Black and White - The Gallery

I've been slacking of late when it comes to The Gallery. No excuse really, it's just that life really has got in the way. The girls 30 mile round trips for the King & I rehearsals are about to turn into double hell as the show starts its run. A show, every other day for seven weeks..... It tires me just to look at them now - fuelled by the thrill of taking to the stage in full regal attire..... for 7 weeks!

So... black and white...

imagine....

John Lennon's memorial - taken on my ride around Central Park with @CosmicGirlie. Such a lovely setting, ruined only by the multiple tourists that Jay had to fend off in order for me to get this clear Hipstamatic shot.

On the nest bench, was this man.....

We liked his sign but really and truly didn't think he would be at all pleased if we interrupted his sodoku for love, hugs, peace or beer..

Jay this ones for you my lovely...

xx

Top BlogHer moments part 2

I know that you all think we are over here filling our brains with important blogging stuff.... but really we are dancing!
This fab new Wii Just Dance 2 is out in a couple of months. It's totally awesome.
But who is the better dancer, Jen or Jay?!

New York in 24 hours

So this is where I'm at. I'm off to New York on Wednesday morning and I have 24 hours to cram in as much of New York as possible before BlogHer begins.
I've never been to New York and whilst I'm sad that Yan won't be with me I'm really excited about experiencing it for the first time.
When I started to think about it this morning I started to panic... a lot... so much to see, so many places that I want to visit but I have to make the best possible use of my time and I am really begging for you assistance.
I'm staying on the Avenue of Americas. So that's my base point. What are the absolute must go places - how far away are they from my hotel and where the hell am I going to find a shop with Blythe dolls?
All assistance gratefully received.

Thanks to @alphamummy

I know that I have already posted today - but this afternoon I came across an article from yesterday's Times that fellow attendee Jennifer Howze wrote.

It was a great piece - that summed up BlogHer09 really well.

So a big thanks to Jen for the mention - you can read what she had to say about her BlogHer experience here.

Shhhhh......I haven't told her yet that she features on my crazy CheesburgHerz photo montage - perhaps I'll keep that one to myself!

BlogHer09 round up .. some great blogs to read.....

In response to the live Q&A over at British Mummy Bloggers yesterday (If you missed it you can view it here) - we had a few people wanting us to suggest blogs to have a look at, here are a few yo get you started. I do still have a huge pile of business cards to go through as I came home with about 300, so I will keep updating as I go through them!

Here are a few perspectives of BlogHer.

This post from Charming and Delightful sums it up exactly for me. I guess that there were lots of us walking around feeling that we were totally out of our comfort zone but too scared to admit it.

Another interesting point. Does having 10,000 Twitter followers make you an expert? Stephanie Bam Bam thinks not.

BlogHer09 from a founders perspective.

An interesting round up from the Chicago Tribune.

A post from the best session at BlogHer - blogging through pain. The women on this panel were an inspiration to the whole room. Six Until Me

An ode to BlogHer from a man's point of view, and he wasn't even there in person! TellingDad.

But the true encapsulation of the whole conference doesn't come any better than the Community Key Note speeches. It gives blogs a whole new meaning when they are read aloud with the raw emotion of the original author. The 21 bloggers had us laughing and crying in equal measure. It was an emotional ride for the room packed with over 1000 attendees. If you only read a couple from the 21 listed then these are my top picks. If you want to laugh read my new buddie Danielle's post and if you would like to capture a bit of that raw BlogHer emotion have a read of this from State of Grace.

And finally... I should have added this earlier, but it slipped my bedraggled mind. This is a great post by fellow UK blogger Sandy Calico that was inspired by me enquiring about others blog life balance.

Enjoy

BlogHer09 round up

I have just about settled back in at home. The last couple of days have been a bit of a whirl as I arrived back in the UK and had to go pretty much back to work.

I have taken a couple of days to digest everything that I saw and heard whilst over in Chicago and I must say that the whole event was one big roller coaster ride.

