Posts Tagged "2010"

Cafe Bebe has a very good year

Posted by cafebebemama on Dec 30, 2010 in Blogger Love, Motherhood | 12 comments

Cafe Bebe has had a very good year in 2010. My blogging has come on leaps and bounds, I’ve had opportunities that I never would have dreamed of and Little Miss and I have regularly travelled back and forth from London which has become one of my favourite cities. I’ve been able to reach some “professional” goals and am really looking forward to 2011 where I can build on those.

On the family front, we continue to be a very happy family of three and that’s probably how we’ll stay for the forseeable future. Most of the members of our immediate and extended family have been healthy and happy and while we haven’t been able to go back to the US this year, Skype has helped that absence.

As with every television show out there at the moment, I thought I would do a year in review! Showing you where Cafe Bebe has been, has become and showing you the changes in Little Miss as well. I’m not entirely sure what 2011 will bring but I, for one, am quite excited about it. Ready for a look back at 2010? Here goes…

January:

A blizzard blew in in January and nearly scuppered our first SOLO adventure to London! Little Miss and I attended the Lyle’s Syrup Pancake Day blogger event where I nearly had the chance to meet the now-famous My Daddy Cooks. Had he not been struck down with a tummy bug, we would have met sooner than we did and maybe Archie and Little Miss would be boyfriend and girlfriend right now. Alas, it was not to be.

This blogger event was really one of the first of its kind that I had attended, hosted by Fleishman-Hillard, who I have come to work with on a regular basis. I never knew making pancakes could be so much fun. It was also the event where I was first asked when baby number two was due which led to new thoughts of getting back into shape. Gah…strangely enough, I’m still in virtually the same shape!

One of my most-commented-on posts was Smore Chubby Bunnies Please where I featured my talent for stuffing marshmallows in my mouth. This also was the month where I kicked into high gear on vlogging.

February:

February saw us celebrating Pancake Day in style thanks to Lyle’s Syrup. Little Miss was quite keen on the pancakes but we do tend to resort to American style pancakes most days.

I hosted a very spontaneous Best of the Rest carnival this month when a few of us bloggers missed a deadline for a BMB Carnival. I advertised it on Twitter in the morning and by my 3pm deadline had 16 bloggers who had sent me links. This was one of my first experiences putting together a carnival and seeing the power of Twitter!

March:

In March we had an amazing opportunity to stay in the City Inn Westminster (now the Mint Hotel) as a journalist. Ha! We were going to be in London for a Reebok blogger event on the Sunday so I worked out a way to stay at the City Inn Westminster to review it for its family-friendliness. It had BAGS of family friendliness and we had an amazingly wonderful time both there and during the weekend.

I attended the Reebok Ree-tone blogger event that weekend and was introduced to the most amazing pair of shoes which I still wear on a nearly daily basis. I was also introduced to the lovely Kay and Gia who I have continued to work with on Reebok projects and others. While I am still in the same rubbish shape that I was in at that time, I do at least have the kit to help me in 2011!

March saw my first entries into the now FAMOUS (or infamous??) Gallery at Sticky Fingers. I submitted my first attempt with Young Me, Round Me, Just Right Me which was very well received. I have managed to do an entry for every Gallery theme but one or two since starting. It’s been an amazing weekly blogging challenge which has really pulled the community together and allowed bloggers to find loads of new inspiration. Thank you Tara! We all love you.

April:

The warm air returned in April and we had great family adventures at Burghley House Garden of Surprises and the Sculpture Garden (where I took some rather lovely pics of Little Miss) and Wicksteed Park in Kettering.

We also had the glorious fortune to WIN a Stokke Xplory pushchair. This is the Cadillac of Pushchairs. I’d watched it from afar, marvelled at it’s brilliance but would never have been able to afford! But then the fantabulous Sian at Mummy Tips had a competition on her blog and lo and behold, we won! I now know what pushchairs are meant to be. I wrote about my pushchair experiences in Pushchairs-From the Ridiculous to the Sublime as I have had the pleasure of testing about 25 pushchairs in 2010. I know. I have a problem!

May:

May found Little Miss and I travelling down to London again for another brilliant blogger event! We had the pleasure of attending the launch of the Annabel Karmel Top 100 Pasta Dishes book along with several other lovely bloggers. I also had the immense pleasure of trialling and reviewing the Nokia N97 smartphone (before I knew the joys of Smartphones) and the Nokia Netbook which you see in this picture. Mobile technology is a brilliant thing!

