blog — Page 18

Flowers. And A Sigh.

July 28, 2016 at 9:59 am by Claudia

Greetings from the hot and humid zone! Actually, this might be the last day of this stuff. Tomorrow we have rain on the horizon and then the temps will drop to the eighties. Still hot, but not nearly as miserable as it is now. The skies have been a vivid blue, with big, fluffy clouds.

It’s just too hot to really enjoy it.

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The phlox has really taken off. It smells heavenly around here.

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The new rose bushes are blooming again.

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The liatris is starting to bloom. See the bug flying in from the right?

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He’s landed.

I’m going to extend the book giveaway one more day. If you didn’t read Monday’s book review, be sure to visit this post. I’m giving away a copy of The Branson Beauty, a really neat mystery I am sure you will enjoy. Leave a comment by the end of the day today and I’ll reveal the winner tomorrow.

A confession: As you know, I have a long association with BlogHer/SheKnows Media. Through this wonderful group that supports bloggers, I also have a couple of ads that run on this blog. Occasionally, I am chosen for a sponsored post. (I’m not in the young demographic, which means it has to be for a specific sort of product that works for my age group and this blog.) These posts are always for a product I support and believe in. Quite frankly, I wish I had these opportunities more often, but I am so grateful when they do occur because I get to share something I believe in with you and I get compensated for them.

I don’t want to go through the whole rigmarole again, but I will say, briefly, that without ads and the occasional sponsored post, I wouldn’t be able to maintain this blog. Period. It costs several hundred dollars a year to keep this little space of mine going and, since we freelance and never know how much money is coming in during any given month, the only way I can pay for it all is through ad income and sponsored posts.

However, if you knew how many requests I get on a daily basis to write sponsored posts for companies that I don’t know or have any connection with, to put sponsored links in a post, to let someone write a guest post – all of which I turn down – you’d be stunned. I don’t want this blog to become about that sort of thing. But the occasional sponsored post through BlogHer/SheKnows, a company with integrity that I believe in? Yes, I will certainly do that.

Yesterday, I had a comment on the post from a reader who wasn’t particularly happy with this kind of post. To be fair, she’s a newer reader, and since the last time I did a sponsored post was over a year ago, is most likely not used to seeing this sort of thing. She certainly has a right to respond to a post but I had to delete the comment because this kind of post, which has a giveaway that is connected to the number of responses to the question I ask at the end of the post and where I will eventually have to count those comments when the contest closes, can’t have comments in the mix that are unconnected to that question.

Here’s where I screwed up. It was a tough day for me yesterday for all sorts of reasons, and I wrote this reader to tell her why I deleted the comment. What I should have done was to take a big breath before I wrote her, because I responded in a defensive tone. To be honest, I was feeling defensive, wondering why I had to defend yet again a subject matter on my blog. My skin was a bit thin yesterday. And yes, it is my blog. But I most certainly could have handled it better than I did and when the reader wrote me back, I realized that, and I responded with an apology.

I’m only human. I spend hours and hours on this blog every day, seven days a week. I’m always thinking about what I can share with you. I’m taking pictures for a good portion of the day on an expensive (for me) camera that I bought just for this blog.

The fact is, it’s a part-time job for which I get no compensation. Nothing. Everything goes back into the blog. If I can get a little extra money for all my time, you can be damned sure (if it’s the right thing for this blog) I’m going to take advantage of it.

Keeping all of this in perspective, I’ve had exactly two sponsored posts in about 14 months. Given the fact that I write a post every day of the year, I think that’s just fine. And I hope to have more opportunities in the year ahead. But they might not come my way.

Anyway, I sincerely regret my tone, which was that of a reprimand, and therefore felt the need to explain, once again, this sort of thing to you. Here’s where I sigh. (I’m not exaggerating, I just sighed for the umpteenth time since yesterday.) If you have a problem with this sort of post, that’s fine; just click off the blog and come back the next day. The same thing goes for any post that doesn’t meet with your approval. I surely understand that not every post is a gem or is what you want to read on any given day. I’m not that interesting!

Anything else I could say would merely be a repeat of things I’ve said in the past.

You get to read this blog for free. But it isn’t free for me. It takes time and money.

I love you all and I usually meet this sort of thing with more grace than I did yesterday. For that, I apologize. I’ll do better next time.

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Let’s close with this eastern swallowtail butterfly. He was hanging around the garden for a quite a while yesterday.

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He’s looks a bit worse for wear. He’s lost part of his swallowtail. But it didn’t stop him.

He’s beautiful.

(I have a book review up on Just Let Me Finish This Page. Just click here.)

Happy Thursday.

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Take a Seat

May 3, 2016 at 9:57 am by Claudia

Weather forecast? Rain. End of story.

Don. Simply stop here.

A bright spot yesterday – a package arrived in the mail from Elf Miniatures in England.

By the way, I want to clarify something: none of these links are affiliates or partners or anything other than companies I’ve ordered from and like very much. I understand affiliate links and I use them on the book blog occasionally, though I earn next-to-nothing from them – just enough to use as a credit toward a future book purchase! But I’ve seen a lot of affiliate links lately on other blogs and I must admit that too much of that sort of thing turns me off. Does every post have to be the result of a partnership?

So if you see a link to a miniature site or source here, it simply takes you to that site. I get nothing from you clicking on the link, except satisfaction in recommending a good source. (There’s a source list up in the navigation bar, also – under Dollhouse.)

Back to Elf Miniatures, an online company I really like – fast delivery across the ocean, great customer service, and a fabulous inventory of all things miniature. I ordered 3 items.

