what is klout?  when you recommend, share and create content you impact others.  klout measures that influence on a scale from 1 to 100.  my [...]]]> from sharpie!  you can’t even imagine how excited i was that i qualified for this perk – i’ve been a fan of sharpie since i was in jr. high.

what is klout?  when you recommend, share and create content you impact others.  klout measures that influence on a scale from 1 to 100.  my klout score fluctuates between 58 – 60 and i still don’t (who does?) understand how klout works – i just know that klout says i’m influential about blogging, food, concerts, california, san diego, video, lady gaga, amy winehouse, dallas mavericks and rihanna.  i find it funny about lady gaga, amy winehouse, dallas mavericks and rihanna but the others make sense.  definitely stuff i talk about all the time.  it would be ideal to have a klout score in the 60s-70s range but i’ll take what i can get for now.  i have to continue to build my network and create content.  my advice is to interact and engage on twitter.  and if you have a private twitter – your score will remain between 1-10.

so for family, friends and coworkers that always ask – this is why i twitter!

when we did some back to school shopping, i eyed these 80s glam sets at walmart – was so happy to get them for free!

my next klout perk should be arriving anyday now – wonder what axe has in store!

disclosure: i was given a free product or sample because i’m a klout influencer. i was under no obligation to receive the sample or talk about this company. i get no additional benefits for talking about the product or company.

true story.  a couple thousand of you were there.  it was amazing.  i asked a couple questions on twitter.  i made a new friend.  i think i cried.  now i’m sitting here, a month pregnant, inspired & ready to sign up to have my own home birth.  did i mention that it was amazing?

i started watching at around 11pm

by 1155pm, their daughter was woken up to witness the birth of her baby sibling

a few minutes later, she’s here!  IT’S A GIRL!

1217am they tell her to squat so the placenta can come out

1225am – mommy and baby are good so daddy starts taking pictures!  after this, @TalinaN gets checked to see if she needs stitches, she does.

talina’s site is currently down | harvestofdailylife.com – i’m sure it got hit with tons of traffic and her host suspended the account for going over bandwidth.

it is one helluva thing to have a baby but to share the live birth with the world?  you have my respect.  thank you for sharing and congratulations to your whole family!!!  i don’t think i have the strength to do it at home but  you made me super curious and i promise to research!  i’m on a contact birth high!

you can vote for me at about.me/xeniag or check out about.me – [...]]]> i created my own personal splash page on about.me a couple months ago and received 50 FREE cards from moo.com – now about.me is having another promotion and i want to be the face of about.me!

you can vote for me at about.me/xeniag or check out about.me – it really is a spiffy service!

thank you!

the best thing that happened to me at BlogHer was when i opened my composition book and saw the cutest note from my husband reaffirming his support for me.

BEST BlogHer SURPRISE #2:

hallmark had a lovely suite at [...]]]> BEST BlogHer SURPRISE:

the best thing that happened to me at BlogHer was when i opened my composition book and saw the cutest note from my husband reaffirming his support for me.

BEST BlogHer SURPRISE #2:

hallmark had a lovely suite at BlogHer – you could send FREE cards to a friend at the conference or ANYWHERE!  hallmark not only provided the cards but also free postage!  i received a tweet from hallmark saying i had to stop by their suite, not knowing what was going on, i headed up there and let the girl manning the suite know i received a tweet, she asked for my twitter name, gave me a # and pointed at the cubby holes.  inside was a card from ruby of growingupblaxican.com – i thought it was so sweet & thoughtful, awww!

BEST POST-BlogHer ADVENTURE:

i love saving money – i don’t call myself cheap but rather, getting the most out of my money.  armed with a bunch of coupons i received at BlogHer and telling C about this experiment – we headed to walmart on a saturday afternoon for our own little adventure in extreme couponing.  i let C pay first for the stuff we didn’t have coupons for, his total was about $40 which was good for a normal walmart shopping trip for us.  my total came up to $30.54 and after i handed the clerk the stack of coupons – i just had to pay $2.77!  the clerk was laughing and so was the family behind me. i felt like i was WINNING.

BEST REUSABLE TOTE:

i came home with THIRTEEN reusable totes.  certain cities in california have started banning plastic shopping bags so these come in handy.  my favorite one is the dove insulated bag.  it’s gorgeous and i don’t know if it’s just me but smells sorta like chocolate!  the bongo / searsstyle.com bag i got at the cheap sally party reminds me of the guess and esprit tote bags when i was in jr. high.  if those ever make a comeback, i think i’d buy one.  i secretly hope to find ‘em when i go out thrifting…shhh!

CUTEST PROMO ITEM:

most of the branded promo items at BlogHer made sense.  not a lot of ‘em were cute.  this reusable tote from shari’s berries was adorable.  i actually became a swag whore for a minute and grabbed 2 ;x  i couldn’t help myself!  i’m planning on sending it to my mom cause she loves cute stuff like this.

SMARTEST MARKETING AT BlogHer:

i was SHOCKED at how busy the edenfantasys booth was during BlogHer.  the swag bag was the topic of many conversations shared over breakfast and at parties.  i know most women won’t be blogging about the goodies received but i have to put it out there, thanks for thinking out of the box and going there edenfantasys!

i also received a very adorable swag envelope from babeland at a swag party!

BEST SWAG:

it took me a couple weeks to work on putting all the stuff i got from BlogHer away.  i still have a ton of flyers and business cards to go through.  although i would like to somewhat “monetize” my blog, i won’t be turning into one of those product review/giveaways blogs.  not that there isn’t anything wrong with those type of blogs but that’s not my intent here.  i have a few things that are my favorite pieces of swag from BlogHer and i’ll be reviewing those individually very soon.  in the meantime, SDMomfia & legoland are awesome!  can’t wait to surprise the kid with a trip down there.  we’re HUGE carlsbad fans!!!  P.S. if you are curious about the swag i received, i made a google doc you can check out here.

THE WORST:

• wasn’t a fan of the hotwheels suite.  other bloggers agree.
• not enough TIME.  the expo hall should have extended hours – maybe open earlier? like at 7am?  because i was trying to attend sessions and make new blogger friends, i didn’t network with brands like i wanted to.
• multiple parties, luncheons, events and sessions happening at the same time.
• one free gift code i received doesn’t work.  i would put the company on blast but they are working on fixing it right now.
• getting an invite to try a new site and the site isn’t ready yet.  again, i would put the company on blast but they are working on fixing it right now.
• i didn’t think the unicorns at the sparklecorn party were racist but drama after BlogHer confirms there’s still some sort of racial divide (and let’s be honest, there will ALWAYS be).  let’s just practice being better with eachother while being proud of our respective ethnicities.
• the sparklecorn party had damn good music but it didn’t seem as inviting as cheeseburgHer.  not that i’m trying to compare BUT i don’t know what it was…maybe the fact that security and some hired BlogHer goon harrassed me and ricca?
• oh yeah, did i mention – STAY AT THE HOST HOTEL!

i chose to walk to [...]]]> i woke up in our comfy hotel bed, reached over and dismissed my droid alarm.  i laid there and just relished about the day before.  i had another tight schedule but i was feeling rebellious and decided that today was going to be the day that i just enjoyed myself.

i chose to walk to the convention center, it was such a gorgeous morning and  i really enjoyed the 10+ block walk – i passed by the court, a federal building, a cute little park and the new children’s building. oh, and richard walker’s pancake house. the line outside was HUGE. never heard about it till my walk – known for it’s famous oven baked apple pancake, wish we had more time in the city to try it out!  when i got into the breakfast area, i called ruby and she stood up with sandrini of soyfashionista.com waving their arms around like madwomen.  i really enjoyed that.  i sat for a minute and looked at their plates, WHAT? NO BACON!  breakfast on day 2 lacked in what i needed the most – a hearty hot meal!  there were pastries and oatmeal.  i raided the vegan + gluten free tables for fresh fruit.  the breakfast convo consisted of the swag bags that eden fantasys was giving out.  ruby and sandrini were headed back to the expo hall and to check out sessions when ricca showed up – we planned on checking out the mom select swag suite together.  grace of hapamama.com (& also race & ethnicity editor at BlogHer) joined us and we had the usual exchange of what we blog about and our expectations of BlogHer.  after BlogHer, i saw grace’s post about an asian blog directory/list and am so excited!

