BritMums Live Is Tomorrow- Yippee!

Calm down dears its Britmums Live tomorrow.

I am looking forward to seeing most of you there, and hopefully some of you will even pop along for the pre-meet up. 

The Annual Meet Up has gotten so big now we've had to move across the road to All Bar One, right opposite its previous place ofStarbucks, at the end of Chiswell Street. We will be there from around 12.30, so pop in and say hi (and for the teetotal amongst you, its OK they serve coffee and tea, we're not going to get you drunk by force. Unless you ask us to).

Here's how you get from Moorgate tube to the event and to the Brewery (*if you click it it gets bigger):

Here is what All Bar One looks like:

Its on City Road, or Frinsbury Pavement as its also called. Its opposite Starbucks and Natwest bank, and there are traffic crossings right outside. There, even I can find that, and I currently need a sat nav to find my way home from the local shops. 

For those asking, mine's a Gin and Tonic. Hic.

To the event itself, I am so excited. I don't get to be Claire again very often, I am her indoors who gets a shrug unless proffering food or beer, and Mum (or MUMMMMMYYYYY! Eddie is annoying me!), so going to Britmums is an excuse to have adult conversations with people who don't glaze over when I chat about Blogging.

I have my business cards ready (designed by Mini- that's how easy Moo Cards are to make), I have my bag packed and my clothes picked (no dresses this year, unless I can attach myself to the Coca Cola lot and procure a free posh lunch), and my hair dyed to not scare you all with my grey.

Come find me, I am not scary and don't rant in public about anything other than the Tories or UKIP (best not to mention them actually), I will be wearing dark jeans, a black sequin top and a funky kimono jacket thing which is a total Chinese rip off of Zara (shhhh).

Have fun, take a deep breath, and enjoy it. You will get so much from this weekend whether you've been before or not.

See you there guys x

Britmums Live- Like I Wouldn't Come Along!

This June is the annual Blog version of the holy grail of Conferences, Britmums Live at The Brewery, and as longterm readers know I've been going since the very start (as well as the two earlier versions under a different name). I even came along to the 2009 Zoo Meet Up.

I wasn't sure I was going to come along this year. After all, I'm ancient, I can't and wont learn HTML or SEO or anything else that seems more important than actual blogging these days. 

However, I did have second thoughts when some very lovely mates told me I should come along and they would miss me if I didn't. 

That's why I'm happy to announce I will indeed be there, and all thanks to the lovely people at Harper Collins.

Harper Collins will be linking up both with us here at Lazy Girl's Life, and we'll be bringing you competitions and reviews (or rather the Brats will at their Youtube Takeover channel) at Family Panel Reviews too.



We love Harper Collins books in this house so its certainly a great partnership. You can sign up at my sponsor badge top left.





I am going to join in with the Meet and Greet, although I'm sure most people will know me by now, but there are so many new faces excited about Britmums and their first year maybe there are some new people to meet too.


Here is me:

This is me with the long suffering, long written about Elder, my other half of some 14 years (I know, 14 years!) 

I blog here at Lazy Girl's Life, at Lazy Girl Cooks and I'm Chief at Family Panel too. Well, I say Chief but most folks want to work with the Brats these days. So it can only be a matter of months before they nick the whole thing.

I am a Twitter user, and have been almost as long as I've been blogging (I've done that since 2006!). You can find me @TheLazyGirlBlog , and at Facebook too. But I don't do much there to be fair, its more for my mates and for buying too many records on Facebook selling sites.

I also love Instagram. I'm addicted actually. I post all sorts on there- stuff I cook, stuff I love, stuff of the Brats not seen on my blog, I always have a camera in my hand. 

*What I look like:

Well, I have red hair (totally thanks to Live Colour XXL, not down to genetics), cos if I don't it has gray and I look well old. I have green eyes. I'm pretty tall I suppose. 

I have not a clue what I'm wearing on the day, but it will probably be jeans and not the stupid shoe boots I wore until I got to the cafe last year, or the red shoes that I hadn't realised how slippery they were until I slipped in a puddle before the BiBs and thus everyone thought I was drunk, when I actually wasn't. 
I don't drink very much at all. I prefer Cake. 

