#do i trust Google? are all oats the same | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

comfyswitcherblanketfort · 4 years

Text

Horse info 101

A horse girl’s guide to the basics for fic writing with an important and lively horse involved:

This got kinda long I’m kinda sorry but not at all lol

There's three basic gaits (speeds with different patterns of hoof-fall/leg movements

Walking is the slowest and is a four beat gait, meaning each foot hits the ground at a different time. Usually the same pace as a walking human when the horse is calm. Some breeds can walk HELLA fast though. Most horses will fill the same spot/hole where their front hoof was with their back hoof on the same side. If they overstep they clip their fetlock (joint lookin bit above the hoof) or pastern (bit between the hoof and fetlock) and can injure themselves.

Now trotting. The middle gait, a person can jog next to a trot at a comfortable pace but if you push them a little horses can trot faster than your average HS track endurance athlete. Once again some breeds can trot HELLA fast. This is a two beat gait in that two diagonally opposite legs are moving in unison. In some english saddles (I’ll get into that later if we have class time) it’s easier to post while the horse is trotting rather than sit for the gait. That just means you stand up in the irons (stirrups on an english saddle, we’ll also cover that later) at the same time that one of the front legs moves forward.

Also, see how the trotting horse’s head looks? That’s how they travel when they’re relaxed and attentive. The tucked head thing you see Roach doing is because there’s tension on the reigns and Henry learned to ride for an english seat not a western pleasure seat (might get into those but they’re really not important)

Time for the Canter/Lope. This is a three beat gait so that means two legs are moving in unison and the other two are not. Horses canter/lope fast. This is the go-time gait. Some performance/dressage horses are trained to canter extremely slow but if we’re talking transportation trained horses they’re not gonna be that kind of slow. Your average human is not gonna be able to keep up with this for long if at all. This varies in speed too. There's a rather casual canter seen in the gif directly below, then below that is the balls to the wall canter/lope that most horse people just refer to as a run. That’s as fast as they can go.

Basic tack names

Halter + Lead/Lead Rope - these can be made of rope, leather, nylon (more modern) but the halter is generally used for leading and tying.

Bridle - this is the one that you use while you ride, it holds the bit in their mouth. There’s millions of different types of bridles but they’re usually made out of leather even now. sometimes you get rope/nylon ones but I don’t trust them.

Reins - connect to the bit and you use them to steer and control speed. Horses trained in western or one handed riding will ‘neck rein’ which means if you move your hand to the right and the left rein brushes their neck they will move to the right.

Bit - the metal piece in the horses mouth. most english riding bits are broken (joint in the middle) and most western ones are solid. there’s a gap behind the horse’s front teeth and that’s where the metal sits. Some horses have smaller mouths than others and do better with solid bits because the ‘broken’ ones will hit the top of their mouth and hurt. There’s also things called ‘shanks’ on some bits which are just longer pieces of metal that attach to the sides of the pieces in their mouth and point downward. This gives the rider more leverage and makes any tug on the reins stronger. (google “Horse bit shank” if this doesn’t make sense)

Saddle - you sit in it. simple right? wrong. There’s two main types of saddles, Western - with the horn like you see in the running gif, and English- the loping gif without the horn. The saddles used in the Witcher look like the pre-english saddle versions but the basic parts you need to know are the same. The part where you ass goes? that’s the seat. the part right in front of your crotch? That’s the pomel. that’s your ‘oh shit handle’ if anything goes screwy (other than the mane). The part that sticks up and keeps your ass in place? That’s the cantle. I like western saddles SO MUCH MORE but i also grew up mainly riding western so im biased.

Stirrups/Irons - stirrups and irons are where your feet go. In western saddles they’re called stirrups and they’ve got wider decorative leather flaps (called fenders, also originally added to protect trousers/legs from the horse sweat and the buckles of the cinch) and on english saddles they’re called irons because they are usually made of iron and rather slim. Geralt’s irons look pretty similar to modern ones, slim leather straps, minimal iron (or steel or any other strong metal really). Traditional english riders have knee high boots like you see in regency costumes which removes the need for the fenders like on western saddles.

Cinch/girth - this is what keeps the saddles on. You take a strap and attach it to one side of the saddle, run it under the belly right behind their front legs and attach it to the other side. Its usually made of a strong fabric with wool or some kind of softer lining for western riding. English riding uses a leather one most of the time though this horse girl hates them because they’re harder to cinch up. English saddles use buckles while Western saddles use another leather strap to run through the chinch/girth buckle and you either tie it off or use it like a belt.

Chest strap - this keeps the saddle from sliding backwards. It’s attached to both sides of the saddle by buckles and between the front legs its attached to the cinch/girth. this is pretty universal but not always used. Geralt uses one though.

Saddle pad - goes under the saddle to protect the baby’s back and whithers (spot where the neck meets the back and the mane ends)

Tacking up and untacking takes time. This is usually 5-10 minutes when done at a leisure pace and done right.

Basic grooming

Brush down before tacking up - you don’t want stuff chaffing the pony while you ride

brush after untacking- helps clear skin of irritants and feels nice

Shedding scraper/curry comb to get rid of shedding hair - if you want a pic of these just google them I think I’m close to the pic limit for my post.

HOOF PICK - keep the baby's feet clean and clear if rocks so they don't bruise but also so nothing get infected

Yes, plz brush their mane it gets MATTED - a hairbrush works but a wide tooth comb is best

Horses roll to itch their backs and clean off, sounds counterintuitive with the dirt but it works

Shaving a little spot for the bridle to sit is pretty modern but it's easier for everyone involved

Horse Colors- guys roach is not brown she’s a chestnut color

The only thing I have to add to this is that the “Leopard” one is called “appaloosa” in the US at least, and “Pinto” is also reffered to as “Paint” and there’s all sorts of different patterns that you can see. also i want a buckskin so bad. yes i was obsessed with Spirit as a child why do you ask?

Travel care of your babies

Horses CAN and have subsisted off roadside grasses and grazing at night BUT it's good for them to get a lil something extra ESPECIALLY if you’re keeping them in a stall at night where they can’t graze.

Hay and grains like cracked wheat, oats, barley and the like are commonly found in horse feed. Also a lil drizzle of molasses is chock full of calories and all my horses LOVE the taste.

also while we’re talking food: some horses cant keep all the juice/bits in their mouth when they eat apples (we fondly call it making applesauce) or other treats/veg. Yes it gets all over your hand, yeah its kinda gross, but there’s worse things.

Shoes. Babe's need horse shoes. Especially if they're walking over rocks and roads.

Throwing a shoe (when it comes off on accident) is painful sometimes and if left un-dealt with can affect their joints and spine. Imagine walking around in one heeled shoe and one athletic shoe all day. Ow.

On that note though, on lighter travel seasons it's nice to give their hooves a break from shoes (also cheaper)

Horse moods:

horse mood ear chart here: I cant add much tbh

If a horse is comfortable/happy/relaxed they will ‘chew’ on nothing. Just kina a little lip smack type deal. My horse’s bottom lip would hang a couple centimeters below his top one when he was relaxed and I would put my chapstick in it while I fussed with other things.

When a horse is uncomfrotable/scared/tense their lips get sealed tight. I call it ‘fish butt lips’ bc they’re watertight and NOTHING is getting in there.

Stamping hooves can be a few things. Antsy and ready to roll, nervous, deadass scared, or playful/excited.

A full whinny is communication - saying hi, warning, scared, etc.

the really soft whinny is called a nicker and its my favorite sound okay? that’s little soft communication and its usually reserved for times when they’re comfortable.

When they’re really relaxed they’ll cock one of their back legs kinda how we shift our weight to one hip.

general fun facts:

Some horses fake limp when they don’t want to work bc they are lazy and smart and realize their person will get off and check them out and maybe even give them a rest.

You do a preliminary leg injury test by running your hands slowly over their legs and checking for hot spots - inflammation caused by injury is warm

Basic horse saftey is never stand directly in front of the horse if theres a possibility of spooking, if you’re gonna walk behind them walk out of reach of their hooves or right up against that ass. If they cant get a good wind up it wont do as much damage (on that note though I rode/trained horses for 18 years and was only kicked once by a foal).

It’s kinda common sense not to walk/sidestep between your horses legs and under their belly but we do it all the time bc its a trust thing? adrenaline? its fun?

laying on your horse’s back sans saddle, and facing their butt is so nice okay, that ass is soft and cushy and perfect for a nap. I miss laying on my horses while they ate like this every damn day.

Horses can sense your moods. Not unlike the whole ‘witchers smelling you’ thing. They can feel a difference in the tension on the reins and in your posture when you’re tense or relaxed.

Some horses will take care of their riders, some are absolute shits and push the limits for funsies. Some horses will only behave for people they’re used to too. Some horses have trauma from being mistreated and will have triggers kinda like people do. We had a horse who would freak the fuck out if anyone walked around with a red had but as soon as you took it off she was the most level headed horse we had.

A good portion of horses (Who aren’t scared of children) will behave better with kiddos or novice riders because they feel they’re nervous.

If they hurt while they’re moving they usually limp but sometimes they’ll buck. It’s their defense mechanism.

Horses can’t sleep for too long laying down because their body weight will collapse their lungs. Most horses sleep standing up.

They can sit like a dog and it’s hella cute.

Stung by bees? Most horses will take off at a dead sprint bucking and hopping unless you’ve done a lot of trust work/training with them

They also run and jump and buck and rear to play.

If theres two horses in a pasture together one will chew at the other’s whithers (or anywhere else) to ask them to scratch them the same way. its very cute and they sometimes try this with people.

horses hug. I cry.

the whole deal with the rider/horse relationship is it’s a mutual trust you’re building. They let you sit on their back and do weird shit and you trust them not to throw you.

Thank you for coming to class today! If there’s any questions feel free to message me! I’m not kidding I wanna answer your questions and I miss my horses so this is fun for me.

@elliestormfound here it is boo! lol

#the witcher #fan fic #writing tools #horse girl geralt #horse girl solidarity #this got out of hand but what can i say

557 notes · View notes

self-excellence · 6 years

Text

FIX YOUR SLEEPING SCHEDULE (1-2 months)

Try to wake up earlier every day. Like 5 - 10 min earlier than the day before. Until you wake up any time before 8am or so…

If you struggle with waking up & snooze button is your bff:

Put your alarm clock as far away from the bed as possible.

Drink a glass of water right after you wake up.

Pour another glass of water on yourself right after you wake up.

Prepare some coffee the night before (try the cold brew method), leave it by your bedside, drink it after you wake up. Alternatively, buy some caffeine pills and take one right after waking up with a big glass of water.

Have your blinds/curtains open the night before, so that it’s bright after you wake up.

Try to go to bed 5-10 min earlier than the night before.

Track how many hours of sleep you’re getting. Aim to get at least 7h per day or 49h per week.

