Happy New Year! Ten days late. Appropriately on the 10th day of the 10th year in the century, the millenium, even. As Laura Mayes pointed out earlier today on Twitter, “Ah, today. The 01.10.10. Still so in love with this year’s pretty dates.” And that’s exactly how I feel in this first year of the new decade. That things are in order. And pretty.
2009 was a year filled with ups and downs, and disorder, and rebuilding, and many wonderful lessons. As I’m sure there will be all of that in 2010, as well, I begin the year with a feeling of calm, confidence, and optimism. I’m constantly blessed with being surrounded by amazing people and projects that give me dream opportunities, and I’m super excited to share a few of the things I’ll be doing in 2010. Still pinching myself on some of these.
Alt Summit – I’m presenting! (in unrelated news…I’m dying…of excitement)
Pretty much a design junkie’s dream conference. Set in the beautiful town of Salt Lake City, UT smack dab in the middle of the Sundance Film Festival. Oh, and did I mention all of my design idols are speaking? I didn’t? Well, THAT is the best part. (Unless, I track down Justin Timberlake at Sundance. In that case THAT will be the best part.)
Um, Apartment Therapy? Hell yes. Design Milk? oh yeah, they’ll be there. NOTCOT< check! Design Crush, {frolic!} and Design*Sponge. Yep. I know, right? Breathe. Oh yeah, and that guy who created the Mastercard “Priceless” campaign. I can’t think of a better word to describe this experience. Oh, joy! (yeah, she’ll be there, too.)
I’m HELLA honored (I know, hella is classy) to have been invited by Kirtsy to present a pre-conference social media workshop with Laura Mayes. After I realized I wasn’t dreaming, panic set in that I’d instantly turn into a babbling idiot when faced with the purveyors of lovely that grace my Google Reader daily. Let’s hope I can at least keep up with them on the slopes. Did I mention the Sundance party we’re going to? I didn’t? Back to pinching myself.
Running away with the Sun
During a packed performance last night at Houston’s Continental Club, Texas blues rock favorites, Runaway Sun, made a major announcement. They have recently been selected to play in New York City as part of the Best Buy Live at Best Buy Music series on March 26th. Following an amazing year that included the release of their first full-length LP, and being nominated for a Houston Press award for Best Blues Band, the Texas foursome is preparing for a Southeastern U.S. tour this Spring.
Lead vocalist and guitarist Andrew Karnavas is wrapping up recording a solo album at Sugar Hill Studios, before he embarks on a few solo shows on the way to the NYC performance. And I’m going with him! ROADTRIP! We plan to drive through Nashville, Charlotte and D.C. on the way to New York. If you’ve got peeps in those areas, let them know we’re headed that way!
WordCamp comes to the HTX
If there’s one thing I’m more passionate about than design and music, (or Justin Timberlake), it’s technology. And if blogging is my sickness, then WordPress is my drug of choice. Created by Houstonian Matt Mullenweg, WordPress is an open-source blog publishing platform that beautifully organizes all the posts, comments, and sidebar content that you see on this blog, and thousands of others. I’m a huge WordPress groupie, as are most who use the software. It’s hard to not fall in love with beautiful code. Especially when you don’t have to look at it.
We’ve just confirmed that my company, co.lab, my sister design company, Primer Grey, along with fellow WordPress enthusiasts will be hosting Houston’s first WordCamp later this year. PG and I are passionate about technology education and are friggin’ excited (official emotion) to host this incredible user group. We’re working on details and will share as soon as we lock down a date and location. Visit http://wordcamphouston.com or follow @wordcamphtx on twitter for breakin’ news. Yes, breakin’! We’re from Texas, y’all!
FTW, 2010. Bring. It.
Tags: alt summit, runaway sun, wordcamp, wordpress
As part of the Best of 2009 Blog Challenge I’ll be blogging daily on the bests of 2009. To be forever saved. In html.
{December 3rd: Article. What’s an article that you read that blew you away? That you shared with all your friends. That you Delicious’d and reference throughout the year.}
This year at SchipulCon, was when I first heard Ed Schipul’s prediction of where branding was headed. This time, It’s personal.
