<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<?xml-stylesheet type="text/xsl" media="screen" href="/~d/styles/atom10full.xsl"?><?xml-stylesheet type="text/css" media="screen" href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~d/styles/itemcontent.css"?><feed xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2005/Atom" xmlns:openSearch="http://a9.com/-/spec/opensearch/1.1/" xmlns:blogger="http://schemas.google.com/blogger/2008" xmlns:georss="http://www.georss.org/georss" xmlns:gd="http://schemas.google.com/g/2005" xmlns:thr="http://purl.org/syndication/thread/1.0" xmlns:feedburner="http://rssnamespace.org/feedburner/ext/1.0" gd:etag="W/&quot;AkEEQX89fCp7ImA9WhBaEUk.&quot;"><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3376889143210775517</id><updated>2013-05-21T10:03:20.164-05:00</updated><category term="Alabama Shopping" /><category term="Activities" /><category term="Alabama Towns" /><category term="Twitter" /><category term="Alabama Humor" /><category term="Nanci" /><category term="Rachel" /><category term="Blogher" /><category term="Maggie" /><category term="Valerie" /><category term="Elizabeth" /><category term="How-To" /><category term="Survey" /><category term="Lianne" /><category term="Growing Your Platform" /><category term="Jamie" /><category term="Birmingham Restaurant Week" /><category term="ALsocme" /><category term="Alabama Businesses" /><category term="Mama Hen" /><category term="Alabama Schools" /><category term="Alabama Secrets" /><category term="Jessica" /><category term="Tornado Relief" /><category term="C.A. 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The &lt;a href="http://atlfoodandwinefestival.com/"&gt;Atlanta Food and Wine Festival&lt;/a&gt; is an unbelievable event, offering opportunities for everyone to enjoy as well as specialized tracks for the dedicated foodie.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
I was &lt;a href="http://www.graspingforobjectivity.com/2012/05/afwf.html"&gt;able to attend last year&lt;/a&gt;, and it was fantastic. I would recommend it to anyone - even if you just attend the tasting tents. Dozens of the best chefs in the southeast come together to offer a collaboration of the most creative and delicious food that you will ever eat.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
Last year, one of my favorite dishes was Banana Kataifi (banana wrapped in shredded filo glazed in Greek Honey), served with flourless chocolate cake and yogurt sorbet. &lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;img alt="IMG_4839" border="0" height="273" src="http://www.graspingforobjectivity.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/05/IMG_4839_thumb.jpg" style="background-image: none; border-width: 0px; display: block; float: none; margin: 0px auto; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;" title="IMG_4839" width="400" /&gt; &lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
One of the most inventive (and genius) ideas I saw was Pimento Cheese deviled eggs - how delightfully southern is that??&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;img alt="IMG_4856" border="0" height="267" src="http://www.graspingforobjectivity.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/05/IMG_4856_thumb.jpg" style="background-image: none; border-width: 0px; display: block; float: none; margin: 0px auto; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;" title="IMG_4856" width="400" /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
It was
 at The Food and Wine Festival last year that I was able to &lt;a href="http://www.alabamabloggers.com/2012/05/jim-n-nicks-creates-local-pork-sourcing.html"&gt;learn so much more&lt;/a&gt; about one
 of our beloved Birmingham restaurants, Jim N Nicks. The strides they are making in rekindling Alabama's pork industry is so exciting.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
Alabama chefs involved in the weekend include Drew Robinson, Chris Hastings, Chris Lilly, Frank Stitt, and James Boyce.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
Many options are available to enjoy this great event. Getting tickets for the &lt;a href="http://atlfoodandwinefestival.com/tickets/tasting-tents/"&gt;Tasting Tents&lt;/a&gt; will take you on a culinary journey of the South where you can embark upon tasting tours, such as Southern Sweets, Seafood, and Southern Regions from other parts of the globe. The &lt;a href="http://atlfoodandwinefestival.com/tickets/day-passes/"&gt;day passes&lt;/a&gt; offer three learning (and eating!) experiences, the tasting tents, and a one year subscription to Food and Wine Magazine. There are also many &lt;a href="http://atlfoodandwinefestival.com/tickets/dinners-events/thursday/"&gt;special dinners&lt;/a&gt;, where chefs from all over the South come together and collaborate to create a fantasy meal for you to enjoy.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
This event is a world-class festival and they will ensure that you feel cherished and filled with the best food that the South has to offer. &lt;br /&gt;
&lt;img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/AlabamaBloggers/~4/-NYxohR_nLE" height="1" width="1"/&gt;</content><link rel="replies" type="application/atom+xml" href="http://www.alabamabloggers.com/feeds/739474353300443197/comments/default" title="Post Comments" /><link rel="replies" type="text/html" href="http://www.blogger.com/comment.g?blogID=3376889143210775517&amp;postID=739474353300443197" title="0 Comments" /><link rel="edit" type="application/atom+xml" href="http://www.blogger.com/feeds/3376889143210775517/posts/default/739474353300443197?v=2" /><link rel="self" type="application/atom+xml" href="http://www.blogger.com/feeds/3376889143210775517/posts/default/739474353300443197?v=2" /><link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/AlabamaBloggers/~3/-NYxohR_nLE/atlanta-food-and-wine-festival-shows.html" title="Atlanta Food and Wine Festival Shows off Tastes of Alabama and More." /><author><name>Rachel</name><uri>http://www.blogger.com/profile/11459576509805897104</uri><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:image rel="http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail" width="21" height="32" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-SIZ8wh0SrjU/Tlr8CF9o2AI/AAAAAAAAAAw/-Vf-LXdSA8s/s220/Rachel%2B3.jpg" /></author><thr:total>0</thr:total><feedburner:origLink>http://www.alabamabloggers.com/2013/05/atlanta-food-and-wine-festival-shows.html</feedburner:origLink></entry><entry gd:etag="W/&quot;Ck8MRHg4eCp7ImA9WhBbF04.&quot;"><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3376889143210775517.post-7487112634711909362</id><published>2013-05-16T14:01:00.001-05:00</published><updated>2013-05-16T14:01:25.630-05:00</updated><app:edited xmlns:app="http://www.w3.org/2007/app">2013-05-16T14:01:25.630-05:00</app:edited><title>Best Post of the Week: Week 202</title><content type="html">&lt;a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_PT-EBJOR-EI/SrKZ-mm4kMI/AAAAAAAAK_c/kj8ciUDnpK4/s1600-h/BestPostOfTheWeek+copy.jpg"&gt;&lt;img alt="" border="0" height="320" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5382533805455741122" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_PT-EBJOR-EI/SrKZ-mm4kMI/AAAAAAAAK_c/kj8ciUDnpK4/s320/BestPostOfTheWeek+copy.jpg" style="display: block; height: 400px; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; width: 399px;" width="319" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
It's   time to link in your best post of the week!&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
The purpose of this column is to make it easier to keep up with each other's blogs, so that even if we don't have time to read all of the &lt;a href="http://www.alabamabloggers.com/2009/05/alabama-bloggers.html"&gt;Alabama   Blogger blogs&lt;/a&gt; every day, at least we get the week's highlights.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
So, link up, tell us why you linked that post, and let's start reading! And remember - the best way to get new blogging friends is to comment on other people's posts, so be sure to say "hi" to your neighbors when you visit!&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;div style="text-align: left;"&gt;
&lt;span style="font-style: italic;"&gt;p.s. - please feel free to interpret "this week" as loosely as   you like!&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;script src="http://www2.blenza.com/linkies/easylink.php?owner=rvzcallahan&amp;amp;postid=15apr2012" type="text/javascript"&gt;
&lt;/script&gt;&lt;img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/AlabamaBloggers/~4/nGZL3xlBEwo" height="1" width="1"/&gt;</content><link rel="replies" type="application/atom+xml" href="http://www.alabamabloggers.com/feeds/7487112634711909362/comments/default" title="Post Comments" /><link rel="replies" type="text/html" href="http://www.blogger.com/comment.g?blogID=3376889143210775517&amp;postID=7487112634711909362" title="11 Comments" /><link rel="edit" type="application/atom+xml" href="http://www.blogger.com/feeds/3376889143210775517/posts/default/7487112634711909362?v=2" /><link rel="self" type="application/atom+xml" href="http://www.blogger.com/feeds/3376889143210775517/posts/default/7487112634711909362?v=2" /><link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/AlabamaBloggers/~3/nGZL3xlBEwo/best-post-of-week-week-202.html" title="Best Post of the Week: Week 202" /><author><name>Rachel</name><uri>http://www.blogger.com/profile/11459576509805897104</uri><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:image rel="http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail" width="21" height="32" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-SIZ8wh0SrjU/Tlr8CF9o2AI/AAAAAAAAAAw/-Vf-LXdSA8s/s220/Rachel%2B3.jpg" /></author><media:thumbnail xmlns:media="http://search.yahoo.com/mrss/" url="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_PT-EBJOR-EI/SrKZ-mm4kMI/AAAAAAAAK_c/kj8ciUDnpK4/s72-c/BestPostOfTheWeek+copy.jpg" height="72" width="72" /><thr:total>11</thr:total><feedburner:origLink>http://www.alabamabloggers.com/2013/05/best-post-of-week-week-202.html</feedburner:origLink></entry><entry gd:etag="W/&quot;AkEGSH07fSp7ImA9WhBbFEs.&quot;"><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3376889143210775517.post-8689027752092933346</id><published>2013-05-13T13:10:00.001-05:00</published><updated>2013-05-13T13:10:29.305-05:00</updated><app:edited xmlns:app="http://www.w3.org/2007/app">2013-05-13T13:10:29.305-05:00</app:edited><title>The Color Run - Giveaway!</title><content type="html">&lt;div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"&gt;
&lt;span style="font-size: small;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-family: Georgia,&amp;quot;Times New Roman&amp;quot;,serif;"&gt;&lt;a href="http://thecolorrun.com/gulf-shores/"&gt;&lt;img border="0" height="320" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-tVRhISA7uN4/UZEn4v4rllI/AAAAAAAACh4/3PX0itkwSEk/s320/Color+Run.jpg" width="320" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;span style="font-size: small;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-family: Georgia,&amp;quot;Times New Roman&amp;quot;,serif;"&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;
&lt;span style="font-size: small;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-family: Georgia,&amp;quot;Times New Roman&amp;quot;,serif;"&gt;After seeing everyone's photos and hearing the stories of &lt;a href="http://thecolorrun.com/gulf-shores/"&gt;The Color Run&lt;/a&gt; in Birmingham last year, I was truly disappointed that I had missed out. The Color Run is a five-kilometer, un-timed race in which thousands of&amp;nbsp;participants are doused from head to toe in different colors at
 each kilometer.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;span style="font-size: small;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-family: Georgia,&amp;quot;Times New Roman&amp;quot;,serif;"&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"&gt;
&lt;span style="font-size: small;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-family: Georgia,&amp;quot;Times New Roman&amp;quot;,serif;"&gt;&lt;a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-dBlkCKepYps/UZEq1LX8w5I/AAAAAAAACic/VvTppH6Xusk/s1600/Max+Jackson_Color+Run+Miami_2012_006.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"&gt;&lt;img border="0" height="266" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-dBlkCKepYps/UZEq1LX8w5I/AAAAAAAACic/VvTppH6Xusk/s400/Max+Jackson_Color+Run+Miami_2012_006.jpg" width="400" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;span style="font-size: small;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-family: Georgia,&amp;quot;Times New Roman&amp;quot;,serif;"&gt;The fun continues at the finish line with a gigantic 
“Color Festival,” using more colored powder to create happiness and 
lasting memories, not to mention millions of vivid color combinations.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;span style="font-size: small;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-family: Georgia,&amp;quot;Times New Roman&amp;quot;,serif;"&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"&gt;
&lt;span style="font-size: small;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-family: Georgia,&amp;quot;Times New Roman&amp;quot;,serif;"&gt;&lt;a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-qD4lDbSkIgU/UZEqlvxu8SI/AAAAAAAACiE/65O6bIl6FL4/s1600/03022013_Columbia_Run_0786.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"&gt;&lt;img border="0" height="246" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-qD4lDbSkIgU/UZEqlvxu8SI/AAAAAAAACiE/65O6bIl6FL4/s400/03022013_Columbia_Run_0786.jpg" width="400" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;span style="font-size: small;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-family: Georgia,&amp;quot;Times New Roman&amp;quot;,serif;"&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"&gt;
&lt;span style="font-size: small;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-family: Georgia,&amp;quot;Times New Roman&amp;quot;,serif;"&gt;&lt;a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-9tH019CQ9-o/UZEqzm8gG7I/AAAAAAAACiM/B8_kzx2YVG8/s1600/CR10-536.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"&gt;&lt;img border="0" height="266" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-9tH019CQ9-o/UZEqzm8gG7I/AAAAAAAACiM/B8_kzx2YVG8/s400/CR10-536.jpg" width="400" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;span style="font-size: small;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-family: Georgia,&amp;quot;Times New Roman&amp;quot;,serif;"&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"&gt;
&lt;span style="font-size: small;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-family: Georgia,&amp;quot;Times New Roman&amp;quot;,serif;"&gt;&lt;a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-_naUtZp3HN4/UZEq0aud2KI/AAAAAAAACiU/ees9v7hRv0c/s1600/Chicago_ColorThrow_EDIT.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"&gt;&lt;img border="0" height="250" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-_naUtZp3HN4/UZEq0aud2KI/AAAAAAAACiU/ees9v7hRv0c/s400/Chicago_ColorThrow_EDIT.jpg" width="400" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;span style="font-size: small;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-family: Georgia,&amp;quot;Times New Roman&amp;quot;,serif;"&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"&gt;
&lt;span style="font-size: small;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-family: Georgia,&amp;quot;Times New Roman&amp;quot;,serif;"&gt;&lt;a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-dBlkCKepYps/UZEq1LX8w5I/AAAAAAAACic/VvTppH6Xusk/s1600/Max+Jackson_Color+Run+Miami_2012_006.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;span style="font-size: small;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-family: Georgia,&amp;quot;Times New Roman&amp;quot;,serif;"&gt;Doesn't that look amazing??&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;span style="font-size: small;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-family: Georgia,&amp;quot;Times New Roman&amp;quot;,serif;"&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;
&lt;span style="font-size: small;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-family: Georgia,&amp;quot;Times New Roman&amp;quot;,serif;"&gt;And &lt;a href="http://thecolorrun.com/gulf-shores/"&gt;The Color Run&lt;/a&gt; is coming to Orange Beach / Gulf Shores Alabama on May 25! Could you possibly need any more of an excuse for a beach trip?&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;span style="font-size: small;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-family: Georgia,&amp;quot;Times New Roman&amp;quot;,serif;"&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;
&lt;span style="font-size: small;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-family: Georgia,&amp;quot;Times New Roman&amp;quot;,serif;"&gt;The route will take you through The Wharf and along the intercoastal 
waterway, allowing for a beautiful view while you get pummeled with five
 different colors! &lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;span style="font-size: small;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-family: Georgia,&amp;quot;Times New Roman&amp;quot;,serif;"&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;
&lt;span style="font-size: small;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-family: Georgia,&amp;quot;Times New Roman&amp;quot;,serif;"&gt;I have one free registration to give away&lt;span style="font-size: small;"&gt;!&lt;/span&gt; If you would like to enter, just follow the instructions in Rafflecopter:&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;span style="font-size: small;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-family: Georgia,&amp;quot;Times New Roman&amp;quot;,serif;"&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;
&lt;span style="font-size: small;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-family: Georgia,&amp;quot;Times New Roman&amp;quot;,serif;"&gt;&lt;a class="rafl" href="http://www.rafflecopter.com/rafl/display/e8e72c4/" id="rc-e8e72c4" rel="nofollow"&gt;a Rafflecopter giveaway&lt;/a&gt;
&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;script src="//d12vno17mo87cx.cloudfront.net/embed/rafl/cptr.js"&gt;&lt;/script&gt;

