Twitter Tools

Twitter Tools has to be my favourite Twitter-related plugin ever. I remember that I used it a long time ago, but with the lack of customization for the links it posted on my Twitter timeline, I switched back to Twitterfeed. Now it is better than ever! Some of the features are:

• Customization for posting link in your timeline (e.g.: “New at -blogname-” instead of “New post”)
• bit.ly integration including API
• Twitter timeline widget for your sidebar
• Tweeting from your own website
• Publishing of a compilation of your tweets

The best dupe for another platform: Twitterfeed, it posts a tweet whenever your website is updated. Also you ca turn it on and off whenever you want.

WP-Cufón

What this little awesome plugin does, is allow for you to implement custom types on your website. That’s how I can have my custom fonts and titles everywhere without having to make images for them. @font-face and the Google Font API are nice ways to do the same but they are not stable enough for me yet.

The only bad part about them all: they don’t work in IE ¬¬. Who keeps using IE anyways?

Dupes for other blogging platforms: @font-face and the Google font API.

Fast and secure contact form

I remember that before I used this little plugin, I would get a lot of spam mail. I still do, but it no longer comes from my contact form. This handy little contact form is super easy to install as well as secure because it includes a captcha field to stop spambots from flooding your email.

Dupes for other blogging platforms: Not really sure, but I guess turning on captcha on your comments would do the trick.

WP-Spam Free

This little guy is awesome! It gives you all sorts of info about who comments on your blog, from their ISP to their IP. It’s good for when you want to ban someone for leaving hateful comments. I totally recommend it if only to know where your readers come from.

Dupes for other blogging platforms: I really don’t know but it’s always good to moderate all your comments, IMO.

WP-Polls

For all those little polls that come to my mind every once in a while. I like it because it’s easy to set up a poll, track it, and the take it down. It gives you info on who votes (if they have ever commented, it will tell you who voted on what) and will give you info on where they are.

Dupes for other bloggin platforms: I’m pretty sure that blogger has it’s own poll widget.

Sexy Bookmarks

Generates beautiful social media icons at the end of your posts, they even have cool effects and everything. You can configure how you want to share your stuff (which services to use like bit.ly, twitter username, etc). They are super sleek and look good in all websites.

Dupes for other blogging platforms: Share this works on pretty much every website.

All-in-One Adsense and YPN

This is the genius plugin that managed my Google Ads, I just implemented them today and really wanted them somewhere non intrusive. I’m planning on selling advertising with the WP125 plugin (which manages ads that are 125 px x 125 px), but that might come later on.

Dupes for other blogging platforms: I’ve never used YPN, but Adsense is easy to install in every website.

WordPress Thread Comment

This plugin makes threaded comments a reality. However, and this is a big however, IT IS A PAIN to customize. Seriously, it foes what it wants and the CSS is a nightmare. I configured it once and when it did what I wanted I left it at that. I’m not even sure that it would look good with more than 2 threaded comments but it is in my colours, in my own comments function so I can’t complain. I’ve thought about removing it, but I haven’t because it was so hard to customize….

Dupes for other blogging platforms: None that I know of, but there must be some script out there that does the same thing.

There you ave it, my best 8 WordPress plugins. they are the main ones, I have a bunch installed but I don’t really use them. If you use WordPress, what are your favourite plugins? If you use another platform, which functions do you like the most about it?

Kisses,

Julie.

I think that I should further explain the part about the undesirable people…

As many of you may know, I was raised as a Jehova’s Witness (JW). The JWs are a VERY closed community where (to my experience) everyone is in every body’s business and what not. I’m not a practitioner nor am I baptized by this religion so technically I am not one of them, however, my parents are very involved and it may cause them problems if the wrong people caught wind of this website.

Once I took pictures at a gathering, so I put them up in PhotoBucket (not even Facebook) for everyone to download them and they told my father that I should remove them as they were “causing people to manipulate them and make them into homosexual images”.

I really don’t care what they say about me, after all I rarely publish stuff about the JWs (I only answered publicly a question from my friend and I post the outfits I wear to their meetings sometimes) and my parents know about my blog. It just bothers me that my blog might bring problems to them, seeing that they are really attached to the religion and I’d hate for me to be the cause of that.

