September Slumber Soiree: A blogger event

Back in like May, Aubrey mentioned the idea of having an all night blogger event/party.  Because we like to stay and visit long after blog round tables or blog meet ups, it only made sense that bloggers would enjoy an all night party to talk about our favorite thing: BLOGGING!

The location was GORGEOUS!  I drove up with Ashley from A to Z and we made pretty good time!  Except that my directions from map quest were kind of wonky and I was worried we were lost a time or two, Ashley kept her head and she has a great sense of direction!

I started eating like as soon as we walked in the door!  And then we had dinner (Cafe Rio copycat salad with actual CR dressing. . . Mmmmmm!)  I limited myself to three very small Dr Peppers in hopes that I might sleep that night.

First in line because I know how to break the ice!

FOOD!

See how tiny the cups were!  But soooo cute!!

After dinner photo booth shoot

After dinner we all introduced ourselves and had a short blogging discussion about growing your blog.

Sierra, Laura, Ashley, me and Kyla at the bottom :)

Then the sweet, wonderfully funny Jen did Aubrey's makeup while teaching us about her favorite products and techniques.  Seriously, finding her blog was one of the best things about this trip, she is the cutest!!

This is what dirt does in your pores

After the makeup we did a quick photo shoot with our Agnes and Dora leggings.

Pretending to laugh made us actually laugh.

What?  You can't see the leggings enough?  Here!!!

Eek!  Leggings aren't pants, I really wished I had a tunic top!!

Amberly and I were like dozing off during the pictures, so we headed to bed, or so we thought!  Let's just say that the white noise was not enough to drown out the sound of ten other people having way more fun that us ;)  But I kept telling myself that even though I couldn't sleep, it was better than trying to sit at the table and paint my nails.  I am just a girl who NEEDS sleep.  If not, I cry and I'm suuuuper grumpy.  Just ask my family how sweet I was upon returning home :)

Saturday was my favorite day, despite feeling a little dizzy in need of sleep.  We had breakfast by Flippin' Waffles and it was AMAZING!  Seriously, like dessert for breakfast. 

This was not mine, but it looks just like the one I had.

The cute LauraAnn of Flippin Waffles.  I reeeaaly want to have her cater a party at my house.  Can anyone give me a reason to have a party???

Then Amberly lead the best discussion about sponsoring blogs, ever.  I want to send her all the products from my shop and pay her to promote me.  She's just so good at it.  AND!  She showed us her blog planner and I'm psyched to implement something similar for my blog and shop and social medias.  I think it will be like my teaching days when I used to schedule my lesson plans out for the week.  And I really miss that, for some reason :)

We had lunch and then finished up with a Q and A round table discussion about anything and everything blogging related.

Lunch!!  Because I love eating and I was the first in line again!

After the Q and A.  I look like a corpse.

Ashley and I left at 2:30 and I sang all the way home to avoid falling asleep at the wheel!!  Eeek, I was exhausted, but seriously it was so fun!!  I can't wait for next year, but I might have to find a hotel nearby, hee hee. 

All pictures in this post are compliments of Kaycie, who was our photographer for the weekend.  She seriously rocks!!!

And thanks to our other sponsors not yet mentioned:
Ready or Not Blog
Hello Maypole
Livy Loves to Run
Dandylion Design Studio
Xtend Barre Provo
Start Flower Skincare
Julie Ann Caramels

Wherefore art thou blogger?

First, I need to recommend this book to you.

I finished reading it on Friday and it is good!  And I should mention that I checked it out from the library on Friday, so now you know how good. 

I think you'll love it if you love twitter (like I do) and I think you'll love it even if you're not totally sure what twitter is.  Okay maybe it helps to at least know what twitter is. 

Also, I've been thinking lately about blogging and why I do it.  I used to do it to:
a. write
b. become popular (hey, I'm just being honest!)
c. socialize/get comments

I've never done it to make money and I really don't think I ever will.  Nothing against blogging for money!  I really wish I could.  But I know it wouldn't be worth it to me.  The thing I hate most about blogging is promotion.  This is why I've been blogging for three years (actually more but three years of real effort) and only have like 50 followers (if you add them all up from various locations)

So I wanted to evaluate my current reasons for blogging.  I still love writing, but when it comes to being creative, lately I've been channeling that into my sewing, so it's lower on the list than it used to be.  I really don't think I'll ever be popular.  I'm just not willing to put the time in to promoting my blog.  That's okay with me.  And I still love making friends and getting comments, but I'm not thirsty for friends and social interactions like I used to be.  I've made a LOT of good friends here, and I would love to make more, but I don't NEED to. 

That pretty much sums up why I'm showing up here less and less.  The main reasons I hang around are:
a. I might regret it if I don't.  Someday I might really want this space to be here and so I keep it up.
b. I still have things I want to say, recipes I want to share.
c. To stay connected with the blogging community. 

There you have it!  I know that the more I blog the more I have to say (funny how that works) so I know I just need to do it more often, but right now I'm just enjoying my kids, enjoying the summer and trying to get my etsy shop off the ground (seriously hard.  See above: I hate promoting myself)

Blogging and faith

I love blogging, I love the friendships that I can create as I spend my days with miniature people whose vocabulary is less than stellar.  I love how it makes me think, makes me put my opinions into words (even if sometimes I don't have the guts to pull the trigger and publish those words!). 

But yesterday I realized the dark side of blogging in my life.  I realized that when it comes to issues of my very personal faith, I often look to see what other bloggers are saying about the subject.

Yesterday was the semi-annual General Conference of the LDS Church.  For the first time I followed along with the tweets with the hashtag #ldsconf.  It was fun to see what other bloggers and friends liked about the conference.

