An Explanation

May 12

Safireblogs, giveaway, Lala and Vinny, Lolli, reviews giveaways, Review 19 Comments

Everyone,

I’ve had several questions about my blog and where I got the idea for the name, etc.  I thought I’d give all my new friends the reader’s digest version of my blog’s history.  In bullet form, because I like them.

• August 2004 I started a blog to keep in touch with our families in Utah.  Before that blog, I wrote an online diary for a company (kind of like being paid to blog now but I wasn’t paid) chronicling our struggles to get pregnant.  But I wanted something that everyone could read so I started it.  I chose the name, Living in Maryland because we were, well, living in Maryland.
• About 2 years into that, I had several people searching for the blog with our full names and it bothered me.  I went about thinking of online nicknames we could possibly use.  I then spent about a week going through my archives and changing each of our names to our nom de plumes we have now.
• Somewhere in between that, we began trying to have another baby.  I wanted to have a place to write about our struggles but didn’t want to go back to the online company when blogs were so easy.  I started at least 5 of them, never liking any of them really.
• Then I had a very vivid dream.  I dreamed that Juice and I were at a party.  There was an enormous round balcony over a very loud and very large waterfall.  Juice and I were trying to catch a baby everyone was tossing around, and when I finally caught him, I jumped off the balcony into the waterfall.  To my surprise, instead of going down, I went up.  I took that as a sign that I should keep my spirits up while trying to have a baby and that one day I would have another.
• I had 2.  Tehe.
• I started a private blog with this name to talk about our infertility struggles.  It was the only one I stuck with.
• 2 years later, I went to Bloggy Boot camp and decided that I was ready for a change with my blog.  Lolli and I sat at dinner trying to think of a name I could use.  She mentioned that she really like the name for my private blog, and was I willing to maybe streamline that.
• The lights came on.  Yes!  It was perfect.  After that night, I spent several nights trying out themes in my head.  I landed on barrels and thought it would be clever.  Like people going over Niagara Falls in barrels and only sort of surviving.
• Then I landed on the name Cooper (which is also a nom de plume) because Coopers were people who made barrels.
• I thought it was cute.
• A rough draft drawing, several emails back and forth with a friend, and she whips this out for me.  Very talented, very reasonable!  She’s doing a giveaway later on this week.

So there you have it. Just like links on a chain, little things come together to make awesome things.

Like this necklace.

Isn’t this beautiful?!  My friend Lala of Silverleaf Creations made it by hand.  It’s an ice blue hand beaded adjustable choaker with a crystal pendant.  It also comes with matching earrings.  These pictures don’t do it justice.  It’s just stunning and one of a kind.  If you’re looking for something to get noticed, this would be it!

One lucky person gets to try it out too.  I am jealous because really, this is beautiful.  All you need to do is leave me a comment!

We have a bonus prize today also of 2 hand made earrings by Lala.  One pair is a set of sparkly heart crystals.  I have a set of these from her and I always get comments whenever I wear them.  The other set is a pair of carved ivory and blue stone earrings.  Everything is made from high quality Sterling silver and is hypoallergenic.

To enter the earring giveaway you MUST tweet about this contest and leave me a separate comment about it here.  These would make beautiful presents for your sweethearts or get you noticed in a crowd.

Thanks for all your comments this week so far!  Keep them coming!

Safire

PS- Here’s another legal disclaimer that said I’m not affiliated with Silverleaf Creations in any way other than we hula for fitness together.  I thought you guys would really like these pieces so I got them for you.