Thanks to a few other bloggers who share links to things they love on Fridays, I always end up finding other blogs or articles that I really enjoy.  This Friday I’m jumping on that bandwagon, mainly because I have found some things I’d love to share.   I don’t know if I’ll do it regularly or not. Only time will tell!

♥  First!  Kelly is bringing her dream to life with her very first fabric line:  Storybook Lane.  It’s a fun and whimsical and I can not wait to make the little storybook lane fabric houses and finger puppets for my niece and nephew.  This is especially exciting to me as I first met Kelly in the Blogging Your Way course almost two years ago, when she was just starting to follow her dream.  Here’s the introductory post, but there are several other posts with more detail about the fabrics.

♥  Rachel cracked me up, but also made a great point, with her “pro- and anti-” political platform.

♥  I’m absolutely crazy about caramelized onions – really, I could eat them by the bowlful – so I can’t wait to try Jenn’s Carmelized Onion Mashed Cauliflower recipe next week.

♥  Another blogging friend, Kalani, wrote about peacefully managing your to-do list.  This is something I need to heed, as my to-do lists often stress me out.

♥  I can’t read a blog post or eBook or news article, or even a presentation at work, without wanting to edit the heck out of it.  However, I’m not always great about editing my own blog posts, perhaps because I feel rushed much of the time.  This article from Erika Midkiff via Rena Tom has inspired me to more carefully edit my blog posts.

Finally, this is the final square Elephant Safari pillow cover in the shop, as this awesome linen/cotton Japanese fabric is out of print.  I’m sad to see it go, but at the same time I’m so happy that other people have this delightful design in their homes.

That’s it from me! I hope you all have a wonderful weekend.  We’ll kick off the weekend with grilling and a firepit with some of our best friends tonight, then I’m looking forward to gardening, home projects, sewing, and coffee with another friend later this weekend.

Friday evening I was just minding my business – ok, minding other people’s business on Facebook – when an email rolled into my inbox. I ignored it at first, thinking it was boring spam.  Then I did a second glance and realized it was the notification I’d requested to receive when PicMonkey went live.  All the hype had promised it would be the best replacement for Picnik, the free online photo editor that Google is shutting down this April.  Curiosity got the best of me so I clicked over and signed in to try out PicMonkey.

At first glance, the PicMonkey tool is remarkably similar to Picnik, and seems to be the perfect solution for those of us who are already mourning the loss of Picnik.  Here’s a quick walk-through to show you what bells and whistles they offer:

1.  Basic Edits, including crop, color tweaking, resizing, etc. These are all the ones  I need in order to get my product photos shop-ready.

2.  Special Effects, including all the good standbys from Picnik.  I like the Cross Process and the Focal Soften the best.

 3.  Touch-Up features.  Ok, now this is where I got excited.  Unlike Picnik, PicMonkey is offering us all these ways to make ourselves look extra beautiful in our photos, all the way down to adding highlights to our hair.  I tried that and the “Spray Tan” and was pretty pleased with each, but not quite ready to share the fruits of my labor.

4.  Text – again, this is just like Picnik, only apparently with different fonts.  Good enough for me!

5. Overlays,  just like with Picnik..  Right now there doesn’t seem to be as much a variety as Picnik offered, but I suppose that’s to be expected as PicMonkey is such a new program.  Still, I was able to dress Merlin up in some shades, and give him a rose and a thought bubble, so that’ll do for now. :)

 6. Borders, just like in Picnik.  Not as many features, but again – good enough for me.

For some of the features offered, you have to sign up for the “Royale” version – which PicMonkey says is free for now, and will be offered for a fee after a few months.  That’s not any different from Picnik Premium either, which I happily used for the last year or so.  Also, PicMonkey teased that if you try the Royale now, you’ll get a special deal when the paid version is launched.  So of course I went for it.

All in all, I’d say this is a great replacement for Picnik.  I don’t know about you, but I hate change – and the similarities between PicMonkey and Picnik mean I don’t have to adjust to change. ;)  However, PicMonkey seems so suspiciously similar that I can’t help but wonder if Google will put a stop to it for copyright infringement or something like that.  In the mean time, I think it will be my free photo editor of choice.

This past weekend was a really stressful one for me, work-wise.  There were some pressing issues at the office that just couldn’t be left alone after 5 pm Friday, and ended up consuming most of my Saturday.

It couldn’t have happened at a worse time, I thought, as Saturday afternoon was the very first DC-area blogger meetup that I’d organized with my blog buddy Christina.  I’m not sure I let on to anyone just how much I was looking forward to this, but I really was.  While last year I was focused and introverted as I launched my business, this year I really want to focus on building community both online and here in my area.   Going out on a limb to schedule a gathering like this was the first step towards that goal.