I was so excited about going to the conference and I had no idea what to expect when I got there. I did the full three days including the Business BlogHer session on the Thursday. I found this really interesting but the case studies that were highlighted as successful campaigns were so individual that it's difficult to take any ideas that you could incorporate into your own projects. But I met some really great people including Bridget Brennan author of Why She Buys who was great company throughout the conference (even if she did make me eat re fried bean stodge for lunch).

So what did I come away from BlogHer with (apart from a hangover and the lingering reek of Cheeseburgers)?

I have been sitting on answering this since I came home. I thought that if I sat back and let it digest I would be able to say I have come away with x, y & z - but it hasn't worked out like that. I do however feel a pressure to come forth with lots of forward thinking ideas but if I am totally honest what I came away with was more of a gut feeling, that I am on the right path. That I know what I am doing in the social media arena and that I should have more confidence in my abilities. Not just in the blogosphere but in all avenues of my life.

I met some beautiful people, each one with amazing inspirational stories to tell. Some that I will keep in touch with and others that I will not. One totally amazing thing is that in an environment packed with over 1500 women the vibe was really friendly. If you sat down alone a group would quickly gather around you likewise if you chose to join a group you were welcomed with open arms.

I am thrilled to be one of social media's early adopters and for the first time in my life I feel like I am at the forefront of a revolution. It excites me to see where this will lead me personally and professionally as the UK market tries to catch up with what has been the norm over in the US for years.

The social media revolution is huge over there - it has to be for global brands such as Pepsico and Johnson & Johnson to see the importance in sponsoring a Women's Blogging conference. They see the importance in being able to tap into their key target consumers for what it is - essential.

I missed my family dearly and them me. When I came home I felt such a surge of love that can only be felt by absence so another thing that I have learnt is that I shouldn't take those close to me for granted.

You may want to take a look at the pages of some of the lovely people that I met. Knotty Yarn, Grasping for Objectivity, Moosh in Indy, Chronic Babe, Advocation me, and the lovely Tim Gunn - who is so nice. He signed a pic for my hubby!

And finally I have learnt that the American's love the word Awsome! On Saturday I decided to count just how many times I heard it and by the time I passed out from an OD on cocktails courtesy of Knotty Yarn the count was nearly at 700! Awsome!

I will add a list of good stuff to look at later on today. I wanted to get this post wrapped before we did the live chat on BMB. If you were there, thanks for joining us. If you have any more questions about BlogHer and what i got out of it, please leave a comment and I will come back to you.

BlogHer Update

It's the final day of BlogHer today and I have to say that it has all been a bit of an emotional roller coaster. There are some truly inspirational women here that have amazing stories to tell.

On Thursday evening I chanced across a couple of great women that I clicked with right away. They both blog on the issues surrounding living with pain, an issue that's very close to me. They were hosting a session today that was amazing. The strength and vulnerability in the room was quite something else, the session ran over and there wasn't a dry eye in the house.

Then on to the community key note speeches. A select group of bloggers took to the stage to share one of their posts with the rest of the conference. Heart rending stuff, one minute you were in tears and the next laughing so hard. Take a look at the featured bloggers and their fabulous posts here.

I had to dive out of there early to move on to the Stokke® party at the Chicago retailer Land of Nod. This is the best nursery store that I have ever been to. So beautifully put together with stuff for older kids too.

I love these Space Invaders wall stickers and the Mojo play table and chairs, 8 stickers are $40 and the furniture from $59 to $479.

The US Stokke team had invited 10 Mommy Bloggers to come along for full product demo's and I was in charge of my favourite product Xplory® (well I'm not sure that it is my fav, that might be Tripp Trapp or Sleepi - hell who cares?).

Sophie4Sophie would have been proud of me as I enlightened them all of the potential mix and match fabric options - even giving her yellow and turquoise a mention!

After an evening of Tapas it was back to the hotel and straight to bed - I was exhausted after such an emotional day. Alas my jet lag woke me up at 3am and I couldn't really get back to sleep.

