August 01, 2008

BFF 09

Hi all

We hope everyone is doing well!

Everyone started talking about BFF 09 even before we left Niagara which is a fantastic sign. So while it's fresh in our minds, we wanted to gather your feedback so we can plan an even better BFF weekend for next year.

Please take a minute to complete this short survey so we can have some direction on the things that are most important to you

We'll then keep you posted of the plans as they come together.

Thanks soooooo much and have a great weekend!

Love the BFF girls

July 23, 2008

Jam-Packed with Fun

Flex_001 I was a little hesitant about going to the Blog Friends Fest.  Not only am I incredibly shy in large groups, but I didn't know how everything would work out bringing the baby along.  A weekend of drunken debauchery with a baby on the hip is sooo Britney.

Over eight months and he still won't take a bottle come hell or high water.  Sigh.  It's just as well - I'm not sure that I could leave him for a whole weekend right now.  Luckily for me, I was able to call in the reserves.

We dropped our three-year-old off with my parents, and he had a fabulous weekend taking a trolley ride, splashing around in the water, and eating Mississippi Mud Pie.

The Husband came along to Niagara to mind the baby, so that I could go out with the girls.  Thanks to him, I went to the cocktail party sponsored by Random House on Friday.  We got copies of The Gargoyle and temporary tattoos.  (I'd post a picture, but I'm sure it's all over the 'Net by now - just search "hot(e) girl with dragon tattoo").  The Husband also stayed in the hotel Saturday, so I could go for fun dinner at the Hard Rock Cafe.  Both Hubbie and baby came along on our wine tour to Jackson-Triggs.  The baby learned a lot about wine, but don't worry, we only let him taste the 2004 Riesling, so he didn't get too sloshed.

The good people at Ford sponsored our trip and let us borrow their new Flex.  Considering the ridiculous amount of stuff we had to pack for two days, it's a good thing they did.  The Flex was able to fit it all, along with two carseats and STILL have room to spare.  Our older son zombied out to Toy Story in the back and we got have some Sirius fun playing with the satellite radio.  Not to mention, the fridge kept the baby's food and breastmilk lovely and cool.  That is a real plus in my books - I'm constantly worried about the integrity of the cooling system I use while travelling. 

Although the car is a little too big for us right now - we're a family of four who uses the car sparingly - the Husband was so impressed by it's smooth, quiet ride, that he will seriously consider Ford for our next upgrade.  But for a family of five, or a small family who likes road trips and camping, I'd say you can't get much better.  It's airy, light, comfortable and has a lot of room to pack everything you might need.  And this is coming from an over-packer.

But the icing on the already fabulous cake?  The wonderful, amazing and beautiful blogger women (and men!  Well, man, to be exact.).  Some I knew from other bloggy events, and some were complete unknowns to me.  Everyone - bar none - was friendly.  I put out the call to have people help me carry my (not so little) baby, and there was no end to people wanting to entertain him.  He was with us during the conference portion and was so bedazzled by the bloggers that I rarely heard a peep out of him.  And I got to take notes!  And get myself a coffee!  I even managed to go to the bathroom all by myself once!  Good times.  But more importantly, eventhough I'm only a smalltime blogger, and couldn't stay out too late (the baby rises with the crack of not-yet dawn no matter what time I get in), I always felt included and welcome.  And that, just maybe, people were a little glad to see me.

Now I need a weekend to recover from my weekend, thankyouverymuch.

Cross-posted at Better Than a Playdate

July 22, 2008

BFF: A small re-cap

Friday night's Random House cocktail party was a great time - it doesn't get much better than free food and drinks, copies of a great book and temporary tattoos!

Our roundtable discussion on Saturday was all about – wait for it…blogging. Being able to get together like that – armed with ridiculously expensive hotel munchies and our laptops – and have open dialogue was really cool. Initially, we touched on why we’d started blogging and being a part of this, the blogsphere, which lead us to other topics – privacy, dry spells, the pressures of blogging, what we do and don’t write about, commenting and comments – and we spent a good hour going around the table sharing a blog that, for whatever reason, really spoke to us. Good stuff. (For a list of as many of the blogs mentioned as I can remember, check out the end of this post.)

(An aside: if you’re ever in Niagara Falls and are looking for a hotel that can offer reliable Internet, think twice before coughing up to stay at the Hilton. Despite the fact that they’d known for months that we’d be there for a BLOGGING event, the Internet connection during our discussion was spotty at best and there was nobody on hand (besides Sci-Fi Dad, who was able to get several of us online for a spell by simply standing by our laptops) who was in the know that could help us. To say the least, it was frustrating, not to mention quite disappointing.)

We split up for lunch before meeting up again for either a wine tour or a cross-border shopping run. A few of us arrived at the Jackson-Triggs wine tour in style - a HUGE thanks to Ford for the Flex! Our tour guide, a somewhat scrawny-looking guy named Marcus who had a faux-hawk and appeared to be not a day over 21, turned out to be really good – he was super informative and the tour itself was really interesting. Most importantly, the wine was good (and there was lots of it!).

When we got back we had just enough time to change before hitting up the Hard Rock for dinner. It was really, really loud in there, but the food was good and so was our waitress. We had a Hote(l) Party at the hotel afterward that involved zombies and mannequins and zombie mannequins and twats and twits and side-splitting laughter and CLEARLY, several bottles of wine.

We made our way out slowly on Sunday; most of us opted out of the Maid of the Mist in favour of swimming at the hotel (there was a curly slide!) and grabbing food before leaving.

Thanks to everyone who helped organize this weekend, to our sponsors and to everyone who came and was a part of it. It was a blast, and I can’t wait to do it again next year.

Blogs that were mentioned during our roundtable discussion:

Pickled Beef
Woman in a Window
Julia {Here Be Hippogriffs}
Simply Shenuts
Hoping For Grace
The Not-so Secret Life of Katie Valentine
Circle of Life
Cheaper Than Therapy
Six Until Me
Kevin Charnas
Sweet/salty
So Close
Uppercase Woman     
Life on the Roof
Slightly Less Cynical
My Tragic Right Hip
Life: The Ongoing Education
It's Not All Mary Poppins
Nonlinear Girl

July 20, 2008

BFFing Good Time

Together we gathered, new friends and old, and for 2 1/2 days we had fun. F-U-N.

We laughed, we talked, we blogged, we drank, we cuddled babies, we had a zombie photo shoot and we even created new words (we so hote). In short, BFF took Niagara by storm.

Later this week we'll post links to all the juicy recaps and reflections on our bloggy weekend of debauchery. As we wait for all those awesometastic posts to go up, we leave you with a pictorial run down of our hoe down ....

Random House sponsored a groovy cocktail party themed around a new book, The Gargoyle, complete with tattoos. We are all over this book.

2681475877_4a806c1bc6_m_5
2682261897_f1119c514e_m

2682295652_5762050b36_m


2682292684_9a9bec51a7_m


2681478163_7e4de9a9b5_m

The party continued on until the wee hours of the morning in the hotel room.



2681480225_22d2384dc2_m


2683098588_59494a1686_m


2686539395_cb6fc1f85a


2683100604_95dec4ee52_m


We took over a massive board room and held a round table discussion where we talked about blogosphere friendships and community. We each shared a favourite blogger who wasn't at BFF and talked about our children's rights, our partner's rights and our own perspective on blogging.


2686544655_4d8dfd8ce4

And we cuddled babies. Really cute babies.



2686548485_801bf61a60


2687364200_093b29d032


Then some of us took a fantastic wine tour at Jackson Triggs. Mmmmm wine.


2686553245_09a8d9979d

While cross board shopping fun ensued, some BFFers rode to the winery with NoMotherEarth (plus her charming hubby and cuter than cute baby) in the coolest looking Ford Flex. Ford sponsored "Better Than A Playdate" to send her to BFF in style.

2688344353_66651eb6a0_m

Then we rocked it at the Hard Rock Cafe.

2687378556_d3dc0eafaf

Janasandra_2


And, of course, back to the hotel for yet another room party.

2686565653_5af128207e


2686567603_c285c9bd9e

Here's to BFF '09!

Missing all our hote BFF friends already.
xo

(photo credit: Metro Mama, Ms. Blue and Mama T)

Wish you were here!

2683076536_cd5b252177_6

This was before zombies attacked us...

Zombie

Don't you wish you hot like us?

Zombielove_3

July 08, 2008

Look Out Niagara Falls, Here We Come!!!!!!

Just 10 days until the debauchery begins and we can hardly wait.

Bigstockphoto_party_people_171577_2

Today we have a HUGE announcement. The amazingly amazing folks at Random House are sponsoring our special welcome cocktail party on Friday, July 18th for all of our registered attendees. How great is that? BFF hearts Random House!

Gargoyle Cover Random House

It's not too late to register for the fun by sending us a note to blogfriendsfest@gmail.com. We are emailing all registrants our top-secret, super-fun updates and itinerary details rather than posting them here. We hope you'll join us for all the BFFing.

See you soon. Really, really soon!

June 17, 2008

Deadline Tomorrow!

We are one month plus a day away from our super-fabulous-bonding-extravaganza also known affectionately as BFF.

That means that tomorrow is the deadline to book your hotel. As in tomorrow - June 18th. Procrastinators unite and seize the day!

Read more about the BFF deets here. Then take a wee visit to Hilton's site to book your BFF room online.

And please send us an email at: blogfriendsfest@gmail.com to be "officially registered" and receive email updates about the detailed itinerary. We'd love, love, love for you to be there so please won't you join us?

Yipeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!!!

June 06, 2008

The BFF Clock Is Ticking

Tick tock. Tick tock.

