Mighty Summit Post Roundup

I’m working away behind the curtain over here, but here are some of the things attendees have said about the Summit. Ladies, if you attended and posted something you don’t see here, please let me know in comments. I’m starting a collection.


(Photo by Andrea Scher)

Danielle Henderson from Knotty Yarn:

“Slowly (so slowly) over the past few years, I’ve taken small opportunities to believe in myself. To say “yes.” Instead of immediately talking myself out of something, I instead asked myself “What if?” What if you DID apply to that university? What if they DID accept you into that program? What if you got the grants you needed to pay for it? What if you started taking better care of your body instead of lamenting the fact that you never have in the past? What if you said yes and went to that party? What if you got a chance to spend a weekend with 20 incredible women?”


(photo by Amber Blatt)

Meg Keene from A Practical Wedding:

On Money and Self Worth
After spending two plus days hanging out with some of the most accomplished (in a free-wheeling, freelance, creative way) and supportive women I’ve ever met, I’ve been thinking a lot about self-worth. I’ve been thinking about how as women we often undervalue ourselves, our life stories, and what we’re capable of, and that leads to lost potential. We think, “I can’t do that, I can’t dream that big, I’m being selfish to even think about this, I don’t deserve to earn (or have my company earn) that much money, I shouldn’t have delusions of grandeur.” And when this happens, we all lose. Think of all those projects that could have been created, those businesses that could have thrived, that money that could be flowing back into our communities. When we cut ourselves off at the knees we lose all that, our communities lose all that, we all lose.

Mighty Summit: In Gratitude for the Blogosphere

“It was about this movement we’ve created together, as women in the social media space. It was about continuing to shape that into a force to be reckoned with. It was about shaking up the media establishment. Of telling our stories, your stories.”


(photo by Andrea Scher)

Tara Weaver of Tea and Cookies:
Throwing Your Hat Into the Ring
“The ‘no’ we hear should never come from our own lips.”

Andrea Scher from Superhero Designs Blog:

“Most importantly, I learned that women want to help other women achieve their dreams. They really do. No matter what we learned in high school (and later) about being competitive, jealous and believing there wasn’t enough goodness to go around, the truth is that when we can create a culture of community and empowerment around our goals and dreams, women are the first ones to jump in and want to help.”

Erin Loechner of Design for Mankind:

“Consider this my commitment to sharing more of myself with you — right here. My hopes, dreams and fears — and I want you to do the same with me. Let’s hold ourselves accountable in an effort to shape our futures however we may wish. Because after all? We are indeed mighty.”


(Photo by Zan McQuade)

Margaret Stewart of Fountly:

What Women Really Want Dispatch From the Mighty Summit
“Women have always been sources of creative energy in families and society, and we have always been the makers of things. We knitted, we sewed, we cooked, we quilted. We were able to express our care and affection by feeding, clothing, and wrapping people up in our creations. And while we were and are capable of so many other things, both artist and intellectual, we’ve lost something in abandoning these basic creative pursuits. And in fact, we’ve vilified them at some level over the years, making it seem unambitious or wasting your potential to focus energies on the seemingly humble craft of living.”

Mighty Junior Life Lists: Beatrice, age 9
“Inspired by my weekend at The Mighty Summit and my own experience creating a Life List (see right column of my blog), I sat down with my own kids and asked them what they’d put on their list. Here’s the first one, shared with permission by it’s author, 9-year-old Beatrice. I love the way reality and fantasy co-mingle….”


(By Zan McQuade)

Leah from A Girl and a Boy:

“I met Meg, who, if you believe in destiny, was the whole reason this opportunity fell in my lap at all. In case you didn’t catch on yesterday, she and her team of readers at A Practical Wedding are leading the charge in getting my middle-aged tuchus married off (in style!) once and for all. I’m so excited I could puke.”


(photo by Amber Blatt)

Nicole Balch from Making it Lovely:

“We all committed to working on five of our dreams this year. Maggie told us at lunch on the last day that when she set the wheels in motion on her life list, she bought a gold band to commemorate the occasion. She wears it every day along with her wedding ring. We were then each given a gold necklace by lemonade handmade with five small rings on it, representing the five things we will accomplish this year…”


(By Margaret Gould Stewart)

Heather Sphor from The Sphors are Multiplying:

“As I listened to these amazingly accomplished women, I reevaluated the things I wanted to do in my life. More specifically, the order. Sure, I still DO want to prank call the vice president, or find out who Billy Jean’s baby daddy really was. But I have some goals that I have set for myself that I want to complete in the next 365 days.”


