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Have you ever wondered what’s it’s like to be HGTV’d? I can pretty much sum it up in one word, AWESOME. For the past five days, my family has been taking an exciting, unbelievable, unpredictable, loud, consuming and mind-boggling journey with HGTV as they redo our multiple areas in our home for the new show, HGTV’d. I can’t give away all of the juicy details, but I can give you a little sneak peek. First, a few FAQs…

How did we get on the show? We submitted a video just like everyone else.  Go do it now! They’re casting in DC/Virginia, Miami and Chicago, people! Why did we get picked? Honestly, I have no idea. We’re totally nuts and fearless? Perhaps. The producers told me we were fun and open to wild ideas and our house had good “bones.” Are the homeowners totally in the dark about knowing who their designer is? Absolutely! We had no clue who our designer was until Tanika Ray opened the truck door.

It’s a totally once-in-a-lifetime type of surreal experience. The demolition was one of the wildest aspects. It’s pretty wild to have parts of your house torn apart when you know what’s going to happen. Imagine how crazy it is when you DON’T know what they’re going to tear down. I’m in awe of the entire team, because they are incredibly respectful of us and our home, not to mention how much thought and effort they put into each design idea. I encourage you to submit a video and see what happens. Trust me, it’s an experience you will never forget.

I’ll be dishing about it for the next few days, so stay tuned. Well, I gotta be sequestered. I’ve been kicked out and the big reveal is tomorrow!!!!

They tore out useless walls. We didn't realize they were useless, but we learned...Ha!

The noise was insane! The buzzing, whirling & hammering. The kids were troopers!

Our home was transformed into a fully functional TV set. Our kitchen was a huge work station, our yard housed a tent for meals and carpentry and our guest room was the make-up room. Yeah, you know I loved that part!

Get a load of this banister. You'll understand more about this when the episode airs, but OMG...I love what I'm seeing thus far!

 

Stay tuned for Part Two! I’ll talk about our TOTALLY RAD designer and what it’s like to work with ridiculously talented and funny peeps.

What do you get when you combine alphabet pasta, 10 dogs, 10 excited kiddos, aliens that drink lemonade through their ears and vocabulary words? Well, a Martha Speaks viewing party, of course. Thanks to the fabulous folks at PBS, we had a “sneak peek” viewing party of two new summer episodes that will begin airing tomorrow, June 27th on PBS.

If you haven’t met Martha yet, this is a great opportunity to introduce your children to this clever and well-spoken canine. This week will feature new episodes of Martha enjoying outdoor activities like camping, canoeing and watching fireworks with her friends. We got to see Martha’s Slumber Party of the Weird and The Long Rotten Summer/The Case of the Shattered Vase. In addition to the entertaining stories and great vocabulary words, kids also learn why they shouldn’t watch scary movies right before going to bed. (A lesson I should revisit myself.) Look at those cuties playing with their new plush Martha pups!

Summer Fun Week:
Monday, June 27th – Martha’s Slumber Party of the Weird (2 parts)
Tuesday, June 28th – Martha puts Out the Lights (2 parts)
Wednesday, June 29th – Escape from Flea Island/ No Dogs Allowed
Thursday, June 30th – Martha in the Hold/Get Along, Little Doggies!
Friday, July1st – The Long Rotten Summer/The Case of the Shattered Vase

Click, click, click:
- Don’t forget to visit Martha Speaks online for terrific games. My son’s new favorite? Make The Band. It’s hilarious!
- Watch my son’s impromptu interview about why he loves Martha Speaks.
- Martha has gone mobile! You can download Martha Speaks Dog Party App.

 

Disclaimer: PBS did supply me with a DVD of the new episodes and 10 swag bags. My opinions are my own. If I didn’t personally love this talkative pup, I wouldn’t write about it. Promise.

If you give a mom a microphone, she’ll ask for a stage to go with it. When you give her the stage, she’ll ask if it makes her butt look big. Worrying about her big butt will make her change outfits, so you’ll need to get her a glass of wine to calm her nerves…

What happens when you throw 15 moms together and give them a microphone? Well, they talk your ears off about motherhood, of course.  The good, the bad, the exhausted, the sedated. It’s a job rich in laughter, marinated in pee, sprinkled with sticky candy and sauteed in a mixture of smeared mascara, laundry detergent and breast milk. Yummy, right? Much like Gefilte fish, motherhood is a delicacy not intended for the faint of heart.

