I Could Eat My Photographs

The amateurish photographer in me believes that photographs are beautiful pieces of artwork. Which explains why there is a photo of green beans hanging above my desk. I love taking pics of food. Don't know why, but it's a new obsession.

3 layers of chocolate cake - another obsession.
The techie in me loves to find sites (for free) that allow me to manipulate or enhance those photos.

Thanks to Hockneyizer you can upload a favorite photo and turn it into Polaroids and shuffle those pics around to create a new work of art!

Here's my Strawberry-Rhubarb Crumble looking mighty scumptious. Try it out! It's fun, it's free!

I'm Off And Running - Into Spring Fashion

I made a decision about a month ago that I was going to become a 'dress' girl this spring and summer. I'm too old for short-shorts, it's usually too humid here in the Midwest for capris, and bermudas are just plain ugly on me.

Then I saw this pretty thing and I'm crushing on it. *sigh* I want one. It's from H&M's 2011 Spring collection.

As a mother of three, I'm not sure the deep v-neck is appropriate and just because I said I want to wear dresses, doesn't mean short dresses. But it's so pretty with the scalloped bottom isn't it?

Last year, I did buy this dress on clearance for $7, yes, se-ven-dollars! (original price $70) from JC Penney and have yet to wear it!

So it will probably be the first dress I wear when the weather is nice (I'm thinking around May!) Meanwhile, that gives me plenty of time in these:

The treadmill is my best friend right now. I've had enough of the snow and I can't wait for Spring! What's your fashion agenda for this spring and summer?

The New York Times - The Business of Blogging

Photo credit - Amana stock photo.
Everybody and their brother has a blog, right? Which would explain why it's estimated that there are 126 million bloggers out there. For goodness sakes, I mean, even my dog has a blog {insert shameless dog blog plug here.}

So when The New York Times wants to talk about the business of blogging, they go straight to the top, top of the money-making blogs, that is, in their article posted today, "Queen of the Mommy Bloggers," featuring Heather Armstrong of dooce.com.

Once again The New York Times will feed our growing hunger on how significant mommy bloggers have become. Yet, their articles also seem to wreak of disdain for the perks that mommy bloggers are getting from their blogs, whether they're being compensated monetarily or with merchandise. Or better yet, signing a huge book deal.

Let's not stop there, remember The New York Times article from March 12, 2010 entitled "Honey, Don't Bother Mommy. I'm Too Busy Building My Brand?" In that post, we're told that kids are being left to fend for themselves as mommies are glued to their computers in hopes of attaining a free refrigerator. Last I know, I haven't seen any un-diapered toddlers running around loose in my neighborhood!

So at what price do mommy bloggers get respect and monetary perks?

How many blogs that feature misfortunes of motherhood have become the equivalent of what used to be the "water cooler" talks? Find a blogger with a tragic story and you'll find a blog with a high number of visitors. If you're a blogger finding a blog with a mother telling her tale of hard knocks, you'll be sure that "she'll tell two friends, who'll tell two friends and so on..." It's how the mommy blogging community grows!

Mind you, not to say that these "big" bloggers aren't doing their jobs well, some are word smiths in their own right and others offer valuable tutorials, but the article was interested in how much bloggers are banking on afflictions. And how their very personal traumatic experiences can lead to an increase of followers, commentors and possibly even advertisers!

Is this the 15 minutes of fame that any mom wants? Or is it just the web version of how mothers "deal." When stuff goes wrong we like to get together with the girlfriends and process it until we feel better. That need to "vent" is possibly hardwired into the crux of the female population. Now when stuff goes wrong, we just blog about it?

Good question, are we just sharing and commiserating, or are we looking for the next big book deal? Maybe both.

What are your thoughts?

Wordless Wednesday

When my 6-year-old said she was making shapes, I assumed she was drawing them. My mistake. I sense genius. ;)

I'm linking to: 5 Minutes for Mom

Organizing With Thrifty Decor Chick

I love that my kids are creative. I love that when you come to our house, it just screams 'kids live here!' But my kids' stuff is not the first thing I want visitors to see when they walk though the front door. Something needed to be done.

Which means I couldn't resist linking up with Sarah at Thrifty Decor Chick. Her 'Organize It' party was just the thing to start off the week.

We have some fantastic built-ins when you first enter our house. But it has become the home to all things 'kid' friendly and has become quite the eye sore:

And of course catalogs and websites like to taunt me with their knack for making it functional and beautiful at the same time.

Photo credit - kidsroomdecor.com

So luckily for me, I found some very pretty lined baskets on clearance at Kmart. Three for $7.00! Three different sizes! So I bought 2 sets (that made 6 baskets total,) and the crayons, markers, beads and small books found themselves contained and organized. Using baskets is probably the best way to coral all things, no matter what room of the house!

Ahh, I feel better already. Share your organizational ideas with me and the rest of the gals at Sarah's linky party!

So You Think You're A Designer

My picks from Olioboard.

Months ago, Heidi, my mommy-blogging friend from Minnesota Mom introduced me to 'Olioboard.' Well, I never got a chance to visit until yesterday. Oh. My. Gosh. The interior designer/decorator in me was ecstatic!

It's like Fashion Plates, but for furniture. (Remember those? I think they've revived them, but I used to play with Fashion Plates all the time as a young girl.)

Olioboard is so fun and so free! Just join their community and you'll get to pick out the room background, the furniture and all the accessories. You could waste hours and hours (not that I did) playing around on this site, picking out all your favorite items, moving them around and re-sizing them. Cool.

When you're done, you can choose to share it with the community or keep it for yourself (and upload it to your blog.) Your 'room' is a downloadable JPEG format.

Check it out at www.olioboard.com Enjoy!