BlogPodium 2013: Why Canada's Design Blogger Conference Blew Me Away!

This weekend was the big BlogPodium conference that I have been looking forward to all spring and summer - heck all year!  I was lucky enough to work with the amazing Jen Flores of Rambling Renovators on the marketing of the event, and not only did I have a blast and learn a bunch, I also found so much inspiration in watching Jen take on this huge project and knock it out of the park.  That girl is a quiet dynamo.

Jen and her team, photo by SmugMug

All the things I love about conferences happened at BlogPodium

• I spent the day hanging out with people who immediately understood why I spend way too many hours writing, editing, styling, photographing, photoshopping, tweeting, instagramming, and web-surfing.  No explanations required, no rolling of eyes in my direction.  These were my people, and there were almost 300 of them.

• Everyone was as happy and excited to be there as I was.  The mood was celebratory, the smiles contagious.  It was an amazing day before it even started.

• The speakers and panelists were inspiring.  I filled my iPad with quotes and ideas, and had many 'AHA!' moments, nodding my head with all the other bloggers in synchronicity.  These guys knew their stuff, and our stuff to boot.  I have a resulting to-do list that is for sure going to light my blog on fire.

• It was like a big ol' family reunion.  The nature of blogging means that many, many of my friendships and relationships are built online, through comments, tweets and instagrams. I talk more often with these ladies (and Tim) than I do my friends down the street, and as a result, I feel like I know them just as well, if not better!  So it is a joy to put faces to Twitter handles and be able to back up blog comments with great big hugs. (I'm a hugger.)

As an added bonus, I got to feel a real sense of accomplishment as I looked around at the sea of grinning faces.  I am under no illusion that my efforts brought them all there (the name 'Sarah Richardson' might have had a little something to do with it) but it felt kind of awesome to know that I was able to use my non-blogging skills to bring in a table or two of tickets.

My biggest BlogPodium take-away

The best part of the experience, however, was seeing a beaming Jen Flores floating around the rooms.  Unlike most conferences I have attended, I had watched the organizer work her tail end off with passion, poise, and purpose for months on end building up this experience.  She arranged the speakers, booked the venue, scheduled the sessions, oversaw the menu, brought in the big name sponsors, coordinated the blog contributions, and oversaw the marketing, social media, website development, event coordination, and all logistics.  Jen threw herself into this day with everything she had; refused to get knocked down by any of the setbacks or disappointments that arose; diligently worked through meetings, emails, conference calls, presentations, and every other task required with inspiring determination.

Through her vision and effort, Jen created an epic day that will fuel and inspire not only the 300 people in attendance, but their readers, clients, and colleagues.

To have been able to watch all this happen was the biggest gift of all, and was to me more inspiring even than Sarah Richardson's amazing keynote speech (which was awesome!).  Through this process, I learned from watching Jen that having a vision is just the first step.

If you truly believe in something, and are willing to invest yourself completely into making it a reality, not only will it happen, it will be a massive success.

Jennifer Flores Photography by Annawithlove

Not surprisingly, this philosophy seemed to be thread running through the day for me.  I heard it in Sarah Richardson's beautifully honest, sincere, and motivating keynote address.

I heard it in Margot Austin and Rhonda Riche's articulate contributions to the lunchtime keynote panel.

New, Old, and Online Media panel, photography by Annawithlove

"I learned everything on the job, by being willing 
to pick up new challenges and work hard." Margot Austin

"When shelter magazines were shutting down 

we saw an opportunity to make our own fun, in the way we had always wanted but couldn't do before. " Rhonda Riche, Covet Garden

I heard it in Keka DasGupta's charming and energizing session on working with agencies, and I heard it in Karen Bertlesen's frank and hysterical session on monetizing your blog.

Keka DasGupta, photo by Annawithlove

"State of mind matters.  Be confident, be sure. 

