I have a treat for one of you: A $50 gift certificate from my BFF (aka Mark’s, remember?) … and just in time for the season change! (Yes, because I do still need to convince myself that I don’t hate winter. Cozy, cute winter clothes will help, right?)

I love online shopping (here’s a list of my favourite spots for getting errands done) and clothes shopping in increasingly joining my ever-expanding group of things that I never had to enter a mall for ever again. I think the only thing I still actually enjoy shopping for in person is shoes and books, and even those I still buy online sometimes too.

Anyhow, I digress. My point was that Mark’s has been working on creating a better online shopping experience on their website. It launched TODAY, and they’re really excited about it and would like you to take a look. In exchange for doing so, one of you will win a $50 gift certificate.

I’ve taken a good poke around the site and I’ve decided that if I was given $50 to spend at Mark’s, I would pick this:

This is the Denver Hayes Soft Draft Cardigan, and it’s priced at $33.74. With my left-over money, I would also add this to my shopping bag:

Mark’s calls these “Home Socks” which seems just perfect, because when I get home from the office I do love to put on big fluffy socks instead of slippers. These socks are priced at $14.99.

That brings my total to $48.73. And shipping is free until the end of the year anywhere in Canada!

I’d definitely be happy with the above selections. But I do think that, although they’ve made great strides in the right direction (such as adding customer review options, and cleaning up the design), Mark’s still needs to work on increasing the online inventory in the days ahead if they want to provide a true shopping experience. And I am hopeful that they will. (Especially so that I can add them to my list of faves!).

So, now it’s your turn. If you won the $50, what would you spend it on?

To enter this giveaway:

• Simply browse through the Mark’s website enter your selection(s) in the comments section below.
• I will do a draw using random.org in one week’s time (November 9th).

Okay, so I’m back in Toronto. Again. For a blogging conference. Again.

I know … to most of you, this just sounds coo-coo! And I certainly don’t blame you for thinking that. But hey, it’s my month and I do love me some bloggers and some blogging fun. So I am here to partake in the bliss that is Blissdom Canada, a major conference that focuses on social media, blogging, marketing, and public relations. Plus, lots of connecting with women from all walks of life, with so many diverse talents.

I was already very keen to come to Blissdom Canada, and then I received an invite to participate at the event as a Tribe Leader for Travel, so it was a no-brainer — I was not going to miss it!

All of the Blissdom attendees were treated to an opening night reception at CBC’s home. To get from our conference hotel to the CBC building, we were chauffeured in Chevrolet Orlandos (a car that has flip-up seats that give you the space of a mini-van, but still drives like a car). We got all doll’d up and felt pretty special.

That’s my buddy Andrea and I. She’s pretty much a celebrity now (Which she can’t stand me saying. But, if you click here, you’ll see what I mean. Plus you can probably even see the pores on her face the photo of her is so large! I think she’ll love that I said that too.) It is actually quite difficult to bask in her starlight since she’s the modest type, but I still do my best.

Speaking of trying to get a little star dust …. here are some of my fun photos from the CBC Live party! Above is a terrible photo, but it gives me a lovely memory kick-back to the little “squee!” feeling I had when arriving to this stunning building, only to find a red carpet laid out for us and photographers waiting inside.

Ann Douglas has been my personal hero since finding myself increasing depressed (and distressed!) when I was first pregnant in 2002 and reading What to Expect When You’re Expecting. I was so relieved to find Ann’s book The Mother of All Pregnancy Books, with its warm, calm and intelligent tone. Since then, I pretty much try to read everything she writes. She is quite active on twitter and we chat every now and then, and last night, I got to meet her in person for the first time. She gave me such a big warm hug! Meeting her made me very happy. The rest of the conference was just going to be icing now.

On the far left of this picture is Nora Young, who is host of CBC’s show Spark. Most of us in the Ottawa bloggy community (standing beside Nora is Dani, Shannon, Karen, and Andrea on the end) are a little ga-ga over CBC Radio in general, but to meet Nora Young? Well, everyone was trying to act cool and not totally star struck!

And last but not least, I tried to get a photo with Casey. You know — Casey, from Mr. Dressup! Remember Casey?

But no dice. I knocked on his door, but it must have been past his bedtime or something.

CBC Live also covered the event and posted a great video with live footage. If you’re interested, you can check it out here.

So yesterday started off very bright and early (actually, why is it “bright” and early because, really, it’s “dark” when you need to get up early, isn’t it?)! Me and my bloggy buddy Andrea (otherwise known as @missfish and she is AWESOME  and she totally didn’t lock the keys in her car) drove to Toronto to attend the first day of the She’s So Connected Conference.

