Liz is by far one of my favorite bloggers! I think that most of you know her & for those of you who don't today is going to be a real treat for you! Happy Friday & Welcome Liz!!!
Good morning, Mommy Monologues readers! My name is Liz and I blog at a belle, a bean & a chicago dog.
I'm so happy to be the newest featurette, but I have to confess that Kate and I have felt a special bond from our very first reads; my oldest daughter also happens to be named Kate Elizabeth!
Now, for the nitty-gritty...
Kate asked me 3 questions, and 2 of them are actually pretty difficult to answer!
1. What's my favorite blog to read? I happen to have 2 best bloggy friends - KLZ and Natalie - whom I consider to be "my tribe." I can't choose one without also choosing the other, so I need to set them both aside, and choose from my other blog loves.
Now I would have to say that it would be a tie between Funny Or Snot and In Pursuit of Martha Points, both for fall-out-of-my-chair laughs.
Yes, I know. I failed miserably at this because I still ended up naming 2 bloggers.
2. What's my best blogging tip? The bottom line for any good blog is good content. Hands down. Sure, it helps if the writing topics are of particular interest, but the most important factor is being able to tell your story in a way that is captivating and relevant to your readers.
As far as growing your blog? I would say that you need to put in the time both visiting and commenting on others' sites.
3. Give a link to my most favorite blog post! Enter tricky question #2! There are a handful of posts that I really love, but each for their own reasons.
One post where I really turned up the snark and sarcasm was Best Places to Live. Another favorite, but because it was something all mom's could really relate to, was Modern Mom Date.
A great, big THANKS to Kate for having me as her Featurette!
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THANK YOU LIZ FOR WRITING OVER HERE TODAY!!!
Sep 2, 2010
Dear Jennifer Aniston,
I need to be your best friend.
I know, I don't even have half of a quarter of your $80 million net wealth and our friendship would mostly rely on your either A) Sitting at my house that is probably the size of a small bathroom at your California mansion or B) Me freeloading off you for fun lunches, dinners, nights out, & fun family vacays.
But I swear I have a lot to offer! I can recite to you every.single.line you ever said in all 10 seasons of Friends. I could most definitely kick your little booty at the Friends trivia game (no one has beat me yet!) I can tell you fun little facts that you don't even remember about Rachel, like she wore Chanel 5, her middle name is Karen, & she has 2 sisters, her dad is a doctor, & rumor has it that she has a teeny weeny.
I can even forgive the fact that you smoke. I would still be your friend & I pretty much refuse to even shake hands with people who are smokers for fear that by merely touching them I will contract cancer cells that will fly straight to my lungs & kill me dead.on.the.spot.
Go ahead and invite Courtney over too! But I will warn you whatever friendship you have with her will be long gone once you realize just how wonderful I am! We are destined to be friends, it's true, the voices in my head told me so.
Oh please Jennifer Aniston, pleeeaaase Jennifer Anniston. I swear if we are best friends I will not call you by your first and last name as so manypsychotic fantabulous fans do. I will act completely normal, I PROMISE!
Just think about it!
Yourcrazy, insane, should be institutionalized BFF,
Kate
And no, I don't have this picture framed, on my bedside table.
I know, I don't even have half of a quarter of your $80 million net wealth and our friendship would mostly rely on your either A) Sitting at my house that is probably the size of a small bathroom at your California mansion or B) Me freeloading off you for fun lunches, dinners, nights out, & fun family vacays.
But I swear I have a lot to offer! I can recite to you every.single.line you ever said in all 10 seasons of Friends. I could most definitely kick your little booty at the Friends trivia game (no one has beat me yet!) I can tell you fun little facts that you don't even remember about Rachel, like she wore Chanel 5, her middle name is Karen, & she has 2 sisters, her dad is a doctor, & rumor has it that she has a teeny weeny.
I can even forgive the fact that you smoke. I would still be your friend & I pretty much refuse to even shake hands with people who are smokers for fear that by merely touching them I will contract cancer cells that will fly straight to my lungs & kill me dead.on.the.spot.
Go ahead and invite Courtney over too! But I will warn you whatever friendship you have with her will be long gone once you realize just how wonderful I am! We are destined to be friends, it's true, the voices in my head told me so.
Oh please Jennifer Aniston, pleeeaaase Jennifer Anniston. I swear if we are best friends I will not call you by your first and last name as so many
Just think about it!
Your
Kate
And no, I don't have this picture framed, on my bedside table.
Sep 1, 2010
What Blogging Can do for a Mom
I read on a blog where someone wrote "I wish I had a kid so that I could sit on my butt watching cartoons & write a blog." No lies. I started thinking that if she and other people think that moms who blog sit around with their computers then they really don't understand. It really didn't bother me that she said, it just caught me off guard, and made me start thinking.
