#aaliving

So the proposal is over, the date has been set and you’ll soon be (or already are) running around like a headless chicken searching for the perfect outfit. Well, while you’re at it, here are the 4 trousseau essentials I think every new bride should invest in for her new home.

1. 1000 thread count satin bedsheets and duvet covers. The luxurious cotton won’t let you get out of bed (which isn’t necessarily a bad thing!) ;-)

2.  A glamorous yet practical everyday bedspread option – I mention the word ‘practical’ because everyone is coaxed into buying bulky silk bedspreads which they immediately regret once they actually move in and start using the room. Instead, opting for something equally lux like microfiber will means you can home wash without the dry cleaning hassle every couple of weeks. And I promise you wont be compromising.

3.  A full length mirror – sometimes boys think a 10 inch mirror cuts it…so you’ll need to step in!

4. Turkish Towel Bales. Invest in coordinated bath towels, hand towels and face towels. I’m also a sucker for His & Hers towel sets with your new initials embroidered / monogrammed on there!

Hope it helps! Happy shopping!

The best kind of throwbacks - i.e - wedding photos :-) :-)

1000 thread count sheets at AA Living

One of the most requested posts so far is how to reach that coveted 10,000 followers mark on Instagram and eventually make money off your blog / social media handle.

Sigh. You have to give your soul to the devil – there’s no other way around it haha.

In this post ill try and help you with small subtle things that really worked for me and the @aa.living brand on instagram. In 2 years we reached 30,000 followers, which is a good number to have I suppose.

Get your foundation right to begin with! Income generation will follow soon after! Read on -

1)    Customer / follower engagement is everything. If you don’t have people engaging with your posts - liking, commenting and eventually enquiring about you / your product…you’re not doing something right even if your ‘follower count’ is increasing

2)    Post regularly. 3-5 posts typically in a day. But that said, posting back-to-back posts would make you lose followers instead of gaining them.

3)    Space out your posts in an interval of 3-5 hours

4)    Do weekends work better to get more customer engagement? Or perhaps early mornings / evenings when people are commuting back from work. Figure out your target audience and cash in on the timings that are working for you.

5)    Fill out your bio with all the right information: This includes your contact information, what you post about and where you’re from. Add in enough so you’re easily findable by the right kind of followers. 

6)    You may have heard that your Instagram feed needs to have a certain theme to it: food, fashion, home, travel, etc. That doesn’t sound very fun though, does it? Exactly. Settle on a common aesthetic that weaves through all of your photos and that’s enough.

7)    Edit your photos similarly. To help you curate Instagram and have your feed flow naturally, you should have a consistent approach to editing your photos. This doesn’t mean you have to choose one filter and one filter only, but limiting yourself to a few will help you stick to your chosen aesthetic.  

8)    Focus on Your Feed. Take a step back and look at your Instagram feed as a whole: how do all of your photos fit together? Sometimes a good-looking first impression can be the difference between someone following you or not in those couple of seconds.

9)    Use high-resolution images only. For the love of god!

10) Sporadically promote yourself / limit your sponsored posts per day – too many too soon and you’ll immediately annoy your followers.

Do you have any suggestions or perhaps even apps you use to track customer engagement? Do share!

Let me start of by saying gender is a social construct. Being a girl does not make you more partial to frills and lace, and being a boy doesn't make you more partial to dark colors and chrome finishes. This socialized nonsense has been scientifically debunked many times, but marketing (including room décor) still rests on its foundation. Furthermore, these stereotypes are damaging - they restrict any child whose interests do not fit their assigned gender role. Stop. Please. Just decorate with things that have an aesthetic you like.

Furthermore, I want to touch upon a subject that really concerns me at the moment. I wasn’t one of those mums who loaded her cupboard with pink, clips and dolls the minute I had a daughter. Yet despite that I find I have a daughter is entangled in the pink princess culture.

Now, I for one have legitimate concerns about its effects. The princess culture focuses so strongly on physical appearance that it teaches girls that how they look is incredibly important. I’m sure you can relate to the daily battle of our little girls insisting on wearing party dresses on the plainest of days just to seek praise.

This upsets most of us who know that it’s what’s inside that counts, and who want their daughters’ sense of self-worth to come from within. I recently asked my 3-year-old daughter “what happens when you have a good heart?” to which she proudly replied, “you get married” (in the context of Cinderella always being kind and gentle, which eventually resulted in her being married to a prince). I was stunned

Also, as far as storylines go, the princess script is limiting. Brave and Frozen are definitely a step forward towards a new age liberating princess, but if you ask me Cinderella and Sleeping Beauty still reign supreme. And although princesses on screen have indeed become more dynamic in our progressively feminist world, all their toys still have a very glamorous undertone. Even strong princess characters like Merida eventually get reduced down to sparkly fashion objects in ways that completely undercut the empowering messages from their films.

Long story short, raise your kids to be progressive and convention defying. Try and stay away from being a pink or blue parent! It’ll feel good in the long run…a true parenting win and be sure to let me know how you did it ;-) 

Ways to add a little Spring to your home (yaay!) 

· Bring in something alive — Flowers are great. A plant is perfect. Anything fresh and alive will get your mind in springtime mode.

· Capture the scents of the season, with fragranced candles or linen spray that smell light and floral.

· Buy a few pastel accessories. It doesn't have to be a big splurge, but even a new framed print, patterned cushion, candle stands, trays or a vase.

· My favorite colors for the season would be salmon pink, duck egg blue, lemon yellow and a light teal.

· Water filled glass vases.

· Add fresh scents like citrus to your laundry. Softeners are a great buy.

· Lighten up your linens — its all about soft, pastel or white mercerized cotton sheets

· Wash the windows —let in all that gorgeous springtime light come in!

· Consider a switch to sheers instead of heavy drapes. Changing your curtain panels to something light, bright or airy is an easy and inexpensive way to give your entire room a mini spring makeover.

Dress - Madison

The bedroom should be a retreat where you can rest your body and mind (ignore if you have an over active toddler with verbal diarrhea).

Creating a soft, luxe, romantic look is one of those classics that is pleasing to the eye and never goes out of style.

Here are a few pointers on how to achieve it –

·      Use soft pinks and grey hues to give it a softness that’s not overly feminine.

·      Balance out the feminine with rustic and more masculine-like wood textures

·      Art is so important – Prints of your favorite impressionists (Monet always being my first choice); or even a gallery of empty white frames on the wall

·      Fresh flowers add an element of life and romance to the home.

·      Add weathered / matt silver and gold touches in several places. Aged patina also works great.

·      Add mirrored detailing

·      Buy bed linen that looks like it belongs in a hotel. It doesn’t have to be expensive; it just has to look and feel luxurious. A fluffy / thick comforter will look the part.

·      Think touches of lace, silk flowers (like peonies), perfume bottles and candles

·      Splurge on Lighting - lighting has a profound impact on the psychological effect of the interior. Low wattage bulbs and dimmers are a must have to create an intimate ambiance.

·      Ensure your curtains are taller and longer so there is some fabric puddling on the floor.

·      Feature furniture with curves and soft shapes: Curves represent sensuality and softness.

·      A bed canopy will instantly transform your space.

Gown - Madison