Thoughts from a blogging mother

If I speak with the tongues of Facebook and Twitter

but have not love,

my writing is only spam.

If I have the gift of posting the most up-to-date projects

but have not love,

I am nothing.

If I have faith that I can build my blog into a thriving business

but have not love,

I gain nothing.

Love leaves the keyboard in search of a child's laugh.

Love smiles at the fingerprints on a freshly-cleaned monitor.

Love picks up the child before she picks up the remains of a photo shoot.

Love kisses the skinned knee before she responds to an email.

Love puts her family first, regardless of page views and click-throughs and revenues.

Love realizes that while she may write wonderful posts 
  or series of posts or even an e-book, 
    she'll never write a greater story than she is writing in the hearts of her children.

Love crawls with her baby, walks with her toddler, runs with her child,

then stands aside to let her precious one walk into adulthood.

As a blogging mother there is much I must teach my child

But the greatest of all is love.

**Click here for a free printable version of "Thoughts from a Blogging Mother."**

**I'm linking this to the "Blogging Tips" party at Kelly's Korner.**

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Easy, inexpensive Valentine's decor

It's February 1, and Valentine's Day is just a couple of weeks away. It's high time to do some fun Valentine's decorating.

If you're like me, you enjoy decorating for all the little holidays. . . but you don't want to spend much money on decorating for all the little holidays. Unless you have a membership in the Holiday of the Month club, you need to pull together some fun decorations from what you have on hand plus a few embellishments. Here's one of my Valentine's favorites. I know you've seen this kind of thing, but I'll show you how I do it.

Grab a glass hurricane. Don't have any? Dollar Tree does.


TIP: Put a plastic cup or jar upside down in the bottom of the hurricane. This takes up some space so that you don't need as many of these:


Now pour those candy conversation hearts into the hurricane, covering the plastic cup.
Put a candle on top, and you're done! Don't have any candles in Valentine's colors? Me, either. But I did have these:


TIP: Attach some ribbon (or fabric scraps, or printed paper) to your candle with double-sided tape and

Voila!

Now I need to stop by the dollar store for a couple more bags of conversation hearts so that I can make another one of these. Even with the plastic cup space-filler, this hurricane took two bags. Well, it took most of two bags. I removed these three to send a message to my far-away friends:

Do you decorate for the little holidays? Got any great ideas? Please share!

Sharing the bliss: a giveaway

Like hundreds of other bloggers, I spent last week at the Blissdom conference in Nashville. Last year, like thousands of other bloggers, I spent the week of Blissdom wishing I could be at Blissdom and wondering what it was really like. Frankly, I wondered if it could really be worth the hype, not to mention the expense.

So now I've been, and I'm here to tell you: it IS worth the hype and the expense.

Why?

Because it's an amazing experience. The conference speakers are experts, and they share their expertise freely. More than that, the attendees are nearly all there to do just what you'd want to do, so they're an incredibly cooperative group of women. Most everyone wants to deepen connections with other bloggers and to build new relationships. So people are friendly and open and helpful to one another. Alliances are formed. Cooperative projects are planned. You can see light bulb moments happening right and left. It really is amazing and inspiring to be in the middle of all that.

Traci, Marian, Melissa, me, and Kate

(Thanks for the photo, Melissa!)

Besides that, it's just plain fun. You learn that people are just the way you imagine them to be when you read their blogs. I'm sure there's an occasional exception, but the vast majority of bloggers are genuine and honest. So Blissdom provides a remarkable opportunity to turn URL friends into IRL friends.

And there's one more thing. The Blissdom organizers are brilliant. These women have done a phenomenal job of forming alliances with some of the most generous sponsors I've ever seen. Blissdom sponsors are awesome. They love on Blissdom attendees like you wouldn't believe. But I want you to believe it. Just look at some of the wonderful things I received at Blissdom, all compliments of the generous sponsors:

The Blissdom jewelry:

It's not junk. It's not dumpster fodder. It's cool stuff. It makes quite a swag bag. And I want one of you to have it. So I'm giving mine away.

That's right: everything you see pictured here was given to me by a wonderful Blissdom sponsor. And I'm going to put it all into a package and mail it to one of you. I want you to see it and be convinced that there's a whole lot of love at BlissDom.

Want to win? Here's how to enter the giveaway:

• For one entry: leave a comment on this post.
• For a second entry: tweet, retweet, Facebook, or post about it, then leave me a second comment.

You don't have to be a follower to enter the giveaway. If you'd like to follow me, I'd LOVE to have you. But I know you can't follow everyone, so you should only follow me if you want to. I write about my home and my heart. Click here to see some of my favorite projects of 2010, or here to read one of my favorite posts of 2010. That'll give you an idea of what I'm about, and you can choose to follow me if you'd like.

I'll choose a winner randomly on Monday, February 7.

Good luck!