They say that if you do something every day for 30 days, then it becomes a habit. 30 days ago, I created an challenge for myself. Everyday, I had a topic and I had to create a blog post accompanied by an Instagram picture for it. It was definitely time consuming, but the challenge kept me accountable. In the past 30 days, I have learned a lot about social media editing. Trust me when I say that pictures on Instagram can take quite a while to create and edit, so don’t believe every picture you see. For example, I thought my arm looked too large in one photo, so I put a frame over half of it. It's all about the magic of editing. I do give Instagram influencers a lot of credit though, because they have to dedicate time to their pictures. I have also learned my own personal writing style. I have been writing in school for years and years, but it was never my own style. I always had to be aware of MLA or APA guidelines. I am confident in my MLA and APA abilities, but there are no rules in my blog. If I feel like saying ya girl, then I’m going to say ya girl, because ya girl can do whatever she wants here. You shouldn’t judge yourself based off of how many followers, or likes or unique visitors to a blog page you get. For me, this was just something to do for fun, but I realized that I started to become a little obsessed with all of it. We have to remember the difference between social media and life. In the end, I have decided to keep up with my blog, just not as often. There are some exciting things happening to me, so I will be sure to keep you guys posted, but I want to spend time actually enjoying those things and not just writing about it every day. Love, Miz Mak
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Ever since I was a young girl, I had a passion for event planning. In high school, I was president of way too many clubs to count, so I was able to help plan and attend events all over my city. It was anything from homecoming dances and parades, fashion shows with Gipper Formalwear, Mr. McHenry and numerous different volunteer opportunities.
It’s years later, and I still love all of it. My position with Lettuce Entertain You allows me to help create and supervise events like bridal showers, baby showers, and boat parties! There is no bigger event than a pageant, and I get to come back every year to help out with International Junior Miss Illinois and the Miss McHenry Pageant. I have worked with Fashion Bar Chicago for about two and half years now, and I get to attend and host events like launch parties and Chicago’s Fashion Week! There are more details to come, but I am excited to announce that I will be working with Pageant Day, an app to help girls keep connected during a pageant. My goal is to continue in the path that I have laid out for myself. One day, I want my entire life to be centered around event planning. Stay tuned for more events to come! Love, Miz Mak
One of the best outcomes from this 30 Day Challenge is that I have been learning so much about different topics. For example, it’s Arbor Day! Did you know that Arbor Day first became a holiday in Nebraska in 1872?
It seems a bit strange to celebrate trees, but they are very important for our ecosystem. Believe it or not, there are health benefits to being around trees! It can reduce stress levels, lower blood pressure and boost a person’s mood. So, go hug a tree after work each day. Not to sound anymore nerdy, but there are a lot of cool facts about trees, like the fact that trees help reduce crime. According to EcoWatch, “Chicago public housing residents with nearby trees and natural landscapes reported 25 percent fewer acts of domestic aggression and violence.” Today, I encourage you all to go outside and enjoy nature and the great weather (until it rains at 5pm). Go hug a tree or two. It’s good for you. Love, Miz Mak One of my favorite places to eat in Chicago is Le Colonial. I have tasted almost everything on the menu, so I know the best dishes. A little background. Le Colonial is a French-Vietnamese restaurant, which means that the food style is Vietnamese, but the atmosphere is French. The food is fresh with a lot of greens, seafood and noodles. If you need some suggestions, then you have come to the right place. Appetizers. I would recommend the Bo Bia. The Bo Bia is salad rolls wrapped in rice pepper with a sweet peanut plum dipping sauce. It comes with 6 pieces, so it’s enough to share. Salads. Either get the Goi Bun So or Goi Atiso. Goi Bun So has extremely tasty and soft sea scallops. They’re the best part! Goi Atiso is so flavorful with the mixture of crabmeat, artichoke and tamarind dressing. Soups. Pho. Obviously. It’s such a large bowl, that you could get full on just that. Mains. I forced myself to only chose one, but there is a tie between like five. My all-time favorite dish is the Ca Nuong. It’s salmon over vermicelli noodles (thin, white noodles) with a ginger-lime fish sauce. That’s what is pictured above. Love, Miz Mak
When people first find out that I have competed in pageants, I often find that they view me a little differently. There is a lot of stigma that comes with pageantry, and I have heard it all. People have thought that I was stuck up, unintelligent or vain. Well, none of those are true. In fact, I have not met one single pageant queen that is defined by those words. Through my ten years of pageantry, I have met some of the most intelligent, kind and giving queens in the world. Being a queen is about being a well-rounded person. Pageantry has taught me how to give back to my community, how to work towards a goal, how to be confident in front of others and how to speak with different groups of people. I think that’s the definition of a real queen. Pageant or not. I may no longer be a pageant queen, but I’m still a #queen. Love, Miz Mak It’s day two of Chicago's Fashion Week, and day one of me hosting the red carpet! I started working with Fashion Bar Chicago and Chicago's Fashion Week (CFW) about two years ago as an intern. I was the one that ran to Cosco to get the cake, checked guests in and ran around trying to find a missing Phomaz bag. My experience completely changed when I started hosting shows is Miss IJM Illinois. Now, I no longer wear the crown, but I still come back to host the shows! Over the past two years, I have seen CFW grow into wonderfully executed shows that bring the entire Chicago (and Midwest) community together. The number of models, designers and fashion fanatics I have met has been tremendous. I can wait to see what CFW will be like in five years, but I guess we will just have to take it one show at a time. If you are interested, you can still purchase tickets here. There are shows until Sunday. If you want to say hi, then just look for the girl with the microphone! Love, Miz Mak There’s no better way to celebrate Earth Day than with 50-degree weather! Finally, it’s starting to feel more like Spring than Winter! If you have used Google in the last 24 hours, then you have watched the video from Jane Goodell. She said, “Every single individual matters. Every single individual makes some impact on the planet every single day.” I truly believe this as well. There is only one Earth, and when the resources are completely depleted, then we will have no place to go, so it’s important that we all try to be conscious about how we are helping our hurting our ecosystem. This article on what we have learned since the last Earth Day is a very interesting read. I would highly recommend it just to be conscious of the world around us. It does contradict my statement that there is only one Earth, but I don’t retract what I said. Let’s all be mindful of how we are impacting the world around us! Love, Miz Mak In school, I studied public relations and advertising. It’s just a long word that means a lot of social media marketing, which is also a long word for creating pictures and captions for Instagram and Facebook. (There was more that I learned, I promise). So, over the years, I have created and maintained multiple different social media accounts. These four are the most recent Instagram accounts that I have managed in the past or manage now. Fashion Bar Chicago is a fashion consulting firm specializing in runway execution, marketing, public relations and promotions. They manage Chicago's Fashion Week, which starts tomorrow! Gabriella Dilone is my sister. I have to give a quick shout out, because she has been acting in movies, commercials and short films. She recently got casted for a short film! International Junior Miss Illinois / Midwest is a pageant system that I have been working with for a couple of years. Last year, I was crowned Miss Illinois IJM, and I have been heavily involved ever since. I have taken on the title of Event and Public Relations Coordinator (completely made up). Basically, I help to manage events and the social media. This picture is of me with the current queens at a red carpet event! Pageant Day App is a new app that was launched last week! I will be working with them to promote on social media, and I’ll be going to Ohio in May to a pageant event on behalf of Pageant Day! Here are all of the Instagram handles: @fashionbarchicago @IJMIllinoisMidwest @Gabriella.Dilone @PageantDayApp @ChicagosFashionWeek Give them a quick follow. Love, Miz Mak |
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