Posts tagged as:

BlogHer

S’mores – Recipe for Family Fun

JavaBoy eating s'mores

by javamom on August 2, 2010 · 1 comment

Despite many pleas from the children, I have not taken them camping yet, which means we haven’t made what I will call REAL s’mores.  Yes, I have one of those s’mores makers that were all the rage a few years ago and I vaguely recall making some s’mores with them that way, but having been a Girl Scout, [...]

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Better Than a BlogRoll…

by javamom on January 16, 2010 · 1 comment

I learned about Babble.com’s Top 50 Mommy Bloggers list when fellow Silicon Valley Moms Blog network member Jessica Gottlieb was named to it (she’s part of the LA Moms Blog, I’m part of the DC Metro Moms Blog). In fact, the original Silicon Valley Moms Blog made the cut as well (congratulations, Jill!) There are a lot of other familiar names on the list, blogs I have been reading and some of them are women I’ve met at BlogHer or traded tweets with on Twitter. But there are also some I didn’t know — and that’s what I love about the blogosphere — when you accidentally bump into another kindred spirit out in cyberspace.

Babble recognizes that although the Top 50 are certainly noteworthy, that there are a lot of terrific bloggers out there, and they are letting readers nominate them, and then give a “thumbs up” if someone has already nominated a favorite. I think that’s pretty darned cool! So often you see the same names rise to the top (with good reason), and this is a nice effort to broaden the horizons.

A lot of the names on that list are already some of my favorite blogs, and some are going to become new favorites. Amongst some of my current favorites are Sarah and the Goon Squad, Toddler Planet, Jodifur, and Wife And Mommy all of whom I have the pleasure of having met in person as well as reading their blogs and they are terrific women as well as terrific writers. As I scroll through the list, I see more that look intriguing and I’m going to find some time to check them out and you should, too! (Not that I want you to stop reading here, of course!)

And yes, I’m thrilled that not only did someone include Caffeine And a Prayer, but people other than my husband and mother-in-law gave it a thumbs up! Thank you! It means a lot! If you feel strongly enough about Caffeine and a Prayer to add a thumbs up, it may encourage others to check it out.

In the meantime, I recommend checking out both the Top 50 list and the reader-nominated list — there are a lot of fantastic writers out there worth reading! One of these days I’ll get around to updating my blogroll…

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Review of PlasmaCar Ride-on Toy — on NEW review site!

by javamom on August 26, 2009 · 0 comments

plasmacarkidI have always loved sharing my opinions of products with friends — and now that I have a blog, I can not only share those opinions with you, I can also sometimes provide feedback to the companies who make the products. BlogHer is an organization for women who blog (well, that’s the simple explanation) and I respect what they have to say, and they have recommended that reviews be kept separate from other content, so I have launched a separate site, Caffeinated Reviews, so I can bring you “Honest reviews with PEP!” in addition to what I write here.

I am thrilled that my inaugural review is the PlasmaCar toy because it was a really fun product to review — a toy that both kids and parents can enjoy! So please check out the new blog — blogs are always a work in progress so pardon any cyber-dust as I’ll probably continue to tinker with it for a few weeks — and read the first review and comment! I have more reviews coming and soon, JavaDad and another dad soon to reveal his online identity will be joining me to do some guest reviews from the dad perspective.

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I’m Fat

by javamom on July 30, 2009 · 28 comments

They Shoot Fat Women, Don’t They? was the title of a 1989 episode of a TV show called Designing Women. In the episode the character played by Delta Burke, Suzanne Sugarbaker, always proud of her beauty queen looks, realized that she was now seen as “the fat girl” by her friends at a high school reunion. She was awarded the “Most Changed” trophy at her fifteen year reunion, as a snark at her physical appearance, and she accepted the award with a lovely speech letting everyone know that she was going to take it as a testimony of how she has changed from shallow beauty to a woman of intellectual and emotional substance rather than the hurtful comment on her weight gain it was originally intended.

I remember reading an article about this particular episode a long time ago, because the episode was written specifically to address Burke’s real-life weight gain. She was a gorgeous, sexy slender woman when hired, and her weight gain became a problem on set between Burke and the show’s producers/writers. Burke’s weight gain was due to a combination of physical and psychological issues and the more she felt pressured about it, the worse it got. Since then, her weight has see-sawed and she has launched a line of plus-sized clothing. At some point she shifted from running from her weight to trying to help others who were heavy feel better about it.

I’m outing myself as a fat woman. I have been terrified of old friends seeing photos of me online in the shape I am in currently and I have decided to end the terror now.

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Leaving On a Jet Plane…

by javamom on July 22, 2009 · 0 comments

drawing2I still feel a thrill every time I get ready to go on a trip. Maybe more so now that I’m a stay-at-home mother — the last couple of years of my career I didn’t travel as often as I did in previous years and I miss that. So I’m in that adrenaline high right now of packing up for a plane ride… BY MYSELF. Let’s face it, it is much different packing up to go on a (quasi) business trip than packing up to go on trip with the family. I’m headed off to BlogHer and I won’t be taking a car seat, a portable DVD player, Matchbox cars, crayons, any Leap Frog toys, etc. Just my own overstuffed suitcase.

But the question everyone asks me is, “How are the kids going to handle it?”

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The Anniversary Gift That Keeps On Giving… Guilt

by javamom on July 16, 2009 · 0 comments

They taunt me from the magnetic board above my monitor — two iTunes gift cards — all hot pink with some dude (chick?  … sometimes I can’t tell) rocking out with an iPod).  Music… just sitting there, waiting to be listened to, in the form of a gift card.  He meant well, he really did. [...]

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BlogHer ’09 – Proof that Bloggers Aren’t Anti-Social Drones

by javamom on July 15, 2009 · 6 comments

My friends are divided roughly in half by those who are rabid tech users and those who barely check their emails.  I consider it an extreme compliment when the non-email-checkers tell me they’ve actually read my blog (or “blob” as some say, which I actually kind of like.)  So when discussions about social media and [...]

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Check It Out: Compass/BlogHer Study – Differences In How/Why Women Use Blogs and Social Networking

by javamom on May 1, 2009 · 3 comments

In their 2009 Women In Social Media Study, BlogHer, iVillage and Compass Media found that women online were twice as likely to use blogs as sources of trusted information for advice or purchase decisions, but turned to social media sites for connecting with friends and family. Women continue to turn to blogs, social networking and [...]

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JuiceBoxJungle — the New 300-Pound Gorilla?

by javamom on April 4, 2009 · 0 comments

Is JuiceBoxJungle.com social media’s new “It Girl”?

BlogHer’s Elana Centor is making waves with her article, “Can Juicebox Jungle Succeed Where Twitter and Facebook Have Failed? Monetizing Social Media.”

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For the Listmaking Geek in All of Us

by javamom on December 7, 2008 · 2 comments

I have always been a listmaker. Those lists have then become legendary as I have created binders for different parts of our lives (our cross-country move, our house hunt, our wedding, and yes, even a binder for when we were having our baby — my husband had his own tab in the binder for what he was responsible for while we were in the hospital.)

So imagine my near-hyperventilation excitement when I was at BlogHer DC and there was a booth for a company called SpringPad, which allows you to create an not only digital notebooks and lists, but ones that you can embed in your blog or articles and share with people and that they can then take and customize for themselves!! It is only because I was trying to appear like a normal grown-up rather than a mommy who wasn’t allowed out around, you know, grown-ups in high heels who might not usually have drool and smeared applesauce on them frequently, that I didn’t squeal like a toddler right then and there. I mean I was actually carrying a purse and everything, so I was trying to “blend in.”

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