Mockingbird Hill Cottage

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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.

Filed Under: blog, blogging, blogging tips 42 Comments

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:

More yarn arrived yesterday. That means more scarves for the Etsy shop!

This book. Oh my! I’m reviewing it on Monday.

I’ll be back at 8:00 pm EST for A Favorite Thing. See you then.

Happy Friday.

Filed Under: blog, blogging, books, crochet, etsy 26 Comments

Serendipitous

October 4, 2012 at 9:12 am by Claudia

Do you love a good story?

I have one for you.

A month or so ago, I was at our local grocery store, or rather, in the parking lot walking toward the store. A woman called out to me and asked me if she could share something with me. I said sure. Turns out I remind her of her mother; we both have longish graying hair, we look somewhat alike and we drive the exact same model and year of car (and my car, you remember, is 11 years old.) She had often seen me driving around town and would be certain she was seeing her mother but would then realize that, no, it was that other woman. This had happened many times. So she was glad to finally meet the other woman and introduce herself. We had a lovely conversation in the parking lot and I met her son, who was with her.

I like meeting people and I loved that story. I came home and shared it with Don.

Like many of you, I often start reading a blog which leads me to another blog which leads me to another blog and that’s the way I often find a lovely, new blog that I bookmark. I’ve found several lately. Yesterday, my friend Heidi left me a note on my personal facebook page with a link to a blog she thought I would like. I recognized the name of the blog because it was one of those recently bookmarked blogs. So I wrote Heidi back and told her I knew of the blog. She said the author was local. Really? I said. For some reason I thought the author was from someplace else, probably because she talked about visiting the Luckett’s store in Virginia. It turns out that Heidi meant local as in someone who lives in our very small town.

Well, I thought, how interesting! I will trot right on over to that blog and leave a comment introducing myself. Hi, I said, Heidi told me you’re a local blogger. So am I. It’s nice to meet you. And I left a link to my blog.

I almost immediately got a return comment. It said (I’m paraphrasing)...Um, Claudia? I’ve just gone over to your blog and seen your picture….do you remember a strange woman who approached you in the parking lot and told you how much you resemble her mother? That was me. It is a very small world. And I recognize your house. I could throw a rock and hit it, we live so close. We are neighbors!

I admit to a gasp or two. I looked at her photo which shows a short hair cut. When I met her, it was longer. It may still be. But yes, I could see that it was my friend from the parking lot.

Amazing, isn’t it?

Then I got obsessed with figuring out where she lived. If she lived that close to me, where exactly was it? She has a photo of her barn on a recent post. I studied it.

Bingo. I suddenly had an idea where she lived, which, if I was right, was around the corner from me. You understand I’m not talking about a suburban street here, but down the road and around the corner. When I told Don about it, his response was ‘Let’s hop in the car and look!’ So I looked at the barn photo once more, memorized it, and we drove off in the dusk of the evening.

I was right.

Her land backs up to our property. She lives in one of my favorite houses around here, one I’ve always admired.

She’s been blogging for six months and writes about home, garden, vintage – the sort of things I write about.

She has great style. The name of her blog is Breida with a B. Stop by and visit. She wrote about this same thing today.

It’s funny how you can meet someone, have a conversation, but have absolutely no idea that person is a blogger. Like you.

I’ve met bloggers who live far away from me. But to find one that lives around the corner from me? In my little town? What are the odds?

Serendipity.

————————————————

By the way, for those of you who want to see a photo of me with my new haircut, just look at my photo on the sidebar. That’s what it looks like. My hair grows very quickly and I had let it go throughout the time I was nursing Riley. I had 4 inches taken off and it now looks normal again.

On another note, I’ve been dragged kicking and screaming to the point where I finally established a Facebook Page for Mockingbird Hill Cottage. I have stayed away from this in the past because I felt I had enough to handle already and that adding yet another something I had to keep up-to-date was simply too much for this particular blogger. But I’m trying to grow my blog and some of you, along with many of those in the know, have suggested this. So, I did it. I don’t have a widget yet, but you can get there by clicking on the f under Contact on my sidebar. Or click here.

Would you do me a favor and click Like? The more of you who ‘like’ my page, the better!

Oh, I’ve been busy. Crocheting, sleuthing, meeting, creating, gasping.

Happy Thursday.

Filed Under: blog, blogging 65 Comments

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Welcome!

Welcome!

I live in a little cottage in the country with my husband. It's a sweet place, sheltered by old trees and surrounded by gardens. The inside is full of the things we love. I love to write, I love my camera, I love creating, I love gardening. My decorating style is eclectic; full of vintage and a bit of whimsy.

I've worked in the theater for more years than I can count. I'm currently a voice, speech, dialect and text coach freelancing on Broadway, off Broadway, and in regional theater.

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