I have been notably slow on my favorite social media sites Facebook and Twitter lately, but that doesn’t mean that there’s been nothing going on in both my real world and my web world! To make up for my absence of status updates and tweets, I’ll get everyone up to speed here and now.
Home/Family Updates
On the homefront, we’re enjoying the summer so far with the kids. We do something fun every day, whether it’s just playing outside, going to the park, meeting Mike for lunch, or going to Target. I’ve never been one for scheduled playdates or particularly challenging outings with the kids, and they seem to be perfectly happy with our days spent around the house or around town.
We do a lot of this:
And this:
The biggest change that has happened for us at home is that our neighbors and great friends, the Stewgles (as I like to call them – they are half Stewarts and half Nangles), have made their move to New Jersey. We knew it was coming, but the reality hit this past Friday when the neighbors gathered in their driveway to wish them farewell as their Navigator limo whisked them off to O’Hare. We now miss them terribly. Jill and Sarah (and Cinnamon and Coco!) especially were an everyday part of our lives, as pretty much anytime Mike or I would bring the kids outside they would soon be out there with us. I could always count on some adult conversation and a little extra help keeping an eye on the kids (very nice when I had to go potty – no need to bring the kids in with me!). Jill and I were fast friends, both very social and with a similar set of values. We will absolutely be visiting them later this summer; I hope they’re ready for us!
Here they are (sorry, Cassie!):
Ongoing I don’t plan to post a ton of personal stuff on this site, so make sure you check out my family site, The ChicagoActons, and subscribe while you are there (wink wink!!!).
Geeky Updates – Websites, Social Media, other New Biz Opps
In my web world, I’ve been blessed to have been very busy with some awesome sites, and have numerous business opportunities in the works.
Websites
I continue to be webmaster for three of my first sites for clients, Blue, Seriously, Unnatural Act, and Lake of the Dells Association (private site – no link!). It’s fun for me to go back in and clean these sites of my newbie mistakes, but I am proud to say that all three of them have been and continue to function wonderfully, and that the owners actually use and love them!
As part of my Board position with Milwaukee Artbeat, a nonprofit benefitting Milwaukee Public Schools’ youth art programs, I built our website and am currently the webmaster and social media manager (check out our Artbeat Facebook Page and the @MKEArtbeat Twitter account). Speaking of, (shameless plug alert!), make sure you mark your calendars for July 31, 2010 for ArtbeatFest in Milwaukee – the first outdoor Artbeat showcase featuring artists every hour on the hour from 3pm ’til 10pm! Find out more details here.
From this work with Milwaukee Artbeat has sprung numerous projects with Annie B. (new website launching soon!), the Artbeat founder/producer, who also happens to be an amazing singer/songwriter. I’m putting together her official website now and setting up an email and social media campaign to publicize her website launch party on July 17, 2010 at the Elbo Room in Chicago. I truly enjoy helping Annie. She is extremely appreciative and involved in all of the projects we work on together. She is making me a better web geekette!
I’ve also been canvassed to work on two sites of fellow Lake County Social Networking members, and also a referral site (from the soon-to-be parents of Scott and Angela Adopt – congrats, guys!) for a gentleman who is an authorized reseller of Trikkes.
Other Web Biz Stuff – Cafepress, Workshops, Blogging
In other web business news, my cousin and I have cooled off on the #HashtagShop after getting our tweets’ hashtags dropped/banned from Twitter search results, the announcement of Twitter annotations, and an IP violation notice from Cafepress about our “#glee” gear (apparently 20th Century Fox has trademarked the word…???). I think we both aspire to try another Cafepress store with some other design ideas, but for now it’s on the backburner.
Later this summer I’ll be part of two web presence and social media strategy ongoing workshops, one targeted at real estate agents and another at musicians. I’m not sure yet of all of the details, but when the brainchildren of these awesome ideas let me know my job, I’ll be sure to let you know!
And last but not least, the ever-in-the-back-of-my-mind BLOG. I continue to struggle with the direction of this blog, and have decided to just freestyle it on here. Writing something is better than writing nothing, so bear with me and laugh a bit while you watch me figure this one out. ChicagoActons is going strong. I keep it updated about once/month with pictures of the kids for our family and friends spread across the U.S. I love that they love it.
The big blog for me is going to be WP Squared – Establishing and Expanding Your Web Presence. This blog will be focused on teaching others how to get their own websites up and running (focus hand-coding and WordPress self-hosted…what else is there?) and how to publicize their site/brand online via social media. I have lots of behind the scenes work to do on this one before it goes live, but again, you’ll be the first to know!
And true to the life of a momprenuer, the kids are awakening just as I finish this post! See you at Wordcamp Chicago this weekend!!!
