dearest ramona moo,
i’ve been remiss in posting your weekly photos bc we’ve been having so much fun! nona was in town helping us get the house ready for a little photo shoot and we went on many (shopping) adventures with her. then the weather finally turned nice so we’ve been taking advantage of the sunshine and going for bike rides and dates to the park. you seem to get more and more confident with “riding” your bike and going down the slide by yourself. you actually ask to wear your helmet.
your verbal skills have seem to taken off, almost over night, and you just are chatting our ears off. in addition to repeating every.single.thing. we say you are really getting a grasp on getting a hang of your own words. you know the difference between hearts, stars, butterflies, and circles and point them out with glee. you “draw circle” with special crayons auntie jasmin bought you and you constantly look for “helopoptors” in the sky. one cloudy day, you pointed through the windshield from your spot in the backseat and said “moon”, directing your teeny finger to a little sliver in the sky that even a trained eye would have to search for a bit. and if it sounds like your mama is bragging? i totally am.
i am so so proud of you my little minka. you are chubby and bright and stubborn and funny and serious and very very determined. your capabilities astound me each and every day. and, as i’ve talked about before, there’s a lot of pride bc you came from papa and me. but there’s also this amazing awe when i look at you: that you are this little person completely your own. and i am just so totally impressed.
i love you. love, mama.
a portrait of ramona, once a week, every week, in 2013. inspired by jodi’s project.
over at the powerdriver homestead, we finally feel caught up on life. now if only denver would realize it’s spring and stop dumping snow on us! i see the sun peeking out so it’s looking promising. new days always are. here’s to a productive yet restful weekend!
- i have a breakfast date with this wonderful denver blogger this friday morning and i cannot wait! we’ve done some interwebs chatting and met once in person at the populist. she’s a hoot and a riot and i think we’re gonna have a lot of fun.
- by this point, everyone has seen you are more beautiful than you think, a moving ad campaign by dove. BUT have you seen this terrific and thoughtful response that challenges the ad’s narrowness? or how about how men think about themselves?
- i love these photos of my friend who works at porter road butcher in nashville.
- crass and controversial. i adore jenna marbles.
- a gorgeous food blog w recipes for just about every skill level that i just discovered. and from another food blog: i’ll be making this delicious-looking banana bread.
- my second favorite coffee shop in denver, black eye coffee, is raising money to paint a fabulous mural on the side of their building. take a look at their kickstarter campaign and see if you can donate.
- check out these great yoga mat hangers, made by a gentleman here in denver. i’m definitely guilty of keeping my sweaty mat rolled up in my bag and i blame it on the fact we have no room in our teeny house to lay it out. no excuses now if i get one of these.
- congratulations to the winner of the clyfford still museum membership giveaway!
i signed mo up for swim class at our local community rec center. the first class she clung to me in terror, crying the whole time. she was, by the way, the oldest kid in the class and the only one that was screaming. i wasn’t mortified bc i understood this was a new experience for her but i do remember feeling incredibly guilty: i supposed that i had ruined her chance for a love of water forever since i waited a year and a half to get her in there.
get a hold of yourself, emily.
i was underestimating her ability to adapt to and grow in situations. 30 minutes in the water w her (for her first time, at that) and i put too much weight on what i had or had not done as a parent in the previous 1.5 years of her life, forgetting for a moment that she is a resilient creature capable of learning and conquering new things.
the classes were only 30 minutes long, two times a week. we went back each time and i talked it up lots in the car and always tried to show her plenty of enthusiasm for it. when we went in the water i respected a lot of what she felt comfortable with (that girl loved to stand on the stairs and play w the toy water snake) and was patient easing her into the depths. however, each class i made a point of pushing those comfort limits. she’d hold onto me as we walked around the pool at various depths. i put her on her back, on her tummy, spun her around, threw her in the air, dunked her under water. i never told her to be quiet if she cried out in fear or discomfort but assured her i was there and she was ok. slowly but surely, she came to love the water. clapping her hands in glee she would squeal “pool!” and when we finished changing in the locker room, would tromp confidently in the direction of the pool stairs to ease herself in alone. i sheepishly look back at my initial reaction to her fear of the water. but i’m glad i got to learn that lesson about what my daughter is capable of.
we leave for a trip to the beach in a couple of weekends and i’m excited to see how she handles the water of the ocean. no doubt, it will take some patience and some easing into. but some risk too.
