I overslept today. My reader is at a billion. I have so much admin work to do on the shopping blog. Class! I’m exhausted. My brain hurts.

But I’m back. Did you miss me? Did I miss anything?!

I had an AMAZING time in Las Vegas and almost didn’t come back. I have a ton to write about and a few pictures. Sorry, I was totally slacking on the photo front. I have my poor feet to care for. I feel like I can sleep for three days!

Highlights:
- Vanilla Ice playing craps 5 feet away from me
- Tao
- the food!
- our Macauley Caulkin room (what?)
- Paris
- getting serenaded on a gondola

Low Lights:
- buying new heels and attempting to wear them to the club
- my feet feeling like they are going to fall off
- the bandaids…oh, the bandaids
- spending $75 on those bitch ass uncomfortable heels that tore my feet up

In Blog News:
- Thanks Katelin and Amanda for guest posting! You girls are awesome and I love you both.
- My shopping blog is now on Alltop! So is Umm…Now What? Yay!
- a new giveaway at the the shopping blog as well
- a bunch of posts of mine up at Rone Break

So go check those things out while I try to process my ridiculous weekend!

I love you very much. You are very cute and pink. You let me write anything I want, even when it is whiny and full of complaints. You put up with tons of ridiculously adorable puppy pictures. You have also allowed me to meet so many awesome people and get to know them. You won me Most Likeable in the 20SB blog awards. There is an excess amount of Tyra gifs and you don’t even mind. I feed you, you have good content! Well I guess that could be questionable, depending on who you talk to but still. If people didn’t like you, they wouldn’t come back! You put up with those silly ads over on the right side but really, blog, it’s all for you. Those ads are to keep you looking pretty and staying hosted!

Here we get invited to the Martha Stewart blogging show and we probably won’t be able to go.

Why you ask?

Money, blog. It’s what it all comes down to. Lack of it.

Here I am busting my ass at work and all my money is going to school since I have no help from my parents or loans. It’s all me. Then I find out I got a ticket to this and oh shit, it’s in two weeks!

I can’t pull together money for flight AND hotel. Hotel alone will cost be $500 at least for two nights. Flight will be at least $250.

I don’t have that kind of money. It more than likely won’t happen for us, blog.

Pretty sucky, huh?

Too bad I don’t have some sponsor to send me. You know how companies pretty much throw themselves at some mom bloggers with handfuls of cash, sending them this place and over there and more products than they can carry,  just begging for them to take it and write about it? I have just as much say in the blogging community. Twenty somethings want to buy stuff too. We have plenty of spending power but are just overlooked. You don’t see anyone knockin’ on mine or my blog friends’ doors. Maybe one day they will see that us twenty somethings are an untapped market.

Sorry, blog. I doesn’t look like we will be showing off your prettiness in NYC hanging in the Martha audience unless a miracle happens.

Love,

Jamie

P.S. This isn’t us hatin’ on mama bloggers. I love the mommies that blog. My favorites are some!

I’ve always wondered about some of your blog name meanings so now is the time to dish!

Why is your blog called what it is called? Your name, favorite color, imaginary friend, a word you like, favorite food, the crackhead down the street?

Whatever it is, I want to know.

My blog was started on a whim (as are all the awesome ones!) and I wasn’t sure what I wanted to call it. I like the word LOVELY and ran with it so there you have it.

Oh! How Lovely!

Your turn.

Lately, I really haven’t felt like writing much. I guess it is kind of obvious, I haven’t been posting as often as I use to. There is more pictures, more plugs for my other blog and other stuff. I’ve been commenting less, clicking “mark all as read” a little more often.

It seems blog world has slowed down a bit. I remember I would be at 300+ entries in my reader a day. Maybe now that summer is coming to a close everyone will be back to their computers instead of lazing in the sun and rushing off to some fantastic location or another.

I think I need(ed) a little break. Not to say I’m going to stop blogging. I don’t think I could do that ever.

But there isn’t “quality content” up all the time. There isn’t much WRITING. I’m all about the fluff every now and then. I’m all about the silly articles, celebrity gossip, more puppy pictures than you can handle because you just might explode from cute if you see Edie’s big ears again. I don’t need to be moving people to tears, thought provoking and bring the hilarity every word I write.

I’m not going to force it.

Because that is not me and that isn’t what this blog is about.

Most people can tell when people try to hard.

I still love blogging and will continue to do so. Not all of us need to be A+ writing superstars and I probably will never be. That’s not why I started this thing, it’s all just in fun.

So it is what is. Take it or leave. Love or hate it. Blah, blah, blah.

Fluff and all.

ETA: I too love the fluff or I wouldn’t be posting it!

