I promised you all that I would talk about my whole re-branding process, switching from Moxee to just Breanna Rose. I’ve talked about inspiration, colors, and typography, but wanted to bring up some important things I found while researching social media. When you go through a name change, you have to take think about all of your accounts. After all, I wouldn’t want my twitter or pinterest still calling me moxee, would I?? Nope! Turns out, going through all these changes aren’t as bad as one may think. Let’s break down some of the biggest social media outlets, shall we??

TWITTER : Twitter is the biggest platform I use not only for communicating with my readers, but in general. Turns out you can easily change your user + display name here, all in your personalized settings. After you switch, you’ll want to send out a tweet showcasing your new twitter handle. In fact, you may want to do this a couple times, spanned throughout a couple of days, so as many of your followers see it as possible.

FACEBOOK : Facebook is another large communication platform, but unfortunately, they’re not as friendly with changing your name. If your facebook fanpage has more than 100 “likes,” then you’re out of luck and your name cannot be changed. You’ll have to start over! This has been the only hurdle I could find in my research. I know I’ll have to start fresh on facebook, but there are always ways of redirecting your visitors there via tweets, old facebook page posts, and much more! Get creative.

BLOGLOVIN : I know bloglovin isn’t as popular as twitter, facebook, or other readers, but I’ve certainly found it to be key in communicating new posts with readers. There’s a huge audience over there just waiting for you to tap into. Unfortunately, in your personalized settings, you can’t just go in and change your name + RSS feed. The good news is that if you contact support, they’ll do it for you!!

PINTEREST : The bad news here is that sources to your old posts won’t direct to your new blog. However, if you’d like your username to match, that’s easy! Simply head on over to your settings to change all that.

Hope this helps give a little insight as to what happens when all of your usernames need to change for that cohesiveness factor! Oh, and those colors used above in the photo are from my new color palette. Sneak peek!

I don’t know about you, but I often find myself in personal moments where I’m just about to feel like that picture right up there. You know, not quite at that point, but the time building up beforehand. Being that I work from home, my hours are often strange and projects sneak up on you when you’re managing everything yourself. I still haven’t perfected my own work method for working as a fulltime freelance creative, but I’m getting there. I can honestly say that I’m a whole lot more organized than I was last June! Phew.

With that said, when you do find yourself on the verge of a beautiful little explosion from work overload, just keep swimming in the best way you can. For some, that means taking an hour long break or going for a walk. For me, I try to become calm. If things start feeling like a lot unexpectedly, I always first turn to my to do lists. I’ve found that instead of thinking about everything all at once, narrow your focus. What needs to be done in this exact moment? You got it? Okay, now do it. You’ll drive yourself completely wacko if you don’t allow yourself to get into that focus and instead let the big picture scare you! These moments tend to fade once you punch through, you just need to figure out how to do so.

Another thing I’ve noticed as a freelancer is that timing is KEY. Working from home isn’t a 9-5 job … it’s actually quite sporadic, but that’s what I love about it. If I’m feeling most creative at midnight, I’ve learned to just go with it, because chances are I won’t feel that same sparkle the next morning. I used to beat myself up over creative blocks that would occur during a “normal” work day. But you know what, these things happen to all creatives. Follow your heart and move on.

Just some important things I’ve realized this past year that I thought I’d share!

Oftentimes, when people get photoshop for the first time, they tend to go all out. They have all these layers, shapes, brushes, and fun things at their dispense and it suddenly becomes : “Let’s do everything all at once on this canvas!” Don’t get me wrong, I’m SUCH a big fan of bloggers who make their blog come to life in their own way and think it’s a great asset for serious bloggers. By layering text on top of imagery or adding a couple of fun shapes here and there, your posts become even more visually appealing, when done right.

So consider this my plea : don’t over do it. I know photoshop is exciting and there are SO many resources out there for you to take advantage of, but it breaks my little designer heart every time I see someone do too much in one post. I think this quote, stated by Einstein, says it well : “Make everything as simple as possible, but not simpler.” When design is done right, there’s not too much or too little. It’s just what it’s supposed to be.

I know this is a hard concept to grasp, for everyone … not just non-designers. Try your best to try new things for one post, and another the next day. Over time, you’ll learn what works best for you and I guarantee that your readers will appreciate it and come back for more.

I know many people are faced with the ever challenging inbox war. You know, just when you thought you’ve answered everything, another email pops in! It can be difficult + time consuming, I know … so I thought I’d share some tips from my very own INBOX ZERO policy. That’s right! I like to have everything clean/sorted/answered ( if possible ) by the end of my day. It makes me sleep better at night.

ORGANIZE : If I didn’t have folders, my life would be infinitely more chaotic. Yikes! My inbox consists of just two things. Ongoing conversations and anything unanswered. That’s it!! Receipts, bills, spam, and closed conversations that I no longer need are always immediately sorted into a folder or deleted. I actually never have more than one page of emails in my inbox. Everything else goes into it’s place to prevent chaos!

