XiaolinMama

Blissdom Conference Roundup

This week I got to attend my first Blissdom Conference.  Super FUN, I am EXHAUSTED! There were interesting panels filled with tangible tips to take home and people genuinely wanting to meet new people and learn new things, dancing plus Harry Connick Jr!  Exactly what you want in a women's bloggy conference. Kudos to organizers @alliworthington and @barbarajones and everyone who must have put in countless hours to make it all possible.  Thank you.

Loads of fun was had by all, but here are a few highlights:

*  Watching my new music soul mate Rock and Roll Mama and ModernMami whip up fancy entries in 20 minutes for the Potato board's cook off. I loved watching everyone cheer the contestants on, the dancing that ensued while waiting for the judges decision and the fun potato bar.  <Not a lot of veggies in Nashville, so this was an extra special treat!>

*  Keynote speech by Kevin Carroll, author of Rules of the Red Rubber Ball.  He was AH.Mazing.  I don't say that lightly.  He spoke about passion, power and intention and simply hit a home run with the entire crowd! I ordered his book this morning.

* Balancing life and blogging life with the brilliant Christine Koh aka @bostonmamas, Deb Rox aka @debontherock, Carmen Staicer aka @mttsm.  They shared gems of brilliance on balancing their on and off line lives.  My walk away was - Yes you CAN say NO!  There are always other opportunities.  Agreed. It is so hard sometimes to really believe it, but it is SO true.  Thanks for the reminder gals!

* Throwing a party! Clever Girls Collective (ahem!) threw a lil soiree for all the event attendees. Blue drinks, boas and prizes - what more can you ask for.  I made the play list of all of my fave party songs and was a lil nervous that folks might not like it.  But I got a ton of compliments, working on sharing it. Anyone have ideas on how to do that? 

Of course, there was plenty of swag - from chips to make up to ice cream bars! <BTW- No one paid me to gush about these! These were given in the Blissdom swag bag or available in the expo.> My favorite bits of Blissdom Swag:

• Land's End Canvas Bag, Plus $15.00 coupon:  Sturdy, just the perfect size. Clean, unlike the one I own and use almost everyday and is FILTHY!!  Not the sexy filthy, the filthy that comes from being toted to every soccer/basketball game the past two years.  Thank you Lands End for giving me a new respectable bag.  I know what I am using that coupon for - rain gear!

• Hallmark cards:   The ladies from Hallmark brought not only cards, but gave bloggers the chance to meet the ladies who wrote/designed the new line of "encouragement cards" for kids.  SO COOL!  I love to write notes and leave them in my kids' lunch boxes (usually on post it notes) These cards are sure to take mom's love notes to a whole new level.  They came in all

  

  sizes and are simply perfect for both my 6 year old sweet girl and my 10 year old sports loving boy.  My favorite card was this one featuring fake snot - that can also be pulled out of the card for him to play with.  Gross=perfect for the 10 year old set. 

• Lisa Leonard Necklace:  This pretty little thing is a simple silver necklace with the word "bliss"  pressed on it.   Simple is how I like my everyday accessories, so this piece just sang to me. Already ordered this one off her site. She also gave us a $10 off with the "bliss10" code.  Quick, order one!

Blogging conferences 2010

One of the things I love about owning my own social media company and being a blogger, (besides hangin with my gals @citymama and @dearbadkitty) is going out to bloggy conferences!  What is not boss about getting to see your favorite online friends, having a few martinis and picking up some swag? 

In January, I was beyond ecstatic to moderate a panel at the beyond amazing Altitude Design Summit in Utah.  First of all, I am a design wench. I love to go to home and design blogs and imagine how these pretty things will look in my crazy house. Home/Design bloggers are a special breed - fun, shy, appreciative of the aesthetic of everything!  I was so invigorated by everyone I met.  People were open to meeting new folks. Every session peaked my interest and they had awesome food -everywhere.  They had candy girls!  hell-oh, EVERY conference needs retro candy girls!  Kudos to @designmom and all the event organizers.

The kinds of questions and conversations you'd only hear at the ALT summit:

• "Maybe there should be a session on typefaces and luxe fabrics"
• "Monetizing? I just wanted a place to put all the pretty things I liked in some order."
• "Hey, let's go check out the Sundance Film Festival and pretend we're producers of the next best indie film."
• "Did you see the sofa made out of ice? Be careful when you sit down, your butt may get wet."
• "I love her blog!  I can't possibly say hi - she think I was a stalker."  <ok-that happens at every conference>
• "ooh, love your card.  What font is that?"
• "I do ALL my decorating based on what I find from the blogs on that panel!"