Recognize what you are bringing to the table!" Keka DasGupta

Karen Bertelsen, photography by Annawithlove

"Creativity is the key to success - 

when you can do whatever you want and have fun doing it, 

you will be your most authentic." Karen Bertelsen

All in all, it was a thrilling Saturday, and I am exhausted!  I met so many amazing people, doing so many amazing things - I wish everyone could have that kind of soul-enriching experience.  I can't wait to see what other great things Jen can dream up for next year!

The dawn of a new reality

Did you all like that one post I put up this summer?  It was awesome, wasn't it? Yeah...

Well, I did write many more of them in my head, usually at 2 am, but obviously none of them made it into the computer.  I even took photos specifically for blog posts, and then sort of shuddered at the thought of opening Photoshop and ran outside.  And that is where I spent pretty much every day this summer - outside (see photos above)!  With the boys, of course, and family either Out East or Out West - and yes I realize that my life is kind of ridiculous, and I am spoiled absolutely rotten.  I thought I would throw together a few of the look-how-awesome-my-summer was shots into one big clump to get them out of the way. :)

My comeuppance has come this week, as both boys start full days at school.  Suddenly I am none too fond of Mr. McGuinty and his full-day kindergarten (the very thing I was crossing my fingers for when I was a working mom paying for childcare).  It's like the end of the most glorious, happy, unbelievably-amazing vacation - a two-year vacation at that.

Two years of being at my kids' every beck and call, of crafting, colouring, drawing, breaking up fights, kissing owies, twisting the chicken timer on the time-out spot, and developing an amazing respect for the phenomenon called 'quiet'.

Two years of days at the park (feeling incredibly guilty as I facebooked and instagrammed my brains out), listening to toy cars discuss red lights versus green lights, denying TV, and then binging on 10 episodes of Max and Ruby (usually with a chaser of Caillou).

Two years of tantrums at the grocery store, book store, cafe, halfway to the park, halfway to the car, in the car, outside the car, upstairs, downstairs, and especially on the time-out spot - many of them thrown by yours truly.  Two years of spontaneous hugs, puzzles, stories, bike rides and snuggles.

You get the idea.  It only hit me last week that days like these will now be confined to two months in the summer, if they still want to hang out with me that is.  For the rest of the year I will have to make due with those fun hours around dinner and weekends, like regular folks.  It was a tough realization to come to terms with, but being grateful for those two years really, actually (Cam's favourite word) did help.  There some sobbing, gulping-for-air tears (all mine) last week to be sure.

But this week things seem to be shaking into some sort of new reality.  I am trying to take it easy on myself and not demand that I find a job STAT (which is how I feel).  I am happy to report that I am still gunning to do interior design, I will keep up with the marketing consulting, and the encaustic project is still a go.

So there you have it, my life in a nutshell.  I am sure you really didn't need to read it, but for some reason I needed to write it!  I seem to have been putting off blogging until I had all this stuff squared away, and now I hereby give myself permission to get back into it. :)

Watch this with the kid

Hooray!  I have finally stumbled across something in the internet that I was compelled to share - just like in the old days of this blog.  Somehow in the last few months I seem to have gotten all confused about why the heck I was doing this blogging thing, and who I should be writing for, and what I should be writing about, and if it should be tied into an imaginary business I have not yet started or even fully narrowed down... and so I just didn't write anything.  That and I have been so, well, not really crazy busy, but just not online.  Some days I don't even open the computer (which is bad cause then I don't look at my email or calendar and that's just not proper adult behaviour).

Anyhoo, here's the thing I loved so much I had to share*: This blog The Kid Should See This.  This blog is an incredibly diverse compilation of cool, inspiring, and educational videos that were not created specifically for kids, but that make for wonderful and imaginative viewing for kids as well as adults.  There is an excellent article on Design for Minikind about how mom Rion started the blog after trying to find an example of jazz scat for her son.  They were both thrilled with the 1969 video she found of Ella Fitzgerald doing it like no one else can (holy MACKINAW she is good - it is super hard!), and when her son spent the rest of the week scatting everywhere he went (such an unfortunate homonym...), she knew she had to share it.

The videos are grouped under Science, Technology, Space, Animals, Food, DIY, Art, Food, Music, and Animation, and forget the boys, I could spend my entire day on here.  The world is just so damn full of cool and interesting people!  If that isn't a great lesson to learn when you're young, I don't know what is.