Increase your sleeping hours incrementally. Aim to get at least 1h of sleep more than the previous week. For example, if this week you slept for 41hrs, aim to get an extra hour of sleep next week, so it’s 42h. Once you get enough hours of sleep and wake up early-ish:

Try to keep your sleeping schedule consistent. It is really important to go to bed and wake up at the same time every day. Even if it’s weekend. Or even if that means getting less than 7hrs of sleep that day. I’d say waking up at the same time everyday is the most important step, which will help you the most with fixing your sleeping schedule.

START EATING HEALTHY (1-2 months)

This step really depends from person to person, but firstly I suggest you take some blood tests to see if you have any deficiencies, etc. Especially, if you struggle with cravings.

Try intermittent fasting, if you struggle with binge eating or overeating. As it will help you to learn to listen to your body better: when it’s hungry, when it’s full, etc. It’s really simple, there are many methods of Intermittent fasting, but I’d suggest 16/8 for the beginners. (Google it for more info)

DRINK ALL THE WATER. Again, if you’re not drinking enough water, try to level up your water game incrementally. Download some water tracking app on your phone to help you. Drinking water will make you more energetic, increase your metabolism, and decrease you appetite (among many more benefits). If you really struggle with meeting your water intake:

Reward yourself when you meet your daily/weekly goals.

Drink through the straw - idk why, but you are going to drink much more if you use a straw. Trust me.

Get a nice water bottle.

Flavour your water with fruits etc.

Check this video for more tips

Track what you eating. I would really suggest tracking your meals for around a month. Because, most of the time people have no idea that what they’re eating is unhealthy. Again, download an app to your phone for that.

Make your own meals once in a while. Not only this will save you money, but it’ll help you to see what’s really going into your body. Start by doing that once a week and build it up depending how much time and energy you have.

Eat less meat and more veggies/fruits. Go to your local market and buy some veggies/fruits, you have never tried before. I’m sure you’ll find your new favs. Eat/buy less meat. Not only it’s good for the environment, but it is good for you, too. Get a veggie burger instead of the beef one, etc.

Cut dairy. Find your new favourite milk substitute. Advice: Oat milk is really good with the tea and oatmeal/porridge; hazelnut milk is amazing on it’s own; cashew milk goes well with cereals.

Learn more about nutrition in general. It will help you to make better food choices and it will make eating healthy much easier in general, because once you understand all the chemistry behind the food and what it does to your body, you kinda don’t want to make yourself feel worse. Here are some free resources: - Human nutrition course from Alison.com - Crash course Metabolism&Nutrition: Part 1 and Part 2 - The Health Nerd’s YouTube Playlist about nutrition - What I’ve Learnt YouTube Playlist - Human nutrition course from Alison.com - Crash course Metabolism&Nutrition: Part 1 and Part 2 - The Health Nerd’s YouTube Playlist about nutrition

GET PHYSICALLY FIT (2-6 months)

Define your goals. Do you want to lose weight, do you want to get stronger, gain weight, be able to climb the stairs without losing your breath, run 5k?

Remember - you’re half-way through. Being physically fit has a lot to do with what you put into your body. So, if you fulfilled the previous step of eating healthy - you are halfway through!

Make a plan. A Reasonable plan. Be honest with yourself. Alternatively, there are many already-made plans if you’re feeling lazy. Like, Couch to 5k for running, Beginners 30-day exercise guide, 30 days of yoga, etc.

Start small. Like, 5 min exercise in the morning. Or doing 10 sit ups per day. Don’t do anything overwhelming, like running 5k everyday if you haven’t run for the past 5 years.

Make sure that you kinda like what you’re doing. If you absolutely hate running - don’t do it. Hate doing sit ups in the morning? Try some yoga instead.

Explore until you find what you like. You don’t have to go to gym to get fit, especially if you hate it. Find a type of exercise, which you actually like. Maybe it’s dancing or hiking, taking your dog for a walk. Sign up for several trial lessons of various sport clubs. Ditch ‘em if you have them until you find something that you love. Stick with that.

Do the small changes in your everyday life. Stairs>Escalator, Walk>Drive, Do some squats while brushing your teeth, switch from regular desk to standing desk, etc… Find ways to incorporate being active into your everyday life

Track your effort instead of your progress. You cannot really control your progress that much (especially if your goal was to lose weight). However, you can always control your effort. So track it instead. This will leave you more motivated. As you will be able to see that you can do more and more everyday. Whereas, if you tracked your progress, you may not always get the result you hoped for, which might demotivate you and make you upset, wanting to quit.

BEAT DEPRESSION

Do the previous 3 steps and you’re halfway through as mental health depends a lot on the physical health.

See a therapist/doctor. Depression is an illness requiring medical treatment. So, get it. Remember: there is absolutely no fucking shame in having a mental illness.

Get some extra support. Talk to your friends or family. Or maybe someone on the internet.

Write it out. If you don’t want to talk - write down your thoughts. It can be just as helpful. It’ll help you to understand yourself better, see problems in your thinking, etc. Buy a cheap notebook (or expensive one, up to you) and start a journal. Try being consistent by writing every morning or evening or both, but DO NOT BLAME YOURSELF if you miss some entries. Read through your past entries. Analyse them. Extract the lessons.

Distract yourself from yourself. Get someone/something to take care of, so that you can, for a moment, stop thinking about yourself. E.g, get a plant, or a dog, or a fish and focus on keeping them alive and well.

Self-care day. Dedicate at least one day per week for self-care. Take yourself out to a museum or some fancy cafe, do some stuff you like, whatever your hobbies are, do some physical self care: bath, face mask, manicure, etc., listen to some nice music, watch a film…..

STOP PROCRASTINATION

Celebrate your victories instead of mourning over your loses. So the only thing you’ve done today was write one sentence for your 20 page essay? Amazing! Buy yourself a candy for that!! I mean, you could’ve done nothing, but you didn’t - you wrote that one sentence and that’s worth celebrating. Redefine the success - doing something is a hundred million times better than doing nothing.

Do it for only 2 minutes. If there’s an important thing you’ve been putting off for a while, tell yourself that you will only spend 2 minutes on doing it. If after 2 minutes you don’t want to do it anymore, great, stop it. However, after 2min. you actually might want to do more. No pressure either way.

Track your productivity. Track how much time you’ve been productive that day. Try to increase that time by a little bit every day.

Always forgive yourself. So, it’s been a week and you’ve done nothing? Don’t sweat it. Let it go. Blaming yourself will bring you absolutely nothing. Nothing good will come out of your negativity on yourself. So stop it. Forgive yourself and start again. And again, if you need to. Never stop trying. Always pick yourself after you fall. Beating procrastination and increasing your discipline is a skill. And all skills can be build on. There is nothing in you stopping you from changing. Remember that.

LEARN HOW TO DO TAXES (1h - 1 day)

Go to google.com.

Type in: “How to do taxes *the name of the country you’re living in*”

Read the results.

Alternatively, if you like socialising, ask some adults, whom you know, about it. Trust me, older people love teaching us youngsters. Learn all the lessons you can from them.

GET MENTALLY STRONG ENOUGH TO MAKE PHONE CALLS

Remember that just as with beating procrastination, making phone calls is a skill. And, again, skills can be learnt.

Get a new SIM card.

Top it up.

Dial some random numbers and pretend to be a salesman, selling whatever you like.. E.g., trying to sell broadband, cable tv, trying to get people to donate for some charity… Or whatever really… Me and some friends used to pretend we’re selling kittens or wood logs. Alternatively, you can pretend that you dialed a wrong person and talk about whatever, e.g. “Hey, Jess!! You wont believe what I saw today!! *start telling a made-up story*…”

If you get uncomfortable - just drop the call. No consequences whatsoever.

Repeat until you build up your game and your phone-call anxiety starts to diminish.

SLAY THOSE BITCHES Congratulations, now you’re ready to take over the world! Got get ‘em!!

(before reblogging, check the updated version of this post here)

#advice #life #lifestyle #quotes #tips #learning #masterpost #studyspo #inspiration #motivation #goals #fitblr #fitness #mental health #22inspo #22motivation #original #setheverman #pathofthestrong

50K notes · View notes

slothgiirl · 5 years

Text

Shadowplay (alex turner x reader)

Ottoman's was the only coffee shop you were willing to splurge on.

Their coffee a delight even without all the milk and sugar you could add when you needed a kick to keep up. There had been a rush of orders this week and even after waking up past noon today you still felt tired.

As per usual, there was a line. People sitting around, working on their laptops. An old man reading the papers. A woman in a sleek suit typing quickly on her phone as she waited for her order.

The bells chimed and you couldn't help but glance over at the man who walked in. Clad in black fitted jeans, a leather jacket despite the turn in weather over a crisp white shirt and shiny leather boots. Hair gelled back with what looked like a whole tub of gel.

With a confident swagger he took his place in line behind you. He was undeniably attractive. But you were more interested in getting your cuppa and getting all your errands done for the day than anything else.

The next few people in line went up. You were probably going to go for your usual. With just a splash of oat milk.

Two people made a bee line for the man behind you. An incredibly beautiful woman, the type that become influencers on instagram, who got free drinks at bars. She had a golden glow and her hand in the man next to her.

"Al," she greets him, hugging him with ease. She's loud and you can't help but overhear them as you scroll through the sales page on net a porter. "It's so good to see you."

"Arielle," the man behind you greets stiffly, not leaning into the hug at all. You can't see his eyes from behind his aviators. "Didn't 'spect to see you here."

"Just a weekend trip really," she tells him, "the wedding plannings been crazy."

"Aaah, yes. The wedding. Congrats 'bout that again."

Arielle doesn't seem to sense any of his discomfort, too caught up in her own happiness. Probably an ex boyfriend then.

You're not even trying to pretend not to listen anymore, their drama better than anything on the telly since downtown abbey ended.

The man at the til calls up, "next in line."

You're about to go up when the man behind you throws an arm around your neck, pulling you into his side and smiling down at you as he tells Arielle, "gonna order. Wait for us?"

Arielle smiles at you warmly, "of course Al just don't take to long."

And before you can say anything he's pulling you along forward to order. "I'll 'ave a earl grey creme and whatever the lady wants." His loose hold is the only reason I don't move away instantly.

Al turns to you, a devilishly confident smile on his lips, the type people promising a good time and more trouble than their worth give, as he asks, "please go along with it for a couple of minutes?"

Not wanting to bother the man at the register by taking forever you add, "and a cafe au lait with oat milk." Before looking back at Al as he finally lets go and slides his card, "and what's in it for me?"

He chuckles, "the coffee."

"Least you could do."

"Listening in on people's conversations is very rude love," Al says, wagging his finger playfully.

You snort. "Maybe you shouldn't have those conversations in public if you don't want people to overhear."

"It's just a couple of minutes love." His deep voice smooth as you both move to wait for your order.

"All right," you nod, letting yourself be charmed by him.

"I'm Alex."

You introduce yourself as well, finding it funny that everything seems to be going in the wrong order with you both.

"So," Arielle asks, joining you both along with her fiancé. "Who's this Al?" She's light and genuine and you think it would be all to easy to be friends with her.