You know, someday, this woman may get married & they might have a baby. She might give up everything she knows and understands to be a mom (working or SAHM.) It will flip her entire world upside down. When her life revolved around shiny cars, fun purses, cute shoes, date nights, & sleeping in, she will quickly discover that her life is about diapers, feedings, diapers, sleep deprivation, diapers, doctors appointments, diapers, spit up, diapers, isolation and did I mention diapers?!
Oh yes, her life will be about beautiful moments too. Moments of kisses, first waves, first solid foods, first steps, hugs, first words, smiles, laughter, precious moments of reading books, cuddling, laughter, backyard fun, birthday parties, and figuring out how to enjoy a date night even though you miss your kid so much hurts while he is at home with grandma. Yes, there are beautiful and amazing moments too.
But she might find that she's the only one of her friends parenting. Or her friends who are parenting don't live in the same town. So she finds herself a little isolated, a lot of lonely, and she wishes that she could have another mother she can talk to about the cruddy stuff & the awesome stuff. So one day she opens up her computer and finds a blog that a friend in real life actually writes. On that blog she sees a button flashing that links her to over 1000 mommy blogs.
In one click her entire world opens up. So she decides that she can do this too. She opens a blogger account because it's free & easy. She writes her first post. She signs up at networking sites with other women bloggers. She gets her first comment. She starts visiting blogs every day. She finds herself reading stories about days just like the one she had yesterday. She's laughing, she's crying, she's laughing & crying at the exact same time while reading posts.
Now, she wakes up in the morning thinking about what her next post will be about. She wonders if she has any new comments. She reads that comment, that comment leads to an email, an email leads to many emails, which lead to friendships. She's also smiling a little bit more during the day, she finds that she has something that is 100% her own and it's wonderful. She doesn't have to share it. She finds that it's a flexible where she can write at 8:00 am or midnight (and she even writes about those diapers.)
Now she's not so lonely. She's not so isolated. She has other mothers to tell about her day, to listen to, and gets to know herself as "MOM."
We "mom bloggers," say it proudly, are a pretty awesome group of women. We share stories, we listen to stories, we learn about our differences, our similarities, we open doors to new opportunities for each other & ourselves.
Yes. That woman just didn't understand. Someday, she may be a mom blogger. And someday we will be ready to hear her story of new mommyhood.
You know, someday, this woman may get married & they might have a baby. She might give up everything she knows and understands to be a mom (working or SAHM.) It will flip her entire world upside down. When her life revolved around shiny cars, fun purses, cute shoes, date nights, & sleeping in, she will quickly discover that her life is about diapers, feedings, diapers, sleep deprivation, diapers, doctors appointments, diapers, spit up, diapers, isolation and did I mention diapers?!
Oh yes, her life will be about beautiful moments too. Moments of kisses, first waves, first solid foods, first steps, hugs, first words, smiles, laughter, precious moments of reading books, cuddling, laughter, backyard fun, birthday parties, and figuring out how to enjoy a date night even though you miss your kid so much hurts while he is at home with grandma. Yes, there are beautiful and amazing moments too.
But she might find that she's the only one of her friends parenting. Or her friends who are parenting don't live in the same town. So she finds herself a little isolated, a lot of lonely, and she wishes that she could have another mother she can talk to about the cruddy stuff & the awesome stuff. So one day she opens up her computer and finds a blog that a friend in real life actually writes. On that blog she sees a button flashing that links her to over 1000 mommy blogs.
In one click her entire world opens up. So she decides that she can do this too. She opens a blogger account because it's free & easy. She writes her first post. She signs up at networking sites with other women bloggers. She gets her first comment. She starts visiting blogs every day. She finds herself reading stories about days just like the one she had yesterday. She's laughing, she's crying, she's laughing & crying at the exact same time while reading posts.
Now, she wakes up in the morning thinking about what her next post will be about. She wonders if she has any new comments. She reads that comment, that comment leads to an email, an email leads to many emails, which lead to friendships. She's also smiling a little bit more during the day, she finds that she has something that is 100% her own and it's wonderful. She doesn't have to share it. She finds that it's a flexible where she can write at 8:00 am or midnight (and she even writes about those diapers.)
Now she's not so lonely. She's not so isolated. She has other mothers to tell about her day, to listen to, and gets to know herself as "MOM."
We "mom bloggers," say it proudly, are a pretty awesome group of women. We share stories, we listen to stories, we learn about our differences, our similarities, we open doors to new opportunities for each other & ourselves.
Yes. That woman just didn't understand. Someday, she may be a mom blogger. And someday we will be ready to hear her story of new mommyhood.
