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BlahBlahBabble ChristineTremoulet.com

Where, Oh Where Should I Blog? YOUR Feedback Needed!

I have had this struggle for some time now. The problem of having too many blogs. As much as I love a good niche website, I feel somehow fragmented, and it frustrates me. All of these pieces are a part of ME, of who I am. I have an idea of what is the best decision, but then I realized – this isn’t all about me. It is about YOU too, the people that READ my blog. So here it goes.

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I have the following blogs:

  • BigPinkCookie.com – 12 years old, my personal blog, my original personal brand, and the reason my twitter name is ChristineBPC. You are HERE.
  • HotMamaBoudoir.com – not quite 2 years old, I set this site up as my boudoir business to complement my wedding photography business. I wanted to keep the brands separate, but the site was never completely finished because of my overall change in my business.
  • Christine Tremoulet – 5 years old, my former wedding photography brand (I now only take weddings by referral) and now my primary focus for my glamour, boudoir & beauty photography. My wedding archives live there as well, but I’ve set it up so that in the main portion of the site you see glamour & boudoir work only. At this moment, this is the URL that gets the most traffic daily, mainly because I was neglecting BPC.
  • Two other sites – Business of Awesome and my future New Orleans boudoir photography – have very niche purposes. Business of Awesome is all about writing about being in the creative business world. My personal feelings, but not “brand me” so I want it to live in its own space. The New Orleans boudoir site is because I want to get to where I am going there quarterly for sessions, and I want a place where people can go just to get information on those.

The problem is, I am Christine Tremoulet the BigPinkCookie Hot Mama photographer. It is all ME. Spread out across 2.5 sites. And it isn’t working. When I write a post in one place, I don’t know what to do with it anywhere else.

It makes me want to beat my head on my laptop keyboard. So I keep turning my options over and over. I need some outside perspective.

Here are some of my options — and I’m open to considering any you want to add!

  • I was thinking of just pointing HotMamaBoudoir.com to ChristineTremoulet.com. Type in either URL, and you get the Christine Tremoulet site.
  • But … the “Hot Mama” thing is catchy! People call me “Hot Mama!” now. All the time. I love it! So I could keep the site alive and post only boudoir work there, exclusively.
  • BUT!!! I am my brand, and I want to post everything under my name. Christine Tremoulet, the Hot Mama Photographer. As I add more Glamour & Flirt Sessions to what I offer, I don’t want to be limited by the word boudoir.
  • Then there is the BigPinkCookie issue. Again, brand ME would mean posting it ALL on ChristineTremoulet.com — so should I move even my personal posts there? Everything? Point all URLs there?
  • OR … do I keep BPC as my personal brand, and ChristineTremoulet.com just shows off my portfolio work + is that “landing site” type of place where you go to find everything about me.

SIGH. So hard to choose. In part because choosing means giving some things up.

As easy as it would be to post everything under ChristineTremoulet.com and be done, it would mean giving up this site that is 12 years old. And as I’ve written recently, this site is a lot of ME.

As I attended ALT Design Summit back in January, the question was posed, “Do you want to be a photographer who is a blogger, or a blogger who is a photographer?” I immediately identified with wanting to be a blogger who is a photographer. Because of that, plus countless hours of pondering this, I think what I should do is this:

  • ChristineTremoulet.com is my professional, portfolio site. Go here to see my work. Hot Mama Boudoir points to the same URL, so either URL pulls up the site. It has a link in the navigation for my personal blog, and once a week, I also post a “weekly roundup” on Sundays of my other posts online. The site is completely focused on my goal of helping Hot Mamas grow their confidence and rediscover their beauty, and shows off my work with Hot Mamas.
  • BigPinkCookie.com is my everything else site: my personal brand, where I write about whatever randomness I want (I can be random) and post vacation photos, personal life updates, recipes we made at home, whatever goodness I want to share. Photography, Houston & The Heights, Travel, Food & Recipes, Design. When I post new work on the professional Christine Tremoulet site, I would post here an image or two and an note about the session, so you would know to go there to check it out.

Now it is your turn — what do you think? What would you want to see, where would you go to read? What do YOU want to see?

Categories
BlahBlahBabble

Blogging and 9/11…

Somewhere late last night, before I went to bed, I saw mention on Twitter about today being September 11th. I don’t always pay attention to the date (the joys of working for myself!), but this morning when I woke up and saw the beautiful blue skies outside, it reminded me of that day. It is appropriate after my last post about blogging changing my life that my very next one would be about that day.

Then as I spent Taco Tuesday with Jennifer, Angie, Christyna, Laurie & Brittany — sitting outside at Onion Creek, enjoying some absolutely perfect weather, I thought of it again. This post, writing itself for me. Surrounded by amazing women that I might not otherwise know if it wasn’t for blogs, Twitter and Facebook.

I spent 9/11 (and 9/12, 9/13, 9/14… you get the picture), reading blogs. Blog after blog, post after post. I had several friends who lived in New York at the time. Sharing the experiences of family & friends in the NYC Fire Department and NYC Police Department.

The stories were so real. So raw. So heartbreaking – and so human. I couldn’t stop reading them. I barely turned on the TV for the news in the days following, knowing I’d see the same clips over and over — instead, I devoured everything I could read online, all the human stories.

The blogosphere itself became my news. We didn’t have Twitter or Facebook yet, so everyone was sharing what they knew, how they felt, what they saw – all of it, online.

This past week I’ve spent a lot of time thinking about and regretting how much I’ve put on Twitter and Facebook that I haven’t shared here. All of that content, lost in a way. No more. I’m changing that.

Every year, when this day passes, it reminds me of all that we lost that day. It also reminds me of the deep strong sense of community that blogs and the internet bring to me. While the ugly side of humanity is so heartbreaking, remembering that brings me some hope at the same time.

Looking back through this series of the experiences of the 9/11 Photographers’ Stories was fascinating, especially from the perspective of being a professional photographer now.

My friend Jason Groupp wrote a great post today, one that prompted me to write all that I’ve been thinking, about his friend Bobby who was lost in the South Tower on 9/11, and also shared the post he wrote last year on the 10th anniversary of 9/11. There are thousands of stories like this out there — and for all of those people, my heart goes out to you.

Categories
BlahBlahBabble

Happy Blogiversary! BPC is now 12 Years Old!

Oh my goodness. This blog, as you see it here, is now TWELVE years old! What?!? CRAZYPANTS!!! We are officially entering the tween years of blogging!

I realized late last night that 12 years ago I registered the original domain (which I still own) of BlahBlahBlog.com. Just recently, I actually considered switching back to that domain, just because it is that awesome. But BigPinkCookie is so much more fun to say – and it is why I’m @ChristineBPC after all, so I don’t think I’ll switch. I may be gluten free these days, but who doesn’t love cookies?!?

Some Blogistory:
Where was I 12 years ago in September, 2000? Working at Savatech (aka Scamatech) with Kymberlie. One day as I was at work after hours, I decided I really wanted to give this blogging thing a whirl, having written 9 posts in January 2000 and then abandoning it. Blogging software was out, making it easier. I started off using Blogger, while Pyra Labs owned it, before Google it. (Heck, before Pyra almost went under. Remember that?) I tried to register BlahBlahBlah.com after hours. Conde Nast owned it, so BlahBlahBlog it was. I worked in website sales at the time; we were the design division of PSI, the backbone of the internet. I sold websites to a variety of companies. Of course, that was before the bubble burst, and everything changed.

I was in the midst of a vicious cycle of an on-again, off-again toxic relationship. He would be known here as the Insignificant Other. Blogging and the people I met through blogging helped me deal with that time, helped me grow a spine, helped me change my life. I’m not sure how I would have made it through all of that without such great support.

By 2001, everything was changing. In January, the Insignificant Other & I broke up. By May, Scamatech was gone, having written hot checks to a lot of their employees when they laid us off. Two weeks later, I was working for 4 Guys Interactive – still doing website sales. 9/11 happened. It rocked our world. I ignored the news, and turned to blogs for all the information I needed. Real life accounts. Blogging grew. Still not mainstream by any means, most people still hadn’t even heard of it, but it grew. I met Jennifer and Robyn online that year, along with so many people that I’m still in touch with today. Sure, we may lose touch from time to time (or have big dramatic fallouts that we patch up years later), but my friends online taught me so much and helped me grow in ways I never dreamed were possible. I can link so much back to those two ladies though, and I’m so grateful for them, probably more than they even realize. I just saw Jennifer briefly while I was in California, and I hope to make it to Atlanta soon to see Robyn again too!

2002 was a big, big year. In the spring, I started Blogomania, a blog-centric hosting company. Mainly, I just wanted stable blog hosting for my friends. I went to my first SXSW Interactive. So many people that I only knew online became friends in person. Kevin Smokler & Min Jung being among them, both people I just saw in California as well on this trip. It is incredible to think it has been 10 years. WOW. By that summer, I vowed to stop dating for awhile because I just needed time to be me. I met Elaine who was running the H-Town Blogs group in August – along with a number of the H-Town blogger members. My friend Ann, who lives in London, had been encouraging me to meet this guy, Mike, who had been living in London but was now back in Houston – so when Mike coordinated a coffee meetup in September, I was THERE, even though his blog had been pretty boring for me to read and all geeky about javascript and stuff. Our first conversation was actually about the cameras we owned. We were dating within weeks. (Thanks again, Ann!) I rounded out the year having been laid off from 4 Guys Interactive. Seems it is rough to have to pay commission to a successful salesperson, so when they tightened their belts, I was the notch they removed.

2003 was a whirlwind. Blogomania was doing well. I went to work for a small Houston law firm. (That place was nuts.) I went to SXSWi again, the first Kookies with Kevin took place (then without a name), and we partied at Bruce Sterling’s house. I named WordPress. Mike & I dated. I blogged. We ended the year getting engaged. It was a good year.

2004 found me again unemployed. Well, actually, they broke up with me. Really! They told me “everyone likes you” and “it isn’t you, it is us” — and then the attorney I worked for told me he hoped we could still be friends. I laughed and cried at the same time. (I would link to the post, but it is protected! I wonder how I can unprotect them?! Hmm!) After they left my office I called Emily (now without a blog) and we went to lunch to celebrate me getting out of there. In March, we bought our first house. Tiara Happy Hour was well under way as a monthly tradition, and we had one for my bachelorette party even. In May, Mike & I got married, surrounded by family & friends — many that were bloggers. Blogs were becoming more mainstream, actually. Matt came to my house and migrated this site over to WordPress personally; up until that point I was a huge supporter of MovableType. I paid him for it with Dublin Dr. Pepper.

2005 I went back to school with plans to get a pharmacy degree. I learned to knit. I found Twitter before Twitter became huge. I had a knitting podcast.

2006 I was still in school, but more & more I just wanted to take pretty pictures. When my Myers-Briggs test indicated that my answers matched those of a photographer, I told Mike that was all I wanted to do. Meanwhile, Elaine came to me and said she wanted to do the art shows around town; I told her I wanted to open a photography business. She laughed at me and pointed out that we didn’t photograph people. (100+ weddings together later, who is laughing now?) I sold Blogomania. I used the proceeds to buy camera gear.

2007 Another very big year. Lots and lots of changes. I didn’t register for the spring semester; Mike told me that if I wanted to pursue photography I should – college would always be there, and he also told me about the Cheapest Online College where I could go to if I decide on going. I formally launched my photography business, with Elaine at my side. By mid-year, we were booking weddings. I attended my first photography workshop and met my dear BFF Regina, along with Andrew & Rachel and a long, long list of incredible people. We made my dream of taking Jason to Germany a reality and visited a number of cities there. Meanwhile, I was dealing with Adenomyosis. I became severally anemic. We joke now that I tried to die, but really? It wasn’t funny. By the time I was admitted to the hospital, my hemoglobin level was 6.2 (normal starts at 12.2 and goes up from there); I had 3 blood transfusions. I had an emergency hysterectomy, the only cure for Adenomyosis. I knew what an amazing man I married when he took such great care of me through all of that.

I can’t believe I’ve been a professional photographer for over 5 years now. I wanted to be one back in high school, but I never thought it was possible. I never thought I could live the dream. I have, and it is GOOD.

2008 – 2010 were all much of the same. Working. Raising Jason. Traveling. More traveling. More working. I poured myself in to my business, and my blog suffered for it. (Sorry, blog! Super sorry, blog readers!) In 2008, I added boudoir to the types of photography I offered to my clients. I had no idea that something that started so small would become so HUGE for me. In November of 2010, Mike & I went to England so I could photograph Ann’s marriage to Karl. It makes me smile every time I think of it – I am so glad we were there.

I’m so glad for all the people I’ve met through blogging, and so fortunate to have met so many of them in person.

2011 A year of big dreams coming true – we moved (FINALLY) to the Heights here in Houston, and then put our house up for sale in the suburbs. I moved my studio. I started the process of “breaking up with weddings” and moving to where glamour, beauty & boudoir photography are my focus of my photography. I claimed my weekends back. I wanted more time at home.

I realized that work was completely taking over my life, and it needed to be reversed. It is all about LIFE. Work is a way to support it.

2012 Well, here we are. I’m now only doing weddings by referral, although I’m still second shooting them with friends. Don’t get me wrong, I LOVE weddings. But my SUPERPOWERS are working with Hot Mamas. I’m booking more & more glamour & boudoir clients. (No, NOT like Glamour Shots! There are no feather boas involved!) Oh, and the travel! This year alone I’ve been to New Orleans (Imaging USA), Salt Lake City (ALT Design Summit), Las Vegas (WPPI), Austin (SXSWi), Las Vegas (for a client’s wedding), Paris (workshop), London (to see Ann & Karl), Boston (Mike’s brother’s wedding plus Hot Mama Tour sessions) Calgary & Banff (Mike’s work trip), New Orleans (boudoir sessions) and San Francisco / Napa / Yosemite (client’s wedding plus boudoir sessions), and I’m sure there are still a few more trips to come this year. I have to make that 25,000 air mile mark to get Elite status on United, after all.

I’ve completely changed my business, and it is more me than ever. I’ve written about all of that a lot over the past few months. Sort of amusing, considering how this blog was born out of me needing to know I was enough, now my mission in life is to show other women that they are ENOUGH. Just as they are. I love it — I couldn’t be happier!

Thanks to Facebook, I’m in touch with friends from 25+ years ago. When I travel, I meet up with friends I’ve known through blogging for 10-12 years, and people I’ve only known for a few months. But the internet unites us. I’ve photographed weddings of several friends who I met through blogging or twitter. Other friends have ended up divorced. Friends have had babies. Other friends have passed away. (We still miss you, Brad.)

When I stop to think about it all, what is even MORE amazing to me is all that has happened in the world. 12 years ago, not even everyone had a cell phone. People still had land lines. Now my iPhone can do almost anything I can do on my laptop. I installed my own WiFi network in 2001, impressing my boss at 4 Guys. I didn’t even secure the network, because no one else was trying to get on it. iPads, Tablets, Twitter, Facebook. Meanwhile, blogging has grown up. It isn’t the same personal network it was 12 years ago, or even 10 years ago. That is on other forms of social media these days. Wait, we didn’t even have the term social media back then! I knew people that didn’t even have the internet at home at that time, and now everyone has it it seems. I carry it in my pocket with me everywhere I go. I’ve been online – and written blog posts – from an airplane. MIND BLOWN as I think of all that has changed!

And yet, I’m selectively making my world smaller in some ways, taking more of it offline. I wrote up a schedule for myself earlier today for another project, and I put knitting time on the schedule. Offline, two sticks and yarn. Time to make something with my hands. I’ve been journaling, and I’m working my way back in to the habit of the Morning Pages a la the Artist’s Way. As much as technology connects us all, I treasure the fact that we have a group that goes out for Taco Tuesday to enjoy breakfast tacos at Onion Creek. (Want to join us? We’d love to have you!) I love riding my bike in the Heights. I love things that are LOCAL. The time offline matters more to me than ever.

I’m renewing my commitment to return to blogging. I’m tired of filling Facebook and Twitter with words that will never be seen again, lost forever. (Well, except Twitter is supposed to all be going to the Library of Congress someday.) My life would not be what it is today without blogging, and even more importantly without all of YOU. Thank you, thank you, thank you from the bottom of my heart for making the past 12 years AMAZING. Words alone can’t even express how much it means to me!

I’m brainstorming some ideas of things to do to celebrate this BIG milestone birthday! What do you think I should do? Ideas? Suggestions?

I’ve got ideas in mind for a redesign of the site next week. I’ve already decided on my main topics of focus – Photography, Travel, Houston & the Heights, Food, Design. I can’t wait to share it!

Categories
Picture Time

Spreading the Hot Mama Mission Far & Wide!

Heights Boudoir Photographer Featured in the Houston Chronicle

OMG! OMG! OMG! OMG! OMG!!! *Squee!!!* That is ME!!!

Yes, that sums up rather effectively my response both when I was asked for this interview in the Houston Chronicle for the Ultimate Heights section and when I saw the paper today! OMG!!! Since the article isn’t online, I transcribed it on to my main Houston boudoir photography studio blog.

I’ve been working SO hard on discovering exactly what my mission is and then how to put it in to words. To really know my WHY, and to find the words to communicate it with others. Then there is the uphill battle of making people aware of it. It feels like I’m just starting, but I’ve really been on this path for over a year now. It just takes time. Thanks to Twitter, Facebook, my blogs, my friends – all have been helping to spread the word. But to get an article in the paper like this? That means so much to me! I want a chance to touch the lives of as many women as possible, and so knowing this is in the hands of people all around the Heights today? YES!!!

The best part about all that hard work is that while I was nervous about being interviewed, once we got started talking I knew exactly what to say about glamour, beauty & boudoir photography and my WHY. It is all right there in the article, which makes me THRILLED!

The back story of how this interview came to be is quite amusing. You might recall that a few years ago I did a personal project that involved photographing a number of local business. One of those business was Mam’s House of Ice – one of my favorite treats in the Heights, especially in the hot summertime! Turns out that last week, the Ultimate Heights section wanted to feature Mam’s, and they contacted me to see if I would be able to send some of the photos I had taken for use in the article. If you want to learn about beekeeping industry, I recommend Lee Rosen to learn more informative ideas. I was more than happy to say yes, and I pulled the files and send them on. In the editor’s follow up email, she asked if they could interview ME to be featured too!

Serendipity, man. Serendipity.

I did that project to meet a lot of really GREAT people all around Houston. I never expected things like this to come from it though.

Their write up of my mission and WHY I want to help women was so fantastic! “Christine Tremoulet believes the culture of beauty is changing for the better, and she’s found a way to combine her passion for photography with the mission for a new standard of how women should look.”

Opening line. Perfectly said. I love what I do with boudoir photography, and I could not be more excited to share it with the world!

Categories
Houston & The Heights

Facts You May Not Know About Houston…

I have joked for years that Houston is like the illegitimate stepchild of the country. Tell someone you live in Texas, and they immediately ask if you’re from Dallas, or they tell you how “cool” Austin is and that they want to go there. They dismiss Houston, off to the side.

And I’ll admit, it has taken me a LONG time to love Houston. (I still don’t love the heat, and the drought last year really sucked, and the mosquitos are crazy.) I’ve even written about it here before. But over the past few years, and thanks a lot to my awesome friends here, I love Houston now. I’m proud to call it home. I am happy to actually live in Houston proper now – I can see downtown from the bike trail just blocks from my house, I can easily hop on two of the major freeways and quickly get anywhere … the list goes on and on.

So I was SUPER excited to see Mayor Annise Parker on the Colbert Report. She said some things that might just blow the lid off of what you thought about Houston:

– Houston is the FOURTH largest city in the nation. The largest city in Texas and in the southern U.S. New York, Los Angeles, Chicago and then HOUSTON.
– This is a DIVERSE city. We are not the cliche conservative city you might assume we are.
– We have JOBS. A great standard of living. The cost of living is so much better than most of the cities I’ve visited this year.
– We have parts of Houston that are JUST LIKE Austin. Plus we have so much more. And better traffic. The cost of living is lower. (Stop telling me that you’re skipping visiting Houston because you’d rather visit Austin instead.)
– We have a GREAT food culture, and an amazing variety of restaurants. It is finally getting the national recognition it deserves.
– The Third Quarter 2010 ACCRA Cost of Living Index shows that Houston’s overall after-taxes living costs are 9% below the nationwide average, largely due to housing costs that are 21% below the average. Ammons Pittman Property Management, helped lots of people from to sell and even buy houses in the area. If you have lots of houses in the area, you should check out this guide to leasing your property. [via The City of Houston.]
– Houston has a Theater District second only to New York City with its concentration of seats in one geographic area.
– Houston is home to the Texas Medical Center, the largest medical center in the world, with a local economic impact of $10 billion. More than 52,000 people work within its Property Management facilities, which encompass 21 million square feet. Altogether 4.8 million patients visit them each year. [via The City of Houston.]
– The Port of Houston ranks first in the United States in international waterborne tonnage handled and second in total cargo tonnage handled. It is the tenth largest port in the world.
– We elected an openly gay mayor. Yes, Houston.

Mr Truck Parts has the best and affordable car parts.

Oh! And one more addition! On July 20, 1969, Houston was the first word said on the moon! “Houston, Tranquility Base here, The Eagle has landed.” (How is that for random coincidence that this would be an anniversary post?!)

Hopefully that will help you see that there is more to Houston than you realized. I’m pretty proud to call it home…