When I saw this little guy swinging on the back porch, I couldn't help but smile. I loved him. And somehow the plants just caught my eye. The little details that his grandparents had scattered throughout the house intrigued me. You can tell a lot about people, from the random knick knacks they treasure.

Local: Farmers Market

I love to travel! I have been over to Europe several times and I have explored many cities in America through traveling for work, but their is just something about being home. Living in a city that is miles from a highway, we have a strong sense of community in my hometown of Rome, Georgia. Oh and one of the cities I have been to is Rome, Italy, just a fun fact :)

Pink eye purple hull peas, pecans, and okra were discovered!

I am going to feature local spots the next couple of weeks, highlighting small town life. This one begins, from the beginning, from farm to table so to speak. A farmers market. I mean come on, how completely fabulous can a famers market be. Incredibly fabulous.

Leah went with me on this adventure to the market and we scored several goodies! We each picked up a bottle of local honey which is said to help with allergies, and we split an orange watermelon that Glenn and I carved out later for dessert (after we had previously snuck a few spoonfuls).

However one of my very, super very favorite things from the famers market is something that I asked for about a month in advance and picked up at the market. I had commissioned a sake set to be made from the fabulous Pottery by Lisa. Not only is she a great potter, but such a beautiful friend and fellow Roman.

Enjoy where you live this week, because I know that I will do the same. Oh and kanpai (cheers in Japanese)!

Coffee in that Coffee Mug

My collection of wonderful coffee mugs, is only out loved by the item that I put in the cup. When deciding what is the perfect coffee blend for you, you must consider how you like to drink it first. I put cream and suger all up in my cup but some people desire it super black. The more you put in it, the less the actual taste of the coffee will affect you. However, it is still really important to start out with some amazing stuff no matter how you take it.

First, be a brand reader. If it is mass produced, it is going to taste like you guessed it, like it was mass produced.

Things that I want on my label: Organic, Fair Trade Certified, and Medium Roast.

The first two are musts, but the last one is a preference. The medium roast or sometimes called city roast is my favorite taste. Contrary to most peoples first thought, the type of roast does not determine the strength of the coffee taste. The only thing that can control the strength of the coffee is the amount of water to coffee ratio.

What I would recommend doing, to find out which kind is your favorite, is to go to your local grocery store that has coffee bean dispensers and get a little of different kinds of roasts. None of that flavored stuff! Then each morning try out a new one of your goodies! This a great way to treat yourself and find out what you really like. Or something else that would be fabulous is that you could have a coffee tasting party and everybody brings their favorite coffee with a french press!

Teriyaki Lime Salmon and Roasted Zucchini

Goodness gracious, it is blazing in Georgia. It consistently is in the 90's getting well over a hundred most days. The idea of eating filling beef stew right now is sicking. Therefore a soft pink salmon with zucchini is what made up for last nights meal. The huge zucchini came from the garden of my accountant at work (only in small town America) and the salmon is a purchase from Sam's club. I got the whole piece of fish for $15 which is a steel if you split it up in five pieces like I did.

Roasted. It is probably one of my favorite ways to eat any vegetable. Just splash some extra virgin olive oil with salt and pepper on the veg and pop it in a 375 degree oven. Depending on what it is, but the timing is normally around 30 minutes for them to get golden and yummy. My ultimate favorite is asparagus this way! Also, this the the beginning to a great butternut squash soup recipe that I will be posting about this fall.

On to the fish! I like mine with more of an asian flare. Teriyaki, soy sauce, rice wine vinegar, ginger and a splash of lime. I personally add a lot of teriyaki, a pinch of ginger and a tablespoon each of soy and vinegar. I cut up half of a lime and squeeze and slice two pieces off to cover the fish with. Wrap that bad boy up in tin foil and place it in the oven for 20 minutes on 375 degrees.

Whole meal done in the oven in thirty minutes. It is healthy, light and refreshing. I pour the left over sauce from the salmon over everything. So tasty!

Also the left over salmon, I use to make a salmon cakes or freeze them. Or I am thinking about trying my luck at smoking salmon. Wish me luck!

Enjoy!

Branding Vino

I must admit, I am a wine snob. I love the taste of a good bottle of wine and I am guilty of having a glass with almost every dinner. One of my other passions is branding. I actually did a whole marketing research project in college that was centered around branding of beverage products. Therefore, wine labels and I are friends. However, with the increase of marketing research it is interesting to see how different vineyards are targeting different sectors.

Holy flower power! If a man picked up a bottle of that moscato, you would look at him and say please tell me that you are buying that for your wife. Girly overload! Would you really name a wine Cupcake and target it towards a male population. Um No!

These wines have a more masculine feel. The bright blue although obnoxious, it has a crest of sorts on the front that males are drawn more to. Greg Norman is a professional golfer, and odds are that most of the men would know that and not the females.

