Posted Tuesday, June 05, 2007 1:59 PM
by wielding a hammer! No, no, we didn't build an alter, a chuppah, or any other wedding items, but rather, a house for Habitat for Humanity
On Saturday, June 2, 2007, a team of volunteers from The Knot's Omaha Office worked on a build site for Habitat for Humanity of Omaha.
Working side by side with other volunteers, and current and future Habitat homeowners, the team erected all of the pre-fabricated exterior and interior walls of a home--in less than 5 hours!
Following are photos from the day’s activities. Enjoy the pics!
The Knottie AM Crew:
The afternoon crew:
A work in progress:
And finally, the volunteers pose in front of the finished product:
Feeling inspired? Want a chance to pound a few nails of your own (a great stress reliever)? Visit Habitat for Humanity to find out about projects in your area. Have you volunteered for Habitat in the past? If so, share some of the details of your experience below so future volunteers know exactly what their in store for.
Posted Tuesday, May 29, 2007 1:05 PM
We're looking for a few good women (and men of course), to serve as volunteer moderators for our message boards. Like spending time on the boards already? Want to lend a helping hand? Are you able to be supportive while being objective? Volunteering might be for you.
We're hoping to find a volunteer for every board, but we only need a few to get our program rolling. Don't worry; we're not trying to change the climate of the message boards to any great degree. We know and love that our community is diverse, opinionated, and has a great sense of humor (we've seen and laughed at all your jokes about us!).
The main responsibility of the moderators will be to control spam and advertising, but also to bring issues of trolling and harassment to our attention quickly, so the boards can be a fun and informative environment for everyone.
Think you have what it takes?
In order to become a volunteer moderator, you must:
*Be an experienced poster. Nope, you don't need all the blue balls (your words, not mine), but you do need to be a regular poster who spends a few hours on the boards each week.
*Have a strong interest in the board you want to moderate. Don't live in Seattle? We probably won't make you the Seattle board moderator.
*Plan to stick around. We'll need the volunteers to commit to a few hours a week of reading and posting.
*Be accepting of other's beliefs -- even when they're seriously wrong.
Do you fit the bill?
If so, answer the questions below and email your replies (and your username) to moderators@theknot.com
1. How long have you been active in community?
2. What board or boards are your favorites? Would you be willing to moderate any of these boards?
3. How often do you visit the boards and about how much time do you spend per visit?
4. Describe how you are already fulfilling a leadership role on your favorite board.
5. What is the best way to handle disagreements on the boards?
6. How would you like to see The Knot/The Nest respond when there's a problem?
We greatly appreciate each and every application we get, but might not be able to respond to all of them. If we feel you'll make a good moderator, we'll be in touch.
Posted Monday, April 23, 2007 4:40 PM
This week I'm using my blog post to promote a special Knottie GTG that occurred last month in, of all places, Jackson, Michigan. Not familiar? Neither was I, but I've recently heard it is home to one Knottie and the base of a Knottie GTG involving 13 Knotties who met on the Advice from Brides message board. Here's the story, straight from them:
"This past March, thirteen women from thirteen different states met each other, most for the first time. No introductions were required, however. They all knew each other from the Knot message board, Advice From Brides (AFB). They recognized faces from pictures, knew each other's full names, in addition to husbands', fiances' and pets' names. They knew who to expect would be the size of a garden gnome, and who would tower over the rest like an Amazon woman. Bear hugs and even breast grabs were used as greetings in place of handshakes. As one of the knotties said, "(They're) like my sisters from another mother!"
Some of the ladies of AFB had met in smaller groups or in one-on-one scenarios. But this was the first time so many had been in one place at the same time. One of the knotties had experienced a broken engagement the summer before, and all of the AFB board was there to comfort her. She let it slip that she had already purchased the wedding wine, and before she knew it, she was flooded with offers to invade her house in Michigan, drink her wine, dance suggestively to booty music in her living room and sing karaoke with the greatest rendition of Gin & Juice ever performed. The thirteen AFBers made good on all counts."
Sounds (and looks) like a good time was had by all. The only thing missing? My invite!
Posted by
Knot Jen
Filed under: GTG, AFB
Posted Tuesday, April 10, 2007 9:42 PM
Once again my work life and real life collide. You see, this weekend I'm attending a bridal shower for my friend Rebecca, whose wedding I'm in on Memorial Day weekend. After reading a lot of message board posts on bridal showers, I've started to feel like I'm slacking in the bridesmaid department. First, I had zero part in planning this shower. Rebecca's FSIL (also a BM) and her FMIL planned it together, and all I did was RSVP to the very nice invitation they sent. Is that bad? Should I have offered to help? I have a feeling the answer to both of those is yes, but in my defense, I have planned a really good Cinco de Mayo Bachelorette party for her in a few weeks—and by "planned" I mean "made a couple of reservations and sent an evite." So much work on my part, lol.
The other slacker thing I've done is procrastinated on buying the present. It's Tuesday, the shower is Saturday. I've pretty much passed the timeframe needed for a very creative, thoughtful, or well planned gift, and am now turning towards the registry. Yes, I know they registered because they want those things, but it seems a little too impersonal for me to give my very good friend a muffin tin!
Is it lame to just get something off the registry for someone you're good friends with? Looking on the boards I saw a lot of your BM's went in on a great gift together. Nest Katie's BMs went in together and got her and her husband a voucher for a nice dinner on their honeymoon. Such a great idea right? Too bad I’m a slacker and it's too late for poor Rebecca, no cool gift for her.
