Tag: blogging

Posted on

Like a Quilt

Quilting was a passion of my mother’s. She had a huge stash of fabric, and loved laying out colors and patterns when she was designing a quilt. She always made sure that among all the beautiful fabrics and colors that there was at least one “ugly,” a fabric that she didn’t like. The “ugly” fabric helped to bring variety and texture to her quilts.

Lily’s doll bed and quilt — I can’t see an “ugly”, can you?

Lily and Emmy each have a baby quilt that my mom made for them. The girls bring Grandma’s quilts everywhere when we travel. They snuggle with them in the car and on the floor at Grandpa’s house. Those quilts have been to Colorado, Pennsylvania and Canada. They are comforted so much by Grandma’s quilt; in part, I think, because those quilts are such a comfort to me as well.

Piecing together those quilts was very time consuming. It required a lot of patience. Ironically, Mom did not have a lot of patience. She stuck with her quilts because she loved the end result. And then, she would dig out different patterns with different fabrics and start all over again.

My little blog is kind of like a quilt. I love being able to change things around and put the pieces together in different ways. At Bloggy Boot Camp, I learned so much about design from the wonderful Renee. (The above header, not at all what I have in mind, is a temporary fix since my BlogHer ad was too low on my page.) I’m playing around with a new design for my blog. To help me with my design, I’ve started an Inspiration Board at Pinterest–a website Mom would have loved!

Have you noticed one of the changes I’ve already made? I finally bit the bullet and bought my own domain! Eventually, I want to move Lemon Drop Pie to a new location. All of the changes I have in mind take a lot of patience–something which I have in short supply. Like mother, like daughter. Stick with me…and let’s see what happens!

post signature

Posted on

A Blogging Conference Brings About the Unexpected

After being away from my daughters at a blogging conference for a whole day and missing their bedtimes, my little girls gave me more than the usual hugs and kisses the next morning. And that, my friends, was the best part of Bloggy Boot Camp Chicago.

What I mean by that statement, of course, is that time away from my family is a good thing. Being away from my daughters and husband for the day recharged my batteries as a mother and wife. Being in a room full of women who had the same passion as I do about blogging was invigorating.

It was also terrifying.

Let me explain. The hostesses, Tiffany and Francesca, were awesome. They were so friendly and personable. After being a part of SITS, a blogging support community, for so long, it was great to meet them in person.

The speakers were all experts in their field. As they spoke, I felt as though we were all instant friends. Questions were fielded in such a thoughtful way and no question was ignored or tossed aside.

The terrifying part came in between the sessions, when we were to “talk among ourselves.”

And I don’t even mean the time I found myself sitting at the same table as The Empress and became completely and utterly tongue-tied. I don’t know if the other women sitting at the table felt the same as I did, but we were the quietest table in a room full of women chatting away!

Awkward.

No, that’s not the moment.

It was the moment when someone first asked me what my blog was about.

I want my blog to stick out; to be a blog that is memorable. Promoting my blog was one of the reasons I was there, after all. But I hadn’t really thought about what I would tell people about my blog.

I took a deep breath and I blurted it out: I write about being a mother after having breast cancer.

Here on Lemon Drop Pie, I write about breast cancer frequently and without hesitation. Having a space to write about being a breast cancer survivor was one of the reasons I started this blog.

Talking about breast cancer in real life, however, is much different for me. It’s not a topic I bring up often. In fact, I hardly ever talk about having breast cancer. When I do talk about it, my heart starts to beat faster and I need to stop my voice from trembling. Even after 15 years, it’s still difficult to talk about.

If I want to be a advocate for young breast cancer survivors, I need to get used to talking about breast cancer as well as writing about my experiences.

Each time I told another person about my blog, the subject matter became just a little bit easier to talk about.

It was an unexpected accomplishment; a goal I didn’t set out to accomplish and yet did.

Amazing!

I learned so much about blogging, social media and design at Bloggy Boot Camp Chicago! Hopefully you will see some changes on Lemon Drop Pie showing off some of what I learned. If there is a Boot Camp coming to your area and blogging is your passion, I highly recommend attending!

post signature