&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;div&gt;
&lt;span style="font-size: small;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-family: Georgia,&amp;quot;Times New Roman&amp;quot;,serif;"&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;
&lt;span style="font-size: small;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-family: Georgia,&amp;quot;Times New Roman&amp;quot;,serif;"&gt;This is a quick giveaway - it ends at midnight this Thursday! So hurry and enter, and help spread the word!&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;span style="font-size: small;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-family: Georgia,&amp;quot;Times New Roman&amp;quot;,serif;"&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;
&lt;span style="font-size: small;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-family: Georgia,&amp;quot;Times New Roman&amp;quot;,serif;"&gt;But if you don't win, use the promo code &lt;span style="font-size: small;"&gt;"COLORBAMA" &lt;/span&gt;to get $5 off. Plus, if you register in a team of four or more, you get another $5 off, for a total savings of $10 per person. If you're a team, you get to pick a groovy custom team name, anything from
 The Roy G Biv All-stars to We Sweat Rainbows.&amp;nbsp; You then get to run/walk
 together and “help” each other get really colored up over the 5 color 
kilometers.&amp;nbsp; There is no “relay” component and team members can finish 
together as a unit or separately.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;span style="font-size: small;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-family: Georgia,&amp;quot;Times New Roman&amp;quot;,serif;"&gt;So hurry and enter, and best of luck! &lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/AlabamaBloggers/~4/2YcQ1OP4E_Y" height="1" width="1"/&gt;</content><link rel="replies" type="application/atom+xml" href="http://www.alabamabloggers.com/feeds/8689027752092933346/comments/default" title="Post Comments" /><link rel="replies" type="text/html" href="http://www.blogger.com/comment.g?blogID=3376889143210775517&amp;postID=8689027752092933346" title="2 Comments" /><link rel="edit" type="application/atom+xml" href="http://www.blogger.com/feeds/3376889143210775517/posts/default/8689027752092933346?v=2" /><link rel="self" type="application/atom+xml" href="http://www.blogger.com/feeds/3376889143210775517/posts/default/8689027752092933346?v=2" /><link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/AlabamaBloggers/~3/2YcQ1OP4E_Y/the-color-run.html" title="The Color Run - Giveaway!" /><author><name>Rachel</name><uri>http://www.blogger.com/profile/11459576509805897104</uri><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:image rel="http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail" width="21" height="32" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-SIZ8wh0SrjU/Tlr8CF9o2AI/AAAAAAAAAAw/-Vf-LXdSA8s/s220/Rachel%2B3.jpg" /></author><media:thumbnail xmlns:media="http://search.yahoo.com/mrss/" url="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-tVRhISA7uN4/UZEn4v4rllI/AAAAAAAACh4/3PX0itkwSEk/s72-c/Color+Run.jpg" height="72" width="72" /><thr:total>2</thr:total><feedburner:origLink>http://www.alabamabloggers.com/2013/05/the-color-run.html</feedburner:origLink></entry><entry gd:etag="W/&quot;CkANR3gycSp7ImA9WhBbEUs.&quot;"><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3376889143210775517.post-5125923152700634922</id><published>2013-05-09T23:30:00.000-05:00</published><updated>2013-05-09T23:39:56.699-05:00</updated><app:edited xmlns:app="http://www.w3.org/2007/app">2013-05-09T23:39:56.699-05:00</app:edited><title>Best Post of the Week: Week 201</title><content type="html">&lt;a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_PT-EBJOR-EI/SrKZ-mm4kMI/AAAAAAAAK_c/kj8ciUDnpK4/s1600-h/BestPostOfTheWeek+copy.jpg"&gt;&lt;img alt="" border="0" height="320" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5382533805455741122" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_PT-EBJOR-EI/SrKZ-mm4kMI/AAAAAAAAK_c/kj8ciUDnpK4/s320/BestPostOfTheWeek+copy.jpg" style="display: block; height: 400px; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; width: 399px;" width="319" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
It's   time to link in your best post of the week!&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
The purpose of this column is to make it easier to keep up with each other's blogs, so that even if we don't have time to read all of the &lt;a href="http://www.alabamabloggers.com/2009/05/alabama-bloggers.html"&gt;Alabama   Blogger blogs&lt;/a&gt; every day, at least we get the week's highlights.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
So, link up, tell us why you linked that post, and let's start reading! And remember - the best way to get new blogging friends is to comment on other people's posts, so be sure to say "hi" to your neighbors when you visit!&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;div style="text-align: left;"&gt;
&lt;span style="font-style: italic;"&gt;p.s. - please feel free to interpret "this week" as loosely as   you like!&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;script src="http://www2.blenza.com/linkies/easylink.php?owner=rvzcallahan&amp;amp;postid=14apr2012" type="text/javascript"&gt;
&lt;/script&gt;&lt;img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/AlabamaBloggers/~4/ZrZLy2bRi_E" height="1" width="1"/&gt;</content><link rel="replies" type="application/atom+xml" href="http://www.alabamabloggers.com/feeds/5125923152700634922/comments/default" title="Post Comments" /><link rel="replies" type="text/html" href="http://www.blogger.com/comment.g?blogID=3376889143210775517&amp;postID=5125923152700634922" title="6 Comments" /><link rel="edit" type="application/atom+xml" href="http://www.blogger.com/feeds/3376889143210775517/posts/default/5125923152700634922?v=2" /><link rel="self" type="application/atom+xml" href="http://www.blogger.com/feeds/3376889143210775517/posts/default/5125923152700634922?v=2" /><link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/AlabamaBloggers/~3/ZrZLy2bRi_E/best-post-of-week-week-201.html" title="Best Post of the Week: Week 201" /><author><name>Rachel</name><uri>http://www.blogger.com/profile/11459576509805897104</uri><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:image rel="http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail" width="21" height="32" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-SIZ8wh0SrjU/Tlr8CF9o2AI/AAAAAAAAAAw/-Vf-LXdSA8s/s220/Rachel%2B3.jpg" /></author><media:thumbnail xmlns:media="http://search.yahoo.com/mrss/" url="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_PT-EBJOR-EI/SrKZ-mm4kMI/AAAAAAAAK_c/kj8ciUDnpK4/s72-c/BestPostOfTheWeek+copy.jpg" height="72" width="72" /><thr:total>6</thr:total><feedburner:origLink>http://www.alabamabloggers.com/2013/05/best-post-of-week-week-201.html</feedburner:origLink></entry><entry gd:etag="W/&quot;D04CQnk8fyp7ImA9WhBbEE8.&quot;"><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3376889143210775517.post-4249374300825065308</id><published>2013-05-08T10:12:00.004-05:00</published><updated>2013-05-08T10:12:43.777-05:00</updated><app:edited xmlns:app="http://www.w3.org/2007/app">2013-05-08T10:12:43.777-05:00</app:edited><title>May Blogger Meet-Up Scheduled for 17th!</title><content type="html">Our next Alabama Blogger Meet-Up will be May 17 at &lt;a href="http://www.facebook.com/Shanesribshackvalleydale"&gt;Shane's Rib Shack on Valleydale Road&lt;/a&gt;. We will meet from 11:45 - 1:30, and would love to have you join us! Rebecca Kinney is our host, and this is the perfect opportunity for bloggers in the southern part of town to more easily attend a meet-up.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
To RSVP, please comment on this post or join the &lt;a href="http://www.facebook.com/events/310022909128973/"&gt;Facebook Event&lt;/a&gt;. If you cannot access the Facebook Event, then that means that you are not yet a member of our &lt;a href="http://www.facebook.com/groups/531505493545424/"&gt;Alabama Bloggers Facebook Group&lt;/a&gt; - please join us! It's a great place to share posts, tips, and information about blogging in Alabama.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
The hashtag for the event is #AlaBlogMeet - help us spread the word on Twitter. &lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
I hope to see you there!&lt;img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/AlabamaBloggers/~4/1jReQ2wvU9U" height="1" width="1"/&gt;</content><link rel="replies" type="application/atom+xml" href="http://www.alabamabloggers.com/feeds/4249374300825065308/comments/default" title="Post Comments" /><link rel="replies" type="text/html" href="http://www.blogger.com/comment.g?blogID=3376889143210775517&amp;postID=4249374300825065308" title="2 Comments" /><link rel="edit" type="application/atom+xml" href="http://www.blogger.com/feeds/3376889143210775517/posts/default/4249374300825065308?v=2" /><link rel="self" type="application/atom+xml" href="http://www.blogger.com/feeds/3376889143210775517/posts/default/4249374300825065308?v=2" /><link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/AlabamaBloggers/~3/1jReQ2wvU9U/may-blogger-meet-up-scheduled-for-17th.html" title="May Blogger Meet-Up Scheduled for 17th!" /><author><name>Rachel</name><uri>http://www.blogger.com/profile/11459576509805897104</uri><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:image rel="http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail" width="21" height="32" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-SIZ8wh0SrjU/Tlr8CF9o2AI/AAAAAAAAAAw/-Vf-LXdSA8s/s220/Rachel%2B3.jpg" /></author><thr:total>2</thr:total><feedburner:origLink>http://www.alabamabloggers.com/2013/05/may-blogger-meet-up-scheduled-for-17th.html</feedburner:origLink></entry><entry gd:etag="W/&quot;A0AESXc4cSp7ImA9WhBUGU4.&quot;"><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3376889143210775517.post-1119172161185343380</id><published>2013-05-07T10:15:00.001-05:00</published><updated>2013-05-07T10:15:08.939-05:00</updated><app:edited xmlns:app="http://www.w3.org/2007/app">2013-05-07T10:15:08.939-05:00</app:edited><title>Congratulations to Y'all Connect Winner!</title><content type="html">&lt;div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"&gt;
&lt;a href="http://yallconnect.com/" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"&gt;&lt;img alt="Yall Connect copy" border="0" height="333" src="http://lh5.ggpht.com/-BgHv_-qXQts/UXmcDLHPtXI/AAAAAAAACgM/d-QFikqCn80/Yall-Connect-copy6.jpg?imgmax=800" style="background-image: none; border-width: 0px; display: inline; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;" title="Yall Connect copy" width="400" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
Congratulations to Leslie Wiggins, the winner of &lt;a href="http://www.alabamabloggers.com/2013/04/yall-connect.html"&gt;one ticket to Y'all Connect&lt;/a&gt;!&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
For the rest of you, you can still use the Promo Code ALABLOGSWEET for $30 off regular &lt;a href="http://yallconnect.com/tickets/"&gt;tickets&lt;/a&gt;!&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;&lt;img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/AlabamaBloggers/~4/2QM8lY4wdwo" height="1" width="1"/&gt;</content><link rel="replies" type="application/atom+xml" href="http://www.alabamabloggers.com/feeds/1119172161185343380/comments/default" title="Post Comments" /><link rel="replies" type="text/html" href="http://www.blogger.com/comment.g?blogID=3376889143210775517&amp;postID=1119172161185343380" title="1 Comments" /><link rel="edit" type="application/atom+xml" href="http://www.blogger.com/feeds/3376889143210775517/posts/default/1119172161185343380?v=2" /><link rel="self" type="application/atom+xml" href="http://www.blogger.com/feeds/3376889143210775517/posts/default/1119172161185343380?v=2" /><link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/AlabamaBloggers/~3/2QM8lY4wdwo/congratulations-to-yall-connect-winner.html" title="Congratulations to Y'all Connect Winner!" /><author><name>Rachel</name><uri>http://www.blogger.com/profile/11459576509805897104</uri><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:image rel="http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail" width="21" height="32" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-SIZ8wh0SrjU/Tlr8CF9o2AI/AAAAAAAAAAw/-Vf-LXdSA8s/s220/Rachel%2B3.jpg" /></author><media:thumbnail xmlns:media="http://search.yahoo.com/mrss/" url="http://lh5.ggpht.com/-BgHv_-qXQts/UXmcDLHPtXI/AAAAAAAACgM/d-QFikqCn80/s72-c/Yall-Connect-copy6.jpg?imgmax=800" height="72" width="72" /><thr:total>1</thr:total><feedburner:origLink>http://www.alabamabloggers.com/2013/05/congratulations-to-yall-connect-winner.html</feedburner:origLink></entry><entry gd:etag="W/&quot;DUMGRnY5cCp7ImA9WhBUFUk.&quot;"><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3376889143210775517.post-5852270844403852160</id><published>2013-05-02T21:17:00.000-05:00</published><updated>2013-05-02T21:17:07.828-05:00</updated><app:edited xmlns:app="http://www.w3.org/2007/app">2013-05-02T21:17:07.828-05:00</app:edited><title>Best Post of the Week: Week 200!</title><content type="html">&lt;a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_PT-EBJOR-EI/SrKZ-mm4kMI/AAAAAAAAK_c/kj8ciUDnpK4/s1600-h/BestPostOfTheWeek+copy.jpg"&gt;&lt;img alt="" border="0" height="320" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5382533805455741122" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_PT-EBJOR-EI/SrKZ-mm4kMI/AAAAAAAAK_c/kj8ciUDnpK4/s320/BestPostOfTheWeek+copy.jpg" style="display: block; height: 400px; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; width: 399px;" width="319" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
It's   time to link in your best post of the week!&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
The purpose of this column is to make it easier to keep up with each other's blogs, so that even if we don't have time to read all of the &lt;a href="http://www.alabamabloggers.com/2009/05/alabama-bloggers.html"&gt;Alabama   Blogger blogs&lt;/a&gt; every day, at least we get the week's highlights.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
So, link up, tell us why you linked that post, and let's start reading! And remember - the best way to get new blogging friends is to comment on other people's posts, so be sure to say "hi" to your neighbors when you visit!&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;div style="text-align: left;"&gt;
&lt;span style="font-style: italic;"&gt;p.s. - please feel free to interpret "this week" as loosely as   you like!&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;script src="http://www2.blenza.com/linkies/easylink.php?owner=rvzcallahan&amp;amp;postid=13apr2012" type="text/javascript"&gt;
&lt;/script&gt;&lt;img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/AlabamaBloggers/~4/5bWfAN02-Ew" height="1" width="1"/&gt;</content><link rel="replies" type="application/atom+xml" href="http://www.alabamabloggers.com/feeds/5852270844403852160/comments/default" title="Post Comments" /><link rel="replies" type="text/html" href="http://www.blogger.com/comment.g?blogID=3376889143210775517&amp;postID=5852270844403852160" title="3 Comments" /><link rel="edit" type="application/atom+xml" href="http://www.blogger.com/feeds/3376889143210775517/posts/default/5852270844403852160?v=2" /><link rel="self" type="application/atom+xml" href="http://www.blogger.com/feeds/3376889143210775517/posts/default/5852270844403852160?v=2" /><link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/AlabamaBloggers/~3/5bWfAN02-Ew/best-post-of-week-week-200.html" title="Best Post of the Week: Week 200!" /><author><name>Rachel</name><uri>http://www.blogger.com/profile/11459576509805897104</uri><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:image rel="http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail" width="21" height="32" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-SIZ8wh0SrjU/Tlr8CF9o2AI/AAAAAAAAAAw/-Vf-LXdSA8s/s220/Rachel%2B3.jpg" /></author><media:thumbnail xmlns:media="http://search.yahoo.com/mrss/" url="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_PT-EBJOR-EI/SrKZ-mm4kMI/AAAAAAAAK_c/kj8ciUDnpK4/s72-c/BestPostOfTheWeek+copy.jpg" height="72" width="72" /><thr:total>3</thr:total><feedburner:origLink>http://www.alabamabloggers.com/2013/05/best-post-of-week-week-200.html</feedburner:origLink></entry><entry gd:etag="W/&quot;A0YNQXszcCp7ImA9WhBUEkU.&quot;"><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3376889143210775517.post-10995576533242781</id><published>2013-04-29T19:00:00.000-05:00</published><updated>2013-04-29T21:33:10.588-05:00</updated><app:edited xmlns:app="http://www.w3.org/2007/app">2013-04-29T21:33:10.588-05:00</app:edited><title>Southern Fried Scribes Project - You Can Help!</title><content type="html">&lt;div class="MsoNormal"&gt;
&lt;div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"&gt;
&lt;a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-0Vup3gp3v5c/UXyLENQXidI/AAAAAAAACgc/REgrse7BhGI/s1600/Southern+Fried+Scribes.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"&gt;&lt;img border="0" height="266" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-0Vup3gp3v5c/UXyLENQXidI/AAAAAAAACgc/REgrse7BhGI/s400/Southern+Fried+Scribes.jpg" width="400" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;span style="font-family: &amp;quot;Times New Roman&amp;quot;;"&gt;Matt Jones and
Jessica Masterton, two fiction candidates in the Master of Fine Arts program at
the University of Alabama, are trying to bring free creative writing workshops
to Alabama’s Black Belt this summer.&amp;nbsp; &lt;/span&gt;&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div class="MsoNormal"&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div class="MsoNormal"&gt;
&lt;span style="font-family: &amp;quot;Times New Roman&amp;quot;;"&gt;Greensboro,
located about an hour and a half south of Birmingham, is a town of a little
under 3,000 people.&amp;nbsp; Locals may know
Greensboro as home to Pie Lab, a café offering hot coffee and delicious
pastries in a salvaged and retrofitted space downtown, but it is also the site
of HERO, Hale Empowerment and Revitalization Organization, who plans to help
host the workshops for high school students this summer.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div class="MsoNormal"&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div class="MsoNormal"&gt;
&lt;span style="font-family: &amp;quot;Times New Roman&amp;quot;;"&gt;Southern Fried
Scribes, a project born from a love of creative writing, a passion for
teaching, and personal experiences with limited creative opportunities as
children, will kick off this June and run through the first week of
August.&amp;nbsp; Matt and Jess hope to not only
offer students a different outlet and approach to writing, but also to help
participants gain confidence in how they encounter and begin to explore their
own voice.&amp;nbsp; Combining directed writing
exercises with various artistic mediums, the workshops will introduce students
to collaborations between photography, performance, and other fine arts through
the works of local community artists. &lt;/span&gt;&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div class="MsoNormal"&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div class="MsoNormal"&gt;
&lt;span style="font-family: &amp;quot;Times New Roman&amp;quot;;"&gt;In August,
Southern Fried Scribes will conclude with a public student reading in which all
of the participants will showcase the work they have produced over the
summer.&amp;nbsp; Along with the reading, Matt and
Jess will be printing, publishing, and providing an anthology of student
writing and community work, a book of stories, pictures, and artwork that are
all local to Greensboro and Hale County.&amp;nbsp;
&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div class="MsoNormal"&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div class="MsoNormal"&gt;
&lt;span style="font-family: &amp;quot;Times New Roman&amp;quot;;"&gt;To be able to
offer the workshops for free to students, Matt and Jess have been fundraising
on Kickstarter, a crowdsourcing website, and have until May 2&lt;sup&gt;nd&lt;/sup&gt; to
reach their fundraising goal.&amp;nbsp; So far,
they have received generous support from family, friends, Alabama artists, and
the University of Alabama, but with their campaign deadline drawing near, they
are trying to reach out to as many people in the community as possible.&amp;nbsp; &lt;/span&gt;&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div class="MsoNormal"&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div class="MsoNormal"&gt;
&lt;span style="font-family: &amp;quot;Times New Roman&amp;quot;;"&gt;If you’d like to
see how you can help, check out their fundraising campaign &lt;a href="http://kck.st/134FVwT" target="_blank"&gt;here&lt;/a&gt; and scroll
through all of the neat perks that they are offering to people who donate to
Southern Fried Scribes.&amp;nbsp; Receive everything
from a flash fiction postcard to a copy of the printed anthology to creative
writing mentorships for kids when you donate as little as $5.&amp;nbsp; &lt;/span&gt;&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;hr /&gt;
