Living La Vida Holoka


How I Doubled My Pinterest Following in Just a Month

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If you’re having trouble increasing your Pinterest following, I’ll show you how I doubled my Pinterest following in just one month with these simple tips!


I know what you’re thinking.  “Not another post trying to tell me how to ace social media!”  Sure, there are plenty of posts like this floating around the blogosphere already.  The difference between those posts and mine is that I’ve struggled for years to try and grow my Pinterest following organically. In fact, it got to the point where I had pretty much given up on using my Pinterest account.  Besides pinning my blog posts, I wasn’t very active on Pinterest.

That was only one major reason why my Pinterest account wasn’t growing! 

No one was going to find my lonely, neglected Pinterest profile in a sea of active pinners!  Then one weekend, I got inspired to pay a little more attention to my Pinterest account.  I spent an afternoon sitting on the floor with my laptop and started doing major cleanup!  Once I had my profile updated and my boards organized, I felt motivated to pin more frequently!  Having an unorganized and messy Pinterest account was definitely a big deterrent for me and for potential followers! 

Before I tell you what helped my Pinterest growth, I’m just going to say that I’m not a social media expert by any means.  My social media following isn’t in the tens of thousands.  But these tips have definitely been really helpful these past few months!  Before I started, I was under 1K followers!  Now, I’m over 2K and consistently growing!  

Make sure your profile is up to date

My Pinterest profile was a hot mess before I straightened it out!  Since I connect my Pinterest account to my blog, I changed my name to my blog’s name.  That way my readers will instantly recognize me when they click my profile!  So you might want to update your profile pic, as well.  Write a short description about yourself and make sure it includes who you are, what you do, and what you’re all about!

Organize boards and cover photos

Now that we’ve gotten passed the first impression, it’s time to really find out what you’re all about!  My Pinterest boards were an unorganized disaster! Part of that was a Pinterest glitch, but the other half was pure negligence on my part!  So I started by organizing my boards alphabetically, except for my Living La Vida Holoka board.  That’s the first board you’ll see on my profile.  I want my fellow pinners to be able to find what they’re looking as easily and quickly as possible.  

Write better board descriptions

Do you know how many of my boards didn’t have descriptions?  Too many!  Sure, a picture may say a thousand words, but a description tells all!  So I took some time to write better board descriptions.  Even if your Pinterest boards seem pretty obvious without a description, write one anyway.  Make it witty, descriptive, and clear about your board.

Organically pin posts

I have a social media scheduler that can pin to my Pinterest board for me.  I hardly use it.  I find that spending a little time on Pinterest and pinning organically works best for me.  Find out when your followers are most active on Pinterest (check out your analytics) and pin around that time.  Honestly, I pin the most at night when I’m watching TV with my husband.  I usually have my phone nearby anyway, so it’s a convenient time for me to hop onto my account.

Make pinnable images for your blog posts

If you’re a blogger, getting traffic to your site is one of your main goals.  So you want your images to look good for potential pinners!  Not only should you have a “Pin It” button on your site, but your images should be pinnable.  If you’ve noticed, now every one of my blog posts has “PIN FOR LATER” at the bottom with a pinnable image right underneath.  These images are attention grabbers on Pinterest and tend to do much better than horizontal images.

Follow Pinterest users with similar content

While you’re scrolling through Pinterest, you’re bound to see recommended boards for you.  Take a look through them.  If you like what you see, follow that board!  Follow bloggers that you like, as well.  You’ll probably end up with a few new pinners who would love to follow you back!

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Each day I continue to see growth with these simple tips!  You’re probably on your phone while you’re sitting on the couch at night.  Use a little of that time to pin posts to your boards.  The next morning, you’re bound to see some growth!  Even if it’s just a few new followers each day, you’ll continue to see Pinterest growth without follow threads, sponsored pins, or paying for a service!

What have you done to grow your Pinterest following?

Sugar Skull Cookies You Can Color!

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A couple weekends ago, I spent the day with my nieces.  They were having a sleepover at my parents’ house while my brother and sister-in-law were packing up their house for their upcoming move.  So my mom and I started brainstorming ideas to keep the girls busy while they were over. 

Mom had plans to buy a pumpkin painting kit for us to do.  I decided that “craft time with Aunt Jess” would also involve some baking.  My nieces love making cookies!  Since it’s Halloween season, I knew it was the perfect time to break out my sugar skull cookie cutters and make some Day of the Dead cookies!  


