Take your Blog to Book with BookWright by Blurb

**I was compensated for this post. This post also contains affiliate links and I will be compensated if you make a purchase after clicking on my links. Thanks for supporting Spokesmama!

Blog to book with Blurb's Bookwright!

I've been writing here at Spokesmama, formerly The Sprog for about seven years now. Though I've had the best intentions, I've been rather haphazard with printing photos & creating scrapbooks as the kids have grown from newborns to little people that they are now. I have put a lot of effort into this digital space, but sometimes I'd just like it to be more tangible.

So I was pretty excited to hear about one of Blurb's latest book creation tools. Blurb offers a new feature that helps bloggers to take content from their site & easily slot it into a template to create a real, actual book you can hold in your hands. This new feature accepts just about any blog building tool, including Blogger, Wordpress, & Squarespace, pulling text & images directly into the tool.

Sounds too good to be true, right? Seriously, though, it isn't. You have total control by converting blog pages into your own print-ready layouts with BookWright’s help. I'm really into the idea as a way to create that baby book I'd neglected, but this tool is a great opportunity to build your business brand or create profit opportunities from content you already have by making a digital or print book. Can't wait to try it--stay tuned for a review in future...

Learn more about BookWright right here.

**I was compensated for this post. This post also contains affiliate links and I will be compensated if you make a purchase after clicking on my links. Thanks for supporting Spokesmama! 

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Top 10 Posts from 2014

Whee! We get to go in a Modo van!

Looking back at 2014 around Spokesmama & here are my top ten posts that I published last year. It was a real mixed bag of what you visited most, but I guess that sums up this blog.

1. A Useful Tool For Parents of Young Children: Kid Friendly Places This is just the kind of thing I love telling people about & I'm happy you liked it too!
2. I'm Afraid For The Future Of BC I kept silent for too long about what was (& sadly still is) going on with education in our province.
3. 10 Hashtags That Describe Me A silly list for fun, part of NorthWestMommy's weekly linky.
4. Sands Alive! Sensory Play + Giveaway Toy reviews are so much fun & it's even more fun when I get to give them away!
5. Normal Term Breastfeeding, Or "Mama, can I have some noms?" To me, an important part of promoting breastfeeding is talking about what it's really like. I've had a crazy rollercoaster ride with both kids & I hope sharing my story--& the fact that I've made it as far as I have--will help other mamas somehow.
6. Project #EcoClutterBuster Where it all started... & where it's still going, since the project of decluttering my house apparently could not be completed in a year.
7. Back A Kickstarter Project That Turns Any Cup Into A Spill-Proof Sippy There are a lot of really nifty crowdfunding projects out there & this one seemed pretty brilliant.
8. Scary Words Like "MRI", & "Pediatric Neurosurgeon" I wore my heart on my sleeve for this post, talking about what it's like when someone tells you your baby's spinal cord isn't quite normal.
9. Choco Chimps Cereal Review + Nature's Path Envirokidz Instagram Contest The way to a kid's heart is through their stomach. A box with a cute picture of a primate doesn't hurt either.
10. #LetsModo Picking Up Our Treekeepers Christmas Spruce I'm positive that more families living in urban areas of Metro Vancouver could ditch their cars & use Modo. I write about it to show what it's really like & share with you all how doable it really is.

Thank you for reading & commenting once in a while! Now it's your turn to tell me: what's your favourite Spokesmama post? Or what kind of things would you like to see more of around here?

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YVR Bloggers Meetup + Daddy Blogger Interviews Spokesmama (Video)

This month, Ricky Shetty, AKA DaddyBlogger, asked me to be the featured blogger at the YVR Bloggers Meetup. I'll be speaking briefly about Spokesmama.com & what I've learned along the way. There will be a panel of experts speaking on Search Engine Optimization, building your media kit, a musical performance,plus Santa is going to make his appearance. It's educational, entertaining, & a great networking event. There are a few tickets left still (only $10).

YVR Bloggers Meetup
6-9pm Wednesday, December 11th
Waterfall Building
1540 West 2nd Avenue, Vancouver

See you there?

Also, in advance of my YVR Bloggers talk, Ricky interviewed me on a Google Hangout. We spoke about blogging, car-sharing, cycling, monetization & more while I breastfed hungry little Bronte.

