web analytics

Writers block ideas

30 Oct By Leave a Comment

I hear a lot on writers block or visit blogs where people post they have nothing to write about! SO I have compiled a list of topics for you to write on your blog in the future to help unblock you…help yourself to these topic ideas! I could go on and on, but the list is pretty long, so Ill do it again in the future.

On days with the baby, I need to refer to my own lists to keep me going or I will turn into a picture blog! Please feel free to add your own ideas in the comments!

 Kids & Childbirth

  • How did you feel when you got PG
  • do you enjoy being a mom or no
  • was your labor hard
  • birth story
  • how has being a mother changed your life
  • do you ever regret having kids
  • do you favor one child over the other
  • how have you balanced being a mother and a wife
  • do you want more kids
  • do you believe having kids has been good for your marriage
  • how has having kids affected yourDH
  • is your DH a good father
  • what is your favorite moment with your children
  • top 10 favorite family adventures
  • Do you allow your kids to use technology like youtube or the ipad

How To:

  • keep a clean house
  • organize with a labeling system
  • potty train your child
  • run a website
  • advertise your blog
  • wrap a present
  • write an ebook
  • get your kids to eat vegis
  • have a happy marriage
  • scrapbook
  • garden
  • train a dog

Debates

  • breastfeeding
  • politics
  • advertising
  • stay at home mom vs working mom
  • smoking around kids
  • fast food
  • bloggers
  • animal rights
  • social media
  • PR

Sex

  • has having kids affected your sex life
  • have you ever had an embarrassing sex moment
  • sex polls or quizzes
  • favorite sex toys
  • ways to spice up your love life
  • top 100 romantic places
  • top 10 best places to have sex
  • wildest party night (ie bachelors party, college party, etc)
  • embarrass your friends by talking about THEIR sex lives (anon of course)

Dating & Marriage

  • how you met your Significant other
  • how you were proposed to
  • Your wedding
  • wedding pictures
  • top 10 favorite moments with your DH
  • How your DH felt when you were PG
  • How you told your DH you were PG
  • Does you family like your DH? Does his family like you?
  • Biggest struggle during marriage
  • what you have learned from your DH
  • Best moment with your DH
  • Honeymoon, something funny that happened, share pictures
  • where you see your marriage in 10 years
  • Divorces and what you have learned
  • Best date you ever had
  • any time you embarrassed yourself on a date
  • how many did you date before you found the one
  • are you dating now and the struggles
  • did you have a child while dating and how it affected your relationships

Life

  • Tell about your college days
  • Favorite memory from high school
  • Fads in your time growing up
  • Do you sometimes feel like your life is stuck on conveyors or a pharmacy automation system
  • Best advice your mom ever gave you
  • Best present you ever received in your life
  • Advice you would give to someone
  • How was your childhood
  • Your hometown
  • what you want people to remember about you
  • a time where you need to say your sorry
  • a time where you helped someone
  • your education and experience in life

Work

  • What do you do a for a living
  • How did you send up in the field you are in
  • Do you love your job
  • A funny prank or blooper from your job
  • Do you work for a parent
  • What did you want to be when you grew up and are you doing it now?
  • Would you like to open your own business and what is it?
  • Do you have a degree in the career you settled into?

Technology

  • What technology was discovered the year you were born
  • How did computers change during your life
  • What was the most important website to your education
  • Do you have a material handling system?
  • Did you have a cell phone as a teenager? What about your parents?
  • What type of phone do you have…does it text? Connect to the internet?
  • What type of technology can you not live without?

