My kids are so anxious for school to start so they can see their friends, meet their new teachers and fill that brand new agenda. I'm anxious for my kids to go to school to get my house back in order. Having four kids coming and going all day long for 10 weeks does not make for a calm existence. Fun and spontaneous, but wild! It also creates one big mess. I'm craving order and control and the only place that is mine, right now, is right here! It was time for a purge and tidy - I feel way better now!
Thanks to everyone who has e-mailed to mention how much you like the new blog tidy. I thought I'd take this opportunity to give you a bit of a "tour" and answer some questions.
BLOG HEADER: Yes, the change was subtle. The usual indicator, the new blog header, was not updated. I like my lemons! So, no blog header change ... yet.
TWITTER FEED: Gone, I really don't "get" or use twitter, so I got rid of it.
RECENT POSTS: To save you from scrolling, the twitter block was replaced with something useful!
GO ENJOY/GO NOURISH: These are often updated so no change there ... for now. These are the best of the best links. Go visit. Learn. Enjoy!
MUSIC & BOOKS: Both were updated, though they really didn't need to be since I'm still listening to and reading the stuff listed last time!
FEEDJIT: I'm still not sure if it's going to stay ... or going to go. It's a bit LARGE. I like seeing where everyone is from and my kids love seeing all the flags. It's a keeper, until it's not!
The rest on the left column stays the same :) Moving on to the right:
EMBRACING MY LIFE: After all, if I'm attempting to have YOU embrace YOUR life, I should give at least a bit of an indication of how I embrace mine, right?
The best part of this exercise? I got to figure out how to do some things in Photoshop Elements, play with linking stuff, reminding myself of how Typepad works and some features, like pages. FUN! A great way to spend a rainy weekend. Who to thank for all of this activity? This tutorial, posted in early July. It does take that long for my ideas to percolate!
When you click on this button you will go to my boys' hockey schedules. I hope to keep this page updated as the season goes along. Though hockey season does seem to run all year long in our house, there really is a season: September through April. It will continue to be that way until the boys decide they've had enough. In the meantime, it keeps them fit and focused. With Cole now officially a teenager, I'm happy for two reasons: the joy it brings my kid and a great reason to stay away from girls and maybe study? Shh. A mama can hope can't she? As for Caden, he benefits from the physical activity and many friendships.
Click on over, there's a ton of stuff to read (I don't want to spoil it here!) but if you're interested, Celes is organizing an upcoming 30 Day Challenge to Live a Better Life in September. I like the idea of getting a bit of guidance as I continue this fascinating journey. I live a pretty spectacular existence and I am grateful every day for my good fortune: great kids, good health, and everything else. I find sometimes I'm squandering those blessings and as part of my FOCUS for the year, this is just what my spirit needs.
Memory keeping and photography is a huge part of my life. I love the process and the results. It is the perfect forum for me to practice my writing, photography, design and font love all in one (seemingly) simple endeavour. I have a ton of ideas rattling around. It doesn't help that I read so many brilliant and creative blogs every day! I wanted to get a bit organized and actually write everything down. It is a bit daunting, but I love a list, and a plan. It works for me!
My creative endeavours are not limited to paper crafting. There are so many things I want to lean how to do and make. I've blogged about them a couple of times and thought I'd put a page together as a collection of ideas. You know, accountability. I've been looking for classes and tutorials for each of the ideas listed and hope to at least learn the basics of each creative skill. I'm sure it will lead to a bigger, longer list once the juices get flowing and the confidence returns.
I am so fortunate here on the www to have met and mingled with such incredible people. Every one has been so kind and gracious and sometimes they offer to let me put in my two cents! Over the last 12 months or so, I've become far more confident in my abilities and what I have to offer others. I submit work and put myself in a position to be accepted or rejected and it is such a thrill - to be both accepted and rejected. Invigorating and challenging and I love every minute of it. So, for those who haven't had the joy of that experience, I have one word for you: SUBMIT!
The idea behind the one little word concept is to give yourself something to focus on throughout the year. Each year there is a flurry of activity to choose "one word" which everyone seems to reveal in January. When you click on the sidebar button you find every post I've tagged with the "focus" category for this year. I suppose my idea of focus is interchangeable with mindful or aware. I was a bit out of sorts last year ...
when balance was not the right word to choose. At all. When you click on the button you will read my summary on that choice. As always, I can be counted on to be brutally honest ... with myself ... and share it with you :)
I've very much enjoyed my "words" and am already considering a few for 2011. What about you? Do you participate?
I've really enjoyed the creative process of making the sidebar buttons, figuring out the links, how it all works. but I've enjoyed, more than anything, creating the content. I hope you enjoy reading it, too!
PLACES TO PLAY AND LEARN: Continue to be some of my most favourite places on the www. So much great stuff! Go! Play! Learn!
PHOTO ALBUMS: These have been reduced to those I think are my "greatest" recent accomplishments. These include those layouts which have been PUBLISHED (whoot!), My Frogs, A Week in the Life: 2010 and Me: The Abridged Version (which isn't so abridged!). Immediately underneath are links to other photo album content, but I thought a link was sufficient. If you want to see the photos, click the buttons :) They are all (finally) cleaned up and organized. I'm more than a little happy about that!
BLINKIES: Never in my wildest imagination did I ever think I'd add a blinkie to my blog. But there you have it.
And everything else remains the same in the column.
There was one other major change: those with a reader can now read the whole post. I prefer to read entries in my reader and thought I'd make it more convenient for you. A while back I had shortened the feed so that I could track statistics (number of visits, from where, links that are loved, referrals) then realized I really don't care about the numbers too much. But I love to see where everyone is from, so I'm leaving the feed-jit widget ... for now.
My focus here will always be on the content, but sometimes I'll pay attention to the pretty ... and functional. Let me know what you think!
