Digitally Speaking | Sophistishe: Finding Zen in Being Human

August 27, 2010 3 Comments

There are times when I lay thinking about life and…death. Usually past my bedtime.

My heart drops down to the pit of my stomach; I gasp for air.

My head spins although my eyes are closed. I open them, and I snap out of it.

I’m constantly thinking what can I do to ensure that my obituary is interesting?

Is that selfish of me?

I want to live a fulfilling life; explore, dream, pursue all of my passions. I want to be there for people – something that does not come easy because I am afraid of being a let down. Though, I want to help people genuinely when my heart tells me so, when I’m ready – not because I’m looking for some halo, not because it’s “the right thing to do”.

I want to be the grandmother, greatgrandmother even… that all the kids gravitate to. Grandma who creates memories through her lovin’ from the oven; photographs too.

I want to create traditions. I want to be spontaneous. Ride my life to the moon and back.

Life as I see it can be a hit or a miss.

My life’s gonna be a hit. That, I’m confident of.

I’m participating in Popinjay, a weekly concept photo challenge. This week’s challenge was confident. Next week’s challenge is abnormal. Join us why don’tchu?

Filed Under: Life, Photography disclosure 3 Comments

August 19, 2010 4 Comments

Ralph Lauren

Child models from the RL Gang.

During my time in NYC for BlogHer, I attended an exclusive event hosted by Ralph Lauren and Mom Central. The event took place in the lavishly decorated Ralph Lauren Reading Room. While there, I had a chance to meet David Lauren, Ralph Lauren’s son. And I learned more about the brand I love dressing my little guy in. I never knew much about the history of the Ralph Lauren and I had a few preconceptions to be honest. Listening to David Lauren tell his dad’s story was simply inspiring and reassured me that the brand was not started from wealth, but an average guy with a dream. Ralph Lauren and his two brothers and sister were raised by his immigrant parents in the Bronx. His family’s last name was originally Lifshitz, but they later had it changed to Lauren.

Ralph’s passion for fashion budded at an early age. He took on an after school job just so he could purchase the stylish suits he desired. He went to business school for two years and served in the army another two years. He picked up a job as a salesman at Brooks Brothers and eventually under the name “Polo”, he started selling ties in a small store. Ralph began designing clothes for his wife and kids. His inspiration came from dreams and fantasies of the life he wanted for his family and the life of those who wore his clothing. He wanted to tell a story; write through his clothing–which brings me to the RL Gang Storybook.

The RL Gang is a shoppable children’s storybook narrated by Harry Connick, Jr. It’s an interactive fashion ~~show~~ story that provides an exciting way for children and their parents to shop the latest back-to-school fall fashions online. The eight characters in The RL Gang go on adventure their first day back to school. Each character has their own sense of style and their looks from the Childrenswear Fall collection are showcased in the virtual storybook. There’s a shopping cart integrated in the book which allow parents to purchase their favorite items directly from RalphLauren.com and Bloomingdales.com.

The RL Gang is also available as a hardcover book at Tikatok.com. Through September 15th, Ralph Lauren will donate 15% of all proceeds from the sale of the Childrenswear Fall collection on RalphLauren.com to support the Ellis Marsalis Center for Music in New Orleans, a cause Harry Connick is very passionate about.

This project is pretty impressive to say the least and I am thrilled to join Ralph Lauren as an ambassador for the brand. Jayden and I will be receiving clothing from from Ralph Lauren (we’ve already received a few gifts at the event) and I will be writing a series of posts as we gear up this upcoming fall. I absolutely can.not.wait. to take photos. And ~~secretly~~, I’m ~~hoping~~ begging to have Jayden featured with the RL Gang.

Oh, I have something for you. Use code RLG_SOPH to receive 10% off regularly priced Ralph Lauren Children’s and Baby products through 8/20.

Alternatively, you can shop stores such as T.J.Maxx and Marshalls who keep Ralph Lauren in stock. I shop at these stores as well as Ebay for all of my Ralph Lauren goodies. I love the lifestyle image of the brand, but it doesn’t mean I have to overstep my own lifestyle to achieve the look.

Tonight’s Twitter Party Info

What: Ralph Lauren #RLGang Twitter Party
When: Thursday, August 19th from 8-9 pm EST
Why: Talk about the new Ralph Lauren digital storybook, a children’s book that gives Moms a unique way to explore Ralph Lauren clothing and their new fall line. You’ll also be entered to win a Ralph Lauren outfit for your child or one of six $50 AMEX gift cards. There’s no RSVP required, just use the hashtag #RLGang and join the conversation!
Host: @MomCentral and @RalphLauren

Filed Under: Campaigns & Promotions, Digitally Speaking, Fashion, Parenting disclosure 4 Comments

July 8, 2010 2 Comments

Migrating Google Friend Connect From Blogger/Blogspot to Wordpress Sophistishe Digital Mom

With so many bloggers migrating from Blogger to WordPress, I’m frequestly asked how to do so without losing Google Friend Connect Followers. So it’s time I post a tutorial on how to do it, so that I don’t have to explain anymore .

Go to http://www.google.com/friendconnect.

Select the Blogger/Blogspot blog being transferred to WordPress.

Select “Add the members gadget”.

Customize your widget’s colors and width.

Generate the code and copy and paste it in notepad. You’ll be pasting it the sidebar of your WordPress blog momentarily.

Towards the bottom of that code, there will be a 20-digit site id that looks like this:
site: ’12345678991234567899′

Copy your 20-digit site id number and paste it in this URL after “id=”: http://www.google.com/friendconnect/admin/site/settings?id=

It should look like this:
http://www.google.com/friendconnect/admin/site/settings?id=12345678991234567899

Enter the edited URL into your browser.

Under “Home URL”, enter the URL to your WordPress blog.

Now go paste the code you generated on the Google Friend Connect site in your sidebar/widget or install the Google Friend Connect Integration plugin.

Did this help you? Click here to vote for me. All you have to do is click and it will register. ♥

Filed Under: Wordpress disclosure 2 Comments

April 29, 2010 No Comments

When I was using the Atahualpa theme, I ran into these 2 issues which I found little support for. Hopefully these solutions help someone Googling their hearts out for the same issues.

To remove “> (quote & angle bracket) from post titles

In /atahualpa/bfa_post_parts.php, find

<a href="<?php the_permalink() ?>" rel="bookmark" title="Permanent Link to <?php the_title(); ?>"><?php the_title(); ?></a>

Replace

Permanent Link to <?php the_title(); ?>

with

Permanent Link to <?php the_title_attribute(); ?>

To make text titles in new posts/pages render as images

In /atahualpa/functions.php, disable the following lines by placing a hash sign in front of them.

# if (is_admin())
# add_action(‘admin_menu’, ‘bfa_ata_add_custom_box’);

/* Use the save_post action to do something with the data entered */
# add_action(‘save_post’, ‘bfa_ata_save_postdata’);

These mods have been tested using WordPress 2.9.2, Atahualpa 3.4.5, and AnyFont 1.0.3.

Filed Under: Wordpress disclosure No Comments