Aug 31, 2010
Today is Just Too Beautiful to Stress
Today is one of those days where the weather is so fantastic you forget it's August because it feels more like late March or early April. It's too beautiful to worry about anything. It's the kind of weather that fills you with hope & promise. You forget that there are things to worry about because the sky is so blue, the breeze is just perfect, & it just makes you feel like things will always be that way.
There are 2 guys here replacing my AC/Heating Unit for the price of a really nice, used car. But it's too beautiful of a day to stress out about it. I'll do that later (if at all.)
The garage door needed replaced a year ago. We are just now getting around to it because we finally have the money to do it. And it's going to cost a small fortune. But it's too beautiful of day to stress out about it. I'll do that later (if at all.)
Lboy dumped the dog's food bowl everywhere, learned how to grab things off the table & threw food all over the place in the house that I cleaned for an hour after he went to bed last night. But it's too beautiful of a day to stress out about it. I'll do that later (if at all.)
There's a family gathering four hours away on Saturday. I'm not going to make it. But today is too beautiful of a day to stress out about it. I'll do that later (if at all.)
Today, Lboy is playing the backyard, I'm pushing him in his swing, & helping him go down the slide. I'm throwing the tennis ball around for Giorgio. And I'm not going to stress today, not one bit. I'll do that later (if at all.)
There are 2 guys here replacing my AC/Heating Unit for the price of a really nice, used car. But it's too beautiful of a day to stress out about it. I'll do that later (if at all.)
The garage door needed replaced a year ago. We are just now getting around to it because we finally have the money to do it. And it's going to cost a small fortune. But it's too beautiful of day to stress out about it. I'll do that later (if at all.)
Lboy dumped the dog's food bowl everywhere, learned how to grab things off the table & threw food all over the place in the house that I cleaned for an hour after he went to bed last night. But it's too beautiful of a day to stress out about it. I'll do that later (if at all.)
There's a family gathering four hours away on Saturday. I'm not going to make it. But today is too beautiful of a day to stress out about it. I'll do that later (if at all.)
Today, Lboy is playing the backyard, I'm pushing him in his swing, & helping him go down the slide. I'm throwing the tennis ball around for Giorgio. And I'm not going to stress today, not one bit. I'll do that later (if at all.)
Aug 30, 2010
This Thing Called Motherhood-- A repost
This is one of my favorite posts! I actually had a different topic for today titled "Jumping to Conclusions is Dangerous"--expect that tomorrow-- but I was looking through my old posts and saw this one. It made me smile! I hope you enjoy it as much as I do! Happy Monday Folks!
Motherhood is...
Falling in love with baby from the very beginning...
Getting excited over a diaper bag (who knew they could be so exciting?!)...
Meeting for the very first time...
Telling your dad you named your son after him & crying when you did it...
Bringing Baby home & being nervous about how to take care of him...
Dressing Baby in style (hello Ralph Lauren)...
Multitasking...
Introducing Baby to his great-grandmother...
Loving it when he's asleep...
Celebrating Holidays...
Documenting Every.Single.Thing (like First Snows...)
And the First time he eats solid foods...
Motherhood is...
Telling them "No!", even when they don't like it & neither do you, but knowing it's for the best...
Constant Cleaning...
Introducing them to a bigger world through books & learning...even if they just chew on them!
Motherhood is...
Precious!
Wishing you a Happy Mother's Day Weekend! I'm glad to be a part of the "Motherhood!"
Aug 27, 2010
Debut of Cutesy Couture Designs by Kate
I have started a blog design business for blogger blogs and the design blog is now fully functional!
Here was my first post written over there introducing myself:
My name is Kate. I'm a stay-at-home mom to 15 month old Lboy, wife to my amazing husband, Todd, & doggy mommy to a 5 lb beast of a yorkie . I am just starting up this blog design business as a fun way to meet other bloggers & beautify the blogosphere!
Why Cutesy Couture? I have a precious dog named Giorgio Armani (I figure if I can't buy real Armani then I'll just name things after it & feel fancier :) and I call him my couture puppy or the designer dog. And from there it just made sense to name my blog designs after two of my fav things: Giorgio & High Fashion.
I am currently offering 3 packages: The Coach Bag, The Armani Tux & The Coco Chanel.
If you have a blogger blog & are interested in a new design email me at kate{at}cutesycouturedesigns{dot}com and I look forward to working with you!
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There's some awesome info under the menu tabs. The top three that I would check out are Order Form, FAQS, & Packages. There are some other great menu options on there too so be sure to check out those too!