Ed has been writing and talking extensively about the Era of the Personal Branding and what that means for consumers, employers, and companies. On October 8th, he summarized his research in a blog post on the Houston Chronicle’s The List. Read it here and decide for yourself if you agree or disagree.
Tags: best09, branding
I do, too.
The Kirtsy Book is here. Come seek help for your Kirtsy problem, too.
Check out this incredible book trailer, created by the amazing Katherine Center:
p.s. A huge congratulations to my amazing friend,
Laura Mayes, who for over a year has gathered, blogged, worked, slept, ate and breathed this book. She’s one of the most inspirational women I know, and of all the hats she wears, my favorite is the friend hat. You know, the warm, fluffy fleece hat that you pull out each winter. That’s Laura Mayes. Thank you, Laura, for starting so many of my conversations.
Tags: book, bright sky press, houston, katherine center, kirtsy, party
tumblers, by slightclutter
It feels as if this post is way overdue. On the other hand, it also feels to be entirely immature.
I’m going to cram a lot into this post, so for you ADD readers, here’s the short version:
- Update on Baby Kailey: she’s doing great!
- I moved in with my parents to help with the baby!
- I still have my place, so there will still be a Christmas Tree Viewing Party 3.0!
-
I quit my job!
- I’m freelancing! (yes, read above: i quit my job!)
- I’m really, really happy, excited, and scared as all hell!
- Wedding Bells
Whew. That wasn’t so hard? Now what took me so long to write this post? (Besides painstakingly searching for the exact right image. Which I will always obsess over.) Read more…
Tags: blogging, career, colab, cosmopolitician, family, friends, houston, MagsMac, Politics, schipul, weddings, writing
It’s been over a month since the first annual Mom 2.0 Summit in Houston. I’m sure most of you have heard me talk slash blog slash tweet about for the last six months or so.
Being that this year was the first year of the conference, it seems myself, along with the other conference organizers, had to do a lot of convincing of people to “trust us, this is going to be phenomenal.” The downtrodden economy was against us from the get go. But we forged on, with our insightful sponsors, dream-like speakers, and brave attendees. Hey, we know it was a gamble. You didn’t know what to expect. Honestly, neither did we.
Instead of spending a post recapping all of the best moments of this year’s summit, as so many great bloggers have already done, (Holly Buchanan + Glennia Campbell have 2 of my favs!) I decided to suggest why you should NOT attend the Mom 2.0 Summit.
Read more…
Tags: mom 2.0 summit, mom2summit
Is 1/4 of the year REALLY almost over? Geez. You blink and you miss 3 months. Well, I haven’t been doing much blinking (nor blogging) in the last 3 months. Mostly just trying to stay sane, awake, and healthy. I’ve failed pretty miserably at 2 out of three of those. Sleep hasn’t come so easy, though.
So, yeah. It’s been awhile since I’ve cranked up the old Wordpress. Looks like she’s still working fine. Whew! I could come up with tons of excuses for not posting for awhile, but I think when you are done with reading the next few posts (yes, shooting for a marathon session today), you’ll form your own opinion. And hopefully, it’s of the opinion that you’re glad I’m blogging again. Because, well, I am glad to be blogging again. And we should get along just fine.
There’s so much to share and I’m really not sure where to start. The majority of this year has been consumed by the amazing, wonderful, successful the 2009 Mom 2.0 Summit, who will get her own post, as she deserves. Sprinkled in will be weddings (yes, 13 this year; 3 down, 10 to go!); new projects, all of which I’m extremely excited about!; and lots of new, big changes (and one little one).
Some tibits before I jump in:
- I’m kicking back up Design Junky, my “design admiration blog” as I like to call it. I’m not a designer. But I can’t get enough of it. Check soon for a new redesign of that site, too. Follow DeJu (i totally just made that up. right now.) on Twitter @designjunky
- Dang, y’all. Twitter done blew up, for realz! Over the last few months, it seems everyone from E! Online to Christopher Walken has jumped aboard the Twitter Train. Major news stations, Politicians, and Real Estate agents. It’s a free for all, and I, for one, am intrigued about how the landscape of social media will change over the next 6 months. I’ll be blogging about that often this year.