&lt;i&gt;Matt Jones is a Truman Capote Fellow and a fiction candidate in the University of Alabama MFA program. He is originally from Houston, TX and now lives in Tuscaloosa with his dog, Bagheera.  Jessica Masterton is a Truman Capote Fellow and a fiction candidate in the University of Alabama MFA program. She is most recently from Minnesota, and while she does not own a dog, she is often covered in dog hair. 
&lt;/i&gt;&lt;img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/AlabamaBloggers/~4/UwXynSA-1j4" height="1" width="1"/&gt;</content><link rel="replies" type="application/atom+xml" href="http://www.alabamabloggers.com/feeds/10995576533242781/comments/default" title="Post Comments" /><link rel="replies" type="text/html" href="http://www.blogger.com/comment.g?blogID=3376889143210775517&amp;postID=10995576533242781" title="0 Comments" /><link rel="edit" type="application/atom+xml" href="http://www.blogger.com/feeds/3376889143210775517/posts/default/10995576533242781?v=2" /><link rel="self" type="application/atom+xml" href="http://www.blogger.com/feeds/3376889143210775517/posts/default/10995576533242781?v=2" /><link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/AlabamaBloggers/~3/UwXynSA-1j4/southern-fried-scribes-project-you-can.html" title="Southern Fried Scribes Project - You Can Help!" /><author><name>Rachel</name><uri>http://www.blogger.com/profile/11459576509805897104</uri><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:image rel="http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail" width="21" height="32" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-SIZ8wh0SrjU/Tlr8CF9o2AI/AAAAAAAAAAw/-Vf-LXdSA8s/s220/Rachel%2B3.jpg" /></author><media:thumbnail xmlns:media="http://search.yahoo.com/mrss/" url="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-0Vup3gp3v5c/UXyLENQXidI/AAAAAAAACgc/REgrse7BhGI/s72-c/Southern+Fried+Scribes.jpg" height="72" width="72" /><thr:total>0</thr:total><feedburner:origLink>http://www.alabamabloggers.com/2013/04/southern-fried-scribes-project-you-can.html</feedburner:origLink></entry><entry gd:etag="W/&quot;A0EEQH8yfCp7ImA9WhBUGU4.&quot;"><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3376889143210775517.post-175367708209681144</id><published>2013-04-26T13:30:00.000-05:00</published><updated>2013-05-07T10:13:21.194-05:00</updated><app:edited xmlns:app="http://www.w3.org/2007/app">2013-05-07T10:13:21.194-05:00</app:edited><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="Contests and Giveaways" /><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="Activities" /><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="Upcoming Alabama Events" /><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="Blogging Opportunities" /><title>Giveaway - Y’all Connect Conference! {$129 Value}</title><content type="html">&lt;div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"&gt;
&lt;a href="http://yallconnect.com/" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"&gt;&lt;img alt="Yall Connect copy" border="0" height="333" src="http://lh5.ggpht.com/-BgHv_-qXQts/UXmcDLHPtXI/AAAAAAAACgM/d-QFikqCn80/Yall-Connect-copy6.jpg?imgmax=800" style="background-image: none; border-width: 0px; display: inline; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;" title="Yall Connect copy" width="400" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
On July 23, Birmingham will once again have a major social media conference: &lt;a href="http://yallconnect.com/"&gt;Y’all Connect&lt;/a&gt;. Focused on helping companies use social media tools wisely and efficiently, many experts will be teaching the basics of corporate storytelling.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
The conference’s director, &lt;a href="http://wadekwon.com/"&gt;Wade Kwon&lt;/a&gt;, explains the value in this skill: “Many bloggers already know how to tell a good story about their kids or their lives, but businesses often stumble when talking about their own histories. We can help. Instead of selling and marketing, they will find ways to attract fans and customers through good stories and strong engagement.”&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;a href="http://yallconnect.com/about/speakers/"&gt;The speakers&lt;/a&gt; at Y’all Connect will include familiar Birmingham icons as well as national experts, all of whom utilize social media tools with great expertise. So far, this fantastic group includes James Spann, Ike Pigott, Andrea Weckerle, Nichole Kelly, Peter Shankman, Whitney Breaux, Shelly Kramer and Mack Collier.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
"Y'all Connect is a conference aimed at CEOs and marketing managers who want to show how their companies stand out,” Kwon explains. “They may have used blogging and Facebook and Twitter, but aren't sure how to use them wisely and efficiently.”&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
This conference isn’t focused on theory and motivational speeches - there will be practical takeaways so that the attendees can leave and immediately put new ideas to use to expand their business’ social media platform.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
"We expect 500 attendees, with half coming from all across Alabama and the rest coming from out of state. I can't wait to show off my hometown of Birmingham," Kwon states.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
There will be a kickoff party on the evening of July 22, then on July 23, sessions and speakers will be scheduled from 8:30-6:00, followed by a closing night party. As such, there will be significant amounts of time for learning and networking.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
The conference will be held at the Birmingham Jefferson Civic Center, and &lt;a href="http://yallconnect.com/travel/hotel-sheraton-birmingham/"&gt;lodging&lt;/a&gt; will be available at a discounted rate in the adjoining Sheraton Hotel.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
If you would like to attend, I have one conference pass to give away! To enter, follow the instructions in the Rafflecopter Widget below:&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
[CONTEST OVER]&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
But if you don’t win, I do have a Promo Code for the rest of you: Enter ALABLOGSWEET for $30 off regular &lt;a href="http://yallconnect.com/tickets/"&gt;tickets&lt;/a&gt;!&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
This giveaway is open until Monday, May 6 and the randomly chosen winner will be announced on Tuesday, May 7&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
Best of luck!&lt;img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/AlabamaBloggers/~4/V1xUt8zKbtI" height="1" width="1"/&gt;</content><link rel="replies" type="application/atom+xml" href="http://www.alabamabloggers.com/feeds/175367708209681144/comments/default" title="Post Comments" /><link rel="replies" type="text/html" href="http://www.blogger.com/comment.g?blogID=3376889143210775517&amp;postID=175367708209681144" title="12 Comments" /><link rel="edit" type="application/atom+xml" href="http://www.blogger.com/feeds/3376889143210775517/posts/default/175367708209681144?v=2" /><link rel="self" type="application/atom+xml" href="http://www.blogger.com/feeds/3376889143210775517/posts/default/175367708209681144?v=2" /><link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/AlabamaBloggers/~3/V1xUt8zKbtI/yall-connect.html" title="Giveaway - Y’all Connect Conference! {$129 Value}" /><author><name>Rachel</name><uri>http://www.blogger.com/profile/11459576509805897104</uri><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:image rel="http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail" width="21" height="32" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-SIZ8wh0SrjU/Tlr8CF9o2AI/AAAAAAAAAAw/-Vf-LXdSA8s/s220/Rachel%2B3.jpg" /></author><media:thumbnail xmlns:media="http://search.yahoo.com/mrss/" url="http://lh5.ggpht.com/-BgHv_-qXQts/UXmcDLHPtXI/AAAAAAAACgM/d-QFikqCn80/s72-c/Yall-Connect-copy6.jpg?imgmax=800" height="72" width="72" /><thr:total>12</thr:total><feedburner:origLink>http://www.alabamabloggers.com/2013/04/yall-connect.html</feedburner:origLink></entry><entry gd:etag="W/&quot;DkcEQn87cCp7ImA9WhBVGUo.&quot;"><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3376889143210775517.post-7624852732280761403</id><published>2013-04-26T06:00:00.000-05:00</published><updated>2013-04-26T06:00:03.108-05:00</updated><app:edited xmlns:app="http://www.w3.org/2007/app">2013-04-26T06:00:03.108-05:00</app:edited><title>Best Post of the Week: Week 199</title><content type="html">&lt;a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_PT-EBJOR-EI/SrKZ-mm4kMI/AAAAAAAAK_c/kj8ciUDnpK4/s1600-h/BestPostOfTheWeek+copy.jpg"&gt;&lt;img alt="" border="0" height="320" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5382533805455741122" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_PT-EBJOR-EI/SrKZ-mm4kMI/AAAAAAAAK_c/kj8ciUDnpK4/s320/BestPostOfTheWeek+copy.jpg" style="display: block; height: 400px; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; width: 399px;" width="319" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
It's   time to link in your best post of the week!&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
The purpose of this column is to make it easier to keep up with each other's blogs, so that even if we don't have time to read all of the &lt;a href="http://www.alabamabloggers.com/2009/05/alabama-bloggers.html"&gt;Alabama   Blogger blogs&lt;/a&gt; every day, at least we get the week's highlights.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
So, link up, tell us why you linked that post, and let's start reading! And remember - the best way to get new blogging friends is to comment on other people's posts, so be sure to say "hi" to your neighbors when you visit!&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;div style="text-align: left;"&gt;
&lt;span style="font-style: italic;"&gt;p.s. - please feel free to interpret "this week" as loosely as   you like!&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;script src="http://www2.blenza.com/linkies/easylink.php?owner=rvzcallahan&amp;amp;postid=12apr2012" type="text/javascript"&gt;
&lt;/script&gt;&lt;img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/AlabamaBloggers/~4/YGHfS21Bvkg" height="1" width="1"/&gt;</content><link rel="replies" type="application/atom+xml" href="http://www.alabamabloggers.com/feeds/7624852732280761403/comments/default" title="Post Comments" /><link rel="replies" type="text/html" href="http://www.blogger.com/comment.g?blogID=3376889143210775517&amp;postID=7624852732280761403" title="3 Comments" /><link rel="edit" type="application/atom+xml" href="http://www.blogger.com/feeds/3376889143210775517/posts/default/7624852732280761403?v=2" /><link rel="self" type="application/atom+xml" href="http://www.blogger.com/feeds/3376889143210775517/posts/default/7624852732280761403?v=2" /><link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/AlabamaBloggers/~3/YGHfS21Bvkg/best-post-of-week-week-199.html" title="Best Post of the Week: Week 199" /><author><name>Rachel</name><uri>http://www.blogger.com/profile/11459576509805897104</uri><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:image rel="http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail" width="21" height="32" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-SIZ8wh0SrjU/Tlr8CF9o2AI/AAAAAAAAAAw/-Vf-LXdSA8s/s220/Rachel%2B3.jpg" /></author><media:thumbnail xmlns:media="http://search.yahoo.com/mrss/" url="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_PT-EBJOR-EI/SrKZ-mm4kMI/AAAAAAAAK_c/kj8ciUDnpK4/s72-c/BestPostOfTheWeek+copy.jpg" height="72" width="72" /><thr:total>3</thr:total><feedburner:origLink>http://www.alabamabloggers.com/2013/04/best-post-of-week-week-199.html</feedburner:origLink></entry><entry gd:etag="W/&quot;A0UFQnw4fip7ImA9WhBVE0s.&quot;"><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3376889143210775517.post-2125930559818630656</id><published>2013-04-19T06:00:00.000-05:00</published><updated>2013-04-19T06:00:13.236-05:00</updated><app:edited xmlns:app="http://www.w3.org/2007/app">2013-04-19T06:00:13.236-05:00</app:edited><title>Best Post of the Week: Week 198</title><content type="html">&lt;a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_PT-EBJOR-EI/SrKZ-mm4kMI/AAAAAAAAK_c/kj8ciUDnpK4/s1600-h/BestPostOfTheWeek+copy.jpg"&gt;&lt;img alt="" border="0" height="320" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5382533805455741122" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_PT-EBJOR-EI/SrKZ-mm4kMI/AAAAAAAAK_c/kj8ciUDnpK4/s320/BestPostOfTheWeek+copy.jpg" style="display: block; height: 400px; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; width: 399px;" width="319" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
It's   time to link in your best post of the week!&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
The purpose of this column is to make it easier to keep up with each other's blogs, so that even if we don't have time to read all of the &lt;a href="http://www.alabamabloggers.com/2009/05/alabama-bloggers.html"&gt;Alabama   Blogger blogs&lt;/a&gt; every day, at least we get the week's highlights.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
So, link up, tell us why you linked that post, and let's start reading! And remember - the best way to get new blogging friends is to comment on other people's posts, so be sure to say "hi" to your neighbors when you visit!&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;div style="text-align: left;"&gt;
&lt;span style="font-style: italic;"&gt;p.s. - please feel free to interpret "this week" as loosely as   you like!&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;script src="http://www2.blenza.com/linkies/easylink.php?owner=rvzcallahan&amp;amp;postid=11apr2012" type="text/javascript"&gt;
&lt;/script&gt;&lt;img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/AlabamaBloggers/~4/DXETz97vQhA" height="1" width="1"/&gt;</content><link rel="replies" type="application/atom+xml" href="http://www.alabamabloggers.com/feeds/2125930559818630656/comments/default" title="Post Comments" /><link rel="replies" type="text/html" href="http://www.blogger.com/comment.g?blogID=3376889143210775517&amp;postID=2125930559818630656" title="4 Comments" /><link rel="edit" type="application/atom+xml" href="http://www.blogger.com/feeds/3376889143210775517/posts/default/2125930559818630656?v=2" /><link rel="self" type="application/atom+xml" href="http://www.blogger.com/feeds/3376889143210775517/posts/default/2125930559818630656?v=2" /><link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/AlabamaBloggers/~3/DXETz97vQhA/best-post-of-week-week-198.html" title="Best Post of the Week: Week 198" /><author><name>Rachel</name><uri>http://www.blogger.com/profile/11459576509805897104</uri><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:image rel="http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail" width="21" height="32" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-SIZ8wh0SrjU/Tlr8CF9o2AI/AAAAAAAAAAw/-Vf-LXdSA8s/s220/Rachel%2B3.jpg" /></author><media:thumbnail xmlns:media="http://search.yahoo.com/mrss/" url="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_PT-EBJOR-EI/SrKZ-mm4kMI/AAAAAAAAK_c/kj8ciUDnpK4/s72-c/BestPostOfTheWeek+copy.jpg" height="72" width="72" /><thr:total>4</thr:total><feedburner:origLink>http://www.alabamabloggers.com/2013/04/best-post-of-week-week-198.html</feedburner:origLink></entry><entry gd:etag="W/&quot;DkMEQH0yeSp7ImA9WhBWF0s.&quot;"><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3376889143210775517.post-5610688018019768651</id><published>2013-04-12T06:00:00.000-05:00</published><updated>2013-04-12T06:00:01.391-05:00</updated><app:edited xmlns:app="http://www.w3.org/2007/app">2013-04-12T06:00:01.391-05:00</app:edited><title>Best Post of the Week: Week 197</title><content type="html">&lt;a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_PT-EBJOR-EI/SrKZ-mm4kMI/AAAAAAAAK_c/kj8ciUDnpK4/s1600-h/BestPostOfTheWeek+copy.jpg"&gt;&lt;img alt="" border="0" height="320" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5382533805455741122" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_PT-EBJOR-EI/SrKZ-mm4kMI/AAAAAAAAK_c/kj8ciUDnpK4/s320/BestPostOfTheWeek+copy.jpg" style="display: block; height: 400px; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; width: 399px;" width="319" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
It's   time to link in your best post of the week!&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
The purpose of this column is to make it easier to keep up with each other's blogs, so that even if we don't have time to read all of the &lt;a href="http://www.alabamabloggers.com/2009/05/alabama-bloggers.html"&gt;Alabama   Blogger blogs&lt;/a&gt; every day, at least we get the week's highlights.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
So, link up, tell us why you linked that post, and let's start reading! And remember - the best way to get new blogging friends is to comment on other people's posts, so be sure to say "hi" to your neighbors when you visit!&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;div style="text-align: left;"&gt;
&lt;span style="font-style: italic;"&gt;p.s. - please feel free to interpret "this week" as loosely as   you like!&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;script src="http://www2.blenza.com/linkies/easylink.php?owner=rvzcallahan&amp;amp;postid=10apr2012" type="text/javascript"&gt;
&lt;/script&gt;&lt;img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/AlabamaBloggers/~4/JDcAYtd7m4s" height="1" width="1"/&gt;</content><link rel="replies" type="application/atom+xml" href="http://www.alabamabloggers.com/feeds/5610688018019768651/comments/default" title="Post Comments" /><link rel="replies" type="text/html" href="http://www.blogger.com/comment.g?blogID=3376889143210775517&amp;postID=5610688018019768651" title="6 Comments" /><link rel="edit" type="application/atom+xml" href="http://www.blogger.com/feeds/3376889143210775517/posts/default/5610688018019768651?v=2" /><link rel="self" type="application/atom+xml" href="http://www.blogger.com/feeds/3376889143210775517/posts/default/5610688018019768651?v=2" /><link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/AlabamaBloggers/~3/JDcAYtd7m4s/best-post-of-week-week-197.html" title="Best Post of the Week: Week 197" /><author><name>Rachel</name><uri>http://www.blogger.com/profile/11459576509805897104</uri><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:image rel="http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail" width="21" height="32" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-SIZ8wh0SrjU/Tlr8CF9o2AI/AAAAAAAAAAw/-Vf-LXdSA8s/s220/Rachel%2B3.jpg" /></author><media:thumbnail xmlns:media="http://search.yahoo.com/mrss/" url="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_PT-EBJOR-EI/SrKZ-mm4kMI/AAAAAAAAK_c/kj8ciUDnpK4/s72-c/BestPostOfTheWeek+copy.jpg" height="72" width="72" /><thr:total>6</thr:total><feedburner:origLink>http://www.alabamabloggers.com/2013/04/best-post-of-week-week-197.html</feedburner:origLink></entry><entry gd:etag="W/&quot;CEcAQn8-fyp7ImA9WhBWFkQ.&quot;"><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3376889143210775517.post-7372826925605788635</id><published>2013-04-11T09:54:00.001-05:00</published><updated>2013-04-11T09:54:03.157-05:00</updated><app:edited xmlns:app="http://www.w3.org/2007/app">2013-04-11T09:54:03.157-05:00</app:edited><title>#AlaBlogMeet Postponed Due to Inclement Weather!</title><content type="html">&lt;span style="font-size: large;"&gt;&lt;b&gt;We have rescheduled today's Alabama Blogger's Meet-Up until Next Thursday, April 18.&lt;/b&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
We will meet one week from today at &lt;a href="http://www.jimnnicks.com/"&gt;Jim N Nick's Bar-B-Que&lt;/a&gt; in 5 Points South. The time will be from 11:30-1:00, and the discussions are always fun!&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
This month's host is Mitzi Eaker of &lt;a href="http://mitzijanemedia.com/"&gt;Mitzi Jane Media&lt;/a&gt;. The discussion topic will be: "&lt;span itemprop="description"&gt;&lt;span class="fsl"&gt;What does is take to 
maintain a successful blog from beginning to reinventing or ending? And
 how do you know when it is time to end a blog?"&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;span itemprop="description"&gt;&lt;span class="fsl"&gt;Everyone who tweets about
 the meetup using the hashtag #alablogmeet and @jimnnicksbbq will be 
entered into a drawing to win a $20 gift certificate, and the winner 
will be announced during lunch.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;span itemprop="description"&gt;&lt;span class="fsl"&gt;Feel free to use this tweet or create your own:&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;h5 class="uiStreamMessage userContentWrapper" data-ft="{&amp;quot;type&amp;quot;:1,&amp;quot;tn&amp;quot;:&amp;quot;K&amp;quot;}" style="text-align: center;"&gt;
&lt;span class="messageBody" data-ft="{&amp;quot;type&amp;quot;:3}"&gt;&lt;span class="userContent"&gt;Join me at @jimnnicksbbq (5 Points) for #alablogmeet this Thursday 11:30! &lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;br /&gt;http://www.alabamabloggers.com/2013/04/april-alablogmeet-this-thursday.html&lt;/h5&gt;
