Posts Tagged: lotus carroll
The Night I Decided I Hate My Black Boots
I decided I hated my black boots when I was invited to the Housewares Show in Chicago last year, but I just couldn’t let go. It was the wrong pair of socks I contended, and I continued to wear them. When I shot The Most Interesting Show In The World I wanted to wear leggins, a black dress and a vest. And, “the” boots. At the last minute I remembered the pain from Chicago, and switched to jeans and black flats. I didn’t think I looked as cute, but I was going there to work; looking cute was just a bonus, anyway.
I didn’t have a suitcase full of new duds to take with me to Blissdom like I did for BlogHer. I had a few key pieces, but shoes were my major problem. I didn’t want to wear heels as I knew the amount of walking there was in the Gaylord Opryland. I decided to take “the” black boots, my new red flats (ehem…my new ten dollar red flats), my new cowboy’ish boots (ehem…my new *free cowboy’ish boots), and my new mock-Chucks. Did I need *the* black boots? Maybe not, but they sure looked fabulous with the outfit I planned to wear them with.
My friends at Eliza Parker sent me the most beautiful, versatile A-lined skirt and my newest and beloved piece that I wear a few times a week—the Million Ways Long Cardigan in (my favorite color) gray. I planned on wearing the cardigan wrapped and tied at the back, with the skirt, fishnet (ish) stockings, and my black boots. The outfit was awesome. My feet, not so much! I even put thicker socks on top of my stockings, trying to learn from my mistake in Chicago. It didn’t matter. By the end of the night I was carrying my boots around, cursing at them, and vowing to every single person that would listen that I was thoroughly done with these boots.
My next mission in life: Find some new black boots that don’t kill my feet.
Me in my Eliza Parker Million Ways Cardigan, surrounded by gorgeous friends!
[Photo Courtesy of Nish, The Outdoor Wife]
My Bliss: Part IV
One of my favorite things about going to a conference is when we all get ready to party. Imagine three, four, sometimes five girls in a room dressing up in their clothes, fixing their hair, putting on their makeup. There’s usually laughter or snorting, depending on whose room you are in
Wednesday night’s festivities included an awesome party at Water’s Edge Marketplace, followed by the premiere of CMT’s Working Class with Melissa Peterman and Ed Asner. The first part of the night was just awesome. We showed up hungry and, boy, did they feed us well. The food and drinks were awesome, the setting was memorable, and the company was superb. It was a wonderful kick off party!
We mingled, and talked, and caught up with each other. Lotus and I even got to catch up with our old friends David Griner and Kammie Avant from Luckie. We met Kammie when David invited us (along with Anissa Mayhew and Lindsey Labresco) to Birmingham for the Marketing to the Modern Mom day event that offered a candid discussion about social media and motherhood. It was awesome to see them again. I can honestly say that David is one of my favorite guys in social media.
So, here’s a question for you….
What happens when someone tells you that there will be FREE wine and cupcakes at a party?
You do cartwheels!!!!!! (Well, at least, that’s what Lotus and Leslie do!!!!!)
We headed for the premiere of Working Class. There was wine, and cupcakes, and popcorn and bliss. The Bringer of Bliss, Alli Worthington guided us in.
We drank wine, ate cupcakes, watched the show, and then Melissa Peterman entertained us. She was adorable, funny, and Rachel even got to join her on the stage.
While I was getting some wine Momo caught me and said that Jim was coming in around midnight, and asked if we wanted to welcome him. I didn’t even ask Lotus, I just said we totally would. A few minutes after Melissa’s Q&A we headed to the lobby to greet our old friend.
We walked out the front doors, and Lotus said, “Wouldn’t it be funny if that was Jim in that truck?”
The truck pulled up to the curb and through the tinted windows we could see Jim enthusiastically waving at us. It. Was. Him.
He checked in, took his bags to his room, and then we headed to Fuse, where we **drank and drank, tweeted in a circle, laughed about how we were all in a club with each other tweeting, sent hilarious tweets to each other about how we were all in the club tweeting with each other, and drank some more. Then we drank some more.
Momo retired for the night (she’s obviously the smart one opting to try to get some sleep) while Jim, Lotus, and I scoured the hotel for a ***cough drop. We found one and along with finding one we also found some Australian guys. And, let me just say—for the record— that it was definitely a very strange ending to a jam-packed day!
We finally decided to call it a night at, like, 3:30am, but I still had to go get my pajamas and head to my room (thankfully Stacie offered to let me stay with her which was awesome especially when I discovered that I left my air mattress pump at home!)
Lotus and I stumbled to the room, assembled our plan to get in the room quietly, and then she graciously walked me to my room. What can I say? She’s a good date!
When I fell into bed the whole day whirled around in my head. From waking up late to turning in early to everything in between. This day definitely set the stage, my bliss was well on it’s way…[To Be Continued…]
*Free Boots: Thanks to the Clever Girls SWAGG campaign that I participated in, I was gifted some SWAGG bucks and I got this great pair of cowboy(ish) boots from Amercian Eagle. Thanks CGC and SWAGG!
