FREE Blog Redesign

Hi there! I'm offering FREE blog redesigns for a limited time. More info in the form below!

Before you ask for a blog redesign, please follow me via GFC. :)

If you're not sure how, here's a video on how to follow via GFC!


Are you going to sign up for a free blog redesign? You don't have to get a custom everything! You can pick and choose. Also I will not necessarily make everything from scratch. With some things like favicons, for example, I will either base it off something I made previously or find a suitable one for your design. :)

You will receive all the design elements and their PSDs (if applicable) in a zip folder in your email when it's all done!

What do you think of this little giveaway? :)

Let me know if you're going to ask for some redesigning, or if you'll pass for now!

 Stay beautiful,

5 Free Date Ideas for Valentines

Hi there! Happy Valentines Day! Happy Single Awareness Day! 

If you’re anything like me, you make plans at the last minute. And if you’re even more like me, your bank account or wallet may be running on empty. Well, fear not! Here are some sweet ideas to satisfy the romantic in you without having to spend any money!

Who said romance has a price tag?! 

Explore your city on foot

Source: allthemountains.blogspot.com via Elizabeth Graham on Pinterest

If you live in a sprawling metropolis, you probably take a car everywhere. Or maybe you’re a slave to public transport (If you are, so am I! Join the club!). Your city probably has plenty of free sights you’ve yet to experience like a museum, a park, or a quiet street. Maybe it’s the comfort of being with your lover away from the trappings of spending? Hmmmm…

Ideas:

• Pick a place you haven’t visited yet and check it out for the day. Take the trip on foot (unless it’s super far away) and relish the experience more.
• Both you and your partner name a place you love, then check the map and find a place in the middle you haven’t visited before or haven’t visited in a long time. Go there!
• Go on TripAdvisor and check out the Things To Do in your area. For romantic scenery, check out the Outdoor attractions!

Perfect for... the wanderluster on a budget, the relaxed romantic and the recovering shopaholic (Keep away from shops)!

Game the night away

Source: rawkitten.tumblr.com via Irene Dose on Pinterest

Are you both homebodies who dread leaving the house? I know I’d much rather relax with my boyfriend then go out clubbing any day! Or maybe you have a huge collection of video games and board games. Maybe you have a free sporting area nearby. Oh, or maybe you’re crazy competitive, and nothing excites you more than a challenge!

Ideas:

• Head to the nearest free basketball court or park or area where you can engage in fun sports like, ya know, basketball, rugby, football or childhood favourites like Hot Lava
• Play cooperative and competitive video games all night in a quest for victory!
• Play card and board games with prizes for the winners and consequences for the losers. It’s Valentines Day; I’ll let you figure out appropriate rewards for yourselves (Wink wink)

Perfect for... people who LOVE to win, craft-happy gods and goddesses (your houses are surely wonders to behold, why ever leave?) and the always-plugged-in technolistas!

Read to each other in your local library

Source: weheartit.com via Domi on Pinterest

For centuries, men and women have wooed each other with the power of words. Whether or not you have the oratorical prowess to rival Shakespeare matters little when you have the nearly limitless arsenal of the library at your disposal. Visit one for Valentines and whisper sweet nothings to your lover... for free (for your pocket AND your mind)!

Ideas:

• For the truly romantic, try reading out a few Shakespearean sonnets or some sweet poetry. You know you want to. And V-day is the perfect day to be outrageously cheesy and get away with it!
• For those who roll their eyes at sentimentality, try reading comics, graphic novels or good books out loud to each other. You can do it seriously or read it in such a way that will leave you both guffawing at your crazy reading. Warning: you could get kicked out.
• Each of you picks out a book you love that the other hasn’t read. Swap books, cuddle together in a nook and sigh in bliss at the wonders of the written word.

Perfect for... the hopeless romantic, the girl who loves the sound of her own voice and cosy bookworms!

Celebrate with a quiet picnic

Source: vi.sualize.us via Selena on Pinterest

Picture a day out in the great outdoors. You’re sitting with your loved one, nestled together on a picnic blanket, talking and eating delicious food. Ah, bliss. After all, they do say the way to a man’s heart is through his stomach, and who’s to say it doesn't work for women either?!

Ideas:

• If you’re averse to cooking, bring leftovers and snacks, or persuade a good friend to do some cooking or baking for you. Maybe there’s a favour you can cash in...
• For the gourmet cook in training, wow your lover with all the amazing creations you can concoct. And please send me a care package in the mail!
• Try the local park for a picnic, OR if you want to do some impromptu camping, pitch a blanket fort in the middle of your living room or backyard and have a picnic there!

Perfect for... the ones with parents who want to keep an eye on them (behave yourselves, okay!), the foodies at heart and the timid adventurers!

Go nuts with a crazy photoshoot

Source: via Shelby on Pinterest

You’re naturally a comedienne, or you shine bright like a diamond. The spotlight has to be on you, babe! Grab a camera, pick a place and go nuts with your significant other. Take turns making funny faces, doing crazy poses, and rolling around on the ground. By the end of it, you’ll either hate each other for taking ‘stupid photos’ of you, or appreciate each other more for having a sense of humour and making you look better than you actually look great!

Ideas:

• If you have a Polaroid camera of some kind, go nuts with it! Shake it like a Polaroid picture (the photo and maybe your butt too!), and be the goofiest you can be with your sweetheart.
• Don’t have a camera of any kind? Do the crazy photoshoot anyway, but instead of taking photos, you get to make funny caricatures of each other! Artistic talent not needed!
• Have a friend trying to build a portfolio? Maybe you can rope him/her into taking your photos! Or just use a tripod or any stable surface for cheesy and hilarious couple photos!

Perfect for... people who shine bright like a diamond (Sorry, not sorry), laughing hyenas and trigger-happy photographers!

What do you think of those FIVE free date ideas?

I had a blast thinking of them, and we're going with Game The Night Away with the Xbox! Plus watching TV shows because we're homebodies like that. ;)

Feel free to add expensive elements to the dates (Like flowers? Diamonds? New camera?!), or to mix and match them as you will!

I hope this helped you with your Valentines day! 

And if you’re single, grab a friend or two and go on a big date anyway!

Let me know what you think in the comments below, through tweets or on Facebook! 

Stay beautiful,

Running, Photoshop CS2 for Free and random updates!

Hi there!

I just recently downloaded Adobe Photoshop's CS2 for free, and I'm having a blast with it! (More details from Lifehacker here.)

Screencap from my phone!

I also recently purchased Six to Start's Zombies, Run! 5k Training app for my Samsung Galaxy Nexus, and as with their other running app, I love it! It's a slow start making me walk for 10 minutes before the actual training begins, but that makes it great for beginners. Download it if you have an iOS or Android device. :D (If you want just the running app, not the training one, check out their Zombies Run! product for Windows Phone, iOS and Android!)

Oh, and I signed up for Tribesports because I like challenges, and the community seems very nice. I'm currently doing the No Soda for 4 Weeks challenge, among other things. :) Sign up, and let's follow each other! It's always more fun to join a new website with friends.

As you can see, I'm trying to work on my main goal of running 5k without stopping (or walking) slowly but surely. I missed my workout yesterday because for some reason I was soooo drained, but I'll do it today - I promise! (I can't break promises to you guys, right?! That'd be bad.)

Okay, if you were wondering what Photoshop and running have to do with each other, it's this. The FIRST thing I did with my new CS2 is to skinnify myself. Oh, yeah, I went there. No shame. I figure I won't end up that skinny even if I work hard, but it amused me to no end that maybe I could look like that! Although hopefully not as messed up because my Photoshop skills are so weak.

Yeah, okay. The pictures are here. Feel free to gawk. And laugh. Or something. I actually think I look nice! I didn't do anything to my face. I was blessed with a skinny face. When I'm not this fat, it actually looks kind of gaunt. Think cheekbones a la Disney villains?! I don't know. It was like that when I was 14.

I'll stop stalling now.

Now.

Okay.

HAHAHAHA.

I know the background looks weird, and I make myself look strange with the proportions, but cut me some slack! I just discovered Liquify today.

If you also want to try playing around with a skinnier/plus-er version of you, check out this tutorial which I probably should have looked at BEFORE I played around. (I used a tutorial of lesser quality, to my utter chagrin)

Okay, I'm done now. I'm still laughing. It is too funny for me.

What do you think of FREE photoshop? What about zombies, running and combination of the two? Do you want to sign up for Tribesports (Please do!)? And, lastly, what do you think of a skinnier sexier me?! HAHAHAHAHA.

Leave a comment, tweet me, share this post on Facebook, send me an ask on Ask.FM, whatever - I love the feedback!

Love you alllll,

My goals/quests for 2013! [Free Printable]

Hello again! To score a free printable to scribble and doodle your goals for the year, scroll towards the end of the post! :)

Aaaaand here are my goals for the year!

Quests? Missions? 

If you're wondering why I've labelled my goals as quests and missions, it's because I'm a geek. I enjoy video games. I like gamification. And I'm in the process of copying Steve Kamb's idea of making life into an epic quest!

My blog's name is Wannabe Empress. It implies I want to be someone great because if you're an empress, you probably had to kick some major butt to get where you are and become who you are. So I'm in the process of becoming an empress in my own eyes! Little by little, I'm improving myself. :) And to make it more fun I'll see my milestones as quests! (You know, because it's more epic to say you completed a quest than to say I hit a milestone, or maybe that's just me.)

At the moment, main quests are worth 10% each, and side quests are worth 5% of a level. BONUS missions can be worth 1-10%. I'll generate a random number between 1 and 10, and whatever comes up will be the number of experience points. The element of randomness will make me work harder, I can feel it. Yup. That's my plan. This is already really exciting for me! I'm getting really giddy~ (I'll probably make a new page on my blog just to track these goals and stuff... WHEEE!)

As I level up, I'll amp up the difficulty of my goals and introduce quests worth more points! So what's 10% of a level now may become worth just 5% later on. And when I become more awesome, I'll include EPIC quests that are worth 50% of a level. Yessss.

I'd explain my goals, but this post seems to be getting long enough! Have a free printable now! 

Track your own 2013 goals!

For your free printable! Click here, right-click and save as!

What did you think of my goals? And the printable?! Do you have any goals of your own? So many questions! Leave a comment below, or tweet me! I love conversations. :)

Stay fabulous,

P.S. If I've amused you in any way, please tweet or share this post! It makes me super happy! Thank you!