&lt;span itemprop="description"&gt;&lt;span class="fsl"&gt;Everyone is welcome to join us! RSVP here or on &lt;a href="http://www.facebook.com/groups/531505493545424/"&gt;the event&lt;/a&gt; in the &lt;a href="http://www.facebook.com/groups/531505493545424/"&gt;Alabama Bloggers Facebook Group&lt;/a&gt;. &lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/AlabamaBloggers/~4/SEdBbK1fza8" height="1" width="1"/&gt;</content><link rel="replies" type="application/atom+xml" href="http://www.alabamabloggers.com/feeds/7372826925605788635/comments/default" title="Post Comments" /><link rel="replies" type="text/html" href="http://www.blogger.com/comment.g?blogID=3376889143210775517&amp;postID=7372826925605788635" title="0 Comments" /><link rel="edit" type="application/atom+xml" href="http://www.blogger.com/feeds/3376889143210775517/posts/default/7372826925605788635?v=2" /><link rel="self" type="application/atom+xml" href="http://www.blogger.com/feeds/3376889143210775517/posts/default/7372826925605788635?v=2" /><link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/AlabamaBloggers/~3/SEdBbK1fza8/alablogmeet-postponed-due-to-inclement.html" title="#AlaBlogMeet Postponed Due to Inclement Weather!" /><author><name>Rachel</name><uri>http://www.blogger.com/profile/11459576509805897104</uri><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:image rel="http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail" width="21" height="32" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-SIZ8wh0SrjU/Tlr8CF9o2AI/AAAAAAAAAAw/-Vf-LXdSA8s/s220/Rachel%2B3.jpg" /></author><thr:total>0</thr:total><feedburner:origLink>http://www.alabamabloggers.com/2013/04/alablogmeet-postponed-due-to-inclement.html</feedburner:origLink></entry><entry gd:etag="W/&quot;CU8HRXY5eSp7ImA9WhBWFEs.&quot;"><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3376889143210775517.post-847013799169385244</id><published>2013-04-08T18:30:00.003-05:00</published><updated>2013-04-08T18:30:34.821-05:00</updated><app:edited xmlns:app="http://www.w3.org/2007/app">2013-04-08T18:30:34.821-05:00</app:edited><title>April #AlaBlogMeet This Thursday!</title><content type="html">We will be having our April meet-up this Thursday at &lt;a href="http://www.jimnnicks.com/"&gt;Jim N Nick's Bar-B-Que&lt;/a&gt; in 5 Points South. The time will be from 11:30-1:00, and the discussions are always fun!&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
This month's host is Mitzi Eaker of &lt;a href="http://mitzijanemedia.com/"&gt;Mitzi Jane Media&lt;/a&gt;. The discussion topic will be: "&lt;span itemprop="description"&gt;&lt;span class="fsl"&gt;What does is take to 
maintain a successful blog from beginning to reinventing or ending? And
 how do you know when it is time to end a blog?"&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;span itemprop="description"&gt;&lt;span class="fsl"&gt;Everyone who tweets about the meetup using the hashtag #alablogmeet and @jimnnicksbbq will be entered into a drawing to win a $20 gift certificate, and the winner will be announced during lunch.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;span itemprop="description"&gt;&lt;span class="fsl"&gt;Feel free to use this tweet or create your own:&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;h5 class="uiStreamMessage userContentWrapper" data-ft="{&amp;quot;type&amp;quot;:1,&amp;quot;tn&amp;quot;:&amp;quot;K&amp;quot;}" style="text-align: center;"&gt;
&lt;span class="messageBody" data-ft="{&amp;quot;type&amp;quot;:3}"&gt;&lt;span class="userContent"&gt;Join me at @jimnnicksbbq (5 Points) for #alablogmeet this Thursday 11:30! &lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;br /&gt;http://www.alabamabloggers.com/2013/04/april-alablogmeet-this-thursday.html&lt;/h5&gt;
&lt;span itemprop="description"&gt;&lt;span class="fsl"&gt;Everyone is welcome to join us! RSVP here or on &lt;a href="http://www.facebook.com/groups/531505493545424/"&gt;the event&lt;/a&gt; in the &lt;a href="http://www.facebook.com/groups/531505493545424/"&gt;Alabama Bloggers Facebook Group&lt;/a&gt;.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/AlabamaBloggers/~4/o5ETHTGxlO8" height="1" width="1"/&gt;</content><link rel="replies" type="application/atom+xml" href="http://www.alabamabloggers.com/feeds/847013799169385244/comments/default" title="Post Comments" /><link rel="replies" type="text/html" href="http://www.blogger.com/comment.g?blogID=3376889143210775517&amp;postID=847013799169385244" title="0 Comments" /><link rel="edit" type="application/atom+xml" href="http://www.blogger.com/feeds/3376889143210775517/posts/default/847013799169385244?v=2" /><link rel="self" type="application/atom+xml" href="http://www.blogger.com/feeds/3376889143210775517/posts/default/847013799169385244?v=2" /><link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/AlabamaBloggers/~3/o5ETHTGxlO8/april-alablogmeet-this-thursday.html" title="April #AlaBlogMeet This Thursday!" /><author><name>Rachel</name><uri>http://www.blogger.com/profile/11459576509805897104</uri><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:image rel="http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail" width="21" height="32" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-SIZ8wh0SrjU/Tlr8CF9o2AI/AAAAAAAAAAw/-Vf-LXdSA8s/s220/Rachel%2B3.jpg" /></author><thr:total>0</thr:total><feedburner:origLink>http://www.alabamabloggers.com/2013/04/april-alablogmeet-this-thursday.html</feedburner:origLink></entry><entry gd:etag="W/&quot;A0EERXo7eyp7ImA9WhBWEUg.&quot;"><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3376889143210775517.post-1532951120864338323</id><published>2013-04-05T06:00:00.000-05:00</published><updated>2013-04-05T06:00:04.403-05:00</updated><app:edited xmlns:app="http://www.w3.org/2007/app">2013-04-05T06:00:04.403-05:00</app:edited><title>Best Post of the Week: Week 196</title><content type="html">&lt;a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_PT-EBJOR-EI/SrKZ-mm4kMI/AAAAAAAAK_c/kj8ciUDnpK4/s1600-h/BestPostOfTheWeek+copy.jpg"&gt;&lt;img alt="" border="0" height="320" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5382533805455741122" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_PT-EBJOR-EI/SrKZ-mm4kMI/AAAAAAAAK_c/kj8ciUDnpK4/s320/BestPostOfTheWeek+copy.jpg" style="display: block; height: 400px; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; width: 399px;" width="319" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
It's   time to link in your best post of the week!&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
The purpose of this column is to make it easier to keep up with each other's blogs, so that even if we don't have time to read all of the &lt;a href="http://www.alabamabloggers.com/2009/05/alabama-bloggers.html"&gt;Alabama   Blogger blogs&lt;/a&gt; every day, at least we get the week's highlights.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
So, link up, tell us why you linked that post, and let's start reading! And remember - the best way to get new blogging friends is to comment on other people's posts, so be sure to say "hi" to your neighbors when you visit!&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;div style="text-align: left;"&gt;
&lt;span style="font-style: italic;"&gt;p.s. - please feel free to interpret "this week" as loosely as   you like!&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;script src="http://www2.blenza.com/linkies/easylink.php?owner=rvzcallahan&amp;amp;postid=9apr2012" type="text/javascript"&gt;
&lt;/script&gt;&lt;img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/AlabamaBloggers/~4/aP3uuIjVlEk" height="1" width="1"/&gt;</content><link rel="replies" type="application/atom+xml" href="http://www.alabamabloggers.com/feeds/1532951120864338323/comments/default" title="Post Comments" /><link rel="replies" type="text/html" href="http://www.blogger.com/comment.g?blogID=3376889143210775517&amp;postID=1532951120864338323" title="6 Comments" /><link rel="edit" type="application/atom+xml" href="http://www.blogger.com/feeds/3376889143210775517/posts/default/1532951120864338323?v=2" /><link rel="self" type="application/atom+xml" href="http://www.blogger.com/feeds/3376889143210775517/posts/default/1532951120864338323?v=2" /><link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/AlabamaBloggers/~3/aP3uuIjVlEk/best-post-of-week-week-196.html" title="Best Post of the Week: Week 196" /><author><name>Rachel</name><uri>http://www.blogger.com/profile/11459576509805897104</uri><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:image rel="http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail" width="21" height="32" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-SIZ8wh0SrjU/Tlr8CF9o2AI/AAAAAAAAAAw/-Vf-LXdSA8s/s220/Rachel%2B3.jpg" /></author><media:thumbnail xmlns:media="http://search.yahoo.com/mrss/" url="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_PT-EBJOR-EI/SrKZ-mm4kMI/AAAAAAAAK_c/kj8ciUDnpK4/s72-c/BestPostOfTheWeek+copy.jpg" height="72" width="72" /><thr:total>6</thr:total><feedburner:origLink>http://www.alabamabloggers.com/2013/04/best-post-of-week-week-196.html</feedburner:origLink></entry><entry gd:etag="W/&quot;DU8DQHg_fip7ImA9WhBXFUU.&quot;"><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3376889143210775517.post-5188811053014262210</id><published>2013-03-29T15:07:00.002-05:00</published><updated>2013-03-29T15:11:11.646-05:00</updated><app:edited xmlns:app="http://www.w3.org/2007/app">2013-03-29T15:11:11.646-05:00</app:edited><title>Strength Conference Coming in April!</title><content type="html">&lt;div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"&gt;
&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"&gt;
&lt;div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"&gt;
&lt;a href="http://mitzijanemedia.com/home/mjs-conference/" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"&gt;&lt;img alt="https://mail-attachment.googleusercontent.com/attachment/u/0/?ui=2&amp;amp;ik=d81550f6fa&amp;amp;view=att&amp;amp;th=13db2c55914ee830&amp;amp;attid=0.2&amp;amp;disp=inline&amp;amp;realattid=f_heuecpbj1&amp;amp;safe=1&amp;amp;zw&amp;amp;saduie=AG9B_P-oovdMN3RPhXMyvtK4yQye&amp;amp;sadet=1364586622011&amp;amp;sads=vD64j-q8KbhZ8sTdOCdZtkMZQs0&amp;amp;sadssc=1" class="decoded" src="https://mail-attachment.googleusercontent.com/attachment/u/0/?ui=2&amp;amp;ik=d81550f6fa&amp;amp;view=att&amp;amp;th=13db2c55914ee830&amp;amp;attid=0.2&amp;amp;disp=inline&amp;amp;realattid=f_heuecpbj1&amp;amp;safe=1&amp;amp;zw&amp;amp;saduie=AG9B_P-oovdMN3RPhXMyvtK4yQye&amp;amp;sadet=1364586622011&amp;amp;sads=vD64j-q8KbhZ8sTdOCdZtkMZQs0&amp;amp;sadssc=1" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;span style="font-family: &amp;quot;Helvetica Neue&amp;quot;,Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: small;"&gt;&lt;a href="http://mitzijanemedia.com/home/mjs-conference/"&gt;Strength&lt;/a&gt;, a new kind of conference on Social Media, is coming to Birmingham starting next week. On each of the five Monday nights in April, &lt;a href="http://mitzijanemedia.com/home/mjs-conference/"&gt;MJM Media&lt;/a&gt; is bringing together Social Media experts to lead and guide businesses through the complex and changing field of Social Media.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;span style="font-family: &amp;quot;Helvetica Neue&amp;quot;,Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: small;"&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/span&gt;
&lt;span style="font-family: &amp;quot;Helvetica Neue&amp;quot;,Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: small;"&gt;&lt;span style="color: #222222; letter-spacing: 0px;"&gt;"The
 Strength conference has been designed specifically around the greatest 
online needs of small businesses owners and professionals: social 
networking, understanding website metrics, and online productivity,"&amp;nbsp; &lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span style="font-family: &amp;quot;Helvetica Neue&amp;quot;,Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: small;"&gt;&lt;span style="color: #222222; letter-spacing: 0px;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-family: &amp;quot;Helvetica Neue&amp;quot;,Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"&gt;&lt;span style="color: #222222; letter-spacing: 0px;"&gt; explains Mitzi Eaker, the conference's founder. "&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;We 
have brought together experts in the Birmingham area to guide 
participants weekly, and I will spend a month&amp;nbsp;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span style="color: #222222; letter-spacing: 0px;"&gt;walking with them and investing in them&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span style="color: #222222; letter-spacing: 0px;"&gt; through the process."&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;div style="color: #222222; margin: 0px; min-height: 14px;"&gt;
&lt;span style="font-family: &amp;quot;Helvetica Neue&amp;quot;,Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: small;"&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div style="color: #222222; margin: 0px;"&gt;
&lt;span style="font-family: &amp;quot;Helvetica Neue&amp;quot;,Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: small;"&gt;"Strength
 isn't just a conference that people come to and leave not really 
knowing what to do when they get back home. I'm looking at this as a 
month long investment of teaching, guiding, coaching and helping small 
business owners and professionals build relationships of support with 
one another so they can take what they learn and implement it and have 
an online community that will amplify it."&amp;nbsp; &lt;/span&gt;&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div style="color: #222222; margin: 0px;"&gt;
&lt;span style="font-family: &amp;quot;Helvetica Neue&amp;quot;,Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: small;"&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div style="margin: 0px;"&gt;
&lt;span style="font-family: &amp;quot;Helvetica Neue&amp;quot;,Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: small;"&gt;&lt;span style="color: #222222;"&gt;Mitzi has a big heart for seeing small businesses thrive by sharing their 
stories, values, and products through online marketing. Just as every 
business is different, every online marketing strategy should be 
personalized to reflect your unique brand and connect with your target 
customers.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;span style="font-size: small;"&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/span&gt;
&lt;span style="font-family: &amp;quot;Helvetica Neue&amp;quot;,Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: small;"&gt;&lt;span style="color: black;"&gt;&lt;a href="http://mitzijanemedia.com/home/mjs-conference/"&gt;Conference topics&lt;/a&gt; will step through both the basic and advanced subjects of social media, including:&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;ul&gt;
&lt;li&gt;&lt;span style="font-family: &amp;quot;Helvetica Neue&amp;quot;,Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: small;"&gt;&lt;span style="color: black;"&gt;Basics of Social Media Tools &lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;&lt;span style="font-family: &amp;quot;Helvetica Neue&amp;quot;,Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: small;"&gt;&lt;span style="color: black;"&gt;Creating a Social Media Strategy&amp;nbsp;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;&lt;span style="font-family: &amp;quot;Helvetica Neue&amp;quot;,Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: small;"&gt;&lt;span style="color: black;"&gt;Creating Content Your Customers Want&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;&lt;span style="font-family: &amp;quot;Helvetica Neue&amp;quot;,Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: small;"&gt;&lt;span style="color: black;"&gt;SEO and ROI&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;&lt;span style="font-family: &amp;quot;Helvetica Neue&amp;quot;,Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: small;"&gt;&lt;span style="color: black;"&gt;Partnering with Social Media Experts&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;&lt;span style="font-family: &amp;quot;Helvetica Neue&amp;quot;,Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: small;"&gt;&lt;span style="color: black;"&gt;Maximizing your Online Productivity &amp;nbsp;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt; &lt;/li&gt;
&lt;/ul&gt;
&lt;span style="font-size: small;"&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/span&gt;
&lt;span style="font-family: &amp;quot;Helvetica Neue&amp;quot;,Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: small;"&gt;&lt;span style="color: black;"&gt;The &lt;a href="http://mitzijanemedia.com/home/mjs-conference/strength-seminar-presenters/"&gt;speakers&lt;/a&gt; include&lt;a href="http://www.linkedin.com/in/karlavanbibberporter" target="_blank"&gt;&lt;span style="color: black;"&gt; &lt;/span&gt;Karla Archer&lt;/a&gt; of &lt;a href="http://archercreative.com/" target="_blank"&gt;Archer Creative&lt;/a&gt;; &lt;/span&gt;&lt;span style="color: black;"&gt;&lt;a href="http://www.linkedin.com/profile/view?id=30683886&amp;amp;authType=NAME_SEARCH&amp;amp;authToken=t4Y3&amp;amp;locale=en_US&amp;amp;srchid=3ed7e702-439f-493f-b373-03f351e2d01a-0&amp;amp;srchindex=1&amp;amp;srchtotal=17&amp;amp;goback=%2Efps_PBCK_*1_Julie_Brannon_*1_*1_*1_*1_*2_*1_Y_*1_*1_*1_false_1_R_*1_*51_*1_*51_true_*2_*2_*2_*2_*2_*2_*2_*2_*2_*2_*2_*2_*2_*2_*2_*2_*2_*2_*2_*2_*2&amp;amp;pvs=ps&amp;amp;trk=pp_profile_name_link" target="_blank"&gt;Julie Brannon&lt;/a&gt;, President of &lt;a href="http://www.telpmedia.com/" target="_blank"&gt;TELP Media&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span style="color: black;"&gt; and Contributing Editor of &lt;a href="http://thesocialmediamonthly.com/" target="_blank"&gt;The Social Media Monthly&lt;span style="color: black;"&gt;;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;span style="color: black;"&gt; &lt;a href="http://www.linkedin.com/pub/teri-lynne-underwood/20/389/930" target="_blank"&gt;Teri Lynne Underwood&lt;/a&gt;, Author, Speaker, and Social Media Coach;&lt;/span&gt; &lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;div style="text-align: left;"&gt;
&lt;span style="font-family: &amp;quot;Helvetica Neue&amp;quot;,Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: small;"&gt;&lt;span style="color: black;"&gt;&lt;a href="http://www.linkedin.com/in/jerrybrown1" target="_blank"&gt;Jerry Brown&lt;/a&gt;, Digital Strategist at &lt;a href="http://www.infomedia.com/" target="_blank"&gt;Infomedia&lt;/a&gt;; &lt;a href="http://www.linkedin.com/in/emilylowrey" target="_blank"&gt;Emily Lowrey&lt;/a&gt;, Founder and Owner of &lt;a href="http://www.magiccitypost.com/" target="_blank"&gt;Magic City Post&lt;span style="color: black;"&gt;;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/a&gt; and myself.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div style="text-align: left;"&gt;
&lt;span style="font-family: &amp;quot;Helvetica Neue&amp;quot;,Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: small;"&gt;&lt;span style="color: black;"&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;span style="font-family: &amp;quot;Helvetica Neue&amp;quot;,Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: small;"&gt;&lt;span style="color: #222222;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-family: &amp;quot;Helvetica Neue&amp;quot;,Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"&gt;&lt;a href="http://www.eventbrite.com/event/5380589488/MJMSM13Rachel/20042814430#"&gt;Tickets&lt;/a&gt; can be purchased for each night individually ($39.99) or for the entire conference ($129.99.)&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;span style="font-size: small;"&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/span&gt;
&lt;span style="font-family: &amp;quot;Helvetica Neue&amp;quot;,Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: small;"&gt;&lt;span style="color: #222222;"&gt;The Strength Conference will be beneficial&amp;nbsp;to small business owners, social media managers or marketing executives, and to bloggers who are thinking about starting or already have their own business.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div style="color: #222222; margin: 0px;"&gt;
&lt;span style="font-family: Helvetica;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-size: 12px;"&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/AlabamaBloggers/~4/WsapQ1rkVZI" height="1" width="1"/&gt;</content><link rel="replies" type="application/atom+xml" href="http://www.alabamabloggers.com/feeds/5188811053014262210/comments/default" title="Post Comments" /><link rel="replies" type="text/html" href="http://www.blogger.com/comment.g?blogID=3376889143210775517&amp;postID=5188811053014262210" title="0 Comments" /><link rel="edit" type="application/atom+xml" href="http://www.blogger.com/feeds/3376889143210775517/posts/default/5188811053014262210?v=2" /><link rel="self" type="application/atom+xml" href="http://www.blogger.com/feeds/3376889143210775517/posts/default/5188811053014262210?v=2" /><link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/AlabamaBloggers/~3/WsapQ1rkVZI/strength-conference-coming-in-april.html" title="Strength Conference Coming in April!" /><author><name>Rachel</name><uri>http://www.blogger.com/profile/11459576509805897104</uri><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:image rel="http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail" width="21" height="32" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-SIZ8wh0SrjU/Tlr8CF9o2AI/AAAAAAAAAAw/-Vf-LXdSA8s/s220/Rachel%2B3.jpg" /></author><thr:total>0</thr:total><feedburner:origLink>http://www.alabamabloggers.com/2013/03/strength-conference-coming-in-april.html</feedburner:origLink></entry><entry gd:etag="W/&quot;AkMFRXo5eyp7ImA9WhBXFUg.&quot;"><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3376889143210775517.post-2925844916701971488</id><published>2013-03-29T07:00:00.000-05:00</published><updated>2013-03-29T07:00:14.423-05:00</updated><app:edited xmlns:app="http://www.w3.org/2007/app">2013-03-29T07:00:14.423-05:00</app:edited><title>Best Post of the Week: Week 195</title><content type="html">&lt;a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_PT-EBJOR-EI/SrKZ-mm4kMI/AAAAAAAAK_c/kj8ciUDnpK4/s1600-h/BestPostOfTheWeek+copy.jpg"&gt;&lt;img alt="" border="0" height="320" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5382533805455741122" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_PT-EBJOR-EI/SrKZ-mm4kMI/AAAAAAAAK_c/kj8ciUDnpK4/s320/BestPostOfTheWeek+copy.jpg" style="display: block; height: 400px; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; width: 399px;" width="319" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
