And just like that another month has flown by since my last newsy life lately update.
Where does the time go?!
My first two years in Iceland I said goodbye to each month with my “by the number” recap posts. I loved writing these recaps and sharing the little things happening in life. And having these posts to look back on is such a fun way to remember those early days of my expat journey!
Once I hit that two year mark I felt adjusted to life in Iceland and no longer felt that the little daily happenings were anything special to write about in these recaps. A big change compared to those first few months when a trip to the grocery store was a big accomplishment to share for the month!
With life in Iceland my new normal I decided to call it quits on my “by the number” recaps a few months ago and at first it was kinda a relief not having to think of things to share from each month. Lately though I have been missing recapping on the daily things that have been going on behind the scenes of Unlocking Kiki, outside of the weekend adventures. So these monthly recaps, they may make a comeback, we will just see.
And if listening to me ramble on about what I have been up to lately sounds boring to you don’t worry I promise to share pretty pictures from my month’s adventures to keep everyone happy:)
And with that ramble of an introduction lets get into today’s newsy post.
The last time I talked about life happenings the Viking and I were dealing with some major burnout from crazy schedules. Since then I think life has just gone into turbo drive! From work events on the weekends to exciting new projects, evenings with friends and a few weekend adventures this past month has been packed with work and fun!
Let’s start this recap off with some exciting news.
Slovenia| My first trip of 2016 is almost here! This coming weekend I will be heading off with two of my co-workers to Slovenia with a long layover in Amsterdam on the way. I can’t wait to revisit the beautiful canals of Amsterdam and explore all over Slovenia! This trip is part work, part fun, and I am so excited!
The Viking will be joining me in Slovenia later in the week and we have so many places we can’t wait to explore. If you have been to Slovenia and have any recommendations of places to visit or foodie spots to check out I would love to hear from you in the comments! Be prepared for Slovenia to take over my Instagram and Snapchat @kaelene next week!
Collaboration with Nova| A few weeks ago an exciting opportunity came my way. An opportunity that to be honest I almost turned down since it would take me totally out of my comfort zone. The opportunity was a collaboration with the Icelandic phone company Nova. They were looking to partner with individuals in Iceland doing fun things online, which was a total honor to be included, I still can’t believe that they asked me!
After I got the call I knew I would be silly to turn this opportunity down, but the part that had me uncomfortable, modeling!
This is going to sound funny since I am always out taking pictures and sharing them here on the blog, but dancing around while my Viking takes pictures is totally different than posing for a professional photographer in a studio. But, I did it, and I can now say I have experienced modeling, and wow that is much harder than it looks!
Since my modeling debut my picture has appeared all over the place, from the newspaper to the web I feel like I am seeing my face everywhere. It was pretty strange at first, especially when I opened the newspaper one morning to find my face taking up an entire page! But I am glad I went for it, this opportunity has been an amazing experience. You just never know what opportunities will come your way when you take a chance and follow your passion!
Website Hosting Drama| Oh hosting issues, I’m looking at you BlueHost. For the past month I would wake up to find my site down at least 5 days a week, sometimes for hours at a time. Early mornings are when I get my blog work done so this was incredibly frustrating. The amount of time I spent talking to BlueHost customer service was ridiculous, and every conversation left me even more irritated, and my site still down.
I have used BlueHost since I started my blog two years ago and have had minimal issues until recently. I don’t know what happened over at BlueHost but the customer service on top of the hosting issues has been absolutely terrible. After a month of almost daily issues I had enough of my site being down, especially as it was happening during the launch of my collaboration with Nova which was incredibly frustrating, and knew I needed to do something.
So last weekend I finally said goodbye to BlueHost and their terrible service and switched over to SiteGround. Best decision ever!
SiteGround has been absolutely amazing and they made the hosting switch so easy for me. As someone who is technically challenged I was really worried about the switch certain that I would do something to mess it up and that my site would be down for days. Thanks to SiteGround, who was there to help me every step of the way, I had no downtime on my site and the transition was nice and smooth.
If you are looking for a great hosting company with awesome customer service (I have never waited more than two minutes to live chat with someone!) I highly recommend SiteGround!
