TotalBeauty.com Blog Community Summit

This weekend I flew to Los Angeles to attend the first TotalBeauty.com's Blog Community Summit. Total beauty Media, operator of TotalBeauty.com, the most comprehensive online catalog of beauty products for women, is hosting this unique event in partnership with for some of the nation’s top beauty bloggers. The AdviceSisters finally had the chance to meet some of the creative writers and producers of super-popular blogs such as Tia Williams (Shake Your Beauty), Anne Fritz (Jet Set Girls), Nadine Habosh (Jolie-Nadine), and Annie Tomlin (PopSugar/Bella Sugar). The photo here is of the very informative (and excellent) panel.

The Advice Sisters recently joined TotalBeauty.Com. Although I have been online for a long, long time, this is the first online community/organization that I have ever joined. I did so because I think Total Beauty.com "gets" what is happening online, and has vision and creativity. In fact, In just five months, TotalBeauty.com has become one of the top beauty destinations on the web for women. The Advice Sisters blogs joins a blogger community of over 120 beauty bloggers and beauty-related sites that collectively generate over 1.2 million monthly unique visitors. That's an astounding amount of people who want to read what the Advice Sisters and other bloggers, are writing about.

It's been a long two days, and I'm in my hotel room trying to post this from a borrowed laptop that I'm not used to typing on, so I'm not going to go into too much detail right now except to tell you that the amount of information and camraderie generated in the beautiful office of Intelligent Beauty today, is unlike anything I've experienced anywhere else when it comes to the Internet. This is a awesome opportunity for bloggers and beauty writers to learn about new brands, talk about trends, get inspired. I expected to come away from this beauty summit with some products to try and some business cards, but I'm also incredibly lucky--I was picked for a makeover from celebrity hairstylist Dusty Simington from Salon Gregories and founder of Kronos Hair products. I am now a redhead (auburn with copper highlights, actually) which is pretty startling, but gorgeous!

I will hopefully get a new head shot and I'll post it here...the transformation is pretty astounding!

Most of the bloggers are at a club in Venice Beach tonight, but I stayed at the Hotel and had dinner with my cousin Jon, because I don't get to see him very often, and, well...family first. But I did go to a lovely cocktail party and dinner at the offices of Intelligent Beauty last night. The photo at the top of the page shows some of the TotalBeauty.com bloggers at the opening night cocktail party. More photos to follow!

trying one more time!

After a few days of burning the proverbial midnight oil, trying to figure out what I did wrong when I moved this blog from the old blogger format to the new one, I finally, after literally hours and hours and hours of experimentation, am able to publish posts again.

I have to say, NO THANKS TO BLOGGER and GOOGLE. True, the third party software they offer is generally user-friendly and it is free, but I would have paid right up front to have five minutes (that is all I needed) to have someone walk me through my settings so I could fix the small problem that stopped me absolutely cold.

Blogger and Google: if anyone on your staff ever finds this blog and this post, please be assured that I think your programs are awesome, but if you are going to put software out there for the general public to use, wouldn't it be reasonable to stand by it, with a help desk? FAQ's are great unless you get stuck and just don't understand it. To refuse even an email address to write to is so, well, irresponsible!

Ok, I know: you would be inudated with people if you just put yourself out there for free and 24/7 for assistance, but I'd have been happy to pay, by the minute, if necessary. I knew I'd only need a few minutes to fix what should have been obvious, but wasn't.

To my readers: What I have learned from this entirely frustrating, time-wasting, unproductive and unpleasant process is that either you have to figure it out yourself (which ain't easy, folks) or give up entirely, or throw yourself on the mercy of user groups (great bunch, but they can't be spending all of their workdays helping people with the same, relentless problems either, and sometimes they do not give accurate direction because they are not profesionals, just folks who know a bit more than the average).

Note that while I was making changes I didn't want, I made one I did want: instead of the old title: askalisonsadvicesistersblog it's now Advice Sister Alison's Guide to Life, Love and Happiness.

