Workflow Life: New Tools in the Box

Settling into a job that allows you to be creative as a designer and organizer is something I never saw for myself so soon. But here I am contentedly working on marketing plans for clients through my employer and reinvigorated with creativity planning for my freelance work.

Of course, I'm not exactly working at full speed on shiny calibrated gears, but I've assessed my toolbox and know what exactly I need to excel my productivity.

In fact, in the past two weeks, I've learned more through just sitting in a focused environment and not having to inhibit my creativity than I have in the past few months while I was freelancing in my free time. Granted, I'm still freelancing, but it doesn't have to be a skill I worry about training and completing in the dark hours of the night when I would sacrifice sleep for one to two side projects.

Brands I Love Update: Warby Parker and Bellabeat

I figured, you get a lot of reviews on products but the follow ups are rare. I'm putting two follow-ups in here because..well they time up well and are both fashion/productivity based.

First off,

So I love my Warby Parker glasses. Seriously, you have to pry my Laurel or Edgar frames off my face. Sometimes I wonder why I ever made the switch to contacts, but they have their use...trust me.

I'm just accepting that I'm one of those people who will definitely need to balance both in her life.

Even though I'm stupid happy in love with my frames, I keep up with the new releases from WP and when I saw the new frames they released with a partnership with the wonderful and amazing Amanda de Cadenet, I just swooned. These glasses are in collaboration to support Amanda's fem-powering organization of #GirlGaze an organization founded by Amanda for providing "young female-identifying photographers with the tools and support they need to hone their craft. Backed by a who’s-who of female creatives, #girlgaze is a multimedia digital community showcasing the ways in which girls see the world."

Of course, the frames I fell in love with the most were the "Ella" frames. They're similar to the "Edgar" frames, in the sharp matte black wide frame sense, but they have fashionable curves and edges and details. Ugh, I want them so bad. To be honest I'm going to need some sort of organization station for my glasses and my contacts.

There's another pair from the collaboration that was released, they're called, "Silvan", a pink-transparent frame that's available as both clear vision and tinted sunglasses. I've never been one personally for translucent frames, but these are gorgeous. Check them out if you get a chance, I'm sure you'll fall in love. 

I'll let y'all know if I get a chance to try them on. If you do, definitely be sure to click through the images above and let me know how you like them and Warby Parker overall!!

Now on to Bellabeat,

I'll preface this by saying, I have yet to hear back from them on this issue but nonetheless it's very frustrating.

I've taken very intricate care of my Bellabeat Leaf Nature. It has never been exposed to moisture exposure nor experienced severe trauma of being hit or dropped or anything of the sort. I've had it less than a month and it has been treating me well, except suddenly it stopped responding out of nowhere.

I restarted my iPhone, reinstalled the app, put in a new battery, let it rest for a couple hours then a day, removed all my Bluetooth connections....everything! Nothing. Now I just have a beautiful but useless piece of wood and metal sitting on my desk.

I'm so frustrated. Really hope I don't have to buy a new one, it is still a pricey device, at least for when I have another tracking device, it seems a bit frivolous to attempt to buy a new one.

Sigh, I hope they can fix this. I love my Bellabeat, so much.

Tech Review: Turning On of a new Leaf

The silver leaf clip on my collar at all times this week, compliments and questions as to what it was, the familiarity of the image peaking the curiosity of those around me.

"I've seen that before", "Oh, that looks familiar", "How is that thing?"

Let me tell you, I was skeptical about my Bellabeat and was sure I was going to return it after my trial run. But my goodness it has changed my life for the better.

Tech Review: Fossil Q Right for You? I Think So

A few months ago I was out and about at the local mall picking up my prescription contacts when I strolled by the Fossil store.

Now, it'd been about a year since I'd been in a Fossil store. Last time I made a purchase from Fossil, I went into the store looking for a leather Celine look-a-like and ended up walking out with a beautiful "Perfect Boyfriend" watch.

But this time was different, I walked in and was perusing just to see if any other face colors had come out for the "Perfect Boyfriend" watch and stumbled upon the Fossil Q watches. Immediately I was confused looking at this non-digital face watch and yet reading that it was a smart watch. Before I could even attempt to touch the watch demo myself, a store attendant was at my side and I was sure that she was some sort of witch or wizard manipulating the watch to do all these amazing things.