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The Sprog Gets A New Identity

Way back in 2008 when I started this blog, I saw it as a baby book & that was why I chose this name. I liked the alliteration in 'sprog' & 'blog'. At that time, The Sprog was actually private, visible only to my husband & I. I used it for keeping track of baby room ideas, names, chronicling the ups & downs of trying to conceive & noting pregnancy symptoms. I didn't actually publish anything publicly until not long before Sprout was born in the summer of 2010.

Three years later & this blog has shifted into something more. It's still about my (soon-to-be-plural) sprog, but it's also about living car-free, about cycling with a toddler, about other issues that are important to me, about product & book reviews, about my neighbourhood. So I decided to rebrand. I thought long & hard about what to name it & the one that stuck with me was... (drum roll, please) Spokesmama.

So this week I will be shifting over to The Sprog's new identity. I'm hoping there won't be too many bumps in the road, but please let me know if you have any issues with broken links or find any of the changes confusing. It's quite a process changing my online identity over--I'll be changing my Twitter handle, Facebook page name, contact email & a few other things--so it will probably happen over a few days.

Thanks for reading The Sprog & hope to see you around Spokesmama in future! :)

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Behind the Blog: Hard Stare

This week I talked with Amy of Hard Stare. She was a pretty obvious choice for one of my first interviews, as I have known her for quite a while & loved her writing for ages. We met teaching at a terrible little private ESL school about ten years ago & have stayed in touch since we both 'escaped' that place. She's one of those people that I love getting into a conversation with--I never know where it's going to lead, but I know it will always be fascinating & make me laugh. Despite being one of the most literary people I know--check out her Finnegan's Wake Readers page--she's also one of the least pretentious. She has a talent for finding beauty in the mundane, writing with a child-like wonder about the things most of us overlook.

How long have you been writing? Blogging? 

I've been writing since I was very young though poetry was my primary medium until fairly recently. I still have several notebooks of writing from about age 8 or 9. I guess I started blogging about 3 years ago as an outlet for some of my creative impulses, but also as a way to take writing less seriously.

Where do you get your inspiration for posts from?

From the world around me, from long walks through the city's neighbourhoods, from interesting people I meet, from images, from the tiny details that tend to be overlooked -- cracks in sidewalks, plants growing under a bridge, the hidden things. I just see something strange or beautiful and I know I have to start writing.

Do you have any rules for yourself regarding blogging? (e.g. frequency/length/subject matter of posts, photos)

I don't but I should. On strolls or long walks, I like to take photos, and often the idea springs from an image. I try not to make the posts overly long, but certain subjects are hard to reign in. I would like to post more often, but I don't want to write just for the sake of writing. I need to be inspired to a certain extent. I do have a list of topics that I can work through if nothing else strikes my fancy. I tend to enjoy writing about neighbourhoods or places I walk, simply because I have so much time to observe them, take pictures, and think about what they might mean in the larger context of the city. A lot of the writing seems to be about the little bits of nature that shine through the urban environment.

Your most recent post about the table Mark built is probably one of my favourites, though it's hard to choose. What's your favourite post that you've written?

I definitely don't have a favourite, and tend to be critical of past writing. That said, however, I love it when I get lost as I write, drifting away in the pleasure of language. I sometimes find myself literally reaching into the air to pluck out words -- feeling the shape and weight of them. There is such satisfaction in finding the one I've been looking for.

Do you write with any particular audience in mind? Do you keep track of your blog's stats at all?

I don't keep track of stats, but I do think a bit about audience. Ideally, they are engaged with the environment around them, curious, and interested in exploring. I hope that the observations are universal enough to appeal to people unfamiliar with Vancouver. I sometimes fantasize that the posts might inspire readers to get out of their cars and do more walking or biking, or just to take the time to look at things more closely. I am inspired by the poet Bronwen Wallace, who was a close friend, to find the poetry in the everyday -- the common magic in ordinary life.

Coming soon, is a blog about Bronwen Wallace, which will seek to give Bronwen's writing and ideas an electronic presence -- a space where her work is widely accessible to readers both old and new. I also hope to offer a forum for the people that knew Bron best --friends, caregivers, family, students, co-workers, writers and fellow activists -- to record their memories of her, to talk about how she influenced them, and, ideally, to engage in conversation with a wider community of Wallace readers.