So final day....

I'm going to try and keep away from the emotional stuff today and hit the Geek Labs, then take a break (shop) this afternoon before the closing speeches and the parties tonight. I'm going to the CheesburgHer party.......

more later...

Chicago the Shopping 1

That was a bit of abrupt ending last night but So you Think You can Dance came on Fox - and I love that so it won!

I know that you are all dying to know what I bought on my shopping trip last night and as I am the worst person in the world at keeping secrets I have already shown everything to the crew back home thanks to our Skype call this morning!

The first store that I came to got me so excited I thought that I was going to pass out! I Love Supermarkets - especially foreign ones, they do it for me!

Once I'd worked out how to get in (this city has an obsession with revolving doors that i can't get my head around!) I was greeted by a whole isle of nail varnish and other suitably girlie exciting stuff that my girls love.

I was secretly pleased that I was there on my own because although @byyanto likes supermarkets too - I think that my open mouthed gazing would have been too much for even him to bear, (and he loves me).

I spent about an hour in there and managed to only spend $20. I could have easily bought more but I'm not sure on what the rules are about bringing food back into the country at the other end so the Spicy Jalepio Cheesums didn't make the cut. One thing did puzzle me though....

In whose mind is is right to place the most delicious looking biscuits on the same isle as foot care preparations?

So I bought, some little jewels for the girls to stick on their nails, lipstick, nail varnish, root beer (yum), some very nice looking sweets and that's it.

The next place I chanced across was TJ Maxx (not TK here). I do like a rummage and love to shop but this place was too much even for me. We have picked up some fab stuff for the children here over the years and it was straight to the kids dept.

Excitement highlights are - Boys Calvin's $5 for three pairs. Paul Frank PJ's for FunnyGirl $10, a black & white striped maxi dress for ModelGirl $10 and the icing on the cake - A Hello Kitty sewing machine for $14. The girls will be over the moon that they can make the curtains for our dolls house project. Spend in TJ Maxx $60. Happy I went in search of food.

I settled on Wow Bao, @byyanto loves Bau. They are one of his fav eats. Me, I can take them or leave them and settled on some dumplings and noodles instead. Food was OK, but no one can ever make dumplings like my hubby he has a technique that he has finely crafted through the years and his recipe is a closely guarded secret! Apart from his fashion and style they are the other thing that makes him legendary where we live!

It's Thursday morning here now. I have been awake since 4am - so today is going to be another long day. It's the first day of BlogHer, but today is business based not the regular conference and it doesn't kick off till lunch time and I'll probably go for another wander when the shops finally open.

News from home is that they have found a frog in the garage - who ModelGirl has named Sonny (she says because they don't know if it's a boy or a girl?!) and that the shower door fell off it's hinges and smashed into thousands of pieces leaving a naked cold husband stuck in the shower with glass everywhere and no one to help him. FunnyGirl came to his rescue with a pair of shoes but boy what a mess....

Off to Chicago - Day 1

Before I begin I would like to thank everyone for all of the positive comments that you left for DinoBoy on his guest post yesterday. It has inspired him to start his own blog! That and the fact that the lovely @eburypublishing have sent him some more books to review. In my absence he is reading and as soon as I get home we will create his site.

That is so exciting. He will at the very least have something to show his teachers when he goes back to school in September and at the highest level. Who knows? The sky is his limit!!So here I am one day into my American adventure. I don't know why it is but whenever I fly anywhere it always involves me getting up at stupid o'clock and today was no exception. The only difference was that by the time I left the house and hour later both of the girls were awake.

FunnyGirl came into my bedroom still half asleep with tears streaming down her face.

"I don't want you to go mummy - I need you..."

I had to really hold it together not to loose it myself, picked her up and gave her the biggest cuddle in return for one of her special soft kisses that she keeps just for me and took her back to bed with promises of an American bammy (she collects pandas) - still sobbing, a bag full of tat from the $ store - still tears and a big bar of chocolate - bingo.