I will be wearing my purple specs though. I will also probably have my phone in one hand, Instagramming everything, and my actual proper camera in the other, whilst balancing my business cards and looking for peeps I know.

*What are you looking forward to most?

Oh tough one! There are some brilliant speakers this year (as ever), a proper eclectic mixture of 'slebs, and the Old Firm of Blogging. I am most looking forward to Mel's words of joy and wisdom (the lady who stopped me from making this blog into a twee nondescript bore fest and told me not to follow everyone else's expectations but to blog how I wanted), I want to go give Chelsea a big hug (as we barely had chance last year). I want to swap gossip and intrigue and Breast feeding love (sorry Mumsnet- boobies rock whether we are being feminist with them or feeding a baby) with Liska, and generally want to meet some great people, as I do every year.

*Stuff in general:

Well, I'm sarcastic, shit with names (I shall call you sweetheart, babe, darling or doll. I am crap at names, blog or otherwise. I'm not rude, I just have appalling memory down to the headaches I get), I won't look over your shoulder for someone better to talk to, I will stalk 'slebs in a fan girl way, I will crush on how immaculate Susanna and Jen always look (they never look frazzled despite organising a behemoth of a conference every year- how? how?). I will love you if you talk music (I love vinyl), don't ask me about SEO (I know nix) but you can ask me a brief history of the blog world as we know it (copyright). 

So, come say hi!

I may be doing the cafe pre-meet up, but after seeing Annie and pals having a boozy time across the road last year, I may just join you. I may actually go and grab some pie and mash from Arments first (so I can Facebook a pc and annoy Elder), so stay tuned.


Thank you so much Harper Collins!

Say you in June guys x


(Oh and if you'd like to nominate me for Keynote speech feel free!)

The Annual "I Went to Britmums Live" Post- 2013 Edition

Wow guys!

I have to say, I have been to around 5 conferences over the years I've been blogging (at the first ever Britmums meet up at London Zoo, I only had one blog), from Cybermummy, to Blog Camp and then to Britmums Live. However, I have never, ever known one to be so, well, emotional.

I cried so much Saturday, I gave myself a stonking headache. I cried my darn make up off. (Apologies if I scared anyone).

I want to say though, it was OK to cry. It was what so many of us needed. Friend's of the never forgotten Kerry and Matilda-Mae. Those who had met them, those who had merely heard about their passing and felt empathy, emotion and feeling for their families.

The strength of support over the weekend, well, I do say sometimes that blogging can be a bit of a mindfield, friendship and angry moments wise, but not this weekend. We hugged, we laughed at certain bits. We were there for every single one of each other.

I have a few thank you's:

The Pre-Conference "What the Feck Do I Wear/Do/Bring?" Post

Yippee! At this time tomorrow, Britmums (and a few Dads) will be on the doorstep of The Brewery, Chiswell Street, for the first Britmums Live, ever.


Now, me being an old timer (cough) in the blogging sense (I'm only 30, so definitely only in the blogging sense), I have been to a few of these meets and conferences before. In fact, it was my third Blogversary on the 19th at this address, but all together I've blogged since 2006.


Every year, I've done a countdown type post, its a bit later than usual this year but then my brain has decided to fail me the last few months (hence I'm off to a Neurologist next week to find out why, finally).


So, here we have the "What The Feck Do I" post:

The Extremely Nosy Britmums Questionnaire

Not content with the Meet and Greet, this year with a new name and two whole days of blogging related excitement, there is a new Meme linky wotnot doing the rounds- The Extremely Nosy Britmums Questionnaire. 

Britmums Live Meet and Greet- This Is Moi

Yep, that's right, I'm going to Britmums Live (bagsy first place in the queue for a chat with Ruby Wax), thanks to my lovely sponsors The Book Club UK (go check out their great range of children's books), so I'm joining in once again with the yearly Meet and Greet.