Your Favorite:

  • dishsoap
  • vaccuum
  • catfood
  • candle company
  • store to shop at for your son
  • store to shop at for your daughter
  • pair of fitting jeans
  • jewelry
  • hoster
  • bra
  • mascara

Do you:

  • Play the lotto
  • believe in ghosts
  • believe in karma
  • have any weird quirks
  • have any weird habits
  • like to be inside or outside
  • like to shop
  • go out to eat weekly
  • jet ski

Can you:

  • Swim
  • cook
  • bake
  • drive
  • do any sports
  • paint or draw
  • do a flip

Would you:

  • Jump out of a plane
  • adopt a child
  • adopt an animal
  • run for government
  • strip
  • zipline
  • go camping in the wilderness
  • go on a safari
  • travel without your family (alone)

 

 

Filed Under: Guest Writers

Beautiful ways to display love

30 Oct By 2 Comments

There is nothing more fun to look at for a woman than jewelry. It’s like we wait our entire lives to get married but then someone else buys us the most important ring of our lives. It’s ironic if you think about it.

Even though personally I am not a high jewelry wearer, in fact I generally only wear one piece at a time,  I do love to look at the styles out there.  I am a woman after all.  I have traded in my engagement ring once before and some day I hope to break down the diamonds for a necklace for my daughter.

The solitaire

The solitaire is one of the most understated and overstated rings.  A single diamond that can be petite as a princess or as gaudy as statement jewelry, but nonetheless with all the beautiful shapes, colors, and sizes out there, you can find exactly what you are looking for and show off the one diamond you love the best.

Of course, any more a solitaire doesn’t have to be just a single diamond. From a vintage look, classic look, or single set, there are some incredible brands that are certainly showstoppers.

Rings with a splash of color

Just like wedding dresses are getting trendy in off colors and bright sashes, you can also get colored diamonds in pink, black, chocolate, and even blue. I am not 100% sure if this is something that I would be interested in personally, at least not for a wedding or engagement ring. I like the sentiment of purity in a brilliant white diamond, but I do believe they would make beautiful anniversary presents or hand me down rings from mothers to daughters. I read somewhere a long time ago that diamonds that have an off color are actually flawed, but jeweleries have found ways to market them.

I have no idea how true that statement is.

Not to leave the men out (after all, marriage is two people…) when are talking about a little bit of color, there are also options black tungsten rings to be used as tungsten wedding bands and Hildalgo that come in stackable and engravable looks. I am not sure Hidalgo is actually for me, but to me many of the styles have a masculine flare to me.

Here are two that I think are beautiful regardless of whose hand they go on:

For woman wedding bands, you can go all out as well. I have seen so many styles that are not just traditional circles of gold or silver, but some can get seriously intricate like Kira Kirk.

There are some really neat engraved styles as well. Like tungsten rings have an entire line of engraved tungsten rings and come etched with a laser which is pretty understated but still detailed:

My hands down FAVORITE type of ring in the wedding band area however is the diamonds all the way around.

Simple yet incredible.

Like this:

Or this

 

But those types of rings are in the thousands.

Like…10K.

I guess Ill just have to marry someone rich!

Or maybe a jeweler. That would probably be easier.

~Trisha

Filed Under: Guest Writers

Inspiring Quotes and Pictures

28 Oct By 3 Comments

I am sure I am not the only one that needs inspiration from time to time. Sometimes life seems so challenging and then realize there are people that depend on you and life needs you to be ok. Whether its a relationship, a job, your children, whatever it is, I hope you draw on some strength tonight.

 

Filed Under: Guest Writers Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , ,

Contact Form 7 Plugin tutorial

25 Oct By

I use Contact Form 7 plugin for quite a few things here on MomDot. While the most obvious reason I use it is to receive inquiries on the site for reviews, giveaways, PR releases, and general questions, I also use it for our Ethical Blogger pledge and forum applications. However upon first glance it can be a quite difficult plugin to navigate and can frustrate people in setting it up. It is however easier to use than many a online form builder. I wanted to do a short tutorial to help out those that may be staring at it and on the verge of tears. Its easier than you think once you learn it.

Once you have downloaded and installed into your wordpress program, you can hit ADD NEW to start to create forms. Do not forget to NAME it in case you do several of these over the life of your blog.

Now in my initial form, some standard stuff inputs itself in there to help you out……and this is fine as long as you don’t want anything customized like a drop down, a paragraph, or to have some of your spaces required to be filled out.

Now if you know how to create HTML forms, then you can skip this part and input directly for your coding, add the generated tag to a page and you are done. But if you are like the rest of us, you may need some help with that html tag. Just scroll to the right and there will be a list of “types” for your entries.

Lets practice with the Drop Down Menu.

Let’s say you need a drop down menu. Click on that and this will appear:

Then you have to add your information. Change the title so its something easy to remember for this form. Add your selections, decide if its required (if so check required), decide if there is more than one choice for the drop down. It then will create a tag for you to add into the form on the left.

There will also be a second code generated and you add it below in the email. This is so when the form comes to you, it shows you in your email what question was answered. It’s important to not forget this step or you will get a letter like this:

  • trisha
  • momdot
  • cats
  • i dont like cheese

Basically you will have no clue what you ahd in the form that there were answers like that.

Once you are all done adding every question you need, you can save it and it will generate a tag for the page to be created. All you do is copy that code, create a PAGE on your blog, go to the HTML side, insert this code, save and publish.

 

For the page we created, it will look like this when published:

I have found that Contact Form 7 has met all of my contact form needs and most importantly has caused very little server overloads, which is great when you are adding in plugins on wordpress.You can download for your blog right in your dashboard on the new plugins side.

~trisha

 

Filed Under: Guest Writers Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

My thoughts.

24 Oct By 2 Comments

Let me preempt this post and let you know that this is  my sister guest posting. Carry on. ~trisha

——————————————————-

I have been waiting for the revolution my entire life. When I was a teenager, I was counter-culture and ate vegan food and wore all black and painted my hair rainbow colors and wrote poetry and feminist zines. I dreamed that another world was not only possible, but that I could be a part of it.

 Before Occupy Wall Street started, I read a blog about some protests that were being planned, and I immediately started looking into tickets to New York City. I was certain that this was IT. I felt like I had an opportunity to be a part of today’s May Day 1971, and I was not going to miss it. Finances got in the way, and I was unable to go, but then something amazing happened.. it spread. Like a wildfire, this movement began to come from inside people and was not limited by geographical location. I joined the Occupy Pensacola Facebook page when there were only 32 people. I assumed that Pensacola would not be able to create a real movement, because of lack of people, but I was wonderfully proven wrong. After our first general assembly as I walked in to a crown of 250 people, I was filled with a sense of belonging, and purpose. This was it- this revolution of the mind that I had for so long desired.

 The second night of the Occupation, I stood and took it all in. There were people playing instruments and children dancing, free food and water, people discussing the failures of our education system, the left vs right paradigm, sign making parties, and the stars above us. It was romantic and lovely in a way that I cannot describe. As I looked down at my pins about Solidarity and Food not Bombs, I started to imagine telling my children about that day, and reminding them that they were a part of it.

 Things were getting scary in other cities with police brutality and violence, and then we were given a gift from our city. A permit. Not only did they not show up in riot gear to beat us up, they gave us toilets and free electricity. For the first time in my life I was proud of my home, and felt guilty for the things I had said in the beginning about Pensacola being the only place in the world that could destroy something as beautiful as this movement.

 Then, the division started happening. At first, people were having lively debates about different topics. The diversity was wonderful, because far too often people are not willing to stand up for what they believe in. I watched as people debated back and forth on where we should go, when we should do things, and laughed as by the end, everyone was in agreement or at least willing to agree that the majority had chosen something good. I thought, “this is democracy!” But as the days went on, the opposition became louder, and more militant. For a while, the conspiracy theorist in me started to wonder if we had people who were only there to cause arguments, things became more and more divided and suddenly there was hate, and name calling. My husband equated it to the first church, and begged people not to divide this wonderful community.

 It has only been six days since the first rally in Pensacola, and there is already a schism. What’s sad is that the fight is over something so small, so minor that I literally cannot grasp the mentality that thinks it’s important. I have become so angry at times that I have forced myself to walk away or close the computer- whatever the source is in that moment- to go yell about it. I have tried to reason with people who simply argue with every single thing that I say and, quite frankly, I am exhausted.