the mom select swag suite was at the hilton bayfront and it was a walk.  we got there and (of course!) the line was long.  this event was super organized.  some of the moms were foul.  you basically check-in at the table, get to pick out a candy bar and reusable bag.  then you head in and there’s a few rows of tables with displays of items and reps.  the tables without reps had moms taking advantage of the situation and taking multiples of items.  i have 3 kids and a ton of nieces and nephews that i could have easily stocked up on christmas and birthday gifts for but i was thoughtful of all the other ladies that spent money to attend to BlogHer.  i was the last mom to get to the mega bloks when it ran out and i was just imagining a black friday fight to break out.  but it didn’t and even though many of us were crazy impatient, we waited like civilized human beings to finish meeting with the rest of the reps.

by the time we were done, i was holding at least 40 pounds of swag and ricca had to run back to the expo hall to sign hp x snapfish books.  we saw some pedicabs outside the hotel and asked how much… they seriously wanted $15 EACH. NO THANK YOU!  i planned on attending a couple sessions that day but remembered that i promised myself that i was going to enjoy myself.  i hung out with ricca for a bit while she signed books and wandered around the expo hall, again.  i felt a bit intimidated by the bigger brands and their huge booths, i don’t think i’m the only one that felt this way either because those booths were the ones half empty.  everyone knows who is a huge corporation (pepsico, P&G), maybe split your booth into several different booths by specific products.  also have your reps stationed outside and easily accessible…  the most inviting powerhouse brand was 3M.  each and every one of their reps genuinely seemed interested to talk to me and my friends.

thee BEST session i attended was the hillshire farms food photography and styling workshop.  i was walking in the marriott looking for the torrey pines 2 meeting room and was greeted by a girl in a hillshire farms apron that directed me to the room.  when i got to the room, the room was open and prepped to go.  i mention this because one of the events i attended was late on opening doors and there wasn’t any guidance.  at all.  things like this are frustrating because bloggers want info on certain things and if the reps don’t even know what’s going on – what good are they? #FAIL  each of the chairs had a small swag bag.  as i was getting ready to sit, i saw mona of kirida.com!  she’s a fellow chamorro and i had planned on meeting her later that day.  we sat down, talked for a bit and were advised that one of the panelists was running late and there would be a short delay.  first impression and communication are definitely good traits that hillshire farms owns.  the first panelist was food photographer sara remington.  i was in awe of some of her pictures.  who knew a huge stack of pancakes could look so good.  she had great tips and i can’t wait to try some of ‘em out.  the next panelist was food stylist william smith.  good gawd, who knew there was such an art to food photography!  he’s amazing.  and the final panelist was my favorite.  saveur.com web editor helen rosner (@hels).  she is blunt and professional.  i didn’t think i would be so into her presentation.  but the absolute best part?  the one on one conversation we had at the end.  she gave me some positive thoughts and reinforcement into what i had already believed.  i really really love her!!!  THANK YOU HILLSHIRE FARMS!


check out my notes:

at this point, feeling super inspired – i decided to make use of my free pass and ditch the help screening i was supposed to attend.  i headed back to the expo hall, met up with more brands that i’ve used in the past or am genuinely interested in working with.  i missed lunch so i scoured the hall for food (which there was never a lack of) – the yummiest thing i had was a hillshire farms “light” cuban.  i think it was light from what i was told.  i just wanted to run out of there and eat it in private.  (this was my personal preference – hillshire farms actually had an area you could sit at and order other food!  whoa at that concept!) as i walked outside of the expo hall, the afternoon snack tables were being set up. i grabbed a plate of hummus, chips and soda and found a nice area right outside of the expo area.  i sat on the floor and other ladies had the same idea of me.  a little bit of peace and quiet to enjoy a snack.  it was sublime.

i still had a bunch of time left till the night events and decided to take a cab back to my hotel.  it was really nice to have my husband and youngest one waiting for me back at the hotel, dropping in on them was definitely a huge highlight of my trip.

saturday night parties and swag posts, next!

you can try to prepare for BlogHer by reading up past posts by different bloggers and planning everything [...]]]> it’s been a week since BlogHer. i had a fabulous time… it’s just that i have been having a hard time putting my adventure into words. it’s one of those things you have to experience for yourself.

you can try to prepare for BlogHer by reading up past posts by different bloggers and planning everything to the minute but trust me, my best advice to a BlogHer newbie is to go in with little expectations – you’ll enjoy your experience that much MORE.