Blissdom 2010 starts today.
Already I've been impressed by line up of speakers conference organizers @alliworthington and @barbarajones have put together. They sent conference attendees a pre-conference care package.  Brilliant move - no more squeezing packages of chips or crackers in my bag to take home.  Instead, I gave the coupons included in the gift box to the HUZ to feed themselves while I 'm gone.  <Yeah, I guess I could actually redeemed the coupons for them….>  Thanks to sponsors ConAgra, Hebrew National, Hunt's and Orville Redenbacher's!  I also left the movie rental coupon and popcorn for them all to use while I'm gone.  Now everyone is happy. I'm gone - off to have martinis and they not only have dinner, but post hotdogs activity.   Perfect planning #blissdom girls!  

Clever Girls Collective is hosting a party!  Deets are here.  Hope to see you there!

I'll also be at Mom 2.0, Blog Her and Blogalicious 2010.  Am thinking about SxSW interactive  and Web 2.0?  Thoughts on these conferences? Am I missing one that is a  MUST go? I hate to miss a good party, um I mean I hate to miss  good "professional development opportunity. 

Late New Year Resolutions: Being Gentle

What happened to January?  I had BIG plans for January- you know the kind that change the world. Well, not really, but the kind of plans that made it easier to find shoes in my closet and the kind that would require to me to HAVE to buy new jeans, cuz I've lost SO much weight. sigh.  Alas we're in February and I'm left wondering what happened - kids, work, begin sick with the flu and a million reasons. 

This year the one resolution I am going to keep it is being more gentle - with others and myself.   I am totally one of those gung ho gals - give me a task, I'll get it done. I'm laser.  Sometimes that means prioritizing, being focused, running over people and other minor tasks.  At the end, I am left with both a feeling of accomplishment and the guilt of ignoring competing needs/people. 

So this year, I working on being kinder and letting go of the guilt and cutting me some slack. 

Help out a sistah, keep me honest on this will ya?

Altitude Design Summit

One of may favorite things about being a blogger is getting to meet inspiring people.   This weekend I have the honor of facilitating an amazing panel at the Altitude Design Summit, with the Maggie Mason of MIghty Girl, Stephanie Brubaker of StephModo and Chelsea Fuss from Frolic!  These ladies are seriously rock stars in the design/lifestyle blogger world and I am not quite sure how the conference planners let me even near them.  <swoon!>

We'll be chatting about monetizing blogs beyond ad networks. <million dollar question, right?>  I am beyond excited to get to know these ladies and tell them up close and personal how much I think they kick A$$!

More to come...

What is normal anyway?

Much like the amazing women in Beth Feldman's book "See Mom Run", I can't help but laugh at the follies that make up my "normal life".  I laugh even harder when I think about what I thought was "normal" pre-children. 

The holidays make me crazy.  Yes, in the my book, there is nothing that puts me on edge more than te monthlong preparation for the Christmas festivities.  It is enough to bring any strong woman to tears. Due a variety of factors (economy and the swine flu - a whole 'nutha story), I said NO to the madness this year.  I said NO to a week long trip to spend the holiday with my extended family. We said NO to extravagant gifts and I said YES to gift cards, when I usually pride myself on making handmade gifts.  We had a quiet holiday.  We spent time as a small family together.  We played board games, watched movies and rode our bikes around the neighborhood.  We had 5 blissful family days together.It was great, until I realized we had to fill in 6 more days of winter break with activities.  I own my own business ( three actually), so I was not on a "real vacation", but "working from home".  sigh.  I plied the kids through the week with "movie rentals", "arts and crafts" and "extra" video game playing time".  It rained in Northern California, ensuring that kids were forced to stay inside.  (Just what  a work-from home mom needed) 

With 48 hours left, I  started to pat myself on the back for making it through the two weeks.  I started planning what to buy at the grocery store for the following week's lunch.  I referred to my calendar thinking about when I would schedule a manicure to treat myself.   I started to do the Happy Dance because soon life would go back to normal.  The kids would be in school soon and I could work guilt free for 8 hours a day!   Woot! Woot!

I then looked at my sweet daughter and noticed that she was napping; strange for my 6YO in the middle of the day.  Oh, is that green goop around her eye?  Frick, she has pink eye!   She is going to miss the first day back to school?  We were so close to getting back to "normal"!  What is normal anyway? Life has been in flux ever since I unexpectedly found out I was pregnant over a decade ago.  Sigh.

