Category: My 15 minutes

Guest blogging and a Canadian Family giveaway

I am so excited!

First of all, I am excited because I have a guest blog post up at Canadian Family magazine’s Family Jewels blog today. I’m going to be blogging there all week! I’m writing a series called “The Family Photographer” with tips, tricks and thoughts about how to improve your mad photographic skillz. Fun, eh?

Today’s post is all about light: how to see it, how to use it, and why I think it’s the single most important consideration in any picture. Go on, take a read and let me know what you think!

canadianfamily.ca

Second, I’m excited because Canadian Family has provided FIVE subscriptions for me to give away to all of you. How awesome is that? I waffled for a while on whether to give away one each day or all five at the end of the week. I think one each day will be more fun, and a little bit more fair to everyone.

If you would like to be entered in today’s draw for a subscription to Canadian Family magazine, leave me a comment on this post. I’d really appreciate it if you could include a suggestion, topic idea, tip or trick that you think I should share. Is there something you’d like to know about taking better pictures? Got a secret worth sharing? I’d love to include it in the upcoming posts!

Here’s the fine print:

  1. Today’s giveaway is for one one-year subscription to Canadian Family magazine.
  2. To enter, leave a comment on this post before noon EDT on Tuesday July 13.
  3. Winners will be chosen using the random number generator at random.org from eligible entries on Tuesday 13 July 2010.
  4. You must leave a valid e-mail address and allow me to share your contact information with Canadian Family magazine to arrange for the subscription delivery.
  5. The winner will be contacted via e-mail and posted here.

Thanks to Canadian Family for the guest blogging opportunity and the fun giveaway. Don’t forget to check back each day this week — there are four more subscriptions to give away after today!

Ottawa At Home magazine features local bloggers

The summer issue of Ottawa at Home magazine has just been published, and there’s a fun article featuring a couple of my favourite “mom” bloggers: Andrea and Annie and Julie and Loukia and me! You can take a peek at the online version here — click on “Ottawa at Home” (second row centre) and page ahead to pg 30.

It’s a fun little article, but seriously, do we still have to keep using the “mom” adjective? Can’t we just be some Ottawa bloggers? But I digress…

And, speaking of digressions: Dear MSM, I am very grateful that you featured me and my little blog in your article. But, if you are talking about a Web site in a print article, it would be really nice if you put the URL into the article, too.

And if you missed the hand-me-down underwear debate, you can find it here. For what it’s worth, I’m still a little squeamish on the idea. 😉

Thank you Canadian Family Magazine!

I‘ve been a fan of Canadian Family magazine online for quite a while now, so when the boys were selling magazines to raise funds for their school, I bought a subscription to Canadian Family (and one to Popular Photography, too!) I’ve been consistently impressed with it — articles worth reading, shopping tips for real families, and excellent recipes. (If I weren’t so pressed for time, I’d link to a few of the articles I enjoyed — stay tuned, I’ll try to remember to come back and do that!)

All that to say, I was honoured to get an e-mail last week letting me know that Canadian Family had chosen Postcards from the Mothership as one of its Top 53 Mommy Blogs. Here’s my little page in their slideshow, and here’s a link to all the awesome blogs they featured, by category. (Scroll down, past the graphic at the top. The content is in the middle of the page.)

Thank you so much for including me, Canadian Family. I’m honoured to be in such good company!

Edited to add: And look, there’s badges!!

canadianfamily.ca

If there’s badges, it *must* be cool! 😉

All in a Day Redux

Whee, that was so much fun!

Thanks to Alan Neal and my friends at CBC Radio Ottawa for giving me a chance to talk about my 365 project on All in a Day today! I was having quite the little moment while I was sitting in the anteroom waiting for my turn to go on, when Laurence Wall AND Alan Neal AND Ian Black were all in the studio together. CBC Ottawa trifecta!!! And dork that I am, I was too shy to say hello to either Laurence or Ian as they hustled out of the studio.

In my vast radio interview experience (comprising all of three appearances, media whore that I am) this was by far the most fun. Want to listen in? Here it is!

Project 365 Conclusion on All in a Day

(It might take a second for the MP3 to finish downloading. Be patient! Interview courtesy of and copyright Canadian Broadcasting Corporation.)