I especially love the art category, but they are all amazing.  I am including a couple here, and had to post the Oliver Jeffers one because I love his books and he's so dreamy...



And considering the amount of hours Will and I have logged watching films on space and the planets, and my obsession with Chris Hadfield, I thought I would add these as well:



Seen anything cool online lately? ;p

Anybody out there?

Holy Sweet Mother Of Pearl, switching internet hosts is not for the faint of heart*.  That goes double when you are originally on Blogger and don't actually know who is currently hosting your blog!  (It is eNom.com by the way.)  Trying to remember all my passwords (with a special character? without??), requesting unknown hosts to unlock domains, having secret codes sent to you by both hosts - I don't know how people get away with all the crazy stuff they do online when you have to navigate the cryptic-undercover-secret-handshake back alleys of the internet just to move a design blog.  Add to that the fact that all my recent online charges got my credit card blocked (which of course landed me in a whole other realm of security shenanigans), and you have the recipe for one confused and frustrated blogger, with a blog lost in the ether.

But lo and behold, here I am - I guess if you are reading this you found me!  And thanks to everyone who sent me panicked emails and texts wondering what the hell happened to my blog, it made me so happy to know you guys got my back. :)

I am still on Blogger for now, but with Bluehost.  I am planning to move over to Word Press eventually, once I get a business going, but I don't want to let go of this design I worked so hard on, at least not yet. :)

*Apparently you can pay people to figure this crap out for you, if you aren't cheap (and ignorant) like me...

Rambling Renovators' 2012 great reads

I am thrilled to be on Jen's round-up of blogs on Rambling Renovators.  I am in amazing company too - I have found a ton of new blogs to add to my reader... Thank you Jen!

A Cozy Reading Nook Guest Post

Happy Friday/End of the World guys!  I don't know about you, but I am ready for a wee break (insofar as a few weeks of intense family visit time is 'a break', lol!).  Things have been super busy the last few weeks, especially considering I am retired! :)

A few weeks ago I was approached by a freelancer agent, who was wondering if I ever posted articles from other authors on Wicked & Weird.  I have done some guest-post-hosting, but never actually invited submission, so I thought - why not?  Heaven knows freelance writers could use a break now and then.  So here is the article I chose - all about setting up a cozy reading nook (a must-have in every home, as far as I am concerned!).  Let me know what you think of the whole concept of writer-submitted posts in the comments - I am curious as to your thoughts. :)

Whether reading a graphic novel, piece of fiction, cookbook, coffee table book, mystery, comedy, romance or poetry book, make your reading nook all your own. Here are some ideas to give your reading space character.

A Crime Fiction Cave

From Stieg Larsson's “The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo” to Dan Brown's “The Da Vinci Code,” crime novels are filled with mystery and intrigue to the extreme. These books offer a chance to travel through time and space to far away lands as one attempts to solve a crime before the book ends. How would the mystery lover like their reading nook to look and feel? An understair storage is a great location because it's dark, cozy, and mysterious. If you don't tell anyone about this hideaway, you can immerse yourself in all the guilty pleasure you can handle. Hang a framed photo of a weathered handwritten note with a bloodstain. The Shade Store's drapery will come in handy as you cloak a velvet curtain in the corner. Add some battery-operated flameless LED flickering candles to the space, and scare yourself at any noise coming from outside of your thriller sanctuary.

Your Fantasy Escape

Do you prefer misty mountains, fantastical forests, and epic adventures? Escape into an alternate universe as you channel C.S. Lewis and climb into your own wardrobe transformed into a reading nook? Or, better yet, grab a book and fly the coop as you head out the door to a secret location in a nearby park, garden, forest, mountainside or beach bluff to depart from your daily grind and get lost in a fantasy land of fairies, witches, knights, princesses, unicorns, and magic.
If daydreaming is more your style, consider adding dark greens and pastel pinks. Soft light can illuminate through flameless LED candles, twinkle lights, or by running a lamp with a colored bulb into the space. Be sure there is tulle draped from the ceiling to all walls. Add images of fairies and mysterious forests. A liquid motion water wave feature would add that extra touch of nature to your escape.

