Skip to main content

A blogging convention? You'll need business cards!

IMG_2716

Blogher 2013 was this weekend. It was the first blogging convention I've ever attended (I'll post more reports in the coming days.) Though I was excited, I wasn't exactly at my best about getting ready. I knew I needed business cards for it but I waited until, oh, uh, the night before to make them. And then I was super tired, having gardened like a maniac all day. I woefully asked Jay to help me.

For a few minutes we silently sat cutting. (Well, OK, I was lying on the floor. What can I say, I'm pretty adept with sharp objects.) Finally (irritated) Jay said, "How many did you make?"

"200"

"You're not going to need 200 business cards!"

"Alright. This stack will make 100. We'll stop there."

"I think that will be plenty."

"And I could take my scissors and cut up the rest while I'm there."

He stared at me for a moment, then—adopting a fake voice—"Yea, there was this really weird woman who sat in the corner all day, cutting up business cards."



Ah, the funniest lines cut so close to the bone, don't they? I mean sitting in the corner, cutting something up is...well, this wouldn't be a precedent.



So the next morning I headed to the convention center with my hand-cut, mildly-embarrassing but perfectly serviceable, xeroxed business cards. And no scissors.

Wren.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Present-ation!

I've finished making a whole pile of frayed ruffle hearts . They're cute the way they are, but to make them extra special, I'm putting them in pretty cellophane bags, with curly ribbons and hand-made tags. Sometimes I get lazy and don't spend the extra effort on great gift wrap, but it's so worth it, isn't it? The other exciting part of this is I'm not just sending these hearts to family and friends. I've got 3 set aside for Aunt Peaches Valentine Swap ! Yea!!!

Lessons from BlogHer '13

BlogHer '13—my first blogging convention—was last weekend. And I learned a lot! For example: #1 No Russians are reading my blog. When I look at the statistics for who's looking at Smalltropolis, it's very impressive. For example, today I have 43 pageviews from Latvia. Switzerland is represented, as is France, Denmark, China. Just a world-wide appeal I have goin' on. (Gloat.) Thing is, as I learned at BlogHer, that's almost certainly because the analytics I'm looking at aren't very accurate. Lots of spam is included. To get the real numbers, I need to sign up for Google Analytics. Блин! #2. Great photography doesn't come from the womb. The kick-off keynote speaker was Ree Drummond. I'd certainly admired the beautiful photography on her blog, The Pioneer Woman multiple times, so it was pretty enlightening when she showed some of her early photos. They were, quite simply, dreadful. It really drove home how good writing and good photography a

Perfect pickle weights

Making pickles requires keeping the vegetables submerged in the brine so they don't get yucky. But what to use as weights? Stones? Hmm. This may be traditional but I have a hard time believing I could get them clean enough. Plastic baggies filled with pickling juice? This is what is usually recommended but it just doesn't appeal to me. (Does the plastic leach anything out during the fermenting period?) Hand-made ceramic discs? They're lovely but they're $22 (plus shipping) for three, and each jar needs a couple so that would get pretty expensive to do the multiple jars of pickles I've got going on. No, the perfect solution are these little glass candle holders from IKEA. They're called Glimma and at $1.99 for a six-pack, they're safe, sanitary, and cheap. And they fit perfectly inside wide-mouthed Ball jars. So, fill the jar with vegetables (leaving a bit of headspace) and top off with brine, allowing the liquid to flow into the glass dish,