Bloggers and brands – my first conference!

Posted on 2 May, 2013 by admin

Have you ever had a day where when you return home in the afternoon, it actually feels like you’ve been on another planet and you come back with a whole new point of view? That was my experience with my first blog conference.

I dropped The Bun off at daycare, where she toddled off to play with her favourite Sesame Street bus, and drove to Skytrain and found free parking. (This in and of itself is a gift…we used to live in the area, so I know where each of the few spots are and have an ability to hone in on them. It’s not exactly a superpower but it does come in handy!). Freed from parental and work duties, I zipped downtown and walked to the Vancity Theatre.

It was a bit like being at a cocktail party with a bunch of people that you knew could quickly become friends. Like Christmas, but with people! Who should I meet first? I wonder which blogger that is?

I was torn between meeting everyone at once or wandering off to the impressive breakfast spread at the other end of the room. Croissants! Bloggers! Fruit kabobs! Bloggers! Thus, the conundrum. I ended up getting a plate and then wandering around, inadvertantly gesturing with a fruit kabob as I talked. (No one lost an eye, thus it is still considered fun and games).

So many people whose blogs I’d seen…Dividend Ninja, whose financial DRIP info is something that Jon and I have looked at for stock info and Rantsnrascals , who is as funny and courageous in person as she is electronically. The charismatic 3chickensandaboat , who has, after six months of blogging, taken the blogosphere by storm. (That may or may not be a word, but if Doctor Seuss can make his own words, so can I!). Northshoremama brought her tiny, sleeping person along with her, and the fabulous Princessofpavement and I had a chance to catch up. Those are just a few – so many great people!

The conference itself was about brands and bloggers getting together – the blog as both a form of social expression and a business model. It’s an interesting hybrid that has a lot of potential and scope. The keynote speech from Telus opened my eyes in a way that I hadn’t anticipated. I had no idea how much they had incorporated helping the community into their business model…I had to shift my mind from ‘big corporation’ to ‘good citizen that happens to be a corporation’, which I didn’t see coming! They build schools in poor parts of Guatemala, and provide hot lunches for underprivileged kids. Who knew??

It was also a perspective shift. Canadian Beef and the Chicken Farmers of Canada were the other two sponsors. As a girl who likes her steak (see my post on mystery shopping for how I keep myself in steak and bellinis), I loved hearing from the source of my favourite medium rare meat. And as a mom whose baby loves her morning scrambled eggs, I enjoyed finding more out about how chicken farming works. So it was a win-win all around. But it did lead me to realize that social media is a powerful, powerful thing. We have the opportunity to connect directly with the brands we care about and let them know how we, as consumers and individuals, want to work together. And that’s the most powerful lesson of all.

Comic con – embracing the inner geek!

Posted on 29 April, 2013 by admin

Photo credit to S Gudlaugson

Let your inner geek come out. In fact, set a spot at the table, make some really good British tea, and pull up a chair with a comfy cushion on it. Fan Expo Vancouver is here!

I am a sci fi fan. Who had never been to a comic convention. I wasn’t really aware of their existence, and for that, Now Me would like to go back to Then Me, and make myself aware! Yes, that is a photo of an enormous Hulk made out of Lego.

As someone who went to grad school to study science fiction, I thought I had cornered the market on geek. Let me assure you, I now realize that I’m a small player in the scales. There are people who are far more intense than I may ever be.There’s this gentleman, on his way to answer a call:

And a few Jedis in search of their people:

But most importantly, I got to get a photo taken with James Marsters, Spike from Buffy the Vampire Slayer, who was a very important piece of my thesis.

Me from seven years ago would probably think this was the penultimate moment.

Inner geek, I commend you. Welcome to the mothership.

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Bringing back the simple things.

Posted on 15 April, 2013 by admin

Do you ever think back to twenty, ten, or even five, years ago and wonder what you used to do with all that extra time? Before you spent time on Facebook or tweeting, when the only one to take care of was you?

My husband has been slogging away in his first grad school semester and has finished his final, and is now back in the land of the living. (It was a tough few months being an accounting widow, let me tell you!). So this weekend felt a bit like we were ‘off the clock’.