It's   time to link in your best post of the week!&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
The purpose of this column is to make it easier to keep up with each other's blogs, so that even if we don't have time to read all of the &lt;a href="http://www.alabamabloggers.com/2009/05/alabama-bloggers.html"&gt;Alabama   Blogger blogs&lt;/a&gt; every day, at least we get the week's highlights.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
So, link up, tell us why you linked that post, and let's start reading! And remember - the best way to get new blogging friends is to comment on other people's posts, so be sure to say "hi" to your neighbors when you visit!&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;div style="text-align: left;"&gt;
&lt;span style="font-style: italic;"&gt;p.s. - please feel free to interpret "this week" as loosely as   you like!&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;script src="http://www2.blenza.com/linkies/easylink.php?owner=rvzcallahan&amp;amp;postid=8apr2012" type="text/javascript"&gt;
&lt;/script&gt;&lt;img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/AlabamaBloggers/~4/M3bWBBqX8qg" height="1" width="1"/&gt;</content><link rel="replies" type="application/atom+xml" href="http://www.alabamabloggers.com/feeds/2925844916701971488/comments/default" title="Post Comments" /><link rel="replies" type="text/html" href="http://www.blogger.com/comment.g?blogID=3376889143210775517&amp;postID=2925844916701971488" title="4 Comments" /><link rel="edit" type="application/atom+xml" href="http://www.blogger.com/feeds/3376889143210775517/posts/default/2925844916701971488?v=2" /><link rel="self" type="application/atom+xml" href="http://www.blogger.com/feeds/3376889143210775517/posts/default/2925844916701971488?v=2" /><link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/AlabamaBloggers/~3/M3bWBBqX8qg/best-post-of-week-week-195.html" title="Best Post of the Week: Week 195" /><author><name>Rachel</name><uri>http://www.blogger.com/profile/11459576509805897104</uri><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:image rel="http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail" width="21" height="32" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-SIZ8wh0SrjU/Tlr8CF9o2AI/AAAAAAAAAAw/-Vf-LXdSA8s/s220/Rachel%2B3.jpg" /></author><media:thumbnail xmlns:media="http://search.yahoo.com/mrss/" url="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_PT-EBJOR-EI/SrKZ-mm4kMI/AAAAAAAAK_c/kj8ciUDnpK4/s72-c/BestPostOfTheWeek+copy.jpg" height="72" width="72" /><thr:total>4</thr:total><feedburner:origLink>http://www.alabamabloggers.com/2013/03/best-post-of-week-week-195.html</feedburner:origLink></entry><entry gd:etag="W/&quot;A0IGRXk-eCp7ImA9WhBXE0Q.&quot;"><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3376889143210775517.post-9198483324553652566</id><published>2013-03-27T10:47:00.003-05:00</published><updated>2013-03-27T10:52:04.750-05:00</updated><app:edited xmlns:app="http://www.w3.org/2007/app">2013-03-27T10:52:04.750-05:00</app:edited><title>Giveaway: Day out with Thomas coming to Calera!</title><content type="html">&lt;div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"&gt;
&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"&gt;
&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"&gt;
&lt;img alt="Day Out With Thomas" border="0" height="135" src="http://www.hodrrm.org/Portals/0/Images/Events/Thomas/Day_Out_With_Thomas_Heart_Of_Dixie_Railroad_Museum.jpg" width="400" /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;div style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"&gt;
&lt;/div&gt;
Thomas the Train has always had a special place in our family - my daughter loved him (and still does, despite her aging state), and my son &lt;i&gt;adores&lt;/i&gt; him. I'm pretty sure we've single-handedly funded the continuation of the Thomas Legacy with our train purchases.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
So naturally, we look forward to seeing Thomas in real life as often as possible, and &lt;a href="http://www.hodrrm.org/Events/DayOutWithThomas/tabid/114/Default.aspx"&gt;A Day out with Thomas&lt;/a&gt; at the &lt;a href="http://hodrrm.org/Default.aspx"&gt;Heart of Dixie Railroad Museum&lt;/a&gt; offers that opportunity!&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
A Day Out with Thomas is a fantastic train-centered carnival for kids. They have rides, putt-putt, souvenirs, a petting zoo, Sir Topham Hatt ready to pose for photos...and of course, a 25 minute ride on Thomas the Train himself.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
A Day Out with Thomas will be in Calera on April 12, 13, 14, 20, and 21.&amp;nbsp; It is recommended that you buy tickets in advance to get a spot on a train ride.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
If you would rather win tickets, I am giving away a family pack of four tickets that includes a train ride and all of the activities! This pack of tickets is &lt;b&gt;specifically for the 11:15 am train ride on April 13. &lt;/b&gt;We will be there too, and would love to meet you!&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
If you would like to win, enter in the Rafflecopter giveaway below.&amp;nbsp; The giveaway is open until midnight on April 3. Best of luck!&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;a class="rafl" href="http://www.rafflecopter.com/rafl/display/e8e72c1/" id="rc-e8e72c1" rel="nofollow"&gt;a Rafflecopter giveaway&lt;/a&gt;
&lt;script src="//d12vno17mo87cx.cloudfront.net/embed/rafl/cptr.js"&gt;&lt;/script&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;i&gt;Disclosure: I was given a four-pack of tickets for my family, but was not compensated to run this giveaway. My opinions are my own.&lt;/i&gt;&lt;img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/AlabamaBloggers/~4/ib_Ju1suBoQ" height="1" width="1"/&gt;</content><link rel="replies" type="application/atom+xml" href="http://www.alabamabloggers.com/feeds/9198483324553652566/comments/default" title="Post Comments" /><link rel="replies" type="text/html" href="http://www.blogger.com/comment.g?blogID=3376889143210775517&amp;postID=9198483324553652566" title="3 Comments" /><link rel="edit" type="application/atom+xml" href="http://www.blogger.com/feeds/3376889143210775517/posts/default/9198483324553652566?v=2" /><link rel="self" type="application/atom+xml" href="http://www.blogger.com/feeds/3376889143210775517/posts/default/9198483324553652566?v=2" /><link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/AlabamaBloggers/~3/ib_Ju1suBoQ/giveaway-day-out-with-thomas-coming-to.html" title="Giveaway: Day out with Thomas coming to Calera!" /><author><name>Rachel</name><uri>http://www.blogger.com/profile/11459576509805897104</uri><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:image rel="http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail" width="21" height="32" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-SIZ8wh0SrjU/Tlr8CF9o2AI/AAAAAAAAAAw/-Vf-LXdSA8s/s220/Rachel%2B3.jpg" /></author><thr:total>3</thr:total><feedburner:origLink>http://www.alabamabloggers.com/2013/03/giveaway-day-out-with-thomas-coming-to.html</feedburner:origLink></entry><entry gd:etag="W/&quot;CkcER3s6fCp7ImA9WhBQGUg.&quot;"><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3376889143210775517.post-4778595736377984167</id><published>2013-03-22T06:00:00.000-05:00</published><updated>2013-03-22T06:00:06.514-05:00</updated><app:edited xmlns:app="http://www.w3.org/2007/app">2013-03-22T06:00:06.514-05:00</app:edited><title>Best Post of the Week: Week 194</title><content type="html">&lt;a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_PT-EBJOR-EI/SrKZ-mm4kMI/AAAAAAAAK_c/kj8ciUDnpK4/s1600-h/BestPostOfTheWeek+copy.jpg"&gt;&lt;img alt="" border="0" height="320" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5382533805455741122" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_PT-EBJOR-EI/SrKZ-mm4kMI/AAAAAAAAK_c/kj8ciUDnpK4/s320/BestPostOfTheWeek+copy.jpg" style="display: block; height: 400px; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; width: 399px;" width="319" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
It's   time to link in your best post of the week!&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
The purpose of this column is to make it easier to keep up with each other's blogs, so that even if we don't have time to read all of the &lt;a href="http://www.alabamabloggers.com/2009/05/alabama-bloggers.html"&gt;Alabama   Blogger blogs&lt;/a&gt; every day, at least we get the week's highlights.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
So, link up, tell us why you linked that post, and let's start reading! And remember - the best way to get new blogging friends is to comment on other people's posts, so be sure to say "hi" to your neighbors when you visit!&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;div style="text-align: left;"&gt;
&lt;span style="font-style: italic;"&gt;p.s. - please feel free to interpret "this week" as loosely as   you like!&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;script src="http://www2.blenza.com/linkies/easylink.php?owner=rvzcallahan&amp;amp;postid=7apr2012" type="text/javascript"&gt;
&lt;/script&gt;&lt;img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/AlabamaBloggers/~4/oPunJVt-9M8" height="1" width="1"/&gt;</content><link rel="replies" type="application/atom+xml" href="http://www.alabamabloggers.com/feeds/4778595736377984167/comments/default" title="Post Comments" /><link rel="replies" type="text/html" href="http://www.blogger.com/comment.g?blogID=3376889143210775517&amp;postID=4778595736377984167" title="3 Comments" /><link rel="edit" type="application/atom+xml" href="http://www.blogger.com/feeds/3376889143210775517/posts/default/4778595736377984167?v=2" /><link rel="self" type="application/atom+xml" href="http://www.blogger.com/feeds/3376889143210775517/posts/default/4778595736377984167?v=2" /><link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/AlabamaBloggers/~3/oPunJVt-9M8/best-post-of-week-week-194.html" title="Best Post of the Week: Week 194" /><author><name>Rachel</name><uri>http://www.blogger.com/profile/11459576509805897104</uri><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:image rel="http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail" width="21" height="32" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-SIZ8wh0SrjU/Tlr8CF9o2AI/AAAAAAAAAAw/-Vf-LXdSA8s/s220/Rachel%2B3.jpg" /></author><media:thumbnail xmlns:media="http://search.yahoo.com/mrss/" url="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_PT-EBJOR-EI/SrKZ-mm4kMI/AAAAAAAAK_c/kj8ciUDnpK4/s72-c/BestPostOfTheWeek+copy.jpg" height="72" width="72" /><thr:total>3</thr:total><feedburner:origLink>http://www.alabamabloggers.com/2013/03/best-post-of-week-week-194.html</feedburner:origLink></entry><entry gd:etag="W/&quot;DE8NRX0yfCp7ImA9WhBQE0o.&quot;"><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3376889143210775517.post-9027617540082313557</id><published>2013-03-15T14:48:00.000-05:00</published><updated>2013-03-15T14:48:14.394-05:00</updated><app:edited xmlns:app="http://www.w3.org/2007/app">2013-03-15T14:48:14.394-05:00</app:edited><title>Blogger Meet-Up Networking List</title><content type="html">&lt;img alt="IMG_7991" border="0" data-mce-src="http://www.graspingforobjectivity.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/08/IMG_7991_thumb.jpg" data-mce-style="background-image: none; margin: 0px auto; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; display: block; float: none; padding-top: 0px; border: 0px;" height="268" src="http://www.graspingforobjectivity.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/08/IMG_7991_thumb.jpg" style="background-image: none; border-color: -moz-use-text-color; border-style: none; border-width: 0px; display: block; float: none; margin: 0px auto; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;" title="IMG_7991" width="400" /&gt; &lt;br /&gt;
Thank you to everyone who joined us at &lt;a href="http://www.nabeels.com/"&gt;Nabeel's Cafe&lt;/a&gt; today! Maria Gambino and John Krontiras hosted us and treated us with an extra dose of Greek/Italian hospitality. Carl won a gift certificate for dinner, Kathryn and Keith left with &lt;a href="http://belovedfamilyrecipes.com/deal/john-krontiras/"&gt;John's beautiful cookbook&lt;/a&gt;, and we all went home with a bottle of Nabeel's house dressing.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
For those that came, here's a list of attendees so that you can all find each other:&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
Rachel Callahan - @ObjectivityRach; &lt;a href="http://www.graspingforobjectivity.com/"&gt;Grasping for Objectivity&lt;/a&gt; and &lt;a href="http://www.alabamabloggers.com/"&gt;Alabama Bloggers&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
Abby Hathorn - @Abbysauce_; &lt;a href="http://vintageinspiredpassionista.com/"&gt;Vintage Inspired Passionista&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
Chasidy Hathorn - @theLollyMolly; &lt;a href="http://sweetsorghumliving.wordpress.com/"&gt;Sweet Sorghum Living&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
Mercedes Calcano&lt;br /&gt;
Courtney Lebedzinski - @HAttraction; &lt;a href="http://honestattraction.com/"&gt;Honest Attraction&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
Tom Brander - @dartdog; &lt;a href="http://oswco.com/"&gt;oswco&lt;/a&gt; and &lt;a href="http://tombrander.com/"&gt;tombrander.com&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
Audrey Atkins - @audreymatkins; &lt;a href="http://folkwaysnowadays.com/"&gt;Folkways Nowadays&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
Edward T. Bowser - @etbowser; &lt;a href="http://al.com/"&gt;al.com&lt;/a&gt; and &lt;a href="http://www.soulinstereo.com/"&gt;Soul in Stereo&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
Sherri Ross - @yougotrossed; &lt;a href="http://yougotrossed.com/"&gt;You Got Rossed&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
Tanya Sylvan - @tlsylvan; &lt;a href="http://tanyasylvan.com/"&gt;All in Stride&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
Jennifer Howell - @ursulink; &lt;a href="http://soulsparkseeker.com/"&gt;Soul Spark Seeker&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
Kathryn Lang - @kathrynclang; &lt;a href="http://kathrynclang.com/"&gt;Kathryn C. Lang&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
Keith E. Lang - &lt;a href="http://pecuproductions.com/"&gt;Living on Purpose&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
Richard Kirby - @DeluxeDelivers; &lt;a href="http://deluxedelivers.com/"&gt;Deluxe Delivers&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
Lucy Farmer - @lucysinspired; &lt;a href="http://www.lucysinspired.com/"&gt;Lucy's Inspired&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
Gabriel Gadfly - @gabrielgadfly; &lt;a href="http://gabrielgadfly.com/"&gt;Gabriel Gadfly&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
Carl Carter - @mediaguycarl; &lt;a href="http://newmediarules.com/"&gt;New Media Rules&lt;/a&gt; and &lt;a href="http://mediaguycarl.com/"&gt;Carl's Lost and Found&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
We discussed community, blogging relationships, and many other topics. If you blog about our conversations today, please link up in the comments so that we can all read your recap! &lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
Also - if any of you haven't connected on our Facebook Page yet, please do so by &lt;a href="http://www.facebook.com/groups/531505493545424/"&gt;clicking here&lt;/a&gt; and requesting to join - we have some great discussions there, and it is the easiest way to get information out about upcoming blogger events.&lt;img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/AlabamaBloggers/~4/3x-j98CtWjA" height="1" width="1"/&gt;</content><link rel="replies" type="application/atom+xml" href="http://www.alabamabloggers.com/feeds/9027617540082313557/comments/default" title="Post Comments" /><link rel="replies" type="text/html" href="http://www.blogger.com/comment.g?blogID=3376889143210775517&amp;postID=9027617540082313557" title="0 Comments" /><link rel="edit" type="application/atom+xml" href="http://www.blogger.com/feeds/3376889143210775517/posts/default/9027617540082313557?v=2" /><link rel="self" type="application/atom+xml" href="http://www.blogger.com/feeds/3376889143210775517/posts/default/9027617540082313557?v=2" /><link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/AlabamaBloggers/~3/3x-j98CtWjA/blogger-meet-up-networking-list.html" title="Blogger Meet-Up Networking List" /><author><name>Rachel</name><uri>http://www.blogger.com/profile/11459576509805897104</uri><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:image rel="http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail" width="21" height="32" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-SIZ8wh0SrjU/Tlr8CF9o2AI/AAAAAAAAAAw/-Vf-LXdSA8s/s220/Rachel%2B3.jpg" /></author><thr:total>0</thr:total><feedburner:origLink>http://www.alabamabloggers.com/2013/03/blogger-meet-up-networking-list.html</feedburner:origLink></entry><entry gd:etag="W/&quot;C0UHSHszeCp7ImA9WhBRF0s.&quot;"><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3376889143210775517.post-4910742567830637265</id><published>2013-03-08T10:47:00.001-06:00</published><updated>2013-03-08T10:47:19.580-06:00</updated><app:edited xmlns:app="http://www.w3.org/2007/app">2013-03-08T10:47:19.580-06:00</app:edited><title>Best Post of the Week: Week 193</title><content type="html">&lt;a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_PT-EBJOR-EI/SrKZ-mm4kMI/AAAAAAAAK_c/kj8ciUDnpK4/s1600-h/BestPostOfTheWeek+copy.jpg"&gt;&lt;img alt="" border="0" height="320" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5382533805455741122" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_PT-EBJOR-EI/SrKZ-mm4kMI/AAAAAAAAK_c/kj8ciUDnpK4/s320/BestPostOfTheWeek+copy.jpg" style="display: block; height: 400px; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; width: 399px;" width="319" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
It's   time to link in your best post of the week!&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
The purpose of this column is to make it easier to keep up with each other's blogs, so that even if we don't have time to read all of the &lt;a href="http://www.alabamabloggers.com/2009/05/alabama-bloggers.html"&gt;Alabama   Blogger blogs&lt;/a&gt; every day, at least we get the week's highlights.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
So, link up, tell us why you linked that post, and let's start reading! And remember - the best way to get new blogging friends is to comment on other people's posts, so be sure to say "hi" to your neighbors when you visit!&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;div style="text-align: left;"&gt;
&lt;span style="font-style: italic;"&gt;p.s. - please feel free to interpret "this week" as loosely as   you like!&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;script src="http://www2.blenza.com/linkies/easylink.php?owner=rvzcallahan&amp;amp;postid=6apr2012" type="text/javascript"&gt;
&lt;/script&gt;&lt;img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/AlabamaBloggers/~4/w_jpvYOg2Lk" height="1" width="1"/&gt;</content><link rel="replies" type="application/atom+xml" href="http://www.alabamabloggers.com/feeds/4910742567830637265/comments/default" title="Post Comments" /><link rel="replies" type="text/html" href="http://www.blogger.com/comment.g?blogID=3376889143210775517&amp;postID=4910742567830637265" title="8 Comments" /><link rel="edit" type="application/atom+xml" href="http://www.blogger.com/feeds/3376889143210775517/posts/default/4910742567830637265?v=2" /><link rel="self" type="application/atom+xml" href="http://www.blogger.com/feeds/3376889143210775517/posts/default/4910742567830637265?v=2" /><link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/AlabamaBloggers/~3/w_jpvYOg2Lk/best-post-of-week-week-193.html" title="Best Post of the Week: Week 193" /><author><name>Rachel</name><uri>http://www.blogger.com/profile/11459576509805897104</uri><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:image rel="http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail" width="21" height="32" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-SIZ8wh0SrjU/Tlr8CF9o2AI/AAAAAAAAAAw/-Vf-LXdSA8s/s220/Rachel%2B3.jpg" /></author><media:thumbnail xmlns:media="http://search.yahoo.com/mrss/" url="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_PT-EBJOR-EI/SrKZ-mm4kMI/AAAAAAAAK_c/kj8ciUDnpK4/s72-c/BestPostOfTheWeek+copy.jpg" height="72" width="72" /><thr:total>8</thr:total><feedburner:origLink>http://www.alabamabloggers.com/2013/03/best-post-of-week-week-193.html</feedburner:origLink></entry><entry gd:etag="W/&quot;DUAAQnk_cCp7ImA9WhBREks.&quot;"><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3376889143210775517.post-2826310536006366679</id><published>2013-03-02T17:41:00.001-06:00</published><updated>2013-03-02T17:42:23.748-06:00</updated><app:edited xmlns:app="http://www.w3.org/2007/app">2013-03-02T17:42:23.748-06:00</app:edited><title>Alabama Bloggers Meet-Up - March 15</title><content type="html">&lt;div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"&gt;
