Catherine is a mother, writer and recovering academic who recently contributed to Canada’s brain drain by relocating to New York City. She’s the Director of Community and Social Good at Babble, the author of HerBadMother.com and a freelance writer who writes, sometimes, about surviving motherhood, sometimes about surviving womanhood, sometimes about trying to make the world a better place, and more often than not about her belief that bad is, really, the new good. (She really does believe that bad is the new good. She wrote a Manifesto. She’s that committed.)
One of the hottest tickets to get in Toronto this fall is for BlissDom ’11 (it sold out in 45 minutes) and of course, Catherine brought it to Canada from it’s US roots. She approached Barbara Jones a few years ago about throwing a social media conference for women in Canada. We plotted for some months before she said, ‘you know, why don’t we just make this a Blissdom conference?’ I thought that was an awesome idea, and the rest is history 😉
According to Catherine, it is important to have a BlissDom conference in Canada because there’s a large and dynamic community in Canada of women who are deeply engaged with social media, and there hasn’t historically been any place for them to network and build community. There have been social media conferences and events for women in the US since 2005, and those are all great events, but Canadian women want and need, I think, a place where they can approach these conversations as Canadian women.
Tidbits on Catherine:
Favourite place to travel: 1. back home to British Columbia to visit my family. 2. New York City (which will soon become home, so I will have to find a new number 2 ;))
Cannot-live-without gadget: iPhone
Go-to ‘Mom’ attire: When I’m working at home: yoga pants, white t-shirts and Toms shoes. When I’m working out of the offices in New York: not yoga pants
Favourite kid-friendly dinner to make: Mac and cheese
I’m reading: Lev Grossman’s The Magician King
My kids are reading: Eloise
My kid’s birthday party this year will involve: New friends in New York City and a cake shaped like ‘the lady statue’ (Statue of Liberty), in honor of our new home.
In Catherine’s spare time, she practices talking about herself in the third person. She’s getting pretty good at it.
I used to make muffins every couple of days. Somehow, I just stopped. When I was sent this new cookbook, I was inspired – was is the great 1950’s graphics on the cover or the yummy recipes? Not sure. 2 pans of muffins and 3 dozen ‘Wartime’ cookies later, I was hooked. There are awesome food recipes too – not just baking. Anzinger has also provided tips and tricks for keeping a busy family organized and stuffing as much health into quick meals as possible. She even teaches how to enlist other family members to help with the prep. I’ve always wanted a sous chef. And a pool boy. But I digress.
