Category: Biz

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Deck the… humbug?

As you might know, we’re not going to be at home for Christmas this year. We’ll be traveling. And although it will be a most radical trip, it’s just kind of thrown my whole holiday spirit out of whack this year.

 

I didn’t really feel like getting a Christmas tree, since I’ll probably want to have it taken down before we leave anyway. (we did end up getting one, just a tiny little guy this year. even so, i did manage to get almost all of my favorite ornaments crammed on there. but only 1 strand of lights)

 

 

I really haven’t gotten out any of our other interior decorations, save a winter scene nightlight in the hallway and our mistletoe ball in the kitchen. We have some great advent calendars that I love dearly, but even they remain in the decorations cabinet in the basement because I just didn’t feel like hanging them up this time. Oddly, I felt like the days that didn’t get put up before we left would be lonely. (i know, i’m weird. that’s nothing new) Plus D got 2 chocolate advent calendars from relatives this year, so those have sufficed and fueled her new-found sugar addiction.

 

I did wind our pre-lit garland around the front lamppost and string the real stuff from my grandparents along our porch rails, because I absolutely adore white Christmas lights outside. But the little tree lights to line the walk will have to wait for another year.

 

(please pardon the fake snow. i was just having a little picnik fun)

 

I’m not even really in the mood for presents this year either. I usually love passing out everyone’s gifts on Christmas morning and reveling in the holiday spirit, but just the thought of trying to come up with something for people is kind of grating on my nerves right now. I’m at a total loss for most everyone, and since we’re traveling I don’t really even know if we should do gifts at all. Ugh.

 

At least a lack of decorations means a little less clean up this year, right? I won’t have to traipse around come the start of the new year taking down all the festive flair and making each room seem a little less magical than when it wore its holiday best, which is always kind of depressing. And since the tree only has 1 strand of lights, I won’t have to mess with tangling and untangling all of those as I try to unwind them from said tree and get them back in storage without ending up with a giant National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation-sized knot.

 

I guess one other good thing about a pint-sized Christmas tree and minimal decorations is that most of my upkeep and cleaning this year simply consists of telling D, “We don’t touch the Christmas tree. Just wave hi to him.” And yes, that’s worked just fine so far to keep pine needles off the floor, believe it or not.

 

Anyone have a cup of holiday cheer I could borrow? Something bubbly and slightly alcoholic would do splendidly.

 

 

I’m sharing my holiday home decor (or lack thereof!) and cleaning tips for the chance to win prizes from The SITS Girls and Great Cleaners.

 

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SALE!!!

Because who doesn’t want a Cyber Monday sale, AM I RIGHT? Hopefully you’re not all Black Friday-ed and Small Business Saturday-ed out, or whatever they call all these monstrous Thanksgiving weekend sale days. For here’s one more!

 

Remember the DIY Blog Critique Workbook I mentioned the other week? The most amazing instructional guide for making over your own blog that ever existed? Yeah, that one. Well guess what? It’s now ON SALE!! Yippee!

 

Starting tomorrow, Monday, November 28, just click on the button below and enter the code CYBERAWESOME at checkout to receive 25% off the regular price. For just $10.50, you get the complete workbook in all of its 43 point glory, including the super handy spreadsheet to track your progress. That’s only $0.24 for each of those 43 points! You guys, it is SO worth it.

 

But don’t dawdle, because this sale only runs from midnight until 11:59pm EST on November 28. So on your marks… get set… SHOP!

 

 

 

Again, yes, the links herein are affiliate links, but you all know by now that I did purchase this for myself and have loved using it.

 

 

 

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How to have the *Best Blog on the Block* – DIY style

Because that’s what all of us here in the blogoshpere really want, isn’t it? I know when I first started blogging, I just wanted to carve out my own little space to set up a site, personalize it with a few pictures, and empty out my head through the keyboard. But as time has gone on and my eyes have been opened to the countless amazing blogs out there and the bloggers who created them, I’ve been spurred to try to make my blog a little better every day.