On April 30th, grab your hubby, your mom, your grandma, your girlfriends, your overweight cat, a box of Puffs and join us at a pre-Mother’s Day celebration, the “Listen To Your Mother Austin” show. In fact, you can read more about it in the Statesman’s Mama Drama blog.

All of the fab mamas, myself included, will read a short original essay about motherhood. After our first rehearsal, I was so amazed at each and every story. This is NOT a sappy, cliche, poetry reading involving tambourines, Birkenstocks, awkward pauses and weeping. The pieces are smart, sassy, creative, thought-provoking and highly entertaining – just like the moms who wrote them.

This year’s Austin cast includes: Kristin Armstrong, Kimberly Cockrill, Julie Coombes, Jenny Lawson, Cathy Hale (that’s me!), Kathryn Harrison, Diane LeBleu, Blythe Jewell, Krystin Crain Johnson, Esther Mizrachi Moritz, Elizabeth McGuire, Jennifer Newcomb Marine and Gigi Ross.  Show producers Wendi Aarons and Jennifer Sutton will emcee and read at the event as well. (If you aren’t following @WendiAarons on Twitter, you should be beaten with wet diapers. She’s a freakin’ riot.)

“Listen to Your Mother Austin” will be performed April 30 at 1 p.m. at the AT&T Executive Education and Conference Center, 1900 University Ave. Tickets are $14 and available online at http://www.eventbrite.com/event/1468976749. Proceeds from the event (after costs are covered) will be donated to Any Baby Can.

 

Valentine’s Day may be over now, but you can still embrace that lovin’ feeling. And it may be as easy as sipping a glass of juice…

As a Genesis Today Ambassador, I get to try new products from Genesis Today. For Valentine’s Day, they sent me a little ‘Getting It On with Goji’ treat – Cranberry Goji Juice. I’m not a big juice fan, but it was surprisingly awesome. It tastes great and offers the perfect marriage of sweet & tart. What’s great about the combo of cranberries and goji berries is blatter & kidney health, mood & antioxidant support and a little libido boost.

It’s easy to have a frisky February. In fact, there are plenty of natural things that boost your libido:

- Goji berries
- Maca Root
- Asparagus
- Oysters
- Chillis
- Dark chocolate
- Sleep
- Exercise
- $2,000 & a fab goody basket

Considering everything on the list, I’ll be choosing Goji berries over oysters any day! Of course, $2,000 sounds great too…

WIN IT! Want to win $2,000 for a romantic adventure and a wonderful goody basket? Enter the Genesis Today Lover’s Getaway. Just visit the Genesis Today Facebook Page for a chance to win a $2,000 cash prize and a gift basket filled with Goji goodies, steaks from Snake River Farms & champagne. Ooh la la!

1. – Like Genesis Today on Facebook
2. – Upload of photo of you enjoying Cranberry Goji juice
3. – Tell Genesis Today what you love the most about your partner

Last day to enter is 2/21/11

It was so much fun to meet anchor, Sally Hernandez, and be a guest on the KXAN News at Noon show today. Sally is a smart and sweet and funny gal. It was a great interview and I owe a lot of that her. She’s the mom of a youngster herself, so I think she really understands and appreciates the power of mom blogs.

I talked to Sally about my blog and then gave a few tips for moms who would like to start a blog. I mentioned getting your feet wet on large blogging communities like Blogher and Yahoo!Shine. These are my two favorites online communities and I actually post on both of them. The larger blogs I write for, Babble and BettyConfidential, also use Yahoo!Shine to promote their blog posts. It has a tremendous reach due to the sheer amount of readers.

As I mentioned in the interview, there are many Do’s and Don’ts when it comes to blogging. Here are my top three:

DO

1 – Identify the goals of your blog. Take some time to think about what you want your blog to accomplish. Are you writing it so family members who don’t live nearby can keep up? Are you going to use your blog as a stepping stone into a writing career? Are you wanting to make money with it? There are lots of great reasons, and figuring out what they are will help you create your blog in a way that best fits your goals.

2 – Share! Share! Share! When you do start blogging, share your posts on social media sites. That’s exactly why they exist. Use Facebook, Twitter, StumbleUpon, LinkedIn or any of your favorites to share your posts. This is what you need to do to engage with your readers and start conversations. My friends & family are my biggest fans, so I encourage you to bombard them constantly.