For those of you who are visiting for the first time, welcome! If you’re interested in Project 365, you can read more about it by perusing 52 weeks’ worth of blog posts, or you can see the all 365 pictures on Flickr. (If you open two tabs, you can watch the slideshow while the mp3 of the show is playing in the other tab — I only wish I was clever enough to figure out how to combine the two!!)

I also write a lot about parenting issues and fun things to do with kids in Ottawa… among a few thousand other things, should you like to pull up a chair and stay awhile.

(And Julie, to answer your question from yesterday’s comments? Alan Neal is even nicer than he seems on the radio. Hard to believe, but true!)

An ode to runners-up

The Buffalo Bills made it to the Super Bowl and lost four straight years in the early 1990s. The Red Sox made it all the way to the World Series in 1946, 1967, 1975 and 1986 and lost each time. Jack Nicklaus finished second 19 times in major tournaments, and Susan Lucci was nominated for an Emmy Award 18 times (!!) before finally winning in 1999. Alanis Morisette, Aaliyah, Christina Aguilera, Destiny’s Child, Drew Carey, Jessica Simpson, Kevin James, Dennis Miller, Rosie O’Donnel, Le Ann Rimes, Dave Chapelle, Justin Timberlake and Britney Spears ALL appeared on Star Search without winning. Heck, even Susan Boyle was a runner up. And we all know what happened to Al Gore in 2000.

Two cheers for second place!! One for you and one for me, because you helped to vote Postcards from the Mothership as the second-place winner in the Best Family Blog category of the Canadian Blog Awards!! Yay, and thank you — times two!

The results aren’t official yet, but I can see by the voting form that the voting is complete. I’m not sure I like the new voting system, and that has almost nothing to do with the fact that I came in second by a mere — choke! — FOUR votes!! Sigh.

Speaking of which, I think enough time has lapsed that I’m now allowed to tell you about this, too. Remember back in February, the last time I was grovelling for votes in the Send a Blogger to BlogHer contest? I came in second then, too, although I was asked not to mention it at the time. Sooooooo close!

So really, thank you. I am honoured that you nominated me, and I am delighted that you tossed more than a hundred votes my way. And for the five of you who forgot to vote, you’re getting a lump of coal in your stocking this year! 😉 And heck, there’s always next year. Go for the gold in 2010, that seems to be a message I’ve heard somewhere recently…

***

Speaking of second place, did any of you watch the Survivor finale last night? SPOILER ALERT!!!!! SPOILER ALERT!!!!! SPOILER ALERT!!!!! I was gobsmacked at the outcome. Seriously? Gobsmacked. I was a Russel fan from early on, and I totally think he deserved the million bucks. Nobody has worked this game like he has, and nobody has earned that million more than him. I suppose the contestants don’t see everything we see, and I didn’t yet watch the post show (I was so annoyed I went to bed at 10:05) but I imagine they just didn’t have an idea of the extent of his manipulative deviance. Brilliantly played, though, and I’m beyond excited to see the new season of heros versus villains next year. That AND Lost? The PVR will justify itself in a single seaon!!

So yeah, second place rocks!!

Hey, lookit that, I made the top ten!

Hey, thanks for your votes! I made the first cut on the Canadian Blog Awards to make the top 10 Best Family Blogs. Yay!!

So you know what comes next, right? Much pestering on my part for your continued voting support, especially now that I know you have to are permitted to vote every day. Hint, hint.

Let’s post those voting instructions one more time, shall we?

  1. Click on this link to the Best Family Blog poll and it will open the voting page in a new window.

  2. Scroll down until you find Postcards for the Mothership.

  3. Click on the little drop-down triangle immediately to the right of the blog title.

  4. Select “1st”. Cuz you love me, right?

  5. Optional: there are lots of other great blogs in this list, so if you want to choose more than one, you can rank your choices and toss a vote to all your favourites. I’m not entirely sure I understand the ranking system, though. You don’t have to rank or choose more than one blog to vote, though.

  6. Scroll down to the bottom of the poll and click “vote”.

  7. Press “confirm”. Don’t forget this part!

  8. Bask in the sunshine of my everlasting gratitude!

And, hey, guess what? If you found that to be an enjoying and enriching experience, great news — you can do it every day through December 19! 😉

Thanks, as always, for your affection and support. (And indulgence!)