Now I don’t mean to say we’re all out here strictly trying to outdo each other and top everyone in stats or followers or have the biggest community or whatever, but I think each and every one of us enjoys the satisfaction that comes with adding a really great picture or finally getting that plugin to work or formatting our layout just so where it makes us happy each time we look at our pages.

I can’t tell you how great a sense of accomplishment I’ve felt along the way when I dug into the CSS code, tweaked something I’d never seen before (let alone actually tried to manipulate. have you seen how many random letters and symbols are in this stuff?), and when I reloaded my home page the change I made had worked and looked great! It’s the little things here people…

And if there was 1 source of inspiration and guidance that has helped me more than anything along the way, it was a virtual workbook I discovered recently. Do you remember my Week in My Life series of posts last month? Well Mel, the amazing ringleader of that endeavor, is seriously a blogging guru. She is the mastermind behind Momcomm, and there is where I found what could easily be coined the New Blogger’s Bible, her DIY Blog Critique Workbook. Ahhhh…! (picture that being sung by a chorus of cherubs)

If you are a blogger just starting out and want some insanely good advice, or a pro blogger maybe looking to do a little site tweaking or freshening up, or even a non-blogger debating making your own splash into this blogging pool, READ IT!! I really can’t stress enough how helpful that workbook is.

In working through it, I found the motivation I needed to finally do some housecleaning and try to step things up around here. My blog has gone through a couple iterations now, and I’m finally at a point where I look at my content, click through the pages, tool around on the sidebar, and think wow, I actually created all of this, and I really like it! All of that is, in no small part, attributable to Mel’s workbook.

The step-by-step lessons she imparts are invaluable to discovering so many wonderful tools in this wide world of blogging. The workbook is billed as “43 Ways to Get Your Blog in Shape!” and that is no joke. It literally comes with a checklist so you can track your progress as you make your way through the sections, if you are so inclined.

And you don’t have to do it all in one fell swoop, or even in order, either. I did a ton of jumping around when I read it, sometimes because I had either already addressed the steps she suggested, they were a little too scary for me to try to tackle right then, or I just didn’t have the time to implement everything I wanted to all at once.

And what better time than NOW to check it out? We’re quickly closing in on a new year, and who doesn’t want to start 2012 with a bloggy bang? Maybe it’s just what that blogging friend needs to kick off the best blog ever. Or maybe you need an awesome idea for a gift exchange. Why not scoop one up for yourself and one for her (or him! or them!) at the same time? You know, a little pay it forward to get in the giving holiday spirit.

You can discover all of the magnificent details for yourself right here:

 

The links herein to the DIY Blog Critique Workbook are affiliate links, but it should be pretty obvious that I purchased it for my own use and would recommend it to every blogger and her cousin. Now go get your own!

 

 

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Gettin’ Google-y with it

Na na na na na-na na… Yeah, guess it’s pretty hard to type out song lyrics when they only consist of 2 letters, but sing that to the tune of the refrain in “Gettin’ Jiggy Wit It” and I think you’ll get the idea.

 

Aaanyway… Yesterday I bit the bullet and created a Google+ page for this here blog. Anyone want to come play? It’s great! We’ve got circles and +s and streams and… well just come see for yourself. Here’s the jump off: ScooterMarie

 

Um, SM, why have you jumped on the Google+ train, yet you haven’t even created a Facebook page for your blog yet? Good question, my friend. See here’s the sitch… When I first started blogging, I was doing it fairly anonymously, and didn’t want to link up my blog with my Facebook profile. Yeah, I didn’t realize I could just create a separate FB page specifically for the blog without linking it to my personal page. Stop laughing, I’m still new to all this social media jazz.

 

So are you going to create a FB page for ScooterMarie? Well, I don’t know. I guess it depends on if I can cajole y’all into putting my Google+ page into your fantastically awesome circles or not. (don’t have any circles yet? well just let me know and i’ll send out some Google+ invites. it’ll be a party!) I know FB is still the big medium of choice, but word on the street is Google+ is out to be #1. Numero uno. The big cheese.