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Well, I meant to order two. I got three items because, for the second time, I ordered two of something; this shelf unit, which is reminiscent of the IKEA units that are so popular. I have one in real life. Anyway, getting two of them is okay by me. I’ll use the other one in another project

I want to use this for records, but it has quickly dawned on me that I have to get a lot more albums! Oh, my heavens! Where am I going to get them all? I can purchase some through Etsy. I could make them, I suppose, and I’ll try to do some of that. My friend Susi, of Minibase, did that for her award winning Record Shop. Click on over at some point and see it. It’s incredible. She has even posted a very helpful tutorial on the subject of making albums.

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See? I’m going to need a lot of record albums!

Also in the box that traveled across the ocean:

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This oh-so-cool desk chair.

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I love it. I can see the gentleman who uses this studio swiveling between a computer monitor and the keyboard, completely into his creative process. I bet you can, too.

Still going back and forth about the legs. I was just about to paint them silver/chrome yesterday afternoon when I decided to hold off. Today, I like the orange. Tomorrow? Who knows?

I mentioned that I made a preliminary stab at a mixing board. Really, what I did was build a three-dimensional housing for it, like I’ve seen in many home studio photos. It’s made out of mat board.

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There it is. From here, it looks okay.

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From here, the top is clearly one-dimensional. I’m not thrilled with that. I can probably fiddle with it and add some elements that give it dimension – like a knob and silver bits that function as those slides. The jury is still out on this one.

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A rainy day view of where we are so far.

I have to do some work on the outside. I have a few more elements on order. But I’ve got about seven weeks, give or take a day or so, until Don’s birthday. So I’m in good shape, I think.

Blogkeeping: I usually have the volume on my computer turned all the way down because I dislike suddenly hearing something I didn’t plan on hearing. But lately, I’ve had it on a few times when an ad or two on this blog started making itself known via sound. I don’t like that. And, in fact, ads are not supposed to automatically play. The visitor to a site is supposed to be able to turn it on if he or she wants to, but otherwise, it should be mute. So I have my ad company looking into it and, if I have to, I’ll stop all video ads. My apologies. I’d rather earn a bit less than have intrusive sound on the blog.

Happy Tuesday.

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Eight Years

February 17, 2016 at 10:05 am by Claudia

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I’ve come out of my hiding place to acknowledge and celebrate the anniversary of this blog. Eight years ago today, I hit publish. That first post, on Blogger, was just some text. The next day I figured out how to add a photo.

Baby steps.

Occasionally, I read posts by bloggers in which they are considering getting rid of older posts that don’t reflect where they are now. I always shake my head at that idea: you wouldn’t be where you are now without the journey you’ve taken. Right? Those older posts of mine, though shorter and somewhat tentative, are just as real and valid as any post I’ve done since.

They stay.

Over the course of this past eight years, I’ve kept to my vision for this blog. It’s a simple one. To share my life in our cottage with you. Until I got a laptop later in that first year, I was unable to share my life on the road with you, but as soon as it was purchased (in Iowa, on a coaching job) – freedom!

Along the way, I played the with idea of trying to get more readers. But the way in which I would have had to do that never felt like the right fit for me. It felt calculating. It felt false. About three years into the process, I started blogging every day, thinking it would help my ad income, but eventually I realized it was a gift to myself. The practice of writing a blog post every morning was grounding. It gave me focus. It kept me honest.

I also discovered a love for photography. What a gift that has been!

I accepted who I am and what this blog is; a daily journal that I share with you, my readers. To be perfectly honest, writing about one thing, one niche, all of the time would drive me nuts. I have a lot of passions and I refuse to limit the blog to just one. That specific focus, by the way, would have been a way to make this blog a money-maker. But it just isn’t me.

So I keep blogging, earning enough money from ads for the blog to pay its way, and that’s just fine.

I started out on Blogger, decided to move to WordPress in 2012, learned enough coding to design a layout and a look that I liked, and here we are today. Yes, there are hassles. Nefarious types are always trying to hack into the blog. Actually, if you blog, they’re always trying to hack into yours as well, I just have the security measures in place that tell me what’s going on at any given moment. Maybe ignorance is bliss? Anyway, it’s annoying and sometimes alarming, but in the big picture, it’s not a big deal. I’ve never regretted my move to WP. I have more control over the look and feel of the blog. It’s a good fit for me.

Along the way, I’ve shared our home with you. I’ve shared my gardening adventures. I’ve shared my on-the-road stories. I’ve shared my handwork. I’ve shared the dollhouse – from its very beginnings to its publication in two magazines. I’ve written about my husband and my dogs and my sister and my parents and my nephews and nieces and my ‘lost’ sister and my friends and colleagues. I’ve written about my work and my love for the theater. I’ve written about things I believe in. I’ve written about animals and animal rights. I’ve written about my longtime vegetarianism. I’ve written about the serious and the silly.

I’ve shared the painful loss of Don’s father, my mother, my father, Riley, and Scout.

I couldn’t have done that without you. Truly. Without you out there reading, commenting and reaching out to me, I probably would have thrown in the towel. One of the best things about the move to WP in 2012 was that it gave me the chance to reply to comments and to let you know, via email, that I had replied. The conversations that have come out of that have been stimulating and moving and funny and sad and everything a good conversation between friends should be.

Thank you. Thank you for being there. Thank you for being there anytime, but especially in those times when I have suffered profound loss. I can never thank you enough for that.

I can’t imagine not blogging, but who knows? Maybe somewhere down the line, I’ll feel it’s time to move on. But not right now. Right now, with your understanding that I will occasionally take a few days away from the blog, as I have been doing since the loss of Scout, I’ll keep on keeping on, as they say.

Thanks. And Happy Wednesday.

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Flowers. And A Sigh.

Take a Seat

Eight Years

Lambs Like to Party

A Note

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