I haven’t really touched my computer all weekend. I entered hardly any contests, which for me is highly unusual (see here for further details on how I spend 45 minutes a day to upgrade my lifestyle to something vastly beyond my salary). What did we do with two glorious days of no work and no real commitments?

I took Kate to dance class. We had a group nap (though the baby was in her crib, it was group in spirit!). We had friends over for dinner, went swimming and went to the park. I read my new magazine and a few chapters of my book. And I’m coming into Sunday night feeling more awake and aware and content than I have in months.

And then I had an ‘aha’ moment – THIS is what I used to do. And it didn’t become impossible from any outside factors – my time use changed. We have the same number of hours in the day as Leonardo da Vinci, Einstein, Joss Whedon, Mercedes Lackey, Oprah, L.M. Montgomery, and a number of others famed for genius in past and present. It isn’t about how much time we do or don’t have. It’s about the choices we make when we’re using it. It’s about choosing to read a few more pages instead of skimming Facebook. Writing in your journal instead of playing a new video game. Of saying ‘yes’ when the baby wants to go outside and dig in the yard for the third time that day, and spending some time just watching her wander from one end of the tiny yard to the other, waving her spoon in the air. She couldn’t care less about the news online – there are dandelions to pick!

Let’s all spend a bit more time playing board games, making cookies and connecting with our friends and family and a bit less time mindlessly zoning out on our i-Things. It will make the world a nicer place.

How could you use your time differently? What are you focused on right now?

The yearly wardrobe update – 6 ways to jazz it up on a budget

Posted on 9 April, 2013 by admin

Photo credit to Sunshine Gudlaugson

A new year, a new series of spring fashions…what’s a girl to do? Stay stylish on budget, of course!

My clothing allowance has taken a plunge since the advent of grown-up-ness…which is kind of ironic, since now I have grown-uppy sorst of jobs and the occasional requirement to look all fancy. We also have a space crunch, since our adorable turn of the century house is more than a little lacking in the closet department. The combination of these has led me to a variety of creative options to find some new outfits.

1) Option 1, because it’s my favourite annual clothing related activity, is the yearly swap party. For those of you who are new to this, the drill is that everyone goes through their closets and finds the stuff they don’t wear/don’t fit into/hold a deep and abiding dislike for/reminds you of your least favourite cousin, and bring it over to my place, washed and folded. Clothes, accessories, books, CDs etc. It all gets piled in the middle of the living room, and then at the appointed time, everyone dives in and starts trying stuff on and swapping. Many of my friends have kidlets, as do I, making it an excellent opportunity to get some new(ish) baby clothes and items that are in good shape (only a reasonable amount of teeth marks 🙂 ). I usually make mine a potluck, for sanity’s sake as well as for fun, and there’s wine and food and general good times. Whatever’s left goes to charity

2) The old fashioned route: dye!

This pertains in particular to clothing trends in a particular colour. If you have something that’s white/beige/light grey, and you love love love it but it is just past its prime, this is a solution that can bring new life. Remember those old boxed dyes? I had a white satiny dress that I loved in the store, and loved on, in the slightly dim lights of the dressing room, but became a bit of a show once I tried it on at home in regular light. I hadn’t kept the receipt, and had taken the tags off. My Mom (who is known for keeping *everything*) had an old box of blue dye, and I thought ‘hey, why not?’ And you know what? It turned a lovely sky blue, and was a favourite for years afterwards. There are lots of sites that have DIY advice on the actual process of how to do it, but usually an old wash basin (that you aren’t attached to in any way, since dye stains are not really easy to remove!), some hot water, and a couple of hours are required. If you’re particularly creative, you can put elastics around bunches of the fabric to create cool circle designs, or draw on it in thick crayon to create pictures of slogans.

3) Accessorize! Accessorize! Accessorize! Accessories are cheap. They’re fun. Scarves, bangles, bracelets, chandelier earrings – they even sound fun! A really colourful scarf can do wonders to change an outfit, or a funky hat and boots can give it a completely new look. And places like Ardene and Claire’s and even some of the dollar stores have a variety of items that are interesting and can jazz up something boring quite cheaply.