(By Zan McQuade)

Karen Walrond of Chookooloonks:

wine! (or, everything you ever wanted to know about wine from someone who doesn’t know jack about wine)
“As far as what you’re looking for in the scent and the taste, Erin tells me you’re simply looking for a scent and taste that pleases you. If you want to, you can look for cranberry-ness or oak-y-ness or insouciant-ness, but really, like art, it’s just about learning what you like, as opposed to Knowing What You’re Supposed to Like. Once I learned this, it was like a weight lifting from my shoulders — when tasting wine, you’re the expert, not the waiter.”

Karen also continued a life list project by taking some portraits while all of us were together:
Photos, Part I

Photos, Part 2

Kelly Wickham of Mocha Momma writes about finally meeting Internet friend Andrea Wishom face to face, and how that led to meeting Oprah face to face. (Yay, Oprah!)

Roxanna Sarmiento of Everyday treats gives a peek into the invitations and “the swag.”

Helen Jane Hearn of HelenJane.com posted a how to on sabering open a bottle of champagne.

Liz Stanley from Say Yes to Hoboken has a “what i wore” segment that you should go see.

Alli Worthington of Mrs. Fussypants posted some videos and photos of the redwoods.

Heather Armstrong of Dooce sings the praises of Maile’s amazing camera bags. (And took a gorgeous photo of our room.)

Laura Mayes of The Queso learned to knit.

Allison Czarnecki from Petit Elefant: Mormon=1, Champagne=0

Amber Blatt of The Amber Show did a great recap of how the weekend unfolded. Here’s Part I and Part II.

Mighty Summit

Last year, after the Broad Summit, the organizers got on the phone to talk about whether we wanted to do it again. We all had a great time, but of course it was a lot of work. Even though the event was a success none of us were sure we wanted to re-up.

We got to talking about why, because it didn’t make much sense, until we realized there had been no real intention behind the Broad Summit. We mostly just wanted to see if we could do it. Personally, I wanted to check “organize a retreat” off my Mighty Life List, provide a fun weekend for girls who have given each other lots of support through the years, and find out whether we could plan something on that scale without losing our shirts in the process (first-year events tend to lose money). Once the event was over, the general feeling among the organizers was sort of, “Check. Did it.”

We realized that if we were going to do the Summit again, we needed a stronger reason. At the time, my new emphasis was on my Mighty Life List — building my site around it, making my living from living my dreams, helping other people start thinking the same way. So we decided to change the name to Mighty Summit, and use the event as a way to encourage attendees to dream bigger.

We wanted to make the concept of goals explicit in the event to make it more meaningful for everyone. Boy did it ever.

This year, we asked attendees to write life lists and made sure everyone had copies of all the lists before they arrived. On the first day, I said that I’d had an amazing outpouring of support from all of you when I first posted my list. Many of you asked how you could help, offered to let me stay with you while I traveled, or to loan me something I needed to make my dreams go.

That experience made me realize how often our grandest dreams are someone else’s day to day life. You want to write a book? I’m a publisher! You want to go on a cruise? I’m the publicity director for a cruise line! At the Summit, we asked everyone to talk to one another about their lists, and see where we could help each other. Everyone got started on the little stuff right away.

Danielle taught Laura to knit.

Helen Jane taught us how to saber open a champagne bottle with a knife. (Holy crap, that is easy, you guys. Margaret made a video, so go watch and try it with a $5 bottle of Cava. You will feel superhuman.)

And lots of us posed for Karen‘s 1,000 portraits project.

On the third day, after we’d had a chance to get to know one another, we did a group meditation on our life lists over lunch. We asked everyone to choose five things they thought they could accomplish in the next year, and choose one area where they needed help.

We asked for little things, like help learning to use our cameras.

And huge things, like help starting foundations.

We had a chance to be vulnerable with each other.

To offer our own talents, and to lift each other up.

We talked about how all boats rise together in the tide, and what we could do to make that tide a little stronger.

As for me, I went into this year wondering if I wanted to do the Mighty Summit at all, and came out of it planning for next year before we’d even hugged everyone goodbye.

I made some great new friends, and learned a little bit about how powerful it can be to ask for help. And now I think it’s time to ask for help from all of you.

I will always love the intimacy of the Summit, but for me the Life List concept is much bigger than 14-room hotel. For a long time, I’ve been wanting a place for all of us to share our lists and help each other cross things off, but I’ve been a little perfectionist about it (imagine!), and needing things “just so” is keeping me from doing anything at all. Here are the three things I’m committing to:

1. Starting a real community.

I want: A place on Facebook where we can all start talking about what’s going on with our lists. What’s on them, what we need help with, how we can find each other geographically and start planning meetups.

I need help with: Advice on the best way to do this. I’m kind of stumbly with Facebook to say the least.

2. Giving everyone a simple way to track their Life Lists.

I want: A Facebook app that would give us an easy way to write our lists, cross things off, and link out to the info we’ve posted online — just like I do with my own list. I have some really specific ideas of how I want it to look and what I want it to do.