Because I’d gone out on that limb, I was really nervous!  What if people didn’t like each other? (or didn’t like me?)  What if everyone thought it was lame?  What if – heaven forbid – no one showed up??  Yes, I know, I worry too much.  Add on the stress of work, and the fear that work may not be concluded in time to attend my very own gathering – and I was just a mess.

But Saturday afternoon I did manage to tie things up with work long enough to escape to Caffe Amouri for meetup.  I’m so glad it worked out, because it injected a much-needed dose of happiness, laughter, energy, and inspiration into my otherwise dreary and stressful weekend.  I returned home super, super happy and excited.

*Edit: Toya is not pictured. She's a party pooper and left early. (Just kidding, she had a prior commitment.)

I often see happy posts from multiple bloggers, all rambling on about how awesome their latest blogger get-together was.  And while it was exciting, I have a broader message for all of you who didn’t live close enough to attend.  I’d like to challenge and encourage you to initiate a meetup of your own in your town.

If you do plan a meetup:

*Partner with another blog or twitter buddy, or even a non-blogging friend.  That way, in the worst case event that no one else shows, you’ve got each other to hang out with. :)

*Pick a neutral, safe place for the first meetup.  You don’t want to invite strangers into your home.

*Finally, I’d encourage you to do what we did – open it up to bloggers, twitter followers, and facebook fans.  In my opinion, at least, blog readers are just as important a part of your blogging community as blog writers are.

There’s something awesome that happens when you get a group of blogging ladies together.  I’m not really sure how it works, because we don’t all blog in the same niche, but you put us around a table and the conversation and laughter flows. It’s something I hope to enjoy again, and something that I truly wish all of you could join me for.

But in the mean time, as we wait for teleportation to become a reality, I encourage you:  go forth and create your own blogging community!

Finally, here’s a list of all the awesome ladies who gathered, and where you can find them.  I really encourage you to check them all out!

Michelle has just started a blog as she prepares to own her own home (show her some love, guys!) at Two Streets Over, and she tweets.

Christina blogs at The Scrappy Housewife (and she & her husband just launched a cooking blog as well), and she tweets.

Kimberly (who is the first twitter friend I’ve ever made, awesome!) blogs when she’s not busy wrangling her two little boys, and tweets like a fiend!

Rachel sells her art in an awesome Etsy shop, blogs at Funnelcloud, and tweets.

Steffanie sells awesomely eco-friendly laundry soap on Etsy,  blogs, and tweets.

Lauren (who recently got engaged!) blogs at Laurenchanting, and tweets.

Sarah (who was the first local blogger I ever met) blogs at Sunny Side Up, and tweets.

Toya (who makes ah-MAZING healthy snacks) blogs and runs New Family Naturals, and is being encouraged to tweet more.

It’s official! Christina (The Scrappy Housewife) and I would like to invite any of you locals to join us in Vienna, VA on Saturday, Feb 4, for a Blogger / Facebooker / Tweeter meetup. (Really, we need a better word for that, because that’s just a mouthful.)

We’ve decided to kick things off with a cup of coffee or pot of tea at Caffe Amouri, where we can sit down and actually talk to each other in real life for the first time. :)  Then, if weather permits and we’re in the mood, we may stroll down historic Church Street, and peek into the shops along it. It’s pretty pathetic that, after 1.5 years here, I still haven’t visited the locally-owned shops in my own town. Read the rest of this entry »

If you’re anywhere close to social media this week, you’ve probably heard about SOPA. But it’s very possible that you’re not someone who really gives a hoot about politics.

As a matter of fact, I don’t know about your political leanings, because generally I keep this site politics-free.

But I’m writing this last-minute post just to beg you to give about 5 minutes of thought to this legislation. If passed, our entire community of bloggers and Twitter users and Facebook fans could be at high risk. The internet as a whole would be at risk.

Instead of writing about a situation that is already well-covered in the online community, I’d like to suggest that you read this article at ThinkSplendid: SOPA and Your Business.

I’m a little late announcing this, becuase my computer died while I was on holiday, but last Friday I was given the honor of a guest posting spot over at Design Build Love!

The topic? My Favorite Things.  Every other guest blogger had a fabulous list of their faves in one category (and you should totally check them out) . . . but me? Nope.   I decided to just let ‘er rip with my most favorite things across the spectrum. So hop on over and check it out, especially if you’re wanting a peek at what I’m just crazy about.

Thanks, Ashley, for inviting me!