Weekly Moment of #Gratitude - Thanksgiving Edition #WhyImGrateful

It seemed appropriate that this week's 'Weekly Moment of Gratitude' be posted on Thanksgiving Day!

What I am grateful for:

Ƹ̵̡Ӝ̵̨̄Ʒ - Just Being Here! -  Last year in October I began a Medical Roller-Coaster that I'm still sorting through. But considering 2012 started with a Specialist telling me to 'get my affairs in order', I'm fundamentally grateful just to have been able to wake up and have the gift of this day. This very day. The right here, the right now.

Ƹ̵̡Ӝ̵̨̄Ʒ - A Home Cooked Meal! - After a full year in and out of hospitals for month long stays, I am happy to be eating a home cooked meal that I can actually stomach!

Ƹ̵̡Ӝ̵̨̄Ʒ - My Home - With so many in the North East devasted by the Hurricane, I'm grateful for the roof over my head!

Ƹ̵̡Ӝ̵̨̄Ʒ - My Blogging Blessings! - Despite the uphill battle that this past year has been for me on a personal (as well as physical, emotional and spiritual) level, blogging has brought many wonderful blessings and many wonderful people into my life and for that I find myself feeling profoundly blessed and grateful. For all the brands both long term brands who have been with us since the begining, and for newer brands I have had the chance to collaborate with this year, I am grateful! (Special Shout Out to Britax, Duane Reade, Mami Innovative Media and Collective Bias for the wonderful opportunities working with you has presented me with!) And for all the wonderful blogging conferences I had the opportunity to attend, and learn and grow as a blogger (BlogHer, Niche Mommy, and the Fashion Forward Conference!)

Ƹ̵̡Ӝ̵̨̄Ʒ - My Family - They say hospital stays and prison sentences show you who your friends are, so to the friends and family who have shown me so much love and support through this incredibly difficult year, Thank You!

Ƹ̵̡Ӝ̵̨̄Ʒ - Ascending Butterfly - I'm grateful for YOU butterflies! I never thought my simple love of butterflies and seeking inspiration in the day to day would grow into such a large community. And for readers who emailed me, and sent me messages of support via our social media channels during my hospital stay I wanted to thank you all again for your kindness and support!

What are YOU most grateful for this week Butterfly?

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What are you grateful for today? I'd love for you to write in and share what you are grateful for this week. The more you say it, the more you speak it, and the more you live in gratitude, the more you will find reasons to be grateful for, and the more reasons that the universe will send you to be grateful for. So join me on this journey of gratitude and inspiration. And you can post here daily (even though my list will be posted weekly).

Remember, attitude really does determine altitude.

It is OK to *Re-Tweet* the link to this post and You can find me on Twitter here (@Tracy_Iglesias) Twitter love: re*tweet by copying and pasting the following into your update field at Twitter:

OK to RT: @Tracy_Iglesias This Week's 'Moment of Gratitude' and Active Giveaways!  - http://tiny.cc/n4Thx

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Giveaways!

Ƹ̵̡Ӝ̵̨̄Ʒ ENDING SOON: Purex with Oxi and Zout Stain Remover! I can't give you Laundry Service, but I can give you a Free Product Coupon {#Giveaway}

Ƹ̵̡Ӝ̵̨̄Ʒ Super Cute Overload:  Win a Gund BOO and a mini BOO too! {@Rafflecopter #Giveaway}

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Gratitude Journal Reco:

For those of you who are interested in keeping a gratitude journal this year, here is my recommendation and where to purchase it:

Make this Your Best Day ever, Bless and Be Blessed!

HAPPY THANKSGIVING BUTTERFLIES!

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FTC Disclosure: This is a sponsored post, I am a Britax Latina Advisory Board Member, Digital Hispanic Outreach Blogger Brand Ambassador via Mami Innovative Media. Being an Ambassador comes with additional incentives, however all opinions expressed herein are 100% my own. Journal Recommendation uses an Amazon Affiliate Link. Questions about our Disclosure? Please visit: http://www.ascendingbutterfly.com/p/disclosure-policy.html

{Bump} Top 10 Family Friendly NYC Destinations + Live Tweets during #BlogHer12

Today is day one of BlogHer and while I'll be live blogging FOR BlogHer, I'm not entirely sure when my blogs will go live on their site, as soon as I know, I'll post the URL!

So in the meantime, I'm bumping Monday's post as you guys have given me great feedback on the Top 10 Family Friendly Destinations in New York City Post!

For those of you who mentioned that you can't make it to BlogHer this time but are planning a trip to NYC, feel free to email me and I'd be happy to send over additional recommendations that did not make this list!

I will be tweeting during the day and trying to recap my experiences in those 140 characters or less digital soundbites otherwise known as 'tweets', be sure you are following us at both accounts @Tracy_Iglesias AND @Ascending1 to stay up to date on BlogHer 2012!

Happy Thursday Butterfly!

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FTC Disclosure: This is NOT a sponsored post!

Beauty SOS! Sending out a Beauty Bat Signal to #windowstyle

I can finally announce that I am attending BlogHer 2012 this year! Because of my medical nightmare that started last year I was unable to attend BlogHer 2011 in San Diego, and this year I didn't have time to do any outreaches for conference sponsorship because I spent so much of this year in the hospital. Being in the hospital did have one benefit, I had a lot of time to read (well between exploratory surgeries and high doses of super intense medications, LOL), and during my nightly reading online one night, I found out that BlogHer needed Volunteers and a light bulb went off! With medical expenses I would not have been able to purchase a ticket to BlogHer this year. So I applied to volunteer. And thankfully, I was selected. I will be 'earning' my seat which I'm grateful for and very proud of! And I have also been asked to Live Blog during BlogHer Panels FOR BlogHer, not just as an attendee! WOWZERS + AWESOMESAUCE = YAY ME!

I am totally excited, but also incredibly nervous. I don't get to 'hide' this time behind my laptop, camera or portable device, I will be meeting panelists and attendees as a Microphone Wrangler, and I will actually have to come out of my shell. Not so easy! All eyes on me has never been something I was totally comfortable with. (Yes I do get the irony of that statement, but I didn't really begin blogging to 'live my life out loud', it just sort of happened throughout the years!)

Like many bloggers, as the day swiftly approaches, I have been raiding all my closets in hopes that I'd find something *perfect* to wear. As if some magical unicorn would place some perfect 'power outfit' in my closet for me that would fit to a tee!

My research on ideas on what to wear to BlogHer did turn up an amazing find! I found a post on the Windows Experience Blog that caught my eye - BlogHer Attendees: Win A $1500 Style Makeover from Windows #sweepstakes!

What it boils down to? I'm glad you asked, it's my job in this post to explain why I deserve a style makeover and what I’d like my new re-imagined look to be like, and so I thought I'd do it in pictures!

I started my new year here:

I was told I was on 'borrowed time' and would soon end up here:

Several exploratory surgeries later (with me actually waking up during one of them) we discovered I had been given a mis-diagnosis originally (you can read more about my medical nightmare here: http://www.ascendingbutterfly.com/2012/01/open-letter-to-new-presbyterian.html):

I have been unable to resume the workout routine that was really working for me in 2010 and early 2011 (I had lost over 26 pounds and 3 dress sizes it was hard work and I was SO happy). But this year with multiple surgeries I was told to take it easy, so this year I blew up like a:

I'm at a major crossroads (personally and professionally) and after starting my year thinking that it would be my last, I have a new lease on life and I want my outside to reflect my inside! Here is a vision board of what I imagine I could be, of what I want my makeover to look like:

So far this medical nightmare robbed me of both New Year's AND my birthday this year and I refuse to let it rob me of anything else! As far as I'm concerned, this BlogHer isn't just another conference, it's 'carpe blogem' for me, I plan to seize the day, the conference and my blog! I figure if I'm going to invest my time in making my blog better, shouldn't I invest the same amount of time in making myself better?

