We’ve Moved
Find us at socalladybloggers.com
We’re so glad you found us.
SoCal Lady Bloggers was founded by Megan McClain, Sidney Patrick, and Carolyn West after the San Diego BlogHER Conference back in 2011. Those of us Los Angeles bloggers were looking for a way to stay in touch and support each other – online and in person. We didn’t realize that so many other women were also looking for a community of like-minded bloggers.
While we’ve had ups and downs over the year, our SoCal Lady Bloggers private Facebook group is still going strong and I encourage you to hop over and become a member of an amazing group of women. You will find a group dedicated to supporting each other and sharing opportunities… a no-drama, judgment-free place to help you become a better blogger.
Whether you have just recently started a blog… or have been blogging for years, we want you to feel welcome here.
Carolyn West
Co-Founder and Manager
Meet Our Sponsor: Whitney Howard Designs
I’m really excited to introduce you all to Whitney Howard Designs. They are our new sponsor at SoCal Lady Bloggers and I have been in love with their line of inspirational jewelry for years.
My husband Howard and I, share more than a marriage and three children. We also share a unique sense for creating “heartfelt art objects.” Since we first met, we had chemistry for creating not just a loving relationship, but we had a natural creative spark to create meaningful things. When we first started dating we started a candle company called Cosmic Relief Zodiac Candles. Our candles really took off and before we knew it, we were selling to shops across the country.
I went on to open a retail shop with my sister, called Handle With Care.
Handle with Care was an extraordinary retail shop, and we were open for 16 fantastic years. Howard spent years in the corporate world learning and gaining the experience necessary to lead Whitney Howard Designs in the right direction.
Howard and I learned early on in our relationship that we had the magic needed to be able to work together and really enjoy it. Flash forward to the present. We have a beautiful family and a business we love. The Studio at Whitney Howard Designs is a workplace that brings us much joy.
Howard and I are grateful to be able to express ourselves as artists and designers of products that touch peoples’ lives.
Our entire collection is inspired by our desire to bring peace, love, healing, and gratitude to those who give and receive them.
Our newest collaboration is The Shop, a retail space for Whitney Howard Designs and most especially a debut to our three children’s businesses.
Our intention with The Shop is to allow our children to learn about the American Dream first hand. We want our children to thrive in school and in the world around them. Allowing our children to have their businesses within The Shop allows them to learn about business, how to be an entrepreneur and to build confidence.
All our fans and retailers can look forward to our newest feature debuting in January 2012. It is called our Quick Tip Accessories Minute. Every few weeks I send out a Quick Tip Accessories Minute that will feature me talking about a specific piece from the Whitney Howard Designs Collection. This will give me an opportunity to tell you all why I created that item and why it is special to wear or give as a gift. I look forward to creating these videos for anyone interested in learning more about our collection.
Read about the Swhwartz kids’ business in The LA Daily News.
March Meet-Up
It’s Here – March Meet-Up
The Restaurant at Leoness – Temecula, CA
Saturday, March 3, 2012 at 12:30pm
RSVP with Eventbrite by February 22
We’ll be meeting in the restaurant of this fabulous winery but don’t feel like you need to down a few. The reason we hold these get-togethers is so we can meet and support each other. Enjoy lunch or do a little wine tasting. Or just come and laugh… we do a lot of that around here.
Hope to see you all.
Carolyn
Megan
Sidney
A Romantic Dinner in SoCal
Today we get to travel all over Southern California with our Progressive Dinner blog hop!
The most romantic holiday of the year is coming up, and whether you plan on sharing it with a spouse, a partner, a special someone or your whole family, we have some mouth-watering dinner ideas!
Here we have the links to every recipe in our progressive dinner, or take a trip through the whole meal by starting at the first blog and clicking your way through! Each blog has the link to the next recipe and also links back to here.
Love these recipes? Pin these great recipes on Pinterest!
To start, sip on Sparkling Pomegranate Jubilee from Someday I’ll Learn
A nice romantic appetizer can be eaten by hand while gazing into each other’s eyes. Try the Strawberry Bruschetta from The Wonder Years or the Bruschetta Hearts from The Jolly Tomato.
‘Lettuce’ take it a step further with Baby Baby Lemon‘s Sweetheart Salad.
The Gonzo Gourmet offers an intimate main with Steakhouse Steaks for Two. Or, offer a creamy family-style dish with Sarcastic, Funny and Brutally Honest’s Creamy Chicken Florentine.
Woo your special someone with a sweet dessert- try Create-Celebrate-Explore‘s Baked Mini Cheesecakes or make it special with This Talk Ain’t Cheap‘s White Chocolate Creme Brulee.
Love these recipes? Pin these great recipes on Pinterest!
