Blissdom 2010: The Bloggers

I’m kinda with Jo-Lynne, my favorite part of a conference is the bloggy recaps. But to be completely frank the part I like best of those recaps is THE PICTURES. I want to see all my bloggy heroes in all their REAL LIFE glory. And you’d think I would have remembered that this weekend. I honestly met (and reacquainted myself with) SO many of my favoritest people in the world! But do I have a picture of it?

HECK NO.

Why did I lug that huge camera around if I wasn’t going to take pictures? I guess when Casey and Dawn are walking around taking shots like these…


photo by mooshinindy

photo by dawn. side-hug by mary

You just kinda lose your photo mojo.

Wait! STOP THE PRESSES! I just looked through my camera and realized I DID get some pictures of my favorite bloggers. Well, two.

makeandtakes copy

This is Marie from Make and Takes. I met her at ::whisper:: Nestle. But follow her blog like a madwoman and got to spend great bloggy AND Harry time with her this weekend. I think she might be a genius.

othermandi

And of course, my bbb, Mandi from Organizing Your Way. I am continually amazed at her ability to just make things happen. I love her.

I also spent time (SO MUCH TIME) with Jill from Diaper Diaries. She is exactly the same in real life as she is on twitter and her blog…except she’s actually SO much yummier and richer and more robust. (Wow, she sounds like a wine.) I am in love with her. (Plus her hubby and son were there. Both adorable.)

The absolute best part of the conference was an impromptu round table on Friday morning. I was already planning on meeting with Amy from The Finer Things In Life. However, when we got our breakfast there was NOWHERE to sit except for on the stairs. So that’s where our meeting began. Soon, Alli from No Time For Flashcards joined us (another hero I was hoping to chat with), Raising Olives, Hilary from The Other Mama, Jessie from Vanderbilt Wife, Stolen Moments and…who else was there? Anyway, it was a bunch of delicious and wise bloggers. We had THE BEST, most honest and open discussion about traffic, how-to’s, purpose, posting and subscribers. I probably would have paid money for that 30 minutes.

I got to meet and talk with Michelle from Scribbit (SCRIBBIT!). I hugged Amy from Mom Advice. I talked to Janice from 5minutesformom. I met Audrey from Mom Generations (we share a May birthday!). I met a new great friend, Love Feast Table. We even drug Christine to our room! (Not as in DRUGGED, we just made her follow us…) Not to mention hugging the necks & shootin’ the breeze with Renee, Lindsey, Isabel, Christine, Melanie, Trish, Mary, Dawn, Sarah, Lisa, Darcie, Jo-Lynne, Andrea, Emily and more.

Oh, and did I mention my sisterchicks?

Now. Wasn’t that less embarrassing than the stalking from last year?

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#blissdom 2010

So. I’m at Blissdom. I’m meeting and seeing some of my very favorite online bloggy friends. And I tote my laptop, my phone, my Flip AND my camera around. But did I get a picture of any of this bliss-tastic-ness? NO. In fact, I think I took a total of 20 pictures this weekend. And 19 of them were of Harry.

harry connick jr

YES. AS IN HARRY CONNICK, JR.

He gave the Blissdom ladies a mini (as in 4 songs) concert. I was mere feet from him. He chatted and joked with us and even SPOKE TO ME FROM THE STAGE. Yes. He did. Is it bad to say that I was sweating when he looked right at me?

Anywhoo. I’m sorry that a brush with fame is the only thing I can mention about Blissdom right now. But it’s 1:40am after a krazy karaoke night and the sisterchicks are all sitting in their beds laptops open communicating via email, twitter, facebook and flickr. And well…I’m just too tired to tell you about the amazing women I met, the sponsors that honored us and the bloggy wisdom that was downloaded to my brain.

But those three topics sound like a pretty good posting outline, dontcha think? (See, I did learn one thing bloggy-related this weekend!) Anywhoo, the real BLISS this weekend was the friends…the relationships…the community—it was a sweet girl’s weekend with my sisterchicks and I think we may have even added a sisterchick or two to our brood.


@thevioletfig @itscome2this @stacib @oohamanda

Stay tuned for:
Blissdom 2010: The Sponsors
Blissdom 2010: The Bloggers
Blissdom 2010: Whatever Else I Forgot To Tell You

And if you were at Blissdom, link up your post at Musings of a Housewife!

You know what the three most exciting sounds in the world are?

Anchor chains, plane motors, and train whistles.
-George Bailey, It’s A Wonderful Life


Can you tell I’ve got my mind in traveling-gear? I’m off to Blissdom with my sisterchicks this afternoon. We’ll be twittering like mad–you can follow along if you’d like: @oohamanda @thevioletfig @itscome2this @stacib

So, what are the 3 most exciting sounds in YOUR world?