"My girlfriend," Alex replies back casually, as if remarking on the weather. You roll your eyes at him. He's a terrible actor or maybe he's just that much of an arse.

"That enthusiasm," you tease, putting your arm through his, "it's too much."

Alex shakes his head, smiling.

"Are you two going to make it too my wedding," Arielle asks, "it's in Palm springs. Just a few hours from yours."

So he doesn't live in the city despite his accent and we won't ever have to talk about this again. It's a relief. Lets you ease up from whatever this was. It said something about Alex, despite his confident demeanor that he didn't want to be alone while his ex got married.

"We shall see," he says noncommintantly.

"Got to get going," she adds, "hope we can get lunch before I go back to LA or when we're in LA."

Alex looks like he would rather die than do either one of those things, so you answer for him. "Love too but maybe this weekends a little short notice."

"Oh okay." She looks genuinely disappointed. They both leave and the barista calls your order out. Alex grabs them both.

"Thank you love. Really saved my arse."

"It would've been easier just to tell the truth," you note. Lies got all tangled up quickly.

He shrugs, "a lot less fun though." Alex finally takes off his aviators. It's frankly unfair. His wide brown eyes only adding to his already well formed features. A softness to them that ruins the idea that he's a debonair devil the way he fronts.

"What are you going to do when she asks?"

"Lie."

"So she's your," You raise a brow.

"Ex. She wanted to get married and I-," he fiddled with the ring around his finger, a silver garish thing that he pulls off through sheer confidence, "I didn't want to."

"To marry her or get married at all?""

Her. . .both?" He pouts, looking into your eyes.

"And what? You don't want to look like the loser in the breakup or are you actually regretting not marrying her."

Alex runs a hand through his hair, ruinning the carefully done style. "No. I don't regret breaking up with her. I just. . .I guess I'm feeling particularly old today," he jokes.

You shake your head. "Honestly I've been feeling old since I finished school."

"So what about you love? Any boyfriends that I should worry about?"

Laughing, you explain, "not but it's me you should be worried about. Did years of krav maga."

"Really," Alex says, looking your small form over. You might have a full figure, but you also have lots of toned muscle.

"Yeah. My dad was very into martial arts. Boxing was more his thing though. What about you Alex? Arielle said you lived in LA?"

Alex takes his time to answer, dipping from his drink. Looking thoughtfully around before replying. "I do have a place there."

"But?"

"But I'm currently staying in London. Thought a change of scenery might be nice."

"Are you like a drug dealer or something," you ask unable to help yourself. London was expensive. Let alone having a place in Los Angeles too. "Or some trust fund posh kid?"

Alex laughs, almost choking on his tea. Rubbing his nose bride, before looking over at you and laughing again. "Neither. I promise love. I'm a musician."

"So a rich kid," you state, "all the musicians I know are broke."

"A successful musician," he amends.

"Like Beyoncé?"

"Not quite," Alex says shyly. It makes you even more curious, having to wrestle this information out of him. "What do you do for a living love?"

"I'm a tailor. Mostly do handmade stuff. I always liked sewing. Even as a kid. In college I made my clothes a lot of the times and sometimes had to stitch things up throughout the day." It had been embarrassing to have a seam unravel during class.

"Tailors make the world go round," Alex notes, "Though the fittings are annoying, the results are undeniable." He puffs out his chest and straightens out his leather jacket.

You laugh at his faux posh face, one you know very well from work. It took a certain type of customer to afford suits starting at 2000 pounds. "Most people ask if people really still need tailors what with poshmark and h&m."

We finish our drinks, easily going back and forth. Alex is charming and sweet. The lull between his responses worth it, his voice holding the same quality as a good dark chocolate and just as addicting.

He tells you about LA, a place you've never been too. About music, going off on tangents about instruments and records you've never heard off and will be googling as soon as you get home.

It's easy to fall into conversation with him. Telling him about your small family. Your sister still in uni. Your parents down by the coast. The amount of work you currently have, and all the ridiculous request you get from your customers. "I'm all for making people look as fit as they want me too and having clothes that make them feel good but there's a limit. No cut will make you loose ten stone. Of have you suddenly look twenty years younger."

"I admire your ability to but up with all those posh fookers."

"I do too. Not that everyone's bad. There's also business people that are more middle class but a good suit is everything. Counts for more than having twent my prada ones."

"Well," he states, finally leaning back and ending the magic of the afternoon, reality coming flooding back because you both have things to do and he's still just a stranger, "it's been lovely talking to you darling but I'm afraid I already made plans for tonight."

"And I have errands to run before lazying about all day tomorrow." You might still make it to the bank if you rush. Hail a cab.

"You've been the best fake girlfriend I could ask for."

"How many have you had Alex," you tease him, watching the heat rise to his cheeks. Feeling emboldened, you give him your number, scribbling it out on napkin, "in case you ever need a fake girlfriend. I hear it's much easier than a real one. Not that you look like you have any trouble getting women."

He smiles, looking over at you in amazement, as if he's not sure your real. That he'd been lucky to run into a woman like you while getting coffee. It was too entente of a gaze for you to hold for long.

You look away, feeling surprised at yourself. It wasn't like you to hand out your number. But you hoped that you might see him again. That it wasn't just a one off.

"See you around love."

#Alex Turner #alex turner fanfic #alex turner imagine #alex turner x reader #mine #fake dating au #shadowplay

40 notes · View notes

kingofmyfancyheart · 5 years

Text

“Don’t you dream impossible things?”

On Friday August 2, 2019 one of my biggest dreams came true. I met my favourite musician, role model and best friend: TAYLOR ALISON SWIFT. Here’s my story:

So it was on a Tuesday evening when I received the message of messages on twitter. The Direct Message from Taylor Nation. I was just casually looking at my phone since it had been around 6 PM. I also got a message from Tayswiftdotcom about the ME! Vinyl, which I won… But of course I read the message from TN first and I was SHOOK. I don’t know my exact reaction, but I must have been in shock. I was even wondering if this really would be for secret sessions??? I first told my best friend – the one I trust with my heart – as fast as I can. It went like ‘OMG E’ ‘OMG KSJOD OMG’ and she knew what it was. She actually didn’t know more info. SHE JUST KNEW.

I told about the message to my parents, sister and another best friend too. My sister knew a bit about secret sessions and stuff already, but my parents didn’t. My mom was even a bit scared that I would get kidnapped or something jsfkdjsfldjs but I comforted her. This was all real and TN is real. Verified. Legit. It was real 100% SURE. The message was real. As soon as I read the message, I answered with my information and then the waiting began. And the wait seemed to be SO long!!! Although it wasn’t THAT long, but feeling wise… I kept checking my DM’s. Did they read my reply already? Fortunately I had things to do in the meantime. This helped me to distract myself from social media.

I got the call on Thursday, July 18, around 10 PM. It was after my mom’s birthday. I received a call waiting as I was calling with my sister already. It took me a few seconds to realize though. So I said “wait, I got a call” and checked the screen… and then I saw a US phone number. I immediately got back to my sister: “THEY’RE CALLING!!! I NEED TO HANG UP NOW.” So I hung up, but TN also did. So… I immediately called them back, while I ran upstairs with a notebook and pen. I didn’t even think about how much this call was going to cost me… I just didn’t realize, HAHAHA. I sat down behind my desk without even turning on the lights and waited. Then I heard “do I speak with Mrs. Jennifer?” and my nerves went SKY HIGH. It was Michael from Taylor Nation. The conversation remained 16 minutes and 23 seconds. I know, quite long, but that’s because of my lack of English… haha. During the call they invited me officially to go to the UK for… an event.

After the call it was time to rearrange things. Luckily enough I still had two weeks left. My sister helped me much with searching for flights and an accommodation. I’ve not much personal travel experience… I just really needed a little help. I wasn’t going to travel on my own, but with my mom who still had days off. We booked our accommodation in a lovely place near London. Of course I would have LOVED to sleep in the big city, but well… I’m definitely going back once. It was a nice and calm introduction to the UK for me.

On July 25 I had a lunch with my best friend E. We also had a little shopping spree. Of course I wanted to have a new outfit for this special day. AND I WASN’T THE PERSON WHO FOUND THE DRESS. No, my best friend spotted the dress and I immediately was like ‘YES!!! That’s it!’ It looked so romantic, lovely and it was screaming Lover at me.

In the two weeks before my flight I’ve been so excited. It’s been such a weird time, like… When I scrolled through my timeline and saw tweets about secret sessions (stuff like ‘which pose would you choose?’), I was giggling and thinking ‘wait, so I’m going to be THERE??? LIKE REALLY THERE – IN HER HOUSE?????’ It felt so insane and surreal. I couldn’t believe it.

We arrived in the UK on Thursday August 1 and took it slowly. We didn’t have much time and both my mom and me needed some time to acclimatize. We decided to stay just in the countryside of London, which was really okay to me. Actually I loved it very much. I love nature and more local places and especially the place where we stayed. On the other hand, our place still had this big shopping mall with shops like New Look, H&M and Top Shop. It was a small town, but not that boring haha.

Around 4 PM we were arriving at our accommodation, where we met the guest lady (Arie). She was so kind and friendly!!! And the house looked beautiful and lovely just like the town. My mom and me had room 5 which was one of the attic rooms. Normally we would have shared a bathroom with room 6, but that day we had a private one since room 6 hadn’t been booked yet.

So, when the guest lady was introducing herself, she also complimented my t-shirt. I wore my Meredith shirt from Taylor’s collection, so that was really nice! She even told me she was going to search for the shirt online! She needed it hahaha!!! That conversation made me like this lady even more.

But well… the day went by and suddenly it was Friday. August 2. THE DAY OF THE EVENT. And NOW I really felt the nerves and excitement. Yes, this morning I finally felt the nerves. Although it came even more later on the day, but I’ll talk about that soon. First things first, people. I’m the princess of details. (Taylor is the queen!)

We didn’t plan anything specific this day except for the event. I think I woke up around 7 AM first, but then I was going back to sleep. And then I woke up again around… ehm, 8:45 AM perhaps? I don’t know, but I woke up before my alarm set. (I set my alarm for 10 AM.) I ate my oats breakfast while staying in bed. Like, it was still a holiday, so let’s serve myself some breakfast in bed. My mom was also awake and had the same breakfast. After breakfast I watched one episode of Gilmore Girls and then afterwards it was time to get ready, I guess.

I was wearing the new bought dress and a flower headband, which seemed a really good idea. But I’ll come back at you about that later. We booked my taxi for 1:30 PM. I asked mom if she would walk with me to the gate. In this way she could see by herself who was going to bring me to the meeting point. It would made me feel a bit more safely. Also, it was a bit unclear whether the return taxi was included in the same booking as the afternoon one or not. This all ended well though. :) I arrived on the exact time as Google Maps told me I was going to be. This meant I was waaaaay too early, but well… Better early than too late, right? That’s why I brought a book with me (can you see me? – by Libby Scott & Rebecca Westcott). During the taxi ride the driver asked me where I was going. “Do you have to work?” he asked and so, I was like “no… I got invited for some event…” that’s it. Of course. I didn’t dare to tell ANYONE about this except the five people, who I trust with my whole heart. That was quite hard for me btw, since I’ve always been so honest to everyone. So, when I was arriving at the meeting point, I went into the lobby to sit down somewhere. I thought: no way that there’ll be someone already this early. But then there was this girl… she was on the phone, though, but I thought immediately: could she be invited too??? We were looking at each other a few times and then she hang up. She decided to sit near me and then… she (@yntcdtyler) asked. “Are you her for…?” And we were both like ‘YES!! FINALLY I CAN TALK WITH SOMEONE ABOUT IT.’ Apparently, I didn’t need to bring a book with me.

Later on more Swifties were arriving and for some reason we recognized each other immediately. Even though we didn’t really know each other. Or well… Sometimes WE DID KNOW each other. Like, that one time I met one of my fellow DUTCH SWIFTIES (@danique99xkiss) for the FIRST TIME AT THE MEETING POINT FOR A SECRET SESSION. Like… HOW??? APPARENTLY TAYLOR DECIDED TO INVITE US BOTH!! FOR! A! SECRET! SESSION! And we weren’t the only two Dutch Swifties. There were like six or seven people, who had Dutch as a native language. And there were so many different internationalities!!! People from Belgium, Spain, Croatia, Germany, Canada, even Singapore!!! But I was so glad with my fellow Dutchies. It made me feel a bit more comfortable. It was nice to meet everyone out there right before the evening of our lives was going to start.

Around 4 PM someone from TN walked over to us. She greeted us and took us with her, while everyone was thinking ‘IT’S STARTING!!!’ But unfortunately when we were inside, we still had to wait for like an hour. Hahaha, but well, we were together and again: it was so nice seeing everyone there! I just knew everyone was going to be sweet. We all had one big common interest. We were all here for the same reason. I sat next to my fellow Dutchies Danique, Britt (@alltoowonderland13) and Mila (@taylaaahhh-13) and also behind Laurens (@gotthatwhitetshirt) and a few other people. While everyone was mingling, walking around and talking with each other, I just sat there… Although I tried to talk too, but socializing isn’t my best treat. @ London Sessioners: Sorry if I was a bit quiet… I’ve always been the shy, introvert person… Please don’t think that I didn’t like you all, CAUSE I DID!!!

We had to leave all of our stuff in this room and couldn’t take a bag with us. And then, around 5 PM, we were about to leave… NOW IT WAS STARTING. FOR REAL. So everyone walked over to the door, where we were waiting to get on the buses. I stood next to Mila and realized that I hadn’t drunk water, yet. But in that moment I started to feel a bit dizzy or something… Maybe because of the nerves? So I decided to take a glass of water anyway. I didn’t want to faint omg. Mila and I got on the first bus and… I just kept thinking: THIS IS REAL!!!!

When our bus was arriving at THE HOUSE, someone from TN told us that that we had to pretend we’re excited, hahaha. They were going to film us, when we ran of the bus. Well, of course we didn’t need to PRETEND everything. Our feelings were ALL REAL. Duh. Oh btw, my first reaction to her house was like ‘omg this is really the house of a queen! It looks so royal!’ Like, it was so big!!!! I actually don’t know what I was thinking, when I walked through her front door… I guess I was just very impressed. And in shock. Oh and when we were all standing in the bus ready for our run, I said to no one in particular ‘I hope I won’t fall during my run’. I really felt my legs shaking jkdsfjksjf but fortunately it went well. I think I looked SUPER happy and enthusiastic.

Taylor’s house smelled so good. So, I don’t know exactly what I was thinking on my way through the hallway, but I know that for a moment I really thought (OKAY THIS IS GONNA SOUND REALLY WEIRD)… I really thought for a second that one of the security said ‘goedemorgen’ to me. I mean ‘good morning’, but in Dutch. I DON’T KNOW WHY I THOUGHT SO OMG, I’M JUST CRAZY HAHAHAHA. I think I was dreaming. But I really heard him saying ‘good morning’ in my own language, BUT THAT’S SO IMPOSSIBLE HAHAHAHA! @taylornation please confirm so I could decide if I’m really crazy or not

Anyway. I tried to take everything in so carefully. I just wanted to remember this experience very well, so I was paying attention to the most small details. She had so many perfumed candles around her house!!! And there was a cupboard in the dining room with many boardgames. The dining room was a very light and bright room because of all the windows and glass doors, which were all open widely. We were allowed to walk onto the porch too, where we could find cold drinks. Inside there was a table with pizza and burgers and also one with vegetables, fruit and Lover M&Ms (those were SO cute!!!) I remember how at first everyone was just walking around and looking at everything. No one dared to touch something lol, but soon enough people took food and drinks. And later people were sitting on the chairs. It was very surreal and bizarre to be walking around her house as casual like that. In the garden there was a trampoline too and two soccer goals. We thought those soccer goals were Joe’s idea, but that’s actually bsh*t. I mean, we all know Taylor can play soccer. Riiight.

Inside the house I was still a bit quiet and shy, but I really had the time of my life. I promise. I was just enjoying the smell of her house and the people surrounding me in silent. Besides, actually I just really couldn’t wait to hear her album!! But it was really amazing to spend time with the group of sessioners in London. At some point You Need To Calm Down was playing and everyone in the dining room started to sing SO loud. Like, really, REALLY loud!!! I was in shock!! And of course I just sang out loud with them! Some lyrics we even sang out LOUDER, like for example the sentence ‘AND SHADE NEVER MADE ANYBODY LESS GAY!!!!!’ That was SO awesome. I was standing next to the girl in the red dress (@taylorisglowinginthedark) and we immediately looked at each other after that sentence with this big smile <3 I really think Taylor heard us. She MUST HAVE. @taylorswift YOU MUST HAVE.

Not much later after this moment the listening session was going to start, but just before we go to that I still want you to tell about something. At another point there was a butterfly flying through the dining room and THAT WAS SUCH A MAGICAL MOMENT. For me it felt like Taylor was inside the room, but like, undercover. Hahaha. I know, surreal, but this whole day was surreal. So. But it was really one of my favourite moments. I mean, everyone was looking at the butterfly. It connected us just like Taylor and her music connects us <3

So, time to go into her living room. WHAT. YES. I SAT IN HER FREAKING LIVING ROOM!!!!! I SPEND A WHOLE EVENING WITH TAYLOR AND 70+ SWIFTIES. I sat somewhere in the back, because the room was full already when I walked in. But I found the perfect place. Inside a fire place btw hahahahaha, which wasn’t on fire of course hahahahfdhsfosjfosjf why did I say that? Of course it wasn’t on fire, sigh. My mind. Anyway, I sat half in the fire place and next to the air-conditioning AND a tissue box. So, perfect place. I shared the tissue box with Zita and Danique immediately, because I just KNEW we were going to need that. The parents from some Swifties were also sitting in the back on couches, and Tree of course, while we sat on those light pink blankets laying across the floor. Taylor put multiple cushions as well on the floor, so it looked all cosy. I loved the atmosphere. Up in the front there was a big chair with a side table, where obviously Taylor was going to sit with her iPod. THE IPOD. WITH THE MOST PRECIOUS THING. LOVER. We’d been surrounded by candles again and much wood. It was just a really cosy and warm place. Just as warm as her heart.

And then. . . . . . .Taylor walked in. AND WE SCREAMED. AND CRIED. AND SCREAMED. AND YELLED. She walked in from a door somewhere in the front, which lead to the kitchen, I guess. But I’m not sure. She was wearing a very soft and sweet outfit: pastel green shirt with stripes, white shorts and sneakers with stars pattern. I remember how I was just staring at her. I guess all I thought was ‘THIS IS REAL. SHE IS REAL.’ Her voice was so friendly and soft as well. It was truly amazing to hear all the backstories straight from her mouth. I could have listened to her FOR HOURS. I really wouldn’t mind. I was smiling really big the WHOLE time. I’m truly honest when I’m saying that I liked each song on the album. Also, Lover gave me many 1989 vibes, but more grown up.

During the listening session Taylor held a short break, so we could stretch legs and taste her SELFMADE PASTEL COLOURED RICE CRISPIES. AND THEY WERE DELICIOUS!!! Very sticky, but still very delicious. It was the perfect snack after hearing the most emotional song EVER.

Taylor took us outside while holding the plate with snacks. Although I was just realizing this in the dining room. Then I realized it was TAYLOR HERSELF who was walking in the front hahahaha. I really was on cloud nine. There were some Swifties who were allowed to jump on the trampoline. I didn’t hear this by myself at the moment, but apparently at that moment Taylor was saying ‘THOSE ARE MY KIDS’. After this she walked over to the parents – with a glass of white wine – to introduce herself, which is SO Taylor. And of course the parents took their children with them. It was all so amazing. The fact that she was just standing in the middle and talked to us in this casual way. Surreal. Taylor asked if people didn’t need to go to the toilet, but yeah, of course not. We all wanted to stay there with her. Duh. Hahaha!

After a while we were walking back inside for the second half of the listening part. First I was thinking of going to the toilet, but then I saw everyone going inside the living room and I thought ‘oh whatever’. Hahaha, I still had a place somewhere in the back though. But again not a bad place. Maybe it was even a better place. I had a bit more space now. I was still sitting next to Zita and Danique, and also to a girl with very cute cat shoes and @taylorisglowinginthedark. She had been sitting IN FRONT OF TAYLOR during the first half, which must have been a whole experience by itself!!! That’s also a reason why she wanted to sit more in the back now. I could understand. She wanted to give other persons the chance to have this kind of view also.

I tried to listen very carefully during the session. I couldn’t take my eyes off Taylor, but just because I didn’t want to miss a single thing!! I loved it so much how she was singing along with each song and doing those little dances. SHE’S SO CUTE, FUNNY AND SUCH A DORK!!! <3 When I was listening to the songs, I tried to let my body and feelings speak. I wanted it to experience as calm as possible, so I would let the songs sink in deeply. I thought that would possibly help me to NOT forget anything about this evening. If I’ll be listening to her album again on August 23 (or later), I hope I can remember everything again so clearly like I’m back again in her living room. This was such a special night. Once in a lifetime experience.

So, I said it already that I liked each song and that’s really TRUE. I’m not lying to you and also, this is just MY opinion. Personally I didn’t think during any song ‘meh…’ I also have some favourites… Track 7, 8 and 10… Not saying anything more. Just that.

After the listening session we were allowed to look into the DELUXE JOURNALS, which was such an honour. Unfortunately I didn’t hold one in my own hands, but well, I saw them and they looked really beautiful. And I was going to buy them (all) anyway. Hahahaha. Ever since we’ve heard about the content, I decided that I just want them ALL. GOTTA CATCH ‘EM ALL. My feeling between the listening session and the individual meet & greet was… weird. The evening was almost over, but the best part had to come now. And I just felt… I don’t know. But I know that I was walking from inside to the porch and back a few times. Mostly I stood with fellow Dutchies Mila and Danique, but sometimes it became a bit hot inside and so, I walked over to the porch. OH by the way, right after the listening part we got selfmade baking stuff again!! This time Taylor made VERY CUTE HEART-SHAPED PINK LOVER COOKIES. And since I’ve been a cookie monster, I ate them immediately of course. Although they were actually too beautiful to eat, but yeah… Wouldn’t it be rude if we did NOT eat them directly?

During the wait before the meet & greet I just couldn’t catch up with my mind anymore. I had so much stuff to process. It was TOO MUCH for my brain. But well, I survived anyway. But yeah, this evening was very surreal and a whole new fan experience.

Luckily I didn’t black out during my meet & greet with (THE ONE AND ONLY) Taylor Alison Swift. Since it all took a little longer than expected, some Swifties were given priority. For example, when people had to catch the train or booked a taxi. Something which I did indeed. Around 9:30 PM I told TN about this, but they were letting me wait anyway. Maybe it wasn’t necessary to give me priority, but apparently later on it was.

And then. . . . . . . I was in line for THE MEET & GREET. When I was standing there, I looked over my shoulder for a moment to check at my Dutch friends and was like ‘eeeek I’M ALMOST THERE’. I was standing behind the sweet girl from Singapore and we were both so nervous. Also, my eye decided to irritate JUST at that exact moment. Like, WHY???? Fortunately, I had everything under control before my moment with Tay. And I was so happy with the huge mirror in the hallway.

I don’t know the exact time of when I was walking into the living room. I didn’t wear a watch jksjdlfdsj, but I know what was happening at first. When I just entered the room, Taylor said to me, very enthusiastic, “THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR COMING OVER!” followed by the BEST. HUG. EVER. It was a really big, warm and REAL hug. She didn’t let go until I was deciding to (unfortunately). After her “THANK YOU” I was like “YOU’RE WELCOME” and told her how I would have come anyway. How I’ve done anything to come, because I just had to be there. Something like that.

Then I told her that I came with my mom. So she responded “Oh, she’s here?!”, but I was like “no, she’s still in the bed & breakfast”. Then Taylor said “oh, could you thank your mom for me for taking you here, please?” which was SO SWEET OF HER. How she thought about my mom <3 During our conversation she had this very sweet and friendly face the whole time. SHE’S JUST SWEET, PERIOD.

At some point Taylor also called me Jenni, probably because of my necklace. So I was like “it’s Jennifer actually, but…” and then she was a bit confused. She responded: “Oh, I always thought it was Jenni! But I’ll call you Jennifer then.” And just how she said my name and nickname… such a moment. It felt so personal. Hearing your full name said by one of the biggest musicians. I just--

When I told her that I liked each song on the album, she was like “REALLY??” when she held up her hand for a HIGH FIVE. LOVE HER. Oh, and also, HOW COULD I FORGET THIS???? Taylor also said “I like the flowers in your hair!!!” which was such a sweet comment!!!!! I’m so happy that I wore the headband. I just thought ‘this is very Lover era, so I should wear it’, but didn’t think of THIS.

Then it was time for our picture.Taylor asked me if I was thinking about a pose already. I answered “maybe we can hug and ehm… hold hands??” So she asked me “oh, and do you want it like this…” – she took my hand and hold it in a ~normal~ way and then she intertwined our fingers – “or this?” And immediately I was like ‘YES!!!’ Then she hold me even closer to her and SNAP! PICTURE TAKEN! Afterwards I thought ‘I hope this picture turned out well??? Did I smile?? How did I look?’, but I didn’t ask about the picture anyway. Right before I walked out, Taylor was saying to me “SEE YOU ONLINE!” and so I responded “see you at a concert!!” and that’s that. Wow.

Outside the room the sweet, blonde girl with the camera – from TN – was waiting for me. She asked how it was and I was like “good”??? I didn’t really know what to answer, I was just in awe. I also got a customized bag with merchandise. And then I was walking into the bus, where everyone asked how it was and again I was like “GOOD”. Nothing more. I was really on cloud nine now and so much in shock.

When we were all waiting inside the bus to go back to the hotel, I felt really dreamy and sleepy. I also really felt the urge to call MY SISTER!! Or just someone, but I wanted to call my sister first <3 But yeah, we didn’t have our phones yet. So I talked a bit with my neighbour, which was the sweet girl from Singapore! Although she was talking more than me, but well :) I loved her energy. Then after some time the bus was going to leave. It was … ehm, around 11 PM? When the bus was driving away slowly, it came past the meeting room. And. . . YES, the curtains were open. So we had a little sneak peek inside and saw TAYLOR!!! Which made us scream of course haha. Unfortunately someone from TN decided to close the curtains then, which she did slowly though… And she was waving, haha. She looked sweet and friendly. A sweet goodbye :( <3

Back at the meeting point I was waiting outside with Britt. It felt weird to be back at that place, while having a Lover Secret Sessions tote bag with me. Like, SOMETHING VERY BIG HAPPENED TONIGHT. WE MET ONE OF THE BIGGEST POPSTARS. TAYLOR. SWIFT. TAYLOR SWIFT. WE WERE AT HER HOUSE!!! Britt was also panicking a bit, because she didn’t really know how to go back to her hostel. But luckily we fixed that together (and with a local AND Stephanie from TN!! SWEET!) and she booked a taxi, so she was safe apparently :) And then my taxi arrived at 11:30 PM. . . . . . .

I’m posting the story on August 18, which is more than two weeks later. I had some time to let it all sink in, which was quite hard. Like, it was just SO surreal. I keep using this word, but it’s just the only thing I could come up with. My feelings during this evening cannot really be described actually. I enjoyed EVERY. SINGLE. MINUTE. I wouldn’t have wanted to miss this experience!! I’m very grateful for the chance. Thank you @taylornation SO much for inviting me to @taylorswift‘s house. And thank you Taylor for letting me in your house! <3 I didn't tell you everything I wanted, since I had this whole list of things. But well... I had the time of my life with you and all the other Swifties. And that's what matters. This has been one of the happiest days of my life.

14 notes · View notes

specialagentfluffstein · 4 years

Note

All those asks that you havent answered yet

1: when you have cereal, do you have more milk than cereal or more cereal than milk? More cereal. I’m lactose intolerant so I try to use just enough milk that I’m not eating dry cereal. Dry cereal is a different snack.

2: do you like the feeling of cold air on your cheeks on a wintery day? No.

3: what random objects do you use to bookmark your books? Whatever is close. Usually random coupons.

4: how do you take your coffee/tea? Coffee with creamer, tea on its own. Unless it’s chai. I like chai with oat milk or vanilla creamer.

5: are you self-conscious of your smile? I used to be, but now I love smiling for the camera, at strangers, pretty much all the time. But I also spent a lot of time practicing and figuring out how to smile without looking weird when I was 9 and super self conscious.

6: do you keep plants? Yes! I have a plant that might be a Kalanchoe that I’ve managed to keep alive for a few years, despite always forgetting to water it and 3 butt succulents (living stones).

7: do you name your plants? Nope. Although I do refer to the butts as “The Butts”.

8: what artistic medium do you use to express your feelings? I write, mostly.

9: do you like singing/humming to yourself? Yes. I tend to sing song if I’m talking to myself.

10: do you sleep on your back, side, or stomach? Side.

12: what’s your favorite planet? Jupiter! Even though that’s where boys go to get more stupider.

13: what’s something that made you smile today? I found some pictures of my mom in college and we look really similar.

14: if you were to live with your best friend in an old flat in a big city, what would it look like? Lots of color. Lots of tchotckes and disney stuff. Jackson Pollock’s Circumcision above the couch.

15: go google a weird space fact and tell us what it is! Jupiter is the fastest spinning planet in our solar system.

16: what’s your favorite pasta dish? Is it pasta? It’s my favorite. Unless it has capers.

17: what color do you really want to dye your hair? Pink!

18: tell us about something dumb/funny you did that has since gone down in history between you and your friends and is always brought up. So one time my BF and I went on a road trip up the oregon coast and then to Seattle. He was getting tired on our Seattle leg of the journey so we swapped and I drove for a while. I drive a ford and he drives a subaru. We were in the subaru, and I went to put it in drive, but instead turned the windshield wipers on full blast. Out of habit, I pulled down on it, since that’s where the gear shift is in my truck. His is not. I have yet to live it down.

19: do you keep a journal? what do you write/draw/ in it? I do! I have a planner for dates and scheduling stuff, a Bullet Journal that I keep my mood tracker and habit tracker and various lists in, a gratitude log, and my ‘write about your day and your feelings’ journal. I just filled my last one, and now I get to start a new one!

20: what’s your favorite eye color? Blue.

21: talk about your favorite bag, the one that’s been to hell and back with you and that you love to pieces. I have a 5.11 backpack that I used in college, and then used to travel, and now I’m currently using it as my roller derby bag. It’s super versatile. And I can put patches and pins on it.

22: are you a morning person? Yes. Or at least I pretend to be.

23: what’s your favorite thing to do on lazy days where you have 0 obligations? Knit and watch TV.

24: is there someone out there you would trust with every single one of your secrets? My counselor.

25: what’s the weirdest place you’ve ever broken into? An old abandoned mansion. I was on a ride along and the cop I was with wanted to check for “juvenile delinquents.”

26: what are the shoes you’ve had for forever and wear with every single outfit? My pink double tongue low top converse.

27: what’s your favorite bubblegum flavor? I feel like there was a strawberry watermelon hubba bubba flavor I loved as a kid, but maybe I imagined it.

29: what’s something really cute that one of your friends does and is totally endearing? Pspsps’s at literally every cat they see.

30: think of it: have you ever been truly scared? Yes.

31: what is your opinion of socks? do you like wearing weird socks? do you sleep with socks? do you confine yourself to white sock hell? really, just talk about socks. I love socks. I’ve knitted myself four pairs, and I love wearing disney socks and I just love socks.

32: tell us a story of something that happened to you after 3AM when you were with friends. My friends and I are boring old people and we are asleep at 3 am.

33: what’s your fave pastry? Uhhh.. At this point in my life anything gluten free that doesn’t taste like cardboard.

34: tell us about the stuffed animal you kept as a kid. what is it called? what does it look like? do you still keep it? A stuffed rabbit. Their name is ‘ruggy bunny’. It’s made from chenille. I still have them and as a full fledged adult sleep with them (and all my other squishy friends).

35: do you like stationary and pretty pens and so on? do you use them often? So. Fucking. Much. I love Sakura Jelly Roll pens and washi tape and stickers and felt tip pens and ink joy pens and I love the crayola Take Note line and anything from The Happy Planner. I love it all so much.

36: which band’s sound would fit your mood right now? Deee-Lite or The The

37: do you like keeping your room messy or clean? I like keeping it clean. I used to say my room always needed to be Teen Vogue ready, back when Teen Vogue would have pics of some famous girl in her bedroom on the last page.

38: tell us about your pet peeves! Other drivers.

39: what color do you wear the most? I usually wear quite a few different colors, especially in the summer.

40: think of a piece of jewelry you own: what’s it’s story? does it have any meaning to you? My uncle (who’s not my uncle, just a close family friend) bought me a diamond necklace when I was 10, because he said my first diamond shouldn’t be from a boy, so that way it would just be another piece of jewelry, and not my ‘first diamond.’ In hindsight, that was kind of a cool thing to do, because now I don’t feel like I have to keep or get rid of jewelry just because of who I associate it with. If it’s a nice piece, it’s a nice piece. It’s not my first diamond.

41: what’s the last book you remember really, really loving? Outlander. It’s so well researched, and it’s got political intrigue and smut but I never felt like I was being talked down to or treated like a dumb reader.

42: do you have a favorite coffee shop? describe it! I do! It’s a local place and it’s got old squashy couches and different tables and big windows. One location looks out over the marina here.

43: who was the last person you gazed at the stars with? My boyfriend.

44: when was the last time you remember feeling completely serene and at peace with everything? Not any time within recent memory.

45: do you trust your instincts a lot? Yes. They’re usually right.

46: tell us the worst pun you can think of. How does NASA throw a party? They Planet!

47: what food do you think should be banned from the universe? Cashews.

48: what was your biggest fear as a kid? is it the same today? Yes. Getting left behind in the grocery store.

49: do you like buying CDs and records? what was the last one you bought? I love buying records, I’ve slowed down on CDs in favor of vinyl. I bought Johnny Jewel’s Themes for Television.

50: what’s an odd thing you collect? Taxidermy and furs.

51: think of a person. what song do you associate with them? Joe Jacksons “Is She Really Going Out With Him?”

52: what are your favorite memes of the year so far? Anything Baby Yoda.

53: have you ever watched the rocky horror picture show? heathers? beetlejuice? pulp fiction? what do you think of them? I’ve seen RHPS, and been to a midnight showing. I love it. I’ve also seen Beetlejuice, it’s not my fave, but it’s fun.

54: who’s the last person you saw with a true look of sadness on their face? My boyfriend when we discovered our favorite pho place closed.

55: what’s the most dramatic thing you’ve ever done to prove a point? Everything I do is a dramatic thing to prove a point.

56: what are some things you find endearing in people? Laughs! I love peoples laughs.

57: go listen to bohemian rhapsody. how did it make you feel? did you dramatically reenact the lyrics? So good. I’ve been drinking, and I sang it quietly to myself with all the voices.

58: who’s the wine mom and who’s the vodka aunt in your group of friends? Why? I struggle with this classification of women and the exploitation of the rampant alcoholism among women who are likely suffering from depression in addition to alcoholism.

59: what’s your favorite myth? That David Bowie had two different colored eyes. And cryptid stuff.

60: do you like poetry? what are some of your faves? I like poetry from the 20th century, and I love slam Poetry. My all time favorite poem is William Carlos Williams’ “This is Just To Say”

61: what’s the stupidest gift you’ve ever given? the stupidest one you’ve ever received? Both of these can be answered with “Bath and Body Works Body Wash”

62: do you drink juice in the morning? which kind? Sometimes! I love orange juice.

63: are you fussy about your books and music? do you keep them meticulously organized or kinda leave them be? I want to be, when I have the space. My records are in alphabetical order.

64: what color is the sky where you are right now? Dark Blue

65: is there anyone you haven’t seen in a long time who you’d love to hang out with? My two besties who are kicking ass and living their best life in South Korea.

66: what would your ideal flower crown look like? Massive and full of really bright flowers. Sunflowers and carnations and gerber daisies and just so much color.

67: how do gloomy days where the sky is dark and the world is misty make you feel? They make me feel like cuddling by a fire.

68: what’s winter like where you live? Fucking. Miserable.

69: what are your favorite board games? Monopoly! I also like card games.

70: have you ever used a ouija board? Nope. I ain’t fucking around with that shit.

71: what’s your favorite kind of tea? Chai, green, and Thai.

72: are you a person who needs to note everything down or else you’ll forget it? Yes.

73: what are some of your worst habits? Popping any joint I possibly can and peeling my nail polish (which is why I will never get gels).

74: describe a good friend of yours without using their name or gendered pronouns. They are very tall and do the best John Mulaney impression.

75: tell us about your pets! I don’t have any. :( But I want three corgis named Navy Bean, Gerladine, and Jolene. And a pitbull named Korg.

76: is there anything you should be doing right now but aren’t? Probably going through my clothes so I can find my Star Wars shirt for Monday.

77: pink or yellow lemonade? Pink. I don’t really like lemonade, but I love the pink lemonade lip smackers chapstick I have.

78: are you in the minion hateclub or fanclub? Very firmly in the hateclub.

79: what’s one of the cutest things someone has ever done for you? My mom made me an advent calendar one year with little makeup things and trinkets wrapped individually and hung from the ceiling. It was so fun.

80: what color are your bedroom walls? did you choose that color? if so, why? Sleeping Beauty Castle Pink! One wall has glitter! Yes I did! I love pink and it looks nice with all my bright furniture.

81: describe one of your friend’s eyes using the most abstract imagery you can think of. The spine of my copy of The Hatchet.

82: are/were you good in school? Yes. I was built for the American School System and now that I can’t prove my worth with papers and multiple choice tests I’m kinda struggling.

83: what’s some of your favorite album art? I love the cover of The Velvet Underground and Nico that Andy Warhol did and the cover of Led Zeppelin III with the rotating art.

84: are you planning on getting tattoos? which ones? Yeah! I want a lightning bolt (a la Bowie or The Killers) on my ankle and my sister and I want to get some matching ones of Chuckie Chickenhawk (my grandfather’s event mascot)

85: do you read comics? what are your faves? I do, although not as much as I used to. I love Nightwing.

86: do you like concept albums? which ones? Yeah! I love Marty Robbins’ Gunfighter Ballads, and of course David Bowie’s Ziggy Stardust.

88: are there any artistic movements you particularly enjoy? Everything except minimalism, and even then I like that a little bit. But I love abstract and pop art. But really I just love art. I love going to museums when I travel.

89: are you close to your parents? My mom hell yeah!

90: talk about your one of you favorite cities. I love Seattle. I love the art and how much there is of it! I also have a soft spot for Meeker CO, weird republican little town that it is.

91: where do you plan on traveling this year? Ahahahahahahahaha. Ha. *soft crying*

92: are you a person who drowns their pasta in cheese or a person who barely sprinkles a pinch? Depends on the pasta dish.

93: what’s the hairstyle you wear the most? Well when I don’t have horrible too long quarantine hair, and it’s at shoulder length, I like wearing it down or half up. Lately it’s been in a ponytail or a bun.

94: who was the last person you know to have a birthday? My neighbor turned 30.

95: what are your plans for this weekend? Gonna go roller skate at the outdoor roller hockey rink on Saturday and then go do some shooting on blm land on Sunday.

96: do you install your computer updates really quickly or do you procrastinate on them a lot? I am a horrible procrastinator.

97: myer briggs type, zodiac sign, and hogwarts house? ESTJ, Virgo, Slytherin or Gryffindor. On my first pottermore account I got Gryffindor, and then I could figure out my password so I made another one and got Slytherin.

98: when’s the last time you went hiking? did you enjoy it? I went hiking two weekends ago and it was awesome!

99: list some songs that resonate to your soul whenever you hear them. The Killers’ Battleborn, The The’s This Is The Day, Deee- Lite’s Groove Is In The Heart, Panic! At The Disco’s That Green Gentleman, The Avett Brothers’ Head Full Of Doubt/Road Full Of Promise (actually, anything by the Avett Bros resonates with my soul.)

100: if you were presented with two buttons, one that allows you to go 5 years into the past, the other 5 years into the future, which one would you press? Why? Five years in the future. Because hopefully I’d be in a more stable place in my life.

Thanks for Asking!

#fluffy answers

0 notes

jenroses · 7 years

Text

Turkey Day Menu 2017: GF and allergy friendly

From http://jenrose.com/turkey-day-menu-2017-gf-and-allergy-friendly/

Courtesy of my sister, who is willing to adapt menus for other allergy issues. Comment here if your needs are different.

First off, we have multiple allergies and food issues. In short:

Me; Militantly gluten free and no strawberries or sulfites due to allergies. Also allergic to crustaceans (lobster, crab, possibly shrimp?), peanuts, hazelnuts, lima beans, oats, banana, and weird issues around standard commercial dairy and eggs, but I do fine with certain local products on eggs and dairy. I also randomly have issues with tomatoes, garlic, onions, some veggies, peppers, but there are meds I can take that help reduce inflammation to tolerate those. Some forms of garlic are better than others. I avoid most soy, refined sugar and mold-type cheeses due to inflammation issues.

My eldest: Allergic to soy, egg, dairy, peanuts and wheat.

My middle: No citric acid or citrates, reacts to wheat in weird ways, same for natamycin

Hubby has texture/taste issues (goes beyond dislike, not an allergy) with visible egg, set gelatin, and most cheese (except pizza.)

Youngest is Intensely picky.

A turkey dinner is actually one of the easiest meals to adapt.

So, within those parameters, here is our menu, according to Sis, with bullet commentary by me.

Turkey: 20 lb Shelton free-range, brined with herbs and spices, salt water, and apple juice or cider with no added citric acid

I don’t usually brine turkeys, but I trust Sis. Dad uses wine on the turkey, I cook at high heat and don’t touch it or baste it or brine it, but I might slip some kind of fat under the skin.

Stuffing: Costco gluten free bread cubes, better than bouillon based broth, herbs and spices, soy/dairy/egg/gluten free sausage, chopped apples & walnuts

I haven’t looked at Costcco’s gluten free bread cubes, but it’s really hard to get bread that everyone can have. Happy Campers is probably the best bet. Elegant Elephant has a sourdough loaf that can also be converted to cubes easily. Middle kiddo and I can both do Franz gluten free. Eldest and I can both do BFree. Bread is very regional, don’t be afraid to investigate. Other good substitutions include riced cauliflower, quinoa, and brown rice. Just substitute those for the bread in your favorite stuffing recipe, and be prepared to either cook the grains in broth and/or adjust the liquid content down.

Sausage: standard breakfast sausage is our usual–use whatever standard breakfast sausages you can tolerate. We use sausage-shaped ones, but loose sausage can also be used. Nuts are optional, sub sunflower seeds if you want the texture but can’t do tree nuts, or omit.

Apples work for us, cranberries and raisins are other options we’ve used in the past.

Better that Bouillon is something we also call “Chicken squishy” (or “beef squishy”) and is well tolerated by all of us. We use the organic low sodium version from Costco. Vegan options exist. Turkey is probably the ideal for this meal.