Me: “Hey, I’ve been meaning to tell you and Dad that Andrew’s band, Runaway Sun, is playing at the House of Blues next week.”
Mom: (totally unphased) “Yeah, I know I saw it on his Facebook wall. The Battle of the Bar Bands.”
Me: (surprised she even knew what a wall was) “Oh, um, yeah. Cool.”
Mom: “Yeah, and his mom and sister are coming in from Lubbock for the show.”
Me: (nodding like I knew that, but really didn’t) “Um, yeah. So I guess you’re in the loop on that. Great.”
- I’m going to start blogging again over at Houstonist. It’s been one of the things I’ve missed the most in the last 8 months or so. There is an incredible group of contributors there these days, and I’m really looking forward to getting back into the swing of things in the Gothamist world. I’m grateful they’ll have me back after a hiatus. Read It. Feed It. Love it.
With that, I’ll jump into a few more dedicated posts to some awesome events that deserve their own space.
Tags: blogging, cosmopolitician, design junky, facebook, social media, twitter
WHAT A FRIGGIN’ YEAR IT’S BEEN!
Whew! I feel like just yesterday we were ringing in 2008 at the Proletariat. RIP Pro! 
So much has happened this year, and I was looking for a way to document it all. Over the last few months I’ve been writing a book. Mainly something to document my twenties, seeing as I turned the big 3-0 this year. And so far, 30 has been fabulous. 
The first step was looking back at the last 10 years and attempting to make a timeline. Things like boys, trips, weddings, boys, New Year’s Eves, Birthdays, boys, and a lot of boys. But we’ll save the boys part for the book.
So with that process, I’m in documenting mode. So here goes. With lots of help from my gCal and Flickr: A year I will never forget, (nor hardly remember).
And I totally didn’t plan this, but this is my 100th post on CosmoPolitician! Woo-hoo!
I’ve decided to split this post up, there is just too much to get in. Here are the first three months, and the rest will follow each day from now until the end of December. Enjoy!
January: New Beginnings
Towards the end of 2007, when word was spreading that our beloved neighborhood bar, the Proletariat would be closing in February, we decided there would be no other fitting place to ring in 2008. So with some of Matt’s friends in from Austin, we headed to the Pro for one last blow out. It was happy, and sad, and all those things in between. We snuck beers into the bar, we shared bottles of champagne, and we danced until our feet stopped working. | Full New Year’s Eve @ the Pro set here.
January was also the month of our very first Dr. Sketchy! Still can’t believe it’s been a whole year! Big props to HappyKatie and the crew for an awesome monthly event that just keeps growing and growing! Looking forward to 2009 Sketchies! | Dr. Sketchy Pool on Flickr
One of my favorite memories from January took place on a night that Jeff Balke’s band, Orange Is In, was playing at Rudz. Earlier in the day, Noel was visiting and we all had gathered at the Microcinema house for a party. Following the party, and day long drinking, Matt, Ned and I headed to Rudz to catch the show; proceed to have one (read: five) too many Red Bull and Vodkas, and head to a Rice Archie party. In between resulted in car hurdling and surprising and kidnapping, Brandon, Matt’s transient roomie, and dancing the night away in a way too small grad student apartment with entirely too many people. Oh to be in college again. Well, at least for one night. No picture exist from this night. And that is probably a good thing.
January was also the very first time I laid eyes on Caroline. More about that later.
February: Wanderlust
Feb was my month of travel. I had just started a new job back in November of 2007, and with it came the opportunity for me to get back overseas. Something I had been dying to do since my days in the UK, and Europe proper. My first trip took me to Malaysia, where I fell in love with the city of Kuala Lumpur, and the Malaysian people. I stayed for a week, stared out my hotel window at the Petronas Tower, and ate the most yummy food. Encountered women with four arms, bruised up my OWN leg taking a spill into a Singapore swanky hotel, even made it to infamous KL Beach Club. Oh. those. stories. | Full KL set here.