I leave Sunday for my super amazing Orlando vacation. Now while I’m hanging out boozing it up with Mickey and partying with Spiderman, I’m leaving the blog keys to Jenn. She promised to take care of the Lovely while I’m gone. Of course, I couldn’t leave this blog all barren and lonely for 7 days, so I’ve lined up some great, no - AMAZING guest bloggers to post while I’m away. Seriously, you will laugh and you might cry and you will curse the day I come back and take over control again because I will not live up to the awesomeness that was here while I was gone.

So you better check in every day and leave my guest bloggers some love!

Secondly, I was checking my little blog stat thingy and came across a delightful surprise. Turns out I’m up for a Blogger’s Choice Award! The always fabulous Lisa of The Lisa Show nominated me for Best Blog About Stuff. Blogging directions are over-rated which is why I’m all about the Stuff. I think that describes this little blog very well. Many thanks to Lisa!

While I’m telling you to go vote me (which you should), I’m also asking you to vote for my friends! Seriously, if everyone voted for our 20SBs who have been nominated, we’d sweep the Blogger’s Choice Awards. Go register and vote for all of them. It doesn’t take too long! If I missed anyone, let me know.

Oh! How Lovely!

Margot to Bed

The Larissa Monologues

Keep Your Receipt (here too)

Surviving Myself

Distracted Spunk

No Ordinary Rollercoaster

Must Love Geek

The Lisa Show

Beyond Megapixels

Vote or Die.

With that, I’m off for some magic in the Land of the Mouse. Catch me on twitter, maybe, if I’m not too busy spewing fairy dust and falling over from one too many times on the teacups.

Not all of you unfortunately, but 3 of you! Thanks for entering the contest, everyone! You gave me and my judge a good laugh. Should you need a chuckle to help you get through to the end of the day, go take a little looksee at the entries.

The reason I chose jokes for this contest is because last week, Will and I kept telling each other really bad jokes. So who better than boyfriend judge this contest? NO ONE.

Did your joke prevail in the joke contest of all contests? Find out the winners and their jokes after the jump!

(more…)

The past few days I have been thinking about this blog. I’m not so anonymous anymore, people I know in real life could find me and read all my thoughts, problems and of course, my extensive Tyra .gif collection. I really don’t tell many people I know about this blog, I think boyfriend sister and a friend Mark are the only ones who know about it. For all I know, people who know me may have already stumbled upon this blog but have just kept their mouth shut. I think I would l like to keep it that way too. So hey, if you know me in real life, shut up, I don’t want to know you read this! I write about some things with much more candor than I talk about in real life. If someone were to tell me they found it, I think I would censor myself more and I don’t want to do that.

I don’t really discuss sex and my relationship too much. I don’t real discuss the extent of my body image issues. I don’t really discuss working as a nanny, mainly for privacy reasons on that one though. I try not to discuss baby poop or womanly issues because I really doubt anyone would like to read that. I could though and some day I might discuss any of those…well not poop. Sorry poop lovers. For now though, I just don’t.

Anonymous bloggers don’t have this issue. No one knows who they are so they can blog whatever they feel like. I chose to show my blog to certain people in my life and put my face out there, so I guess I can’t really complain. I’m not complaining though at all. Just thinking out loud…er…on blog?

So yes, the age old question that everyone touches on at least once: To blog or not to blog?

Is anything off limits? Do you wish you were anonymous? Or anonymous, do you wish you could come out of the blogging closet?

I figure it was time I did some deep cleaning here at Oh! How Lovely! If you are not on my Links page and would like to be or feel I made a mistake, email me or comment.  It’s just hard keeping up.

Also if you haven’t yet:

Subscribe in reader

or follow me on Twitter:

@jamielovely

I think I covered everything today.

Blogroll. Check.
Links page. Check.
Reader. Check.
Feeds. Check.
Twitter. Check.

Alright, real entries tomorrow. I’m tired of looking at my blog today!

Thank you all for your comments and support on my post yesterday. Seriously, it means a lot. My freaders are the greatest!

______

Also, many thanks to Very Bad Cat for bestowing this fabulous award of excellence on me.

I’d like to thank Edie, Project Runway, ANTM and my quarter life crisis for giving such amazing blog filler. And while I think all of you are excellent, I can only give this award to 10 other bloggers according to the rules. I don’t want to upset the blogger gods, so let’s do this!

• Brookem
• Benjamin
• Each
• Heidi
• Rachel
• Tiff
• Cici
• Penelope
• Shanti
• Barbie

These bloggers were just give the Oh! How Lovely! stamp of fabulous. Go check them out. I promise you won’t be disappointed.

So take it and pass it on!

BlogHer in San Francisco or Blog World Expo in Las Vegas?

What would YOU choose?