18/15: happy fourth blogging anniversary to me!

A little note appeared from WordPress, wishing me happy blogging anniversary. Four years of blogging. This probably explains my slightly depleted enthusiasm, but things go in cycles.

I have updated my “about me” page, which I thought I would share as a post, to welcome the fifth year of blogging.

Welcome to the new look princess prattles! I believe that a blog is in an evolutionary state, allowing it to change with the times and the needs of the author. Hopefully the readers will like these alterations.

Early on, this blog, princessprattles.com, focussed on two things I love – my garden and my cats.

Nowadays it covers all things creative, a less limiting catchphrase.

I can still include cats, since they can fall into the category of photography.

I love being resourceful and recycling in all my creative pursuits. Feel free to share your ideas in the comments section.

In 2012 I was a successful participant in Project 365, managing to post every day of the 366 available. My garden thanks me for the effort!

2013 saw me minimise the commitment to once a week, and since 2014 I have been blogging when the urge takes me, instead of utilising a specific schedule. Posts are numbered numerically rather than by week, because sometimes there may be a few in quick succession. Stay tuned!

Comments and feedback are welcome.  Thank you for stopping by to share my journey.

Sandi, the crafty princess.

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7/15: time marches on

How can it be a quarter of the way through the year already? Obviously if I didn’t post this by 31st March it would be too late to use this title.

I wonder if anyone has even noticed how few posts I’ve put on WordPress this year; a far cry from the year I took the challenge to do a post every day.

The petunias have had their season as we seriously move into autumn, apart from this week’s splash of late summer.

32/14: my first mobile post

A new experience for me is to attempt a post from my mobile phone. My first attempt half an hour ago failed, as I was trying to post from my iPhone 3GS.
I had already typed the post, then wanted to (cleverly and easily I thought) upload a photo from my camera roll. There the problem started. Apparently the connection was lost and a little suggestion appeared to exit WordPress and reconnect. Now usually, on my laptop, a draft is automatically saved. Not so here.
Now I’m trying my new IPhone 4S but have just realised the photos on my camera roll are still on the other phone. Oh the frustrations of modern technology!
Solution? Leave that photo for another day and go now and take a fresh photo especially for you! Here goes:

This is our beautiful front door, lead lighted with money from our Deal or No Deal TV appearance back in 2009.
I may have to edit this post later to add categories and tags, but for now this should suffice. Now I shall hold my breath as I hit “publish” and hopefully I will have taken another forward step on my technological journey!

22/14: be true to yourself when you blog

Ben Huberman’s post arrived in my Outlook inbox this morning.

http://en.blog.wordpress.com/2014/05/20/stats-to-check/

I don’t always comment on posts I read, but I did today:

“Your post came at an opportune time, when I was starting to question my validity, based on likes and comments. Tsk! tsk! I should know better than that.  I must remind myself that I am blogging because I enjoy it; you can’t please all the people all of the time, and if you are chasing “likes” sometimes you might compromise your content just to “fit in” and then nobody wins…
Be true to yourself and over time the stats should reflect that most readers appreciate honesty and enthusiasm, but do not necessarily “like” or leave comments.”

To add further to this, let’s be gentle on ourselves. I know we all go through self-doubt at times, but if we enjoy blogging why not focus on that enjoyment? Anything else will then be the icing on the cake.

Recently I changed the direction of my blog, which could well lose some readers, but on the other hand may gain more. I needed to inject some extra enthusiasm. Today I will showcase a few photos from my media library from when I was focussing purely on my garden and my cats, as opposed to my new tag “all things creative“.

Feel free to “like” or comment, or both, or neither! Regardless, I shall continue to blog because I have fun doing it.

 

 

16/14: princess prattles takes a new direction

As Easter signals rebirth and resurrection, I have decided to branch out by focussing on something less limiting than two things I love: my garden and my cats.

To this end, I am re-branding princess prattles to cater to my biggest passion – creativity. Continuing with the same blog address princessprattles.com, you will see the new header entitled “the crafty princess”.

What might you expect to see in the coming months? Topics may cover calligraphy, card making, scrapbooking, photography, home décor, garden projects, even fashion, plus anything else that gets my inventive and imaginative juices flowing.

Comments and suggestions are welcome. If I can provide some momentary pleasure, information and/or inspiration, then my work here can be deemed successful. Hope you enjoy this change in direction and continue to follow my blog.

Yours in creativity, and wishing you a Hoppy Easter,

Sandi, the crafty princess

33/52: happy blogging anniversary to me

Isn’t that sweet: WordPress just sent me a “Happy Anniversary” notification to commemorate the fact that I registered as a blogger here two years ago.

Part of the reason I started was to chronicle our round-the-world trip in 2011, which prompted the commencement of travels with princess and quiquinou.

I decided that princessprattles would be based largely on my garden in 2012, when I undertook the massive commitment to blog every day for the whole year, which, 366 days later, I had achieved. The blog extended to include my house as well as the garden and my cats at that stage.

I added karaoke kool kats.com, an occasional blog about our Saturday night karaoke gig, which hardly anyone looks at, which probably shows that regular, consistent blogging is more likely to attract views.

A finite blog about my week’s trip to Central Australia, princess wonderland in alice, covered my holiday with my French friend Leslye, allowing  me to showcase the dramatic scenery and colour of the Red Centre.

Spreading myself even more thinly, I embarked on scootin’ sandi, reliving some motorcycle riding, along with Calligraphy for Christ’s Sake.

This year I started princess pop psychology, but am finding it difficult to keep up with all these blogs.

What to do? I’m still searching for my niche. Perhaps I need to write more regularly on each of my blogs? And who do we write for? Ourselves? Others? It varies for me. I am happy to keep an electronic record of my garden and other aspects of my life, and if a few people get enjoyment out of it, it’s a bonus.

Now that I am only committing to blog weekly on princess prattles, I have honed this blog into two things I love: my garden and my cats.

29/52: the arrival of the early daffodil

It strikes me as rather bizarre, to be telling you about a blooming daffodil in the middle of July. The seasons worldwide are definitely changing.

Experiencing a fairly mild winter here in Melbourne, Australia, I was amazed to find the first daffodil of the season, almost a month earlier than last year. Still, I’m not complaining, as I adore daffodils. Funnily, yellow is not my favourite colour, and I can definitely trace that back to the ghastly yellow we were subjected to in our childhood bedroom, which had been a sunroom before we lived there. However, the sight of bright yellow daffodils is a different story. In the garden, to me they always herald the beginning of spring.

On my walk this morning I was thinking about these daffodils, when I came up with a new word. It’s bazurd, spelling of which I am unsure, because I just blended two words together unwittingly: bizarre and absurd. Isn’t that how new words are invented? The press are always doing it e.g. Brangelina for Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie, so why can’t I?

I went right off track there, but never mind. It’s my blog and occasionally I am allowed to prattle on. After all, this is princessprattles, so pourqoui pas? (Why not?)

24/52: a few of my favourite photos of my garden

Since it is a bleak June day, ceaselessly raining, what better way to brighten my mood than with some of my favourite garden photos?

I can’t believe I managed to blog EVERY day last year; it was an all-consuming task. This year I am actually concentrating more on indoor renovations: painting, deaccumulating, rearranging, reorganising, which is quite therapeutic, but I know come springtime I will be raring to go outside in full force.

 

366/366: full circle

An achievement in itself has been managing to blog every day of the year. I am commemorating this auspicious occasion with some good news. The semi-circle of shame is no longer. I mentioned that I would do the grand unveiling on New Year’s Eve, so here ’tis.

Having weeded it all, it was ready to attack, by removing some soil and recycling some old vinyl and rocks.

Almost complete, I will probably add more river rocks to the arrangement, but for now it will suffice.

WordPress’s Project 365 challenge has encouraged me to write every day, and it is true: the more you write, the more you want to write. However, I know that on some occasions I was scratching around for a post, so next year I will not be forcing myself to do it daily. Hopefully, my posts can be more thoughtful, although sometimes it’s fun just sharing a photo I like, with little or no writing. I’m looking at posting weekly on princessprattles, freeing myself up to work on my novel, my other blogs, and maybe even introduce a couple more. Yes, addicted to blogging and loving it.

Have a fantastic New Year, and aspire to great things. The possibilities are endless.

266/366: one hundred days to go

Being part of Project 365, (although this year being a leap year should really be Project 366), anyone who has posted every day up until now has reached the point of one hundred days to go. Congratulations, fellow bloggers, and keep up the good work.

I’m quite pleased with myself that I have achieved this milestone, so I have treated myself to a new Canon camera. It’s a fairly easy to use model: Power Shot A4000, selling for under $200. Since we’re going to Thailand in October, and the old camera has some sort of burn mark on the lens, I thought it an opportune time to invest.

Here is a photo of the new camera taken with the old one which is reflected on the groovy little screen.

After charging the battery and adding the correct time and date, I took a couple of shots of the golden diosma to make some comparisons, if there were in fact any.

Ixus 120IS

Power Shot A4000

The second photo took an inordinate amount of time to upload to my post. That could cause time problems, and perhaps space problems for storage of bigger photo files. I wonder what will happen if I try and publish it when the photo only looks half done?

Here goes, as we learn by experience, don’t we?