From KL, it was on to Western Australia! It was to be my first trip down under, and I was stoked. I headed for Perth from KL, and spent an amazing week in the sleepy Oil & Gas city. I went surfing in the Indian Ocean, hung out at the trendy Subi Hotel Bar, hiked to King’s Park, met a local chef who we spent a wild night at a casino with, swimming(?!), experienced Perth’s “Sunday Session” at the Little Creatures Brewey (same day as Heath Ledger’s funeral—it was 5 minutes from where we were) and learned of the ridiculous shopping hours:
Everything closes at 5pm! Whaaa?! The night our flight was supposed to leave at 2:55am, so we headed back down to Subiaco, and ran into some US ex-pats, who took us to get MORE wine, beer, and Indian food. Highly intoxicated at this point, Josh and I stumbled into the hotel at about 11:30pm, attempted to throw everything into a suitcase, and head for the airport. Here’s a tip. If you are about to board a plane, from Australia to KL to Tokyo to LA to Houston—do not get wasted, eating Indian food, a mere hours before you get in the plane. Not the best idea we ever had. | Full Perth set here.
On my way to Perth from KL, I also encountered a little WATER problem back home at my place. One of the most terrifying things to ever happen, especially when you are thousands of miles away. Always in debt to Mom, Matt and Maggie for their help with that situation! Maggie even made me feel better with her adorable marker presentation to assure me all was OK. What a doll. Loves her mucho.
From Perth, it was back home for a few days, serendipitously in time for the February Dr. Sketchy! It was great to see all my peeps after traveling for a few weeks, and what a welcome home with boobie cupcakes!
After a few days home, I was back off again. This time to Amsterdam, where I went on the shopping spree of my lifetime, resulting in my new favorite winter coat; had a run-in slash fall out with KLM, spend a dreadfully boring day at the RAI for a trade show, hence resulting in Queen Trivia Post. | Amsterdam full set
Then, on to the Middle East, Manama, Bahrain, where, yes, I rode a camel and smoked the hookah. It was a great month of traveling, but I sure was glad to crawl back into my bed. | Bahrain full set.
March: Music + Medicine
March began my first experience with my bad year of health. But before that, as with every year around SXSW, Houston gets some stellar shows coming to town. We were lucky to get two of my all time favs in a period of 4 days: Wilco and My Morning Jacket. The day after the MMJ show, Michelle and I drove to Austin for the night to attend the SXSW Rock Band party. We had a blast catching up with Gwen + Joel, met both Pete Cashmore and Marianne for the first time, and proceed to try on every single winter item of my cousin’s coat rack. Promise it was MUCH funnier at the time. Hell, maybe it’s funny now. “Let it snow, biatch.” This was probably the first time Michelle and I realized we would be friends forever. “I love animals.” | SXSW Rock Band Party full dr. miggy set.
On Good Friday, i didn’t attend Mass. And maybe I should have. I came down with a horrible pain in my stomach, which turned out to be, wait for it….waaaait for it…APPENDICITIS! Whoo-hoo! Yep, I needed an emergency appendectomy Friday night. I still have a hard time believing it. I mean, how random?
If i learned anything this year, it’s that things never go as planned. My old roommate doesn’t call me Drama-ica for nuthin’. Of course, once they got in to do the surgery, they discovered that my appendix was hiding behind some important organs. So, instead of doing the nice and clean laproscopy, they had to do the old fashioned cut. Brilliant. Huge scar. Perfect.
Big thanks to Matthew who kept me company in the hospital for 3 days, Michelle who came to visit, but I feel asleep while she was there (“nobody likes sticking their finger in their eyeball!”), Stefanie and Paul for bringing by the portable DVD player (which I JUST returned last week), Shekara, Kasey, Jaime, Jill, Matt and the boys, and Mom and Dad. Did I miss anyone? Lesson Leanred: Demerol is AWESOME! (but not awesome for remembering hospital guests.)
before
after
So that’s all for today. The first quarter of 2008. That was exhausting just recapping it! Much more to come. So check back everyday for a new month’s recap.