Do you have a special recipe you love to make for a romantic evening?
Tell us about it!
Ladies Who Lunch Part II
There is something that bonds bloggers together. I don’t know if it’s the struggle with writers block, the fear of blog post backlash, or the constant fear that technology will turn on you and you’ll wake up one day with no blog, no facebook friends and no twitter followers. Or… it could just be as simple as a Sunday lunch with some really great gals and a whole lot of laughs.
On Sunday, we had a great time getting to know each other at Wood Ranch in Northridge, CA. A huge shout-out to our server, Becky, who put up with all our craziness. I think SoCal Lady Bloggers now has our own official drink: The Ginger Ale and Gin (courtesy of Sidney).
I am constantly impressed by all the amazing bloggers I have had the fortune to meet since SoCal Lady Bloggers began. What a genuinely nice, honest, down-to-earth group of women. I can’t wait for our next event. You ladies Rock!
Carolyn
Ladies Who Lunch
Get ready ladies… we’re meeting for lunch and you’re invited.
WHO: Southern California Lady Bloggers
WHERE: Wood Ranch BBQ, 9301 Tampa Avenue, Northridge
WHEN: Sunday, January 29, 2012 at 1:00 pm
WHY: Because we’re awesome and need a break from the house/kids/spouse/insert reason here
Take a break and join us. If you are coming for sure, leave a comment so we can reserve enough space. This is an informal get-together, just us girls having a chance to get to know each other better. Would love to see all of you.
Announcing a romantic opportunity
The stores are full of red hearts, romantic decorations and Pinterest is full of candy-holding card ideas.
Valentine’s Day is approaching, and we have a fun event we’d like to share with all of you.
We will soon be hosting a romantic progressive dinner here and would love for you to come!
We already have some culinary-minded bloggers who are committed to posting romance-minded recipes on their blogs. Looking for a new dish to share with a loved one? Stumped on what might make a meal feel special? This will be the place for you!
The progressive dinner will be linked up in its entirety here, but each blogger will feature links to the next course in the meal. It’s bound to be delicious!
The date has not been finalized, as we are looking for a few more ladies to host a course on their blogs.
Interested?
We are still looking for appetizers, beverages, sides, mains and desserts. The progressive dinner needs to be an original post, although it does not have to be a new recipe to your blog.
Please email us at socalladybloggers@gmail.com with your first and second preference on course you would like to host on your blog. We will respond with more information about the progressive dinner soon.
Welcome to 2012
SoCal Lady Bloggers took a much needed rest over the holidays. When we started this site we had no idea what direction it would go but we knew we wanted to be able to support all the amazing and talented bloggers we have here in Southern California.
With the new year comes new ideas and goals, one of which is to meet as many of you as possible. We all have busy lives and schedules but we also think it’s important to be part of a community of like-minded women. We wanted to share some of the things we are working on for the coming months.
Networking – We are working on some upcoming get-togethers where we can have a few drinks, a nosh or two and get to know each other on a more personal level. We all know that we have an amazing community of online friends… just imagine how much more wonderful they are in real life.
Education – Every blogger, from the newbies to the most experienced, have something to share. We can all learn new tips and techniques for building our blogs. We’d love to start publishing some posts about your experiences (good and bad) with blogging and what you’ve learned.
Events – There are large and small events going on throughout Southern California on a daily basis. We’d really like to spread the word if you know of something in your city that might be fun for other bloggers as well. These can be anything from social media events to seminars to art openings to ribbon cuttings to local family events. If you know of something coming up, email us and we’d love to include it on the blog.
If one of your resolutions was to grow your blog in 2012, you might want to look into doing #SITS31DBBB (SITS Girls 31 Days to Build a Better Blog). This is an online program offered for any member of SITS beginning on January 16th. SoCal Blogger Carolyn is going to be participating so let us know if you want to jump on the bandwagon.
There are so many blogging and other social media-related conferences that happen throughout the year.
SITS puts on amazing one-day seminars, Bloggy Boot Camp, throughout the U.S. and if you haven’t been to a blogging seminar or conference yet (and even if you have) this is a really good one to get your feet wet. The closest one to Southern California will be held on October 13, 2012 in Las Vegas at the South Point Hotel.
Next month is Blissdom in Nashville, and we already know some of our SoCal ladies are attending. For those who attend that conference, we can’t wait to hear about what you will be learning and hope you will share a little with us!
Also, we’d love to know who is planning on going to BlogHer’12 in New York City in August. Would love to meet up with you in the Big Apple. Let us know if you are thinking about going, have any questions or already have your ticket. Maybe we can work out some roommate issues as well.
As always, we welcome your ideas and guest posts.
Carolyn
Megan
Sidney
Happy New Year!
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