But on the other hand… Do I really want that “fear” to dictate what I do with my digital identity? I mean, it’s enough that I already do most (read everything but Facebook) of my online stuff with a pseudonym, now I can’t even market myself because of what a bunch of irrelevant people might say?

It would really hurt me if my parents got some bad things said because of me (we have enough with my sister’s shenanigans which shall not be discussed here), but I really need to start putting myself out there. To be honest, I’m more than ready to get out of the “acceptable” bubble and explore more things. With college ending this December, I think that it’s best if I start doing it myself before I’m thrust with no warning into the real world.

What do you think? I know that I’m going to end up doing what I think it’s best, but it means a lot to me to read your opinion.

ETA: Speaking of putting myself out there, you can now see some of my web design /development work over at Hire Me! I do everything from coding, graphics, adding cool fonts to websites and choosing cool WordPress plugins.

ETA2: I have my own Facebook Fan Page, go like it!! You can also see my portfolio and see me post occasional trilingual gibberish :D.

Kisses,

Julie.

Super quick outfit post (not many pictures) because I need to leave like right this instant with my dad.

I’m wearing:

• Star System “New York” red shirt
• Pull and Bear skinny jeans
• Pull and Bear grey long cardigan
• Capa de Ozono grey gladiator sandals

Maximus is wearing:

• Green scarf/collar
• Red and black leash

My dad took this picture as I was returning from walking Maximus XDD. It’s hilarious.

Gotta run!

Kisses,

Julie.

P.S.: I totally need to improve my posture.

It’s not something that many people particularly know about me (after all it’s not like a conversation topic or anything) but I take obsessive care of my teeth.

It all started when I was little, like 8 maybe, and my teeth were coming out all crooked. I was just starting to lose my baby teeth and growing my real teeth when my mum (an ex orthodontist student) noticed that my two front teeth were crooked, one was pushed all the way to the front and the other was pushed all the way to the back. Her verdict: I had to get braces. So, she took me and my sister (who actually had a twin tooth, yes a twin tooth! I don’t know the name in English but it was two teeth merged into one, super gross) to an orthodontist and we started our treatment.

Yup, I wore those!

The first thing they showed us was to use the different brushes that were needed to clean both our teeth and the braces/other stuff, my mum was very strict about keeping things super clean so I grew up being paranoid about my teeth and how much I brushed them. At first I used a thing called a bite block, which raised my upper teeth so that they wouldn’t get stuck with my bottom teeth and continue to get crooked. That lasted about 6 months, until my teeth were ready for braces. I had two, TWO braces on my front teeth and that was it.

My baby teeth were taking a lot of time to get out, so the orthodontist passed me on to a dentist to take out most of my baby teeth to accelerate the process. I think that I got at least 8 teeth taken out. My normal teeth started growing and another problem came: they were too big for my tiny mouth (seriously, I got huge teeth) so they had to perform surgery on me to prevent unnecessary teeth growing. Yup, I had surgery, they removed more baby teeth, opened my gum and removed the bone that would be my real teeth. I was so used to the sound of the dental stuff that I fell asleep during my surgeries, you can guess that my dentist loved me (plus she always let me spray water at her assistant which was super fun). I used to clean my stitches religiously, they were so clean when I took them out that my dentist claimed that they looked brand new.

2 years after I started my treatment, I finally got my upper teeth in braces (YAY!). It was painful, when they were tightened, pulled and pushed. My teeth were super sensitive but I never missed an appointment, always went to get them tightened no matter how painful it was. I started to see that my teeth were finally straight, no more crooked smiles, no more hiding them when I laughed. Now my bottom teeth were missing so in went the braces. It was all worth it when my wisdom teeth started to come out and they came out straight and didn’t move my other teeth :D.

After 5 years of treatment, I got my braces taken out. My teeth were super straight, there was no doubt about that. It felt weird having flat teeth and I didn’t get used to it right away. Because of the glue and the braces itself (they were metal), my teeth weren’t as white as I expected them to be so I started obsessing even more.

I’m known for taking as long as 15 minutes just brushing my teeth (with super special toothpaste), I floss 3 times a day (actually I brush, floss then brush again). I don’t use mouthwash because I need a non alcohol one and my dad hogs it. I go to the dentist regularly to get my checkups. Last year I had a horrible encounter with a filling that had fallen out and I suffered like you have no idea. I was this close to getting a root canal done.