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Lost Season Premiere. And the End of My Brain.

Are you even believin’ last night? I’m equal parts overjoyed and depressed. Overjoyed because Lost is back but depressed because I don’t really like the trajectory of last night’s reality (realities).

Mainly, Locke.

And Sawyer.

And Juliet.

Read my full recap at the Disney Blog and then TALK TO ME!

Your Lost Season Premiere Recap Is Coming Soon…

In the meantime, let these tweets from last night console you:

(seriously. click on that one. good stuff.)

Be back soon…I hope.

Top Ten {Tuesday}: LOST SEASON 6 PREMIERE

Yes. Blissdom has consumed my blog for the last few days & weeks. But NOW. Oh, it is the premiere of LOST. The FINAL SEASON of LOST is upon us! *moment of silence* So, in honor of all things Losty, I now present to you

MY TOP TEN FAVORITE LOST THINGS.

(Man, I’m articulate!)

1.The Last Supper.

Yes, the original is freaky. Yes, it’s an overused (and possibly sacrilegious) form of imitation. But goshdarnit, how awesome is this picture? Many a blogger has attempted to explain it’s complexities. I just want to stare at it.

2. Doc Jensen.

This is really the only recap and theorist I read. He’s brilliant and funny. And even more wordy than I am. You can set up an alert to email you every time he posts. So incredibly worth it.

3. My Season Finale Recap at The Disney Blog.

You may want to catch up before watching tonight’s episode. And my recap was quite all-encompassing if I do say so myself.

4. @john_locke_.

*snicker*

5. Dharma Laptop Skin.

This is what I should have bought for Blissdom! Every Lostie in the house would have been my new bff.

6. Lost Cupcakes.

photo by zencupcake

Because cupcakes should be on every list. Seriously, check out some of the lost cupcakes on flickr. FUN. YUMMY.

7. Lostpedia.

If you can’t remember a face, a date, a monster, a timeline, a storyline, a character, a phrase, an allusion, a death, a plot twist, a family connection or a flashback this is the place to go. I could (and do) get LOST on this site.

8. Lost Premiere Parties.

I have always wanted to host one of these. Sadly, I cannot be distracted. And other non-Losties might make me miss something. Extra food and special decorations might detract from my trance-like behavior when watching the show. But seriously? Here are my original LOST party ideas plus a few more I found online: Oceanic boarding passes, printable Dharma logos and food labels, LOST font and LOST costume.

9. Lost Shirts.

Click around Zazzle and CafePress to find any style Lost shirt you can imagine. I’d totally sport that Juliet shirt.

10. Fish Biscuits.

Only a TRUE Lost fan would love this.

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So, wanna join the fun? Link up your own TOP TEN list and start hob-knobbing with the rest of us! (For offically offical rules visit my Top Ten {Tuesday} page.)

LOST: The Final Season

I have a tiny little intro post to Lost’s final season over at The Disney Blog. And two points to whoever can guess what my Top Ten is going to be about tomorrow…

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Bliss*Tastic Week 5: Marie from Make and Takes: Submitting Your Tutorials, Recipes and How-To Posts

Blissdom is DAYS away! I cannot wait to be immersed in all things bloggy! Today, Marie from Make and TakesĀ  is going to share how she increases TRAFFIC to her blog…

I’m excited to be here at Oh Amanda, sharing a few tips on submitting your blog to other sites. With my blog Make and Takes, I write a lot of tutorials on kid’s crafts, easy recipes, and home projects. Once a tutorial post is up and running, I like to submit it to a few sites, bringing in some new readers. I do this for my crafts, home projects, really anything can be submitted and featured.

Here’s a few of my favorite places to submit posts:

- Stumble Upon: Sign up and take a look around. This site has brought me a lot of traffic, it’s especially good with recipes. Some days I get a few hundred hits from it, other days a few thousand. So get to know this site. BUT with Stumble, you can’t submit only your own site. You’ll get flagged. I try to submit about 9 or 10 other posts from around the web and then submit one of my own. See my Make and Takes Page and you’ll see my reviews. To help with this, I’ve set up a few friends through email who are also on Stumble and we email each other our links to submit. This has been great. If you want, email me and I’ll submit your posts to Stumble any time: marie {at} makeandtakes.com. A few other good sites similar to this are: Kirtsy, Digg, and Delicious.

- Tastespotting: This is my favorite site to submit recipes. Here, you can submit as many of your own as you want. They do get a lot of submissions though, so sometimes they don’t make the cut. But if they do, it’s great traffic. They are picky about the photo, so make it really great quality. A few other good sites for submitting recipes are: Food Gawker and Food Photo Blog.

