I’m here.
I’m sort of back. I’m here, but not here, ya know? I’ve been reading your blogs, and getting back to commenting, but I’m mostly staying off twitter and all of the other social places. I honestly can’t deal with the time suck right now! I’ve been up to my eyeballs in work the last few days, which is really a good thing as it distracts me. As hard as this weekend was, I did appreciate seeing family that I haven’t seen in many many years. When I lived “away” I missed many family events and I don’t want that to happen anymore.
I have to say, I love you all, my bloggy, tweety friends. Even though I closed comments on my last post, so that no one would feel obligated to say anything, soooo many of you emailed me, dm’ed me and @ed me anyway. I can’t thank you enough for your kind words and virtual hugs.
So, since I truly believe blogging is good for my psyche, I’m considering joining NaBloPoMo in November. Considering. For those of you who don’t know what the heck I’m talking about, November is National Blog Posting Month, when you post something every single day. Generally I post about 4-5 days a week anyway so it’s not a huge stretch for me to do it. However. I’m worried the obligation will make me despise my own blog. (And the crap I might post could make you hate it too.)
I want to know – are you joining in too? Have you done it before? Loved it or hated it?
I might just go with the consensus in comments…should I do it, yes or no?
BlogHer is what happens in the hallways
I promise this is my last post about BlogHer Boston, but I really wanted to give a shout out to everyone I met and/or got a business card from. Some people I spent lots of time with, and others only briefly, but everyone I met was completely amazing! I think I lost some business cards so I am winging it a bit. If I missed your name, please (!) leave me a comment so I can visit your site.
Kristy – This chick rocks the conference planning!
Megin – I’m so glad she decided to come at the last minute!
Velma – We are way too much alike!
Tempting Mama – I adore her, and her sweet baby too.
Double Agent Girl – We’re stalking each other now.
Karen Sugarpants – Dude. She makes me laugh, and I love to laugh.
Elisa Camahort – She’s a sweetheart, and gave me some great advice.
Chicky Chicky Baby – she’s a pro with the baby wearing, and as sweet as can be.
Motherbumper – Oh, the funny! And so cute I wanted to put her in my pocket and take her home.
Her Bad Mother – I didn’t think this was possible, but I admire her even more now that I’ve met her.
Dawniemom – She was hurt and she still came!
Jane Porricelli - Why yes I did get to meet all three Moms Generations women!
Sharon Couto – I was lucky enough to have breakfast with her and we really hit it off.
Audrey McClelland – Omg Henry! I loved meeting these ladies.
Sherry Pardy – I found her on twitter the day before and I’m so glad I did!
Liz Henry – I wish I could have spent more time picking her brain!
The MomCentral ladies, Kara and Abbey
Of course the sponsors were awesome too, GM, Yahoo, Leapfrog, Life’s Good, Springpadit, Hooked on Phonics, Playtex Baby, and more that I can’t think of!
I really had a great time, and I would highly recommend going to one if you’re at all thinking about it. I can’t wait for BlogHer 09, wherever it is!
here’s what I learned at BlogHer
I’m sitting in the hotel restaurant looking like a fool typing on my computer while I eat, but I feel like I need to get this down while I’m still here.
I had grand plans to live blog some of my sessions yesterday, one of which was on Information Overload. Yeah. Just being here is information overload. It’s awesome though, and I’ve met some amazing people. What a FOOL I was to think I’d have time for posting at all!
I laughed until my face hurt, and talked until my voice was hoarse.
I don’t know how to even start telling you about the people here. This conference, and BlogHer are not just about the sessions, it’s about us. Our community. Every session boils down to the same thing. Write well, find your community, have conversations. The rest will come. You want traffic? Do those three things. You want comments? Do those three things. You want more opportunity? Do those three things. Write well, find your community, and have conversations. Put yourself out there (does the word twitter ring a bell?) and the rest will come.
Okay. I’m done eating and will probably get dirty looks from the waitress soon. When I get home I’ll post my pics up on Flickr, and give some linky love to everyone whose business card I have in my pocket!
Updated: I only took a few decent photos, but I just posted them to Flickr. I really could kick myself for not taking more. D’oh. Luckily lots of other Bloghers took more than I! Check out the BlogHer flickr group.
Filed Under blogging, friends Tagged blogging, BlogHer, conference, flickr
one more day to blogher
Today is a much better day! No headache and a decent night’s sleep do wonders for the psyche.
I’m mostly ready for tomorrow. I have adorable (and comfy) new shoes, and a huge new laptop bag. Both on sale – so it wasn’t a huge splurge. I really really needed the laptop bag, the shoes – well you know, they’re shoes!
I’m also happy: 1. because I got my BlogHer ad code today – yay! and 2. because DH fixed the pictures on my blog!
Since I need to test uploading images, let’s show you my lovely new purchases!
See how cute?! The bag is pink inside! Uh. Don’t look at the table though. I swear those are watermarks, not fingerprints!
So what do you think is holding that bag upright? Why it’s the giant pink can of coffee I won in Mamaspohr’s contest in honor or Breast Cancer Awareness Month!
It’s like the Godzilla of coffee cans! Thank you Mamaspohr. 
I think that’s more than enough coffee to wake me up tomorrow morning. At least I only have a 45 minute drive, but I still have to be up WAY too early. I’ll try to post something from there during the day, hopefully some pics and maybe even liveblog one of the sessions for fun, but I can’t promise anything!
Well you know what I’m doing, and probably thoroughly sick of hearing about it, so tell me, what are you doing for the weekend?
so, it looks a little different around here
(Hey all you feed readers – you need to click on over today and see my shockingly different site design!)
Welcome to the new and improved Catnip and Coffee! I designed the header, but my dear husband did all the real work! I’m very luck to have a resident geek, and a cute geek at that. He’s been very good at putting up with my whining about nagging micromanaging of this process.
This look definitely feels more “me” to me! Black, white, red, and touch of pink – that’s definitely my style. I’m super happy to finally have my avatar incorporated into the design here. It just makes more sense.
There’s still some tweaking to do. Like the post titles aren’t quite right, and the photos aren’t working yet. I also lost my entire blogroll. The new blogroll will be in a separate page. If you were on it before, and are not yet, please feel free to remind me to put you back!
Also, the right column, which looks very bare right now, is going to have BlogHer ads soon! I’m very happy to be accepted in the the BlogHer ad network and can’t wait to get it going!
Anyway, I hope you like this as much as I do!
who cares about a title, it’s just bullets today
- TGIF!
- The boy has been out of school yesterday and today. There’s something wrong with the plumbing, and the older kid classes have taken over the pre-k and kindergarten rooms (where they have their own bathrooms) They can cancel pre-k and k because there aren’t requirements for how many days they have to attend school per year. It makes sense – by keeping grades 1-4 in session they don’t have to make up the days later – but still bites for me!
- With nothing better to do we headed out to the library this morning. I just got home to find the fly on my jeans unzipped. Yay for tunic length shirts! Dumb, dumb, dumbass.
- TGIF!!
- I have had this headache on and off for a couple of weeks. At first I thought it was a sinus thing, but now I’m beginning to suspect it’s my eye prescription. My eyes haven’t changed in about 5 years, but I’m due for an optometry visit. If it’s changed I’ll need both new glasses and new contacts. Dang $.
- It would probably help my eyes if I didn’t stare at a computer screen 18 hours a day, eh?
- More than just my headache would be better if I had less screen time, my dishes would be done, the laundry would be put away, the rugs vacuumed…heh. Oh well!
- Speaking of screen time, if you’ve seen me on twitter the last few days you’ll notice a change in my avatar. We’re turning twitter pink for Breast Cancer Awareness Month. Let me know if you do it too!
- Thank you to everyone who commented on my business cards! I had them printed exactly as shown (they’re clearer in person, I swear!) at Fed Ex – $20 for 200 cards.
- And speaking of comments – I love you all for your moisturizer advice! Seriously. I bought the Aveeno Ultra Calming Daily Moisturizer, as suggested. I couldn’t believe how many choices Aveeno had, and this one seemed like the best bet for me. This stuff is fantastic! Not greasy at all, and has the spf I needed.
- TGIF!!!
- Okay, dumb gardening question. What do you know about growing hot peppers? I have some Kung Pao mix growing – long and thin, and still very green. Frost is coming soon. If I pick them green will they continue to ripen and get red like a tomato does? If not, they’re still edible green, yes? I have A LOT of them (plants are in a big pot on the front porch) and I intend to freeze them. Do I do it whole or trim and seed them first? Can you tell I’ve never grown hot peppers before??
- Speaking of gardening, did I mention that I did not have to buy a single tomato all summer long?! We had tons of them just from the three pots (and almost none from the real garden, sigh) on the porch. I’m planting container gardens forever more.
- Good god, a work email just came in that I’ve been waiting on all week. Must go deal with it, and then?
- TGIF!!!!
Have a great weekend, mwah!
Filed Under blogging Tagged blogging, bullets, gardening, the boy, work
bloggy business cards
Okay – here’s my business card design – or at least close to it. I actually did this myself and DH is going to tweak it for me tonight before I get them printed. What do y’all think?
When you see that b/w icon – you know it’s me right away, right? I try to use it on all my accounts so it’s immediately recognizable.
Of course, two of those three urls aren’t actually working yet – but they will before Oct. 11 (2 weeks!!) when I go to the BlogHer Reach Out in Boston.
Tell me if you love it or hate it – I’m hopefully printing tomorrow!
it must be time for bullets
It’s one of those bullet kind of days, don’t you think?!
- There is an official relaunch over at Blog Nosh Magazine. It’s been completely redesigned and it is absolutely gorgeous! If you’ve checked it out before but haven’t been there lately you should go see how tasty it is now! If you’ve never been there at all, well, what the heck are you waiting for??
- Chapter 15 is up at ChapterBytes written by Desiree from Mother’s Musings. She did such a great moving the story along, thanks Desiree!
- I cleaned my house. You must know by now that such an event is worthy of a bullet. Maybe two since it’s like, really really clean.
- I think I might have to make the boy take naps after school. And I might have to rename him Crankyboy. All this new information is being crammed in his little brain and he’s exhausted. Are you experiencing this with your kids too?
- I’m considering a site redesign. I’m kind of tired of the green.
- It’s also because I’m considering putting up an ad and I need a third column. PLEASE don’t hate me for it and unsubscribe.
- I need to get some business cards made up before the BlogHer Boston Reach Out on Oct. 11. Any recommendations? They need to be very inexpensive and I’ll be designing them myself. When I say that of course I mean DH will be designing them.
- Lastly, can I just say this whole new schedule is killing me? I used to be able to get up at 7:30 and still get him to preschool on time. Now? I have to be up and showered before 7. Ugh. I. Am. So. Tired.
Filed Under blogging Tagged blog nosh, blogging, bullets, life, the boy
stumbling around
I am, at the moment, mired in penguin pictures, still. But every now and then I take a mini-break and go read some of your wonderful posts out there. The problem is, my brain is so fried and my time is so limited I haven’t been commenting as much as I like to. You all know what a commenting fool I usually am! Please don’t think that I haven’t been reading.
Along those same lines, I’ve always tried to respond to individual comments here. Yeah, I kinda suck at that lately. I love you guys for commenting, and frankly, comments pretty much make my day. I am constantly amazed that you keep coming back here and reading my drivel! The number of comments compared to my total readership here is pretty shocking. Look at my Feedburner chicklet on the bottom left, I only have like 30-40 regular readers, and you all comment pretty much at least once a week. I can’t thank you enough for that.
So here’s the thing I’ve been thinking about. I’m trying to be a better sharer. Commenting on your blogs is fun, and I’m sure you appreciate it, but, if I only have 10 seconds, would you rather I say “great post!” for only you to see or would you rather I Stumble it so others will know about it? Stumble eh, I thought so. So I am going to make myself a new policy, that I am going to become a Stumbling fool as much as I am a commenting fool!
If you are on Stumble, please come find me so we can share great posts with each other! I want to see what you Stumble too!
Some of you may be asking, what the heck is Stumble? It’s one of those social media places where you can share your favorite reads with your friends. Check it out, sign up, (friend me!) and start giving a thumbs up to your favorite sites and posts! Btw, it helps to download the Stumble toolbar for your browser, it just makes it that much easier to say “I like it!”
In the same vein, if you prefer using one the other link sharing sites, you can probably find me there too. Although I’m concentrating my efforts on Stumble I do have profiles on these as well: del.icio.us, Digg, Kirtsy, and Technorati.
I love you, my bloggy friends, mwah!
edited to add: BTW, one key to being a good stumbler is to NOT mark your friends as Adult Content by mistakenly hitting the wrong button. Damn. Um, hey Neil, I’m trying to fix that porn label on your post. Sorry!!!
a thief
Hi all! I’m currently blogging from my MIL’s front porch, since that’s the only place I can connect to the internet. Why yes, I am, in fact, borrowing a wireless connection from some faceless neighbor in the backwoods of Central Maine! Thanks to whoever you are, I really appreciate it. (I gotta say, it was a little easier to work at the FIL’s last night – he has wireless set up!)
I just wanted to check in and say hello. I’ll be back to my regularly scheduled programming sometime later this week. We travel back home tomorrow, but before I can post here again, I need to finish my chapterbytes chapter. I’ve been working on it all evening. In a word doc. Yuck. But it had to be done since I preferred writing from the couch instead of sitting on these cold wooden steps.
I’d also really like to watch some Olympics tonight and since I can’t do it staring at the grass and swatting mosquitoes I’m gonna go inside now. See y’all in a day or so!