National Novel Writing Month

It’s very timely that as we were JUST talking about the best thing you can do when writing your novel, National Novel Writing Month (or NaNoWriMo) is right around the corner! Between November 1—30, NaNoWriMo invites you to write a 50,000-word novel. This year, they are expecting 500,000 writers to join in – and you …

Effective Advertising

I love a good advertisement. Two of my current favourites are the Coca-Cola Security Camera commercial, and the Recycle Everywhere: What They Become ads. These are both great ads in their own ways. The Coca-Cola commercial is sweet, fun, and relatable, and you don’t actually find out what product the commercial is promoting until the …

Template of a Social Media Policy

In the past week, I’ve had several different people ask me about how to go about creating policies, plans, and strategies related to social media and communications. I figure that if multiple people are asking me about it in the space of one week, there must be a whole lot more people wondering about it …

What is it about the Renaissance Period?

Last weekend, we visited the Winnipeg Art Gallery as part of Nuit Blanche. It was a fun evening and so nice to see all of the different art – but as we were wandering the galleries, I found myself – as I so often do when looking at art – dismissing the Renaissance section at …

Book Review: “Creative You”

The e-book of Creative You: Using Your Personality Type to Thrive by David Goldstein & Otto Kroeger was sent to me as a review copy earlier this month via Beyond Words Publishing. I very much enjoyed this book and found it so fascinating to begin by responding to the four main questions for determining my …

Should I start a blog?

After recently launching Living Fashionably in the Real World, I got to thinking about blogging in general, and how you know when it’s time to start a blog, especially in this time period when anyone can start up a blog within the space of approximately five minutes. There are a few things to take into …

Why I love Oxford commas

When I was recently struggling to figure out a 140-character Tweet that included everything I wanted to say PLUS the Oxford comma that I *had* to include (and subsequently cut out words just to make room for the Oxford comma), it occurred to me that I really love Oxford commas. What exactly is an Oxford …

Five Steps to Cleaning (and Managing) Your Inbox

It happens to the best of us. You let your inbox slide for a few days, weeks, or months, and bam! Suddenly you have pages of emails to sort through. Cleaning out and managing your inbox is good practice for organizational purposes, but I also believe that it vastly reduces stress. Isn’t it nicer to …

Should I use “e.g.” or “i.e.”?

“e.g.” and “i.e.” are used interchangeably – and often incorrectly – all too often. They actually mean two different things, but this is unfortunately overlooked. So, when should you use them? There’s a fairly simple distinction between the two: e.g. should be used when you are giving an example of the options, and it essentially …

How many exclamation marks are appropriate?

Oh the exclamation mark. How widely it is overused! Here are some recommendations to follow when it comes to using exclamation marks: If you’re texting or emailing a close friend or family member, you can go nuts. Use all the exclamation marks you want – as long as the message is only going to be …

When to not use a semi-colon

Ah, the semi-colon. It’s such a beautiful punctuation mark; it can add something exquisite to a sentence. Unfortunately, it is also frequently misused. And I don’t know about you, but any time I see a semi-colon used incorrectly, I cringe and want to bring out a gigantic red pen. The place where I have recently …

When to (and to not) use hyphens

Hyphens are a tricky punctuation mark to use correctly. Check out this great infographic to learn about the appropriate situations for using hyphens! (Click on the infographic to see it fully).   [Infographic provided by Grammar.net]