We spent half the next day at the doctor's office and pharmacy, we squeezed in a trip to the grocery store to buy orange juice and set up the "sick room".   Welcome to parenthood - and my new sense of normal.  I wouldn't have it any other way.

Holiday Giveaways

The holidays are here and I have two really AWESOME giveaways at Xiaolinmama Reviews.

• $200 gift card at the LOFT clothing store: Cute clothes, nice salespeople and great selection at affordable prices means you can pick up quite a bit with this prize!
• Tassimo Brewing System: Hot drinks when you want it without the hassle of clean up - not much NOT to like. Enter - you WANT one!

Soccer Lessons

I have written several times about the trials and tribulations of being a soccer mom.  There have been times I have been frustrated by overbearing parents and bad referees.  I have gushed over my six year old daughter's first goal and lamented whether traveling all over Northern California for tournaments is a "good thing" for my ten year old.  I've wondered what it all has it really taught my kids, aside from the fact that a 7-11 slurppy cures most field injuries. 

This week my son surprised me.  His team has struggled all season, winning some and losing some. They are good, but not good enough to win a regional tournament or so I thought. I have watched my son grow from being the youngest and most inexperienced  on the team to one of the leaders and key to their success. He is confident on the field, agressive when needed and understands the "game" of soccer.  This weekend we had a family trip planned to go to Disneyland with a  gaggle of bloggers.  Well of course, his team is headed to the soccer championships. 

I think most kids would have left thier team high and dry given the choice between riding on Space Mountain and a soccer game in Manteca, CA.  He chose the team.  He shyly told me that while he wanted more than anything to go to the Magic Kingdom, but he thought the team would lose without him.  He acknowledged he was a leader and had a responsibility to stay with the team and help them win it all.  Whoa- big concepts for a lil' guy.  Maybe all this driving and practice is worth all the gas money!

Giveaways galore

I don't do giveaways that often, but over at my review blog, xiaolinmama reviews I have quite a few! So cruise on over there and check 'em out.  I'm giving away a few video games, a prize pack of Oroweat bread and a trip to Disneyland!  Enter one - enter them all - good times for everyone! Good Luck.

Family Party 30 Great Games Outdoor Fun

The winner of the Family Party 30 Great Outdoor Fun game for the wii is Robyn from Who's the Boss Blog.

Knowing that the kids and I in the house are a bit obsessive about video games.  The fine folks at D3 /Tamsoft sent over a free copy of Family Party 30 Great Games Outdoor Fun.  Testament to any game in my book is when it is a rainy day and the kids pick a particular game to play over the others in their collection. Family Party 30 Great Games Outdoor Fun fit the bill at our house last weekend.

Here are some of the comments that were yelled in my living room as I played with three 8 year old boys and my 6 year old daughter:

Oh this is hard.

You're gettin' beatin by a girl!

Ah, this is fun!

You stink!

NOOOOOOO!!!!!

Yes! I'm First!  Oh yeah!!

I'm kinda sweaty from playing.

Outdoor Fun, made exclusively for the Wii had something to offer everyone in the family with a wide variety of engaging games featuring martial arts, team sports, individual athletics, and challenging brain games.  Essentially, you get to choose from over a dozen avatar/characters, compete against each other and ultimately, win medals or more importantly, the glory of beating everyone you are playing against.

Thank You Notes

I  participated in Tiny Print's Gratitude Challenge last month, learning about myself and just how little time I have given lately to give thanks for all the gifts I have in life.   There are a million and one excuses for why.  Generally my go-to excuse had been "I've been trying to keep my head above water.  Be patient with me."  But excuse making is SO lame - like "Where the WIld Things are" monster sized lame excuse.  No more! 

Last night I had the fortune of having dinner with friends sans kids. It was fantastic.  The food was delicious and conversation was enlightening.

As my husband and I headed home, I immediately began to think about the ten million things on my to-do list for the upcoming week. It was less than 5 minutes and dinner seemed like a life time ago. Sigh.

This morning as I thought back on the scrumptious dinner, I decided to stop take back the lameness and take heed of what I learned through the Gratitdue Challenge.  I sent a handwritten thank you note- Not an email. woot!   I forced myself to take 5 minutes and really appreciate a gift of time and effort that would have gone unappreciated. It's not hard to do or even unexpected, but I'm just lame.

Hope this is a new tradition I keep up forever. Wish me luck:)