We had planned to arrive just in time to hear the opening keynote, but alas, we were a touch late. Thankfully, we did catch the end-half though, because it was given by Sheryl Connelly, who works with Ford Motor Company as a Futurist. Yes, a Futurist — fascinating, dream job, me thinks. She was very articulate and had an excellent presentation deck to share with us, so I was relieved that we had managed to squeeze ourselves into the back of the room.

Then, after the keynote, there was a lot of mixing and networking to kick off Day One. Here’s a photo recap of some of the fun stuff.

Ford Canada did a great job with their set-up here at She’s So Connected. There was “car-eoke” where you could sing karoke while sitting in a red sports car, test drives of their auto-parking feature, and tons of others things. One of my faves though was this video race set-up. I tried it and crashed so many times, it was hilarious. Here, my buddies Lara Wellman and Andrea Tomkins are having a go.

I have no idea who these weiners are!

Friends from our Ottawa social media contingent enjoying nice, cold Molson Canadian 67 Sublime beers, which has a new lime and lemon twist that I liked.

But as much as a enjoyed this light beer all on its own, I have to say that this cocktail, made with beer and not spirits was even better! It was crushed ice, frozen blueberries, simple syrup and a top of beer and a sprig of basil. Mmmm….

And of course, I would be remiss if I didn’t mention the #ShoesConnected after-conference party at the Town Shoes flagship store on Toronto’s Bloor Street. It was two-floors of good times …. fancy finger foods, wine, music, and shoes-shoes-shoes!

After a good long look around at all the shoes (I won’t even go into the bags … oh, they were nice too!), I decided that these Miz Mooz boots were my true love. But alas, I held to my budget and did not make the purchase (you are proud of me, aren’t you??!)

I’ve decided to kick off the #MonthofMe a little early. I was invited to a conference called ShesConnected, which takes place on September 29th and 30th.

I was curious about this invite-only conference that aims to connect Canada’s “digital women” with brands, but the timing was terrible. For a number of reasons, not the least of which was the time I’d have to book off work and the cost of attending (the conference itself is free for the chosen digital women, but you still need to get yourself there and have a place to lay your head at night), I was going to reluctantly decline.

But then the agenda was released. Unlike many conferences which are a parade of successful men speakers, this one had some really fabulous women speakers lined up. These were women I’d really love to hear from.

So I was really sitting on the fence at this point. I could manage to squeeze it into my schedule, but it wouldn’t be easy — I’d need to start the drive up to Toronto early Thursday am and then do the drive back on Friday, arriving home late after the kids were already in bed. Before collapsing in bed, I’d need to unpack from Toronto, and pack up for New York City, since my girlfriend would be picking me up early Saturday am to make the long drive to the Big Apple together. Hectic, right?

I try to avoid hectic.

And yet, I’m going for sure now. Why, you ask? What pushed me off the fence?

Here’s what: a post-conference party is being held from 7 to 9 pm at Town Shoes on Bloor Street called “ShoesConnected”!

You know what I say to that? SOLD!

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Here is how Jordan and Brian explain the Project Priceless wedding on their website.

Project: Priceless is an experiment. The goal: to get Brian and Jordan married in the next year, as free-of-charge as possible. The method: the happy couple will borrow, trade, and accept offers of all the items and services that make up a wedding. Everyone who contributes to the occasion gets a shout-out, and any businesses or artisans who contribute get big shout-outs. Contribute, or follow along just for fun to see how things are going.

Can a community chip in and create a priceless wedding for an awesome couple? Let’s find out…

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I do love a wedding. But mostly, if I’m honest, I think I love weddings because they allow me to be flooded with all the memories of my own wedding, 15 years ago.

While so much of Jordan and Brian’s wedding was radically different than my own (like the Chaplan, Dr. Alan Viau, inviting all the guests to use the wedding hashtag and tweet out photos, for example!), there was so much love in the air that while my body was sitting in the fairytale setting of Stanley’s Olde Maple Lane Farm with the sun shining down on this young couple …

… my heart was under century-old gum trees in southern Australia, saying “I do” one more time …

While our decor for the reception was freshly cut sunflowers that had been lovingly grown from seeds by my mother-in-law and her husband on their farm, the Project Priceless decor included bright green and purple pom-poms that a friend had taught them out to make:

I’m sure you’ll agree that this decor looks fabulous! It was so fresh and fun, I just loved it. But what really made it all so especially cool were the personal touches. Imagine my delight, for example, when I sat at my place-setting and found a handwritten and handcrafted card thank-you card.

In fact, absolutely everything was handcrafted! Countless — countless! — hours must have gone into the preparations.