3 – Write about stuff you like. Yeah, that seems pretty obvious, but it’s true. If your write about topics you like, in additional to your fabulous kiddos, you’re more likely to keep writing. Let’s face it, you can only write about picky eaters and colds and diaper fiascoes to a degree. Pepper in the things you love and your passion will shine through in your writing.

DON’T

1 – Too much information! Be careful about the amount of info your share in your blog. As mom bloggers, we’re always chatting about our kids. That doesn’t mean you should list their full names, where they attend school or daycare, etc. It’s possible to tell compelling and true stories without giving every little detail. Protect yourself and your children.

2 – Never blog angry. The rush of having your own slice of the Internet can be intoxicating, but don’t abandon all of your manners as a result. (And speaking of intoxicating, don’t blog drunk either.) If you have a bad experience somewhere or buy a product you don’t like, don’t go off about it in your blog. That stuff will come back to haunt you. If you read a post and your gut instinct tells you not to publish it, listen to your gut. Better safe than sorry.

3 – Embrace negative feedback. - Don’t spend time worrying about how your posts will be received. You WILL GET negative feedback and some of it won’t be pretty. Take it for what’s it worth and don’t get discouraged. If you have the freedom to voice your option, other people are entitled to do the same thing. That’s the beauty of this highly interactive world we live in!

Plus, learn more about BlogathonATX: Part Deux and find out why you should’ve already bought your ticket. Shame on you!

 

In 2010, I went on my first movie adventure in Portland, OR. Walmart and P&G invited me to experience a real behind-the-scenes experience at the filming of A Walk in My Shoes. It’s part of their initiative for better family entertainment. How could I say no? Here I am talking about my experience. (Yes, I’m doing vids this year – look out!)

From the wonderful folks at P&G and Walmart to the producers to the actors, EVERYONE working on this project is totally aware of the need for better family-friendly television entertainment. Even the youngest actor on the set, 11-year-old Jackson Pace, mentioned how important it is to be able to watch television together as a family. (BTW, what a cute little guy.)

Added bonus? During the trip I got to meet some phenomenal women: @MomStart @mamsphor @eightymphmom @BettyBuzz @OurOrdinaryLife – funny, fantastic, outspoken and talented. In fact, I actively follow these moms on Twitter today and do guest blogging for Betty Confidential.

As we embark on 2011, my advice for you is TAKE CHANCES. In my normal mommy mode, leaving the family for a few days to travel to a movie set was something I’d normally pass up. It required planning and rearranging of schedules and a few other hassles. Instead of being my normal “no thanks” self, I ditched my comfort zone and went. I’m so glad I did! It was an amazing experience for so many reasons. My point? Let’s keep pushing ourselves to take chances, okay? Deal? Deal.

Every so often, something special comes along and it’s just too fun not to share. That’s how I feel about the Heart Designer Ornaments at HSN. Yes, HSN.  Have you ever gotten stuck on the HSN channel? I got sucked in one night and watched it for about 2 hours. It was quite mesmerizing. Anyway, they launched a new collection of Christmas ornaments featuring designs from celebs like Sarah Jessica Parker, Gwen Stefani, Tori Spelling, Molly Sims, Sly Stallone and many more. The above is Sarah Jessica Parker’s colorful creation. So Carrie Bradshaw!

Now you can shop and actually feel good about it, because 100 percent of the profits, no less than 30 percent of the purchase price of each ornament, will be donated to St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital and its on-going efforts to finding cures and save children with cancer and other catastrophic diseases. As a parent, you’ve gotta feel good about that.

Here are a few of my fave ornaments. Which one do you like the best?

Gwen Stefani continues her Japanese-inspired quirkiness.

Tori Spelling’s design is clean and sophisticated, yet still festive.

Molly Sims opts for gold bling with a pop of color.

Sly Stallone got some creative help from his wife, Jennifer Flavin.

The Babble Best Holiday Advent List is live for 2010! You can see 25 different amazing Advents for the holidays, divided into five categories. I was the lucky one who helped pull this list together and let me tell you, it is AWESOME!

Feeling splurgy? Check out the $1 million Advent from Porsche. Looking for an eco-friendly Advent this year? Take a look at all of the beautifully crafted Advents from the most creative Etsy sellers ever! The categories are Luxury, Traditional, Modern, Candy and DIY. You’d better get started because these cute Advents gotta be ready to go on December 1st! Here’s a little taste: