Who loves summer camp? I know that I did as a short thing and still do! Sure it has been a long time since I packed up, joined the Polar Bear club, made a bazillion new friends, sang silly songs, made gnome homes and waited for the letters from home. Oh, AND never mind that today’s camp was a single day event in Mount Baker with flushing toilets and I didn’t have to wash my dishes under the guise of “dish duty” nor bring my own mess kit a la Girl Scout Camp. Today’s camp was brought to us by Schoolhouse craft, focused on raising the water level for all bloggers through connections, collaboration (although I prefer the word collegiality), straightforward conversation and inspiring bloggers from our own PNW back yard.

Star Studded Panelist! Oh, may my day this is my main gig come soon…. and, hopefully sooner, I can surround myself with lovely blogging peeps (or at least people that don’t require me to explain “why and what I blog about” – hellooooo there is so much more to me than my professional life……)

Name dropping to commence –

• Arianne Foulks (along with some fantastic team mates) with Aeolidia over at http://aeolidia.com/blog/
• Megan Reardon with Not Martha, you know she’s awesome because of her first name, http://www.notmartha.org
• Blair Stocker rockin’ wisecraft with up to the moment, whatever she is doing http://blairpeter.typepad.com/
• Andie Powers (reminds me of crafty Renee Zelwegger a tad) of assemble (one of my favorite words) along with many others http://www.andiepowers.com/
• Marie LeBaron queen maker-taker over at http://www.makeandtakes.com/about, I need to find me some kidlets to craft with
• Moorea Seal who’s long list of awesomeness includes almost a mil pinterest followers – whaat?!?! Even though I don’t know her personally can feel her kindness
• Melanie Biehle of Inward Facing Girl, who is sharing her true self through dabbling and curating http://inwardfacinggirl.com/about-me/
• Marlo Miyashiro the MC Mistress with the mostest and blogger machine at many places including http://thestudioofawesome.blogspot.com/, http://imakecutestuff.blogspot.com/

I also chewed my lunch (on the cutest picnic checkered cloth and campfire centerpiece) and dished about collaboration opportunities with some interesting and diverse ladies from the Seattle area. Talk about talent – enjoyed debriefing myself this afternoon (status post nap) by browsing their websites. There were so many others there that I just ran out of time to chat with but know some virtual opportunities lie ahead.

• Check out Ayelet Barsotti’s blog and etsy shop over at http://www.thegracefulrose.blogspot.com/ (not to be confused with gracefulrose.com, ok!); she was much too modest today – great stuff!
• Theresa Harris with Thrive Art Online – another one of those inspiring women doing what they love and being creative everyday – I have so many dear friends that need to connect their kiddos with her! http://www.thriveart.com
• Rebecca Bush – a local artist and recent vegan (we had a great chat about an upcoming book review!) http://www.rebeccabush.com/blog.html
• Michelle Templeton another local artist, who also features woodblock prints, including one of chickens (squee!) http://michelletempletonart.wordpress.com/

My blog to-do list is ever growing …..

• Create a formal editorial calendar
• Reach out to potential guest bloggers and offer to be a guest blogger (just do it!)
• Try a blog “house tour”
• Set up a series of give aways (I have lots of goodies!)
• Join a link party and then host one
• Rekindle my craftgawker, foodgawker and taste spotting accounts
• Be graciously aggressive (is that NOT the perfect phrase)
• Play to some of my common search terms (SEO – like “my life as a chicken”) and get a strategy
• Private facebook groups with other bloggers
• Research hootsuite, scheduled pins and stumbles
• Look into Adobe Creative and others vs. pixlr (what I currently use)
• Other sites and resources to look into : square space, droopel, eye-fi, tethered photos, linkie tools, yoast, rewardstyle (and how it connects to pinterest??), craftzine, babble.com, passionfruit adds, blue print social, pollinate media, federated media, clever girls collective, daily buzz
• Come up with more comprehensive list of blog conferences and figure out how to get myself there!
  • Some examples: schoolhousecraft (the best and local!), blogher, alt summit, snap, mom 2.0, camp mighty, 99u ….
• Be more formal with series blogs (some great ideas brewing)
• Reach and at least TRY some product reviews of stuff I would use anyway (true to myself still)
• Soul search on advertising – probably not big enough yet
• Write a newsletter for my followers and potential followers
• Sign up and play around with vine, doin’ some stop motion quilting?
• Do some interviews of the great women I met today and of some of my favorite websites and business (any volunteers?)
• Sign up for the fall Schoolhouse Craft conference http://schoolhousecraft.com/
• Make cutie-pa-tootie – s’more treats – thank you Marlo

To make: Crust graham crackers in a bowl, have your marshmallows ready and melt a bowl of chocolate in the microwave or over low heat in a double boiler on the stove. Poke a pretzel stick in the middle of a marshmallow. Instead of roasting your marshmallow over a fire (or burning them like I prefer), roll it in the melted chocolate and then in the crushed graham cracker crumbs. Let your S’More cool on a piece of waxed or parchment paper before enjoying. Fun, easy but I still like the open flame on a straighten out coat hanger version better.

Pfew! Exhausting day but exhilarating just the same….. I took a power nap with my dog after all this to let it soak in! BTW – he has a new name to add to the list Chief Tricky Dirty Paw…… of course there is a story.