My nieces also love to color, so I thought it would be fun to color our cookies with edible markers!  Sugar skulls, traditionally, are pretty ornate and colorful.  Edible markers made it fun and easy to decorate our cookies.  My nieces couldn’t believe that we were using markers on our cookies!

My four year old niece is such a help!  I told her that I would be putting our cookies up on my website.  I had brought my camera equipment and some backdrops with me to my parents’ house to take pictures.  My niece came out to the car with me to get everything and insisted that she help carry a few things back to the house. I loved having an assistant for the day!

We never got around to taking pictures (I took them at home instead), but we had a ton of fun making these cookies together!  I even left the sugar skull cookie cutters behind so the girls could use them in Play-Doh!


These sugar skull cookies are perfect for kids who love to color! Here’s how to easily make these sugar cookies for Halloween:

Bake ’em!

I have to admit that I cut major corners with my sugar cookie recipe.  I was making these with small children after all!  So I used a pouch of Betty Crocker sugar cookie mix.  My “assistant” then asked to help out again.  I added the eggs and butter and she mixed!

Then, both nieces helped cut out shapes using the sugar skull cookie cutters.  First, you cut out the shape of the skull.  Then, you turn the cookie cutter over and press the design into the cookie dough.

We baked the cookies according to the instructions on the package of mix and let them cool completely before decorating.

Color ’em!

Next came the fun part!  Coloring our cookies!  We used Wilton Food Writer markers in primary colors and neon colors.  They were easy to use on our sugar cookies and my nieces had a blast decorating these sugar skulls!

Eat ’em!

The best part of making cookies is eating them!  Now, be forewarned that the black marker did make a bit of a mess out of my nieces’ mouths.  But it’s all part of the fun. Right?  If you don’t want to scrub black marker off your kids’ faces, just use the other colors on your cookies.  They’ll still look great!


While I was hanging out with my nieces all day, I said to my mom, “Mommy brain is totally a thing!”  We set the timer on the oven, but never hit preheat!  I couldn’t figure out why the cookies weren’t baking!  Then, I looked at the oven temperature and realized my mistake.  Duh!

It all worked out in the end!  I had a nice day spending quality time with my nieces and doing Halloween activities!  We made a fun mess out of painting pumpkins and had a great time making our cookies! If your kids love to color, this is such a fun way to let them get creative in the kitchen!

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What’s your favorite kid-friendly Halloween activity?

Crispy Chicken Halloween Witch Fingers

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It’s been a very witchy Halloween season here on Living La Vida Holoka this year!  So I thought I would continue the trend with another fun, Halloween recipe!  If there’s one thing that truly stands out about witches, it’s their creepy, pointy fingers.  Remember the Wicked Witch of the West pointing her long, green finger at Dorothy?  “I’ll get you my pretty…and your little dog, too!”  

Witches are definitely more than just a pointy hat, broomstick, and a spine-chilling cackle.  And Halloween can be more than just sweet treats!  I’m sure most parents don’t want their kids loading up on candy on Halloween.  So how about feeding them a festive and easy dinner before you head out for an evening of trick-or-treating?


What kid doesn’t like chicken fingers?  As an adult, I still love chicken fingers! They’re crispy, fun to dip, and make a quick and easy meal!  For Halloween, I decided to turn chicken fingers into “witch fingers.”  I’ve seen so many sweet witch finger recipes from cookies to pretzel rods.  I wanted to make these witch fingers a fun dinner for Halloween night!

To make the chicken fingers really look witchy, I added green food coloring to bread crumbs.  Black olives are added to the tip of each chicken finger for “fingernails.”  This homemade version of chicken fingers is fun to make and even more fun to eat!  Serve them with a side of your favorite dipping sauce like ranch, honey mustard, or ketchup.

