fussypants

Revolutionary! A Relaxed Christmas.

  Growing up as an only child I dreamed of big Christmas events. I swooned over the image of huge parties, baking fancy feasts every weekend and making the month of December a flurry of activity. Fast forward 25 years, one hubby and five boys later, and I want to wave the white flag of surrender.

  That stuff is exhausting. Over the last few years I have quickly come to realize that I get busy doing Christmas and then get so stressed I drive my family crazy. I became the grumpy mom while baking cookies, stringing popcorn and fulfilling a million obligations. Now that is a perfect Christmas fail! How can I ever teach my kids about the miracle of Christmas if I become a crazed fool?

  This year I am having a relaxed Christmas and ignoring those visions of the 'perfect' holiday. I'm throwing in the hand-knit, custom stitched, organic frou-frou towel. If you need me, I will be relaxing by the fire instead of dragging myself to fifty parties or running all over town for the perfect gifts.

  Are you with me, Ladies? Let's start a revolution.

  Let's only go to the parties we really will enjoy, let's do all of our shopping online, let's kick up our feet and sip egg nog on the couch with our families. It's time for a movement of relaxation. We keep it simple, keep it real and keep Christmas fun!

You can continue reading at DivineCaroline, where you could win a $200 Gift Card! Very cool. ;)

Love, Alli

It's not your Traffic, it's your Voice

This is the beginning of the BlissDom Series. How can I properly describe how mind blowingly amazing BlissDom was? I've spent the week digesting everything I learned. It's important that I share my personal thoughts, my memories, but also, what I learned business wise. It would be impossible to share it only once.

BlissDom was like being forced to sprint through Disney as a kid. I wanted to slow down a savor every moment. Megan, Tsh, Nester and I look so happy in this beautiful photo from Mishi. We were having a blast!

And just to show what an amazing photographer she is, look at her mosaic I stole from her site. {with permission, of course} She is a talented contributor at Photo Bliss over at Blissfully Domestic, too.

As I drove to the hotel Friday night I was full of butterflies. I realized that I was a little worried. I was about to meet so many women for the first time. What if someone was a weirdo? Or a big jerk? You never really know till you can hang out in person. Would the camaraderie we share online carry over to real life? If not, I knew my concept of the community of women bloggers would be crushed.

I walked in my hotel room and found Tsh, Megan, Robin and Heather. My heart just blew up right there at that moment. They were perfect, all even more amazing than I imagined. Bliss.

The whole weekend I found myself throwing my arms around the fabulous women I met. It just happened automatically because I LOVE these people. I love their stories, their vision, and I loved the fact that they came so far to share the day.

Even more important than all the tips I learned, more than our plans to take over teh interwebz, was the overwhelming sense of sisterhood. We spent our time encouraging each other, sharing our knowledge and banding together.

In a panel I told the crowd, "Blogging is not a zero sum game." My success doesn't cause someone else to not be successful. Your success builds mine, and vice versa. Our successes and influence build us all up. We all blog for different reasons: to share our hearts and thoughts, for attention, because we are lonely at home, to support our families. Whatever the reason, it is of utmost importance to remember that we are a community, and our voices are growing stronger everyday.

Because of traffic based ad networks and the newness of the blogosphere, we believed our success as bloggers was based on our stats. I want to go climb a mountain with my megaphone and yell, "It's not your traffic, it is your voice!" 

Some sites have a readership in the hundreds of thousands, some have one hundred; it is what we do with our sites that is important. Do we share our lives in a way that opens someone's eyes? Do we share an experience that starts a grassroots movement to change a company policy? Maybe we use our sites as platforms to launch a book, develop a support group, launch a business or support a cause.

That is the measure we must use. It is all about finding your voice, letting your wonderful personality come through and building your dream for your self and your site. It is influence. It is NOT traffic.

My motto is "Respect the Brand." You are a brand, your sites are part of your brand. What does your brand stand for? Where do you see yourself, your site(s) and your reach in one year or even five years?

It's time we rethink what makes this platform work for us. I don't know all the answers, but as I learn them, I want to share them with you. Who wants to join me?