The hat makes the outfit!
Photo credit to Sunshine Gudlaugson

4) Actually go through your closet. As my coworker Gina pointed out recently, she had a bunch of things that hadn’t seen the light of day in a veeeerrry long time that she genuinely likes. Particularly if your closet is as coffin-like as mine, it’s easy for things to get mired back in the dim recesses and forgotten about. So take an afternoon and spend it on a trip down the clothing version of memory lane. And with the stuff that you just don’t wear anymore or don’t really like, see bullet point #1 and hold your first swap party!

5) The humble t-shirt. My colleague Maureen pointed out that the t-shirt is really an underrated creature. You can get very well made ones cheaply, and a colourful t-shirt can be paired with everything from jeans to blazers to make an outfit come together. And if colour is your thing, it’s far cheaper to pair a trendy coloured t-shirt with a skirt or jeans than to invest in an item when you haven’t really come to a decision about whether you actually genuinely like this season’s ‘it’ shade.

More on swap parties can be found over with Lindsey, another fabulous Canadian blogger:

http://centsandsensibility.ca/2013/03/16/money-saving-thursdays-swap-party/

6) Winners, outlet stores and sales sales sales.

When it is time to buy something new, keep an eye out for sales. If there’s a particular store you enjoy shopping at, join their e-club – they will often offer sales and discounts to email subscribers that aren’t available in the store. Do a web search for coupons and discounts before you head to the mall, and print out the coupons before you leave. And if you are going to choose just one thing to buy, make it something you’ll wear and love. A fabulous spring jacket will have a much lower cost per wear than a turtleneck in emerald green if you’re not a turtleneck person. Try places like Winners, which encompass all labels but at a far cheaper price, and if you wait until seasonal sales you can score huge discounts on already low prices. Always check the clearance rack first! (But go on a Tuesday morning so that it’s not a zoo!).

There are a number of other ways to jazz up your wardrobe on a budget – thrift stores, vintage and estate sales are a whole other post!

What’s your favourite item of clothing? Where (or who) did it come from?

Spring – the yearly life assessment!

Posted on 4 April, 2013 by admin

There are two months that seem to galvanize me into action: April and September. September is a flashback to the waning of summer and going back to school…the transition from sunny Tuesdays eating watermelon on the beach to the smell of crayons and freshly sharpened pencils. And gym strip. But that’s a whole separate (and pungent!) discussion.

The other month that gives me an impetus to get stuff done is April. One would think that it would be March, since that’s technically when spring begins, but March is only halfway springy. By April, there’s no debate that it’s winter (despite half of Canada still being in the negative temperature digits). In BC, the daffodils are out, birds are starting to twitter you awake (remember when twitter only had the single meaning?), and days have gotten long enough that it’s not dark when you leave for work and equally dark when you get home!

How I start is to go for a walk at one of the local parks and do a ‘state of the union’ conversation in my head. It goes something like this:

“Self, how am I feeling about blogging? Where do I want the blog to be a year from now? Two years from now?”

Once I’ve gotten straight where I want to be in two years, or five years, or whenever, I can then work backwards. So, for an example, let’s use this blog. I began it approximately two weeks ago. Two years from now, I want to have 1000 readers. How am I going to get there from here? Well, let’s work backwards. What would I have done two years from now that got me to the magic number?

For example:

*I would have been very active on Twitter and Facebook

*have held a bunch of regular giveaways

*posted regularly, twice a week

*made some PR connections through approaching companies to sponsor my giveaways

*gone to some blog conferences and met other bloggers and done some reciprocal posts on their blogs.

So, to make that happen now, those are the steps I need to take. My first blogger conference is April 30th – we’re on our way, people!

So when you’re stuck on how to move forward or how to get where you want to go, imagine that you’ve been completely successful two years from now. Then go through the steps you must have taken to get there. It’s almost like you’re remembering things that haven’t actually happened. A little ‘1984’ and a little uncomfortable until you’ve done it a few times, but it works.