photo c/o kathryn bacalis photography. do not use w/o written permission.
yesterday the lovely kathryn bacalis came over to snap some shots of our little space in lohi for an apartment therapy home tour. this arrangement was the kick-in-the-butt we needed to get our home in tip-top shape (painting the dingy kitchen, getting rid of our boob fans [seriously, they looked like big boobs], cleaning areas that i have been remiss in cleaning… for three years). i’m really pleased w how everything turned out. and i’m extremely pleased w kathryn who was an absolute delight to work with! i cannot wait to see the rest of the images when it comes out on apartment therapy.
congratulations to commenter nicole of hey! party collective! nicole: make sure to get in touch w me w/in one week to claim your prize.
photo by @frankiebushell
the fine people behind the denver bloggers’ association asked me to speak at their most recent meet-up about how my blog has gotten to where it is since i first started it in 2009. it was interesting for me to reflect on my little space on the interwebs and rather exciting to speak in front of an audience (i haven’t done that since college!).
below is the gist of what i spoke about.
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my blog has always been a space for documenting personal experiences and thoughts — it started out as a place to dump photos and update family members who didn’t live close by. as i got to know the blogosphere, i discovered a whole other world and realized that the sky was the limit as far as what i could write about, what blogs i could read, how i could make my space unique, and who i could connect with online. not everyone knows my blog, obviously. it’s a little thing i have going on over here. but i’ve seen my readership steadily grow, had some great opportunities come my way, met really wonderful people halfway across the world, and have even made a little bit of beer money — all while still being able to continue documenting my personal experiences and writing what i want to write.
here’s how i think you can do it too:
1. invest in a website you’re proud of.
- your website homepage is the first impression you give to people who visit. when people land on your site they get an immediate idea of who you are and what you are trying to convey. make sure that your website is showing and telling people who YOU are. because, especially in personal blogs, your personality IS YOUR BRAND.
- i wrote for the longest time on a basic, free wordpress theme (and on blogspot before that). this was when i was writing for myself and family members. but as my audience grew and i realized i could be doing lots more with my claimed space, i started to understand that i could actually lose readers due to the blah-ness of my site. it wasn’t me and it gave people no reason to want to get to know me. sure, i was proud of my content. but attention spans are short and people, quite frankly, want to dwell only in beautiful places.
- you can learn code and personalize a website yourself or you can hire someone to do it. i went the latter route and contracted the kin collective to make me something well-designed, intuitive, and distinctly me. together we went over what i loved about blogs i enjoyed reading and what turned me off on various websites. they put these things together, added their expertise, we all tweaked some things and, voila!, my new space was born.
2. find your voice.
- people come to your blog bc they want to hear what YOU have to say bc they most likely like the way you say things. so speak honestly, write what you want to write about, have confidence in what you have to say, and stop trying to please people.
- on that note: you cannot be something for everyone. so don’t write to please the masses. write w one specific reader in mind and you’ll likely capture the attention of lots naturally.
- i write about my daughter, my husband’s and my businesses, denver, bragging rights, our backyard farm, places i’ve eaten, my favorite products, whatever the hell i want to write about. i write about these things bc they are interesting to me and what i want to fill my blog with — otherwise i wouldn’t want to blog. but i know full well that there are lots of people who don’t want to read about this stuff and couldn’t care less about my life. but then the fun part is that there are some people that do care! and they keep coming back and reading and affirming me in what i’m writing about. and that is really cool.
- not everyone will love you and that’s ok! it’s more important that your space is your space and it’s a place you like contributing to.
- do not be afraid to promote promote promote yourself.
3. make internet friends
- don’t be anonymous! comment on blog posts you enjoy. reach out to bloggers you admire. make some friends.
- give shout-outs: favorite products, places you enjoyed, props to people doing cool things, a well-curated blog roll of must-read blogs.
- guest posts: offer to do them and ask people to write them for you. a nice exchange happens wherein both blogs plug the other and people get introduced to new sites worth reading.
- broaden your reach by utilizing other social networking platforms such as twitter, instagram, pinterest, and facebook. but a rule of thumb? stick w just three and do them well. in addition to my blog, i use twitter and instagram. reach out!: like people’s photos, leave comments, respond to comments/questions left on yours. engage w other people in a genuine manner.
- attend local blogger events and get to know some people in real life. who knows what best friend you might make or what collaboration you might discover!
any suggestions or inputs you’d like to share on ways you’ve grown your blog?
welcome
