Blog Crush and the OC Blogger Ball

What a difference 216 days make.

On January 26, 2010, Sugar and Spice was born. It came after a night at Haven Restaurant, in Orange. The Modchik and I crashed our very first Blog Crush, with the intentions of meeting local bloggers. I was their to support my friend in her professional research and development for her upcoming blog. I walked through those doors with no intention of launching my blog, life was too busy and the little people, well,  time-consuming.

I recall meeting both of Marcy and Suz that night then returning home to share with DH about spending time with like-minded people. Theye were stupendously smart and fabulous. Suz, I had known since our daughter’s shared a Kindergarten teacher 3 years ago. While Marcy welcomed me; she was a savvy.witty.kick.in.the.pants.gal – my favorite. That fateful night everyone greeted myself and Lindsey with open arms.  Friendships were born.

Marcy, after charming me with her humor, looked me in the eye and encouraged me to be myself and start a blog “you can do it girl” don’t be shy.  Two days later I created Sugar and Spice for those who were Beagle Brigade curious.  Enlightening folks who wanted to know more about our foster Beagles (Maddox/Buddy) and our new fancy show Beagle (Daphney) co-owned with Auburn Beagle in San Fran.  Eventually, fate would have it, the requests came from loving and ultra supportive friends to share more of myself on my website (this took enormous thought & courage), and now thankfully, I am rubbing shoulders with some incredibly bright supportive and talented folks.

Below is that fateful night last January captured by Marcie Taylor the Suburban Momma.

Above from the left, Suzanne Broughton OCFAMILY, Marcy Massura of Marcy Massura.com , Lindsey Garrett The Modchik, myself and Shanna Coady My Favorite Everything. Adam from Adam the Dad, and Lindsey again.

130 posts later, I love this little place where I set up some curtains and call home.   After last weekend, I realized this community is so much bigger than I ever imagined.   I wish to share a glimpse of this community with you from the second annual Orange County Blogger Ball last weekend at the Embassy Suites in Anaheim.  Put together by  Marcy Massura &  Suz Broughton. It was a splendid night where all corners of the OC virtual community met IRL (In Real Life).  Where we could “ talk about things our non-blogger friends and family have banned us from talking about, like; Flickr, page views, that really funny post you read yesterday, and Twitter.

Photo by Modchik Photography

Everyone could follow the  Twitter feed Waterfall for #OCBLOGGERBALL and chime in virtually throughout the night.  So Clever.  Steve Bush, from The Bush Report, had me laughing at his tweets.   The raffle featured some amazing giveaways.  The Atwater Collection provided one of the many amazing prizes, an Ipad.  I did say a little prayer to the techie gods to land this baby in my lap, but I could not be more thrilled for Tracy Clark from Shutter Sisters to walk away with it. She was celebrating her 42nd birthday and the winning number on her raffle ticket was #####42. How serendipitous. Thank you Atwater for making her day.

This was only one of the cool story from the night. Click on the links below to read further tales from the Ball:

• The Blog Crush
• The Modchik
• Tiny Oranges
• The Bush Report
• Tracey Clark
• Single Mom Sanctuary
• The Glamorous Life
• Linnys Vault
• Adam The Dad
• Send Chocolate
• South Anaheim Embassy Suites
• OC Register Mom Blog

Finally a huge SHOUT OUT goes to the nights sponsors who are on the cutting edge of marketing. They are some of the very firsts to realize the emerging potential of Social Media:

• Embassy Suites Anaheim South
• Atwater Collection
•  Lisa Mertins / Life Illustrated
• Broughton Hospitality
•  Snapfish
• Fresh & Easy
• Smith & Vandiver
• Eli Lids
• Disneyland Marketing
•  Pampered Chef/ Michelle Stillson
• Smartly
• Discovery Science Center
•  Asics

And Lastly…..

THANK FAIRY BLOG MOTHERS for filling my 216 days with purpose, support and kindness.

It was an outstanding evening.