So, please, please, give me some ideas before I end up buying the mini-muffin tin, a salt shaker, a salad plate, and calling it a day. What was your best shower present? What did you get from your BMs? Any and all suggestions are greatly appreciated, but nothing too time consuming...
Posted Wednesday, March 21, 2007 10:37 PM
I know some of you Knotties and Nesties are HTML mavens. I've seen your genius on display in your beautiful bios--perfect formatting, multicolored borders, dozens of pictures. I, however, am not so savvy and never got around to building a bio. The thought of entering all those "a hrefs" and "img scr" in the tiny bio field was just too daunting, and the pictures I tried to upload would always be red X's no matter how many times I reviewed my links. I even tried to use one of the online bio building templates but was overwhelmed by choosing a background that matched my inner border color, that matched the outer border, that didn't compete with the picture border...ahhhh!
Lucky for me, we just launched a new feature that lets you update your bio in a much more user friendly fashion. And, have you checked out your My Knot or My Nest profile page? Your bio is right there. You can view it full screen or be a little more discreet (boss walking by?) and keep it in the pane. To edit in the new location, you just double click on the page. Yes, it really is that easy. There are even helpful icons that let you add links and pictures without inserting any of your own HTML code. If you're already blogging, it's the same edit box you have on your new blog and trust me; it's a lot better than our old, tiny bio field.
So, just to prove how easy the new bio building process is, I'm going to give it a try myself. I'm getting a new digital camera for my birthday this Sunday (shameless plug for "Happy Birthday" comments) and will take some pics to add to my bio, and of course to my photo gallery. Maybe I'll even chronicle a day in the life of Knot Jen for you...imagine such images as Knot Jen at her computer banning trolls, Knot Jen buying 3rd Diet Coke from vending machine, Knot Jen praying that message boards stop giving errors...I bet you can't wait!
Posted by
Knot Jen
Filed under: edit, HTML, bio
Posted Thursday, March 15, 2007 11:33 PM
I know, I know, you've been waiting for Amy & Raul to be replaced in our "Upcoming Weddings" section for some time. I mean, they've been married for 20 days already!
Sadly, I've run out of couples who'd like to be featured. So, if you want to be in our "Upcoming Weddings" section and possibly in our Knot Newsletter, leave me a comment with a link to your web page (yep, I'm fishing for comments), or send an email to messageboards@theknot.com with your wedding date in the subject line. And, make sure your page has a clear picture of the two of you. No pic means no feature :(
Posted Wednesday, February 28, 2007 3:48 PM
My name is Jennifer and I'm a Married Life addict. Wait, make that Fashion & Beauty. And Health & Fitness. And What's for Dinner. And Bridal Party. And even Money Matters. That's right, I'm finally admitting I've become a little obsessed with the message boards.
You see, it's my job to read the boards and read them I do. I make sure to hit all my faves at least a couple of times during the day and rotate a few other ones in and out. It's funny because I feel like I "know" you guys, even though I'm just a lurker. More often than not, I want to jump in with posts, but I know that once I start, I'll never be able to stop! And, I feel like if I open the door to posting, I'll be bombarded with questions on why our servers aren't faster, lol.
Luckily, my friends are fascinated by what I do, so my obsession isn't hurting my social life. When they share work stories straight from "The Office", I tell them about the "Baby Rater" troll on Parenting. When they ask me a question, my answer typically begins "Well, on the message boards..." This way I get to mask my addiction as "work" stories rather than coming out and admitting I have a problem.
You guys also make me a hit with my coworkers. Whenever there is a breaking news story, I read it on The Nest long before anyone else in the office has had a moment to check out CNN (or perezhilton, depending on the news). They're always impressed at how quickly you all deliver the scoop.
Now that I've confessed, you have to share, do you also suffer from Knot or Nest addiction?
Posted Thursday, February 22, 2007 3:14 PM
Hi Knotties! Nope, this isn't the most pressing issue I'm facing (I promise, I'm not that vapid), but it is my most imperative wedding related dilemma. See, I'm not getting married anytime soon, but I am going to be a bridesmaid for the first time in May! My friend Rebecca is getting married to a great guy after almost 7 years of dating. They're college sweethearts who lived in my freshman dorm and we now all dwell in NYC.
I was really excited when Rebecca asked me to be in her bridal party and luckily, she picked a gorgeous gown for us to wear. Here's a pic:
Now for the dilemma. When I tried it on the color really washed me out. I looked like I had the flu, and I swear my normally pinkish undertones were transformed to a putrid green. I feel vain worrying about it, especially since it's not my wedding, but I don't want to ruin the pictures or look like I'm close to vomiting. So, I was thinking of getting a spray tan (I avoid the sun like Britney avoids rehab). Have you ever done it before? Did it look orange? And most importantly, did it stain? The wedding is indoors so sweat shouldn't be a factor. My biggest worry is that it will look unnatural or even worse, end up all over my dress. I mean, I know stars do the spray tan thing before big events (hello Charlize at the Oscars a few years ago) but I feel like their spray tan might be a little better than the one I'd get (especially because I'm cheap).
What would you do? I'm sure some of you Knotties have dealt with unflattering dresses (color or style) before. Tell me your story...