Tags: 2008 wrap-up, music, surgery, travel, yearly recap
Posted by Monica Danna on Dec 11, 2008 in
blogging about blogging,
personal …and six other random things you may not know about me, thanks to the prodding of Miss MagsMac. I never do these, but sitting home sick for a week has made me resort to things I would normally never do. Like cook, decorate, and other domestic things. (shudder.)
1. I once was a bus driver.
Yep, drove a bus for 1.5 years in College Station, TX when I attended Texas A&M. Not sure why people are always so shocked when they hear this. It’s actually a pretty common job on campus. And the best paying. Had to take a CDL test, and parallel park a 50 foot bus. That’s why I gots mad skillz with parallel parking.
2. My dad is one of 10 kids.
Pretty much grew up amongst a horde of Italians: kids, adults, any woman who is older than me is called “aunt”, and spaghetti at Thanksgiving. My great-grandma Danna shocked me with her facial hair each time we had to kiss her on both cheeks. My dad has 8 sisters, and a brother, and I was the first grandchild. I was a bit spoiled, to say the least.
3. I’m writing a book.
Yep, and you’re all in it. There are just too many stories from my 20’s I can’t let get away. Don’t worry, I’ll change the names. (If you’re lucky).
-
4. I have a design blog.
Sure do. It’s Design Junky, and it’s pretty much just an homage to things that inspire me. I’m not a designer, but I do appreciate good, smart design. You can visit it at www.iHeartSmartDesign.com
5. My job has taken me to 5 continents.
If you are a regular reader of this blog, then you probably already know this. Over the last 8 years, I’ve been fortunate to have the opportunity to work in London, Newcastle, Amsterdam and Perth. This year alone I traveled to 5 continents in 8 weeks. Followed by an appendectomy 1 week after returning from Manama, Bahrain. Whew! Wonder what surgery would have been like in the Middle East? Glad I didn’t have to find out. Most asked Q: What was your favorite place? A: Malaysia.
6. Dancing is pretty much my ONLY form of exercise.
Thankfully, I have a hobby that allows me to publicly show affection for pop icons such as Britney and JT. It’s all about the dancing, yo. And people don’t get that. And I’m cool with that. We’ll settle it on on the dance floor. There WAS a reason I moved into my current place, and that DID have much to do with the wall of mirrors. It’s me against the music.
7. I don’t own an iron.
Nor an ironing board. Yes, it even baffles ME. I haven’t owned an iron, or ironing board since college. Work clothes go to the cleaners, everything else is on their own. Besides, when would I iron? I’d rather be dancing.
Now, the fun part. To tag random, unsuspecting victims.
1. Michelle “Dr. Miggy”
Calabretta – because 2008 would not have been the same without her. Nor will the rest of my life be WITH her.
2. Sew Crafty Sarah – because her creativity and talents inspire me.
3. Mellowynk - because ONE DAY we ARE gonna have that cooking lesson! (and im jealous of her craft)
4. Brentabousko – cuz I know he’ll do it.
5. Chris Everson – because he should blog more often.
6. Mandy Graessle – beause she’s one of my favorite new people to meet this year. and houston is lucky to have her.
7. Ashley Slania – because I’m so proud of her venture into the blogosphere this year, and she some how manages to have it all. and do it all so well.
Your mission, should you choose to accept it?
- Link your original tagger(s), and list these rules on your blog.
- Share seven facts about yourself in the post – some random, some weird.
- Tag seven people at the end of your post by leaving their names and the links to their blogs.
- Let them know they’ve been tagged by leaving a comment on their blogs and/or Twitter.
Tags: cosmopolitician, random facts
Posted by Monica Danna on Aug 1, 2008 in
blogging about blogging,
personal So, being the maniacal masochist I am, i decided to start yet another time and energy suck on the web.
I’ve always been such a design junky, not being a designer myself, yet a lover of smart, clean, pretty design.
Thus, DESIGN JUNKY was born!
Attempting to post daily. Got all 5 in this week!
Also on Twitter @designjunky
And a new ma.gnolia account to gather more links.
Please feel free to send me your favorite designs to feature. What good is design if you can’t share it?
i <3 smart design
Tags: blogs, design junky