These are wine that I have purchased for myself. Although I am clearly female, I prefer to go towards wines that do more marketing towards a wine connoisseur and less towards a gender. I think those not only in appearance, but thank goodness taste also are way better. Let the wine be wonderful, and don't fall for those sneaky marketing ploys.

Blog Design on Maiedae

Savannah at Maiedae has an overview of how she designed my blog today. I have to admit, I wasn't the easiest to work with, because sometimes words don't do justice to what you are trying to accomplish. So one of my favorite paintings helped in serving as the inspiration for my blog. Pictures are really worth, way more than words.

Via

Just take a moment in this crazy world to sit back and breath in the color of the painting. Then carry on with a little more life in your steps.

Planning Out Life

Often people will ask me where I am traveling or what I am doing on a particular weekend or what my plans are and I don't know. The honest truth is that I can't remember because I place everything on my phone. The less in my head, I think the better. However some things, just never happen as planned.

This Saturday, Glenn and I were driving to Savannah's parents house for her 24th birthday party. We were less than a half a mile from his apartment driving straight through a green light when I screamed loudly, Glenn stop, stop, stop. I saw a police car barreling through the front of his little red car. The air bags deployed and the car filled up with smoke. Glenn kept asking me, it was green right, the light was green. He then asked me if I was alright. I then felt my leg burning. Glenn told me to roll down the window, but I couldn't move. He pushed my airbag down and I rolled down the window to get air in the car. We sat in the car for what seemed like forever, just staring forward, then I start to cry. The cop slowly got out of his vehicle, but before he could reach us another police officer showed up.

The next events, were blurred by the taking of statements, insurance, sitting in the front seat of a police car while putting ointment on my burns. It was scary, very scary.

Once the police officer dropped Glenn and I back at the apartment, I broke down. I lost it. Glenn was trying to be comforting and hold me, but I just balled. Sometimes you don't know when your emotions will hit. I was hysterically crying. I couldn't help it. Life isn't always pretty, and planned and nice. Sometimes, crazy things happen. Horrible things, but good can come from horrible things. Not always in this life, but maybe the next. I know that Glenn and I are closer now then before, and we know that we are loved by all of our friends and family even more. I am thankful, so thankful for life planned or unplanned.

Keys to a Job Search

Effort, is the key when you are finding a career.

Clarity, is the key when you are writing a résumé.

Organization, is the key when you are writing a cover letter.

Clean, is the key to your voicemail message, social media tools and clothing.

Persistence, is they key to obtaining a job.

When people tell me that they can't find a job, my first thought although almost never said aloud is yeah right. Really? If I could scream at them and it be socially acceptable, I would. 

Via

My response would be something like (in a perfect Kate world):

How amazing is your résumé? Do you submit it on résumé paper?

Where have you applied for jobs?

Have you called everyone in the phonebook where you want to live and asked them if they have any available jobs?

Have you asked your family and friends to be on the lookout for jobs?

How many résumés have you hand delivered?

Is your résumé and cover letter tailored to each individual job?

How many networking events have you gone to?

How many hours a day do you dedicate to finding a job?

I used to work in a career center were I loved helping people obtain jobs and internships, and getting into graduate programs. I am very passionate about the whole process. On one occasion a man came in to ask for help, and I kept on correcting his résumé to the point where he picked it up and threw it in the trash can and said why don't we just start from scratch. Not kidding.

Needless to say I am brainstorming, and my entrepreneur spirt is kicking in. First though, I want to do some market research. I want to see how many people would be interested in getting help with their résumé and overall career advice. So, if you think this would be a good idea, please comment below or send me a private email at revelrey@gmail.com.

Cheese and Burgers

Most people have a passion for cheese, at least most of my friends and family do and we are not shy about it. My mom had a wine and cheese party down at the lake for some of her friends this past weekend and I am known to have a good cheese platter to serve at parties as well. Sometime early last year, I discovered on etsy that a shop was actually selling a cheese making kit. Yes, a DYI for cheese. UrbanCheesecraft open my wonders of making your own cheese at home. I purchase one of the kits and set on making my very own cheese.

Fast forward to Tuesday night, and my roommate Rachel and I had this grand idea to make simple peanut butter cookies. Super easy, some eggs, sugar, peanut butter and we added Nutella well because who doesn't love Nutella.

Then we tasted these should be delicious cookies and well they were simply awful. We couldn't figure out what had gone so horribly wrong. It surely couldn't have been the Nutella. Then I looked over to the empty tupperware container that the suger had once been in and I asked Rachel, where did you get that? She said on the top shelf over there, why?... it hit me.

I know why these cookies tasted so funny. We didn't put sugar in the cookies, we had put the left over citric acid that came from my cheese making kit. Check out the picture above, and you can see why she had been so easily confused.

Photos Via 1/2/3

It was a total epic fail. Disgusting yes, but they ended up eerily looking like hamburgers. So Happy Independence Day!