Once again life has taken over and I have had not enough time for me.  This is not surprising considering it is Summer and the kids are home all day, but it is surprising because it has rained non-stop for like a million years, or so it seems.  Today is actually sunny and we spent the morning outside until J saw too many wasps, then he was done.

Last Thursday I had the amazing opportunity to meet real live Ottawa Bloggers at BOLO.  I did post about going, but I was still a little nervous.  I have spent four years blogging in my family room and knowing that most of my readers are out of town or out of the Country.  I write what is in my heart or on my mind, but I don’t usually go out and meet locals because then it takes my blogging out of my family room and into the real world.  At the same time, this was the next logical step for me.  Since I have been reading more local bloggers and they have been reading mine, it seemed like the right time to do it.  And I got to go out for an evening without my kids.

Lynn did the most amazing job pulling it all together.  You would have thought she organized events for a living, a truly wonderful, well organized and completely on schedule event.  I had the opportunity to show my work, which was amazing for me as well.  I brought an album of weddings and portraits.  And I brought three frames one with a single poster, one with shots from farms around Canada and another of beach shots.  It took me two weeks to pull it all together and I was happy with the work I presented and happy to have the opportunity.  Thank you again Lynn.

In other new and exciting things that are going on for me, I have been asked to review a book.  I don’t think I have done this before, at least not officially, so I am looking forward to this new step.  And I have been asked to display some of my photos in a local coffee shop.  When this actually comes together, I will be sure to blog all about it as I am very, very excited.

I am terribly remiss in writing this post and I cannot believe that Thursday is almost here. But, I don’t want to go another day without saying that I will be attending, reading and displaying my photos at Blog Out Loud on Thursday.

Lynn from Diary of a TurtleHead had this great idea of a little bloggy get together.  Where we would meet at a café and read some of our posts.  Well, it has turned into a much larger event than I at least anticipated and I think it will be lots of fun.

At first I asked if I could just show some of my work.  I am not one to do public speaking normally (well, not usually something I have written.  I have been known to sing Carols in meetings and teach people about computers when I really barely knew what I was talking about), but Lynn is persistent.  She kept encouraging me to read one of my posts so I finally agreed.  I am going back and forth between a couple of posts so I don’t know yet which one I will share.  But, I have been pulling together some of my photography and look forward to bringing it there.

If you have no plans for Thursday night, drop by and see us at Raw Sugar Café, 692 Somerset Street West from 7-10pm.  I am secretly excited to meet a few people I have known through blogs and to have yet another evening out.  Now if only Hubby would join me.  Not likely, he’s not much of a blogging kind of guy.