Potatoes: potatoes, olive oil, salt

I mean, you can do almost anything with potatoes, ranging from just swipe a little oil on the skins and bake, to peel (or not) and boil and mash. Contrary to popular belief, mashed potatoes are fine without milk and butter, especially if they’re going to be buttered later and doused with gravy. Sub chicken broth or veg broth for flavor and texture if you want creamier potatoes, and Earth Balance for butter if you really want them “buttery”.

Pro flavor tip: While I love a peppery olive oil, if you get the “Extra light Napoleon” it tastes very buttery, a la melted butter.

Sweet potatoes*: plain, roasted whole

*actually Garnet or Jewel Yams (which are sweet potatoes, but very orange.)

The neat thing is that sweet potatoes take zero work. Stick them in the oven at whatever temp and roast until squishy.

Once roasted, the skins slip off and they can be sliced or mashed and amended as people like after. One of my favorites involves mashed sweet potatoes with coconut milk, coconut sugar, and spices like ginger and cinnamon. For dairy-and-citrate having people, slice the cooked sweet potatoes and layer with butter, maple syrup, orange and/or lemon zest, orange and/or lemon juice, ginger, nutmeg and paprika.

If you must have them with marshmallows, see my marshmallow recipe. Make the marshmallows with vanilla, not peppermint.

One year we made purple yams, garnet yams, and Japanese sweet potatoes, and mashed them separately and let people pipe them onto their own plates.

This was more work than it was worth given how picky my children are, but a lot of fun for those who both like sweet potatoes and like playing with their food.

Gravy: tapioca or rice flour, better than bouillon based broth, herbs and spices, assorted drippings and giblets

Most of the liquid should come from the turkey, plus the cooking water from any boiled potatoes if you have it, which can be boosted with Better than Bouillon if needed.

Holler if you want to know how we do gravy.

Cranberry sauce: cranberries, sugar and/or honey

I’m lobbying for maple syrup.

Homemade cranberry sauce is the absolute easiest thing. Put cranberries and sweetener in a small pan on the stove. Simmer for 10 minutes. Adjust flavor with more sweet, spices as desired. It really is that easy. It goes from whole berries to sauce sort of all-of-a-sudden. Cook for a minute or two longer to thicken.

Not middle-child safe as cranberries are inherently high in citric acid.

You can make a similar sauce with frozen blueberries.

Applesauce can fill a similar ecological niche on the dinner plate for those who can’t have citric acid.

Green beans: fresh green beans, garlic, mushrooms (I’m hoping for chanterelles), olive oil, salt

Probably using some sort of frozen garlic as I react less badly to frozen garlic than to fresh or dried.

If you can find a safe cream of mushroom soup, use that if you want a more casserole-y thing

Pacific Foods has a yes-dairy-no-gluten condensed cream of mushroom soup.

Adding coconut milk (full fat) to the above would give a similar effect.

This will taste outstanding even if it’s not creamy.

If dairy isn’t a problem, use butter

Add a little wine if you can tolerate it

And the best mushrooms you can get.

Brussels sprouts: Brussels sprouts, uncured bacon

*side-eyes hard*

I hate Brussels sprouts.

But they’re hypoallergenic

I guess

Raw sauerkraut

Plain, lactofermented sauerkraut is delightful and will help with digestion. It also adds a bright acid note to a heavy meal

We buy it. Sonoma Brinery is fantastic, but Trader Joe’s also has a very good version.

Oregon Brineworks Ginger Roots would be fantastic and pretty alongside a turkey dinner.

Vanilla ice cream

Sparkling cider

We watch for added citric acid but lots of brands are fine

Wine

“Well Red” from Trader Joe’s is no-sulfites-detected and passably drinkable

“Our Daily Red” is a cooking wine that is no sulfites detected but kind of awful tasting

If you can find Orleans Hill Zinfandel, it may be the best NSD wine I’ve ever had.

Gluten free pies:

We buy gluten free crusts that everyone can eat. IDK the brand

Where you can’t buy safe crusts, chop sunflower seeds or whatever nuts can be tolerated very fine (not paste) and toast them with a safe butter substitute and press them into the pan a-la crumb crust.

If they’re not staying up, just line the bottom like a cheesecake

Or do a straight up custard

It is possible to substitute gluten free flour for wheat flour 1;1 and palm oil, coconut oil or Earth Balance (we do the soy-free) for the fat, and then follow almost any pie crust recipe. Or google “gluten free pie crust” if you want. We just buy crusts, it’s easier and the texture is more consistently what we want.

Pumpkin (eggs, pumpkin, brown sugar, vanilla, spices)

Note that this is a dairy-free recipe.

It’s basically just exactly the recipe on the Libby’s label but substituting eggs for the dairy

It’s a lot of eggs

It tastes better that way

and sets up VERY well.

Not safe for my eldest

Egg-free pumpkin (tapioca starch, pumpkin, brown sugar, vanilla, spices)

Note that this is corn-free, vegan, soy, egg, dairy and gluten free.

I would use coconut sugar

Apple (apples, brown sugar, spices, rum)

When I make apple pie, I mix the rum (or whiskey, but that’s not necessarily gluten free) with butter, sugar and a little starch to make a “hard sauce” that gets mixed in with the apples

People have gotten tipsy off of my apple pies

We have used booze to stop the apples from browning (it may not work but people think the browning is booze)

(they’re probably right.)

If citric acid is an issue, don’t use lemon in your pie

If it’s not, definitely use lemon in your pie.

Cherry (cherries, tapioca starch, sugar, almond extract)

Use almond flour for the crust if you want to really punch up the cherry almond goodness.

#Food #Life #Recipes

1 note · View note

margaretbeagle · 5 years

Text

5 Marketing Lessons from Daily Harvest’s Journey to Shipping One Million Smoothies

Launched in 2015, Daily Harvest has become one of the fastest growing direct-to-consumer food brands in the world.

In 2017, it raised over $43m — with investors like Gwyneth Paltrow and Serena Williams

It shipped over one million smoothies in just one year after launching nationwide in the U.S.

More than 100,000 customers now use its service

It’s an incredible story. But just how did Daily Harvest transition from solving a meal-prep problem for founder Rachel Drori to being in over 100,000 kitchens across the U.S.?

In this post, we take a look at some of the marketing strategies that have aided Daily Harvest’s incredible growth.

Contents: 5 Marketing Lessons from Daily Harvest

Lesson 1: Focus on target customers’ needs and create products to solve their problems

Lesson 2: Use Pinterest as a discovery engine to reach millions of potential customers each month

Lesson 3: Create a simple-to-navigate website and tell an engaging story to generate backlinks

Lesson 4: Use paid social to drive traffic to campaign-specific landing pages

Lesson 5: Build trust with new audiences through partnerships

1. Focus on target customers’ needs and create products to solve their problems

Before starting Daily Harvest, Rachel Drori worked in marketing for Jetsetter. She wanted to find a quick, convenient way to prepare her week’s meals on a Sunday, so she didn’t have to think about what she would eat during busy weekdays.

But after trying a number of options, nothing quite matched her needs.

“Meal kits are perishable, they go bad in your fridge, and they take 45 minutes to prepare,” she told Entrepreneur. “And all convenient food is preserved in some way.”

As we touched on in the intro, Daily Harvest was founded after Drori began to make meals in batch and freeze them. Something that no company seemed to be offering. Seeing a gap in the market, she pulled together a website and started selling to people who were experiencing the same meal prep problems she’d had.

The company has evolved a lot since those early days, but one thing that remains is its laser focus on serving a specific need for its target customers.

“Our target consumer is one who subscribes to a healthy lifestyle, but is busy and has time restrictions,” Drori told Business Insider.

Drori expanded on Daily Harvest’s target customer during an interview with Inc. “Our customer wants to eat the way he/shes knows he/she should, but struggles with the challenge of making it happen.”

“Our most common piece of customer feedback is that we’ve filled a need in the health food space that wasn’t previously being met. It works for the busy-bee or if you’re just looking for more nutrients in your diet but are unsure where to start.”

Consumer habits: The ease of buying healthy foods is one of the key pain points Daily Harvest solves. Shoppers want to buy healthier foods, but it’s not always easy — a survey of 1,017 U.S. consumers found that 95% of people ‘always’ or ‘sometimes’ look for healthy food options, but finding healthy food is only moderately easy for most consumers.

But why is it so important for Daily Harvest to focus on specific customers? Why doesn’t it try to entice everyone to eat a little healthier?

“Focusing on a specific customer segment is critical to sustaining long-term growth,” says DTC Strategist, Marco Marandiz.

“Organizations that get distracted easily by emerging, yet unaligned, segments end up burning through their resources and creating value that doesn’t resonate with their earliest customers,” continues Marandiz. “For Daily Harvest, it’s important for them to keep digging into their core customers to really fulfil their needs in the kitchen.”

Having a clear understanding of who its customers are, and the problems it solves for them has enabled Daily Harvest to craft messaging, content, and products that are aligned with exactly what the customer is looking for.

Right from the hero section of its homepage, you can see its focus on target customer needs and desires:

The heading ‘Eat More Fruits + Vegetables’ speaks to the target customers desire to boost their diet with healthy ingredients

The subheading ‘We take care of food so food can take care of you’ also taps into the same desires, but from a slightly different level, letting customers know that all the hard work — sourcing and preparing healthy foods — is done for them.

If you’ve ever interacted with the brand before the imagery on its site also feels incredibly familiar.

Daily Harvest has done a great job of creating its own unique brand style:

Crisp images of its packaging containing bold, brightly colored ingredients, photographed against a solid background. It also uses lighting to create shadows quite frequently.

Here’s its look on Instagram —

— and on a product page:

Expansion is also important for most DTC brands. Many launch with one or two specific products — for example, Casper mattresses — and expand into other related products in order to grow — Casper’s pillows and bed frames.

Daily Harvest is no different. It started out by selling frozen smoothie packs. But now it boasts a range of products.

And when it comes to launching new products, Daily Harvest ensures it keeps its focus on solving the problem of making healthy eating easier for consumers.

“It’s easy to observe their focus by taking stock of the product line expansions over the last couple years,” shares Marandiz. “They started with smoothies, but have moved into Harvest Bowls, Soups, Lattes, Chia Bowls, and Oat Bowls.”

The messaging around each of its expansion products is also hyper-focused on customer goals.

Take its Harvest Bowls category page for example —

— the copy here continues to focus on the core mission of Daily Harvest: Making healthy eating simple. And no matter where you interact with the brand, that message remains consistent.

2. Use Pinterest as a discovery engine to reach millions of potential customers each month

Pinterest is somewhat of a sleeper in the social media world. And though it might not make as much noise as platforms like Facebook or Instagram, its power to help brands connect with consumers is undeniable.

In its S-1 filing ahead of going public, the company shared some insights into how people use the platform:

Pinners don’t just dream about their futures; they explore real options and often want to bring their dreams to life. They browse ideas, visit merchant websites and eventually buy products and services; and

People seeking inspiration use Pinterest in ways that mirror how they use magazines and catalogs.