I hope you like the change, and I hope this is the last test post I need to make

alison

A New Year, New Start, News-The Advice Sisters

If you read this blog regularly, you know that there hasn't been much activity on it during the last few weeks of 2006...but that doesn't mean that I've been sitting on my you-know-what, doing nothing. Definitely not! Aside from providing personal advice to private clients by email, I've been adding new advice content to The Advice Sisters Great Relationships Web Site. I will continue to add new things regularly as 2007 unfolds, so please visit the FEATURES PAGE often to see what's new including the latest What Works Beauty, Cosmetics & Fashion Review Columns, "Double-Take" Q&A, Articles,"Ask Alison-Managing Your Life and Career Columns" contests, Advice Sisters' news, and more!

In December, I was the subject of the latest"Hook Me Up" video show on Yahoo! Tech. You can see my episode: "Dear Alison, Help Me Podcast" at: http://tech.yahoo.com/se . This is your chance to see that there really is an "Advice Sister" behind this computer screen! In this episode, "Emergency Makeover Technician" Byron Este literally brings holiday "cheer" to my life by bringing me the essentials of podcasting. Please watch. You will probably need an updated Windows Media Player or Real Player to get the show (some of my fans and friends with older computers and dial-up may have some trouble...if that happens Contact Me and we will do our best to help you view the video!

Later in December, I was invited to the inagural celebration and first official voyage of Norwegian Cruise Line's Norwegian Pearl. The 93,530-ton, 2,384-passenger ship isNorwegian Cruise Line’s newest Jewel-class ship, and quite a beautiful and impressive one at that. Popular talk show host and Emmy award-winner Rosie O'Donnell was appointed the ships' Godmother (every ship has one to name her, and they are usually women of note). The Norwegian Pearl’s slogan is: "Simply Irresistible" and that she is! I'll be posting more information about the Norwegian Pearl, shortly.

FYI: The Devil (and YOU) Wear Prada Contest is Now Closed: The Devil (and You) Wear Prada Contest ended December 31, 2006. We are in the process of reviewing hundreds of awesome entries, and will let you know who the winner are shortly. Five people will receive more than $1,000 worth of ultra-luxe products including some of the beauty products and colors used by makeup artists in the film: The Devil Wears Prada, from Benefit, Dior, and Z. Bigatti. If you missed this contest, Subscribe to our free, bi-monthly Enews and our Advice Sisters Forums , and be among the first to learn about our next contest!

I have added the first Advice Sisters® "Double-Take" Wedding Q&A that I've written since Advice Sister Jessica died. Check it out on http://www.advicesisters.net/ I'll soon be adding the first "What Works" Beauty, Cosmetics & Fashion Review Column of 2007. It will be a double-issue featuring the latest skin and body-care products, and romantic gifts (Valentine's Day is coming) to make the start of 2007, beautiful and beat the Winter Blues. The What Works Archives" has literally thousands of reviews and links to beauty and fashion-related items you may have missed over the years.

Also in December, I also posted a new article -- one that I hope will help make our world just a little nicer. If you got a cell phone, MP3 player, or another electronic device during the holidays you must read The Advice Sisters Etiquette for Portable Devices It will give you the lowdown on using these little wonders without driving everyone around you, crazy!

My sister, Jessica Blackman Freedman, aka. "Advice Sister Jessica," loved New Years, as did I. Each year we would make plans for a full-packed celebration weekend, filled with love, happiness, and optimism for the future. After her death, I realized that I couldn't re-create this feeling with anyone else ever again, but I am trying to create new traditions. This year, as I've done the past few years, I celebrated the New Year quietly with my husband and some dear friends. Alas, my 16+ year old cat (*we adopted her 14 years ago and she was at least 2 then), was sick and possibly, dying. On New Years day my husband and I rushed home from our festivities to spend the better part of the day in an emergency room where we discovered our beloved cat had a ruptured anal duct. The cat is miserable, but hanging in there.

One of my new years resolutions (one that I intend to do my best to honor) is to look at the bright side of whatever life hands me. As songester Burl Ives used to say: "watch the donut, not the hole." I figure if we started the year off with something this disgusting, the rest of the year has got to be an improvement. I hope your New Years has started off better than mine, and keeps on the upswing! love, success & happiness to you all Alison Blackman Dunham aka. "Advice Sister Alison"