Science Fiction, Solar System

If Arthur C. Clarke's 2001— “A Space Odyssey,” George Orwell's “1984,” and Aldous Huxley's “Brave New World” float your boat, a Sci-Fi inspired space is in the stars for you. There are so many directions you can take for the futuristic reading nook. For example, deck it out with universe-inspired decor using a planet projector, glow in the dark stars, and colors that take you right off of this green earth and into the darkness of space. Or, consider a restoration decor that marries elements of the past with an imagined future of nautilus, time travel and space exploration that jump off the pages of your favorite literary masterpieces. Incorporate brass wall switches and exposed gear clocks. Mix leather with lace and velvet. Put weathered maps on the walls. Maybe even some aviator-style goggles, a pith helmet, and a corset. Who cares what the cat thinks.

Victoria James Daughter of a designer and home ec teacher, Victoria learned everything she would ever need to know about being a successful designer from her mother. Victoria loves passing her mother's secrets on to readers.

The Steven and Chris Adventure

How did I suddenly end up showing my home on Steven and Chris?  That is a mighty fine question.  About a month and a half ago, I got an email out of the blue from their Senior Decor Producer (awesome job title BTW) asking if I would be willing to do a tour of my house for the show.  I responded enthusiastically (i.e. many exclamation marks were used).  There was no set timeline, so I got my butt in gear to finish off a few things, like the photo wall in the dining room.  Then suddenly, while I was at the ROM with my kids and visiting Mother-In-Law Diana, I got an email on my phone asking if maybe they could come the next day???    Wowzers.  I like to think I remained calm, but I have no doubt my mother-in-law would argue otherwise.

That evening I cleaned like a MOTHER... so many things were stuffed into drawers and closets that have yet to be re-discovered.  Then, as I checked my computer, thinking of everything I had left to do before they came, I realized that the next morning I had parent duty at Cam's nursery school until 11:30.  They were coming at 1.  Swear words were uttered.  To say I was a little distracted while setting up the kids' snack would be a bit of an understatement.  

Luckily, I got another email that morning saying that they would have to reschedule.  THANK YOU UNIVERSE.  By the time they came the following week, I even more time to stash away the clutter and 'style' my house (as in, I made my son's bed and put the toaster oven on the back porch).

I wish I had taken the opportunity to grab some good photos of the house that day, because Lord knows it will never, ever be that tidy again!  However, I was a busy bee for the 3 hours that the producer Barb was here, discussing wording, trying to remember the wording we discussed, fussing over every object in every room, doing voice-overs and on-camera takes.  They did the whole house, although the segment on my bedroom was cut and we discussed many, many more items than were shown!

After Barb left, the videographer Ved stayed for another 2, almost 3 hours taking shots of all the details in the house.  I think he did an amazing job.  The fabulous Diana was thankfully still in town and took the boys out for the entire afternoon (I have no idea where!).  There was no way I could have done this with them in the house - there is no way they could have been that quiet for that long!

Diana was a little surprised to see the cameras and equipment still here when they got back at 5pm.  The boys were great about not making a huge mess in the rooms Ved hadn't shot yet.  We asked him to shoot the kitchen first so that Diana could start making dinner (yummy knedliky!) before the boys lost their minds.  Below is may favourite shot of two professionals hard at work.

Then off they went, and I think before Ved had even finished pulling out of the driveway Cam had emptied a bucket of cars all over the living room floor and Will had an armload of trains dumped on the sofa.

Then Diana left, and my parents came, along with Chris's brother Dave.  (Did I mention that during this I also had William's birthday party - two days after the above scene - and Halloween, and had enjoyed visitors for about the last 5 or 6 weeks, starting a few days before my brother's wedding?)

The great news is that Mom was able to come to the studio with me to tape the "live" interview with Steven and Chris.  When I was in the green room, they asked if I thought she would mind being mic'ed as well - and I thought it best not to tell her in advance and make her freak out.  So just before the taping started, they gave a very shocked Barb Mackay her mic!

