blog — Page 26

What Blogging Forces Me to Do

October 21, 2012 at 9:27 am by Claudia

Short answer: See the world with fresh eyes.

Like many of you, we are going through a tough time. My father is struggling and fading at the age of 89, my mother is in a nursing home and will be for the rest of her life, my beloved dog just died, my other dog is older, has trouble breathing at times, is slowing down significantly and I worry about her, both Don and I freelance and work has been alarmingly slow if not non-existent, we are older and in a world that is youth-oriented, it’s not so easy to find another job, we struggle to get the money together for our ridiculously high mortgage payment every month and we seriously wonder if we’ll be able to stay here, I seem to worry about money constantly, Don has been ill (but is now getting better, thank goodness.)

There’s more, but enough of the list.

I’m not feeling sorry for myself. There are people everywhere who are battling even bigger things, whose list of woes would make mine look puny. I’ve heard from fellow bloggers about their own struggles and am keenly aware that everyone has a story or two or three about their level of stress and worry at this moment in time.

Life can be hard and unforgiving.

This act of writing a blog, of writing a virtual daily journal, has saved me more often than you could ever know.

I have to come up with something every day. I blog about my life. I’m not a niche blogger. I can’t take refuge in a post that shows pictures of things I found on other blogs or websites. I don’t work that way. So, as I would be in any case, I have to be honest. Sometimes that honesty results in a post in which I pour my heart out. Sometimes it allows me to be silly. Sometimes it results in a fresh look at the world around me. As I think about a post and walk around with my camera, I see the world with fresh eyes. I see the beauty in bare branches of a tree against a blue sky, in the fading of a flower, in the pattern of sunlight on my wooden floor, in the animals who share our land with us, in the beauty of a piece of pottery – oh, the list is endless.

Often, I start to write and the humor of a situation suddenly becomes apparent and I find myself smiling.

I see the beauty in the landscape around me and I find myself smiling.

I see the simple pleasures of my everyday life that have nothing to do with stress or worry or money, but have everything to do with thankfulness and gratitude.

I let go of fear. I let in love.

Blogging has given me that. Writing is cathartic. Healing. The camera lens offers me a look at my world that I never really experienced until I started this blog. This daily exercise of writing a blog has helped me work through so many problems, has helped me to see the joy of simple things, the funny side of something I might have considered negative without the aid of writing about it, the blessings that I do have.

The important thing

is to pull yourself up by your own hair,

to turn yourself inside out,

and see the whole world with fresh eyes.

Peter Weiss

That’s what blogging has done for me. That’s what it forces me to do. And I’m so grateful it does.

Happy Sunday.

Working on My New Site

October 18, 2012 at 9:38 am by Claudia

Shredding Status: Pending.

Yes, my friends, I managed to avoid it yesterday, as well.

I have an excuse. I’m working on my new blog/website that will be devoted to helping you with your blogs. I’ve spoken about this before in this post. I’ve helped several fellow bloggers in the past, including my pal Brenda. And she’s the one who has urged me to hang out my shingle and offer my help to anyone who needs help with Blogger or WordPress. Brenda also has a new blog where she will talk about blogging, with interviews, conversation and helpful information. We talk about blogging all the time and we think our sites can work together to help all of you.

I consider myself a Blog Tweaker. Maybe a Blog Whisperer. This is how I explained it in the earlier post:

You see, I’ve learned a lot along the way during my 4½ years of blogging. I’m not afraid to play with html coding, I’m learning a lot about CSS coding, I’ve designed my own banners, I’ve tweaked my sidebar, added graphics, and many other things. I changed my Blogger blog many, many times. I figured out how to build on and tweak the design elements of my WordPress Blog. I helped Brenda do the same thing with her blog. I held her hand as she followed Sharon’s instructions on How to Move from Blogger to WordPress (in my sidebar.) I’ve helped many fellow bloggers in tweaking the elements and design of their blogs.

I am going to work on the details this coming week, but I plan to offer my services as mentor and coach for my fellow bloggers who use either format: Blogger or WordPress. I will make sure my prices are reasonable and affordable for most anyone.

But let me state clearly, I’m not a blog designer or a graphic designer. I’m not going to move your blog for you. Sharon, whose book is on my sidebar, has written clear-as-a-bell instructions on how to do that. But I can hold your hand as you cope with WordPress or Blogger. I can answer questions. If I don’t have the answer, I’ll research until I have it. If I can’t answer your question, I’ll be honest with you and direct you to someone who does have the answer.

I’ve set up the new site. I’m trying to determine how to handle pricing – which will be very reasonable. Since I will handle a variety of requests, and I’m not a blog designer offering a menu of packages, I’m leaning toward an hourly charge. If the question posed can be answered fairly easily, perhaps the fee would be for half an hour? And if the project or work on a blog were more involved…?

Do any of you have thoughts on this? Do you have experience with charging a fee for a service? I want to figure this out so I can get the site up and running – but the more I ponder it, the more confused I become. I would greatly appreciate your input.

Am I crazy for doing this?

Happy Thursday.

What I’m Loving Today

October 5, 2012 at 9:23 am by Claudia

Threaded Comments – I love having the ability to respond to your comments right away. Sometimes we even get a conversation going! It’s like you are right here in the room with me and we’re having a cup of tea or, in my case, hot chocolate and we’re having the nicest chat. Yay!

My new Facebook Page – Much to my surprise, I’m already enjoying the FB page and the dialogue that’s happening there. Who knew? I have a love/hate thing going with Facebook. I have a personal page and I usually check in on FB once a day, if only to say happy birthday to one of my friends. Since a lot of my friends are theater friends or former students, many of whom don’t even know I have a blog, my identity there has always been blog-free. (Every once in a while, Don would post something about my blog being featured in a magazine, but really, that was the extent of it.)

The new page is fun! Drop by, if you have a chance. Here’s the link. I hate the word ‘like’ in conjunction with the page, but when in Rome….

If you are inclined to like the page, please do!

These rather new-to-me blogs:

Going Home to Roost – Wonderful photography, projects, recipes, diy, you name it – all shared by the author, Bonnie.

A Cup of Jo – Written by Joanna Goddard who lives in NYC, it’s full of great information.

My Heart’s Song – Geneva and her husband moved out of their big suburban house and renovated a double-wide mobile home (what is now called a manufactured home.) The results are amazing. I admit to a huge fascination with this movement. Don and I would love to be debt-free someday, though it seems like an impossible dream at the moment, and I’m fascinated with the idea of buying one of these and putting our own stamp on it.

Scouting NY -If you love NYC, as I do, this blog, written by a movie location scout, will be absolutely fascinating. There’s so much history here. I’ve got Don hooked on it, too.

Head Butler – One of my favorite writers, Jessie Kornbluth, writes this blog. His aim is to be sort of a ‘cultural concierge’ and he writes about books, movies, music and life. Consequently, I discover all sorts of wonderful things I might not know of otherwise.

These e-Magazines:

Heart and Home magazine – This magazine is published via Great Britain. Love it.

Covet Garden – My absolute favorite. This is a Canadian publication. What I love about it is that it spotlights one person/family/couple and the way they live. The design is usually quirky, not too staged and the interviews are lengthy. One of my pet peeves about decorating magazines is that often the information about the people living in a space is way too short. The other is that sometimes a certain object or room is referred to, let’s say a vintage stove, yet there is no photo of it. Covet Garden, bless them, does it differently. And better.

And these: