5 Things We Learned at Bloggy Boot Camp.

Kelly & I had the opportunity to attend the SITS Girls Bloggy Boot Camp at the Seaport Hotel in Boston this past Saturday. Tiffany and Francesca put together a great one day conference. It's now Monday and I'm still trying to sift through my notes and figure out what the first step we should take to get our blog to the next level.

Here are 5 things that we learned on Saturday:

1) You can never have too many business cards. Kelly thought she had plenty, but she quickly ran out.

2) Be prepared with a notebook. You'll be taking a lot of notes. The speakers are going to give you a lot of information. You'll want to take down as much as you can so you can refer back to it later.

3) Get a Social Media Kit together. If you want to work with brands you'll need to have something to give to the brand to let them know a little bit about you.

4) Remember the Mom Test. The internet is forever. Whatever you put on your blog be comfortable with the content if your Mom decides to read it.

5) Tiffany Romero is very pretty.

If you're a blogger and you have the opportunity to attend a Bloggy Boot Camp, I highly recommend it. You'll be so happy you did.

The Melting Pot

*The following post was written by Kelly, Loopy's sister. She is a (somewhat) regular contributor to the blog*

Recently, I had the opportunity to attend an event at the Melting Pot in Framingham. There were about 20 people there from the Boston Parent Bloggers. We were able to sample different kinds of fondue. They had four different cheese fondues. My favorite was the Spinach and Artichoke Cheese Fondue. They offered us bread, veggies and apple chunks to dip in the different fondue.

After everyone had a chance to sample the cheese, they brought out the chocolate! I couldn’t wait to try them all. Again they had 4 different dessert fondues. All were delicious, but my favorite was the pure chocolate. With the dessert fondue they had bananas, strawberries, pound cake, cheesecake, marshmallows and brownie bites to dip with. It was heaven!

Mmmmm Chocolate - my favorite!

The Melting Pot has three locations in Massachusetts and one in Rhode Island. I’m hoping they open one closer to me on the South Shore. For now, it’s worth the ride to the other locations.

A special thanks to the Melting Pot for hosting us and giving us each a $25 gift certificate.

Loopy & Me

I can't wait to dip again!

Fondue=Fundue

Last week I attended an outing at The Melting Pot in Bedford with some friends from Boston Parent Bloggers. I've never been before and I have to say, I think I'm in love. Check out this melty goodness:

They gave us a number of cheese fondues to sample. I wish I could say that I had a favorite, but they were all so good, it's hard to choose one that I liked the best.

After we had our fill of cheese, they brought out the dessert fondue. I was so excited, I nearly passed out. Not only was it delicious, the presentation was spectacular. They had Yin & Yang, Bananas Foster, Flaming Turtle, Chocolate S'mores and many more.

As I said, I really, really liked the chocolate.

Photo courtesy of Robin at Masshole Mommy

As I was walking through the restaurant, I didn't notice any children. This is a great place for a date night or a girl's night out.

Photo courtesy of Robin at Masshole Mommy

A special shout-out goes to Kristen from The Melting Pot for hosting us. She's a fun gal who knows her way around a fondue pot. I'd also like to thank Christy from Boston Parent Bloggers for putting this whole thing together.

Boston Parent Bloggers

Even though I'm not technically a parent, I feel like one. I spend most of my time with children. The only difference is that I get to go home to a nice, quiet house. Jealous?

Since I'm "sort of" a mom, I joined a group called Boston Parent Bloggers. Fortunately for me, they welcomed me, even with the whole "womb has never been used" thing. They held their launch party the other night. I met so many amazing, beautiful, smart, talented moms. I was in awe of each and every one of them.

Christy Matte and Jodi Grundig are the founders of BPB. They did an amazing job with the launch party. It was held at the Barefoot Books flagship store in Concord. It is truly a wonderful place to take the kids. The whole place is bright, colorful, and just plain adorable. Even the toilet was cute. If you live in the area, you should really check it out.

Below is a list of some of the moms that I was able to chat with and get to know a little bit. You should check out their blogs. My apologies if I forgot anyone. I'm still new at this whole blogging/networking thing. Feel free to berate me in the comment section if I forgot you.

Masshole Mommy

The Coupon Goddess

Trees Will Bend

The Girl is a Mom

UMommy

Mommycosm

Quirky Fusion

This Place is Now a Home

Jodi Grundig

Julie Deennehy

I really hit it off with these women and I can't wait to see them again. They're a wonderful group of supportive women.