This photo was taken last month at a place where I went hiking. Those two little structures are the bathrooms that are located at the head of the hiking trail. They’re different from what you usually see aren’t they?
Tags: bathroom, hiking, kathryn vercillo, outhouse, Photos, pictures, smartchick, trailhead
I recently wrote an article that was all about stylish ways to heat your home. This mostly included fancy interior design and construction options like using solar panels, radiant heating and advanced fireplaces to keep your house heated up. However, I have a confession to make – I don’t use any of these things.
The truth is that I do run the heat in my house during the winter but I prefer staying warm at home in other ways if I can. Here’s a look at my five favorite ways to get warm:
What are your favorite ways to stay warm at home?
Tags: heat, heating options, ideas for staying warm, kathryn vercillo, stay warm
I think that one of the most important things that you can do as an employee or business owner is to find a way to make your job unique. You should focus on developing a specific niche, habit or approach that sets you apart from the competition. This may seem impossible in some jobs but if you get creative then you’ll find that you can be unique even if the job that you have is a common one held by many other people.
For example, there are some really cool underwater jobs that would fall into this category. Underwater modeling, underwater photography and underwater welding are all examples of this. After all, there are thousands of people who do modeling, take photos or work as welders. The number of people who do those same jobs underwater is just a fraction of that. Simply by looking at a new location for their work, these employees set themselves apart from the crowd.
Another example might be the person who works as a server in a restaurant. That’s a common job so how would you be unique about it? It might be in the way that you approach your customers – for example, you could have a little song that you sing each time that you approach the table. Or it could be in developing a special talent – you might become known as the person who can juggle full water glasses. Whatever it is, it needs to make you stand out as someone who does the job in a unique and interesting way.
Of course, it’s important that you do your job well. That’s probably more important than being unique about it. But once you’ve mastered the skills of your job position, you should make sure that you go further and create a niche for yourself. This will make you more marketable and more valuable as an employee. And it will probably make your work a lot more interesting to do!
How could you set yourself apart from the crowd? In the comments here, feel free to let us all know what you do and how you could do it in a more special way!
Tags: career, employment, hubpages, kathryn vercillo, niche, underwater jobs, unique job
I put flowers all over my house but the most common place that you’ll find them is in my kitchen. I stick them in old wine bottles and put them on the windowsill so I can see them while cooking or washing dishes. I love these big orange sunflowers!
Tags: flowers, kathryn vercillo, kitchens, Photos, pictures, smartchick, sunflowers
Sometimes I answer questions on Yahoo! Answers. Does anyone else do this? I think I get a lot out of it. Some of what I get out of doing this includes:
Some of my recent answers to questions on Yahoo! Answers include:
Incidentally, I’ve also started using LinkedIn’s Question/Answer section. Does anyone use this? Do you like it?
Tags: answer questions, kathryn vercillo, smartchick, Yahoo Answers
This is just a simple photo of a piece of fencing that I noticed when I was out somewhere. Still, there’s something I love about the curlicue of it. What do you think?
Tags: curlicue, kathryn vercillo, Photos, pictures, smartchick
Someone recently asked me why I don’t often cover the topic of writing on this blog. After all, as someone who writes for a living, this seems like a topic that would come up a lot, right? And it’s true; it does. In fact, it comes up so much that I have an entire blog where I write about writing.
That blog is called Real Words. I write there as often as possible (daily if I can or several times a week if I can’t). I try to share my thoughts on the writing process and the life of being a writer. Sometimes I share tips and resources about writing although it’s a personal blog (not a professional one per se) so it’s mostly just about how I see writing.
Do you also write about writing? If so, I’d love to check out your blog. Leave me the URL in the comments here.
Tags: kathryn vercillo, smartchick, writer's life, writers, writing
Just thought I’d share a picture of my bathroom. I happen to love my bathroom. Here you can see that i’ve got a flirty shower curtain and a pretty purple toilet seat cover with matching bath mat. I also have burlesque pictures on the wall, a beautiful grey/white soap dispenser and the Flower Girl vase that you’ve seen pictured in other photos here before.
Tags: bathroom design, decor, feminine bathroom, kathryn vercillo, Photos, pictures, pretty bathroom
One of the topics that interests me as a SmartChick is the topic of being green. I’ve researched and written about numerous green topics including green interior design, green technology issues and green money-saving habits. However, the topics that interest me most in the world of being green are those topics that don’t get touched on much by the mainstream writing world.
For example, I’ve written a lot about green creativity, including green writing. And recently, I started to take an interest in what it means to be green in industries that aren’t focused on being green. What I’ve learned is that it’s fairly easy to be green in industries that have already gotten on the green bandwagon. Farmers have a lot of options for going green as do real estate professionals and home builders. However, it’s not nearly as easy to go about being green in industries that haven’t adopted an emphasis on this topic yet.
For example, I recently did some research into the business of construction and demolition. There is definitely attention to being green in the area of construction. However, the emphasis on being green is a lot less visible when it comes to demolition. The green efforts of this industry seemed to be limited to proper recycling of waste from demolition jobs.
So what do you do if you’re a green business that wants to contribute to the world around you in a healthy way but the industry that you’re in doesn’t make that easy? The answer to this can be explored at least in part by taking a look at Maverick Hammers. This is a company that manufactures hydraulic hammers. That’s not an industry that’s particularly green but the business tries to do its part anyway.
The key ways that the business does this are by using durable materials to decrease continued waste, reducing the amount of shipping they do to limit transportation waste and staying informed about green issues and options. These are things that any business could work on doing even if the industry that the business is a part of isn’t quite at the top of the green supporters list.
Have you discovered industries that are tougher to be green in? What are the best ways to make it easier for those businesses within these industries to be green?
Tags: demolition, green, green business, green construction, hydraulic hammers, kathryn vercillo, maverick hammers
I guess I missed a couple of days of posting pictures here. I had planned on uploading some new ones and then some other stuff got in the way. Eek! To make up for it, I’ll post more than one today. All of these are from a jaunt I took around the city of San Francisco just for the purpose of taking photos. I took a lot of touristy pictures but my main focus for this set was pictures that include reflections (in mirrors, windows and water). I particularly like the ones where the reflection is a shadow.
Tags: kathryn vercillo, mirror photos, Photos, reflection photos, reflections, window photos