Fossil Q Gazer on the left and Fossil Q Nate on the right

I don't know why or how, but I was completely enthralled and made the choice to purchase not only one for myself, but one for my best friend. (For the record, the watch was so economically priced for the quality, brand, and features also, Fossil was having a 25% off sale). I had felt behind in the smartwatch trend, but I just wasn't one for a digital face on a watch. Something about a classic face with two hands and hour markers just seemed to be more...me? And I know my friend definitely had the same preferences.

So there I was walking out of the store with a Fossil Q Gazer in Rose Gold with a matching chain-link band for me and a Fossil Q Nate with a matte black chain-link band for my friend.

Here's a rundown of the hybrid features on each watch:

Applies for both watches mentioned

As a smartwatch, or as any smart wearable goes, there's an app that is used to set up preferences and sync activity recorded with the wearable. The "Fossil Q" app, available in the Apple App Store and Google Play store, is the official designated companion app for the watch.

The hybrid watches use Bluetooth Connectivity and depend on this connection to sync data and connect. If you use it to get notifications from your phone (social media, calls, texts..etc.), you must keep Bluetooth on. Once you set up alarms or goals on the watch, your Bluetooth signal on your phone does not have to be activated for those to be activated which is actually pretty nice.

TopShop dress and Gazer 

I really like the activity tracker and sleep tracker aspect, but I won't get too much into those since step-tracking and sleep tracking are pretty much a commonality in most major market smart wearables. What I will say is the sleep tracking feature has, for the most part, helped me get over this irrational fear of wearing a watch to bed. (inherited from my dad's behaviors, always fearful of waking up in the middle of the night and seeing my watch hands stop completely stopped a la some Twilight Zone kinda story).

So what I love the most about the Fossil Q watch is this feature called "Q Link". This feature syncs up with a preferred function (that's changeable through the app), and you can activate this function with your watch through your phone...again as long as Bluetooth is on.
The functions available through Q-Link on my Gazer are: Ring Phone, Change Music, Take a Picture, and Goal Tracking.

Setting up through the app, you can use the lower button on the side of the watch face to activate these functions. My favorite two are Ring Phone and Take a Picture, especially because the latter is functional with Snapchat (my favorite personal social media app). You can record video and snap pics from a distance with this button and it's just absolutely my favorite.

Also, the phone ring function is perfect for those of us who lose our phones hella frequently, especially if you're in the same room/area you misplaced your phone. The only downside to this is that you have to be certain you left your "Q Link" setting on phone ring and not on one of the other functions for this to work.

I'd love for future versions of the software and/or app to include the option of being able to change the function of "Q Link" by multiple presses or something along those lines. (I'm not an engineer, don't grill me).

Collage of my app stats

Overall, I love this app and watch. It's beautiful and versatile (especially the chain link version in which the band is replaceable with official leather bands as well). Because it's a watch and it runs on a watch battery, there's no need to charge it. Battery replacements are expected once a year at least, and that's a great pro.
The app does get a bit confusing when designating a number on the face to a notification. I had to play around with it for a while before figuring it out. But nonetheless, the ability to sync up with almost any social media app and contact is perfect and a great pro over my Fitbit Alta, which only notified me of calls and text messages.

It can get a little heavy at times, especially when I'm relaxed or trying to sleep. I feel a bit odd wearing a fashion watch when I'm having a lazy evening or weekend around the house. But, that's just me.

I do love my watch and I love Fossil products overall. The real challenge will be the next time I walk into a Fossil store and see if I buy a new watch (for instance I'm kinda in love with the perfect boyfriend sport multifunction blue stainless steel one), or if I buy a new Fossil Q (I really like the Wander in silver or rose gold) or maybe I finally get a Fossil bag (Maya Hobo, Kinley Crossbody or Kendall Satchel are callin' my name). But who knows...time will tell....and I'll tell that time on my watch!

For Items Talked about in this post, visit my Pinterest Page and the board: Name Dropped in the Blogs!