So, this is the 2 days where I am unemployed.  After an incredibly wonderful run with b5media, it is time to make a change. 

I began writing what is now eBeautyDaily in July of 2005, at AboutWeblogs.com.  An incredible group of women that welcomed me, a new blogger, with open arms.  In November of 2005, About Weblogs merged with b5media.  I adored the concept, and of course I adored Darren Rowse, so being behind b5media 110% was a no brainer.  At the time, I was not working, as I had not since I married and moved to TX.  I was at home helping my husband recover from his near fatal battle with MRSA.  His recovery took about 9 months, and he wasn’t working and finally told me I needed to go to work. 

So, I did not go down to Dillard’s and get a job at the makeup counter – I decided to do web sites.  Apparently I didn’t think I really “needed” to make money.  LOL  But I had started a community for MRSA sufferers, as there was NOTHING online at the time.  I then decided I was going to write a book about nails, having spent the nearly 20 years prior as a nail tech and a salon owner.  This led me eventually to AboutWeblogs, where I joined as a beauty blogger – one of the first.

A few months after I joined b5media, Jeremy needed some assistance.  I was so digging this blogging thing – I knew it was going to be HUGE from the minute I discovered it. So I jumped at the chance to be his $10/hr lackey. ;)  I loved it.  Ate it, drank it and slept it from day one.  Shortly thereafter, my gracious and dear friend Hsien gave up being the editor of the “Women’s Channel” – and we split that channel up and I became the editor of the superfantastic Beauty & Style Channel (and the Arts & Crafts, Home & Dining, and Lifestyles  Channels).  I guess I have been the CE over almost all of the channels at one point or another. ;) 

After our round of funding came in mid-2006, I got a “real job” – Project Manager.   That soon changed to Content Manager, as I really wasn’t a PM.  I was having a blast.  Lots of socializing, lots of “nose to the grindstone” – the thrill (and related mental exhaustion!) of a startup.  Love love love. 

In the spring of this year, I was approached to take over the Director of Content role.  We have gone through several directors – its a tough, tough job – attempted by some of the most brilliant people I have met.  I declined it, as I am much more about having a great time than trying to make as much money as I can make (hubby is obviously working again at this point…lol) but somehow I wiggled into the Associate Director role.  Tough stuff.  But, I love the people and I love the company, so I’ll do what needs to be done.  Im not sure what I could do beyond eat, drink and sleep b5media, but I did it.  I still loved it, although this has been an incredibly tough year.  I have lost several people who I considered dear friends.  I will always have some sadness over that, but it comes with the job, I guess.  Flashback to the end of The Devil Wears Prada.

So amongst all of this work work working – I still got to play beauty blogger.  Beauty is my first love.  I’ve had so many neat opportunities come my way because of beauty blogging.  I’ve been to Fashion Week, got to be a Glam Editor for the Day in NYC, had the opportunity (did not take it) to fly with the Victoria’s Secret models cross country on Virgin Airlines.  I have been quoted in the New York Times, Allure, Women’s Wear Daily and Texas Monthly magazines.  I have been to many amazing parties and had the opportunity to meet some truly amazing people, all while being privy to amazing new product launches, and a foot into the door of the industry I adore.  All these geeky bloggers I am around all the time - they think that tech blogging is all that’s out there and all that matters.  ;)  They have no idea how the beauty industry has adopted beauty blogging.  It is incredible, has grown into a massive genre of blogging, and is something that I am so proud to have been and early adopter of.  And then I went to L.A. in the spring, to the Total Beauty Blog Summit, where my dear friend Teri and I spoke on SEO.  Beauty and geekery all rolled into one.  LOVE!

So this summit took place in the offices of Intelligent Beauty.  While I don’t think that IB was wowed by my wonderful public speaking (it is my biggest phobia), they certainly did take an interest.  The amazing co-CEO’s Adam Goldenberg and Don Ressler, paid me quite a bit of attention and spoke to me a lot while I was there.  Knowing their history, silly me thought they were interested in b5media, but a few months down the line, I was contacted and asked to help them learn how to reach bloggers.  At first I thought I could do a little consulting on the side (although I didn’t know where I would find the time – not much time between eating drinking and sleeping b5media), but it soon became apparent that they were having none of that. ;)  So after realizing that this was THE PERFECT BLEND of beauty and geekery, and having a couple of good friends slap me in the face (thanks girls – you know who you are), I had no choice but to realize that my dream job was sitting in front of me, and I would be a fool to walk past it.  So, starting on Monday, I will begin a new adventure as Community Director of Blush, which is a subsidiary of Intelligent Beauty.  Go sign up for our newsletters - it is the bare bones beta start of something that is going to be great - this I guarantee you.  If you are a beauty junkie like me, anyway.

To my beloved (and I really, really mean that) Channel Editors – many of you have become friends who I will always hold very, very dear to my heart.  I have told you all that this change is going to be good – and I feel deep down in my heart it was the right thing to do, both for me, and for b5media.  Hang in there. Thank you all for everything, again.   I love you all so much, wish you the very, very best, and will always be behind you 110%. 

xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxox,

CJ

***Update***
As of Sept. 12, I have pulled out of b5media completely. If you’re looking for my beauty rants and raves (hopefully mostly raves), please keep in touch with me at Christina Loves…

So, yeah, its been awhile. No rest for the weary. I have had tons going on, between lots of work, tennis and soccer season, I am on the move these days! And well there was that lost week in Vegas. I came home from Blog World Expo super-renewed though (thank God not super hung over and exhausted…LOL), and until a massive workload brings me back down to reality again, I am working hard on some special projects. The first one is video production.

I have been dabbling with this, but only to the extent of overcoming my fear of putting myself out there - and I guess I am officially past that now, so its time to move on to the next step. I spent some time in Chicago this summer at BlogHer talking to my dear friend Robyn about videoblogging - she is a pro, but unfortunately, she is a Mac fangirl (as opposed to a MAC addict, like me). So, while she was an absolute wealth of information on important things like lighting, she wasn’t able to help me much on software, which is the first thing I need to tackle. So I chatted her up again in Vegas last week, and tried to pry PC video software ideas from a Mac girl. Again. Not a great idea. LOL So, I have been doing some serious homework, and have tried out Sony Vegas (oy-confusing!), Cyberlink Power Director (worst. program. evah. to try to get off your computer, but easier to understand than Vegas, BUT it didn’t seem to like my Vista computer much), and Pinnacle Studio (I think I am going to like this one best).

My next issue is getting my DV video camera to talk to my computer. I can hook it up with good ol USB cables, but boy does that give me some crappy results. Ok for webcamming, not so good for actual video capture/transfer. It is time to upgrade. So, I headed out to the dreaded Best Buy for a FireWire/iLink/1384 cable tonight after work. Oy. $50 bites the dust, and after I cussed and fussed about not being able to fit the dern plugs into the holes, I finally got them in. Apparently this is a common problem for the first time you plug them in. So all is well there - I think.

So why do you care about this? You probably don’t, but I am really trying to encourage and help my fellow Beauty & Style bloggers to branch out into video blogging, so I thought that chronicling my adventures might be helpful. And if a PC video producer happens by, maybe they can point me in their version of the right direction.

So, tomorrow morning, I am going to try to shoot an actual little video and see what I can do with it. I look too rough today to shoot myself, but Marshall has long wanted me to get The Rock on the web, so tomorrow, he is going to be the star. The next step after that is to figure out where I want to post these videos - I feel the need to branch out from YouTube, I think. Stay tuned, and if you have any video advice for me, please feel free to give it.

What is an interview with me doing on ThePharmVoice, you might ask? I asked that too, but my friend Gloria, who writes ThePharmVoice says that beauty and health go hand in hand and with my work with MRSA that I count as a viable interview candidate. Ok. So I was.

Thanks, Glo! And I am still waiting for the mangoes!

This has been *quite* the couple of months for me and for my beauty blogging - after the sheer luck of the NY Times mention for eBeautyDaily (thank you AGAIN Janice of Technorati for sorting out my problems!!!), I was featured in Women’s Wear Daily’s May Beauty Biz issue as an “It” blogger. I have also just completed an interview for Allure Magazine which will come out in August.

This isn’t quite as mainstream as Allure or as UNBELIEVABLE as WWD or the NYT, but for us online loving folks, Glam.com is a great place to be and is an honor to be featured. Just prior to the NYTimes feature, the most charming rep for Glam got in touch with me about NailTechSecrets joining Glam, and then discovered eBeautyDaily and sucked ‘em both in to Glam.com who has been geared towards fashion only for the last little while but has now scooped up beauty into their midst (wtg Glam!). So, ANYWAY, starting now, you can find Nail Tech Secrets featured on the home page of Glam.com - just for the day, I think, so if you miss it, here is the picture, for posterity.

I made it into the NY Times today!

Beauty and the Blogs

That is sheer luck, after all of the whining I have done lately about Technorati. I am loving Janice @ Technorati support though, she took care of me well last week!

If you are interested in beauty, you might be getting sick of me. I hope not!

This morning I started the Beauty weblog at beauty.wurk.net, and I am so excited about it! This blog will be totally different than eBeautyDaily, in that it is all about the business end of beauty. You might see products in it, but only from the perspective of working for the company mentioned. If you are interested in the beauty business, I hope that you will keep your eye on it, it should be a lot of fun, and hopefully will be most interesting! The people in the beauty business are some of the most interesting people ever, so I hope to acquire some great people participating! Think about it–did you ever know a boring hairdresser??

On the homefront, we went to Houston this weekend and I had a ball at the Galleria–what a breath of fresh air it always is to see a real mall! And boy, the Galleria is about as real as it gets. I love living in TX!

The kids left yesterday to go to Tennessee for Christmas, I hope they have a great time. Everyone always thinks it is terrible that they go away, but I don’t really think so. For one thing, the break is nice, and another, they need to have the time with their father. They love going to TN so much. It also takes a good bit of the “Christmas pressure” off of me, leaving me a little bit more free and less stressed out. This is ALWAYS a good thing this time of year. So, the kids are gone, and Marshall is gone. My mother and brother come in on Thursday for Christmas (yay!). So I have 3 1/2 whole days to do whatever I want. I am into hour 5 of blogging, and have 2 more to update, and then I guess I will start getting the house ready for visitors. This will take up my 3 free days. Ha! At least I got Zoe to clean up her room before she left, so the trouble there will be minimal!!

Hope you had a great weekend!

The new baby, Eeyore, is doing well. I never cease to find it amazing how self sufficient animals are when they are born compared to humans. Little Eeyore, at about 24 hours old, was running across the pasture like a pro. There is nothing cuter than a baby donkey running and jumping around!

The Aggies kicked some smu bootie over the weekend, that was nice! Unfortunately the Vols did not fare as well in the Swamp. But we had a large time with the Sandels and the Colwells, as always. I love the fall–it just feels good to socialize

I decided to quit argueing with my hubby about my book printing format, and just offer it in PDF ebook and be done with it. Now I can move on to the next one! Here is the sales page, if you want to have a look-see!

I emailed my most beeeutiful friend (both inside and out!), Dawn Tesh, yesterday, in hopes that she will do a short email interview for me for The Beauty Blog.

Ooooh I hope she will

Ahhh…finally I am getting motivated to get back to working on my book. This is what I need to do:

Cover-I need to figure out how to make a workable front and back cover. My good ol inkjet printer just isnt going to do it. I have tried HARD to figure out how I can apply a coating to paper, but I am afraid that just isn’t possible for me. Options are going to be either professional printing, or maybe try laminating the cover myself. I HATE to pay someone else to do something I can do myself

Editing-I spent alot of time while I was in TN proofreading, and have lots of comments all over the book. It is time! The cover dilemma is what is holding me back. I need to get over that, and get it done! Oh yeah, and I am patiently awaiting Suzzann’s editing to arrive in the mail! ::Starting to turn blue::

Adding content-I am going to insert a tear out reference card with the very basic steps on it. I also have to add a section about “ill nails (go to the doc if your nails are ill!!).”

ISBN-If I am going to submit my book for sale at Amazon.com, or ANYWHERE else, for that matter, I must purchase ISBN numbers (I know, repetitive, honey). And I have to purchase a block of numbers (10, 100, 1000), so I will be all ready to publish my next books–Artificial Nails, Makeup Application, DIY Hair. And my husband’s book–Business Secrets, What They Don’t Teach You At School! (Or something like that And maybe a book about our MRSA experience. Hmmmm. I imagine I can come up with 10 books to write, that will carry me through the next 10 years of Marshall’s working during the weeks. LOL

I also need to file a DBA with the county, and a Sales Tax form. I need to put that ahead of the ISBN, because I have to have my official publishers name there. Hmmm. Maybe tomorrow? That will get me motivated to get all of this work done.

It is so hard to get motivated without my hubbidy here to throw my thoughts at–especially because these thoughts cost money. Oh well, maybe he will come read them..LOL Honey, click the comment link below and let me know what you think–LOL

Well, here it is, day one of NailTechSecrets.com. I have finished putting together the main text of my book, and am currently phishing it out to friends to get their input on things I can do to make it easier to understand (not that manicuring is a science). Anyhow, I purchased this site today, and I am in hopes that I will get some good response from the information I have to offer!

If anyone is reading, I thank you, and hope that you will find something of interest to you here. My day to day life is pretty dull most of the time, so pardon the dullard posts.

So here goes…..

Beyond than all that geek stuff I did today, we had a great day today. It was beautiful here today, and not too hot, but VERY sunny! The kids went over to friends houses today, and Marshall and I got some “alone time!” We took the 4 wheelers and the dogs down to the beach (the sand covered creekside), and just when we were going to get a little romantic, out from the bushes pops a woman on a horse! Eek! I guess we aren’t waaay out in the country anymore! We turned her back towards her home, and went back to the romance! LOL

Anyhow, we had a great day today, looking forward to more in the future! Thank God for good health!

Check us out soon at www.nailtechsecrets.com!