Photo courtesy of Flora Di Vetta

We had a lovely time and I was so glad she was there. It was really neat to see how they put the show together.  For example, the banana ice cream they showed at the end actually took about 15 minutes, and they were having a fit about it.  Also, the interview with the singer was done in front of a totally different audience, and we did not actually watch the entryway segment either!  Plus they actually asked me a few more questions, but I guess my nervous blathering responses needed to be cut in the interest of time. :)  But I am glad they kept the part with my mom - although she later confessed that she had no idea what they were meant when they asked her if she DIY'ed. :P  (She does by the way - she has recovered many chairs, sewed many curtains, and done more than her fair share of painting; I come by it naturally.)

So there you have it, my whirlwind adventure with fame.  It was a blast and I am hungry for more! They may have created a monster - I am crafting reality show pitches as I type. :)  WELCOME to anyone new who came from the show and actually read this whole thing - I would love for you to stick around!  And thanks to those of you who have read from the beginning - you are the wind beneath my wings. Don't worry, I won't forget the little people. :)

I heart Barbara at Hodge Podge

I promise to be up and running with some clever content soon, but in the meantime I had to pop in to say a HUGE thank you to Barbara Markova at Hodge:Podge blog for her So Canadian, Eh? feature on me and Wicked & Weird.  This series is one of my favourite things on the web - Barbara always takes the time to really craft some insightful questions and I love getting to know more about the great Canadian talent out there in such a personal way.  I am really touched by her intro words, the comments, and of course by the fact that she chose to include me in her series.  Thank you Barbara! xo

I'm over at Recreated!

My lovely blogging buddy Lindsey at Recreated is home in NB and asked me to guest post while she is away.  Of course I had to do a New Brunswick-inspired post!  Check it out over here - I will include a little tease for you. :)

How to Add Social Media Icons to your Blog

As I mentioned in the previous post, I was inspired and energized by the most recent Blog Podium.  I am not quite ready to rush out and book advertisers, but I am making some changes with that possibility in mind.  One of the points made at Saturday's session that stuck with me was the importance of having a professional-looking blog.  I have started compiling a list of blogs that I feel strike the right balance between personality and professionalism for inspiration.  For me, this means above all clean, un-cluttered, organized, and easy to navigate.

Another important piece of advice was to stay well-connected to the community you are in and be able to demonstrate that you have your own little niche of expertise.  Blogger makes it easy to link up to your other social networking profiles with widgets and gadgets in your blog's sidebar, and I already had many of them in place.  However, I love the look of a simple self-explanatory row of icons, so over the past couple of days I added this at the top of my sidebar:

It connects readers directly to a whole bunch of my other profiles but uses a minimum of real estate.  Win-win!  It was easy enough to do, but I ran into a few snags, so I thought I would outline the process here in case anyone else wanted to do this as well.  (There are many other tutorials out there if mine is confusing!)

1.  Find your favourite icons, or make some yourself in Photoshop and save as a .png file.  I got mine from the lovely Carrie Loves blog, where she has a ton of colours.  Isa Maria of The Academy also did a lovely series based on the Pantone colours of the year.  For MANY more options, you can google "Social Media Icons."  Once you find the ones you want, save them to your computer.

2.  Upload your png files to Flickr or Photobucket.  I didn't want these to show up in my Flickr stream, so I signed up for Photobucket and highly recommend it!  To get the URL for each image, which you will need later, you just need to hover over the image and then click on "Direct Link" which makes it super easy.  I will definitely be using Photobucket again!

I ended up uploading my icons three times, because the size I downloaded from Carrie was much too big and it took me a couple of resizes in Photoshop to get the size I liked!  You may want to start with one to see how big it is and then adjust them.  In the end mine were 28 pixels x 28 pixels.

3.  Add HTML gadget to your layout.  To do this, look up to the right hand corner on your Blogger dashboard and go to Design, and on the screen below click Layout, then Add a Gadget.

Scroll down the provided list until you find the HTML/JavaScript widget.

