Category: Top Ten

Top Ten Reasons You are NOT Going to Miss #AWBU

by Lyndi Fultz, nwaFoodie (www.nwaFoodie.com)

 

10.  You’ve hit a wall and you want to energize your blog.

9.  You’ve been wanting meet other Arkansas women bloggers in your area!

8.  You know you want to improve your blog stats, but you aren’t sure how to start.

7.  You feel you need to “unplug” and get back to the real reasons you started a blog.

6.  You want to build on your “village.”

5.  You heard last year’s event was rejuvenating and you knew you missed out!

4.  You need to bounce off ideas for the next phase of your blog.

3.  You are kicking around the idea of monetizing your blog and you’re not sure where to start.

2.  You know that “iron sharpens iron” and you want to share your knowledge with others… and benefit.

1.  #1 reason why THIS is the year you are going to #AWBU?  You are Arkansas-proud and this is the premier Arkansas blogging conference for women!

 

Learn more about the conference & REGISTER (early bird rate ends on July 31!)

Check out the conference agenda!

Want to learn more?  Follow @ARWomenBloggers and #AWBU on Twitter and register for our Twitter Party on Tuesday, July 24 at 8p CST to interact with other attendees and get the details!

 

Lyndi Fultz is the cultivator of nwaFoodie.com.  She will be hosting a special Foodie Friday add-on option during the Arkansas Women Bloggers conference, jam-packed with food styling, photography, content and tips for food bloggers and those who just happen to like food… and blogs.  Visit www.nwaFoodie.com to check out her awesomeness, or read her posts as Miss January 2012 – the featured blogger on the Arkansas Women Bloggers site!

 

Top Ten Reasons to Attend Arkansas Women Bloggers Unplugged 2012

by Angie Albright,
author of A Growing Season at www.AGrowingSeason.co

10. Learn new blogging strategies, tech tips, and writing tricks. Discuss at some length and with great earnestness how much correct punctuation and grammar matter on your personal blog.

9. Put a real live person with a Twitter handle! Ever wonder who @DyingForCheesecake or @MysteriousTwitter52 is? You could meet her at #AWBU!

8. Add more blogs to your Google reader or feed burner that you won’t have time to read and will feel guilty about not getting to until the day you read 400 in one sitting and realize all the great stuff you’ve been missing. You also may find out that a close friend or fellow blogger has started a new business/had a baby/gotten married/gotten divorced/got a job/lost a job/published a book/discovered the secret to no-fail merengue. That’s never happened to me; I’m just saying it could happen.

7. Find the peace and quiet you always say you are wanting! Except for the times when you have a bunch of women bloggers together and then all the laughing, giggling, and sipping could get pretty noisy.

6. But seriously. Peace and quiet. Unplugged. Step away from your phone. Unplug those Interwebs. Exhale. Breathe in mountain air. Get a good night’s sleep.

5. See the always humorous, always engaging Lela Davidson as the keynote speaker. This woman has a few things figured out and she is happy to share her secrets. The things she doesn’t have figured out she is happy to ‘fess up to and make you feel better about just being you.

4. Hear women say some of the most inappropriate and ridiculously truthful things you’ve ever heard. And then reply with something equally inappropriate that you can’t believe is coming out of your own mouth. Again, that didn’t happen to me last year at all; I’m just saying it could happen.

3. Awaken the giant blogger within! Just being in the presence of other creators, writers, content generators, mothers, and women in a gorgeous environment will rev your blogger engine and send you home ready to write. You’re sure to get at least one new blog post out of the weekend!

2. Make new friends. Make friendships that already exist even stronger. Establish business and networking relationships that reap benefits throughout the coming years. This did happen last year (well, it’s just the thing I’m willing to cop to) and the relationships over the last year have been fruitful and significant. At the very least, you’ll go home with new people with whom to play Words With Friends.

1. Take your blog to a new level! Seek and you shall find—revamp or redefine your blog’s mission, update the look and feel of your blog, gain new writing and personal.

Learn more about the conference & REGISTER (early bird rate ends on July 30!)

Check out the conference agenda!

Want to learn more?  Follow @ARWomenBloggers and #AWBU on Twitter and register for our Twitter Party on Tuesday, July 24 at 8p CST to interact with other attendees and get the details!

 

Top Ten Ways to Personalize Your Home

Top Ten Ways to Personalize Your Home

 Hi!  I’m Amanda from My Heart’s Desire, and I am thrilled to be with you today as a part of Arkansas Women Bloggers’  “Top Ten” Series!

I should throw out the disclaimer that although I love to blog about seasonal décor and making my house a home, most days my house looks just like anyone else’s…lived-in, messy, and in need of a deep clean!  Even if your house is a mess, stick with me and perhaps you’ll be inspired to personalize the space you live in and call home!