So on that note, guess I should go work on some tweeting!

Spring cleaning – giveaway!

Posted on 4 April, 2013 by admin

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Photo credit to Jon Gudlaugson

Once the calendar turns to April, my urge to get spring started goes into minor overdrive. And what better thing to do to motivate yourself to sort out the spring than to win a gift card to buy some new house odds and ends?

Winner will be contacted by email and will have 48 hours to respond or a new winner will be chosen. Good luck!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

No idea how Rafflecopter works? Check out the tutorial here:

Courtesy of: Rafflecopter

Contests: the ultimate lifestyle upgrade!

Posted on 31 March, 2013 by admin

Courtesy of Stuart Miles & freedigitalphotos.net

Back in my early 20s, I entered a contest online on a local magazine. Totally forgot about it and life went on. A few weeks later, I got a notice for a package from Canada Post. I was somewhat perplexed – I hadn’t ordered anything, and didn’t have any special occasions coming. When I opened it, it was a prize pack from the contest I had entered. Nothing spectacular – a book about a girl boxer movie (not the Hilary Swank one, WAY prior to that), a CD, a $5 gift card, and a couple of pens. I know – not exactly the lottery, no?

I gave the CD and book away, used the gift card, and put the pens in my purse. But a light went off in my head. I hadn’t done anything for this. I didn’t have to work for it, pay for it, trade for it. I had just filled in a form online, and then free stuff magically appeared at my door. This was just a few odds and ends…but what else was out there??

And so, my friends, it began. Those of you who know me know that one of my catch all phrases, and something that encapsulates my lifestyle, is ‘what you do all the time matters more than what you do once in awhile’. And what I do all the time, you see, is enter contests. Somewhere around 70 a day. Every day. Weekends and holidays included. You know what this girl was doing Christmas Day, before she was allowed to have her turkey? That’s right.

And you know what else? It pays off. Big time. 70/day works out to approximately 2100/month. It’s a simple numbers game that when you enter that often, consistently, you’re bound to win. A lot.

What have I won? A flat screen TV, when they had just come out. A new computer, which, naturally, I used to enter more contests. My honeymoon, where we ended up going on a trip to New Zealand when we had figured on going camping with the meagre funds we had. $7500 in travel credit to go anywhere in the world, which culminated in three glorious weeks in Tuscany, staying at the nice hotel rather than the one we would have chosen, and a stopover to see friends in London.

Front row concert tickets, enough movies that I rarely pay for them anymore, and lots of truly random stuff. An NFL player signed football, wrapped in brown paper, was delivered by our very confused mailman one year before Christmas. It went to the toy bank for some very needy, likely very delighted child.

Other people get bills in the mail. I get random packages, and am known to call home when I’m away to see what came that day. I probably win once every week or two, anything from a DVD to a fabulous trip somewhere or tickets to a concert I’ve been dying to go to but can’t afford.

I see entering contests as an investment in the lifestyle that we want but can’t juggle financially alongside our mortgage and toddler. Yes, it’s 45 minutes less sleep in the morning. Yes, it’s INCREDIBLY tedious. And yes, I get a TON of junk mail. But since I get to go through it on glamourous vacations that I could never otherwise afford, I’m totally okay with that.

You want to do this too, you say? I get that a lot! It can work for you too. The key is persistence.

Here’s a synopsis of how I do it. Note that there is a whole underground community of contesting folks and everyone has their own style. Find what works for you and do it.

To find the contests to enter, I use www.contestcanada.com (which is a pay site – $25/year – but has a free one month membership) and www.contestgirl.com, which is a free site that has a good blog contest section. There is also another good site at http://forums.redflagdeals.com/contests-f34/

I also use a form filler called Roboform which is free to download and you can find it with a Google search.

Some of the local ones** I enter (fewer entrants = better odds to win!) are the online sites for the local radio stations, newspapers, magazines and TV networks.

