Television « coffee with Julie

Archive for the ‘Television’ Category

October 15th, 2011

“Month of Me” post #07: Why yes, I am at another blogging conference

“Month of Me” is a little ol’ wild and crazy concept: In October, the month I celebrate my 40th birthday, I will do a whole slew of things that I love. Just because. You can read the kick-off post here.

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.

3 Comments »

January 15th, 2011

Confessions of a Real Estate Junkie (and a giveaway for the National Home Show!)

When I was a kid, I can distinctly remember being in the car on a weekend afternoon, usually in the spring, and asking my parents “What are we doing — why are we driving around like this?”

And the response of “Oh, we’re just looking around at these neighbourhoods” never ceased to perplex me. I’d ask “Are we moving?” But, no, we weren’t moving, we were just looking.

Now, I am following in my parents mother’s (let’s face it, my father was just appeasing her addiction) footsteps and have clearly become a real estate junkie. I confess to:

looking at the MLS listing at least once a week (oh, and Grapevine too, of course!)
picking up all those free real estate magazines and looking through every page
watching “Love it or List it” and endless varieties of HGTV shows
buying home renovation, home building and other home-related magazines

But unlike others of my ilk, I have no interest in actually doing these home projects or updating the decor of my house (if I wish hard enough, someone will do it for me, right?). In fact, my husband and I could be classified as neglectful in this regard. (We still have the same couch we bought when we got married 14 years ago!) And yet, this insatiable interest of mine in housing lives on.

So I took an interest in the 2011 National Home Show coming up in February. It’s taking place in Toronto and in addition to the bazillion feasts of the eye, there are some particularly cool highlights such as:

A model home called “A Glass House” built by Concept PolygHome:

This home is a “bioclimatic” home, which unfortunately the company doesn’t seem to define on its website but which I understand to mean the integration of home with the environment. The designs and concepts of PolygHome are, to be understated, awesome.
The structure of a PolygHome is made with wood beams that are manufactured from the recovery of engineered wood and are certified by the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC). The interior is created with aluminum, energy-efficient glass for the windows, a soya-based polyurethane foam for the insulation and an insulated framework for the foundation with cement.
Visitors at the National Home Show can visit one of these homes, which has been kitted out with interior designs by Debbie Travis.

What’s your design dilemma?

Here, you can attend renovation workshops as well as get one-on-one consultations with interior designers!

HGTV celebs!

You can meet & greet with designer celebrities including Debbie Travis, HGTV’s Bryan Baeumler, decor expert Janette Ewen, HGTV’s Colin & Justin, CityTV’s garden specialist Frank Ferragine and Jim Caruk of BIY Workshops.

Family Day

On February 21st, children 17 & under are free, there is complimentary daycare, and you can enter to win a family vacation for four.

And much, much more … as you can only imagine. So, wanna go??

I’m going to give away a 4-pack of tickets to 4 lucky readers! All you need to do to enter is this:

Be sure you can attend: It’s in Toronto and runs from February 18-27th, 2011 (details on logistics can be found on the National Home Show website).
Leave a comment telling us what you love most about your home or what you want to change most about your home.

I will then:

Select 4 winners using an computerized randomizer on January 21st, 2011
Send each winner a 4-pack via regular post mail

Good luck!

Bloggy disclosure: I was given these tickets from Tina Holmes (twitter handle @HomeShowsTO) who is a home show marketer and producer. Of the 20 tickets I was provided, I will be keeping 4 for myself.

15 Comments »

June 21st, 2010

Commercials are bad for my mental health

Lately, I have found myself watching commercials more consciously. And it seems that pretty much everything about me is simply not good enough — not my skin, my body shape, the way my house smells, or even my own role in my family.

This constant barrage of criticism can’t be good for my mental health, can it? Even though I can intellectually reject it, messages can still creep into my subconscious.

And if it’s not good for my mental health, then I certainly don’t want to expose my daughter (and son!) to it either. But wait … is it actually possible for her to avoid this kind of exposure? I can limit it but I cannot stop these commercials from reaching her at some point.

This is something that my husband and I have, regretably, had to accept. We’ve decided that it is more effective to teach our children how to think critically and challenge what it presented to them, than to spend all of our efforts ensuring that they are not exposed to this kind of mass-manipulation.

So if the television is on in our house and the woman on the television is telling me how to lose weight before bathing suit season, I will talk back to her: “Oh, shut up! I am fine the way I am and diets are unhealthy. You just want my money!” Or alternatively, “What’s wrong with the wrinkles around my eyes? They’re natural. It’s just something that happens when you age. Stop trying to sell me your stupid creams! And how come you don’t try and sell these creams to men, huh?”

I just thought you should know in case you drop by one day and find me talking to myself. Or yelling.

And also because I just found a gem of a woman named Sarah Haskins (thanks to Margot Magowan and About Face) and she does a tremendous job and breaking down the marketing techniques that specifically target women. Here is one of my favourites, titled “Target Women: Feeding your Family”:

Other great topics that she covers include: Disney Princesses, Cleaning Products, Yogurt, and Skin Care Science and even Vampires. I think her videos could be a great tool for parents who want to challenge media messages with their tweens and teenagers since she manages to combine a critical eye with wit and some well-chosen snark.

What do you think … did they give you a chuckle? did they make you think twice about how a commercial is manipulating you? And how does a woman manage to maintain any self-esteem these days when we’re faced with critical messaging all around us?

I’ve gotta go now. It’s bathing suit season around the corner and I need to go feed myself a liquid meal. :P

7 Comments »

April 20th, 2010

Confessions of a Former Gleek (part 2)

In the first season of Glee, I found that Will (aka Mr. Shuester) shared many of my feelings of lingering doubt … Why did I never chase my dreams? What might have happened had I actually auditioned all those years ago?

Now, let me tell you, I did not relish the thought of being like Mr. Shuester. Quite the contrary. He seemed like a loser. A wanna-be who just never made it … [please click here to continue reading!]

You won’t want to miss tonight’s episode of Glee! Sue Sylvester’s video homage to Madonna’s “Vogue” airs at 9/8c!