- Craftzine: This site is a great one for all kinds of crafts, and sometimes recipes. If you’ve got something original or eye catching, they’re sure to feature it and link back. This and the ones listed next, you can submit as many of your own as you’d like. Here’s a few other places for submitting crafts: The Crafty Crow, Get Crafty, Tip Junkie, One Pretty Thing.

Where have you had success submitting your blog posts? Good luck getting featured!

Isn’t Marie the best? I feel like she just let me in on her own private bloggy secrets! {And I’m totally starting a Stumble Club so we can stumble each other’s posts. Who wants in?} Besides knowing where to submit her posts, Marie has the most amazing creative content. Her blog is so fun, please make sure you subscribe to Make and Takes. And follow Marie on Twitter. Oh, and she’s even got a cute monster craft ebook you will want to download!

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Here’s the last 4 weeks of Bliss*Tastic posts so you can brush up before you get to meet these wonderful ladies IN REAL LIFE:

Week 1: Jo-Lynne from Musings of a Housewife: To Niche Or Not To Niche
Week 2: Christine from Boston Mamas: Niche and Beyond
Week 3: Andrea from MommySnacks: Limitations (or not) of a Niche
Week 4: Amy from Finer Things In Life: Building Your Blog Readership

And don’t forget to check out the UNOFFICIAL Blissdom Parties Guide (including MY After Party at the Pancake Pantry!)

Blissdom After-Party Meet Up at The Pancake Pantry

Nashville is the home of Blissdom 2010, the Country Music Hall of Fame, assorted famous musicians, President Andrew Jackson’s home and THE PANCAKE PANTRY.

My very first trip to The Pancake Pantry was when Staci and I went to the Dove Awards. And I MET BRIAN LITTRELL from the Backstreet Boys. (<—you might want to click on that post because there is a picture of me crying over Brian Littrell. Yeah. And I didn’t even know who he was before I went.) And ever since that first bite of French Toast (yes, I get French Toast at the Pancake Pantry) I have been SMITTEN.

Last year Jessie and I were going to meet up at the Pancake Pantry after Blissdom and I can’t remember why we didn’t. But this year OH THIS YEAR. It had to happen. And now that my list of bloggy friends has expanded and exploded, well, I just had to invite everyone I know. It’s gonna be an old-school meet up: no swag, no sponsors and as much as I’d love to, I’m not payin’ for your meal. Just lots of bloggy friends, conversation and cinnamon syrup!

So. Here is YOUR official invite to the UNOFFICAL Blissdom After Party Meet Up:

Who: You

Where: The Pancake Pantry 1796 21st Avenue South Nashville, TN (driving directions from the Opryland)

When: Sunday, February 7, 9am

Why: Uhm. Because the FOOD is divine and I don’t want the BLISS to stop!

FAQ:

1. Will I get swag?
If you consider extra cinnamon syrup for your French Toast swag, then YES.

2. Will I get a VIP table?
If you consider sitting near or around some of your new bffs, then YES.

3. I heard there is a long line.


4. Are you sure it’s worth it?
INDUBITABLY.

So. You ready to hitch a ride to The Pancake Pantry? Sign the linky below with your twitter handle (@yourcooltwittername) so we can chat beforehand! And don’t forget to tweet it up with #pancakeparty!

{I’ve compiled a list of all the UNOFFICAL Blissdom Parties & Events. Click around so you don’t miss a thing!}

My New Favorite

guitar kids


Photo :: :: :: Lydia and Asa playing with Lydia’s new Purple Diva guitar, a gift from our family in Mexico!

Freezer Meals:: :: :: Once A Month Mom {I know, I’ve done this before. But this week, I’ve been putting together one or two freezer meals a day while the kids eat or sleep. And it is heavenly to have a full freezer!}

Thing I Want To Buy Before Blissdom :: :: :: Snow White Laptop Decal from Movie Magic Man’s Etsy shop

Post That Made Me Sigh :: :: :: Refining Moments by Small Notebook

Tumblr Post :: :: :: Great Tumblr Gmail Tip by 30 Day Challenge {do you use Tumblr?}

    oh amanda

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    I love my purpley daughter, my sweet smelling baby boy, my strong hubby, my lightning fast macbook, my magical tivo, my meltsinyourmouthnotinyourhands m&ms, my stuffed bookcase and my lord Jesus.

    <a href="http://ohamanda.com" target="_blank"><img src="http://i302.photobucket.com/albums/nn115/purplesahm/Amanda-Button2.jpg" border="0" alt="Photobucket"></a>

    oh my

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    oh recommendations


    Parent Succes Kit at Signing Time


    Robeez Soft Soles Baby Shoes


    C28 - Bold Christian Clothing

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    Lijit Search

    Archives

    oh for me