**most of these require you to create an account – you only need to do it once.

There’s no magic formula, and no ‘blessed by the fairies’ type of luck. It’s basic, dogged, unflamboyant persistence. What you do all the time matters more than what you do once in awhile. It’s like working out…if you do it every day for six weeks, you’ll see some amazing results. If you enter 70 contests a day, you will win. Simple as that. If you get bored two weeks in, when you haven’t won anything yet (and most of the contests haven’t even closed yet), you will not win. You need to keep doing it, day in, day out, even if the payoff isn’t right before your eyes right away. It’s hard in our instant gratification society, but that’s what you need to do.

Please note that first and foremost, (PAY ATTENTION NOW!!), contests in Canada are *FREE*. The only thing you might pay (depending on the contest) is air taxes, and that’s AFTER you’re in touch with a bonafide travel agency and AFTER you’ve gotten your e-tickets. If you get a call from a US number saying you’ve been ‘chosen’ and they need your Visa number, hang up. .(Once you know contest law in Canada better, you can lead them on and traumatize them, which is what I do).

If you’ve legitimately won something, you’ll get it in writing, usually with a release form (either by email, fax or mail), and if the prize is over $200, you’ll have to answer a skill testing math question. Those are some of the Canadian contest regulations, and they apply to any contest for residents of Canada, regardless of whether the company is Canadian, American, or international. Feel free to email me with questions –one thing I know a lot about is winning! (And the inverse, which is contest scams).

Here are some tips:

*pick a time of day and always enter at the same time. It creates a habit and then it’s easier to continue.

*if you don’t know what the company does, makes, or sells, you probably shouldn’t enter. That way, scammers live.

*do something else at the same time…it’s really very, very boring. Talk on the phone, listen to the radio, whatever works for you.

*pay attention to the rules. If it says you can enter once a day, enter once a day. Or once a week. Or whatever. If you need to be a certain age or doing a certain job to be eligible, make sure you meet the criteria. There’s no bigger bummer than getting a win only to be disqualified.

*don’t enter for things you don’t actually want. It’s bad contest karma. (And for those of us paying attention, the football I won and gave away was a third runner-up prize. I genuinely wanted the grand prize that I didn’t win – a trip to the Superbowl!)

*set up a separate email address, check it religiously, and make sure to keep your filters low so that you don’t miss anything.

Happy winnings!

I want to know, readers – what have you won (if anything)? And if not, what would you like to win?

Wake up and smell the energy!

Posted on 27 March, 2013 by admin

Courtesy of Ambro & freedigitalphotos.net

One of the things that is always a challenge when juggling a large list of want-to-dos with parenting, working and other commitments, is actually making things happen. It’s hard to motivate yourself to productivity when the baby was up at 3am or you have to get up at the crack of dawn to make the kids’ lunches before everyone can go off to their day. You find yourself, at 2pm, staring blankly into space or reading the same sentence over and over again. How do you manage to get your butt in gear?

Here’s a list of nine ways to dredge up some get up and go, when it’s gotten up and went.

1) Go for a five minute walk.

It’s surprising how much energy you’ll get from a quick schlep around the block. There have been research studies on immediate energy boosts, but I’m going with personal experience here. The rain (if you’re in Vancouver in the fall) or biting winter breeze or sunny May morning air will get you out of comatose-ville faster than you can say ‘Starbucks triple shot venti latte’.

2) Have a coffee.

Speaking of Starbucks, sometimes a midafternoon latte will be just the ticket to get everything coming together again.

3) Put the alarm clock on the other side of the room.

This prevents the use of the dreaded ‘snooze’ button, my husband’s best friend. The hard part about getting up is actually launching your body out of your nice, warm bed. If the alarm clock is on the other side of the room, or, even better, outside the room entirely, you’ll have to get up. And once you’re in a vertical position, you’re more likely to stay that way.

4) Get up and stretch.

Often, just the act of getting your body moving again will get the blood flow reaching your brain. Do some shoulder rolls, kick your legs in your chair, do some wrist stretches. Stand up and get a glass of water. And speaking of water…

5) Hydrate. Hydrate. Hydrate.