Icelandic | This week is my last week of Icelandic class, I would be lying if I didn’t say I was thrilled to be almost done. While I did learn more about the confusing Icelandic grammar (some days I think I finally understand it, others I am totally lost) I didn’t get as much out of this class as I was hoping for. And attending class from 7-10pm after a day of work, that is rough you guys!
I don’t want to loose steam with my Icelandic though so the Viking and I have made a plan and will be bringing my Icelandic lessons home.
People always tell me how I should always be practicing Icelandic at home with H, which okay I get it, practicing at home with him really is the best way to learn. But can I just say that trying to practice a foreign language with your partner, who is a native speaker of the language you are trying to learn, well it is not the easiest. Sure sometimes it goes really well, but when he over-corrects me (or at least I feel like he is nitpicking over everything I say!) tensions can run a bit high. But, we are going to give it a shot and see how it goes, wish us luck!
Triple Your Twitter | One of my goals for 2016 was to take a few courses that would help me with my blogging, mainly in the social media department. There are just so many things to keep up with that I find it all a bit overwhelming! I love Instagram, and am slowly figuring out Pinterest, but Twitter, that was one social media platform that had me a bit lost on how to best utilize it for my blog.
After looking into a few different courses I finally joined my first course, Triple Your Twitter created by one of my favorite bloggers, Helene from Helene in Between. Before I started this course I knew it was going to be awesome. I have watched all of Helene’s webinars and always learn so many tips from her.
And Triple Your Twitter has been no different!
After watching the first two lessons of the course I had already learned so many things about Twitter that I had no idea about! Best of all, the tips that we are learning in the class, they are all about ways to help you save time and still grow your following, because no one has hours each day to work on growing their social media platforms do they?! I am only halfway through my course and have already grown my Twitter following by 1/3, and I honestly haven’t spent any more time on Twitter than normal, I am just using the awesome tools shared in this course!
If you are interested in learning more about Twitter I highly recommend checking out Helene’s course Triple Your Twitter. Working your way through the lesson modules feels like your BFF is showing you the ropes of Twitter making the course fun and interesting to work through! If you give it a go let me know how the course works for you!
Annual Ball| One thing I think is so neat about Icelandic companies, they have “annual balls” each year which is basically a glorified company picnic. These parties are always so much fun, I can’t believe I just attended my third one at my company, seriously time is going by so fast! After being on the planning committee last year I was more than happy to sit back and just enjoy this years annual ball this past weekend.
And the best part of the night, the photo booth!
H and I may of hogged the photo booth for awhile, there was so many props in there we had to take pictures with them all. Photo booths at parties, they are the best idea ever!
Giveaway| Since you all made it through my ramble lets end this with an exciting giveaway! Before we talk about the giveaway a little back story. With the tourism boom in Iceland there has also been a huge increase in people heading to Iceland for a destination weddings. I get emails all the time from people coming here for their wedding, or wedding photography, and I can’t blame them, Iceland’s gorgeous scenery would make for some stunning wedding pictures!
When Viridian Images Photography contacted me asking me to help spread the word about their giveaway I had to share in case anyone is heading here for their own destination wedding. Viridian Images Photography is offering one exciting prize - One free elopement photo session (small weddings are also acceptable). This package is worth $2500 and includes 2 professional photographers and up to 5 hours of photography coverage. The gorgeous pictures you could get in that time with the Icelandic nature surrounding you, it would be amazing!
To learn more about this awesome giveaway head here and enter for your chance to win before March 31st. If you do win and head up to Iceland let me know!!!
Modeling gig, Icelandic classes, upcoming travel plans, I think we are all caught up!
It is funny how fast time goes by, my first year in Iceland those months seemed to feel so much longer. My second year, they started going a bit fast, and now as I am into year three time is just flying by! Guess that means I am quite settled into my routine with life here in Iceland!
And to end this newsy update here is a beautiful picture that makes me wonder why I didn’t pursue modeling as my career…
Can’t get this kinda hairstyle without the help of the lovely Icelandic wind :)
Question of the Day?
Have you taken a blogging course? What exciting things have you been up to lately?