NOTIFICATIONS : Here’s the thing … with technology, we have the ability to be notified each and every time an email is sent. I get notifications on my desktop while working and my iphone will beep as well. For me, this is perfect! I’m one of those people who is able to break whenever I hear that noise and quickly sort through things. If I’m not at a breaking point, I wait an hour. No big deal. However, I know there are people out there that would go nuts always hearing that beep or being interrupted, so this part is up to you. If you get irritated with notifications going off, just get rid of them and have a scheduled part of your day where you can sort through things.

ANSWER ASAP : It’s so easy to let an email slip. If you’ve worked with me before, you know that I like to respond quick. For me, if I don’t respond or sort an email as soon as possible, it can slip away from me like THAT. But nobody is perfect and not everything can be answered right away. Clients always get first response from in my case, to keep things rolling. I then handle questions, inquiries, and casual emails as time sees fit. Usually on work breaks!

MARKINGS : This part goes along with the previous tip, actually! If I’m not able to answer an email right away, I’ve developed a system where the email remains in my inbox and is starred ( I use gmail, but other email clients have similar markings). Starred emails mean that I have yet to respond.

DON’T BE PERFECT : So at the end of the day, do I really mean that my inbox is empty? NO. Of course not! What I mean by INBOX ZERO is that by the time I turn off my computer, I have sorted emails into folders, answered as many emails as possible, and starred the rest for responding soon. Basically, I make sure I’ve cleaned up my mess from the day, that’s all! Keep up with things to the best of your ability, don’t try to be perfect, and things will shape up!

Have you ever thought to yourself “MAN, I wish I had access to some free subtle patterns right now. It’s make life easier!” Okay, well I have. Then I stumbled across this fancy pants patterns website that allows use of their designs/patterns for personal AND commercial use. That’s right folks, totally free!! I could seriously spend hours scrolling through their website looking for the perfect ones. My FAVORITE part is that when you click on “preview” for the pattern you’d like to see, the whole background changes.

This is one of those things you just gotta bookmark. You never know when you’ll need a good pattern in your life!

I will often browse the internet for hours on end to find new + fun fonts that I don’t yet have. It’s a huge plus when they’re nicely done AND free. So, I wanted to share a few with you all that I think look lovely together or on their own. The first is a dainty script font called sofia, while the second is a sturdy slab serif called bree serif.

The main reason they work together so well is their differences. Because bree is so strong, sofia can have all that fun up there. But seriously guys, picking out fonts that match each other is really fun … you should try it sometime!

A couple weeks ago, I wrote about some tips for using twitter … but here’s the thing, I left out a few tips + logistics I still wanted to talk about. The main thing being: WHO sees what??

It actually took me quite some time to figure out this loophole in twitter: your followers won’t see absolutely everything you tweet. Although most people do know about this, I know I was blown away when I finally figured it out – so I thought I’d share it just in case a few of you hadn’t heard yet.

So let’s go back to the phrase: your followers won’t see absolutely everything you tweet. Fact. The reason for this has to do with how you START your 140 character tweet. Let’s say you want so say something cool about “@someone.” So you tweet the following: @someone has great tips about twitter on their blog today! Now, only your followers who are ALSO following @someone will see the tweet. Because you began your tweet with a twitter handle, that’s simply the rule. If one of your followers is not following @someone, your tweet will never show up in their feed. Meaning, important things can go unread. I’ve seen many people on twitter do this sort of thing and have wanted to say something to help out … but it’s a bit hard to explain in such a short sentence, right??

But guess what, it’s an easy fix! If you want ALL of your followers to see a tweet about someone, simply rephrase your tweet so that the twitter handle ( ie: @someone ) falls somewhere in the middle of your tweet rather than the beginning. Oftentimes, people will put a period in front of the twitter handle if they REALLY want to start the tweet off with someone’s name. For example: .@someone has great tips about twitter on their blog today!

Keep this rule in mind when you’re having long conversations with people on twitter, re-tweeting, or tweeting in general. It’s definitely something to keep in mind!

2011 was a definite growing year for me … I started blogging and have been freelancing for about a year now. And although I’m not some kind of expert in either of those areas, I’ve found that the most fulfilling part of it all has definitely been the connections I’ve made. Whether it be a new twitter buddy, client, or business partner, I’ve loved watching these new relationships flourish in the best possible way.

For all of you creatives out there: don’t be afraid to say hello to someone new and make a connection! Honestly, you never know what can come of it. Friendships, projects, collaborations … who knows! I couldn’t be more thankful for the job I have, working with new and creative people every sing day. Sure, it can be endless somedays, but I wouldn’t trade it for the world, as cheesy as that may sound.

I can’t wait to see what 2012 has in store … I have a sneaky feeling it’s going to be a good one! Only time will tell, but I know that I have some pretty amazing people I’m surrounded by, which makes all the difference. Bring it twenty twelve.