It was unsettling though, to see how highly Elder Uchtdorf was praised for speaking on tollerance (which I love, one of my top three talks for sure!) and how Elder Oaks was criticized (by a few, not all) for talking directly about some hot button issues that the church refuses to change on. 

Everyone is entitled to their own opinion.  But how much power am I giving these women in my life?  They have wonderful insights and their words are good. 

Bloggers are good.
Books are better.
Scriptures are best.

I know this hierarchy to be true.  I need to show it more in my daily life.  I no longer want to pattern my life after the trendiest and coolest of bloggers.  They are great friends, but I want to pattern my life after my Savior and that is best done by studying his life and ministries.

And thank you for reading my words.  I know time is precious.  I'm realizing it more every day.

Meeting Blogger Friends IRL

Adam is really good at his job.  Mostly he wins awesome things, like gift cards and iPads.  But last month for their incentive, Adam's team chose a day at Lagoon (an amusement park here in Utah).  Most of his team is single, I guess.  So yeah, I was a little T/O that he would be spending his day riding rides while I was at home with the kids by myself, just like every other day of my life.  I love my kids, but I live for Saturdays with Adam home.  I did not react well.

But I guess something good did come of it.  I decided that if Adam could leave me for a whole day, I could stop feeling guilty for leaving him with the kids for an evening.  And so I signed up for Bonnie's Blogger Round Table.  I've been wanting to go for SO LONG!  I finally decided Axel would be okay with a bottle (he wasn't, and cried a portion of the time, but Adam was cool about it) and I could meet some friends!

Suzzie, Me, Tayler, Aubrey and Bonnie front and center!

Of course I got to meet Bonnie.  I've been reading her blog for about a year and a half.  Even though we taught for the same school district we had never met!

And my new blog friend, Aubrey!!!  She did the 30x30 challenge with me and she also blogs the bachelorette with me!  It was so fun meeting her!

I also got to meet two new girls, Tayler and Suzzie.  It was so fun chatting with them!

I was worried I would be super nervous, but Axel was screaming when I left (everything I tried wasn't helping so I decided it didn't matter if I stayed or went, so I went) so I had him on my mind more than meeting four strangers.  When I walked into the room where they were sitting it was like, "Hey girls!  What's up?"  Like we had already met.

And as usual, I probably talked way too much.  And too loud.  The teacher in me will never die.

Keeping it Real

So many bloggers have been talking about our real selves vs our online blogging persona.  I don't feel like I hide much, but I don't have a lot of deep dark secrets.  I've posted about my ugly picture face, how I don't know what to do when it comes to Olivia and the pacifier, how I don't wear my wedding ring and how I almost failed a class because I didn't know what a blog was.  I'd say I was keeping it pretty real. 

But this month, it has sucked everything out of me, chewed me up and spit me out.  It could get worse, but my goodness I sure hope it doesn't! 

Things that are bad:

• I started January with a sinus infection
• Olivia got the flu
• We took three weeks to move into our new apartment and we're still not totally settled
• I got the flu
• I had to get non-stress tests done on my baby every week, something I didn't feel was necessary but I'm sure will cost us a pretty penny
• No internet or TV at my house until after the baby comes

Things that are good: (so we can end on a high note!)

• I lost two pounds!  (No I wasn't trying, yes I was still eating, just healthier and not as much thanks to my illness)
• My husband is amazing.  He's done so much work with our moving since I've been so sick and pregnant.
• Olivia loves the new house
• Olivia loves her new crib, which Adam was able to put together with out instructions!  
• I don't have to be alone with Olivia anymore for like a month (not that I don't like being alone with her, its just been hard since we've both been sick)
• Snuggling Olivia in bed while we watch Cinderella for like the millionth time

So its been bad, but can you imagine having the flu and having to give birth in a covered wagon on the trail?  These are the things I think about to help keep me grounded :)

Tomorrow is baby day!  Unless I went into labor naturally before this posts, I'm getting induced first thing tomorrow morning.

My history with blogs

I call it metablogging: Blogging about blogs.

Baby Blogger

It all started maybe seven or eight years ago.  I was required to take an education technology class.  My teacher was a kind man, but he kept talking about these things called "blogs" and "rss feeds" and I didn't understand a word of it.  He wasn't very good at explaining it.  It had nothing to do with the fact that my twinner friend Nicole was in the class and we love chatting.  Nothing at all.

(Nicole taught middle school and I taught high school.  She had most of my students before I did and several of them commented how I reminded them of her.  Best compliment ever!)

Anyway, one of our biggest assignments was to do a short weekly blog post on our class blog.  I didn't get it.  But instead of asking for help and/or trying to figure it out I just didn't do it.  And in turn I almost failed the class.  I almost failed a class because I didn't blog.  I seriously laugh about that now.  But like I said, he was a kind man and let me make up all my blog posts in one day after the semester was practically over.  I owe that man a lot!

Since then I've come along way with blogs.  I've had 6 blogs!

My first has like three posts.  They were all complainy.  I don't know why no one wanted to read it!

My second was the blog I had for three years.  I quit it because I didn't feel like it was going in the direction that I wanted my blog to go. . .

My third was a blog I started with my sister.  We both love to write and it was going to be a place to share our short stories.  I think we each posted once, maybe twice.

My fourth was a food blog, only I didn't understand the need for pictures with my recipes.  I shake my head at myself sometimes.

My fifth blog was my design blog, which I still do every Tuesday and Thursday here.

And this is my sixth blog!  I started it to replace my second blog when I realized I missed sharing stories and other silly things.  I try to post Monday, Wednesday and Friday.  Try. 

How many blogs have you had?

And now, I leave you with an anecdote:
Me: I just got another follower on my blog!  Now I have 15!!
My dad: 15?  Aren't blogs supposed to have hundereds of followers?
Thanks for that, dad.  Thanks for that.