&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"&gt;
&lt;img alt="IMG_7991" border="0" data-mce-src="http://www.graspingforobjectivity.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/08/IMG_7991_thumb.jpg" data-mce-style="background-image: none; margin: 0px auto; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; display: block; float: none; padding-top: 0px; border: 0px;" height="268" src="http://www.graspingforobjectivity.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/08/IMG_7991_thumb.jpg" style="background-image: none; border-color: -moz-use-text-color; border-style: none; border-width: 0px; display: block; float: none; margin: 0px auto; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;" title="IMG_7991" width="400" /&gt; &lt;/div&gt;
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&lt;div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"&gt;
&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;i&gt;By &lt;a href="http://www.graspingforobjectivity.com/"&gt;Rachel&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/i&gt; &lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
I've decided to take you guys to my home away from home this month, &lt;a href="http://www.nabeels.com/"&gt;Nabeel's&lt;/a&gt;. I spend so much time there that if we pass by, my two-year-old starts screaming to eat - because he assumes that it is the location where all food comes from.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
On March 15, we will be congregating in their upper room from 11:30 - 1:00. Owner John Krontiras and Manager Maria Gambino are treating us with their fantastic Greek/Italian Hospitality (the only thing in the world that's better than Southern Hospitality) and will be sending every attendee home with a bottle of their house Greek Dressing.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;nbsp;&lt;img alt="IMG_6965" border="0" height="267" src="http://lh6.ggpht.com/-8kCiD_JgSQw/TlA1YvJPG2I/AAAAAAAAXT0/_NvtrRQiHg0/IMG_6965_thumb.jpg?imgmax=800" style="border-width: 0px; display: inline;" title="IMG_6965" width="400" /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
Also, one person will be randomly chosen to receive a gift certificate for Dinner at Nabeel's!&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
To enter to win, follow &lt;a href="https://twitter.com/nabeelscafe"&gt;NabeelsCafe&lt;/a&gt; on Twitter or like their page &lt;a href="http://www.facebook.com/nabeelscafe?fref=ts"&gt;on Facebook&lt;/a&gt;, and tweet about the event, using the hashtag #AlaBlogMeet and @NabeelsCafe in your tweet.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
If you'd like, you can use this tweet:&lt;span itemprop="description"&gt;&lt;span class="fsl"&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;i&gt;&lt;span itemprop="description"&gt;&lt;span class="fsl"&gt;Looking forward to #AlaBlogMeet at @NabeelsCafe on 3/15 - join us! Details here: &lt;a href="http://www.alabamabloggers.com/2013/03/meet-up-on-march-15.html" rel="nofollow nofollow" target="_blank"&gt;http://&lt;wbr&gt;&lt;/wbr&gt;www.alabamabloggers.com/&lt;wbr&gt;&lt;/wbr&gt;2013/03/&lt;wbr&gt;&lt;/wbr&gt;meet-up-on-march-15.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/i&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
RSVP on this post or on the &lt;a href="http://www.facebook.com/events/570201209665621"&gt;Facebook Event Page&lt;/a&gt; by March 14 to attend - I look forward to seeing you there!&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;&lt;img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/AlabamaBloggers/~4/9TVE05GKQSg" height="1" width="1"/&gt;</content><link rel="replies" type="application/atom+xml" href="http://www.alabamabloggers.com/feeds/2826310536006366679/comments/default" title="Post Comments" /><link rel="replies" type="text/html" href="http://www.blogger.com/comment.g?blogID=3376889143210775517&amp;postID=2826310536006366679" title="2 Comments" /><link rel="edit" type="application/atom+xml" href="http://www.blogger.com/feeds/3376889143210775517/posts/default/2826310536006366679?v=2" /><link rel="self" type="application/atom+xml" href="http://www.blogger.com/feeds/3376889143210775517/posts/default/2826310536006366679?v=2" /><link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/AlabamaBloggers/~3/9TVE05GKQSg/alabama-bloggers-meet-up-on-march-15.html" title="Alabama Bloggers Meet-Up - March 15" /><author><name>Rachel</name><uri>http://www.blogger.com/profile/11459576509805897104</uri><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:image rel="http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail" width="21" height="32" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-SIZ8wh0SrjU/Tlr8CF9o2AI/AAAAAAAAAAw/-Vf-LXdSA8s/s220/Rachel%2B3.jpg" /></author><media:thumbnail xmlns:media="http://search.yahoo.com/mrss/" url="http://lh6.ggpht.com/-8kCiD_JgSQw/TlA1YvJPG2I/AAAAAAAAXT0/_NvtrRQiHg0/s72-c/IMG_6965_thumb.jpg?imgmax=800" height="72" width="72" /><thr:total>2</thr:total><feedburner:origLink>http://www.alabamabloggers.com/2013/03/alabama-bloggers-meet-up-on-march-15.html</feedburner:origLink></entry><entry gd:etag="W/&quot;A0UEQX8-eSp7ImA9WhBREU4.&quot;"><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3376889143210775517.post-3690000699032204517</id><published>2013-03-01T06:00:00.000-06:00</published><updated>2013-03-01T06:00:00.151-06:00</updated><app:edited xmlns:app="http://www.w3.org/2007/app">2013-03-01T06:00:00.151-06:00</app:edited><title>Best Post of the Week: Week 192</title><content type="html">&lt;a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_PT-EBJOR-EI/SrKZ-mm4kMI/AAAAAAAAK_c/kj8ciUDnpK4/s1600-h/BestPostOfTheWeek+copy.jpg"&gt;&lt;img alt="" border="0" height="320" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5382533805455741122" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_PT-EBJOR-EI/SrKZ-mm4kMI/AAAAAAAAK_c/kj8ciUDnpK4/s320/BestPostOfTheWeek+copy.jpg" style="display: block; height: 400px; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; width: 399px;" width="319" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
It's   time to link in your best post of the week!&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
The purpose of this column is to make it easier to keep up with each other's blogs, so that even if we don't have time to read all of the &lt;a href="http://www.alabamabloggers.com/2009/05/alabama-bloggers.html"&gt;Alabama   Blogger blogs&lt;/a&gt; every day, at least we get the week's highlights.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
So, link up, tell us why you linked that post, and let's start reading! And remember - the best way to get new blogging friends is to comment on other people's posts, so be sure to say "hi" to your neighbors when you visit!&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;div style="text-align: left;"&gt;
&lt;span style="font-style: italic;"&gt;p.s. - please feel free to interpret "this week" as loosely as   you like!&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;script src="http://www2.blenza.com/linkies/easylink.php?owner=rvzcallahan&amp;amp;postid=5apr2012" type="text/javascript"&gt;
&lt;/script&gt;&lt;img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/AlabamaBloggers/~4/GKS2KKb4Uzc" height="1" width="1"/&gt;</content><link rel="replies" type="application/atom+xml" href="http://www.alabamabloggers.com/feeds/3690000699032204517/comments/default" title="Post Comments" /><link rel="replies" type="text/html" href="http://www.blogger.com/comment.g?blogID=3376889143210775517&amp;postID=3690000699032204517" title="4 Comments" /><link rel="edit" type="application/atom+xml" href="http://www.blogger.com/feeds/3376889143210775517/posts/default/3690000699032204517?v=2" /><link rel="self" type="application/atom+xml" href="http://www.blogger.com/feeds/3376889143210775517/posts/default/3690000699032204517?v=2" /><link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/AlabamaBloggers/~3/GKS2KKb4Uzc/best-post-of-week-week-192.html" title="Best Post of the Week: Week 192" /><author><name>Rachel</name><uri>http://www.blogger.com/profile/11459576509805897104</uri><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:image rel="http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail" width="21" height="32" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-SIZ8wh0SrjU/Tlr8CF9o2AI/AAAAAAAAAAw/-Vf-LXdSA8s/s220/Rachel%2B3.jpg" /></author><media:thumbnail xmlns:media="http://search.yahoo.com/mrss/" url="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_PT-EBJOR-EI/SrKZ-mm4kMI/AAAAAAAAK_c/kj8ciUDnpK4/s72-c/BestPostOfTheWeek+copy.jpg" height="72" width="72" /><thr:total>4</thr:total><feedburner:origLink>http://www.alabamabloggers.com/2013/03/best-post-of-week-week-192.html</feedburner:origLink></entry><entry gd:etag="W/&quot;C0cDQ3k7fSp7ImA9WhBSGE0.&quot;"><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3376889143210775517.post-5750591089201586305</id><published>2013-02-25T06:00:00.000-06:00</published><updated>2013-02-25T08:04:32.705-06:00</updated><app:edited xmlns:app="http://www.w3.org/2007/app">2013-02-25T08:04:32.705-06:00</app:edited><title>Teenage Seamstress Competes in Birmingham Fashion Week</title><content type="html">&lt;a href="http://lh3.ggpht.com/-jwRmZStQryE/USrdUJGcPgI/AAAAAAAAB3I/wqiObl8tSao/s1600-h/IMG_28769.jpg"&gt;&lt;img align="left" alt="IMG_2876" border="0" height="320" src="http://lh6.ggpht.com/-O3-6PwdVOjw/USrdVLaDAcI/AAAAAAAAB3U/giyj58JGuEs/IMG_2876_thumb3.jpg?imgmax=800" style="background-image: none; border-width: 0px; display: inline; float: left; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;" title="IMG_2876" width="213" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
Being a twelve-year homeschooling alumni (and a current Homeschool Mom,) I am personally experienced in the benefit of having extra time to pursue extracurricular activities and interests. Recently, I had the opportunity to sit down with a current homeschooler who is using that opportunity to catapult her career off to an amazing start.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
Rachel Irvin, a sixteen-year-old Junior from Birmingham, has been sewing since she was twelve. She taught herself out of a love for historical costumes.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
“I watched a lot of period films with my Mom [like Jane Austen,] and I wanted to wear nothing but those kinds of clothes. I couldn’t afford a $350 costume, so the only way I was going to get what I wanted was to learn to sew and make my own dresses,” Rachel explained to me.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
However, the luxurious fabrics it would take to build period pieces are also not cheap, so Rachel makes her creations with 100% recycled materials – either from thrift store finds or donations from friends and family.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
“Curtains are my favorite! They’re usually in great condition, haven’t been washed too often, and rarely have anything wrong with them except for maybe a little dust.”&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
Staying true to her sewing inspirations, Rachel’s career goals lean in the direction of costume design for theater and movies, rather than couture fashion. She hopes to enter the University of Alabama’s Apparel and Textiles program to help propel her vision forward.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
Besides being able to earn High School elective credit for teaching herself to sew, Rachel has also taught homeschool elective classes for other interested students. She can also spin yarn, weave, crochet, and knit. And when she gets stuck, she seeks advice from her Grandmother. &lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
Rachel’s most recent project was creating a garment to enter into the &lt;a href="http://bhamfashionweek.com/"&gt;Birmingham Fashion Week&lt;/a&gt; Rising Design Star Challenge. In this event, middle and high school students from across Alabama can enter their design work for the chance to be a part of the week’s events and win a scholarship. More than 200 contestants submitted design ideas, and the top 40 were chosen to be displayed at the Birmingham Museum of Art. Of those, thirty were picked to show their work on the runway at Birmingham Fashion Week. Rachel was chosen as one of those finalists, and will showing her look on Thursday night. The competition states that you must use unconventional materials and methods to make your garment. I didn’t get a sneak peek at Rachel’s outfit, but she told me that the main structure is window screening, lined with garbage bags and tissue paper. She added detailing to the shirt with metal brads, a halter with Mardi Gras beads, and cut bath poofs to add ruffles to the skirt.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
Rachel did bring along a couple of her other dresses for me to admire. We chatted as she laboriously prepared her mannequin in a double-layered medieval-era Renaissance dress, and I stared, amazed at her design talent.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;a href="http://lh5.ggpht.com/-IVwkulTstKc/USrdV3wTAII/AAAAAAAAB3c/0poGzRrbmw4/s1600-h/IMG_28266.jpg"&gt;&lt;img alt="IMG_2826" border="0" height="455" src="http://lh4.ggpht.com/-oQSNnKzE59w/USrdWjGTcEI/AAAAAAAAB3k/zE5uFzMiJJg/IMG_2826_thumb3.jpg?imgmax=800" style="background-image: none; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-top-width: 0px; display: block; float: none; margin: 0px auto; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;" title="IMG_2826" width="304" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
Her Father, Richie, served as her assistant.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;a href="http://lh6.ggpht.com/-1vINI_YEi58/USrdXaXKqZI/AAAAAAAAB3s/sSh_AdSYkV0/s1600-h/IMG_28294.jpg"&gt;&lt;img alt="IMG_2829" border="0" height="268" src="http://lh4.ggpht.com/-GuRdFBMdowc/USrdYNEh0II/AAAAAAAAB30/2ZVdt_16l1Q/IMG_2829_thumb1.jpg?imgmax=800" style="background-image: none; border-width: 0px; display: block; float: none; margin: 0px auto; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;" title="IMG_2829" width="400" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
This beautiful creation was made entirely out of recycled materials – the underdress had the former life of a bed sheet, and the overdress was concocted from curtains and valances. The accent buttons on the sleeves were donated to the project.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;a href="http://lh3.ggpht.com/-kEVAVyNyUBo/USrdZAIIZfI/AAAAAAAAB38/qTiwkT6bMhk/s1600-h/IMG_28425.jpg"&gt;&lt;img alt="IMG_2842" border="0" height="455" src="http://lh5.ggpht.com/-iO3wrHOe-VU/USrdZjC80cI/AAAAAAAAB4E/jpRJECsnS6k/IMG_2842_thumb2.jpg?imgmax=800" style="background-image: none; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-top-width: 0px; display: block; float: none; margin: 0px auto; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;" title="IMG_2842" width="304" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
Rachel said that the look took four days of nonstop work. It is exquisitely crafted, including an open sleeve that shows off the dress underneath:&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;a href="http://lh5.ggpht.com/-qz2GiP0C2Lg/USrdanEI5jI/AAAAAAAAB4M/_QVpcq3lkIA/s1600-h/IMG_28474.jpg"&gt;&lt;img alt="IMG_2847" border="0" height="268" src="http://lh5.ggpht.com/-st-fu7pjjyc/USrdbUU5xUI/AAAAAAAAB4U/S9ZOv7uWmWA/IMG_2847_thumb1.jpg?imgmax=800" style="background-image: none; border-width: 0px; display: block; float: none; margin: 0px auto; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;" title="IMG_2847" width="400" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
The second look that she displayed was a Regency Period dress in the style of Jane Austen. Also made from curtains, Rachel designed this dress to wear at a Christmas Ball. She tailored the front to be shorter so that she didn’t trip while dancing, and added the panel in the front for movement and style.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;a href="http://lh5.ggpht.com/-UEkN4AwowHg/USrdcM2ygeI/AAAAAAAAB4c/IiET0w1ONVw/s1600-h/IMG_2863-copy8.jpg"&gt;&lt;img alt="IMG_2863 copy" border="0" height="455" src="http://lh4.ggpht.com/-bnXOnQey-60/USrdc-hmrKI/AAAAAAAAB4k/yKnsilZeHOI/IMG_2863-copy_thumb2.jpg?imgmax=800" style="background-image: none; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-top-width: 0px; display: block; float: none; margin: 0px auto; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;" title="IMG_2863 copy" width="304" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
“I kept struggling with the button holes in the back of the dress, so I took it to my Grandmother and she helped me get them right,” Rachel explained.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;a href="http://lh6.ggpht.com/-Kcrrvnon2YU/USrddgOx2mI/AAAAAAAAB4w/60nJhVk7etQ/s1600-h/IMG_28604.jpg"&gt;&lt;img alt="IMG_2860" border="0" height="268" src="http://lh4.ggpht.com/-ThzHLjv-n1U/USrdeX3AnPI/AAAAAAAAB48/buiYmRlEfmw/IMG_2860_thumb1.jpg?imgmax=800" style="background-image: none; border-width: 0px; display: block; float: none; margin: 0px auto; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;" title="IMG_2860" width="400" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
Rachel’s fourteen-year-old sister, Hannah, will be wearing Rachel’s Fashion Week entry on the runway Thursday night. Sixteen contestants will be chosen from the thirty finalists and will get to show their creation again on Saturday night, where they will be competing for the grand prize of a $1,000 scholarship.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
I might be biased, but I will be cheering for Rachel this week.&lt;br /&gt;
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&lt;i&gt;Tickets are currently still available for this event and others online at &lt;/i&gt;&lt;a href="http://bhamfashionweek.com/schedule/"&gt;&lt;i&gt;Birmingham Fashion Week&lt;/i&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;i&gt;.&lt;/i&gt;&lt;img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/AlabamaBloggers/~4/n0Q5jAMfFMw" height="1" width="1"/&gt;</content><link rel="replies" type="application/atom+xml" href="http://www.alabamabloggers.com/feeds/5750591089201586305/comments/default" title="Post Comments" /><link rel="replies" type="text/html" href="http://www.blogger.com/comment.g?blogID=3376889143210775517&amp;postID=5750591089201586305" title="3 Comments" /><link rel="edit" type="application/atom+xml" href="http://www.blogger.com/feeds/3376889143210775517/posts/default/5750591089201586305?v=2" /><link rel="self" type="application/atom+xml" href="http://www.blogger.com/feeds/3376889143210775517/posts/default/5750591089201586305?v=2" /><link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/AlabamaBloggers/~3/n0Q5jAMfFMw/rachel-irvin.html" title="Teenage Seamstress Competes in Birmingham Fashion Week" /><author><name>Rachel</name><uri>http://www.blogger.com/profile/11459576509805897104</uri><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:image rel="http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail" width="21" height="32" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-SIZ8wh0SrjU/Tlr8CF9o2AI/AAAAAAAAAAw/-Vf-LXdSA8s/s220/Rachel%2B3.jpg" /></author><media:thumbnail xmlns:media="http://search.yahoo.com/mrss/" url="http://lh6.ggpht.com/-O3-6PwdVOjw/USrdVLaDAcI/AAAAAAAAB3U/giyj58JGuEs/s72-c/IMG_2876_thumb3.jpg?imgmax=800" height="72" width="72" /><thr:total>3</thr:total><feedburner:origLink>http://www.alabamabloggers.com/2013/02/rachel-irvin.html</feedburner:origLink></entry><entry gd:etag="W/&quot;CUIARns4fSp7ImA9WhBSF0s.&quot;"><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3376889143210775517.post-1256103731464139816</id><published>2013-02-24T06:00:00.000-06:00</published><updated>2013-02-24T21:39:07.535-06:00</updated><app:edited xmlns:app="http://www.w3.org/2007/app">2013-02-24T21:39:07.535-06:00</app:edited><title>Birmingham Fashion Week: How to Dress.</title><content type="html">&lt;a href="http://www.graspingforobjectivity.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/02/BFW1.png"&gt;&lt;img alt="BFW" border="0" height="144" src="http://www.graspingforobjectivity.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/02/BFW_thumb1.png" style="background-image: none; border-width: 0px; display: block; float: none; margin: 0px auto; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;" title="BFW" width="404" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;

