So it is September and this is my favorite time of the year! I always feel a crackle in the air because the holidays are approaching and the weather finally starts to cool a bit (still 100+ in California right now so fingers crossed), we are settling in to sports and dance and cheer and everyone is back on a routine.
So I am thrilled to see September roll on through!
We just got back from a trip to Florida to visit Universal Studios, Legoland, Wet n Wild and Sea World and it was so much fun! Hot as all heck but still very fun and a great way to cap off summer.
Are you on Periscope? I thought it sounded dumb at first and I am already overwhelmed keeping up with social media as it is (Pinterest, Facebook, Instagram) and to add something else? No thanks.
But I decided to give Periscope a try on our Florida trip and now I just love it! So fun! I scoped the entire Florida trip from the Hogwarts castle at Universal to the hotel room at Legoland. If you aren’t on Periscope, you might consider giving it a shot! Basically it is an app for your phone and you can follow people and they pop on very informally- like a FaceTime or Skype chat with a friend- and just chat away about whatever. Money tips, inspirational/motivation tips, travel, fitness, crafts and so much more.
So when people you follow go live scoping, your phone will notify you with a little whistle. You can choose to watch live and if you do, you just tap the screen of your phone and little clouds of hearts appear. That tells the person doing the scope that you are liking what they say, agreeing or just supporting them. It is kind of fun to watch the hearts fly 🙂 Then if you are one of the first 500 people to join the scope, you can comment and the person speaking sees your comment in real time. So it is a really fun way to interact and chat!
The downsides to periscope that I have found so far- if you can’t watch the live broadcast, you only have 24 hours to catch the replay. Then the scope vanishes into thin air. The other downside is that if you don’t follow people that are actively scoping, you won’t ever become active on the app. I had the app on my phone for like a month and never saw anything. I followed about 20 people. Now though, I started following more people and get little whistles a few times a day from the app telling me someone is on.
Just in the last few days I have seen scopes on crafting, saving money, prepping meals in advance, Target was scoping from New York fashion week, behind the scenes at Oh Joy’s studio and even Michael’s stores jumped on to scope this cool craft fair they have this weekend.
I really like this platform so I have done two scopes so far on menu planning hacks and one with how I am organizing all the paperwork from school this year. I will be doing one soon with info about taking classes at Joann’s craft stores.
So anyhoo- even if you have zero interest in the platform, you might consider signing up and making sure your name is locked in for you just in case. My main account is frugaladventure but I also registered a second account under Charlene Haugsven that is inactive but at least I know that no turkey can register as me and then say terrible things in scopes or something in the future 🙂 You never know.
You just want to search for Periscope in the app store and hopefully you will come find me- FrugalAdventure.
Here is a quick screen grab of the Michael’s one- it is a really rough video of an event they are at but you can see the real time comments coming in and the hearts are so fun.
The other thing I am super digging right now is the little makers classes at Joann’s. As I mentioned, I am going to do a periscope to tell you exactly how they work and the different classes offered, the fees, how to save 50% off your class fee and so on very soon. But in short, we have had so much fun doing these classes! We have done a few now from baking to crafting and just did a sewing class.
I have been wanting to learn to sew for literally 7 years now and I finally dusted off my sewing machine (along with my 8 year old) and we sewed two perfect pillowcases. You know when you have that one thing that you have been procrastinating on forever? This is my thing. For 7 years that sewing machine has been giving me the evil eye from the garage shelf and now I finally learned how to use the darn thing. And my 8 year old immediately came home and made a bag to hold our sewing supplies and sewed a sleeping bag for her little doll. All. by. herself. (Note: Joann’s has no idea who I am and they have not paid me anything or given me anything for free. I just really think these classes are a great value.)
So that’s about it for the moment. Are you excited for fall? Anything new and fun you have stumbled across recently that you love
ednelle says
Hi Charlene,
Hope you guys had a blast in Florida! I would love to see you posts some pictures and/or tips on the parks that your family visited. We’re thinking about doing visiting Universal Studios this Spring, my 10-yr old has been dying to experience the Harry Potter park. We were going to go for a few days last Spring prior to our Disney cruise but weather forecast showed thunderstorm, turned out it did storm but not ’til late at night (my son was devastated!). Anyways, I figure there must be some tips on how to make the most of our Universal trip. Thanks for all your hard work.
Charlene says
Hi Ednelle!
Yes I totally plan to do some posts 🙂 if you search Universal on the blog you will find the post from last year with lots of info.
This year there was a hurricane that was supposed to run through Florida. We got super lucky it didn’t actually come through and the flight from CA to FL was half empty and then Legoland was apparently the quietest it has ever been. A few days later Universal was packed but we were lucky to be stupid enough to ignore the weather reports.