**I had a shot of Jack Daniels and a New Castle. Both firsts for me. Thanks Jim, Momo, and Lotus!
***Cough drops are my euphemism for cigarettes. I know, I know, they’re bad for my health. But, I’m TOTALLY a social smoker.
The Story of BlogHer {Part IV}
For as long as I can remember I’ve wanted to be a professional photographer. I watched others develop their careers, envious of what they were doing and how quickly they had come into their own.
After leaving the portrait studio scene in the late 90’s—for motherhood—the only time I touched a camera was to take pictures of my quickly growing brood of children. I took it everywhere with me, that much I remember, but the flash was always used and it was only used for snapshots. I very rarely dabbled in the art of photography; at that point it was just day-to-day documentation. And, that was more than OK.
In late 2004, though, something sparked in me. I grabbed our mock-DSLR (a Fujifilm Finepix S5000) and started snapping. I re-learned some things that were instilled within me during my first photography class in high school, and ran with it. Little-by-little, I was engrossed again. Come to think of it, I think the abandonment of my little 1.3MP point and shoot had a lot to do with an incident I like to call “Candy Apple Meets Fujicam in Mishi’s Purse”. I really don’t like to talk about that much, though.
Fast forward to today. I am alive with photography, and I see things differently as a result. I do creative things with my camera, often creating art that is specific to myself and how I see the world around me. I work as a photographer—documenting events, a family’s beauty, the love of a couple, the sexy appeal of a gorgeous mother. I travel and speak about photography with other talented photographers. I do not take light for granted nor my ability to bend it. I continue to embrace it.
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When I asked Lotus if she wanted to submit a “Room of Your Own” for BlogHer, I honestly had no idea what we were getting into, but I knew (I knew, I knew, I knew) that we had to do it. Imagine how thrilled we were when the ROYO was placed in our hands. Not only would we be presenting a session based on our idea, to the mix would be added none other than Rachel Devine.
I had followed Rachel (or Sesame Ellis as she’s known) on Flickr for a long time. I loved her style and loved the fact that she had started blogging, too. Being a big fan of her work intimidated me a lot. I told Lotus that I was kind of scared that I wouldn’t be able to do it because Rachel was on a whole different level.
Then it happened.
We connected.
Rachel, Lotus and I connected.
There was this new dynamic that was introduced that is way deeper than any words I choose to use can describe. It’s a mutual respect and admiration that we have for each other. It’s something that rapidly grew in our short time together, brainstorming and cultivating our presentation via email, Google chat, and Skype.
The meeting before our session, the ROYO itself, the dinner shared at Pazza Notte on Saturday night, and all the hugs and kisses–in between–are now a concrete part of my forever memory.
Thank you Lotus and Rachel—
Thank you for your photogranerdiness!
Weekly Winners {Birmingham Edition}
I was invited to be a panelist at the “Marketing to the Modern Mom” day seminar in Birmingham, Alabama (or Aladama, as Davey says.) The panel consisted of Anissa, Lotus, and myself. We talked about why we blog, how we like to form relationships with companies, the things that we think that companies/marketers can do to reach us better, and the ways we could all benefit. It was very informative, a great discussion, and an awesome mini-conference. Kudos to David Griner and his team at Luckie for doing such an awesome job!
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Anissa and I drove up on Wednesday. I rode MARTA for the first time and she picked me up from the Atlanta airport. That, in-and-of-itself, was a fun experience. Michael’s had his fair share of train treks, so it was oddly interesting to be the one dropped off at the Kiss-Ride.
When we got to our hotel we were quite impressed. We stayed at an aloft Hotel and it was so cool. It was hip and contemporary, and we squealed like schoolgirls when we got into our room.
Once we got our bags in our room, we headed out for lunch. We asked the gal at the front desk and she highly recommended Jackson’s. Glad she did, too; it was awesome.
After that we did some window shopping. We stopped at a very cool shop called Soiree. The style in there was simply breath-taking. I almost bought a scarf. Now that I’m home, I wish I did.
We then went back to the room because we wanted to watch Nie Nie on Oprah. We thought we’d missed it, but forgot to take into account that Birmingham was on CST. We checked email, twitter, napped, watched Oprah, and then we got ready to meet David in the lobby for dinner and drinks.
Then coffee from Oh Henry’s:
Soon thereafter a text came from Lotus that she, John, and Braden were there. David took them to get dinner and we accompanied them. It was so nice to finally meet John and to see Braden again.
The night ended with more mojitos, great conversation, sexual positions (you should check my twitpic stream for that), and then Loter and I took a stroll around SoHo.
The next day was our panel. Luckily Anissa did not require any bailing out of jail and we were on time.
We were treated to a tour of the famous Vulcan and the McWane Science Center. It was an awesome-awesome time!
I wish I could show you every picture individually, but I can’t. So, if you want to see more visit my Flickr!
Thanks again to Luckie for having us out. I thoroughly enjoyed Birmingham and your hospitality is greatly appreciated. Expect a call when I bring my family to town!
