4 non- "deep" things I learned at BlogHer '14

"Deep" Takeaways from BlogHer '14

Squishy potties are a win!

Marketing folks, listen up. If ever you have the opportunity to share your product with a convention center teeming with 2,000 women (many of whom are likely mothers), hand out squishy potties. Perhaps even if you're not a toilet paper company, like AngelSoft here. Two of these suckers made for the best present-brought-home-from-a-trip ever for the boys.

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They went bananas over them all morning, pretending to poop in and shove a squishy, Lysol-branded bus in them. At one point, the two potties became confused: whose was whose? Oliver immediately freaked out and started crying Alice-(in Wonderland)-when-she's-big tears; giant, sloshing droplets over the unknown. Jack chose one, Oliver freaked out again, now because of certainty that in fact that one was his, and ultimately I hid them behind my back and made them choose hands. I deigned to write a "J" on the one Jack picked so as to avoid this lunacy later -squishy potties, y'all- but Ol insisted I still had it wrong.

Bleary-eyed husband, in a stroke of parental genius, took both potties, pretended to ably rub the offending "J" off of "Oliver's" potty, hand the same unmarked one back to Ol, "write" a "second" J atop Jack's and appease Oliver. Good god.

Anyway, long story short marketers, squishy potties are beloved. And if you don't believe me, check the BlogHer '14 attendees feed on Facebook.

Panties and refrigerators are confusing!

Now, Samsung, on the other hand surely wishes it had a do-over. Ooo-eee on this typo in a refrigerator pamphlet given out to many of those 2,000 women. CoolSelect Panties, eh? Fantastic! Just what I want in my sleek new fridge. Doesn't your heart break a little for the person in charge of editing this thing; you know he/she had seen it a million times and just ran right over the missing "r." #whenspellcheckdoesnthelpyou

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Breath spray that makes you want to barf is NOT a win!

Lastly, and this only has to do with BlogHer in the since that I wouldn't have bought it if I didn't think I might need breath spray in the middle of the day out there, I must steer you away from this horrible product: Hello supermint breath spray. I tried it twice, and both attempts made me think I was surely going to throw up in my own mouth. Just a little, but that is certainly not what you want in a breath-enhancing product, you know? I got it at CVS. Please don't do this to yourself, people.

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My husband will not be giving the children vegetables

That's really all there is to this last point.

Em-i-lis redesign: want your input!

Dearest Readers, Happy Monday! As was the case last July after BlogHer '13, I'm home now (from BlogHer '14) full of inspiration and empowered enthusiasm. For a long while, I've been musing about an Em-i-lis redesign; same content, same feel, but upgraded and updated.

I know I want a better recipe management system so that recipes can be posted in multiple categories (ex: salads and mains...) as well as a way to better highlight photographs. What I'd like to know, before embarking on this exciting yet time-consuming project, is what you'd like. What do you enjoy and wish to remain the same? What could be better? A reader recently told me she found it hard to search for recipes, so I've updated the search so that you can search by post OR recipe. Great suggestion, and I was grateful. So, let me know. What would make your reading experience better? Easier? How does the site transition to your mobile devices?

Quite a few of you seem to prefer contacting me directly (versus leaving comments). Of course that is great, and if you'd like to shoot me an email or DM via Twitter or Facebook, feel free. Otherwise, please leave any and all of your ideas in the comment section here.

Many thanks!! Em-i-lis