The only thing that I know that I won’t get done teeth wise, is whitening. I’m a coffee addict and you have to refrain from coffee, tea or any coloured food after you get it done (my sister can’t drink coffee or anything like that and she got her teeth whitened, they look awesome).

My teeth aren’t perfect but they are healthy and that’s what matters the most to me. I totally forgot the point of this post…

Have you ever worn braces?

Kisses,

Julie.

Since I still need an outlet to vent and whatnot, I decided to do so on my Tumblr (which houses my favourite looks from LOOKBOOK.nu as well, just in case you’re interested). I’m not going to say that I’m looking for a direction with this blog (let’s be honest, it’s never had a direction) but I’m going to let the negativity out of it.

I recently changed Firefox for Google Chrome… Firefox and I were fighting again and Safari was being all special when playing True Blood so I went with Chrome and it has treated me well, plus I like all the plugins it has and it doesn’t crash on me every five seconds. I also like that he lets me know when I got new mail. BTW, how cool is that you can receive all your email on GMail? I love it!

I’m also changing my Molsekine for an old Mean planner I had laying around, after reading these two Filofax posts, I fell in love with planners again and decided to take out my old one (it also helps that Filofax doesn’t ship to Mexico, that I’m penniless and that I really don’t want anymore shipping drama), so I’m going to buy re-fills and geek it all out by filling it with everything. I’ve only included my cards and business cards plus planned my month of August and pasted a post-it for my to-do list (I’m out of to-do list paper u_u). When it’s finished I’ll post it :D.

I really loved this poster that Gala blogged on the Cherry on Top this week that I just had to re-post it:

By Ben Crick

You should really check out the accompanying article and the other posters, they are extremely cool looking and so true.

I think that this is a good reminder for EVERYONE, not only those in creative industries. I think that no matter what your work is… you cannot undersell it or give it away for free. If you really love what you do, you can’t just give it away…

Have an awesome week everybody!

Kisses,

Julie.

Ok, enough of my tantrums u_u. I’m getting ready for flooded roads, rain induced traffic and my school flooding so my mum bought me some rain boot (wellies) today.

They are so cool!

Steve Madden rain boots

They were $899 MXN which is about $70 USD. I really like them, they’re nice to look at, comfortable and match most of my wardrobe :D. Now I don’t have to worry if the school gets flooded (I can leave them in the car and go get them as soon as it starts raining or something :P).

Here is a random picture of a salad and one of Maximus

Grapes, lettuce, pear, kiwi, tomatoes and some random dressing

Maximus on my bed

Happy Weekend everyone!

Kisses,

Julie.

I share my beautiful white desk with my dad, and now I’m thinking of taking his office (in the attic/gym/storage/mirrored room/biggest dust collector in the house) and letting him have my desk. I think that he actually enjoys the pink walls (and lack of dust) and making a mess out of my perfect organization ¬¬.

Here’s what it looks like right now:

Excuse the mess!

The left side is mine and the right side is technically my dad’s, but he usually takes up all my space as well when he’s playing Silent Hunter/researching/Facebook-ing or just downloading movies. I keep my wrist brace nearby just in case it starts hurting (not frequently but still), the boxes keep cables for all my gadgets and important things, I also have a printer and a (non-functioning, I’m waiting for the piece to arrive to fix it) scanner. I have few knickknacks because I don’t like clutter. My dad keeps papers, receipts and whatnot here as well and it drives me crazy!

If I could have a dream home office it would be all white, with a Unicorn signature wall, a huge cork board for pictures, a table with the printer and stuff on the other side to keep it out of the way, a desk with drawers and white curtains with super light wooden floors. Pretty much like these pictures:

How cool is that cork board? I want one like that but huge! I’m an organization freak, I know. I also need to change my curtains ASAP, I’m tired of them plus they’re super old and falling apart. Also, the carpet needs to go ASAP! I’m looking for blackboard paint, to get my door all full of chalk :D, my mum is against it but whatever, it’s my bathroom not hers.

Remember how I always emphasize that when I have a business, I’m going to publish the website and have a Facebook fan page and whatnot? Well, I recently partnered up with a designer to create our own little freelance web design & development firm. Go over to Maxwell Studio (in Spanish for now) and “Like” us on Facebook!

Kisses,

Julie.