I'm excited, NERVOUS, excited, NERVOUS, & thrilled all at the same time! And I found out yesterday I have to buy a brand, spankin' new AC/Heat Unit, a garage door, the window in my car fell off the track, & we have some hospital bills to pay from when Lboy took a trip to the ER in April (when it rains it pours right?! ) SO GET THOSE ORDERS IN AND HELP A GIRL OUT! No pressure or anything...none at all... lol (:
I hope you all have a great Friday! I've got one definite & two possible designs to be working on this weekend, so I will see you all on Monday! I hope you have a great weekend!
PS If you are interested in a design just leave a comment at the bottom of this post & I will get back to you ASAP!
Aug 26, 2010
My Childhood Neighborhood
My childhood neighborhood was amazing, it was magical. It was a Sandlot kind of neighborhood. There was a community pool, tons of kids, the iconic grumpy, old couple that lived across the street, the grandfatherly next door neighbor who became a family member, & tons of kool-aid stands.
The house that I grew up in has a creek in the backyard. That creek has been a fishing hole, the Grand Canyon, a crawdad catching pond, a hiding place, a burial place for pet fish that just couldn't make it through the murky waters of dirty bowls. That creek has had more Cowboy & Indian raids than a John Wayne Western with imaginary guns & arrows flying through the sky.
The best part about our neighborhood was how my brothers, sisters, & I pretty much ran the place. You know we were angelic to the adults but fearsome to the other kids. No one messed with the five of us. They called us "the Mafia." I remember a kid telling a friend of his to be careful because if you messed with one of us you messed with all of us. One of my sibs got sucker punched in the gut & the first thing she yelled was, "I'M GOING TO GET KATE." It's not like we were violent, it's just there were more of us than there were of any other family. It was intimidating.
The BEST part of our neighborhood when we were kids was the summer game "Capture." And by Capture I don't mean your usual, run of the mill go after that lame flag capture. We went after people. We would gather every neighborhood kid that was interested, split into teams (Big Kids vs. Little Kids--like how I swung that?!), the Big Kids always hid first. In fact I don't think the Little Kids ever got a chance to hide in all those years of playing.
We hid in the creek, we hopped fences, we crawled in bushes, in fact I think I even hid in a dog house one time, okay several times, okay okay a thousand times. That's how absolutely serious we were. We did NOT play games. And you could only play in pitch black, wear black, paint your face black, no flash lights, & no going inside. Oh man it was awesome! Then we would start trying to get to home base (my mom's dogwood tree) before the Little Kids could get to us. It was a game of strategy, skill & sheer luck that you didn't trip over one of those damn tree roots that got you every.single.time.
Eventually, my dad banned the game. He was afraid that someone would get hurt. Then I turned into a teenager, started driving, got interested in sports & boys, kids moved away, and the neighborhood magic fizzled and just became streets & houses. But every now and again, especially in the summer, I'll hear the crickets start chirping, and it feels like the best idea in the world to start a round of Capture just one more time.
The house that I grew up in has a creek in the backyard. That creek has been a fishing hole, the Grand Canyon, a crawdad catching pond, a hiding place, a burial place for pet fish that just couldn't make it through the murky waters of dirty bowls. That creek has had more Cowboy & Indian raids than a John Wayne Western with imaginary guns & arrows flying through the sky.
The best part about our neighborhood was how my brothers, sisters, & I pretty much ran the place. You know we were angelic to the adults but fearsome to the other kids. No one messed with the five of us. They called us "the Mafia." I remember a kid telling a friend of his to be careful because if you messed with one of us you messed with all of us. One of my sibs got sucker punched in the gut & the first thing she yelled was, "I'M GOING TO GET KATE." It's not like we were violent, it's just there were more of us than there were of any other family. It was intimidating.
The BEST part of our neighborhood when we were kids was the summer game "Capture." And by Capture I don't mean your usual, run of the mill go after that lame flag capture. We went after people. We would gather every neighborhood kid that was interested, split into teams (Big Kids vs. Little Kids--like how I swung that?!), the Big Kids always hid first. In fact I don't think the Little Kids ever got a chance to hide in all those years of playing.
We hid in the creek, we hopped fences, we crawled in bushes, in fact I think I even hid in a dog house one time, okay several times, okay okay a thousand times. That's how absolutely serious we were. We did NOT play games. And you could only play in pitch black, wear black, paint your face black, no flash lights, & no going inside. Oh man it was awesome! Then we would start trying to get to home base (my mom's dogwood tree) before the Little Kids could get to us. It was a game of strategy, skill & sheer luck that you didn't trip over one of those damn tree roots that got you every.single.time.
Eventually, my dad banned the game. He was afraid that someone would get hurt. Then I turned into a teenager, started driving, got interested in sports & boys, kids moved away, and the neighborhood magic fizzled and just became streets & houses. But every now and again, especially in the summer, I'll hear the crickets start chirping, and it feels like the best idea in the world to start a round of Capture just one more time.
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