4.  Once you have the gadget open you can add the following code for each icon:

[a href="YOURSITEURL" target="_blank"][img src="YOURIMAGEURL"][/a]

If you copy and paste the above code, you will have to change the brackets:
replace [ with < and ] with >
(I couldn't figure out how to type code into my post without it turning into a broken link!)

(It would probably be helpful to actually write all the code in Text Edit and copy it into the content section of the HTML gadget instead of flipping back and forth to the different sites and the gadget window like I did!)

Now when I did this, everything looked fine in the code, but when I tried to click the link it added www.wickedandweird.com to the beginning of the address and wouldn't work.  I could not figure out why it was doing this. Drove. Me. Batty. After much searching online, I discovered that it was because the quotation marks I had copied in the code were curly quotes and not straight quotes. Go figure.  So make sure you have straight quotes in your code!

5. Repeat the above code for each site and each matching image until you have them all.

6. Remove all the other social-media-linking gadgets you had cluttering up your sidebar and admire your new streamlined blog.

7. Pour yourself a drink.

I hope that makes sense - leave me a comment if I have left something unclear!

FYI - the target="_blank" part means the link opens in a new window or tab.  I was going to go back and add this to all my links, since the all seem to drive traffic away from Wicked & Weird - and I have a lot of links!  Then I noticed in writing this post that there is a little box you can check when adding a link that says "open in a new window"...  duhhhhhhhhhh!!! Better late than never I guess. :)

Blog Podium Inspiration = House Tour Completion

I had SO much fun at Blog Podium this weekend and learned a ton about how to monetize a blog.  Nicole Balch of Making It Lovely (one of the first blogs I ever subscribed to) gave an honest, relaxed, and informative keynote.  The ever-amazing Lindsay (of Aubrey and Lindsay's Little House Blog) and Jen (of Rambling Renovators) blew my mind with the fun, professional, absolutely-perfect event. Seriously - I want to be them when I grow up - FOR REAL! (as my 4-year-old keeps saying).   I went home with a huge to-do list for Wicked & Weird and will probably be tweaking things for months to come, or until my energy runs out.  Today I FINALLY got a chance to pull together some photos and text for my House Tour page that I made the link for months ago.  Hooray!

There are many great recaps of the conference out there, and if you are at all interested in the busine$$ side of blogging, I urge you to take a look:

1. Interior Groupie 
2. September and Sun
3. Bijou and Boheme
4. My Daily Randomness
5. Adding the Finishing Touch
6. Gallery No. 8
7. The 236

Here are some of the lessons that I will be taking to heart:

• Stats aren't everything  I have never considered to be "worthy" of advertising because I am such a small blog.  However, big numbers aren't the only thing the larger brands are looking for.  They also want to find blogs large and small that are a good fit content-wise, writers who are well connected to the 'scene' and are well-informed with a professional-looking blog, and bloggers who are engaged and engaging, with comments, tweets, and conversations.
• Oh Canada!  Brands large and small, international and domestic are looking to target geographically.  Let readers know right off the bat where you are writing from and that you are Canadian.
• Tweet Tweet Twitter Twitter  Be active and consistent on Twitter.  Many brand marketers are short on time and need to be on Twitter anyway for their job.  It makes things much easier if they can find you where they are and can see that you are engaged with the community.  Have a great Twitter List that shows you are connected with people these brands want to reach.
• Do your homework Reach out to brands you want to work with, don't wait for them to find you in a sea of blogs.  Research their products, their projects, and their style so you can prove that you really know them when you make the pitch and aren't just cut and pasting their name into a generic ask.
• Dress for the job you want  I have always tried to dress for the job I wanted and not the job I had.  I may have been Marketing Coordinator, but if people were looking around at all the coordinators in the city for a Marketing Manager, I wanted them to know in a glance that I was professional and prepared and ready to step right up.  So when Nicole said "Looking bigger than you are is the best way to get bigger than you are" I knew exactly what she meant: have a blog that looks established, that has a consistent feel to it, and write honestly and authoritatively.  
• Don't quit your day job  Errr, too late for me! :)  But I have confirmed my suspicion that while I can definitely make a little bit of fun money from the blog ("Canadian Tire money" as Christine said) I won't ever be earning a full-time income from it.  At least, not in Canada, and not now.  Things may change!

