I have a new post up over at the AllAccess blog.

And I seem to have written the whole thing without capitalizing words for effect.

I KNOW!

SheSpeaks is coming up in a little less than a week, and I am going to spend a chunk of tomorrow working out the finer points of my part of the presentation that I’m doing with Melanie and Shannon.

Because I’m thinking that next week I won’t have much time to work on the presentation what with getting a haircut and looking for brown sandals and wondering why it’s become increasingly impossible to get my eyelashes to curl.

I’m not even kidding about that last thing. It’s driving me crazy. No matter what I do, my eyelashes look like they’ve been ironed.

Anyhoo.

At SheSpeaks one of the things I’m going to be talking about is finding your bloggy voice (tip #1: CRAZY HELPS) and making that voice consistent with the look and feel of your blog.

So. Three things.

1) Would y’all be so kind as to point me to some blogs where you feel like the look of the blog perfectly matches the voice of the person who writes there? And it doesn’t have to be a mama blog – it can be a political blog, a fashion blog, an entertainment news blog, whatever.

Next.

2) Does the look of a blog – the graphics, the fonts, the colors – have any bearing on whether or not you continue to visit? In other words, if someone has incredibly thought-provoking content but the look of the blog isn’t visually appealing, do you care?

Finally.

3) What’s your favorite blog out there in terms of design? What blog makes you sigh with contentment as soon as you click over? And what specifically do you like about it?

If you’re more comfortable emailing me all of this information instead of leaving it in the comments, that’s fine by me. Just please try not to say anything negative about a specific blog because OH, CAN YOU EVEN IMAGINE THE AWKWARD?

And if you also feel led to offer some advice in regard to my impossibly straight eyelash fiasco, I’d be most appreciative.

Really, internets, you’re going to be helping me with a whole host of quandaries.

So if you’re feeling invaluable right about now, well, guess what, YOU TOTALLY SHOULD.

All righty. We have us some winners in not one but two (TWO!) giveaways.

First, the iPod giveaway winner:

Comment 58 – Susan

Susan, check your email – there’s a message from me in there somewhere, and it tells you what you need to do next.

Second, the Ethel gloves giveaway winners:

Comment 63 – Jeni – Jubliee
Comment 128 – Laurie – Gala
Comment 148 – Misi – Rendevouz
Comment 237 – Michelle (no blog) – Signature
Comment 371 – Kathleen W. – Jubilee

And remember, if you didn’t win but would like to order a pair of Ethel gloves, you can enter in the discount code “Boomama” and receive 10% off of your total order. Just click here to get started.

Congratulations, everybody!

We had an unexpected change-o-family-plans earlier this week (vague enough for you? you’re ever-so-welcome), and as a result of that situation there’s been an extra young’un at our house for the last few days. We have loved – LOVED – having him here, and even though I’m pretty sure his parents won’t go for it, we’re thinking of keeping him forever.

Or maybe they could just loan him to us periodically. That would be delightful.

So we’ve been doing all sorts of wild and wonderful summertime activities so that our visiting little man won’t think so much about the fact that MY PEOPLE, THEY ARE NOT HERE WITH ME, and he has been an absolute trooper. We’ve hung out at the park and at the most refreshingly air-conditioned McDonald’s PlayPlace in North America; we’ve been to the pool and to the movies; we’ve taken every cushion off of every piece of furniture and made the world’s largest pillow pile in the middle of our living room.

There’s been some exceptional jumping on that pillow pile. You have no idea.

And if I can’t figure out what to do next I think I’ll just round up some tambourines and drums and let the preschoolers in the house start themselves a band.

It’ll be my one and only shot at singing lead vocals.

And don’t you love how I threw out that musical activity option as if I have an extensive on-hand supply of musical instruments?

Like I’ll just go pull some tambourines and drums out of the storage closet where I keep all our maracas, trumpets and guitars?

Finally, this morning we were at the movies and I had to take Alex to the restroom, and since I’m out of practice at the whole hauling-a-toddler-on-my-hip deal, I lost my balance when we rounded the last corner on our way back to our seats.

And when I stumbled I inadvertently stepped on a fellow theatre patron’s toe, and apparently the pain was quite severe on her end, because she yelled “OW!” and dropped her popcorn and then yelled “OW!” one more time.

I whisper-apologized profusely while trying to find our row as unobtrusively as possible (there was, after all, a movie playing), and the nice injured lady said that she was FINE, REALLY, SHE WAS JUST FINE as she held on to her foot for dear life and rocked back and forth in her chair.

So I spent the next ten minutes glancing over at the woman and wondering if EMTs have ever been summoned to a movie theatre for some sort of toe-related injury, because judging from how long she clung to that foot, I don’t think my flip-flops with the three-inch wedge heels did her any favors.

When the movie was over I tried to find her so that I could apologize again (I am an over-apologizer. It’s a trait that fits nicely with my over-worrying.), but by the time we returned to the scene of the toe-stepping crime, all that was left was her pile of popcorn on the theatre floor.

I sort of halfway expected to see a taped outline of her sandal.

But then again, I tend to err on the side of irrational.

Just consider it part of my charm.