I’ve decided to start doing something new in July. I’m going to add photos to this blog. I take a lot of pictures. I take pictures of the things that I’m doing and the people that I’m with. I take pictures of the flowers that I buy for my home and the projects that I’m engaged in around the house. A lot of these photos just end up sitting on my computer for years and years. After all, you can only hang and scrapbook so many images. I’d like to put them to some sort of use and I figured that this blog was a great place to do that.

I figured I’d start this new project off today, on the last day of June, with a photo roundup of some of the things that I did this month. Hope you enjoy!

This photo is from the Chico River. I had a really great day at the river with several people that I love. We picnicked, floated down the river and soaked up the sun.

Keep reading…

Tags: diary of a smart chick, images, kathryn vercillo, Photos

I recently had the opportunity to do an in-depth review of the Samsung s8000 Jet. This is a new mobile phone that received more pre-orders than the iPhone did in its early days. That says something about the kind of attention that it’s getting.

While doing my research for the review, I kept coming across four main reasons that this new phone is so popular:

1. Speed. It’s one of the fastest phones available on the market today.
2. Display. It also has one of the most impressive screen resolutions out of any mobile phone line.
3. Advanced web browsing. The new web browser allows you to easily open multiple web pages and perform other fairly advanced mobile web functions.
4. Cool user interface. The main reason people love this new phone is that it has a user interface with lots of neat features. This includes fun shortcuts, transition effects and a neat “smart unlock” system that lets you program each letter key to simultaneously do its own function whil unlocking the phone.

It seems like a cool new phone. I think it’s worth taking a look at if you’re into smartphones (although it’s technically not a smartphone, I suppose). Also, if you’re interested in new mobile phones, you might want to follow these 20 mobile phone Twitterers.

Tags: cell phones, kathryn vercillo, mobile phones, news, reviews, samsung features, samsung jet, Technology, Wireless

Just a quick note to let you know about a new feature that will be starting up here on Diary of a Smart Chick for the month of July. I’m going to be doing daily book recommendations. I read a lot of books. I usually read mutliple books at one time and I try to read daily. As a result, I have opinions on a lot of different books and I’d like some place to share those opinions. I’m hoping that this blog will serve as a good place. If it does then I’ll continue posting daily about different books for the rest of the year (with July being the trial for that). Would love to get your feedback on this new feature as the month goes on so feel free to leave your comments!

Note: I use Paperback Swap to trade books. I think it’s a great way to get books at a super low cost as well as a great way to recycle the books that I’m done reading. The first set of books that I’ll be reviewing on Diary of a Smart Chick will be from my bookshelf of available books on Paperback Swap. After that I’ll continue with the books on my own shelf and the books I’m getting from the library.

Tags: book recommendation, book review, books, diary of a smart chick, kathryn vercillo, paperback swap

If you were going to spend some time visiting Alabama, what would you check out while you were there? I haven’t spent a lot of time there myself. I don’t have any particular plans to visit the state anytime soon, but I do have some idea of what I’d want to see if I do make it there.

Some of the things I’d see in Alabama include:

• Gantts Quarry. This is an old quarry and ghosttown. Since I come from Arizona, I’ve seen a lot of towns like this. I love to check out how the ones in other parts of the country compare to those in my home state.
• Alabama Constitution Village. This is one of those places that’s designed to look like a town looked back in the nineteenth century. I kind of have a love for these places although I’ve only been to a few.
• The Tennessee River. I’ve heard that there are a lot of fun activities that take place along this river. I’d probably stay in Decatur, Alabama and check out some of those activities while I was in the state.
• Festivals. Alabama has some interesting Alabama festivals including a hot air balloon festival and a festival devoted to peanuts. I’d probably try to time my trip to the state to check out some of those things.

Check out my article on ten Alabama cities if you’re interested in what else there is to see in Alabama.

Tags: alabama, alabama attractions, cities, states, Travel, vacation

I’ve lived on my own (or with various roommates) off and on for more than ten years. I’ve moved a few times and rearranged my bedroom a few times more than that. I think I’ve finally figured out how to create a bedroom that is truly ideal for a single woman.

Here are the five key features of a great bedroom for a single gal:

1. It feels safe. I think it’s really important for single women to feel safe in their beds (especially if they live alone!) Safety could mean lots of pillows to cuddle up with or windows that lock or lights that are easy to reach from the bed. It means different things to different women but I think it’s always important.
2. It’s pretty. I like having a bedroom that’s pretty. My definition of pretty has changed over the years and grown up a bit over time (or at least I’d like to think so) but I’ve always tried to pretty up my bedroom in some way.
3. It’s also comfortable. Pretty and safe are important features but mostly the room has to be comfortable. It has to have good energy. The bed has to be comfy. It’s the place where you spend at least eight hours of each day if not more so it should be a place where every seat feels totally comfortable.
4. It serves multiple functions. Almost all of my bedrooms have served multiple functions (especially when living with roommates). Most often, it’s been a bedroom as well as a library and office. It’s also usually had a sofa in it that people could sleep on if they stayed over.
5. It’s up to date. I don’t mean that my bedroom has to have trendy furniture and modern art. Instead, I mean that it needs to be up to date with me. My bedrooms always reflect my current passions, moods and beliefs. I think that this is important.

What do you think are the most important features of a bedroom for a woman who lives alone?

Tags: bedroom, decorating, houzz, Interior Design, kathryn vercillo, rooms, single, women

I believe that it’s important to get your dog spayed or neutered. I know all of the good reasons for this. The most important reason is that there is a huge problem with pet overpopulation in America which results in a lot of unwanted and uncared for animals. I support getting your dog spayed.