I need help with: The contact info for a smart app developer who has done this kind of thing with Facebook before.

3. A space for everyone.

I want: Sometime in the next year or so, I’d like to have a campout/meetup/conference open to everyone where we do the same kinds of things we do at the Summit, but on a larger, more-inclusive scale. The downside will be no free massages, the upside will be that everyone will be there.

I need help with: Getting you there. You should come.

Mighty Closet: Libby Nicholaou, Part II

I can’t wait to give you details about the Summit, but my laptop got rained on this weekend, so while I deal with some technical difficulties, please enjoy this Mighty Closet, which was all queued up and ready to go when the skies opened up on my hard drive.

You guys remember Libby, she’s been around these parts a lot. When we last checked in with her, she was running a local art gallery, then she worked with me for a while before she decided to return to school to study art history. While she waits on her school applications to be accepted, she’s working with SF MoMA and hostessing at one of the best restaurants in town.

Libby’s last Mighty Closet was about a year ago, so I thought we’d do an update. This is also the second post in the L.L.Bean series, so we’ve supplemented Libby’s usual vintage and thrift mix with clothes from the new L.L.Bean Signature Collection, which is inspired by vintage classics from their archives.

This is the kind of thing Libby wears on her day off, for brunches and impromptu reading sessions on the back stairs. She’s very intellectual on her days off.

The llama sweater is a vintage score from No No on Valencia, and the tank is from the Gap.

The plum cords are Stretch Cord Bootcut Pants from L.L.Bean, and her shoes are Sperry Topsiders.

These Harry Potter specs technically don’t have lenses, which is why there’s no ugly reflection in the photos. This fashion choice engenders strong reactions from strangers, who are either amused or disturbed by Libby co-opting the plight of the near sighted. You’re a monster, Libby. You have no idea how my people have suffered.

This is what Libby would wear to a casual dinner. Her skirt is American Apparel, and the shirt is vintage from Painted Bird. Her tights are by Hue, and the “pattern” is her tattoo showing through.

Her beloved vintage kicks are from Buffalo Exchange. I hear they are quite the hit at the parties in the U.S.A.

Her threatening, two-finger ring is from Therapy. And yes, for those of you keeping score, Libby’s entire wardrobe was purchased within about two blocks of her home.

The leather and metal earring was handmade by Libby’s friend, Fatima Flemming.

This is a dress I bought at a vintage shop a while ago, it was tea length and unflattering, but Libby had a vision. She took it and sliced the skirt off. Turns out it’s some sort of space polymer that didn’t even need hemming, and now she wears it out to drinks with friends while I shake my fist at the sky cursing the day I let it go.

These red tights are from Hue too, and the suede shoes are Heeled Penny Loafers from L.L. Bean.

Here’s what Libby wears to a museum event, or to move like a ninja in the dead of night. The pants are L.L.Bean and her shirt is another vintage find from Painted Bird. She bought the belt years ago at a thrift store.

This is a necklace worn as bracelet from that overflowing, rhinestone-heavy accessories shop on Haight Street. Neither one of us can remember the name, probably because it blinds you as you pass.

The awesome riding-inspired boots are from L.L.Bean. They are equestariffic.

Libby’s acrylic earrings are from H and M.

This is my favorite, Libby’s hip to waist ratio will make a grown man weep. The gold poofy skirt is HandM, and this is what Libby wears to work a MoMA event.

The lace scarf is a gift from Libby’s grandma, and isn’t that pretty much the perfect person to give a girl a lace scarf? Thanks, Grandma.

Shoes by Target.

The saucily unbuttoned top is L.L.Bean, and it’s very naughty secretary. Where did those glasses go anyway?

The top is rayon, which makes the collar floppy, so we pinned it up with a sparkly vintage brooch, which also keeps the scarf in place. We are geniuses.

Thanks to the team at L.L.Bean for sponsoring this post, all the L.L.Bean Signature Collection items featured in this post can be found on their site.

http://thirdparty.fmpub.net/placement/348018?fleur_de_sel=%5Btimestamp%5D

Whiskey at a pub in Ireland? Check.

Have whiskey at a pub in Ireland? Check. Lifelist

It’s the best when a life list item kind of falls in your lap, especially one like this. We went to Doheny and Nesbitt’s on recommendation from an Irish friend. As the name suggests, it was as cinematically Irish as a pub gets — by which I mean very drunk. The women on the barstools next to us had just completed some sort of endurance swim, and they were on the group-singing cocktail. I didn’t realize I knew the song until they got to the chorus. Then we joined in, swinging our whiskeys around singing “cockels and mussels, alive, alive, o!” Fantastic.

