Trip to LA: Arrival

The Farmer's Daughter Hotel

I have to apologize for the lack of blog posts this week! I have been away in Los Angeles for West Week at the Pacific Design Center. So much was packed into two days, and I have so much to tell you!

I drove down from Sacramento with a bit of nervous anticipation...sort of similar to how I felt when I drove down for my high school reunion only a few weeks before. After all, I would be meeting a passel of blogger friends in person for the very first time. What would they be like? Would they be just like how I imagined from their blog persona's? I had been corresponding with many of them before my trip to make plans to meet up.

Christain May of Maison 21, Megan Arquette of Beach Bungalow 8, Patricia Shackelford of Mrs. Blandings, Ronda Carmen of All the Best, Eddie and Jaithan from the Eddie Ross blog, Lisa Borgnes Giramonti from A Bloomsbury Life, Brooke from Velvet and Linen , the Style Curator and Scot from Tartanscot were all there, not to mention all of the design and media stars (Here a name, there a name....just dropping everywhere!) . I have to tell you, it felt as if we had really already met and known each other. It has seemed that way for all of the great bloggers I have met before. Chalk it up to one of the many benefits of blogging!

I have so many pictures for you. First, let's start with checking into the hotel where I stayed: The Farmer's Daughter Hotel. It is so called because it is right across the street from the old Los Angeles Farmer's Market. I remember going there as a kid and being fascinated by the taffy pulling machines. It was always such a treat. It is so different now with major shopping like venues like the Grove popping up in next door in an area that was once old bungalows.

Check-in

I had looked at hotels close to the PDC and The Farmer's Daughter seemed fun and in the right "price range" pour moi. I totally got a kick out of it! It was very "urban farm " with concrete floors and reclaimed lumber. Rustic contemporary with a splash of color.

Lobby

It has a very relaxing vibe as soon as you walk in the door. It seemed as if I had teleported to the Napa Valley wine country. It was fun and low key. Quite perfect for families.

Patio between the hotel and Tart restaurant

The Farmer's Daughter goes all out to provide a down home feel. Lemonade and BBQ potato chips are available in the Lobby anytime. There was wine and cheese service in the evening. It shares a patio with the Tart restaurant which was so cute! And generous to boot. They share their recipes online for things like Fried Green Tomatoes and Bourbon Berry Cobbler. They also have their own blog HERE.

Lemonade in the Lobby

I got to relive my childhood memories when Christian from Maison 21 and I walked over to the Farmer's Market for a glass of wine before he whisked me off to the first event of the week: the William Sonoma Home party for Margaret Russell of Elle Decor.

More on that next time!

Stop Copying Me!

I am having a bit of a dilemma here, and I'd like to ask for your input.

I experienced a bit of a traffic spike the last couple of days, which was a wonderful surprise! Thank you to all of you who come to read katiedid!

I was curious to know if there had been a link to my site that was directing a bit more traffic my way so I could thank whoever had been so nice.

Which brings me to a couple of questions. Technorati used to provide the answers, but doesn't seem to give as much information as it used to.

So I put the question out there to Google. Where else might I check who had linked to the katiedid blog? Up came information directing me to Copyscape. This is a handy little site that lets you know if there are any websites out there lifting copy from your blog or website.

My original quest had been to find out if there had been a helpful link to my blog, but I was curious about Copyscape, so I tried it out. Lo and behold, I found a site that is lifting all of my blog posts directly from my site, pictures and all. They do refer everyone back to my site as the original source, so at first I thought, just more exposure, right? But then, I realized, there is a LARGE amount of advertising on this site. So in essence, I am exerting a huge amount of effort to line someone else's pockets! Sooooo not right!!!

But is it considered plagiarism, since they list katiedid as the source?

Has anyone else experienced this? There are other design bloggers who have their hard work posted on this site and they may not know about it. I certainly didn't!( I will be letting these bloggers know, believe me!) The site even lists my blog in their sidebar as a "news source".

So what does one do? Copyscape does provide quite a bit of advice, but the website in question is owned by someone who has 288 other domains....so not likely to respond to my letter to "quit it".

It just occurred to me that since it appears this site automatically uploads all of my blog posts, THIS one will show up too.

So Mr. Copycat...you know who you are....STOP COPYING ME!

Anyone who has any information about this sort of thing, I would love to hear it!! Thanks all!