My most-commented-on post was another Gallery entry- The Many Faces of Me where I showed how my life has changed over the last 2 years. Obviously for the better!

June:

June found me taking a real Blogging Reality Check as I was spiralling into a bit of a mess. Stats, competition and pressure took a lot of the fun out of blogging for me. But thanks to a trip to Schwalbach, Germany to the P&G Research and Development facility (Thank you Pampers) and a Little Miss and Me trip to Newquay (Thank you Linda Jones) I pulled myself out of my doldrums a bit and snapped back into action.

July:

We had the luxury and pleasure of having my husband’s twin sister and her family here with us for a few weeks in the end of June/beginning of July. It was so wonderful to have family time together where Little Miss could play with her cousins (who are all considerably older than her) and enjoy her auntie and uncles. We had about the only sunny weather of the summer when they were here which was perfect as we travelled to the beaches of Hunstanton to soak it in.

In July I committed to having A New Attitude as I was getting sick of myself and my whinging. I have felt much better for it but need to remind myself of it from time to time.

July also was the first Cybermummy event in London! What a great event it was and everyone walked away from it feeling happy and full of support. I am itching to attend the Cybermummy 2011 event in June. I unfortunately had another 2 fellow-bloggers mistake me for being pregnant but when you look 5 months pregnant, that’s bound to happen. Sigh. 2011 will be different…I promise.

August:

Following my declaration to have a new attitude in July, I made a mega-change. I cut off most of my hair! Hair Today, Gone Tomorrow was just the beginning. I have gone shorter and shorter as 2010 has come to a close to the point where I don’t think I should go any shorter. I’ll have to have the clippers if I do! Ack! I do feel much better…stronger…roar-y-er! I quite like being roar-y-er!

September:

In September I attended the MAD awards for which I was nominated in the Most Innovative Blogger category. Prior to attending the event at Butlins in Bognor Regis, I had the opportunity to have White Stuff sponsor my outfit, Citroen sponsor a vehicle for our transport to and from the event and the chance to enjoy a travelling adventure with 3 brilliant bloggers. I didn’t win but had the chance to catch up with some good friends which is always a bonus.

My most-commented-on-post in September was another Gallery entry entitled School Days in the 70′s where I reminisced about a poignant primary school memory. It’s quite amazing to look back on those moments!

October:

We had blogger events coming out of our eyeballs in October! There was a fantastic event with children involved at Build-A-Bear Workshop in Covent Garden; a Weight Watchers Pro Points Plan launch for me and the kick-off of the Pampers Big Kiss campaign. It was a very good month for me professionally!

I also had the opportunity to flex my blogging/writing/social media muscles by gaining a CLIENT in Childalert! I have set up and manage the Street Smart Kids blog which supports Childalert. I have also started a Facebook Fan Page and Twitter account for Childalert. I’m hoping to create some more great things for Childalert in 2011 as well as branching out to work with other brands/businesses.

My most-commented-on post was Here Come the Girls…guess what prompted that one?

November:

The month of November was AMAZING for the Cafe Bebe family! We had the pleasure of visiting Yew Tree Farmhouse in the Cotswolds as well as the Cotswolds Wildlife Park thanks to Owners Direct. We then turned around and journeyed down to Southwest Wales for a magnificent weekend at Celtic Haven courtesy of Have a Lovely Time and Celtic Haven. We’ve never had such opportunities and we are eternally grateful as a family to have had such a great adventure!

I also turned 40 in November! Ack! I showed the difference 10 years can make in my Notice Anything Different post for Tara’s Gallery.

December:

In December I had the pleasure of working on some amazing project for British Mummy Bloggers. BMB is the reason I am blogging here so I am thrilled to see the growth and development of this fab community. There are some great things coming in 2011 as well and I’m really excited about that. I helped to organise the 1st Annual BMB Christmas Party which was held on 8 December at St. Martin’s-in-the-Field in London. Despite running around like a chicken with my head cut off at the event, I had an amazing time and I think a fair few bloggers did as well.

I also now write the Blogger of the Week feature for the BMB Blog which allows me the chance to find some amazing bloggers! It’s great to have new reads and inspiration. We’re also highlighting Brilliance in Blogging in 2010 and will announce the winners in January. It’s going to be a great recognition of achievement and, well, brilliance!

