Over the "mommy blog" world? me too.

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Maybe it is just me, but i've never been into the "mommy" blogs. I do not enjoy reading about people doing the same things i am doing everyday with my own kid. If i want to get advice, i seek PROfessional advice or advice from people i know and trust, not some random blog writer. If i read a blog it is because it goes outside of my life... it is full of adventure, beautiful things being created, amazing photography, and people writing about full spectrums of life.

And there are so many "mommy bloggers" out there these days. And although i do enjoy a cute kid photo, i am not really a fan of reading about other people's kids in mass DAILY doses.

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If i know you, then i might care about little Johnny going poop finally in the toilet. If i have never met you, who gives a crap {no pun intended} if your kid finally went poop in the toilet? Do you really need to write up an entire blog entry that equates to 2 pages about how little Johnny finally pooped? No. You really do not need to write about it. Being a mom doesn't make you an expert on anything other than your own child. Unless there is a "Dr." in front of your name... when you write about your trial and errors in raising your kid, you only have the advice that worked on YOUR kid. All children are created differently, so your telling your story is no different than Mr and Mrs Jones telling their story... heck, it might even be the very exact same story! Every kid has issues with pooping, it is why they write books about helping parents with helping their kids poop. So yeah, your blog story might be cute for your mom to read about their grandchild, but save it for an e-mail to them personally. Trust me, when little Johnny grows up, he will appreciate that you didn't tell your mass blog following about him finally going poop in a toilet. Your kid isn't special, like the book says, "everyone poops."

And the photos... Yes, i like to think of myself as an amateur photographer in training. I have much to learn and miles to go before i would coin the phrase "i am a photographer" to any kind of a business card or website listing. But every mom/dad/sister/brother/grandparent/uncle/etc thinks they have the most beautiful baby/toddler/child/grandchild in the world. It's how it works, we adore our own family members. But unless your kid is truly a beauty and unless you've managed to take the most adorable of adorable photos of your kid - really, Do you seriously need an entire blog full of photos of your kid standing there with a dumb look on their face? Do you think the world needs to view every aspect of your child living their life on your blog about them? Will it help them be better kids if you can convince yourself that people love your child because they read your mommy blog? Nope. It might make you a few creepy strangers friends who love kids, in a bad way! You aren't helping your child become the next big thing in the world of blogs by plastering their face in every entry... in fact you are probably harming them by giving them an EGO the size of a Buick before they can even enter school to understand right from wrong and fame and normal.

Can you imagine... The kid goes to school thinking they are hot shit because mommy has a blog and tells the kid, "you're famous... look at all those people who follow mommy's blog and love to read about you!" so the kid goes off to school actually thinking they are famous. Reality sets in that no one in their classroom reads mommy's blog, not even the teacher... they realize, *gasp* they aren't actually famous! nope, they are just an average kid, going to an average school, along with other average children.

I hope the trend of mommy blogging goes away soon. I love me a good blog to read, but i'm tired of running into mommy blogs that aren't about anything other then the blog owners kid. Having a kid doesn't make you any more special then any other mom. Women on crack have babies all of the time. Women in China squat out babies in the middle of fields. Women have been having babies and raising them since Human's came to be... so please stop fooling yourself into thinking that you have the corner on being the perfect mom just because you have a blog and can put words together to form a story. Trust me, spending time with your baby/toddler/kid instead of coming up with stories for strangers... that will mean more to them when they grow up than realizing they need therapy for their mom issues and ego issues; all because their Mom wanted attention for herself and used them from birth to adolescence to write stories about them.

xoxo

MB

::WHITE::

some beautiful found white images...

{above images by Susanna Vento}

{above images by Beth Galton}

bring on the rain of today, it's what i've been saving for, right?

saving for a rainy day use to be a term used a lot when i was a kid. We had a "swear jar" and we had piggy banks and everything. i have been saving for a new camera for over a year now, but that money keeps moving into other funds {like putting food on the table} and i'm just waiting for the rain {needs} to stop so i can save up for that new shiny camera. While i'm waiting, i do enjoy a rain photo, so here are a few for you to enjoy too!

you have a blog? me too! oh, but you have no idea who i am, do you?

There are so many amazing blogs out there. It is always hard for me to focus on a favorite blog, they each offer a wide variety of facets. I have party decorating blogs, fashion blogs, cooking/recipe blogs, interior design blogs, family blogs, friends blogs, and too many to sum up! I have been known to blog hop around. You might wonder what this means.... you start on a blog and wonder around, while on there they either have a sponsor or an entry about another blog, so you end up on another blog and then it happens again and again and again! Before you know it you are off task, off topic and 20 blogs down the line. It's truly a maze of blogs in the blogosphere.

But oddly enough, it is very common for me to come upon a blog that is linked in one way or another to a blog i am already familiar with and love. It is a close knit community of bloggers out there. I often feel like quite the outsider over here in my own little blog. I talk with many bloggers on twitter, but i do not broadcast my blog to the world. I kind of like being in my own little corner of the blog world... just me and my thoughts. No worries {or not a lot anyway} of people attacking what i say because they do not agree with me.

That being said, i'd love to one day be a part of the blog world. Go to a conference and meet some of the amazing people that i love in the blog world.

*** beauty found online ***

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{ah! jumping photos, we love doing jumping photos in our house!}

happy blog viewing!

