I tweeted sometime last week that I was thinking of doing a wordpress plugin related post and was wondering if anyone would find it interesting. Well, because the response was a big fat YES, here is a naked view of Glamour This! Now, I just want to point out… I’m a plugin lover. I have over 30 plugins on my site but here are a few of my favorites.

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Whether you already have a wordpress blog/site or new to it and thinking of doing the switch (from another blogger platform) there are a few plugins that are A MUST.

The first, WP-DB Backup

Backing up your database is EXTEMELY IMPORTANT. As in you shouldn’t blog unless you have a backup plugin installed. You don’t want to have something go wrong and lose everything. (Unless you like living your life on the wild/dangerous side) Backups can be done multiple ways, but the plugin I use (which I find easy to understand) is the WP-DB Backup. Once you set it up (not very complicated) this plugin will email you daily/weekly/monthly (which ever option you prefer) with a complete backup of your database.

Secondly, Akismet
We don’t like spam and to be honest if I could destroy all spammers I would. It would make our blogging lives so much easier. Alas, that’s not the case so if you blog you need to install the Akismet plugin. It will work wonders for you but you will need an API key. Sounds complicated, but I promise it’s not. You need to install this otherwise you will have to moderate all comments and dig through the pile of junky comments.

Now, let’s get into the fun stuff. If you don’t love how the basic wordpress platform works, I found that the image upload was very time consuming and I could never get the standard stats to work… I suggest these to optimize your blogging

Ozh’ Admin Drop Down Menu

The standard toolbar on wordpress is displayed on the left site. I’m not a fan of continuously scrolling so when I came across this plugin I was beyond excited. It basically moves it from the side to the top. So now, everything becomes a drop down menu. Merci! I love this plugin.

WordPress.com Stats

I have a confession. As much as it may seem I know about blogging, code and stats… I don’t really understand it all. Yes, I have a google analytics account (which too me forever to understand and set up) but my incoming links never worked and I could never figure out where my visitors were coming from. When I had my old blog, (wordpress.com) I loved the stats in the dashboard. They were easy to understand and all the info was there. I kept telling myself I wish they had those stats available for self-hosted wp. Well… I am happy to report they do!!! So go install the WordPress.com Stats plugin ASAP.

No Self Pings
If you are a blogger who likes to link to previous posts you’ve written, you know that by default you will get a pingback. It’s great an all, but I don’t find it necessary (for me) to have pings of my own posts. Sure I’d like to see who links to my posts and that’s the reason behind pingbacks… but self pings? I don’t need to clutter up my comments with my own pings. If you are like me, then install the No Self Pings

Faster Image Insert

Now this one is a time saver especially if you love post filled with pictures. No need to enter 1 picture at a time, or multiples and then have to individually select them from the gallery. The Faster Image Insert lets you multi-insert & mass-editing images. Upload multiple images, click the invert selection and insert. Voila! All your images on your post in a few clicks. LOVE!

Login Logo

Now, because I love making things pretty, here is a plugin that makes your WP Login dashobard  visually appealing. Don’t get me wrong, I love me some blue/grays & WordPress Logo…but it’s not me. This plugin allow you to switch up the very standard WordPress login page by replacing the WordPress logo with your own. How awesome is this?! you actually have a custom login page and it literally takes 2 secs to do (you need to upload the file on your FTP site) It’s not very complicated and the outcome rocks! Thank to Ty, for showing me this plugin)

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Please understand that I am no pro. That there are a gazillion wordpress plugins available and I might not be using the right ones or aware of the awesomeness that I have yet to find. If you use a plugin you absolutely adore, please share it and I’ll look into it, who knows maybe I’ll have a part two of under the skirts.

A little over 3 years ago I signed up for a Tumblr account but left it inactive for over 2 years. Then in July of last year, I decided to start tumblring and to my surprise I really liked the platform. Something about the community it creates, how reblogging, liking and following is just one click away. How quickly you start following people and people follow you back. It’s great. Don’t get me wrong, it wouldn’t be a platform I’d use for everything, but as a visual sketchbook. Sure. To post random thoughts, why not.