Crispy Chicken Halloween Witch Fingers
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Ingredients
  1. 4 thin, boneless, skinless chicken breasts, cut into thin strips
  2. 1-2 cups seasoned whole wheat bread crumbs
  3. Green food coloring
  4. 2-3 eggs, lightly beaten
  5. 1 cup all-purpose flour
  6. Salt and pepper, to taste
  7. Non-stick cooking spray
  8. Black olives, halved
Instructions
  1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Prepare a baking sheet with foil and non-stick cooking spray.
  2. Pour 1-2 cups of whole wheat bread crumbs into a dish or large bowl.
  3. Add a few drops of green food coloring to bread crumbs and mix well. Continue adding green food coloring until your desired color is achieved.
  4. In a medium bowl, lightly beat the eggs.
  5. Add flour to another plate and season with salt and pepper.
  6. Dredge chicken fingers in flour. Then, dip in eggs. Follow with the bread crumbs and repeat until all of the chicken fingers are coated.
  7. Place chicken fingers on the prepared baking sheet and cook for 10-12 minutes.
  8. Flip chicken halfway through so it browns evenly on both sides.
  9. Plate 5 chicken fingers to make a hand.
  10. Top with a black olive "fingernail."
  11. Serve with dipping sauce of your choice.
Notes
  1. If you're not into food coloring, add some chopped green herbs like parsley to the bread crumb mixture instead.
Living La Vida Holoka http://www.livinglavidaholoka.com/


Before you get decked out in costume this Halloween, make this witchy little bite to eat!  They’re sure to be a hit with kids and big kids at heart this Halloween season!

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What’s your favorite savory Halloween recipe?

Halloween Mozzarella Zombie Eyeballs

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This post may contain affiliate links. Making a purchase through one of these links helps support this blog.


Halloween was always such a fun holiday as a kid.  I loved dressing up in costume and rushing home from school to go trick-or-treating.  What kid didn’t want to come home with a pillowcase stuffed with free candy?  There were times when we would come home, empty our bags, and head out for more!  When we finally came in for the night, we dumped our pile of candy on the table and sorted through it with Mom and Dad.  It was the best!

As an adult, I don’t think kids should have all the fun on Halloween!  Sure, it’s not entirely kosher to go knocking on neighborhood doors for candy when you’re – oh say – in your 30’s.  But there are still ways that kids at heart can enjoy this holiday. 

For instance, if you’ve got someplace to go or just want to scare some trick-or-treaters, dress up!  We only get about one trick-or-treater each year.  It’s not worth shelling out money for a costume.  Although I did buy black cat ears this year (basically because I love black cats, they were cute, and my niece told me I should be a cat for Halloween)!


Love scary movies? Sit down to a Halloween movie marathon, but make sure to whip up some spooky snacks!  My Popcorn Boo Bark is perfect for a scary movie night!  In fact, one of my favorite ways to celebrate Halloween as an adult is with food.  You can turn an ordinary meal into a scary and grotesque dish! 

The other night when my husband came home for work, he asked what we were having for dinner.  Thankfully, at this point in our marriage, he’s used to my creative ways.  So he wasn’t too shocked when I said we were having dinner with a side of “zombie eyeballs.”


Now, I have to admit that I can deal with some pretty gruesome things. But once you start poking around an eyeball, I’m out!  So what could be more gross for Halloween than edible eyeballs?  Thankfully, these eyeballs are made with some tasty ingredients.  

Start with fresh mozzarella balls.  If you can’t find marinaded mozzarella, drain the mozzarella and drizzle olive oil on top.  Then, season the mozzarella with Italian seasoning and some red pepper flakes. 

Prepared pesto gives these eyeballs a gross, oozing appearance.  The strips of roasted red pepper make these eyeballs appear bloodshot.  The slices of black olives give the eyeballs a blank stare.  Kind of like the undead!

Halloween Mozzarella Zombie Eyeballs
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Ingredients
  1. Marinaded Ciliegine mozzarella
  2. Prepared pesto
  3. Large pitted black olives, sliced
  4. Roasted red peppers, cut into thin strips
Instructions
  1. Place mozzarella on a cheese plate. Spread them out so there are two mozzarella balls paired together.
  2. Using a teaspoon, dot a small amount of prepared pesto onto each mozzarella ball.
  3. Place a couple strips of roasted red pepper onto the mozzarella.
  4. Then, place a slice of black olive on top.
  5. Chill in the refrigerator before serving.
Living La Vida Holoka http://www.livinglavidaholoka.com/


If you’re looking for an easy starter or side dish for Halloween night, these mozzarella zombie eyeballs are a perfect way to go! They’re full of bold Italian flavor, but will definitely add the right amount of creepiness to your meal! Here’s looking at you!

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