Your writing always seems so well-crafted. How much time do you usually spend writing each post?

That very much depends. Sometimes I'll start something and just keep working on a draft incrementally over the course of a few weeks or even a month. Other times, it'll all come out in a burst and I'll be done in half an hour.

Anything else you want to add about writing or your blog or life in general? :)

I guess I'd just like to add that I'd love feedback and comments -- I think the best writing inspires dialogue. It's good to feel that you are not writing into the void. I love that blogging is instantaneous and democratic; it's amazing how many voices are out there. There is something beautiful about this electronic choir.

Behind the Blog: Tea Swamp Park

For the inaugural installment of Behind the Blog, I decided to talk to the lovely Chloe, of Tea Swamp Park. She writes about what she's up to & posts interesting, often nostalgic photos. Her posts are usually short & sweet, leaving me thinking. She's also recently started up an Etsy shop to sell hand-dyed lingerie & pillowcases, called Blue Moon Revisited. Check it out!

We talked via email & I decided to post the interview in its entirety here:

Why did you start blogging? Did you have any specific plan for what you wanted to do with your blog?

Technically I suppose I started almost ten years ago, before I'd ever heard the word "blog". I kept up a Livejournal for a good while, but that was mostly personal, day to day stuff - full of teenage/early 20s angst ;)

I began Tea Swamp Park in January of this year as a lifestyle blog. I've had an on and off history of journaling, and I guess I just wanted to start keeping a record again of things going on in my life and my interests at a specific point in time. I'm living in Vancouver, but won't be for good, so my blog is a way for me to also preserve my memories from here. Plus, I read quite a few blogs, and can't help but feel a bit guilty - not contributing anything back ;)

Where do you get inspiration for posts?

Quite often it's from other bloggers, or from my own huge collection of bookmarks and photos I've been collecting for no good reason. Mostly though, just from my life - things I do, see, cook, make etc.

How do you promote your blog?

I'm pretty new to this whole thing, so I don't really have a firm grasp on that sort of thing. I generally post links on my facebook page when I do a new post, sometimes I do the same on twitter as well. I also comment pretty often on other people's blogs as well, which can lead to new visitors.

Which of your posts has received the most comments?

I did one about the joys of being a redhead back when I first started which still gets views and comments (though I think that has something to do with the saucy picture of Christina Hendricks I included!). I do a weekly post, Film Friday, where I post from my own collection of 35mm photos. A lot of these tend to be older, from when I was a child or teen, and get comments - I think the nostalgia factor plays a big part in that.

When did you get into dyeing clothing? When did you decide to open your Etsy shop & sell dyed slips, etc? Do you sell things elsewhere?

When I was a gothy teen I had a few unsuccessful tries at dyeing various things black, and for the last few years have done some tea dyeing. Then a few months back a friend of mine was wearing a cardigan that she had dyed various colours, which looked amazing. THEN, an old friend, who runs an amazing blog (http://stayfancyfree.blogspot.com/) also started dyeing some of her items, and the inspiration was just too much. I gave it a go on a cardigan of my own that I never wore. It turned out great and I went from there.
I've always loved the look of slips and camisoles, and work them into my wardrobe as much as possible. And while a standard cream or black slip is lovely, I absolutely love the look of more unconventional coloured underthings - they seem much more daring, and sexy.

As for my shop - I work as a teacher on call, which means I have no work for the summer and a hard time finding a job for only two months. I'd been wanting to open a shop for ages, but actual financial need is what finally got me moving. So far I only sell things on Etsy, but Vancouver has so many great craft fairs all year long, so that's definitely a tempting possibility.

What's the story behind the name of your blog? How about your Etsy shop?

Tea Swamp Park is the name of a small park in the Mount Pleasant neighbourhood in Vancouver. This is a neighbourhood I've lived in for almost 2 years, and I love it. I've always loved the name of the park, and I'm a big fan of tea so it just seemed perfect :)

Blue Moon Revisited is a song by the Cowboy Junkies off their Trinity Sessions album. I wanted a name for the shop that had a celestial, night time feel (I'm also going to be listing some one of a kind pillow cases soon - so there is definitely a night time theme to my items). It's also a beautiful song - the whole album reminds me a lot of my childhood, so it's just a nice association for me.