Emotionally I'm still trying to piece this year together, it's been much like Tornado, but slowly and surely I am getting the pieces together and my outside should look like as empowered as I feel on the inside. Ascending Butterfly's mission statement is a simple one: To seek and share the best sources of inspiration out there. This year I want to be inspired. The only way I can continue to inspire and empower others is by empowering myself, this makeover would be the first major step toward that goal.

If you'd like to see your favorite butterfly blogger go from Chrysalis to Butterfly, please send a quick tweet to @kristinalibby with the hashtag #windowstyle

Here is a sample tweet:

@kristinalibby Pls pick @Ascending1 to go from Chrysalis to #Butterfly during #BlogHer12 with a #windowstyle #Makeover http://ow.ly/ctAO9

If you voted, please be sure to come back and post the link to your tweet on this post!

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FTC Disclosure: In writing this post, I’m entering the Microsoft Windows Style Makeover Sweepstakes for a chance to win a head to toe makeover. No monetary compensation has been received for sharing this information. All opinions are 100% my own.

My blog is like the flowers in my social media garden -

And I water it with Conferences so it can grow up big and strong! I've not only attended, but managed, several internet industry conferences in the past 10 years, and before there were conferences geared specifically toward bloggers I was running conferences & trade shows, in a wide variety of industries including Finance and Internet, I would attend PC World and Mac World, I ran my own IRL group for the NYC chapter of the Association of Internet Professionals, at it's early stages the discoveries happening in wireless were sometimes out pacing the developments on many desktops. Despite having spent half a lifetime producing conferences myself, staffing busy exhibitor booths or enlisting the absolute cream of the crop in the industry as keynote speakers, I have somehow managed to NOT tire of conferences. I somehow feed off their frenetic and frantic pace.

From the moment we arrive at the airport and are in a sea of fellow conference attendees trying to get through to the gate so we can all just dump our bags and sit for a moment. Then begin light banter back and forth, about sessions and panels we absolutely can't miss, and what time we plan to meet for break and what exhibitor booth we want to check out during the break. It's a flurry of activities from begining to end. Since I started blogging, I've made it my vow to attend at least ONE blogging conference per year. Preferably a different one each time until I've tried them all. Last Year, I attended the Most well known blogging conference in the space, BlogHer. I greatly enjoyed it. So this year when the opportunity presented itself for me to attend the BlogWorld East New Media Conference and Expo, I jumped right on that as a Media Partner and hosted a Twitter Party to draw east coast bloggers to the event.

When it ended, I thought I was done for the summer in terms of conferences and would shift gears to Fashion Week.

I nearly forgot that there is another great conference coming SOON! It's Blogalicious Weekend 2011. A conference that much like BlogWorld earlier this summer, I haven't yet tried out before! And not just any conference, but one geared especially towards bloggers of color,  who want to push their blog and their brand as far as it can go. They are offering practical advice from the standpoint of bloggers who have been there and achieved 'THAT", yes I mean YOU and YOUR specific THAT. Whether your 'that' is learning more engaging writing to keep traffic flowing and steadily growing, or if your THAT is monetization then you can sit in on a panel that will teach you to turn your blog into a revenue stream!

I for one seek out ways to both inspire others and be inspired. Conferences always provide the opportunity to not only learn from the pros, but meet them, ask them questions that pertain to my particular situation and what their advice and suggestions would be. There are times when you learn more listening to the lunchtime break conversation of your fellow bloggers than what you learned in a session you sat it in and that's OK, that's what makes each experience so unique and so valuable. So make friends with fellow bloggers, and later in the day have a poolside mixer at the hotel  where you all can swap out the notes you took from each session and let the other person copy them who missed that session, and you copy notes from a session you missed, and share a bottle of wine and make it fun! or if it's a warm day, how about ice cream instead?

Are any of my Butterflies heading to Blogalicious Weekend this year? if you are, and you are driving up from NYC, please let me know! Would love to arrive with a Bloggie Buddy!

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FTC Disclosure: This is NOT a sponsored Post. However it does put me in the running to win a full conference pass to Blogalicious Weekend courtesy of Latina Bloggers Connect. Should I be one of the four lucky winners selected. Writing about the conferences does NOT increase my odds. The winner will be selected at random.