So whereas consumers used to flick through magazines to find inspiration, they now turn to Pinterest — and this is why it has become such an incredible discovery engine for brands.

Daily Harvest has 5,638 followers on Pinterest. That doesn’t sound a lot, especially when compared to its audiences on Facebook (260k) and Instagram (406k). But follower numbers are just a small part of the equation.

On Pinterest, discoverability is far more important than the number of followers.

Daily Harvest racks up a mouthwatering 4.1m monthly unique viewers on Pinterest — meaning its Pins appear on over four million screens per month, and it does this having just 136 Pins.

Pinterest trends: Daily Harvest is in the perfect position to succeed on Pinterest. ‘Healthy habits’ is one of Pinterest’s trends for 2019, with searches for nutrition plans +475% year-on-year, showing that health-conscious consumers are using Pinterest to help them hit their goals.

Its Pins tend to focus directly on Daily Harvest products in its brand style of stunning product imagery against a solid, light background:

According to SimilarWeb data, Pinterest is Daily Harvest’s third-highest refer amongst social networks, driving around 13,000 visits per month —

— and much of this traffic is going directly to product pages (the link on each Pin takes the viewer to the corresponding page):

3. Create a simple-to-navigate website and tell an engaging story to generate backlinks

SimilarWeb estimates that over 30% of Daily Harvest’s traffic comes from search —

— that’s a pretty large chunk, and if SimilarWeb’s estimates are correct, that search traffic equates to around 270,000 visits per month for the brand. That’s a lot of potential customers.

So what can we take away from Daily Harvest’s search success?

Firstly, usability and design are important:

“The design, first of all, is obviously incredible. While I never consider design to be a direct SEO factor, having a positive experience on a site does make you more likely to talk about and link to it,” says Glen Allsopp, SEO consultant and founder of Detailed.com.

And Allsopp certainly isn’t alone in praising Daily Harvest’s design, Unbounce has also featured it in its roundup of companies that have created best-in-class landing pages.

But back to SEO…

Simplicity is somewhat of a theme for Daily Harvest across its website, content and even its products — pre-made, healthy meals that are ready in minutes.

And this theme carries over into its approach to SEO.

“I like that their URLs are short and descriptive, which is in line with their title tags as well,” notes Allsopp. “Title tags don’t get much more simple and clean than ‘Lentil + Mesquite Soup | Daily Harvest’.”

Daily Harvest also manages to include plenty of information on its product pages, something that’s not easy to do well Allsopp told me. First, each product has a short description right under the title —

— a little further down the page, visitors can see key ingredients, nutrition information and preparation instructions — essentially everything a customer would want to know about this product, without it feeling overwhelming:

One downside to Daily Harvest’s beautiful imagery is the effect it has on load times. “According to Google’s mobile site speed comparison tool, it’s a lot slower than competitors sites,” Allsopp shared.

But with much of its search traffic coming in via branded searches, Daily Harvest has done a great job building its brand and creating a loyal customer base:

Possibly Daily Harvest’s biggest SEO-win is the quality of backlinks it has been able to obtain from leading publications — something that’s a challenge for almost every business.

Link building is one of the hardest aspects of SEO — and I have no insider knowledge here — but I’d bet Daily Harvest has never sent out a batch of emails asking marketers to backlink to its site.

Instead, it does link building the right way, by telling its story… and having a great product.

“Daily Harvest’s founder, Rachel Drori, has been great at getting quoted in big publications,” Allsopp told me. “Some places that have asked her for comment include CNBC and The New York Times. Those aren’t easy links to get, so they’re likely to help the site for a long time to come.”

Because its products are high-quality and deliver on what it promises, it’s enabled Daily Harvest to be featured by industry experts and pick up links from high-authority sites like MSN:

“While they still have improvements to make with their on-site SEO, that’s always a great position to be in. Seeing opportunities for improvement there means there’s a good chance of growing organic traffic across the board going forward as well,” said Allsopp.

4. Use paid social to drive traffic to campaign-specific landing pages

When Daily Harvest runs ads, it doesn’t direct people to its homepage. Instead, it has a specially created landing page aimed to convert visitors to customers.

This isn’t a unique strategy. In-fact, creating specific landing pages for ads is a best practice for any brand investing in paid media. But the way Daily Harvest executes it is remarkable.

Here’s one of the brand’s landing pages:

Keeping in line with Daily Harvest’s beautiful design aesthetic, the page looks super-clean and simple. But when you really dig in, there’s a lot going on.

Here are four takeaways from Daily Harvest’s landing page:

1. The hero copy builds on ad promises

Let’s start by breaking down the hero section at the top of the page:

Daily Harvest is running a bunch of ads across Facebook and Instagram, and many of its ads are focused on these key messages:

Custom food plans

Quality, organic fruits and vegetables

Speed of preparation

Here are a few variations of that messaging in ad form:

Once someone has clicked one of these ads, they arrive at one of Daily Harvest’s landing pages and the copy builds on the key points mentioned in the ads. It reinforces that:

The food is high quality, and good for you

It’s ready in minutes

Health eating that fits your routine

2. The CTA offer is very clear

In each of its ads, Daily Harvest mentions that new customers can get $25 off their first box using a promo code —

— and when they reach the landing page, this 25% offer is featured in the hero section CTA:

This makes the buyer journey feel super smooth as promises that were made in the first part of the journey (the ads) are being backed up as people move through the buying experience.

3. The copy is all about you, the customer

As the visitor scrolls through the landing page they reach a ‘How it works’ section:

The first title tag ‘Customize Your Plan’ puts the emphasis on you, the potential customer, and throughout this section of the landing page the reader is constantly reminded that Daily Harvest is a product that can solve your unmet needs.

Here are a few snippets of copy (emphasis mine):

Pick a plan and fill your box with thoughtfully sourced, chef-crafted food

Delivered when you want it

Make fruits and vegetables a daily habit

This copy also fulfils a need to let the customer know exactly how the process works. Many visitors want a hassle-free way to consume healthier foods, but prior to visiting this page may not understand how Daily Harvest delivers on this.

Pay attention to the small details: Microcopy — the small pieces of text that provide extra information and provide context across websites and interfaces — is incredibly important, and can have a big influence on clicks and conversions.

For example, one company found that changing the phrase “Request a quote” to “Request pricing” resulted 161.66% increase in clicks to its lead gen form.

4. It uses social proof to back up its message

Social proof is a powerful sales tool and helps to build trust. As Alfred explains in his post on the subject:

“Often in situations where we are uncertain about what to do, we would assume that the people around us(experts, celebrities, friends, etc.) have more knowledge about what’s going on and what should be done.”

As a prospective Daily Harvest customer, I might not be an expert on healthy eating, I just know I want to eat healthier. So to back up its message, Daily Harvest features a range of well-known publishers that have covered its products to help build trust:

You’re more likely to put your faith in a health product featured by Men’s Health, Women’s Health and Vogue, than one no publisher has featured, right?

5. Build trust with new audiences through partnerships

Partnerships have become a key part of the direct-to-consumer marketing playbook.

Why?

In its simplest form, advertising is about connecting relevant audiences with your message. But when marketers focus purely on reach they run into a problem: reach has become a commodity — anyone can now create a Facebook ad and put it in front of an audience.

As Morgan Housel wrote —

Attracting eyeballs no longer sets you apart. Building trust among those who have their eyes on you, does. Getting people’s attention is no longer a skill. Keeping people’s attention is.

— and this is where partnerships come into their own: Building trust.

Let me explain…

When you follow a YouTuber, let’s say Casey Neistat, he’s built up your trust over hundreds (if not thousands) of hours of content and attention.

So when a brand like Samsung works with Casey, it helps the brand to build trust with Casey’s audience.

“If Samsung is cool with Casey, it’s cool with me.”

Daily Harvest takes a similar approach to partnerships….

YouTube drives significant traffic for Daily Harvest. You might recognize the below chart from earlier, but this time I’ve highlighted the YouTube numbers —

— around 23% of Daily Harvest’s social traffic comes from YouTube.

Curious as to why so many people come from YouTube to Daily Harvest I done a little digging… and it seems partnerships have a lot to do with it.

One the YouTube pages that appears to be sending a lot of traffic to Daily Harvest is from popular YouTuber, Wheezy Waiter (nearly 900k subs!):

The video (as you can probably guess from the above screenshot) is about the host’s experience trying out a vegan diet for a month.

And as the video progresses, the host runs into a problem with finding vegan desserts he likes. But Daily Harvest, the video’s sponsor, sent him 24 smoothies to help solve his problem:

Incredible product placement (this video has been watched 1.5 million times and counting) but it doesn’t end there. In the video description there’s a link to Daily Harvest’s website:

The link also has a UTM specific to Wheezy Waiter so the Daily Harvest team will be able to attribute traffic and sales to this partnership:

https://www.daily-harvest.com/?source=youtube&medium=cpc&campaign=inf&content=wheezywaiter&term=

Breaking down the UTM: Essentially, UTM codes tell the story of how traffic is arriving at a website. Here’s a breakdown of the Daily Harvest UTM:

source=youtube: This tells Daily Harvest the traffic has been referred by YouTube

medium=cpc: Says this was a cost-per-click campaign

content=wheezywaiter: Lets the Daily Harvest team know exactly which piece of content creator the traffic is came from

This is something Daily Harvest has done with a number of well-established YouTuber’s:

And:

But Daily Harvest’s partnerships aren’t limited to YouTube. It regularly runs Instagram takeovers with influencers and other brands in its stories —

— and it also has an ambassador program enabling people with large followings to share exclusive discounts and coupon codes with their audiences:

Daily Harvest is also very forthcoming with partnerships. Its website footer features a ‘Partnerships’ link:

This link then takes people to a simple form where they can register their interest in working with the brand:

5 Takeaways from Daily Harvest’s journey to 100,000+ customers

1. Understand your target customer’s unmet needs:

Daily Harvest has a clear understanding of who its customer is exactly and what problems it solves for them. This influences how the whole business works: From its product lines to how it positions itself in the market.

2. Use Pinterest as a discovery engine:

Pinterest is a discovery engine for brands. People use Pinterest in ways that mirror how they use magazines and catalogs. By posting relevant content Daily Harvest reaches over four million people per month on the platform.

3. Create a beautiful, simple-to-use buying experience:

Consumers are spoilt for choice now, to stand out you need to create great experiences. Daily Harvest’s website does just that. Its focus on story has also helped the company to pick up some very important backlinks.

4. Drive paid social traffic to specific landing pages:

When using paid acquisition channels (especially on social media), Daily Harvest links to specific landing pages that build on the promises made in the ads.

5. Unlock new audiences through strategic partnerships:

When you’re marketing to new audiences, it’s not so much about reach as it is building trust. Daily Harvest works with partners and influencers to help it establish trust with new potential customers.

5 Marketing Lessons from Daily Harvest’s Journey to Shipping One Million Smoothies published first on https://improfitninja.weebly.com/

0 notes

mariemary1 · 5 years