Clockbff

Have you registered for BFF yet? Remember that if you want to be "registered" and included in the communications about the event itinerary then you gotta email us at: blogfriendsfest@gmail.com.

So far we have about 18 groovy bloggers who have kindly sent in their enthusiastic "OH YES I'LL BE THERE" notes and we know there are waaaaaaay more of you who are going to do it any minute. How 'bout now? Or now? Now's perfect really ... blogfriendsfest@gmail.com.

Also, we have exactly 11 short days until the hotel room booking deadline of June 18th (read more here). You can visit Hilton's site to book online.

Thanks to everyone who participated in the survey of what the heck do we wanna DO at BFF? We are now busy bees organizing the most popular picks. BFFers can choose to participate in a smorgasbord (and who doesn't love a good smorgasbord) of activities including:
~ cocktail party at the hotel
~ a night on the town at a local bar
~ group rate on Maid of the Mist
~ tour of a local winery
~ even manis and pedis at the hotel if you so desire.

And, of course, there will also be the fantastic "round-table" meeting where we can chat about blogging and so much more.

The most important part of this weekend is the bonding and the friendship so we'll keep it very low key and every single activity is optional. Those registered will receive all the fun details by email soonish.

Tick tock. Tick tock.

May 01, 2008

The Deets

Are you still in?

Fallsmap

We are FINALLY ready to launch this baby!

Although BFF isn't a "formal" conferencey gathering, we'll need an idea of firm attendee numbers for all the groovy planning and plotting. Soooooooo, if you are definitely, positively, absolutely coming then please email blogfriendsfest@gmail.com to let us know.

And (in the interest of safety, privacy and thwarting those unitard-wearing stalkers), as BFF approaches we will be communicating the "specifics" of the event itinerary by email. Only confirmed participants (who email us at blogfriendsfest@gmail.com) will have access to our final detailed schedule. General info will still be posted here - just nothing that will tip off the paparazzi.

And what about that elusive hotel announcement we keep promising?

We've hunted far and wide for the perfect Niagara spot to host our inaugural BFF. It had to be central, offer Wi-Fi, have bookings available, be family friendly for those traveling with kiddies, have meeting space and food onsite, and be willing to work with us on a group rate. Oh, and no roaches or vibrating beds or by-the-hour-kinda-motels.

So, (drum roll please) we'll be spending July 18th -20th at the Hilton Niagara Falls Fallsview!

The Hilton is a gorg-e-ous 4-star resort with all the fixins. Just look for yourself.

Best of all, we get those snazzy fixins with an extra-special Blog Friends Fest rate! Based on double occupancy (for a room with 2 Queen beds) our pricing is as follows:
Friday, Jul 18th = $199
Saturday, July 19th = $249
* $25 surcharge per person/day for triple or quad accommodation.

We did a quick calculation (before taxes and any mini bar or naughty movies you rent) and the costs could look like this:
- with one roomie = avg. cost of $112 per night
- with two roomies = avg. cost of $83 per night
- with three roomies = avg. cost of $68.50 per night

(So, with 11 weeks to the event, if you sock away just $12 a week and talk 3 bloggers to shack up with you, then you've got your room covered for both nights. Oh baby).

PLUS there are no conference fees! Hooray!

To book, you can go to this fancy dancy, customized, online system that the Hilton set up just for us. Please book your room before June 18th to get the Blog Friends Fest special rate. Or you can call their Group Reservations line (1-866-873-9829) to book.

If you wanna take the kiddies to Great Wolf Lodge instead or stay somewhere entirely different, there is no rule that says you must to stay with all the other bloggers at the Hilton. It's entirely up to you where you sleep. We're easy. Heh.

Looking for a roomie? You can leave a comment here today and hopefully make a roomie-connection or email us and we'll make suggestions of others we hear from who are in the same boat. A quick gander at the sidebar will tell ya there's a whole bunch of lovely bloggers to pick from.

And last but not least, we need your opinions ...

Bigstockphoto_survey_1219505

We'd really, really, really love your input to make this the best weekend possible. Please take a moment to complete our brief survey so we can gather your ideas on what activities you'd like to do while in Niagara and what topics you wanna chat about at our round table. Also, we are crossing our fingers and toes that we'll be able to attract sponsors to help underwrite some of the costs of our fun activities. To do that, we need a bit of info about your blog(s). Note that this survey is totally anonymous and confidential and only takes a minute. We'll be your BFF if you'll complete it. Puuullllleeeeeease.

To recap:
1. Email us at blogfriendsfest@gmail.com today to let us know if you are really, really coming.
2. Book at the Niagara Hilton before June 18th to get the special room rate.
3. Complete our super-important BFF survey to give us your input.
4. Start packing for a mind-blowing weekend of blog bonding fun July 18th - 20th!!!!

Can. Not. Wait.

April 20, 2008

Almost Ready

Sorry for the radio silence. We've picked the place and are just waiting on a few critical details before it's all finalized.

News is imminent. Like any minute. Stay tuned ....