“you can plan a pretty picnic but you can’t predict the weather.” outkast-ms. jackson

stay at the host hotel. i didn’t start planning to attend BlogHer until june and by that time, rooms were SOLD OUT at the $199 per night BlogHer rate. i could have booked directly with marriott but when i checked, it was about $299 per night, no thanks! a couple weeks before BlogHer, some rooms opened up but i already booked with priceline and couldn’t cancel. i was stuck at the westin.

the two most asked questions:

-what do you blog about?

-do you do product reviews and/or giveaways?

day 1:

i walked into the newbie breakfast, scanned the room and immediately saw ruby of growingupblaxican.com
we hit it off and i wanted to bug her all weekend! after the breakfast with BlogHer founders elisa, jory & lisa, i checked out the expo hall with ruby. talk about overwhelming! so many brands want to give you stuff to check out and review – i don’t have a problem with this business practice and only chose to talk with companies that i was interested in. honestly, i walked by so many that i didn’t feel i would have a connection with. i did happen to notice some “swag whores” grab stuff from booths and didn’t even talk with reps.  not a fan of those types of bloggers. is this you?

ruby and i were both interested in the essential writing and editing skills session with panelists kt bradford and jane goodwin so we headed there together, alicia @LChicana joined our table and she is just so lovely!  ruby and i had different lunch obligations so we couldn’t stay for the whole session but my favorite quote from the session is: “NEVER TRUST ANYONE THAT DOESN’T SAY THE WORD SHIT” – this really sits with me because i have a potty mouth!

my lunch was with CVS beauty club.  the lunch was very nice but a bit disorganized.  i admit, i felt out of my element, most of the girls knew eachother and i was there solo.  not that being by myself would scare me away – i smiled, i tried to talk to some of them but they were in their own worlds.  this was the worst disconnect i felt from the whole weekend but i didn’t let it get me down, can’t win ‘em all!  i did enjoy learning about salma hayek’s exclusive new line “nuance” – the biggest sell to me were some of the ingredients.

after lunch i went to room 823 for the room o’ swag – a private swag exchange that i had heard about through the momspark.com forum. i met stephanie of goobermonkey.com, kelly of theturnipfarmer.com and ricca of sprmama!  i got some awesome stuff but i’ll be saving that for my swag post!

the next session i attended was food photography that will feed your soul with photographer penny de los santos of saveur magazine.  i love photography. and food. and i subscribe to saveur so there was no way i was going to miss this session.  when i approached the room the session was in, the lights were dim and gave such a warm and cozy feeling.  the ambiance really added to penny’s storytelling.  penny is what my photography professor calls a “hunter” – she hunts for shots.
if you are still reading, i applaud you.

when i left the session to head to a playskool event, i turned the corner and saw ruby sitting down – what luck!  i asked if she could watch my swag bags while i went to use the bathroom.  i came out and she said that some lady looked at all the bags and told her she needed a cart.  HILARIOUS!  wish it was on video haha  we had to walk from the convention center to the marriott (which isn’t really a bad walk but if you had to do it a few times a day holding 20 pounds of swag, it definitely could be LOL) to get to the location – when we got inside, the line was already huge!  as we were standing there, i saw veronica of crunchyvtmommy.com and the gorgeous, shoeless c-money.  i asked veronica, “hey are you crunchyvtmommy?” she is stunning!  what is your secret veronica!!!

