As Lindsi said on Friday, I was away this past weekend for a blogging conference--Bloggy Bootcamp Chicago to be exact. What is Bloggy Bootcamp? It is a one day blog and social media conference put on by The SITS Girls and hosted in 4 major cities around the U.S each year. This year they added a 5th stop in Chicago for their first ever 2 day Brand Edition. The Chicago Brand Edition was focused on the business of blogging. Around 150 women gathered together to learn how to be better bloggers, to network, to learn how to enhance their social media presence, and the biggest reason, to learn how to work with companies and brands to earn more income from blogging. I can not begin to tell you how much I learned from Bloggy Bootcamp Chicago! I have 20 pages of notes and too many photos of slides to count! I'm still wrapping my head around all the stuff I want to do for our blog now! My trip, however, started with a little fun. The conference did not start until 2:00 on Friday but it … [Read more...]
Archives for November 2012
Operation Christmas Child
"Mom, I want to respect the world.""What do you mean?""I want to help poor people mom."That was a true conversation I had with Nutty just a few days ago. I'm not sure where it came from, but I am so glad she wants to give back, and I had just the thing to help her "respect the world."I discovered Operation Christmas Child a few months ago. It is a non-profit organization that inspires people to pack shoe boxes with Christmas gifts for children in developing countries around the world. Filling a shoe box is the perfect way to teach your children values such as compassion, kindness, and generosity. After telling Nutty and Tottie about the shoe box gifts, and showing them some Operation Christmas Child videos (because they just couldn't quite understand it with a simple explanation), they were all excited about packing their first box! We ran to our local Dollar Store and Target to find some gifts that not only would fit in a shoe box, but also that my girls would love to have for … [Read more...]
Gingerbread Playdough
I am on playdough duty this month at my kids pre-school. This means I have to either buy a ton of Playdoh OR make three batches of my own. I chose to make my own. I like to do this because I can add glitter, colors, smells and other things to it to make it unique. November is a perfect month for some Gingerbread Playdough! Here's the recipe.1 cup flour1/2 cup salt2 teaspoons cream of tartar1 Tablespoon cinnamon1 teaspoon ground clove1 teaspoon nutmeg2-3 teaspoons ginger2 Tablespoons oil1 cup waterCombine all the ingredients in a large pot and mix while cooking over a medium heat. It will appear very soupy in the beginning but do not fret...it will thicken up as it heats. You will know it is done when it starts to turn a darker brown color and when you think your arm is going to fall off from stiring it. Dump the dough out on your counter top and knead with your hands until cool. Place in an air tight container or plastic bag. I'm giving these away this year to some kids so I made one … [Read more...]
Pinned it, Did it- FAIL
It's Lindsi here! Jamie is off to the land of bloggy camp! She's attending a convention- in Chicago (anyone have a green crayon to color me with- green with envy)?I saw the coolest idea on Pintrest the other day and I thought "I have got to try that!" I have always thought it would look neat to hang some oversized Christmas bulbs from my window but couldn't justify the cost (they're darn expensive!). Pintrest to the rescue....or so I thought. Someone purchased large styrofoam balls a their local craft store and spray painted them in the color they wanted. Then they added string to them and viola....over-sized Christmas bulbs!Off to the craft store I went...styrofoam balls and a can of gold spray paint......some fumes, a little box and annoyance later! I tried two times but each time the same thing happened. The spray paint ate through the styrofoam balls! Totally melted them along with my excitement!I considered trying one more time...but didn't want to spend much on more styrofoam … [Read more...]
