It’s safe to say I don’t do this for the money.

Most bloggers are in the same boat as me.  We work, work, work and our only reward is a comment here and a tweet there showing us that someone out there is reading.

That’s what makes the Canadian Weblog Awards so special.

The awards are run by Ninjamatics and Schmutzie and they work very hard too.  It’s a juried process and entrants go through rounds of judging.

So when I got an email this morning that I’d won first place in the Parenting category (which had over 80 nominees) I about passed out!

First? Me? Really?

Blog West

I’ll be heading up to Blog West in March and can’t wait to meet so many people who I’ve been conversing with online for years.  I’m expecting awesomeness.  Sam and I will be riding up in a brand new EcoBoost Explorer. Thanks to Ford for providing transportation. If you need a lift from Calgary to the conference please let me know.

Canadian Weblog Awards

HometoHeather is shortlisted.  I’m so thrilled to even be able to say that I almost don’t care who wins.

Eclectic Six Media

I have a post up about the state of the ‘Mommy Blogger‘ label.  I’d love your comments and opinions there.

Most Importantly

Cheryl is organizing an auction to aid Bobbie after her horrible car crash.  The auction will be on HelpBobbie.com…the site isn’t live yet but you can bookmark it now and check back for the event soon.

anyone recognize this?!?!

This week’s Monday Mojo kind of stumped me.  Well, stumped is the wrong word.  It actually overwhelmed me.

The prompt was this:

Who inspires you to be a better blogger? Has there been someone who’s mentored you and helped you become the blogger you are today? Is there a website out there that you strive to be like one day? Share your inspirations!

And SO MANY blogs came to mind that I just didn’t know where to start.

Rhea wrote an awesome post (complete with awesome picture) that encompases much of what I wanted to say.

Then I think about a few people who I admire for very specific reasons.

Charles – is the best at all things comment related.  His posts always garner loads of comments and he responds to nearly all of them. I appreciate all the comments he leaves here for me and I know I don’t return nearly enough to repay him.

Laura – she cranks out the most amazing posts about ONE thing.  Chocolate!  She’s made extreme strides in her photography and has always had a vision of what she wanted to accomplish.  I admire her for her focus and constantly improving her skills.

Amy – A pioneer in ‘social media marketing‘, Amy has shown me that as long as you’re ‘resourceful’ you can make a living doing what you love.  Despite her incredible following (nearly 35000 followers on twitter) she’s always approachable and friendly.

Those are just a few people I admire in blogging, in addition to the most amazing ladies Rhea mentioned in her post.  I could literally go on and on and on for ages.  I admire so many

So who do you admire?  What inspires your blogging?  I know the week is almost over but fret not, if you write a post to answer the prompt – you can still link your post to the Mojo linky.

join up!

This week Monday Mojo asks -

Tell us your Blog’s story!  What made you start blogging? Why did you decide to open up a slice of cyberspace and put your name on it?  Tell us what your purpose was back then – is it the same today or have you changed focus?

Many blogs have a rich history, and as a bloggers life changes so does their blog.  So it will be interesting to see everyone’s posts this week!

My blogging journey started in 2004.  I’d always loved reading and had realized that writing was kinda fun too.  I was determined to set out to learn to write fiction.  I joined a forum for fiction writers and a few members had blogs – it was really the first time I’d encountered blogging.  I didn’t really think much about it.  I opened up a blogger account and the rest is history.

I wrote about things I’d learned, things I needed feeback on, things I was puzzled over. I made some wonderful blogging friends, some of whom I still converse with online today and who continue to support my writing. I’m very grateful for them all.  At that time, blogging really was an afterthought.  All my focus was on learning to write fiction so along side the blogging I dabled in flash fiction, short stories and I started a novel as well.

Then in 2007 we moved to Calgary and I became a mom and everything changed.  Who had time for writing fiction?  Not me!  I fell into blogging head over heals at this point.  Writing in this format keeps my mental muscles in shape yet I can manage to do it with kids screaming around me.  Fiction takes a lot of concentration – but I can blog in front of the TV.  It’s such a good fit for me at this stage in my life and I’ve been doing it for so long that I can’t see myself ever stoping.

That’s pretty much it – I’ve changed my focus a bit along the way and I’ve learned a lot more than I’d ever imagined.  If you’re a blogger, tell us how you got started and share your post on the linky for Monday’s Mojo.  And while you’re at it – join the bloggers forum too!

She wrote:

There’s a little thing going around on Facebook. Go check Josh Hosler’s site and find out what the number 1 song was on the day you were born.

So I did, and it was THIS.  Too funny.  You should check for your song and see what comes up!

join up!

Happy New Year everyone!  I hope you all had a wonderful holiday season and that you are looking forward to 2012 as much as I am.  We spent the holidays with family and watched our children light up playing with their grandparents, aunts, uncles and cousins.  It was a delight.

When I think about what’s in store for Home to Heather and Eclectic Six Media, I’m very excited and I’m sure this is going to be a year I’m proud of.  I always start looking forward by taking a look back at what I most enjoyed from the past year and what I feel is my best work.  By doing this I regain a sense of purpose and remind myself of what is most important to me.

Best Posts of 2011

Parenting

Mom vs Kids series – Ep 1, 2, 3 and 4

His Tears, My Pain

For Want of a Fart

Ikea – My Heaven. His Hell

How to Tell if Your Three Year Old Is Smarter than You

Calgary

Calgary Herald Shows Bloggers a Good Time

I Went, I Drank and I Ate Too

Home

Living Room Make Over

UpCycling a Baby Gate

DIY Mason Jar Crafts

Blogging

What Every Blogger Should Know About Copyright Infringemet

Struggling with the Value of Your Blog? You’re Not Alone!

Your Child Online – Protect their Privacy

10 Tips for Attracting Local Readers

Looking at these posts I can see some commonality among them.  I’m most proud of these particular posts because they follow several ideals (at least, I think they do…feel free to tell me in comments if I’m full of it!)

To me these posts are everything I want to keep improving on.  These posts represent my blogging resolutions.

In 2012, I want to write more content that is:

• Helpful
• Humorous
• Inspirational (or more accurately, that gives someone an idea for a project like my ‘home’ posts)
• Honest

I want to continue to improve my writing skills because there have been times when re-reading old posts where I find typos or grammatical errors and I cringe.  Please, dear readers, tell me if you see an error so I can fix it!

On a personal note – I want to continue to clear clutter from our house before I go insane.  Also, I know it’s cliche, but I really do intend on losing some weight this year.  Last year we worked hard on improving the quality of food we eat and we’re going to keep on that track as well.

If you have any feedback for me, or ideas for content you’d like to see here please let me know and I’ll do my best to fulfil requests.

OH! And I want to do a re-design too…this look has been around for a while now, and while I do love it – there are some changes I’d like to make.  I think that’s it!

What are your resolutions this year? Share your post in the Monday Mojo linky!

What kind of blogger am I?

Well, I like to think I’m like any other blogger and it seems that many bloggers find themselves in a rut from time to time.  Normally I can shake it pretty quickly.  I read through other blogs and get inspired.  I read a book.  I listen to music.  Have some tea.  Those things usually manage to get me going again but this time was different.  Maybe it’s the season or maybe I’ve just been living a boring life these last few weeks.  Who knows.

Many a serious writer would say ‘there’s no such thing as writers block – just sit your butt in the chair and work.’  Well, it’s easier said than done when it comes to blogging.  Writing an article and writing a blog are two very different beasts.  In blogging, we talk about our daily lives, our thoughts, our opinions and so our ability to sit our butts down and just work is very much affected by all that goes on around us.

I’ve also found that the more I write, the easier it flows.  Stopping for a week is one of the worst things that a blogger can do – because it is hard to get rolling again.  The best way to stay fresh is to BE fresh and work all the time.

Introducing Monday Mojo!

My friends and I over at the Eclectic Six Media bloggers community, have started up an awesome weekly prompt to help us all get our mojo going each week.  Every Monday a new prompt will go up and you have all week to get your post going and shared in the linky we’ll host at the Eclectic Six Media blog.  It’s a great way to get rolling for the week ahead, get to know some new bloggers and score a few comments.  This week the mojo prompt is:

Monday Mojo Topic

What do you do to get your mojo back when it seems to be missing? What are your suggestions for renewing creativity within yourself and how do you keep your writing fresh?

Join in, we’d love to have you!!  Head over to Eclectic Six and link up your post!

don't forget to connect

Per my previous post, I’ve kind of been spinning my wheels and not going anywhere fast.  I’ve been a bit focused on Eclectic Six and the bloggers forums.  I’ve been writing an SEO tutorial to share there and that’s taking up a good chunk of my brain power (you know, the piece the kids left me) and I’ve just felt a little afloat in the sea so to speak.

So I did what I always do when I’m feeling a lack of inspiration and that’s turn to my feed reader and read some blogs from people who are producing content (awesome content at that.)

It was here that I’ve been reminded of the ONLY piece of social media advice that matters. It was like a smack in the face because although, I’d always known this was the key to growing a blog (or any business for that matter) I really wasn’t embracing the idea as I should have been.

George Angus (a long time twitter friend who you should follow if you aren’t already) wrote about a small social media success story.  He met someone on twitter and engaged in a genuine relationship.  Not a sales relationship although the both of them had something to sell.  It ended up that they both made their sales to each other and it wasn’t for any ‘pitch’ any ‘selling’ or any ‘coercion.’

All they did was show each other, as George said, that they were human.

It’s easy to forget, sitting behind a computer, that the people who are reading your blog or twitter stream or facebook posts are human just like you. A human who is berated with advertising from every angle.  A human with limited resources and time.  A human who just wants to have a little fun when they jump online.

Why on earth would a regular joe human (just like you!) want to be assaulted with advertising.  And why on earth would they pick YOUR link out of 500 others in their twitter stream to click on and buy or subscribe or retweet?  It’s not because you wrote a stand out tweet.  It’s not because you have an offer they couldn’t refuse.  It’s because they feel like they know you.  They feel like you’ve reached out to them and made an effort to connect on a personal level.  They feel as though they can trust you and trust doesn’t come from anywhere but authentic engagement.  Real conversations.

I’m getting a bit carried away and I don’t want to hash out what all of you already know, because I felt like I knew it already too.  But I wanted to put out this reminder for everyone because I certainly needed it.  Thanks George.

I seem to have lost something...

What is wrong with me?

I’m staring at my blogging dashboard with the urge to write yet nothing to really write about and I look to my drafts folder just to see what’s there.  The words ‘What is wrong with me?’ are staring back. Strong and stark, they ask me this puzzling question. I don’t remember writing the title to this draft post and I don’t remember what the draft might’ve been about so I click on it and discover it’s blank.

‘What is wrong with me?’

What could I have possibly meant the post to mean?

What could I have had on my mind the day I clicked ‘Add New’ and typed these words?

It’s funny to think I’ll never know.  I’ll never know what I felt WAS wrong with me – and something had to have been for me to decide it warranted an entire blog post for it.

Now, with the reason for the post forgotten and the thing that was wrong with me forgotten too, it’s like I’m healed of past wounds. Wounds that may never existed or maybe I’m delusional and something really IS wrong with me.  It seems something must be wrong and I’ve decided to ignore it because that seems like something I would do.  Start a post about something being wrong only to squash it in it’s tracks so I don’t have to know the thing that is bothering me.  Things aren’t really real until you put them on the internet right? HA!

Wow, something must be wrong with me.  Look at what I’m putting myself through.

Emotional turmoil for want of a completed blog post.

Oh look.  I guess this is close enough. I wrote didn’t I?  I put some thoughts ‘out there’ didn’t I?

I suppose I should be satisfied and get some sleep now.

But tell me.

What is wrong with YOU?

I thought I’d elaborate a bit and let you know how you can be a part of it and yes, I really and truly want you to join me on this.  More on that in a sec.

I’ve been blogging for a long time (in Internet years).  Since 2004.  I jumped online and started to put myself out there.  At first it was to learn about writing fiction.  Then I had my sweet Little H and I morphed into a creativity / mom blog.  How could I not?  I mean, my child was the center of my universe.  Then I realized it was important to maintain my sense of ME and changed again into Home To Heather.

Along the way I’ve made some incredible connections.  Every comment, every tweet, every facebook post and forum private message helped me to learn and grow and achieve my goals for this blog.  I’ve learned so much.  I ported my blog from blogger to self hosted wordpress.  I learned to modify templates.  I learned to network and I learned how to make this blog benefit my family why still staying true to myself and my vision for my writing.  I couldn’t have done any of this had it not been for the support of my online community.

Now, myself and my cohorts have been working together to share our skills and help each other out.  We’ve been doing this for the past year.  We link to each other, tweet each other, engage each other’s audience in hopes of growing our own.

I know you’ve seen me speak about Cheryl and her daughter Jillian.  I know you’ve come across something I’ve stumbled at Rhea’s blog or Kathleen’s.  I know you’ve seen a tweet from me about Amanda.

The truth is – our group is stronger because of each individual in it.  We are all very different bloggers.  We all have extremely different skill sets but that is why this is working out so well…where one falters another can shine.  That’s why we’re eclectic.  And that’s why we decided to bring our ‘model’ to a larger group.  We want to learn from a more diverse group of people – and we want to help share our knowledge too.

The Eclectic Six Media Forums are for:

• Small business bloggers
• Mom and Dad bloggers
• Special Needs bloggers
• Military bloggers
• Tech bloggers
• Foodies and Crafters too.

Join now and see what all the fuss is about.  There’s even a $100 cash contest happening and this is just the beginning. We still consider ourselves in ‘soft launch’ and we are super excited about our future and yours with Eclectic Six. We can all help each other on this road and we’ll all be rockstars in the end.  No matter what your goal.