Home Decor Projects Blogger

Hi APW,

As most of you know, APW was on Spring Break last week. We expected this to be a sort of theoretical spring break, where we sat at our desks and worked hard on strategy, but it ended up being a very literal Spring Break. Maddie and I were asked to speak at Alt Summit last minute (like three days notice) and headed down to Palm Springs for the week. We ended up doing a whole lot of work on business strategy (just in sunny classrooms and by the pool), and have come back with a ton of new ideas and lots to work on.

It’s been a tough year for media. In January 1,000 folks in media lost their jobs in New York City in the span of a week, including some people we dearly love. And independent publishing has been in a tough place over the last year, with multiple websites shuttering. Rookie’s Editor’s Letter announcing their closing pretty much says it all.

Sometimes I think we do a disservice to readers by not being transparent about what it takes to run an online publishing company in 2019. With so much free content floating around, it’s easy to think that creating content is cheap… and it’s anything but. Our articles and Instagram posts may look casually tossed off, but creating them takes a huge amount of staff time. We work hard to pay our staff living wages with health benefits, which mean that staff time is expensive. And unlike the days when I ran APW off a (free) blogspot account on my kitchen table, keeping a website running within Google’s standards is pricey and time consuming.

Add to that the fact that ad revenues have been steadily declining for years, while the quantity and quality of work that advertising partners expect from publishers has gone steadily up, and, well, there is a reason people are closing up shop. Making any money at all is very hard, sometimes impossible work these days.

The good news is APW is still doing just fine. We’re not making millions and millions of dollars or anything, but we make enough to keep the operation going and our people paid. And in this media environment that is a huge deal and something we’re grateful for every single day. Hell, in this world of startups, the fact that we run a business that doesn’t lose money is a huge deal. We slimmed down our operation last year and have been focusing on the core of what our business does best: providing useful information that you can find when you need it, and giving you the most entertaining wedding advice we can get our hands on. We hit pause on new projects for the moment (though hopefully not forever). And we’re going to be bringing some of our archives back to the front page, because dammit there’s a lot of good stuff buried in there that you’ve probably never seen. (Have you read that amazing wedding crown roundup that we did way before it’s time in 2014? Probably not.)

But in the meantime, I did want to give you a bit more context about how your content gets made and how we can all ensure that APW continues to stay on the internet. I won’t bore you with the minutiae of our operational structure (aka the six or so people who bring this website to life each day), but suffice to say, they’re awesome and vital to this publication. Which means in order to get our bills paid, our whole website is supported by advertising. You may have noticed the display ads, sponsored posts, or vendor directory in your adventures around the site. All of that is what keeps the lights on (literally and figuratively) at APW.

And here’s the thing that I think maybe isn’t always totally clear: while most of us are attuned to ignoring ads online (I mean, I do it, we all do it) it actually makes a huge difference when our readers engage with our advertising. I know the internet is a garbage fire of annoying, intrusive ads. At APW we try to be good about not having too many of them. (We actually just switched networks, and I hope the user experience is a little better now. It was not good before.) And we typically try to use our sponsored posts to either introduce you to great new brands or give you the kind of engaging content where you don’t care if it’s sponsored or not. But advertisers have gotten really sophisticated in the last few years. It used to be that an ad made money simply by nature of existing on your website. Or that a partner would pay for a sponsored post just to get exposure. But these days, our advertisers are measuring literally everything. Did you click on the link? Did you buy the thing within a week of clicking on the link? Are you scrolling past the ads? Etc., etc., etc. And they use that information to decide if our audience is one they care to keep reaching out to. (Also fun fact: Because we publish on the internet, our rates are a fraction of what they pay print magazines, but much more work is required of us.)

So even though it can be tempting to scroll past anything with a branded logo on it, if you have an investment in APW and the future of this business, there are a few things you can do to help us stay in the game:

• Support our sponsors: Hire your wedding vendors from sponsored posts and the vendor directory. (And tell them you found them through us. I can’t tell you how often our sponsors assume that we aren’t sending them business, simply because their clients didn’t mention APW when booking… even though they found their vendors here.) Advertisers pay a flat fee to advertise on the site (or have a free listing in our vendor directory), so telling them you found them on APW doesn’t cost them money, it just lets them know their advertising dollars are working. Side note: We’re currently working on an initiative to make sure we’re still bringing affordable wedding pros to the front page. If you’ve got a small business in the wedding space and are looking to level it up, email keriann (at) apracticalwedding (dot) com for more info.
• Support our corporate partners: Our corporate partners track every click and purchase you guys make through the site. And those links never expire. So if you’re going to create a Squarespace website, please click an APW link. (Side note: Squarespace is far and away our biggest advertiser. They’ve been with us going on five years and are incredible advertising partners. They have been instrumental in helping us stay online, and clicking an APW link when you set up a Squarespace site helps that continue.) Also, every time you read sponsored content on our site, we’re able to make a case for our high engagement numbers, which helps us book more business. So even if you’re not buying, just window shopping can be a huge help. Click on the post, leave a comment, show some love. That stuff really really matters.
• Turn off your ad blocker. This is probably the easiest thing you can do here. We get paid by the number of impressions (aka views) our ads get. So if you have ad blocker on, you are reading our content for free, and that means you are not paying our employees for their labor. Not white listing us on your Ad Blocker may seem like a NBD thing to you, but it has very real consequences to our employees, who very much need their labor to be paid. If you’re not sure how to white list an website, just hit your ad blocker symbol in your task bar (it should look like a shield), then click “Don’t run on pages on this domain.” See the screenshot below for what that looks like:

I know ads aren’t anyone’s favorite. And we’re always working on new revenue streams that don’t require it. But you know the old saying: gotta spend money to make money. So right now, we’re working with what we have. In the past I’ve resisted any kind of community funds, but if that’s something you guys want to explore, I’m open to it. (Frankly, if everyone who read happy hour subscribed to like… $10 a month, it would represent a 50% increase in our revenue. No lie.)

Because here is the deal: Being able to pay for our employees health care, or give our freelancers medical leave when they’re in a life threatening situation—something that happened last year—is a big damn deal to us. And your clicks on sponsored posts, telling a vendor when you found them through our vendor directory, and white listing our site in ad blocker are the things that allow us to do that… or not do it. We very much depend on each and every one of you to keep our team members paid, and those small actions make a huge difference in us being able to do that.

I am genuinely so grateful to the community we have here at APW. The real deal is that we wouldn’t have the advertisers we do if you guys weren’t already reading and clicking and buying and just fundamentally understanding that the work here we do is… work. And we’re eternally grateful to our corporate sponsors and the small businesses who trust us with their ad dollars. I’m glad that we get to continue bringing you the content and community that has allowed APW to be one of the last remaining wedding publications on the internet (and actually now the number one independent online wedding publisher in the English language, at least in terms of eyeballs). And as always, please feel free to leave your comments below or email us at team (at) apracticalwedding (dot) com.

We see you, we appreciate you, and we’re so glad to be here, eleven years later—as of this week.

Happy Eleventh Birthday, APW. We wouldn’t be here with out each and every one of you.

xo,

Meg

Around the Web with Jareesa

Do you think celebrating debt freedom is gauche?

3 Girls Fought Their School’s Sexist Dress Code and Won in Court

Next time someone complains to you about those teenage Millennials, remind them that Millennials are now in their thirties.

The rent’s ‘too damn high’ in rural America, too

If you don’t have time to catch up on the previous seasons of Game of Thrones with a binge session, read this recap instead.

Women’s Work: Being Promoted To Clean Up

I may be using this list of the fifty best episodes of The Twilight Zone as an excuse to watch them all on Netflix.

The Women Changing the Face of Contemporary Tattoo Culture

NOPE NOPE NOPE: This is incredible—Just one month after giving birth this mom had two more babies

“The Big Error Was That She Was Caught”: The Untold Story Behind the Mysterious Disappearance of Fan Bingbing, the World’s Biggest Movie Star

I’m totally using this spring capsule wardrobe as inspiration.

White Nationalism’s Deep American Roots

Donald Trump is moving forward with the construction of his controversial border wall, even if it means sidestepping important environmental laws. A federal judge ruled in favor of Trump’s wall construction along California’s southern border, a project that is expected to violate several conservation acts.

The federal court ruled that the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has the power to wave environmental laws in the construction of the border wall, including the National Environmental Policy Act, the Endangered Species Act and the Clean Air Act. The majority opinion argued that the Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act of 1996 gives the DHS power to ignore certain laws when it comes to border security.

Related: 10 species at risk of extinction under the Trump administration

“Because the projects are statutorily authorized and DHS has waived the environmental laws California and the environmental groups seek to enforce, we affirm the district court’s grant of summary judgment to DHS,” Judge M. Margaret McKeown said.

According to EcoWatch, environmentalists and conservation groups attempted to stop the construction of the border wall in 2017. Building the prototypes for the structure has already violated at least 37 regulations in San Diego County. Once construction begins, environmentalists predict that more than 90 endangered species could be harmed by the time the wall is complete.

California is not the only state facing an environmental crisis. Texas is also getting ready to start construction of its border wall, and conservation groups are worried about how the wall will affect one of the most successful butterfly sanctuaries in the country: the National Butterfly Center.

A 5-mile portion of the wall will cut through the heart of the property, which has environmentalists worried about how it will affect the 200 variations of butterflies that call the sanctuary home. This includes the monarch, black swallowtail and the Mexican bluewing. Conservation groups are currently attempting to stall construction of the wall in Texas as they scramble to figure out a solution.

The Trump administration has hailed the new court decision as a major victory in its effort to secure the border. The White House has not, however, addressed how building the border wall will break dozens of environmental laws and potentially harm endangered species.

Via EcoWatch

Need to be near the lakefront? For a lot of residents it’s a non-negotiable when looking for a new place to live. This lovely one-bedroom, one-bathroom Uptown condo in a gorgeous yellow brick building fills that Lake Michigan requirement nicely.

