BlogHer Is All About Making Connections For Me

With less than two months to go until BlogHer11 I am seriously starting to think about what my goals are.  While I absolutely plan to have a TON of fun, my real goals are to make face to face connections with people.

I want to connect and spend time with some great bloggers I have already met and build on our relationships (and maybe have a cupcake or two).  I can wait to meet some bloggers that I haven't had the pleasure to meet in person yet.  I MAY be found squealing like a preteen girl when I find some of these people for the first time, consider yourself warned! (I may also look totally dazed and confused, so if THIS is the reaction you get please don't take offense, sometimes my brain seems to lack facial recognition ability!)

  And of course I hope to connect with some relevant brands for my blog.

But with all the people I anticipate meeting in such a short time, it can be hard to remember everyone's blog or brand.  So I plan to collect business cards so that I can regroup when I get home and refresh my memory on all the new people I met.

Although this is my first time at BlogHer, I have read more posts about BlogHer than I can even imagine counting (yeah I had some serious BlogHer envy the last two years) and I remember many people mentioning the large pile of business cards they collected and the difficulty they had managing them.  Some talking about dropping piles of cards or their purses become just a see of business cards.

  So I plan to take my Card Cubby and hopefully stay on top of organizing the cards so I don't lose anyone's info. The card cubby is in my purse everyday full of all my preferred shopping cards and gift cards.  But when I head out the door for BlogHer11 I will have it empties out and ready to fill with cards from all the amazing people I plan to meet. 

If you are going to BlogHer11, please be sure you let me know. I have created a list on twitter for people I know who are going so I can be sure to try and catch up with them.

If you don't have business cards for yourself yet, check out the great designs from TinyPrints.

Tiny Prints provides stylish, modern and unique stationery that cover all your paper needs. You'll find summer party invitations, personalized greeting cards, thank you cards, business cards, and even custom wedding invitations. Come try the easy card personalization, powerful preview engine and top-notch customer service and paper quality for yourself! With Tiny Prints by your side, commemorating every holiday and momentous occasion is a cinch! 

Disclosure: I will be provided with complimentary business cards from Tiny Prints in exchange for this post. I am honestly a fan of TinyPrints and all thoughts and opinions expressed in this post are my own honest, personal feedback.

Father's Day Cards from TinyPrints

Although the weather makes me think it should be more like Halloween or Thanksgiving, we are actually just around the corner from June which means it's almost Father's Day.  

I've always marveled at how different the traditions are for Mother's Day and Father's Day.  Mother's Day is regularly associated with brunches and flowers.  But Father's Day seems to be about BBQing and sports.  I've never really had a Father's Day tradition either growing up or in my home now.  It seems to be a much more casual day that usually involves relaxing and enjoying the outdoors.

But don't let the casualness of the day catch you off guard, Dad will appreciate a thoughtful gift just as much as mom.  I know my husband treasures the photo gifts I have created over the years for him with photos of the boys.  I love the great card options like the one above from TinyPrints.com that are really photo gifts in themselves.  Check out all the great cards for Father's Day here.

Disclosure: This post is part of a sponsored campaign from TinyPrints.com and I will be compensated for my time.  However all thoughts and opinions are my own honest, personal feedback.

Tiny Prints Business Cards Review

I've been a fan of Tiny Prints for awhile, but somehow I totally missed that they did business cards.  I had cards made previously where I created the entire design in a graphic design program and had them printed that way.  Those cards where great and I still have a ton of them but they do not have my twitter information on them or a photo which I've since learned is a huge thing when attending conferences so people can remember who you were instead of just being another card in the stack.

Thanks to Tiny Prints I now have new cards with a photo and my twitter id.  I wasn't sure if I would be able to find a design that would work for me and all the info I wanted but then I spotted this great folded card.  When its folded you see my blog header design which is hopefully memorable for those who have stopped by my blog. 

And then you open it and this is what you see.

 And then finally the back still has room for notes.  This is where you could write all the wonderful things about me you want to remember! Or you know, my favorite dessert so you could have it on hand the next time we get together. 

It's not really a professional endorsement yet as I haven't taken then out for a test drive yet, but I can tell you my KIDS love them.  They got to take one to have and Bryan especially loves carrying it around and popping it open to find my photo.

I loved how easy they were to create and how quickly they were done. 

Check out just a few more of the many different designs for business cards available:

Tiny Prints provides simple, modern and unique stationery from Mothers Day cards and Fathers Day cards to graduation announcements, thank you cards, business cards, and even custom wedding invitations. Offering exclusive designs from the nation’s top designers, easy card personalization, a powerful preview engine and top-notch customer service and paper quality, their designs have been lauded by numerous television networks, publications and celebrities. With Tiny Prints by your side commemorating every holiday and momentous occasion is a cinch! They offer perfect party invitations for every occasion and memorable personalized photo-gifts like notebooks, photo cards, photo books and calendars.
Disclosure: I received these complimentary business cards for review purposes.  All opinions expressed are my own honest, personal feedback.

What Would You Do for Love?

Love is a pretty amazing thing.  When we're young we think love is all about the puppy love we experience with the butterflies in your stomach.  But as we grow we learn that love is so much more than you could have imagined.  Love gives us strength to do things we never would have considered.  However, I never really understood the deepest most unconditional love ever, until I had my own children.  To know just seconds after meeting someone for the first time ever, a mother would DIE for her child.  I remember VERY soon after the birth of one of the boys I held that swished little face and told him I loved him, and my husband who was looking on, asked "Really? Already?"  I guess maybe its difference for moms but, yes I loved each of my boys the instant I held them, maybe long before that, in away I don't think I will ever be able to truly describe. 
The kind of love that has led me to sacrifice my own desires on a regular basis without question or resentment.  The kind of love that makes me want only the best for them, and makes me crazy when it seems they aren't listening to my experience that will help them get there.  Being a mom means really and truly living with a piece of you wandering around this world just outside your constant control, but still being able to feel all their joy and pain just as much, if not more than they do.

For me my love for them, has taken me outside of my comfort zone, where I am forced to be more confrontational then I would have ever dared to be before.  It means dealing with judgment from other moms to bring my children up in the way I feel is best for them in the long run.  My love for my children means I would literally lay down my life for any one of theirs.

While I try my best every day to let them know that I love them, I don't think there's such a thing as telling them too much.  I'm not sure where the time goes, but Valentine's Day is just around the corner and I love using V-Day as an excuse to get mushy with my kids and remind them how much I love them.  And I love these cards from Tiny Prints for kids for Valentines Day.  I love that they're personalized.  These are just two adorable options of MANY to chose from.  Check out all their Valentine's Day Cards.

And if you're sending these cards directly and want to include a token of your love, you can include a gift card to several stores including Amazon and Target.

Tiny Prints provides simple, modern and unique stationery from Valentines Day cards to personalized greeting cards to thank you cards, business cards, and even custom wedding invitations. Offering exclusive designs from the nation's top designers, easy card personalization, a powerful preview engine and top-notch customer service and paper quality, their designs have been lauded by numerous television networks, publications and celebrities. With Tiny Prints by your side commemorating every holiday and momentous occasion is a cinch! They offer perfect party invitations for every occasion and memorable personalized photo-gifts like notebooks, photo books and calendars.