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&lt;a href="http://www.bhamfashionweek.com/"&gt;Birmingham Fashion Week&lt;/a&gt; officially started on Saturday, and will have exciting runway shows and events all of this week. In celebration of the event, I am &lt;a href="http://www.graspingforobjectivity.com/2013/02/gus-mayer-giveaway.html"&gt;giving away a $140 prize package on my other blog, Grasping for Objectivity&lt;/a&gt;. Be sure to enter soon – it ends on Wednesday!&lt;br /&gt;
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In order to experience the high fashion that Birmingham has to offer in anticipation of Birmingham Fashion Week, I visited &lt;a href="http://www.gusmayer.com/"&gt;Gus Mayer&lt;/a&gt;. They shared tips with me on how to dress for the week.

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“Birmingham Fashion Week is an event that you can really be yourself, or push yourself to wear something you have always had the desire to wear,” explained Cami, Gus Mayer’s buyer. “It’s also fun at an event like this to put a dressy piece with something casual so you don’t feel so much in ‘cocktail attire’ but more in ‘party attire.’”
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Cami explained that it is totally appropriate to wear a skinny jean and sequined top, or to be more dressy, such as the looks she picked out below:
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In one of her suggested outfits, she chose this stunning sequin skirt,

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&lt;a href="http://www.graspingforobjectivity.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/02/IMG_2759.jpg"&gt;&lt;img alt="IMG_2759" border="0" height="271" src="http://www.graspingforobjectivity.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/02/IMG_2759_thumb.jpg" style="background-image: none; border-width: 0px; display: block; float: none; margin: 0px auto; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;" title="IMG_2759" width="404" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;