 I have grown more and more frustrated and disenchanted. This is not the movement of peace that I dreamed of! This is exactly what the media is portraying it as, a bunch of whiney, self-absorbed, entitled young people who are only looking for a fight. This is not the dream!

 After screaming and crying about how miserable this has become, I realized that it is not everyone. The movement in itself is beautiful. If 1000 people are being loving and peaceful, and two people come in screaming obscenities, the impression might be that people are yelling obscenities. However, what is two jerks compared to a thousand people who ARE being the change they wish to see in the world!?

 Let us not be distracted by the loud, repetitive dissenters. Let us look around us at the quietly peaceful environment that we have. Love is so much more subtle than hate, and it’s harder to recognize peace when it is juxtaposed to violence. I realize now that I was being unfair and short-sighted. I assumed that since there were people who are incapable of functioning in any society- culture or counter-culture- that we were failing.

 But if we open our eyes to the fact that we have already succeeded in our goal to change the way that we live, we can see that despite others attempting to bring us down, we have already won. We won this battle the day that we decided to love one another, and give our time, resources, and strengths to one another. This is IT. Right now, we are a part of changing the world, and a few people will not get in the way of that. It’s too late. You can blow out a candle, but you can’t blow out a fire.

~Tashina

Filed Under: Guest Writers Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , , ,

Mom Blogging Platforms

24 Oct By

When you are first starting out to create a blog, its very important to decide exactly where you are going to put up shop….basically, the biggie…Wordpress or Blogger.

You first need to decide what you are DOING online…

Are you looking:

  • to make friends
  • blog about your life and kids
  • are you a hobby or a professional
  • are you going to monetize

Defining your reasons and goals in the beginning will allow you to narrow down where you should go first. While I am used to WordPress, I did take the time to check out Blogger and Typepad when I first became a blogger.

There are many hosted services like Blogger, WordPress (.com), Typepad, and LiveJournal, but the two big ones are Blogger vs. WordPress.

Blogger:

One of the most widely used blogging platforms, of course, is Blogger by Google. Blogger tends to get indexed in search engines a lot more quickly then other spots; this is because its owned by GOOGLE. So easy there…

With Blogspot,  you receive your name for free, but it will include a “Blogspot” name (example: http://5150mommy.blogspot.com ) in the title. While you can buy a domain name and set the nameservers, not nearly enough bloggers take advantage of that customization option. If you choose Blogger/Blogpsot, make sure you do. You also will have access to its very easily used software, and be able to add free or cheap templates to personalize your account. One personal complaint for me about blogger, is that it has no way to create true categorization. This can result in long lists of keywords on your sidebar or having to fix your blog by months, rather then minimized selections, or worse, no categories at all. If someone cannot easily navigate and find material, chances are they wont hunt it down. How often do you go searching through the “old posts” button? I like a very minimized search tool on a blog and a clean set up, and this type of sidebar would drive me nuts.

Keep in mind that when you use free templates, it takes a lot more work to define yourself. Its often better, especially if you are branding your blog, to hire a professional. I recommend my designer, which you can see in my footer if you are interested.  Other options are to purchase a premium template and for round $100 and some CSS skills, you can make your blog pleasant, easily navigated, and have a presence of a personal touch. This also helps define who you are so you are not compared with everyone else out there. I cannot tell you how many blogs I have come across that use free templates and I start to get confused on which one I am at. It makes them unmemorable to have a design that is recognizable and makes you feel good about your own site. If you want your blog to be noticed AND remembered, its best to invest in it. If you are partially HTML savvy, you can join places like our forum, where we have designers that are part of us, and offer free advice and help for those “stuck”.