My parents decided (since my sister is getting married soon and I finish college on December) that they are going to start renovating the house. They started with our backyard (painting the ugly blue walls white), then laundry room (which looks amazing, so amazing that Maximus won’t even soil it), next our platform (with wine colored tiles instead of green and a new BBQ), now they’re onto the living room (taking out carpet and laying floor + new paint). My house is all in shambles and with construction workers here all the time. The noise is unbearable but I can always go to a coffee shop or something.

Taking advantage of my parents’ renovation kick, they asked me to start planning for my room, bathroom and the kitchen. They’re doing the kitchen after the living room to match our new super cool fridge (told you they were on a kick). So, I found this little website called Houzz, which is full of pictures of houses and rooms. The coolest thing about it is that you can compile all of the pictures you like into “Idea Books” for easy browsing and referencing later. Apartment Therapy is a great website too, but I find it really hard to navigate and see what I want to see. The house tours take ages to load and that really turns me off from it.

Here are some pictures from my Idea Books for what I want for my Bathroom:

I found this video via Facebook and thought that I would share it here. It’s one of the best videos I’ve found, it surely shows everything that makes Mexico such and amazing country :D.

Mexico is much more than beaches, Tequila, and all those bad things that the media shows all the time. Mexico is magical, full of colors, full of awesome people, awesome food, full of places to visit, little magic towns in the middle of nowhere… There is so much here.

Here’s a little video I took while on the road to go to my grandma’s house. The land around the little town is really arid so you only see plants like nopales and agaves all around. It’s a place where technology and the city life haven’t touched yet, a good way to disconnect and relax.

Enjoy!

Kisses,

Julie

P.S.: The whole bilignual blogging is too much hassle and not really worth it so I’m going back to my regular English blogging. If you want to practice your Spanish you can always email me at julie [@] juliettemaxwell.com.

Still experimenting with bilingual blogging (it’s harder than it looks), so this time it’s going to be first the pictures and then the explanation.

Sigo experimentando con métodos de bloggear en dos idiomas (es muy difícil, realmente lo subestimé), esta vez van primero las pics y luego el post.

I wore this to pick up a mini Jabulani that I won in Twitter from Telcel. This is my “slob” outfit… I’m mad that I wore this because they took a picture of me with the ball u_u. That shall teach me to dress up a bit more before leaving the house.

Me puse esto para ir a recoger un balón que me gané por Twitter de parte de Telcel. Este es mi outfit de “me dio flojera vestirme”, estoy enojada porque me tomaron una foto con el balón y todo y yo en estas fachas u_u. Eso me enseñará a vestirme como gente decente antes de salir de mi casa.

My “don” necklace

H&M Lace up booties

I haven’t taken off my “don” Necklace since Arely gave it to me. I wore the booties because when I stepped out of my house it was chilly but in true Mexican summer fashion, one minute is chilly and kinda rainy and the next is just endless sunshine. I love the lace up detail on the back of them.

No me he quitado mi collar de “don” desde que Arely me lo dio :D. Me puse mis botas porque cuando salí de mi casa parecía que iba a llover y hacía frío, pero como siempre en México, un minuto parece que se te viene el cielo encima y al siguiente hace sol y un calor horrible! Además me gusta el detalle de atrás estilo corset.

My polka dot stockings have this huge rip, I don’t mind wearing them like this since the rip doesn’t show when I walk. Still I need another pair XDDD.

Mis medias de puntitos tienen una corrida enooorme, hasta las traté de coser pero no más no. Lo bueno es que no se nota cuando camino así que me vale. Aunque… si me gustaría tener otras.

For my make up I used my MAC orange lipstick (the label is all scratched and I can’t read it), my new liquid eyeliner and light blush. For my nails I wore this Bissu silver/gray nail polish. I love gray nail polish, it’s edgy but neutral enough for business wear.

Para mi maquillaje use mi labial naranja de MAC, es un Viva Glam pero no sé cual porque la etiqueta ya está toda deshecha, mi delineador líquido nuevo y rubor clarito de Bobbi Brown. Para mis uñas, use esté barniz gris/plateado de Bissu. Me gustan los barnices grises porque son neutrales pero no aburridos.

Cardigan: Pull and Bear
T-shirt: from Spain no label
Shorts: H&M
Polka dot tights
Booties: H&M

Kisses,

Julie.