In addition to being a month of Christmas preparation, we had a great deal of family sadness with the death of our family dog, Sinjin. I detailed his life in Love Lost, the final gallery theme for 2010. We still miss him terribly.

2010 draws to a close in the next day and a half. It’s been a year of growth, development, change, love, happiness and loss. I’m really looking forward to seeing what 2011 brings. I know I will be making a lot of changes in my diet and lifestyle thanks to my Coeliac Disease diagnosis but I’m anticipating a year of feeling and looking a lot better. How about you? What will 2011 bring for you?

Thank you to everyone who has bothered to visit Cafe Bebe in 2010. I appreciate your comments and insight and you taking the time to read and indulge my desire to be read. Have a very Happy New Year! See you in January!

All Change in 2010

Posted by cafebebemama on Jan 11, 2010 in Blogger Love, Judith's Room, Motherhood | 16 comments

Time for a change

Well, we are two weeks into 2010 and already I’m rearranging!  Friends and family who know me well, know that I can’t stand to look at anything the same for too long.  I frequently change the furniture arrangement in our lounge, particularly for the seasons.  In the Spring and Summer it’s all about the out of doors so the furniture shifts to the back of the lounge by the patio doors.  In the Autumn and Winter it’s all about the HEAT from the only heat source in our lounge, the fireplace.  Every three months or so, I dutifully shuffle everything to different places, reorganise and enjoy the change of view.  Hubby comes home from work and says “Oh no!”  It’s a good thing that no one in our immediate family is visually impaired; I’d be messing with their minds on a regular basis.

I started blogging in June of 2009 and quickly got involved in product reviewing in addition to blogging.  Never satisfied, I finally ended up with Café Bébé as it is today- a self-hosted, WordPress blog about my life as a Mummy and some of the brilliant things we have been fortunate enough to do and receive.  The product reviewing quickly took over as the primary focus for me which is why the main address site (www.cafebebe.co.uk) became Reviews at Café Bébé.  However, recently, I’ve begun to regret that decision.  Joining groups like Judith’s Room and focusing more on my dream of freelance writing has allowed me to see that the most important aspect of Café Bébé is the writing.  My writing has slowed down because I have overstretched myself…I need to focus on what I do best.

I’ve also seen a turn in the way that product reviewing is going in the blogging world.  I want to be seen as a Mummy Blogger and Freelance Writer, not a product reviewer.  I won’t claim to be perfect, by any means, however.  I have used my Just Ask philosophy to get a lot of things that we never would have had access to.  Little Miss’ clothing and belongings have increased dramatically this past year and that’s lovely as we are on a very limited income.  But, I’ve come to realise that if people want me to review their products, they’ll come to me (If I build it, they will come).  I shouldn’t need to be knocking down anyone else’s doors.  I don’t want to give Mummy Blogging a bad name and for me, I’ve never wanted to make a career out of product reviewing; I’ve wanted to make a career out of writing.

So, hopefully, as of Tuesday 12 January (if my host technical support team can sort me out), Café Bébé will become a solo blog with a few pages, multiple categories and will primarily be about the writing.  I have integrated my product reviews into the blog under the PRODUCT REVIEWS category (strangely enough) so they are still there in their original form.  I have a few reviews yet to publish for products that I have received in the last few months and I will continue to review products if I am approached or if something happens to fall in my lap.  I have the joy of continuing to review products at The Great Toy Guide , Living with Kids, and Mummy Reviews in addition to my commissioned reviews for MadeForMums website (as long as all of them continue to have me).  Let me know your thoughts about product reviews?  Do you do them?  Are you regularly approached?  If you don’t do them, why not?  I’ve really enjoyed the fun of receiving products and the challenge of writing about them in a constructive way but I really think it’s time for a fresh start in 2010.

I welcome your comments as well as critiques.  And of course, please let me know if you have any problems accessing anything on Café Bébé.  Thank you for your support and here’s to a brilliant year!

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The Cafe Bebe Year in Review

Posted by cafebebemama on Dec 30, 2009 in American Mum Me, Blogger Love, Little Miss Adventures, Motherhood | 18 comments

Look what I can do Mummy!

2009 has been a pretty amazing year for our family so it’s time for the Cafe Bebe Year in Review.  Little Miss turned 1, Hubby got a promotion, pay rise and company car at his work and Mummy has accomplished a fair few things as well.  As everyone and their sister are doing Year in Review montages, I thought I would join the fray with my own.  I feel a bit weird about bragging but what the hell…it’s ok once a year, isn’t it?

• Little Miss managed to start crawling in March (9 months) and walking in April (10 months)- she doesn’t waste time.  Mummy was instantly catapulted to a newfound sense of panic and worry as I could no longer leave her in one place and count on her being there a few seconds later.  Along with the massive physical achievements, Little Miss has become ridiculously verbal using words like “tasty”, “delicious” and “amazing” (thank you Cbeebies) in addition to other not as acceptable words like “crap”, “stop it”, “naughty” and “silly” and my personal favourite, “No Mummy”.  However, she is extremely adept at using “please”, “thank you” and ” ‘cuse me” in addition to “pardon me” after she toots!  What a delightful girl we have in our lives.
• Daddy/Hubby has managed to thoroughly win over his daughter to the extent that I now readily hear “No Mummy” from Little Miss when it comes time for baths or if I manage to get a lie in and then enter the lounge some time later.  Unfortunately, Mummy is still the only one who will do in the middle of the night.  It really is wonderful, though, to see Little Miss loving her Daddy and how much he adores her.  I even let them out together, WITHOUT ME, once in a while!  How brave am I?  On the work front, Hubby has continued to slog away at a job he doesn’t love so that I can stay home and raise our daughter and for that I am eternally grateful.  We are hoping, in the new year, that things calm down a bit with work so that Hubby can get some of his own personal time.  We both need to get our asses in gear for 2010.
• My family is lovely and wonderful and have accomplished a lot in their own right!  My Dad and Step-Mum travelled with my Grandmother (who, at the age of 83, had never been out of the US) to visit us here in England.  It was a wonderful, albeit short, visit which was inspiring on many levels.  My Mum travelled to spend Little Miss’ birthday with us in June and had a great time bonding with her granddaughter.  She misses her a lot…thank you Skype!  My brother managed to get married, FINALLY, to a lovely girl who can properly kick his ass as she’s a black belt in Tae-Kwon Do!  You go girl.  They have a very blended and loving family and it was amazing to share their wedding and celebrations with them in America in October.  My youngest Stepbrother is engaged to his long-time love and they’ve set a date for August 2010 at our family cottage…I am very jealous but excessively happy for them.  My sister-in-law and her family have moved from Singapore to Melbourne, Australia…as if Singapore wasn’t far enough?!  We’d love to visit but I doubt budget will ever allow for it.  Still, we miss you and love that you’re loving where you live.  Now if I could just get Qantas to sponsor a travel blog post…  Otherwise, on the whole everyone in my family is healthy and mostly happy so what more could you wish for?

Now for a little bit about my year…I don’t think you’ll need a bucket but you might…it’s been a rather good year for me!

• I found an amazing group of Mummies and Babies with whom we did classes, coffee mornings, play dates and Mummies-Nites-Off.  We haven’t been able to get together as much in December but I’m hoping that will get better in 2010.
• I began blogging in June 2009 on Blogger and joined British Mummy Bloggers at the same time.  Wow…what a difference a GROUP makes!  My Blogger Cafe Bebe, transfered into a Webs.com Cafe Bebe and finally a self-hosted Cafe Bebe in August…I’m never satisfied.  In addition to Blogging and BMB, I joined Twitter in August and thus began a new addiction, many new contacts and ways to promote my blog and many hours of support and distraction.  I love my Twitter mates!
• I had the opporunity, in July, to test the EA Sports Active Personal Trainer Programme thanks to Kim Hong and Fleishman-Hillard PR.  What a brilliant programme!  I plan on getting my bum in gear with it beginning next week.  But the connection with Kim has been fantastic and allowed me opportunities that I’d never dreamed of.  I’ve been on board the Pampers/UNICEF campaign for Tetanus Vaccines along with an amazing group of Bloggers from England and Ireland.  We got to meet the actress Natascha McElhone and were treated to a presentation and meal that made all of us feel rather special.  Thanks Kim & Fleishman-Hillard (and Pampers/UNICEF).  I’m looking forward to other fab campaigns in 2010 and more trips to London!  Little Miss and I are becoming very adept at tackling London Transport.
• My first chance to receive, test and review products came thanks to BMB & Silver Cross when I was gifted with the Silver Cross Halo pushchair and Doodle highchair.  What magnificent products!  Thanks Silver Cross…we quite love you.  This opportunity lit a fire and I went on a flurry of testing and reviewing products.  I was able to get “on the books” of MadeForMums as a PAID reviewer and have finally settled on the specialty of PUSHCHAIRS!  I love pushchairs…I can spot and identify them from a mile away!  Then came the brilliant The Great Toy Guide where I have been able to review some lovely items AND attend a special launch of The WotWots at London Zoo.  Amazing!  We got to meet the Milkshake presenters, WotWots creator Martyn Bainton and UK Television legend Nicholas Parsons in addition to seeing fabulous animals.  The lovely Liz at Living with Kids has also taken me into her ranks for The Mums Test where we review more brilliant products and share our opinion.  I’ve also made a great blogging friend in Claire at Mummy Reviews who has graciously added me to her team of Mummy Reviewers.  Watch this site for some great reviews in 2010.  Thanks to these opportunities and my blog being noticed by a few more people, I have had a few PR’s contact me directly to review products.  It’s been interesting for certain and has allowed Little Miss to have some pretty lovely items.  Thanks so much to everyone who’s added to our family life!
• I’ve been wanting to embark on a Freelance Writing career for some time now.  I don’t want to be some power-hungry, world-travelling freelance journalist with a bullet-proof vest and submissions sent from the Middle East but I would like the chance to share a bit of what I know:  being a Mummy and being an American Expat (sometimes the two go together!).  After some amazingly successful coaching from the delightful Peggy at Perfectly Happy Mum (blog post to follow early in 2010) I have managed to write 2 articles about being an American Mum in the UK for The American and American in Britain.  The first, for American in Britain, will appear in the January issue and the article for The American will appear in the February issue.  These assignments were for free but hey, you have to start somewhere.  On a high from that achievement, I have successfully been COMMISSIONED (i.e. PAY) to write at least 3 months of Parenting Pages for Stamford Living magazine beginning with the February issue.  It’s a monthy, local glossy magazine but, again, is a START!  I’m now planning to conquer some form of American media with my American Expat-ness.  I’ll keep you posted on my progress.  Peggy showed me that there’s no reason why I can’t make it happen!  I’ve just got to break it down into bite size pieces and whammo…you might just achieve your dreams.  Watch this space, in other words.  Feel free to contact me if you’d like to commission me to write an article for you!

Enough about me!  It’s been a rather good year with the exception of a massive lack of funds to do what we’d like to do but here’s hoping that some better budgeting and potential additional income from my writing will make 2010 that much better on that front.  I’d like to thank a few people who have made my blogging, writing and online presence possible:

• Claire at The Bump Wear Project, Liz at Violet Posy and Natalie at Bambino Goodies were instrumental in helping me to get my blog(s) up and running and looking gorgeous (if I do say so myself).  They are all lovely ladies and very inspirational to me as well.
• Bloggers who inspire and amaze me:  Claire at Being a Mummy, Sandy at Baby Baby, Amy at And 1 More Means Four, Josie at Sleep is for the Weak, Sally at Who’s the Mummy, Sian at Yummy Mummy Tips, Peggy at Perfectly Happy Mum, Emily at Maternal Tales from the South Coast and Susanna at A Modern Mother.  You ladies blog with consistent brilliance and I have learned a great deal from you.  Thanks for blazing a trail.
• My husband.  I’ve become increasingly unavailable to him in the evenings as it’s my one chance to write uninterrupted.  He avoids computers like the plague and had never once read my blog but he indulges me my new passion and encourages me to find what I need to be ME.  Thank you sweetheart, for letting me find my inner writer.  It’s brought us a lot of great things…here’s to even more in 2010
• My readers…I know some of you and don’t know more of you but thank you for tuning in regularly to my little tales and funnies.  I hope that I keep your interest any maybe even inspire you once in a great while.  I hope I will continue to provide you with good reading material in the new year.

And so comes the end of 2009.  I wish health, happiness, success and wealth for all of you in the new year.  Please share your successes with me…you know I’ll share mine!  Thanks for tuning in regularly.  See you next year!