However, I have to confess that not all of my pets over the years were spayed or neutered. When I was growing up, we had one dog that my parents didn’t bother to get spayed. every year we’d have a litter of puppies to enjoy and to learn from. Watching those babies be born and grow up was educational and exciting.

Even as an adult, I had one dog that I didn’t get neutered. I had a female and a male dog. The female was already spayed. I put off neutering the male and then more and more time passed and I’d never done it. He was almost always kept in the yard but there were definitely some times that he got out. I admit that my failure to neuter him was irresponsible because of that.

So I’m thinking about the pros and cons of spaying your dog. When I weight them against one another, I come out of it believing that almost everyone should get their dog spayed or neutered. It’s the responsible thing to do. However, I can see some reasons that you might not get your dog spayed.

The main reason that you wouldn’t get your dog spayed is because you want to breed the dog. This could be because you’re breeding a dog for money or it could be a more general case like when I was a kid and we liked having puppies around. You have to consider the consequences of your actions if you want your pet to have puppies but for some people it’s going to be the right thing to do.

What do you think? Is it always wrong not to get your pet spayed? Or is it acceptable for some people to choose not to neuter their pets?

Tags: animals, dog, health, home, hubpages, kathryn vercillo, neuter, pet overpopulation, pets, spay, spay and neuter

One of the topics that I write about on a regular basis is personal finance. I write about many different aspects of this topic but my focus is on saving money and living a frugal life. I believe that living within our means allows us to pursue dreams and focus on what really and truly matters to us.

Some of the things that I’ve written in relation to this during the past week or so include:

• How to find and attend free events. People waste a whole lot of money on entertaining themselves. That’s sad when there are actually tons of free events that you can enjoy with your family, your lover or by yourself.
• How to use coupons during summer travel. There are a lot of people who use coupons to save money. Do you know how many of them forget to do that when traveling? Too many! Hopefully these tips will inspire people to take their coupons on their trips with them.
• How a frugal life is a healthy life. Some people live a frugal life and are also unhealthy but it’s not that common. It’s especially rare among people who choose frugality (instead of having it forced on them by circumstance). Here’s a look at why frugal and healthy go hand-in-hand.
• Choosing foods that pair well together. If you buy two inexpensive foods that can be combined to make many different recipes (like broccoli and cheese!) then you can save money on groceries.
• Coupon news. I like to stay on top of news about coupons. News this week included a new printer that’s great for coupons, statistics about online coupons and problems with in-store coupons.

I love writing about saving money. I also love reading about it so if you know of good blogs or articles on this topic then feel free to drop a line!

Tags: Frugal Living, kathryn vercillo, links, money, Personal Finance, saving money

I’ve been spending quite a bit of time on Twitter lately. After a lengthy period of adjusting to using the site, I’ve finally come to really like Twitter. I feel like it’s giving me a great opportunity to share links and ideas with other people.

One of the really fun things that I’ve gotten into doing on the site is participating in a daily poem project that @dragonblogger does. Almost every morning, he puts out a request for people to send in random words. These random words are then worked into a poem for the day which is posted on the Wanderer Thoughts blog.

These poems are always really interesting. Sometimes the words that are submitted are really challenging. For example, check out Unstoppable Disease which included a lot of medical words in it. (My word for that day was simpler: productivity).

This is just a fun little project to participate in when I think about it as I’m on Twitter. I think it’s inspiring to do little daily projects and this is an example of a good one.

Tags: fun, kathryn vercillo, poetry, projects, twitter, writing

One of my articles on productivity was recently featured in a blog carnival. There were a lot of other great posts in the carnival that you might want to check out as well. The carnival is all about internships, careers and employment so the articles all relate to business in that way.

My post was about employee monitoring. It was included in the general employment section. Other posts also included in this section were on the following topics:

• Leadership
• Interviewing
• Social Media
• Improving your writing
• Toughest jobs in America
• Getting promoted
• Working from home
• And even avoiding jury duty

There were also other posts related to jobs and internships. This is such an important topic right now so hopefully these articles will be useful for people!

Tags: blog carnival, business, employment, kathryn vercillo, monitoring, productivity

I am one of those people who isn’t ever going to be satisfied by doing a single job for the rest of my life. I’m not even particularly satisfied doing only one job at a time now. Instead, I’m one of those people who wants to do a million different things with my life. In addition to work, I want to pursue hobbies and generally just have new experiences.

There are a few things that I’ve found to be really important if you have this type of attitude about life:

• Staying productive. You aren’t going to get a lot done if you can keep your productivity levels high.
• Enjoy downtime. In spite of the fact that I believe in being productive, I also believe that you need to intersperse some downtime into your productivity. You have to relax if you’re going to be able to keep doing lots of things.
• Staying inspired. I read a lot of blogs and books that inspire me to stay productive and to stay creative.
• Enjoy varied activities. It’s too tough to keep going and going at a single type of thing. To enjoy more diversity in your life, you need to immerse yourself in activities that are truly different from one another.
• Accept that you can’t do some things right now. You can pursue every single hobby right this minute. Accept that and enjoy what you can do right now.
• Keep a life list. I have a list of things that I want to do, see and experience throughout my life. I keep it posted where I can see it. I check things off it (and add to it) regularly. When I’m planning out my schedule for the week or month, I check the list to see if I can do any of those things.

Maybe I want to do too much but I’ve found ways to make it possible to do more with my life. I believe in having full days!

Tags: business, kathryn vercillo, life, personal growth, productivity, time management