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but paired it with this simple, less form-fitting shirt:

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&lt;a href="http://www.graspingforobjectivity.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/02/IMG_2756.jpg"&gt;&lt;img alt="IMG_2756" border="0" height="495" src="http://www.graspingforobjectivity.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/02/IMG_2756_thumb.jpg" style="background-image: none; border-width: 0px; display: block; float: none; margin: 0px auto; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;" title="IMG_2756" width="404" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;

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She suggested wearing it with a white leather jacket and tall black boots.

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“I like to choose one edgy item and pair it with something simple to allow that item to shine,” Cami explained.
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Another fun texture that is on-trend this Spring is laser-cut leather, which gives a material that was formerly un-pliable much more dimension and movement.

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&lt;a href="http://www.graspingforobjectivity.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/02/IMG_2767.jpg"&gt;&lt;img alt="IMG_2767" border="0" height="605" src="http://www.graspingforobjectivity.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/02/IMG_2767_thumb.jpg" style="background-image: none; border-width: 0px; display: block; float: none; margin: 0px auto; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;" title="IMG_2767" width="404" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;

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Cami suggested pairing that skirt with a dark brown boot and sweater, and then adding a bright scarf to make it pop.

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My favorite outfit was this lace-overlaid pant that she paired with a sheer, long black shirt:

&lt;a href="http://www.graspingforobjectivity.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/02/IMG_2752.jpg"&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;img alt="IMG_2752" border="0" height="605" src="http://www.graspingforobjectivity.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/02/IMG_2752_thumb.jpg" style="background-image: none; border-width: 0px; display: block; float: none; margin: 0px auto; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;" title="IMG_2752" width="404" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;

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So I grabbed them and headed to the dressing room, basking for just a moment in some exciting high fashion.

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&lt;a href="http://www.graspingforobjectivity.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/02/IMG_2771.jpg"&gt;&lt;img alt="IMG_2771" border="0" height="567" src="http://www.graspingforobjectivity.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/02/IMG_2771_thumb.jpg" style="background-image: none; border-width: 0px; display: block; float: none; margin: 0px auto; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;" title="IMG_2771" width="304" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;

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“All of these looks are Spring looks, but can be made weather-appropriate for a night event by adding a jacket or an off-the-shoulder fur,” Cami explained.

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If you would like to have some fun of your own at Gus Mayer, I'm giving away a one hour Facial and a $50 Gift Card (total prize worth $140.) To enter, click over to my other blog, &lt;a href="http://www.graspingforobjectivity.com/2013/02/gus-mayer-giveaway.html"&gt;Grasping for Objectivity&lt;/a&gt;, and comment.
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To buy tickets for Birmingham Fashion Week, &lt;a href="http://bhamfashionweek.com/tickets/"&gt;click here&lt;/a&gt;.

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&lt;i&gt;Disclosure: I received a facial from Gus Mayer in order to review the prize being given away on my other blog. I was not compensated for this post, and all opinions are my own.&lt;/i&gt;&lt;img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/AlabamaBloggers/~4/yTynbqvqOXg" height="1" width="1"/&gt;</content><link rel="replies" type="application/atom+xml" href="http://www.alabamabloggers.com/feeds/1256103731464139816/comments/default" title="Post Comments" /><link rel="replies" type="text/html" href="http://www.blogger.com/comment.g?blogID=3376889143210775517&amp;postID=1256103731464139816" title="0 Comments" /><link rel="edit" type="application/atom+xml" href="http://www.blogger.com/feeds/3376889143210775517/posts/default/1256103731464139816?v=2" /><link rel="self" type="application/atom+xml" href="http://www.blogger.com/feeds/3376889143210775517/posts/default/1256103731464139816?v=2" /><link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/AlabamaBloggers/~3/yTynbqvqOXg/birmingham-fashion-week-how-to-dress.html" title="Birmingham Fashion Week: How to Dress." /><author><name>Rachel</name><uri>http://www.blogger.com/profile/11459576509805897104</uri><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:image rel="http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail" width="21" height="32" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-SIZ8wh0SrjU/Tlr8CF9o2AI/AAAAAAAAAAw/-Vf-LXdSA8s/s220/Rachel%2B3.jpg" /></author><thr:total>0</thr:total><feedburner:origLink>http://www.alabamabloggers.com/2013/02/birmingham-fashion-week-how-to-dress.html</feedburner:origLink></entry></feed>