Free Blogger Professional Design:

Some things to remember on free services like blogger.com and wordpress.com:

1) its FREE

2) the software is about near idiot proof. Already set up, its like a plug and play mentality. You need almost zero knowledge to become a blogger

3) No pesky updates to worry about. Every 2 months I notice an “upgrade” button inside my blog since I am self hosted and its FRIGHTENING to upgrade. If you don’t upgrade, you face potential security risks, so either way, its scary

4) you have LESS control over your blog. You often times have no control over to monetize your blog if you get to that point or to put in specialized templates. Remember…they own the content there, so they don’t just give you free reign with FTP

If you decide to self host, many hosters already have a Fantastico set up, which also allows a one button set up of your blogging software. This means you wont need to go through setting up a database and connecting it and all of that, just to get it up and running. Hit a button, fill out your name, save, and Voila! Blog appears! Self hosting in a snap. I like to do things the hard way, so I downloaded my software and set it up on my own.

Self hosting can be very beneficial, especially as your blog grows, and you want to add more features. Right now we host a chat room and a forum which is on our host. Its easy to connect them all together and we have complete control. If you start on a hosted site and want to move to a self hosted, it can sometimes be painful and scary. We recently moved our self hosted from one hoster to a self hosted on a new hoster and it was a LONG, LONG day. Its better to make that decision sooner, then later, if you notice your blog growing and you want to stick to this “blogging thing”.

WordPress

WordPress offers free hosted and also self hosted software. I personally believe that wordpress is more for the professional blogger then most blogger programs out there. However, that comes with a price as there are less wordpress designers and it can be tricky, and confusing, if something goes wrong with your site. I cant stress enough to keep a backup of your blog before you start messing around. WordPress comes with hundreds of templates to utilize, that are easily customized by just overwriting the pictures with new ones, or changing the color codes in the CSS template. There are also thousands of plugins to use to customize your blog for whatever your purpose is. From adding in video, to polls, to automatic signatures, its as simple as downloading, adding, and hitting an activate button. What I like about wordpress too, is if something is incompatible, it doesn’t just load it. It shuts off the plug-in and lets you know that it cant be loaded.

WordPress also has a very easy import button where you can bring over your blogger, moveable type, and more right into its software. My only glitch when I was changing blogs from my old one to this one, was that my exported files were TOO BIG to actually upload them and I couldn’t send large files to my hoster. If you have 100s of posts, and thousands of comments, it can be very difficult to work; it didn’t for me. However, again, I like to do things the hard way, so it was probably user inflicted error.

WordPress is also set up to have multiple authors. We have over here admin, editor, contributor, author, and subscriber and you can share files and posts. With a multi person blog like MomDot, this allows me to give specified blog access to all of my writers, depending on their role with our blog.

I hands down think that wordpress is the most customizable, personalized blogging software out there, buts it not all roses. Although they have a very supportive community and a forum to turn to should you face a problem, wordpress designs and customizers don’t come in the 1000′s, nor are they cheap if you face a problem. Here is a sample of FREE professional wordpress design:

Again, BACK UP before you start screwing with the HTML. Everything I have learned on wordpress, I have done myself, but it also means that I have “blown up” about 10 blogs before this one.

Like Googles Blogspot, you can get a hosted account with WordPress.com and also purchase a customized domain name.

My opinion is if you are going to keep your blog a small hobby then Blogger may never bother you, but if you are looking to grow and have monetization goals and more, skip it all and use WordPress out the gate.

~Trisha


Filed Under: Guest Writers Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Amazing business cards that will get you noticed

20 Oct By 10 Comments

For as long as I can remember I have had this business card picture on my computer.

I have an idea to make a cut out of myself and give out extra cards with different paperdoll outfits at each conference I attend. Like…collectibles. Unfortunately it has absolutely nothing to do with my site, so its something that has never come to fruition.

That being said, I am absolutely inspired by these business cards. The point to a card is to get someone to keep it and often cards are boring. There cards are anything BUT boring.

Do you have a unique business card and if so, what is your business?

Feel free to send to me at trisha(AT)momdot.com and I will add it here.


Filed Under: Guest Writers Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Modern Geography

12 Oct By 29 Comments

My sister shared this on facebook and I just cracked up.

So. Very. True.

Filed Under: Guest Writers