I Miss Home

I had been living with my parents in Greece until I was 22? Was it always easy? Definitely not. This is why at first I thought moving to the Netherlands with my boyfriend in search of a better life would be ok.

Well… It isn’t.

I miss hugging my parents.

Being there for them. I can see their faces on the phone screen when we talk and how much they miss me too. It breaks my heart.

I miss hanging out with my friends.

Moving to a new country means not having a group of friends anymore. Of course you can still communicate with them but it’s not the same. You are constantly watching them do things without you. And you can only wish you were there.

I miss my routine.

Moving to a European country I never realised the cultural difference I was about to experience. Food, people, places. Everything is different. Losing the simple things that used to bring me joy has taken a huge toll on me. Getting coffee with my dad in the mornings. Ordering souvlaki in the evenings. Small things that I had not realised how important they were to me.

Moving far away and building a life away from the people you love is not easy. A lot of days I wish I hadn’t. But I have and I cannot ignore the reasons for which I did.

Was it the right thing? Remains to be seen.

Any advice on how to survive the craziness that is my life is definitely welcome.

Blog Party

Do you want your blog to be viewed by thousands of people? Do you want to connect with other bloggers? Then welcome. This is a post dedicated to all of you in order to share and promote your work and find other likeminded individuals.

If you are interested check the rules below:

  • Follow my blog so you don’t miss our monthly parties!!!
  • In a comment write a few things about your blog and a link to either your homepage or your favorite post.
  • Be careful add only ONE link to your comments or they will go to spam. If you want to share more links create separate comments.
  • For each link you share check another one out.
  • No offensive content
  • Have fun!

Want to chat? Follow me on Instagram

3 Reasons You Are Not Getting Enough Brand Deals.

Spoiler Alert: It’s not the number of your followers

First of all I’ve been seeing many online coaches claiming that numbers don’t matter. From my personal experience that’s a lie. Numbers do matter. It’s just subjective. There are a lot of factors and numbers brands take into account when deciding who to work with. Here’s the three things I’ve found brands value most.

  1. Engagement

The reason why brands don’t really care about your followers count is because they care more about engagement. In the case of Instagram if you have 1 million followers and 100 likes per post brands will not work with you. But if you have 1.000 followers and 400 likes you have a lot more chances of securing a brand deal. In my personal experience the minimum followers you should have are at least 1.000 coupled with at least 300 likes and at least 30 comments.

Disclaimer: I am not a professional. This is just my personal experience.

2. Quality of Content

Aside from engagement brands care about the content you will be providing them. At the end of the day it’s cheaper to hire an influencer instead of a professional photographer, videographer, copywriter etc. Unfortunately good content does not only mean well lit good quality photos. They also need to align with the specific brand’s identity. So it is a good idea to research and find common elements within the brands you want to work with and try implement them in your feed.

3. Wrong Contact

There are many people that work for a specific brand. Many influencers shoot a text to the customer service email that is usually easily available. Unfortunately this email is flooded with more urgent emails in regards to orders, returns etc. Thus, your email may get ignored. You should always check the brand’s website for a dedicated press email. If you can’t locate a good place to search for the right person is LinkedIn. Search for the company you want and under the tab of people filter those who work in marketing and Pr. Their email is usually theirname@brandname.com. If this doesn’t work you can always reach out to the customer service email to ask for the correct contact for your inquiry.

There are many factors that brands take into consideration when looking to work with influencers. If you don’t get to work with the brand you wanted don’t get discouraged. You can always try the next season.

I want to mention once more that I am not a professional and this is what I’ve discovered through years of blogging. In case you’d like me to take a look at your social profiles and maybe provide some advice on how you can improve don’t hesitate to follow and send me a DM on Instagram.

Five models that are not afraid to be different!   

For a lot of years fashion had a pretty specific type that was considered “pretty”. Unfortunately that type was far from reality. Discrimination and false idea of beauty is still a huge problem for the fashion industry but we have taken huge steps to the right direction. So here are my five  favorite models!

  1. Iskra Lawrence   A stunning blonde that is not afraid to be goofy and kick the haters in the butt! Plus totally Instagram goals!
  2. Winnie Harlow   A gorgeous 21 year old that showed us beauty is everywhere. Even in a chronic skin condition!
  3. Rebekah Marine  A beautiful badass that needs to star in a sci-fi film ASAP! Can someone make it happen?
  4. Madeline Stuart   The cutest nineteen year old that puts the rest of us nineteen year olds to shame! ( Can sitting on my laptop be considered changing the world? No? Ok…)
  5. Philomena Kwao   Another stunning woman showing us that all sizes and colors are beautiful in their own unique way!

Who is the model that you look up to? Let me know in the comments below!

Want to chat? Follow me on Instagram!

Job Hunting is HARD

It’s been six months since I received my Communications degree. I never expected to get a high paying job five minutes after graduating. But after six months and quite literally hundreds of job and internship applications with no result I have started to feel really frustrated. I don’t mind not being paid thousands but I really want to find a job I love and am passionate about which is mostly social media. But it doesn’t seem to happen for me.

Tik Tok is not helping. When nine out of the ten posts I see is young girls who are there own bosses allegedly making thousands each month by just existing I definitely feel left out. And although I know that most of these are people who lie in order to sell some silly course or product I still seem to be jealous of their seemingly perfect life.

This post does not offer any usable advice as to how you can score the job of your life because I don’t have any. It is just to let you know that in case you are struggling you are not alone. Social media are so good at making you feel less than the rest. But it’s not that way. People are struggling. It’s just that most don’t feel comfortable sharing those struggles.