And in case you’re wondering why there were crayons in the photo above, it’s because each place-setting had one of those paper placements like they provide to children in restaurants to keep them busy. On it, guests were invited to complete a custom crossword puzzle as well as to doodle a picture of the bride and groom.

There were also a number of new traditions that, if I were to be married today, I would certainly love to incorporate into my wedding. I think I already mentioned the wedding tattoos. I love the idea of wedding tattoos, and I love this specific tattoo that Jordan and Brian had created by artist Sarah Rogers of Living Colour Tattoo.

I also think a candy table is, of course, pure genius! This table in particular was particularly amazing because it was from none other than The Candy Store. Oh so good! And all colour-coordinated to match the wedding colours of green, orange and purple!

And I would certainly follow this tradition: An In-Spirit Table. For so many reasons, I thought this was really special. This table was a collection of memorabilia from those who could not make it to the wedding, as well as those who had already passed on. These people were there “in spirit.”

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At the end of the evening, when the cake had been cut, the first dances had been had, and I felt I had done the best job I could as a live-tweeter, I slipped out into the evening air back to the parking lot to drive myself home.

I looked up and took a moment to admire the stars, so bright in the country sky. I had only been here at this wedding for but a few hours, and yet, it felt like I’d been wisked away to somewhere magical.

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When I got home, Hubby asked me how it had all gone. I told him it had been wonderful, just wonderful. Still slightly baffled by it all, he said, “Why was it called ‘project priceless’? Because it hadn’t cost them anything?”

I said, yes, I guess so. But I knew it was so much more. This social experiment was much more than a wedding without a price tag. So much more.

When Jordan sent me the details about the Project Priceless wedding, the only thing that registered in my head was the date: August 22nd. I couldn’t recall anything already scheduled for that date, so I just replied “yes” right away to her email. And then I told Hubby that he was coming to a wedding with me sometime at the end of August.

Weeks pass and I realize that the wedding is fast approaching. My way of coping with the multi-taking world of working motherhood is to function on a “need to know basis.” This system helps keep the clutter out of my brain. What this means is that I didn’t figure I needed to know all the details about the wedding locale and time before accepting. I only needed to know that information the day before, or maybe even on the day of, to get myself there on time and to the right location.

This “need to know basis” of filing info in my brain works 9 out of 10 times. Unfortunately, this was going to be one of those times when the system failed me.

I dug through my emails and pulled out the invitation. Oh. Oh dear.

I had assumed that the wedding would take place on a Saturday and the reception would be in the evening. But that is a traditional wedding. Not a project priceless wedding! Of course, with everything for the wedding being a donation from the community, the day of the week and the time weren’t going to be when all the other paying customers have their weddings booked. I hadn’t thought of that at all. The wedding was scheduled for a Monday night. Oops, Hubby wasn’t going to be able to be my date after all. I quickly shot off an email to Jordan begging her not to scream or cry, but that I was going to have to muck with her table settings. She took it well. Or at least she took it with a shot of vodka (who’s to know really, since I don’t actually know her that well, remember?).

Okay, next challenge was that the ceremony was scheduled for 5 pm. Oh, 5 pm. Hmm … I guess I could get to work at 8 and leave at 4 and still manage to pull it off.

Nope. One more detail that I hadn’t noted in my lovely “need to know” system — the location was in Edwards. More than a full hour’s drive from my office in Kanata.

Alrighty, then. I’ll need to do a quick change at work and leave at 3:30 pm. Not ideal, because the deliverables at the office will still need to be delivered, which means extra hours for me in the evening.

All in all, I was getting pretty irked at my “need to know” system. But I’d already committed to attend, so I was just going to have to make this work.

So as 3:30 pm on Monday hit, I slipped out of the office and to the women’s washrooms. Here is the before:

I have thrown a striped jersey jacket over a little black dress. Normally, I would never show the knees in the office, but what the heck, I needed a quick change! To make up for the skin show, I had slipped on some cute, but conservative, shoes and hoped no one would notice the difference.

All I had to do was take off the jersey, throw on a silky shawl (which has great karma since it was from my BFF’s wedding when I was one of her bridesmaids ten years ago) over top of the dress and then change shoes (more great karma since I bought these three months after my son was born to wear to another excellent couple’s wedding in Australia).

All in all, the quick change worked out just fine. Unfortunately, there is nothing “quick” I can do about those bags under my eyes though!

With the quick change complete, I rushed back out to my car only to realize that I’d left the driving directions up at my office. I was not going to go back to the office all decked out — especially at 3:30 pm! So, I made an emergency call to Hubby to google-up some directions for me.

I finally took off on my way, but as the minutes in the drive passed, I was started to sweat thinking I was going to arrive late — right in the middle of the ceremony … you know, “Does anyone have any objections?” and out comes Julie stumbling in her heels from the parking lot. Not a good vision, let me tell you!

As I was starting getting close, the road turned into a dirt road. Oh oh, I hope I didn’t take a wrong turn! Eventually I saw with relief the sign to Stanley’s Old Maple Lane Farm, where the wedding was going to be held. I turn the wheel into the drive only to realize that the gate is closed. Gah! A panicked swinging of the head suggested that the next lane up was the one for me. As I start to back up, a blonde woman in grey Prius starts turning into the same laneway right behind me. I start laughing like a crazy lady …

The cute blonde in the Prius is my co-tweeter for this event: Andrea from a peek inside the fishbowl. And she looks like she’s just as anxious as me that she’s going to arrive in the middle of the ceremony too!

But alas, we arrive, and the whole scene is a picture of calm on the farm. It seems the ceremony isn’t starting until 5:30 pm! We take a few deep breaths, and get ourselves ready for our roles as live-tweeters.

photo credit: Andrea Tomkins

To be continued …. (in the meantime, you can check out Andrea’s post on the Project Priceless wedding) …..

Tonight, I’m attending a stranger’s wedding and I’ll be live-tweeting it the entire time. Here’s how he noted this on our family calendar:

So, yes, I am going to “someone’s” wedding.

Well, to be fair, the bride is not a complete stranger. I did speak with her for about 15-20 minutes at the Social Capital Conference, and introduced her to you in my recap post of that event. That’s right — it’s Jordan, and the Project Priceless wedding.

In keeping with her and finance’s social media focus, she’s asked a few local bloggers to attend the wedding and “cover it” by live-tweeting. Sure, it’s a little unusual, but whatever. I’ll be there. I’ve got my heels waiting for me in the car for when I slip out of the office, and they’re a shiny black patent — you know, to match with my central accessory: my smart phone.

If you’d like to follow along, the twitter hashtag for the wedding is #ppwedding and start time is 5pm. No worries if you don’t have a twitter account, Jordan explains how you can follow along.

I spent one of my only free days of the week at an all-day conference, paid for out of my own pocket. Insanity? My Hubby might agree. But I, for one, was certainly not going to miss Ottawa’s first social media conference! Organized by a smart group of folks who I all consider to be my friends due to our connections on Twitter and via blogging, I was also there to support their efforts and help keep the attendance numbers high. Well, I needn’t have worried. The conference, which had an attendance cap of 150, was completely sold out. And by lunchtime, the participants were already talking of “next year.”

No doubt, excellent recaps of this event will be created (check out By the Brooks for a recap/review post, Nolie’s Place for top tips learned at the event, and Keep Your Head Up‘s liveblogging for a detailed experience), so I feel freed-up to simply share some of my own personal best moments of the conference.

IRL peeps

For social media nerds like me, “IRL” means “In Real Life.” And the IRL experience was the most fulfilling part of the day for me. (It’s not always this way … sometimes I like the virtual person much better than the IRL person!)  Yesterday, I had a chance to meet some online folks that I’ve been following for ages. This included Joe Boughner, Kathy Buckworth, Glen Gower, and Nick Charney.

But Social Capital also gave me the pleasure of meeting some brand new faces. Here are a few that immediately come to mind:

Sarah Wilson (aka Miss Ability)

I ended up at the same table for lunch with a woman named Sarah. Petite and soft-spoken, she had a quiet confidence that intrigued me. So, we got to talking and I had the opportunity to hear about her newly launched business called Miss Ability.

Sure, people are launching their own businesses every day, but my experience is that so many people don’t launch their businesses well. They print up cards at Staples or in their own home office, start handing them around and wonder why no one is taking an interest.

Sarah, on the other hand, is the kind of new business owner that I really respect. She has been doing all the prep work to ensure her company is well-branded and professional from the start. Here’s her business card:

Sarah had a good “elevator pitch,” that immediately helped me understand her business concept. And if you check out the Miss Ability website, you can see that the business has a clear mission statement:

To give people a platform, whether disabled or not, to communicate.  Also, to allow the disabled community the ability to have a lifestyle they feel they deserve. Promoting affordability and reducing time constraints I’m providing options that are affordable and attainable at any income level or class; whether you are upper, middle or lower.

So, yeah, she was really cool. That made my $75 entry to the conference worthwhile already. Then I met:

Jordan from Project Priceless

I was immediately drawn to Jordan because I wanted to check out her shoes. Yes, I love shoes and she was rockin’ some mighty cute ones! But her shoes were just the tip of the ice berg — she has a really unique style about her. And her sparkling smile didn’t hurt one bit either.

Her story was fun. Her fiance Brian and she launched a project called “Priceless” — a “free” wedding experiment.

Can they beg, borrow, and get donations all the way to the alter?

Although this project and the blog that keeps it all tied together have attracted a lot of media attention, I had not yet heard about it. Clever and so creative, Jordan and her project reminded me of something my younger (“baby”) sister would do. I had a wonderful time talking weddings, dresses, and the Slice channel with her and a number of other women at the table. Here is a photo of Jordan and Brian, proudly displaying their wedding tattoos, which were traded for services with Sarah Rogers of Living Colour.

Jordan and Brian have their wedding scheduled for this August 22nd and you can bet that I’ll be following along and wishing them well! So, yeah, more Ottawa-cool. Then I met:

Ward Minnis, producer of the play The Cabinet

I walked into one of the sessions late and grabbed the only seat I could see. During the session, the man on the left of me asked a question, and then after the session, he and a group of us were chatting for a bit. As it turns out, he has just produced his own play called The Cabinet, which is a political comedy set in the fictional Archipelago Islands. The play premiered April 1st, 2011 and ran for 12 shows in Ward’s home town of Nassau. Here is a promotional poster for The Cabinet:

As a fellow writer, I shared a chuckle with him about his twitter bio. It reads:

Writing stories and trying to make a living off of it. Yes, I am crazy.

He was a really likeable guy, and very modest about his accomplishment of pulling off the production of his very own play. I’ve since checked out his About Me page and he’s got a lot going on! From plays, to visual art and graphic design, to academics and opinion essay writing — this is one interesting person. I really hope his next play will be set in Ottawa!

So, thank you so much to Social Capital for this event, without which I never would have had the fortune of meeting Sarah, Jordan and Ward! I am really looking forward to this becoming an annual event. (Gee, no pressure, eh?)

Otherwheres and other news on the Internets:

Social Capital is featured in today’s Citizen; Coffee with Julie is included in a Canadian Family magazine’s list of favourite bloggers; and Stella’s camping tips have been used in a “flashback” post on the Kids in the Capital community blog.

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But if you think you might like to get your feet wet, I think that LinkedIn is a good place to start. It takes very little time and the “unwritten rules” of engagement are pretty straightforward. Now, I’m not just talking about setting about a basic account and then calling it a day … I’m talking about logging in to LinkedIn regularly and actively engaging via status updates, group discussions and Q&As. So from my little coffee spot, here’s the things I think you need to know before you get wet:

#1: Provide value

While it’s completely acceptable on twitter to note what you’re having for lunch, the folks on LinkedIn are generally “all business, all the time.” This means that if you’re going to post a status update or start a discussion, it should add value. If your update can help others improve knowledge or skills, build their businesses, do their jobs, solve problems, or understand networked video connectivity better — then it’s adding value. 

#2: Write what you know 

In follow-on to rule #1, your best bet for status updates and joining in on group discussions is to stick to your own particular area of professional expertise.

#3: Don’t push products 

It’s perfectly fine to share a link to your company’s news release in your status update, but the minute you go into a group discussion and start promoting a specific product to the other members, they will “turn off” immediately. The unwritten code in group discussions is to share expert advice and knowledge, but not to sell anything.

#4: Be careful with your opinions 

There is a fine line between a healthy debate and an incendiary reaction. A “flame war” can spark up online easier than anywhere else and once it gets going, it’s really hard to stop it. So it’s best to be careful and respectful. Before pressing “publish,” a good litmus test is to ask yourself: “Would I say these exact same words out loud, and to someone’s face, in a business meeting?”  

#5: Don’t overdo it:

Remember, LinkedIn is not Facebook or Twitter. As I noted in #1, its users are generally strictly for business. For this reason, I don’t personally recommend updating your status in LinkedIn more than once a day. As for the automation feature that allows your Twitter steam to be automatically posted into your LinkedIn status, I wouldn’t do it unless you tweet very infrequently and almost exclusively about business-related subjects.

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It’s a new world, but the old rules still apply

Unlike the world I grew up in, there is no longer a clean line between your personal life and your professional life. That’s because google and all of its social media cousins make it so simple for anyone to find out where you work. What that means, for example, is that if I join in on a group discussion on LinkedIn, the other group members are only one click away from seeing only my name to seeing who my employer is.

This ultra-connected world we live in now is new for everyone, so mistakes are bound to happen. But just because it’s a new world out there online, I still think the age-old mother’s advice applies really well: “If you make a mistake, say you’re sorry” and “If you don’t have something nice to say, then don’t say anything at all!“