The Mighty Summit is this weekend, and it’s all about life lists, so I’m committing to crossing five more things off in the next three months. This is a great place to start. Dublin, thanks for making us feel so at home.

Will you join me? What can you cross off in the next three months?

About.me is Your Web Calling Card

My friends Ryan and Tony were part of the team that recently launched a beta for About.me, an online calling card that lets you collect all your identities and content streams. I spent a few minutes making a profile for myself, and I think the concept is smart. Such a simple idea, I can’t believe it doesn’t already exist.

If you’d like your own about.me profile, sign up here to stake your claim, and they’ll send you a note when the service is open to everyone.

Packing Light: Dublin


This is every item of clothing I packed for seven days in Dublin. I’m doing a campaign for L.L.Bean’s Signature Collection and they sent me a giant box of clothes, so I’m wearing a few of those items below. That means you can actually obtain some of these pieces, instead of cursing me when I tell you that everything you love was purchased at a vintage shop in 2001.

L.L.Bean Signature Silk Habutai Dress Polka Dot

For example, this perfectly faded brown dress with polka dots? It’s L.L.Bean’s Silk Habutai Dress, and it’s so Little Orphan Annie. Except it’s made of heavy silk, but who says orphans can’t have nice things? Jerks, that’s who.

Anyway, as I mentioned recently, belts are a challenge for me. I’ve been trying to up my game on that front, so I bought a few from H&M and this is my first attempt. I felt so pulled together, ya’ll. The cardigan I’m belting here is also H&M, but it’s from the men’s section, which is where they keep all the good stuff.

The grey tights are Target, and the magic travel boots are from Argentina. They’ve gotten me through more trips than I can count.

Let’s get a closer look at those blue polka dots:

Hello, little buddies.

This is my travel outfit, hence the action pose. It’s a knit dress I got at a thrift store, worn with an H&M elastic belt and the aforementioned tights and boots. I also wore a grey sweater wrap that I didn’t get a photo of, but you can see it in my New York post from a couple years ago. It doubles as an airplane blanket.

I’m wearing the dress on the way back home too, so I’ll be washing it in the bathtub while I’m here. Airplane germs gross me out. Another reason to do a quick rinse:

This is the dress worn as a top. I’ve cleverly safety pinned the sides to the outside layer of my Express Ultra Skinny Stella jean pockets. You can also use extra large safety pins to do a gathering effect on the sides of your dress, which is slightly more labor intensive, but arguably more effective. There are those boots again. I love you, boots.

The necklace is also H&M, it makes everything a little more current. Unlike these killer sleeves. What’s up 1983? We miss your economy.

I borrowed this sweater from Bryan who got it at Macy’s a few years back. He never wears it, and it’s super soft. His loss. That’s an L.L.Bean Tweed Skirt and army green tights from Target.

The circle scarf is H&M, and I love how easy it is to mess with proportions when you’re wearing it. Also, coziness.

These are my Rudolf Dassler PUMAs, which I adore, so of course they rub away the skin over my Achilles tendon. I’ve been trying to decide whether I strictly need that skin, so I’ve taken to tying them lower. This frees up a lot of extra lace, hence the creative lace tying. I like the way it looks, so I’ve been doing that with all my sneakers now.

This is a packing minimization outfit. We’re revisiting the cardigan, boots, and jeans.

I forget where the shirt came from, but I bought it because I liked the gathering around the neck and cuffs. You have to iron it like crazy though, and I only seem to have time for that when I’m on vacation.

The hat is hand knit, I got it at a thrift store where I get almost all of my hand-knit items. For the record, if someone hand knits you something and you send it to a thrift store? I’m pretty sure you need to go to confession, or sacrifice a goat or something. Or at least learn how to knit things that other people can then throw away — full circle.

I try to pack PJs I can wear as clothes in a pinch, so this is a tank top and cropped sweats from who knows where. I wear the tank under stuff for an extra layer if it’s cold. The comfy pants are nice if I get sick and want to be cozy, or if my flight is delayed and everything I’m wearing is coated in airport goo.

Chic librarian is my preferred look, so this is my favorite outfit for the trip.

These are L.L.Bean’s Cuffed Cropped Pant. They are fantastic. I’d normally wear them with a chunky heel, but we’re walking on cobblestones in the rain here, so these are cheap, destroyable flats from Target.

The cashmere cardigan is from the Alameda Flea Market, the Peter Pan collar top was 99 cents on eBay, and the modernized cat-eye glasses are Dolce and Gabbana. The hair scarf is actually a belt from a polyester ’70s dress I got at a thrift store when I was in high school. Yeah. It’s time to clean out my closet.

Thanks to the team at L.L.Bean Signature Collection for sponsoring this post.
Next time I have a clambake, you are so invited.