when i went to check-in, the guy INSISTED that i had already checked in.  i argued with him that i have my badge, he can check my ID – whatever!  but he kept arguing back that i was in there already.  UM, NO.  he let me in and i was feeling a bit violated that someone claimed my name but ruby calmed me down by saying that maybe he was just mistaken.  she’s probably right and i calmed down to some yummy cookies and waited for the show to start.  the host interacted with sesame street characters abby cadabby, cookie monster & elmo about blogs.  i thought it was hilarious.  super entertaining!  i found out at a later event that the host was in fact caryn of rockinmama.net!  playskool gave us each a reusable tote with a let’s rock elmo button, planner & pen and either a cookie monster or elmo.  i had elmo and ruby had cookie monster and we traded!  duke loves his cookie monster, THANKS PLAYSKOOL!
what happened after that event is a blur but i’m pretty sure this was the day i walked back to the hotel with 30 pounds of swag.  the westin is a good 10 blocks (maybe more) from the convention center so by the 6th block, my calves were crying.  but, I DID IT!  i was so proud of myself!  i relaxed and freshened up a little… and hubby & our youngest duke (my roomies!) decided to walk me to stingaree for the cheap sally party!  i met stephanie and kelly outside because i had a +1 and wanted it to go to someone that deserved it and would actually enjoy the event.  we got inside and split up, i grabbed a taco from one of the hot food stations, got myself a coke and sat down.  my feet really wanted to just relax.  i started to assess the party.  the open bar had a huge selection.  there was a signature drink and there was more than enough room to accomodate everyone and then some.  as i was sitting down, yolanda of sassymamainla.com saw me and joined me YAY!  i got really acquainted with deborah of betweenparents.org and we discussed our kids and the art scene in LA.  just as they were going to go upstairs to inspect the rest of the party, ricca arrived!  we decided to inspect upstairs too and that was where all the action was.  i really wanted to take home a gordon ramsey throw pillow but the rep for kmart wasn’t entertaining that idea.  sadly, it won’t be released with the gordon ramsey collection.  BOO!  we stopped by the vix swimwear booth and got a pair of free flip flops – i’m a huge fan of havaianas but after getting the vix ipanemas – my mind is changed!  they are so comfy and feminine – really really LOVE ‘em!!!  searsstyle.com also had a booth and i can’t remember if we liked their fb page or tweeted them that they gave us a swag bag.  when you left, you were given another swag bag from cheap sally.  this party was the most organized party i attended all weekend.  you entered in one area and exited in another.  it was really put together.  GOOD JOB!ricca had a different party than the one i had to go to but they were in the same direction so we walked together in the lovely gaslamp district.  i was headed to the lulu’s mixer at the hard rock hotel’s float roof top bar.  the view was gorgeous and i don’t know why i didn’t take advantage of taking pictures.  it’s just one of those things where i was enjoying my time rather than trying to catalog it with pictures.  when i got there i met up with cid of cidstylefile.com and monique of curvesandchaos.com – i LOVE these ladies!  talk about confidence, beauty and brains.  i had a great time just hanging with them.  i won a bracelet and lulu’s gave us each a $15 gift card!

you would think that i was done for the night but i still had TWO more parties to go to.  i was gonna meet ricca downstairs and we were gonna take a pedicab to the you-phoria party at the museum of contemporary art.  i got downstairs and she was with chrystal of happy-mothering.com who convinced us that we should take a cab because pedicabs are dangerous.  i was game since the split would be cheap with 3 of us!  we got there and the line was super long.  everyone was concerned that they wouldn’t make the 150 swag bag cut (sorry but LOL!) we made it!  this party was organized really well too.  you checked in, got a ticket and would claim your swag bag later.  when i finally got inside, i was amazed at the projected graphics that covered all the walls.  it was elegant and fun.  the open bar had a very nice selection too.
i made my own natural perfume (i mixed orange and vanilla, the concoction in my perfume bottle looks funny but it smells like a creamsicle) and had a t-shirt screenprinted for me right in front of me.

ricca and i walked about 2 blocks to my hotel to drop off the swag bags and to change!  we caught a cab to marriott and checked out sparklecorn.  all the other parties i previously discussed were private parties so for a BlogHer party, you need to make sure you have your BlogHer badge on.  official BlogHer parties like sparklecorn are where you can also use the drink tickets that you got with your badge.  there’s also a ton of food at BlogHer parties.  sparklecorn had mini hot dogs, bags of peanuts or popcorn and sour patch watermelon.  what intrigued me about sparklecorn is the music.  this year’s dj was none other than dj skribble.  where else can you see a bunch of ladies get down to PARTY & BULLSHIT!

as ricca and i were about to call it a night, i noticed some posters on a table, i grabbed 2 and ricca got a poster that had fallen off the wall.  the minute we were outside the ballroom, we got stopped by security asking if we stole the posters off the wall, NOT US!  you can even take the posters we do have.  he told us we can go and then we were stopped again!  this time by the guy that insisted i was already checked into the playskool event.  we told him the story about how/where we got the posters and he let us go too.  later on we find out that some ladies stole a standee.  i can’t remember of who or what but that’s some funny shit.  i want to see those pictures!  the best thing about sparklecorn?  the pb & j cake.  it was GOOD.

sidenote and probably obvious: most of the women i met (or even saw in passing) were beautiful, smart and funny.  there were about 10 out of 3,600 that didn’t know how to act-rite.  to have a blog or be involved in social networking means each woman has to be unique, interesting and you guessed it SOCIAL!  how about the 10 of you work on it? ok? ok!

day 2, tomorrow.