Please, please share your thoughts in the comments. Don't be afraid. What are your thoughts about your brand, your site(s) and your future? What do you think about the traffic vs. influence concept? Or just say, "Hi". I'm done talking, so talk back to me ladies! ;)

I love to hear from you. xo, Alli

BlissDom- Let's Pretend I know what I am Doing! ;)

Today is Thursday. Um, I think. That means tomorrow I will be pacing the floors, scrambling to get the 4 older boys squared away to be without me for the weekend. Because, hey, I am not coming home at night, I'm bunking with Tsh at the Hotel Preston! When Hubs arrives home there will be kisses and tears of little boys. After I peel myself from the little hugs, my second hat goes on- the host of a conference. Me? Huh? Inside I feel kinda like this-

Because, seriously, I don't know what I'm doing, despite what you may think! There is this fabulous woman, Barbara Jones, who I either want to be when I grow up or just marry, who appeared at my doorstep. Barbara, through her wonderful One to One Network, and the brilliant people at Epson have supplied all the planning, legwork and inspired ideas. What have I done?

I've kinda been the Derrick Zoolander of the group. I hear the great ideas and nod while trying not to say anything stupid.

I leave to decorating to Karla. The navelgazing and spinning golden thoughts to Megan. Me? I am simply humbled beyond words.

My vision for the day is intimacy. I wanted a small group {75 women} so we can have meaningful time together. Sharing our knowledge, building relationships and strengthening this amazing community we are developing.

Barbara, being the well connected woman she is, arranged for Jessie Baylin to give us a private concert, { faints }

Here is our amazing day-

9-10: Branding, Monetizing, Personal Blogs as Platform (the who, why and what for) Nester, Tsh, Alli, Megan,

10:30-11:30: Social Media: Give and You Shall Receive (how to meet people)
Alli, Jennifer, Robin, Michelle, Karla

11:30-11:45: Break and giveaways!

11:45-12:30 Q&A open ended Nester, Michelle, Tsh, Kate, Karla, Lotus

12:30-2 Lunch in the Pink Lady Lounge and Special Performance by Jessie Baylin

2-3 Marketing & PR (how to get readers coming to you) Michelle Lamar

3-3:30: Break with more giveaways!

3:30-4:30: The Content of a Dynamic Personal Blog: from Design to Reviews (how to keep your readers engaged: stop them in their tracks, demonstrate value, diverse content rich)
Karla, Lotus, Busymom, Megan, Alli

5:00 Keynote Speaker Lynn Terry

To end the evening we will have a cocktail party! We will have custom made drinks called "Bliss-tinis" even with cute pink sugar. A photographer will be there and of course, we will be printing pictures on the new Epson Artisan printer all day!

I never got around to losing those 30 pounds last month as planned. {snorts} But, I will have a super cute and special accessory. Mah Bebe.

{My sweet homegirl Lotus took that great shot of him!}

Next week will be full of pictures, stories and oversharing, I am sure! I hope to inspire you to come to see us in Nashville soon. This is the first of big, fabulous annual retreat conferences. I will announce next month the dates for our next conference in late February! {I know, I'm a tease. I have to build excitement. Sorry!}

I love and adore you all, Alli

Blissfully Domestic Nashville Blogging Conference- I haz it!

Blissfully Domestic is hosting our first blogging & social networking conference next month here in beautiful Nashville. We are teaming up with the wonderful people at Epson to host a fun, intimate and informative conference and fun cocktail party.

On Saturday, October 18th, we will host a free {yes, I said free} all-day event  featuring brilliant women from across the globe. All speakers will be on panels sharing our knowledge, tips, secrets and lives. Because we are focusing on Q & A sessions we will limit our attendee size to 75.

We just opened a forum discussion on the Blissfully Domestic Social Network. Please join in. All through the week, the attendees and speakers will be joining in and announcing their involvement.

We will open up registration on Friday and announce the lucky women who get to attend on Monday. If, due to space concerns, you are unable to get a seat, have no fear. We are planning a huge annual blogging conference in February. We think February is a perfect time to escape with our girlfriends for a weekend, don't you?

Now, head on over to the BDLiving Social Network to find out more, add your thoughts & ideas and find out which of your favorite bloggers will be there! Maybe like her, her, her, her, her, her, her, her or her? And that was just to name a few!

Love to you all, Alli