As I came out of her room ModelGirl's door opened. Last night she had very kindly entrusted me with her prized cuddly bunny and one of her snuggy's. (The said bunny I gave to her for her very first Christmas and that was what started her whole bunny thing) Anyway she didn't want me to be on my own and thought that Manky bunny (as he is fondly known) would be able to keep me company. To be fair he looks to me like he has his mind on other things but hey - who am I to judge? It's his first time in the US.

I digress..... ModelGirl is by nature very sensible and trustworthy. Very unlike Dino & Funny who live quite happily in their own little worlds. ModelGirl is well and truly here on Earth with you and I which is why she is the only person that I could entrust with general day to day 'motherly must do's'. By that I mean, feed the cat, feed the dog, remind you brother and sister to clean their teeth.....

She told me and Manky to have a lovely time, gave me a lovely cuddle and went back to sleep.

So I escaped whilst I had the chance. After an emotional farewell to my Mr off I set. My journey took me from home to Birmingham airport. From there to Philli and then on to Chicago. All things considered not a bad day's travel.

Oddly, it is the first time in my life that I have ever travelled in that direction - our family destination of choice being Thailand is totally the other way. So going backwards through time feels bit odd and only something that DinoBoy understood in our phone check in.

It is only 9pm here in Chicago but it's 3am at home - which means that in an hour i've been up for 24 hours. Shit.... I really need to go to bed....

So, I landed down in Chicago, jumped on the airport express and got to my downtown hotel that Mr has lovingly paid for with the 8 years of Amex Points that he has been collecting, saving and toying with since he started collecting when DinoBoy had only just hatched. I thank him:)

Her I am then in Chicago - it looks slightly odd to every British person I would think. It looks all very new - like Milton Keynes or Telford but with the tallest buildings that you have ever seen - that and a lovely river view that to be fair is not to be had absolutely anywhere in Telford or Milton Keynes.

Before you UK peeps start having a go at me - I was born in Shropshire and I had my very first McDonalds ever at Telford shopping centre in like 1980 and I have been to Milton Keynes like loads of times OK. Geez....

So I dumped my bags and I went in search of shops......

What will I be wearing at BlogHer????

Some of you already know that I am off to Chicago on Wednesday for the annual BlogHer conference. It was a bit touch and go as tickets have been sold out for ages and I had to put my hard earned PR skills into over drive in order to get it all sorted.

So tickets are in place, flights and hotel booked and hubby and the kids are ensuring me that they will be fine without me. I know that they will but will I be OK without them?

So to the main reason for this post. Tim Gunn of Project Runway fame will be there talking fashion and to celebrate BlogHer are holding a comp to win a one on one style consultation with the driest man in fashion - and I want to win it!!

So to what I will be wearing at BlogHer..... weather dependent you understand!

From left to right - my outfits pictured above.

1. My custom made blue jacket with white trim and my beautiful Balmain jeans with glad sandals and my limited edition Chanel Union Jack bag.

2. If it is a bit chilly I will opt for my flowered Luella dress, maybe a jumper and tights and my flat DM boots.

3. Blue Luella dress can work for day or night. Flat boots for the day and tights and high boots in the evening.

4. I will probably wear my suit to the business conference on Thursday. I had this made for me in Thailand this year. Team with a pair of classic red high DM boots and Chanel necklace and away you go.

5. And finally - I love this mixed up look! My satin LBD was lovingly designed for me by my hubby, the crankiest pair of socks that I could find (they are Mary Quant from the 70's and were 10p from a car boot sale but work in an odd twisted kind of way), my faithful high DM boots and my Top Shop Leopard print silky swing jacket.

and I know that you are going to ask..... ModelGirl is wearing Blazer by Joules, red tartan jeans by Zara and her copy of my Chanel bag from ASOS.

So that's it - have I done enough to win???? Watch this space!