 

So please, come on over and play! You can also click on that g+ button up in my header to find me. I’ll be over there waiting for you! Did I mention I brought a couple 6-packs and snacks? Who doesn’t like beer and snacks in the morning? Gheesh.

 

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A whole new (messy!) vocabulary

Since becoming parents, a whole slew of new words has begun populating our everyday vocabulary – breast milk, breast pump, breast any-kind-of-paraphernalia (those more so in the first months than now, but still never before D was born), diapers, wipes, butt cream (what, you used that one before you had kids? ok, then i’m the weirdo), onesie, teething, jumperoo, peekaboo!, spit-up… The list is quite lengthy, but I think you get the idea.

 

There is one word, however, that has unfortunately become more prevalent than the others. A word that has been the focal point of many a conversation and has caused load upon load upon load of laundry. Really, all from a single word? Yes really, all from a single word. What word could possibly have such an impact in its singularity, you must certainly be wondering by now? That word, my friends, would be poopsplosion. Yes, you read that correctly. Poopsplosion. As in poop-splosion. What the? May I have a definition? Absolutely!

 

poop.splo.sion [poop-sploh-zhuh’n]

noun

  • the act or instance of baby poop exploding out of a diaper and onto everything/one in sight – clothes, changing area, car seat, furniture, walls, floors, the baby, you.

Can you use it in a sentence, please? Why, surely!

 

“I picked up D only to discover her entire back and legs were covered in fecal matter due to another poopsplosion.”

 

Poopsplosion.

 

Our first encounter with this lovely word came roughly 3 weeks after D was born. And looking back on it, I’m actually quite surprised we made it that long before coming face-to-face with the dreaded poopsplosion. We had gone to my mom’s house for the better part of a week, and both my sisters and my dad came into town to meet D for the first time. It was a lovely visit, really. You know, first-time grandparents and aunts and all.

 

All went swimmingly, too, until shortly before it was time to come home. Babies seem to have magical timing, don’t they? I had been holding D on my lap and turned her around to go up onto my shoulder, when I noticed a damp sensation on my hand. Well that’s odd, I thought. Did she spit up or drool on me? Upon further inspection, I realized it was neither of the above options. Rather, a tell-tale yellowish stain began creeping its way across the back of her onesie. Oh no! Is that what I think it is? Yep, it’s what I thought it was. Poop.

 

Quick, let’s get her changed before it gets worse. Ha. Ha ha. HAHAHAHA! Nice try. Before I knew it (and of course before i could get her into the room we were using as the changing area), there was bright yellow breastfed baby poop engulfing my sweet baby girl. Up her entire back, out through the leg holes of the diaper, all around to the front of the onesie, on her legs, on her socks, in her socks, on her arms (what? yeah, i don’t know either). POOPSPLOSION!!

 

Needless to say, tiny little D went right into the sink for a nice warm bath, poopsplosion clothes and all. Don’t worry, she was quickly separated from the mess and given a new, clean bathing vessel, but we just wanted to try to contain the monster as soon as possible before the poopsplosion could claim any more victims. And thus, dear readers, began our lives with a new word – poopsplosion. I’d love to say that we and the poopsplosions parted ways after those newborn and breastfed months, but not even close. In fact, we’ve had a couple encounters as recently as this week. There is a very good reason we have to keep a spare outfit on hand at daycare. Twice this week D came home in different clothes. And you know what that means… More poopsplosions and more laundry. Hooray!! (insert much sarcasm here)

 

So there you have it. Our first (of MANY!) really messy moment with a baby, and our introduction to a new vocab word all rolled into one. Lucky us! And now I’m curious – what about you? Have any messy moments that stand out in your memories? In my experience, the poopier, the funnier!

 

 

I received information about Clorox’s Bleach It Away campaign and am sharing my messy moment for the chance to win prizes from The SITS Girls. To learn more about the messy moment program, check out www.BleachItAway.com.  Sharing your story on the Clorox fan page gets you entered for the chance to win $25,000 and daily prizes, and you can grab a coupon for Clorox® Regular Bleach.

 

I’m also linking this up with Mama Kat’s Writer’s Workshop.