Renegade Craft Fair in San Francisco

We LOVED the Renegade Craft Fair! All of the booths, the colors, the amazing designs... it was a perfect day! And what could be better than having this photo for our memory of the day...

If there is a Renegade near you anytime soon, you should totally go!

Flickr images to share

1. pocky & moustaches., 2. 100_2743, 3. 366-307, 4. They're heeeeeeeere, 5. Amélie, 6. Feel the wind in your hair!, 7. Alexis, 8. Summer, 9. MARRAKECH, MOROCCO, 10. [Irish spinner and spinning wheel. County Galway, Ireland] (LOC), 11. We walked a long way, over golden hills, 12. Untitled, 13. :), 14. Brighton Pier, 15. Cool Bunker with Gorgeous graffiti, 16. Winter Bokeh...

Do cows get called fat?

{as always, if an image is from weheartit.com, click the image}

this lovely little Cow image was found on weheartit.com

it often occurs to me that we as humans are obsessive compulsive on so many levels in our life, but few will openly admit it. One that stands out firm in my mind - our body image. Many of us strive to be a tall thin model looking women... and the men strive to be tall, dark and brooding (muscles) just like the celebrities we see in movies and magazines. We each walk around and view each other as a "size" and look first at appearance before we consider speaking to each other. We size up ourselves standing next to people around us - maybe we think we are too large in certain areas, maybe we think we are too small in other areas. When standing next to an attractive man, we are more aware of the way that we are standing - we are also more aware of how we look and feel about ourselves. Because chances are - that man has already sized you up and thought of you as either "attractive" or "not attractive" because of your shape, size, and looks.

Typically we go about our daily lives and give little to no thought about our weight, size, or shape... but from time to time we are made aware of who we are in our bodies. It can either make us feel really good - by standing next to someone larger than us OR it can make us feel really bad - by standing next to someone smaller than us. or perhaps visa-versa if you are ashamed of other features you have that are small and wish they were large (you know what i mean).

Currently it is that time of year when summer is quickly approaching and we are all starting to pull our our shorts, our tank tops, and our tiny tees - and putting away the bulky sweaters and sweatshirts that hid the parts we did not like about ourselves. We realize that over the winter we didn't take the opportunity to drop any weight or work out as much as we kept telling ourselves that we would do the summer before. We either have the choice of sucking it up and being who we are and being OK with it - or going on a crash diet to lose some weight before summer.  Recently hubby has taken it upon himself to become more serious about losing some weight. He has put on about 20 pounds this last year and it has not occurred to him that the year before it was 12 pounds and the year before that it was 8 pounds and so on. He is wondering what it will be by next year if he doesn't put a stop to it.

i have been fully supportive of his choice to get healthier by losing some weight - but he is going overboard and eating way less than he should. He is getting zero exercise and just losing weight by "crash dieting". As a forever recovering anorexic - i know just how dangerous having too little calories can be to the human body! I keep telling him "eat a healthy snack" and i keep begging him to stop working from 8am to 1am and  say almost daily, "let's go for a walk!" but he is set in his ways and sees results - so he thinks this is working and going to keep working for him.

Today i am asking - "do you think that one cow would call another cow fat?" is that what all that "mooooing" is about? i think not! Most animal species are not so specific about the appearance of size with those who they hang around, call friend, or even decide to mate with. There are some species that seek out the smartest, the most cunning, the fastest runner, etc. But the size doesn't really matter when it comes to who the animal is in it's group/society. A lot of times in nature - the bigger, the better.  i keep telling hubby - just get healthy, worry LESS about the size of your waist, the size or your pants, etc. But i do not think he is listening to me anymore - he seems to be eating less and less each day that he sees a change in the number on the scale, and it is making him more and more cranky! (another sign of under-eating! not to mention he is getting more headaches)

i too am less than excited myself about summer and having to put on tighter clothes and skirts/shorts - but mostly because i feel naked without my favorite pair of jeans or my favorite sweatshirt! it is not so much that i care about what my body shape will look like to OTHER people - although i do care somewhat about that.

Adoring finds on the internet

using images found online to show a few of the things i adore in life...
(in no particular order)

good friends who have known me since the days of my funky hair styles...

and they still love me even today!

Ice Cream on a hot summer day

swinging... and easy relaxing days

when my favorite songs come on the radio

laughing at myself...

laughing until my face is sore...

laughing until i fall to the ground...

laughing for the sake of laughing!

getting messages the old fashion way...

i adore hearing from people by letters!

having my hair done...

brush it...

braid it...

play with it...

i love it!

taking photos of those i love...

old style photography...

old cameras

Old books with covers that aren't shiny and plastic looking

anything old and vintage...

anything from the 1940-50's

current clothes that are made to look like vintage clothes

family trips in the car...

driving to get where we are going...

taking our time in getting anywhere we need to be in our lives...

xoxo

MB

accepting life, unconditionally

"I decided, very early on, just to accept life unconditionally; I never expected it to do anything special for me, yet I seemed to accomplish far more than I had ever hoped. Most of the time it just happened to me without my ever seeking it."

Audrey Hepburn

if i were a lullaby...

i would be vintage...

i would have lots of ribbons...

i would be blue and sparkly...

i would leave everyone who sings touched, feeling sparkly and beautiful...

there would be bears with parachutes...

kittens drinking milk out of tea cups...

balloons that go pop by the water...

trees covered in stars...

and if lucky enough to sing my lullaby... you'd find the keys to my soul...

but only if i were a lullaby...