For this reason I shared my current struggle and I would love it if you want to share your own struggles in the comments below. Let’s show each other that we are in this together!

Love,

Naya

PS. If you want to chat you can always find me on Instagram https://www.instagram.com/nayardt/?hl=en

I spent two days customizing my iPhone Home Screen so you don’t have to.

Do you want to achieve an aesthetically pleasing IOS14 home screen? Well you can but you might want to think twice before taking the plunge.

Unfortunately Apple has never offered its users the option to customize the icons of their home screen to their liking. Options of customization are very limited. Thus people found a workaround to achieve that aesthetic look without having to buy an Android.

How to customize your iPhone Home Screen.

In order to understand the problems of this workaround let me tell you how it works. If you still want to do it after this post come back to this tutorial!

  • Open the “Shortcuts” app that is usually pre-installed to your phone.

    • Press the + sign.

    Add Action

    Search and click “Open App”
    Click “Choose” and find and click the App that you want to customize in the list.

    Now that the shortcut has been created click on the three dots.
    Name your shortcut so you don’t confuse them in the future.
    Click “Add to Home Screen”

    Choose the name you want
    Click on the icon and “choose photo” to insert a photo from your camera roll.

As you understand this is a time consuming process. Additionally, every time you open an app the “Shortcuts” app will open first. This has been pretty annoying to me. Also whenever I try to navigate between apps in the phone’s history the shortcuts app is always in the middle. After a week of use I have decided to go back to my regular boring but more comfortable working Home Screen.

If you want to know how to undo this let me know in the comments below or shoot me a DM on Instagram.

Blog Party!

Do you want your blog to be viewed by thousands of people? Do you want to connect with other bloggers? Then welcome. This is a post dedicated to all of you in order to share and promote your work and find other likeminded individuals.

If you are interested check the rules below:

  • Follow my blog so you don’t miss our monthly parties!!!
  • In a comment write a few things about your blog and a link to either your homepage or your favorite post.
  • Be careful add only ONE link to your comments or they will go to spam. If you want to share more links create separate comments.
  • For each link you share check another one out.
  • No offensive content
  • Have fun!

If you’d like a chat take a look at my Instagram!

My blogging tips and tricks

I’m obviously not a professional blogger but I do believe that everyone has something to offer. So here are my best blogging tips! Maybe you’ll get something out of them!

  • Purpose

When starting a blog know what you want from it. If blogging is a way for you to vent and talk about things that interest you, you can be really laid back about it. On the other hand if you are hoping to someday make an income out of it you have to be a lot more focused and consistent.

  • Content  

Your blog’s content must be something you are passionate about. Something you’ll feel proud about once you hit that little update button. Don’t try to write about something that you believe people will like. It won’t work out.

  • Photos

Ok you have the great content. Now what? Most people will NOT click on your post if a photo doesn’t accompany it. We are visual creatures. Always make sure your blog has some great pictures. If you’ll only keep one thing from what I’m saying  this is it!

  • Socializing 

Even if you are the greatest blogger in the whole universe if people can’t physically see your blog they cannot engage. Make sure your blog is out there. Comment,like and socialize on social media. Don’t forget though to be yourself. See other people as meaningful connections not just as another follower.

  • Theme

Choose a theme that represents you and is easy to navigate. The technicalities of running a blog are definitely hard but with time things will be sorted out. No one started from the top!

  • Subscribe button 

If people have to search for it they WONT click it. So make sure it has a pretty good spot on the layout of your blog.

  • Advice

Always listen to others. You might get something from them. When you read a successful blog don’t just look at it. See what they are talking about, how they are saying it and their layout. Everything should be a source of inspiration!

  • Followers 

What I like to do is set a goal of new followers everyday. This should be adjusted to your blog’s needs. Mine right now is ten! Some days I get it and some I don’t but looking at my chart of follower goals helps me stay focused and inspired!


What are your blogging tips? Would you like to see a photo editing post? Let me know in the comments below!

Want to chat? Follow me on Instagram

Want more content? Support my blog by buying me a coffee!

How to Slow Down with Rituals

I thought I would ask if you sometimes feel like things are moving too fast. But then I realized that we all live hectic lives. We all sometimes feel like things need to slow down. I’ve read a lot of tips on relaxation. Face masks and baths are pretty popular and although they are pretty relaxing they still involve effort. So from now on I decided to give myself time to do absolutely nothing. With a little bit of help.

First I close the blinds/lights and light up a candle. If you ask me the ambiance a candle creates is enough to totally change your mood. The Amber scented candle has an amazing deep flowery scent that is not overpowering. I like to take this time to reflect on all the good things I’ve been blessed with. I tend to take up much time dwelling on the bad stuff that I forget to acknowledge the good.

Another thing that I use when I feel overwhelmed is The ritual of Dao relaxing serum. I must admit I thought it wouldn’t do anything at first but it ended up being pretty helpful to my calmness. You just massage it in your temples, forehead and neck. Massaging these places in general can really relax you so this serum definitely gives you an incentive to do it more often. Also the Chinese peppermint and the Yi Yo ren it contains will have a cooling soothing effect that I really enjoy. (Plus thanks to its size you can throw it in your handbag and use it whenever you get feelings of anxiety.)

Last, I spray a little The ritual of Dao bed and body mist and go to sleep like a baby.

So what do you guys do when you want to relax? Let me know in the comments below.

Want to chat? Follow me on Instagram

Post contains Pr packages.