Living just minutes from Lake Michigan doesn’t mean you have to go over budget or compromise on space. The recently updated condo has a generous bedroom and large closet, a new bathroom, a kitchen with an island, and a sunny living room.

The recent upgrades include a custom herringbone-pattern backsplash, sleek black appliances, blonde cabinets to match the hardwood, and a more stylish bathroom.

This is a good location in Uptown—the building is near the Red Line, the Lakefront Trail, Montrose Beach, grocery stores and the neighborhood nightlife.

So if you are looking for a change of scenery, the newly listed home at 846 W. Ainslie Street, Unit P1 is asking just $149,900. HOA dues for the property are $268/month.

Here’s the kind of blogger I am. I made this project THREE years ago. I just realized I never posted it. Please send help.

Halloween Bat Print

I went to Lowes and had them cut a few pieces of trim down to size, making sure it hung off the picture edges a couple of inches in order to hang it. You can attach the wood pieces together with the poster stickers like I did, or I found that hot glue works well too. I wrapped some jute/twine around the top two pieces and hung it. Done.

Since I already had the twine and stain, this cost a total of $10.00 and took just a few minutes to assemble (not including stain drying time). It needs to flatten out a bit since the poster was rolled, but it looks pretty darn cool. I love it when I can make a project at little cost and little time!

I’m off to find more projects I spent a bunch of time on and just never did anything with.

Signed,

Rookie Blogger (who’s been blogging for over 1o years)

Quick back story, this is a house where the first floor is CBS concrete (because Florida). The interior walls all have metal studs, but the exterior walls have some kind of thin wood studs. Basically from what I can tell, it's drywall, insulation, then concrete. The "studs", if that's what they are, are only like an inch deep. They are also 24 inches apart instead of the usual 16. I had to use a drill to poke holes to locate them.

Could I mount this directly into the concrete somehow? The problem is there's like 2-3 inches of empty space between the drywall and concrete wall.

Your baby is rising up and accepting their initial steps.  Nowadays you wait around patiently to the day they will begin to speak but that day begins to seem as though it is going to never come back.  In certain cases that this really is what are the results and also I understand from experience.  Iam a parent of the late talker and understand for a fact that there are things you can do in order to assist your son or daughter learn how to discuss. Visit pta therapy

Lumbar muscle strain has become the most usual cause for non pain killers.  Although individual may or may well not keep in mind the cause for pain, these discomfort episodes generally resolve within a few months’ time using a rest and drug. Check out physical services

Throughout Daniell’s fifth maternity, the Bargstadt’s decided their family was intact.  Only after delivery, your family could figure out their last kid would likewise change pose a brand new obstacle. See physician therapy

Finally a month later first experiencing disquiet I moved to my family doctor.  He prescribed a drugs and also referred me to physical treatment.  To earn a very long story limited PT failed to get the job done.  In fact it only made it worst.  Finally following having a MRI revealed a herniated disk drive.  I had surgery.  Now one week after I am flat on my spine.  I believe much better, but however experience some numbing sensations.  The surgeon states that it may take per year or longer until I’ m 100%.  Now that’s the excellent information.  The bad news is I can never completely be back to my previous ego.  There has to be a much better means!  Have I treated my back pain?  For now the answer is indeed?  But my personal journey persists.  Perhaps not only because I wish to cure my spine pain – I still want to buy from happening all over again!

You will find a number of low-impact exercises you can take into account to take the strain off your joints.  Walkingdistance swimmingpool, biking, and water aerobics would be definitely the absolute most frequently made ones.

Try out a heating pad in the first visible sign of stiffness or pain.  The heat might help to relax the muscle groups.  The very optimal/optimally way to make use of a heating pad would be your twenty-minute on off and away from regular.  Never ever go to bed or sleep with a heating pad onto your back or any part of your body.  You can get seriously burnt.

Your doctor is going to have a range of tests run, MRI, CT scans and X-rays to simply help him with all the investigations.  Once that is accomplished, he will refer you to a surgeon to acquire his viewpoint of the accident.  Your surgeon will review most of your evaluation results and could urge one of 2 things: both operation or a trip to your pain control doctor.  In most cases, he’ll ask that you find a pain management doctor to find out if epidural steroid injections (ESIs) are going to soon be able to aid get a handle on the inflammation and pain.

Take a look at your PIP coverage.  That is what pays to get the medical expenses and lost salary while curing for your own auto accident harms.  In the event that you just have $2,500, this can run out promptly.  It is ideal to choose the upper limitation in your nation.

Back issues tend to worsen in the subsequent region of the afternoon or in case you have been standing continuously for quite a long time.  That happens as the muscles become fatigued from the close of your daytime and the ligaments get stretched because of the greater body fat loss.

Back-pain of any type is bothersome, but pain due to disc problems may be unbearing some-times leaving individuals struggling to function.  An appointment with your medical professional is step one and most important step.