I’m trapped in the basement! Vote for me to set me free!!

Okay, so the fact that I’m trapped in the basement (they’re installing the laminate over my head as I type) and the fact that I’ve been nominated for Best Family Blog in the Canadian Blog Awards are completely unrelated. And yet, they’re the best segue I’ve got. Save me from the noise (oh my sweet lord, the noise!) and the dust and the chaos, send me a vote as a salve on my twitchy soul. (Too much? Yeah, I was afraid of that.)

Ahem, anyway, they’re using a new voting system this year, and while it looks a little bit intimidating, it’s not too bad. If you would like to vote for me (please please please?) these instructions will help you navigate through.

  1. Click on this link to the Best Family Blog poll and it will open the voting page in a new window.

  2. Scroll down until you find Postcards for the Mothership.

  3. Click on the little drop-down triangle immediately to the right of the blog title.

  4. Select “1st”. Cuz you love me, right?

  5. Optional: there are lots of other great blogs in this list, so if you want to choose more than one, you can rank your choices and toss a vote to all your favourites. I’m not entirely sure I understand the ranking system, though. You don’t have to rank or choose more than one blog to vote, though.

  6. Scroll down to the bottom of the poll and click “vote”.

  7. Press “confirm”.

  8. Bask in the sunshine of my everlasting gratitude!

This is round one, and there will be a round two for the top ten vote-getters next week. Throw me a vote and send me through to the finals?

And stay tuned, because I have an awesome holiday giveaway that starts later today or tomorrow — don’t miss it!!

In which she evangelizes the H1N1 shot to Canada’s National Newspaper

I must be getting a little bit blasé about talking to the media these days, because I actually completely forgot to check this morning’s Globe and Mail after one of their journalists interviewed Beloved and I earlier this week until one of my colleagues commented that he’d seen the article. Sheesh!

Anyway, there is a nice little article on the front cover of the Life section of today’s Globe and Mail about the decision we make as parents whether to vaccinate our kids for the H1N1 flu. I think the journalist gave a really fair representation of our conversation and our feelings on the subject.

Oh, and after this I think we will be able to move on from all-H1N1-all-the-time and return to our regularly scheduled programming. Probably.

Tune in to All in a Day on CBC radio today!

Remember when I mentioned that the producers for All in a Day, CBC radio’s excellent afternoon drive show, were looking for parents to debate when it’s safe to let kids walk to school by themselves? That’s happening today at 4 pm!

Lynn from Turtlehead will argue a more conservative approach, and I will defend the idea of greater liberty. To a point. And maybe for somebody else’s kids, not my wee helpless babies. Um, this might be a bit of a lopsided debate!

Got a thought to add to the debate? I’d love to hear your opinions. At what age should kids be walking to school by themselves? When I mentioned to Tristan’s Grade One teacher last year that we were considering it, she flinched visibly and said she thought that was far too young and yet, I’ve said it many many times before, I was walking back and forth to school with no problem at age four. Have kids changed? Has the world? Is it our kids’ judgement we’re worried about, or stranger danger?

And don’t forget to tune in this afternoon, 4 pm at 91.5 FM!

Who knew blogging out loud could be so much fun?

Thanks a million to Lynn of TurtleHead for organizing a fantastic night out last night at Blog Out Loud Ottawa, otherwise known as BOLO. (Or #BOLO, if you’re on Twitter.) I don’t know what I enjoyed more: seeing old friends, putting real live people together with their online personae, or finding a whole bunch of new Ottawa bloggers to read. Okay, so I need more blogs to read like I need a short in my keyboard, but based on the readings last night, there’s a whack of blogs I need to be subscribing to TODAY so I don’t miss any more of the bloggy goodness.

I took a tonne of photos (no surprise there) but it was the first time I took my fancy-ass flash out of the box, and my photos really don’t compare to the excellent stuff captured by Milan and displayed on the Raw Sugar facebook page.

Oh, and the post I read was one that I thought was a pretty good example of the kind of stories I like to tell here. You might remember it from about this time last year. It’s called Tristan Takes a Dive, and I was supremely pleased to hear people laughing in all the right places when I read it. The only thing more validating than comments is real live laughter!

Once I figure out the best way to do it, I’ll upload the best of my pictures of the night somewhere…