  1. Replace tired photos with updatedphotos of your family, friends, or latest vacation spots!  Pick up inexpensive frames in varying sizes and print those photos you’ve been storing on your computer for so long!  Fill a large, blank wall space with 8×10’s and 11×14’s.Confession… A frame with the package insert photo currently sits on my bedside table and has for over a year.  Over a year, people!  My husband tells the people in the photo goodnight now.  They are family.  I should take my own advice.
  2. Light a candle!  Keep favorite seasonal scents going year-round!  A few of my go-to’s:
    Year-round:  Red Currant–Votivo
    Spring and Summer:  Pineapple Crush–Tyler Candle Co. or Smell of Spring–Aromatique
    Fall:  Farmer’s Market–Yankee Candle Co.
    Christmas:  Balsam and Cedar–Yankee Candle Co.
    *Tip:  Local stores routinely mark down seasonal candles the day after a Holiday, and Bed, Bath, and Beyond runs a “Candle of the Month” special year-round.
  3. Make your bed.  (Insert head hung low.)   Coming home to a tidy personal  space is far more calming than the chaos of a junky bedroom.   Make your bed the second your feet hit the floor, then it’s done!
  4. Sort your mail over the recycle bin as soon as you bring it in.  The mountains of paper threaten to overtake most of us! Avoid an hours-long sorting event on your valued weekends, and keep your surfaces clutter-free.
  5. Before bed each night (especially if you have children), have everybody spend 10 short minutes putting things where they go.  Make it a game for younger children!  Starting tomorrow well is easier when socks or favorite shorts or car keys are where they are supposed to be!  Don’t wake up to yesterday’s chaos.
  6. Display your kids’ (or your own) artwork!  This is a special way to personalize your space.  Discount and craft stores have inexpensive, matching frames of all sizes to help you create an instant collage or gallery wall in a hallway, playroom, or even your kitchen!
  7. Display unexpected family treasures.   Some items to consider:



    A family hymnal    – (the one pictured is from my grandmother’s church where she played the piano and is opened to the hymn I walked down the aisle to!)

    Keepsake baby clothes/Christening gowns

    Championship game tickets or Sports magazine covers

    Newspaper articles with special meaning

    Keepsakes from a vacation (menus, tickets, postcards, photos)

    Menu or t-shirt from the restaurant where you had your first date with your spouse

    Favorite toys from childhood (I recently framed my son’s favorite childhood toy train and a personalized piece of track in a shadow box)

    Silver spoons from your grandmother’s collection

    License plates from every state you’ve lived in

    Favorite childhood book cover

    Military medals

    Fishing reel from a dad or granddad

    Sports jerseys or pennants

    Flower bouquets from weddings or special events, dried and pressed


    *If you are interested in a pressed wedding bouquet you may want to check out this artist on Etsy who makes pressed flower bouquets and can also turn your flowers into beautiful Pandora style beads and jewelry pieces.

    You might also consider making a Wedding Memory Capsule Christmas Ornament.


    You can find a great tutorial on Come on, Ilene!
    (Above photo used with permission as per the guidelines found on Come on, Ilene!)

  8. Place a fresh “Welcome” mat and a live plant at your front door!  Such an inexpensive, simple way to soften the first place people experience when visiting your home!
  9. Keep cozy throw blankets on the back of your couch and chairs in living areas/bedrooms.  Inevitably, someone is always asking for one.  It’s also an easy way to add a little color.
  10.  Turn your overhead lights off!  Overhead lights tend to be harsh.  Use lots of lamps!  Find fabulous, affordable lighting at Target, HomeGoods, Hobby Lobby, etc.We’d love to hear how you make your house a home!  Share your ideas in the comments below!

Top Ten Books on My Summer TBR List

The likelihood of finishing 10 books this summer is highly improbable (considering I will have three children expecting me to be Julie The Cruise Director for 10 weeks) – however, I do like to give the impression of being an overachiever!

  1. Bring Up the Bodies by Hilary Mantel – I loved Mantel’s Wolf Hall – can’t wait to find out who is beheaded next!
  2. Heaven is Here by Stephanie Nielsen – a popular blogger who nearly lost her life in a plane crash, this is a book that should remind me that I need to count my blessings daily.
  3. The Shoemaker’s Wife by Adriana Trigiani — I’ve never read any of this author’s fiction work (best known for her Big Stone Gap series), thought I would start with her most recent book.
  4. Nothing to Envy by Barbara Demick – because when you complain about the lines at WalMart – author Demick is there to remind you that in North Korea, there is no WalMart.  Or food for that matter.
  5. The Mysterious Benedict Society by Trent Stewart – this is our Mother/Daughter book club reading choice for the summer.  If I don’t read it, my daughter will ban me from our meetings.
  6. Destiny of the Republic by Candice Millard – because this is leftover from last year’s reading list.
  7. A Duty to the Dead by Charles Todd – I’m not much of a mystery reader, but this mother/son writing team has created a mystery series that has been on many “if you liked Downton Abbey…then you will like this” lists.  That’s enough for me.
  8. The Tenant of Wildfell Hall by Anne Bronte – because I need to read at least one classic.
  9. The Yellow House by Patricia Falvey – about the strife of an Irish family prior to WWI – this was recommended to me by a friend.  And because it has a pretty cover.
  10. The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern – July book club choice – not sure I would have picked it otherwise.
  11. BONUS BOOK — Anything by Jen Lancaster –by summer’s end, I will need something that makes me laugh out loud, because by then, my kids will have taken over the house, my sanity called into question, and I will be running up the white flag of surrender.

What are you reading this summer?

Melissa McCurdy is a mother of 3; wife of 1; daughter, sister, friend, aunt; lover of football, politics, food, travel, walking, theatre and all things literary.  She shelves books for a living and could spend hours staring at book spines. She survived two years as PTA fundraising chair and PTA president and doubts she will ever volunteer again.  Her youngest was born with a congenital heart defect and had open heart surgery at 5 weeks. She knows more about Children’s Hospitals than she ever wanted too.  And when she grows up, she wants to be the first female commissioner of the NFL.  She blogs at Gerbera Daisy Diaries.