Nothing makes me as insecure as a blog conference. The time when your online personality meets the offline. The time when you can't hide behind an avatar. The time when you have to make conversation in more than 140 characters. The time when you can't draft and edit your thoughts before publishing. I obsess for weeks before: how much weight have I gained since the last conference? What are my latest successes? How many people know about my latest failures? Was everyone reading my twitter stream that one day I just went off? Will I be the only one wearing a dress? Are jeans OK? What if everyone in the room ignores me? UGH! Why do I do this to myself? And then I take a deep breathe, put on my spanx enhanced big girl panties and get on with it. And something amazing starts to happen. After the first few hours of squeals and delights and big hugs to everyone, I settle into my calm. I find a comfy couch in the corner of the room and even though I may know half the room, I connect with just a few people on a deeper level. I catch up with old friends, make some new ones, really listen to what is going on in their lives. That is where I find my bliss. I find my bliss in ...
If You Give a Blogger Some Ambien…
If you give a blogger some ambien and set her loose on Etsy, she will find a pretty font she likes. The font will remind her she really needs to do her signature. Which will lead her to spend $15 on a premade logo. The premade logo will remind her how much she likes brights colors. She will begin to realize she made a mistake creating such a bland personal website. Then she will decide to redo it because all her boys are sick and there is a big snow storm coming. When she puts the pretty logo on the new site, she is inspired to do something different. Which leads her to another night of graphics shopping. Now, sleep deprived, she decides to completely redesign the site. Happy with what she is seeing, she realizes she needs new business cards. She decided to buy a bunch of other branded crap she doesn't need while she was sucked into the Vista Print sales. Then she remembered that in order to really re-brand she would have to create a new timeline template and twitter background. Which sent her template shopping. While she was there she realized her slider frames suck. So she bought some more. And you know, when a digital mom buys a new ...
Tips For Making #Blissdom Blissful
In a few short weeks women from all over the Blogosphere will descend on Nashville, TN for the 4th annual Blissdom Conference. I've had a long and storied history with this conference in that every year I have planned to attend, and every year I have had to cancel. Last year, literally the day before. Being a mom always comes ahead of getting your #bliss on, right? Super excited to have a chance to finally attend, I will be there as a Travel Niche Community Leader. Which leads me to my post today... While I will be new to Blissdom I am certainly not new to travel or blog conferences. And when I travel alone, I tend to leave my brain at home. I am super organized when my family travels, but when it is just me, my chaos flag totally fly's! SO, here are some tips to avoid some of the situations that have either happened to me, or an unfortunate blogging friend as you get ready for #blissdom! Stop worrying about what you are going to wear. No one is going to care. I promise. They are more worried about if they look OK. Worry instead about your luggage! All the outfit planning in the world isn't going to help if your bags get lost. My suggestion is to bring a carry on ...
Our Family is Expanding By One More Bronco’s Fan
Please welcome the latest addition to our family. Weighing in at 12 pounds 5 oz he is one big baby. We are overjoyed with our new arrival but my slippers aren't. Floyd joined our family last week. He was a rescue puppy adopted from Humane Society of Boulder and was brought to Boulder as part of the PetSmart Charities® Rescue Waggin’® program. Both organizations deserve some 'crazy mad props' for getting our little guy to his forever home. So impressed with the work they do! If you would like to be inundated with cute pictures of our puppy, click the big like button below to get to my new facebook page. ...
How Do We Help Our Kids Make Good Choices (and is it our responsibility when they dont?)
Last year I wrote a hard post about my biological father being homeless. It is interesting how many people I surprised. I think we often forget when we meet people as adults in surburbia PTA that people have stories behind them. I think we are so quick to form someone whole identity from seeing them in their mini-van driving, middle class living life that how they got there never is asked. Today I am asking it because of a conversation on my facebook wall. It was prompted by the sharing of this link by someone I really respect: I started to wonder how the kid got to this stage? Forget what you think of the sign and ask what the backstory is here? Is this the moms first attempt at 'fixing' the problem herself? What makes a kid at 14 start selling drugs? Where is the parental responsibilty in that? It was suggested that I had a black and white thinking that bad kids are a result of bad parenting. I actually don't think that. The truth is I don't believe there are 'bad kids'. I believe there are kids (and parents) that make "bad" choices, even long spiraling series of choices in some cases. It was suggested it was easier to make bad choices when you grow up poor. But I ...