So you may notice a few changes here and there, and maybe a few ads popping up on the side.  (If you are interested in some seriously cheap test ads, let me know!)  I would love to hear if there is something about my blog that makes you come back, something you think I should make sure to keep up.  Likewise, if there are posts you just skip through when you see them, let me know that too!  I am crazy curious about what you all think about the stuff that I put out there.  Maybe I should start paying for comments?  Oh wait... that's actually the opposite of the idea... right.  I guess I won't be keynote speaker anywhere any time soon. :)

The Mail Gods Giveth

Oh my goodness you guys, I don't think I had a full appreciation for the depth of my blogging habit until I lost my computer this week.  With the gift of my iPad I could browse and even comment (sometimes) on other blogs, but I was getting some serious shakes without being able to upload photos and do some photoshop!  However, the disk I was waiting for arrived from Apple and with after few more disasters and meltdowns, I am now completely up and running - mail, iPhoto and all!  YIPEEE!  (The photo above is actually a pretty lame version of my elation, but I couldn't find mad frenzied hysterical happiness + computer.  Which is odd when you think about it...)

Anyway, my days spent gazing forlornly at the mailman were not all in vain.   I had been offered a Poster Jack print a while ago and finally sent one off.  I was thrilled when this one arrived in the mail!

Posterjack.ca is a great Canadian company sponsoring tomorrow's Blog Podium conference, and they offer a ton of ways to display your photos - from matted and framed to canvases and even metal or birchwood prints.  Since I had never seen anything done on wood I thought I would give that one a try, and picked one of my favourite beach shots to send.

It arrived pretty quickly and I really like how it turned out.  It would look great at a cottage or beach house, don't you think?  Anyone going with for a beach feel could get a few of these done, even larger, with images of the sea for the perfect wall art.

Another package arrived bearing my winnings from an awesome HGTV.ca blog giveaway and I was thrilled when I opened it.  I knew I had won one of the limited edition tea towels from The Bay, but didn't know which one.  Imagine my elation to see that it was the (sold-out-impossible-to-get-your-hands-on) Alanna Cavanagh print!!

 Maybe I should get it framed like Tim at Design Maze did - his looks great, don't you think?

photo by Scott Young

And last, but definitely not least, I received a lovely gift from Jamie of Intertwyned Photography - a beautiful print of the tree photo I had been long admiring.  How awesome are her letter-pressed note cards?  And the photo is even more beautiful in person.  Thank you Jamie.

 Now to build that addition on the house to fit all my new lovelies...

Oh man, it feels good to be back.  And now to get ready for Blog Podium - sooo excited!!  See you there?

And the Winner is...

The winner of the Intertwyned photography give-away is...

Congrats to Cathy - and a big THANK YOU to Jamie for such a lovely prize, and to everyone who entered.  It is heartening to know you all are out there reading. :)  Stay tuned as I have another fabulous giveaway coming soon...

Cathy - send me your mailing info and photo preference and I will pass it on to Jamie.  You can email or DM me @lisamackay.  And start thinking about where it's going to go Lucky Girl! :)

Champagne + Friends

I saw this on my friend Karen's tumblr blog and needed to re-post it.  I then spent 45 minutes searching through at least nine other blogs for the source, which is HERE.  It was worth it though, don't you think? It is the truth - in a Venn Diagram.  Awesome.

Edit: There is a definite need for some champagne around here - I just noticed that I now have 100 Blogger followers.  WOOOHOO!  A bubbly toast to all of you!!

Master of my Domain

Like many bloggers out there, I have been inspired by Alt Summit, Blog Podium, and Canadian Design Bloggers Meet-up to put a little more effort and professionalism into my blog.  I started the blog way back in 2008 as a fun way to share cool stuff with my friends without overloading their inboxes.  There is so much imaginative, creative, beautiful, and inspiring work out there I was/am never at a loss for material.  Although I often still have my friends in mind with my subject matter, it has come to my attention that a few hundred other people from all over the world regularly stop by my wee slice of the internet to see what's new - I am honoured (and kind of amazed) by your visits!

It seems like there are a few kindred souls out there who like my "style",  and I thought that it might be fun to find even more of you.  To that end I am following the advice of some generous blogging experts and tweaking the blog to make finding me easier, and visiting more enjoyable.  First, I have invested 10 whole Canadian dollars into purchasing www.wickedandweird.com.  An internet domain to call my very own!  The blogspot address will still get you to the blog, so there's no need to change bookmarks or anything.  It just means new people won't have to remember if I am on blogger or wordpress or something else. Also, it makes my inner nerd SUPER excited.

Next, I am attempting to bumble my way through learning html coding to add some navigation tabs at the top.  This may take a while to complete, since I am also writing posts, taking and editing photos, doing a small contract, oh and raising a couple of kids.  However, I am a Taurus, and nothing if not stubbornly determined, so it will eventually get done!

Next, I now ask of you: any advice?  Pointers? Tips?

Got any insight into my "brand"? ('Cause apparently my blog is my BRAND - yikes!)

Any stuff I post that you really like?  Hate?  Couldn't care less about?

Any other tabs you think I should tackle effortlessly create?

If you have the time to leave me any tidbits, I would love it ever so much.
If not, I now have my own domain, so I'll be ok. :)

And finally, I have to thank you for reading, and visiting, and commenting.  You guys sure make a girl feel great - MERCI!! xox

Liebster Blog Award

I love blog awards - they are usually passed around from blogger to blogger and I think it is such a great way to support and encourage each other.  And I was supremely flattered to be given a Liebster Blog Award from the lovely and hilarious Dharma of The Wannabe Mermaid.  I met Dharma at the very first Canadian Design Bloggers meet-up and loved her immediately - she was so open and kind-hearted - and I look forward to seeing her at every meet-up.

The Liebster award is given to blogs that deserve more followers and aim to break the 100 mark. ( I try not to look at that little number in the corner, but I can't help but notice that I am getting close!)

It is my turn to pass along the award, so pop on over to these great blogs and hit that follow button. (And if you haven't hit it yet on my blog, now would be a great time...)

- Dharma of The Wannabe Mermaid is a riot and her blog is always a fun read.

- Maggie of Okay, Now What? has fabulous taste and is tackling some huge project in her house, (now while preggo) making me look like a lazy bum.

- Amy of aDESIGNdock really doesn't need my help, she is a contributor for StyleAtHome.com and has been featured on Design*Sponge, but I love her blog and her kick-ass Prairie style.

- Jen of Kitchen Counter Chronicles is one of those moms that always has genius craft ideas, great recipes, and is always taking her kids someplace cool in Toronto, but I like her anyway.  I met her digging in the garden for Bloggers Give Back (we decimated a Forsythia together) and she is a true sweetheart.

So go show these ladies some love!

Still blog

I couldn't have happened upon this soothing blog on a better day.  My weekend was a whirlwind: Interior Design Show Gala, Goodnight speakeasy, illness, anxiety attack, husband's 40th, Canadian Design Bloggers Meetup, dinner night with the girlfriends.  It was an intense few days packed with ups and downs.  So when I arrived on this blog courtesy of Bookhou's Facebook page, I lost myself in the images.

Photographer Mary Jo Hoffman is posting a photo a day for the duration of 2012.  The subjects will be still lifes of gathered and found objects, similar to Lisa Congdon's 2010 A Collection a Day project, although Mary Jo's subjects are focused on the natural world. The soothing site design, light-soaked photography, and artfully-arranged organic materials create a true oasis in the action-packed blogosphere.  It is like a moment of, yes, stillness for your visually-overstimulated eyes and mind.  These are some of my favourite images, but for the full effect (the site design is amazing) I urge you to go visit, and take a deep breath.

All photographs copyright Mary Jo Hoffman.

The incredible blog design is the work of Josh Clancy.