Your body, like Earth itself, is comprised mainly of water. Not Pepsi. Not lemonade. And most definitely not Red Bull. Sometimes sleepy and hungry are just disguises for plain ordinary thirst. So add another glass or four of water into your day-to-day.

6) Snack selectively.

I’m a snacker. I eat lots of small meals throughout the day, and when I get hungry, my blood sugar dips and crabby approaches at a rapid rate. Bring on the almonds and cranberries! Sometimes a quick burst of healthy energy will get you back in the proverbial saddle.

7) Breakfast, breakfast, breakfast.

Eat breakfast like a queen, lunch like a princess and dinner like a pauper. Breakfast eaters tend to be slimmer and have more energy. Your body has been in starvation mode since bedtime…cut it some slack and throw some eggs and toast in there!

8) Call a friend.

Take ten minutes (set a timer so you don’t get sidetracked!) and call your best friend or partner and give yourself time to recharge. Diverting your brain to a different activity can get those synapses to fire up again.

9) Zzzzzzzz.

And finally, get more sleep. If your body is screaming for rest, it’s going to be hard to marshall your brain into gear. Try starting a wind-down process an hour before bed, with no screen time (that includes the all powerful iPhone!) for half an hour before you shut your eyes. After a week of an additional hour or two of sleep, you’ll just generally feel better, and that will show itself in how you perform in every other way. And you won’t walk into things quite as often, nor fall asleep with your nose on the keyboard!

The hidden trap of maternity leave: tax time post baby!

Posted on 25 March, 2013 by admin

December 22^nd, 2011, we had our first daughter – she was due December 6^th, and was so late that we had to issue her a chemical eviction notice and I was induced right before Christmas. While dealing with the shell shock that comes along with Planet Newborn, there is for many people a financial hit that goes along with it. I’m very lucky in that my employer tops me up to 85% of my salary for the first four months and 75% for the following eight. (Note to non Canadian readers – we have a year of paid maternity leave at 55% of our salary, to a max of $501 per week (as of March 24^th, 2013), and a number of employers add to this as a ‘top up’ benefit to their employees).

Because of the way the tax brackets fell, I ended up making essentially the same amount of money I would have had I been at work, for the ten months I was off. I went back early so that my husband could take two months to be at home with the baby…good for their relationship, a break from the day-to-day for him, and a whole level of context about being at home with a baby that cannot be gotten any other way. (Although the Lone Star song ‘Mr Mom’ comes close).

I had heard of the tax implications that come with mat leave, though, and thankfully went to my HR department and filled out a new T1, which is the form you use to change your tax deductions at the source. Bear with me while I attempt to explain how the morass of Revenue Canada breaks down maternity leave payments, and why you need to pay attention! (And the obvious disclaimer is that I am neither an account nor a CRA employee, so do not take this as gospel as it is not professional advice).

The key to understanding why your cheque is taxed the way it is, is that CRA assumes that when you get a payment from your employer, every payment for the remainder of the year will be that same amount. So if you get a whopping signing bonus, for example, CRA makes the assumption that every cheque will be that high and takes off a crazily high amount of tax.

The inverse problem applies if you’re on mat leave and getting top up payments from your employer as well. CRA assumes that your sadly low EI payment is all you’re getting, so taxes it at a ridiculously low rate. It then assumes your top-up is all you’re getting, and taxes it at the same far-too-low rate. So what ends up happening is that you get two payments with practically no tax taken off, whereas if you’d gotten it in one payment, you would have been taxed at a much higher amount. Let me try this with (completely fabricated, in no way relevant to anyone’s tax situation figures). Let’s say you get $500 from EI and $500 from your top up. You might pay $50 dollars in tax on each payment. (again, numbers COMPLETELY MADE UP). But if you’d gotten a $1000 payment, you would fall into a higher tax bracket and would need to pay $200 in tax instead of $100. So imagine that concept spread over an entire year, and you can see what type of headache might result.

Long story short: cover your butt. Go to your employer and have them take extra tax off at source if you’re getting a top-up, to prevent an ugly tax hangover come the following April.

So readers, anyone else have an unexpected tax time hangover?

Transforming the Now

Do something today that your future self will thank you for.