When Two Old Blog Friends Meet For the Very First Time: Introducing My Buddy Angie Arthur

Here’s the thing: When I started blogging back in 2008, I thought I’d just write a couple of posts every now and again, maybe email a link or two to my friends exercise my writing chops without the restraint of editors and word length or fear that expressing my opinion would hurt my reputation as an objective journalist. Honestly, I hadn’t envisioned this the audience, the accolades, the passion, the vast and wonderful world that is blogging, the MyBrownBaby brand. Especially the camaraderie. But all of this I’ve found and more, and it is the latter the friendship that I’ve enjoyed the most.

For sure, I’d been blogging for only a few weeks when my friend Renee of Cutie Booty Cakes suggested I check out The Mom Bloggers Club, an amazing website that serves up a warm and inviting community for moms who blog. It is there that I met Angie Arthur, a sweetheart of a woman who started The Arthur Clan, a photography blog, around the same time that I founded MyBrownBaby. A hello here, an Ohmigod, your family is so beautiful there, a round of advice and exchanges about cameras and photoshop and before the two of us knew it, we were fast friends.

Our friendship blossomed over the years: I’d drool over the stunning pictures she’s taken of her kids, she’d compliment me on the posts I’ve written about my family and being an African American mom; I’d participate in the contests she runs on her other photography blog, the superdopalicious I Heart Faces, and she’d take the time out of her busy schedule to give me all kinds of awesome tips on how to take better pictures. I’d send her (e) hugs on the Twitter and she’d tweet (e) kisses back. Ours is an easy friendship one filled with warmth and a genuine fondness for one another.

But here’s the thing: We’d been (e)buddies for more than two years without ever meeting face-to-face. Isn’t that nutty? The internet is weird like that. You can know someone and be the best of friends and never once see each other in person. Like, ever. Especially if you live in separate corners of the Earth.

As luck would have it, though, Angie and I ended up at Blissdom together back in January. Totally unplanned, totally unexpected, I stumbled on her out in the hallway after I’d finished putting in a long day hosting on-camera interviews on behalf of Unilever’s Don’t Fret the Sweat campaign. I knew it was her because she has this shock of glorious strawberry blonde hair and she had a camera attached to her face, totally taking a bazillion pictures of anyone who would pose. I swear, we had a The Color Purple/Nettie and Celie reunion moment; I yelled her name from across the room, she looked up and yelled my name, too, and we hugged and giggled for what seemed like an eternity.

Angie_Denene_Giggle_MyBrownBaby.com

 

Angie Arthur is, in a word, delightful.

Her I Heart Faces partner, Amy, captured our glorious meeting almost three years in the making. And in the process, she made the two of us look not only hot (seriously, these are probably the pretties pictures anyone’s ever taken of me!), but like we’ve known each other forever.

And in that moment, in Angie’s arms, smiling and giggling and hugging and enjoying each other’s company, it did feel like we’d known each other a lifetime.

Love you, Angie!

Angie_Denene_Meet1_MyBrownBaby.com

This post comes just in time to celebrate not only my friendship with Angie, but my latest story in Essence magazine, which, in its May issue (Wendy Williams, the queen of all media, is on the cover), is celebrating girlfriends. I wrote a piece about Michelle Obama and why she’s our girl. I encourage you to check it out.

And if you’ve got a bloggy friend that you absolutely adore, shout her out in the comments section! Tell us what you love about her, and, if she’s got a blog or she’s on Twitter, share a link to her space or her Twitter handle so that we can stop by and say hey! Let’s all make some new friends today!

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Denene Millner

Mom. NY Times bestselling author. Pop culture ninja. Unapologetic lover of shoes, bacon and babies. Nice with the verbs. Founder of the top black parenting website, MyBrownBaby.

14 Comments

  1. Oh!!! Love, love, love.

  2. Our meeting was absolutely the highlight of Blissdom for me Denene…it was amazing to finally meet you in person!!

    Love you so much.

  3. This is what it is all about. Love this! And you both look fabulous! 🙂

  4. Okay, let me just start by saying that you always look beautiful! Seriously, all flattery aside with complete honesty. I follow your blog and dream of the day when I’ll be able to get it together and join in the fun. I am an adoptive parent of a beautiful chocolate 18 month old boy and the stories await my moment and energy to begin my blogging for real! Thank you, you are an inspiration.

  5. Jacqueline Lewis

    Absolutely beautiful pictures of you both. I’m sure it was most inspirational to get to see each other for the first time.

  6. It was a pleasure meeting you and capturing that moment between you and Angie! You two are gorgeous women for sure:-)

  7. You both look gorgeous in these pictures! I haven’t even been blogging a year yet, and I’ve “met” some amazing, amazing people — like you! I can’t wait to meet you and others like Tara (Young Mommy Life), Jennifer (Mom Bloggers Club), and Belle (Belle in BK) in real life! Let’s plan a conference or something.

    Seriously, though… what a sweet post… tear!

  8. ah…you guys look beautiful. i follow you both on twitter and have seen some of your exchanges. i’m inspired by the pair of you. beautiful beautiful ladies.

  9. Those photos are drop. dead. gorgeous! You ladies look like you’re having such a good time!

    And just so you know, I count you, Miss Denene, as one of the bloggy buddies I am most blessed to have met 🙂 Renee (Cutie Booty Cakes), Sheena (Sophistishe) and Linsey (LillePunkin) are high on my list too. Through blogging, I’ve made friends that I never would have made otherwise — with my antisocial self…lol.

  10. I love this SO much! xoxo

  11. I LOVE Angie. She is one of my most favorite people! And how pretty are both of you girls? OUTSTANDINGLY beautiful : ) I am so happy you could meet her! How fun! Glad you are doing well! Amy did a great job of shooting you!

  12. i was looking for
    it do you have any windows activation

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