What’s neat about the Tumblr Dashboard is that when logged in you see the most recent posts of the sites you are following. Making it easy to view, like, and/or reblog. The only thing I found is that I didn’t like the look of the dashboard. Too blue, dark and not very attractive. I’m all for pretty… hey, what can I say this is how I chose to life my life, So when I saw that there was a Chrome and Firefox extension called Stylish to make the dashboard pretty, I have to confess I got all giddy. I know, I’m pure cheese.

Here are examples of a few available themes. I’m currently using Doodle and Lace Tumblr, the first one. What can I say, I’m a girly girl.

Doodle and Lace Tumblr

Perfect Lullabye

Vintage Style

Alice in Wonderland

In case you don’t follow me, you can see some inspiration, random thoughts and weight progress on my 2 tumblr sites. Glamour This! - which is daily inspiration, and Wait, No Weight – my weight/diet/get back into shape site.

If you are tumblring please link me to your site. I’d love to follow you back Until then… enjoy prettifying your tumblr dashboard. I literally spend hours looking at all the themes.

Apple has always been a leader in their ad campaigns. I’m always excited to see what the next one will be. But, this “Think Different” commercial is simply the best Apple commercial ever and it was created back in the late 1990′s. Not only was the “Think Different” campaign a huge success but this commercial also won an Emmy in 1998 for best commercial.

Maybe this is one of the many reasons I love Apple. I am different and I embrace it :]

Happy Friday everyone. I know I’m posting a little late, but hopefully my randomness will make up for it. So like many others… I decided to jump on the Dialect Vlog bandwagon. I know, you might be fed up of looking at these things, so my all means you don’t have to. But if you want to laugh at what many call “my french canadian accent” then I say watch it.

If you wanted to follow along, here is the list of words/questions:

Aunt, Route, Wash, Oil, Theater, Iron, Salmon, Caramel, Fire, Water, Sure, Data, Ruin, Crayon, Toilet, New Orleans, Pecan, Both, Again, Probably, Spitting image, Alabama, Lawyer, Coupon, Mayonnaise, Syrup, Pajamas, Caught

• What is it called when you throw toilet paper on a house?
• What is the bug that when you touch it, it curls into a ball?
• What is the bubbly carbonated drink called?
• What do you call gym shoes?
• What do you say to address a group of people?
• What do you call the kind of spider that has an oval-shaped
  body and extremely long legs?
• What do you call your grandparents?
• What do you call the wheeled contraption in which you carry
• groceries at the supermarket?
• What do you call it when rain falls while the sun is shining?
• What is the thing you change the TV channel with?

So if you happen to find this amusing, check out some of my blogger friends and their vlogs.

Miriam at Other Pieces of Me
Jenna at ThatWife
Katie at She likes Ruffles
Kate at Marsh Mellow Goodness
Abby at Wife From Scratch
Nodakademic

Coveting this vintage radio from West Elm. A huge vintage fan myself, this radio with it’s retro-chic “new-stalgic” look that takes its cues from modern art, with gently rounded corners and old-fashioned dials. But wait, it’s fit for today’s technology. What can be better than that? Me want. Me want… ALOT.

{ Via | West Elm }

If you aren’t keen on the whole technology part of finding your way around, then you might just love these crumpled city maps by designer Emanuele Pizzolorusso. Unlike traditional paper map the Crumpled City Map are easy to put away ( crammed into your pocket and/or backpack) without having to spend time on figuring out how to fold it back in place. Plus, the maps are printed on special technological material that makes them the lightest and most resistant maps on market, as well as 100% waterproof. Now, that my friends is my kind of Map. Plus the packaging is pretty. Always a plus!

{ Via | The Trendy Girl }

I love making my MacBook Pro all pretty, whether it’s desktop wallpapers or new desktop icons. When I saw the talented Jessica Hische blog about her fancy dock icons, my jaw literally dropped. How pretty are those icons?! I love how it makes everything simple, clean and  easier to see. I guess you can call me a geek when I get excited about dock icons. But I can’t help it. I look at those icons almost every hour of every day, so I admit, they make me happy. Hope I am not the only one

Check out the tutorial on how to install these beauties on your Mac.

{ Via | Jessica Hische }

I love this concept. A website dedicated to finding your lost phone. I mean the name “i can’t find my phone” is pretty self explanatory. Why didn’t I think of that ? It’s brilliant !!!

{ Via : Swiss Miss}