Thought for the day!

To all you fellow bloggers out there, how do you feel about posts you make that never get any comments: -

• Does it bother you? 
• Are you hurt by the apparent lack of interest? 
• Or couldn't you care less?

Why do you blog: -

• Is it for yourself or for your audience, followers or visitors?
• To share information or skills?
• To share your craft?
• To sell your craft?
• Personal reasons (therapy, healing)?

Are you mixing the messages on your blog, should you have separate blogs with different focuses?

Do you know how many followers you have? What happens if someone stops following you, how does that make you feel: -

• Sad?
• Angry?
• Hurt?
• No response?

Are you trying to please people or just yourself?

A post on a forum I've just joined has made me think about these issues, someone who has posted daily on this forum for a long time is no longer going to do so as she is not receiving much response - what would you do or have you done?

I have thought about this issue and pose these questions to you all. I've taken stock answering the questions as honestly as I can so here goes: -

I love it when people comment, it used to bother me when people didn't comment at all, but look at my past posts and you'll see 100's without a single comment. I don't feel hurt or sad, but I wouldn't say I couldn't care less either. I just really appreciate it in this busy life we live that some people sometimes leave me a much appreciated comment!

I blog as often as I can, usually at least once a day, sometimes more than once and then I miss a couple, it really depends on how busy I am to be honest. I used to think I was blogging for my audience, but now I'm not so sure and in reality I probably blog 60% for myself and 40% for my readers, is this right, should I be more concerned about my readers? I like to think what I write about is interesting, sharing information, skills and my art, I don't sell from my blog, I have a link but I don't push it at all.

I have a mixture of my family life & my art on my blog, I'm not sure I have enough to separate it into 2 different blogs, I did once have a blog about more personal eating issues, but I decided that it was too specialised an area with a very limited audience.

I do know how many followers I have, it fluctuates and I don't let it bother me when someone leaves,I figure it's their choice, their life and not my loss! 

I used to take no comments, leaving followers, personally, but not now, as long as I still feel happy at blogging then I'll continue. 

I approach my 1000th post very soon and will probably offer a challenge of some kind when that happens and offer a doodled birdie as a prize!

Penally's Crop - 12th November

 Two lovely layouts completed courtesy of Penny & Ally of Penally's, using Crate Little Sprouts Collection. I had a lovely time as usual, Penny had made 2 lush cakes - a chocolate fudge cake & a lemon drizzle cake - yummy!

NaBloPoMo - 11th November

It's 11-11-11 - Make 3 wishes! - Here goes: -

1. To be healthy, fit & well during 2012
2. Family & friends to be kept safe & well
3. To be financially stable

My USA Trip 2012

Drum roll ...... get ready for my gobsmacking news ...... I've just booked a trip to the USA, to spend 3 glorious fun filled, art packed weeks with the beautiful Nancy Wolf in Oregon. I can't wait to spend time with her and I'll get to play in her amazing studio filled with all sorts of wonderous goodies. Nancy has promised to look into all sorts of things we can do.

Cheers Nancy!

NaBloPoMo - 10th November

What is your secret (or not-so-secret) passion?- OOH, now that would be telling, but here goes, people who know me really well know I have a passion for - Men in uniform (thankfully my DH is very aware of this, let's say I have been indulged)

And really, really good expensive chocolate, (NOT white chocolate, which is a travesty and should not be called chocolate at all!)

 So for my fellow men in uniform lovers out there, how about this?

Latest Piece of Artwork!

 

 

My latest piece of artwork, instead of canvas this time I used stretched watercolour paper (140lb cold pressed), I took photos of the process, painted acrylic background, stamped tissue paper, collaged items, painted girl, serviette dress, rub-ons, stencils, roller doodles & highlights with FC Big Brush Pens.

Quidco

Thanks to my friend Bernice, I just discovered Quidco, spend money, get CASHBACK, I've already bought, a membership, ink cartridges, a printer and a xmas present, I got money back on all of them ranging from 6%-12% -  how cool is that?

10 on the 10th - November

A nice easy one this month due to heavy work commitments - 10 countries I have visited

1. USA
2. France
3. Austria
4. Dominican Republic
5. Puerto Rico
6. Greek Islands (Crete, Corfu & Rhodes)
7. Cyprus
8. Italy
9. Belgium
10. Spain

NaBloPoMo - 9th November

When was the first time that you realized that your home was not like other people’s homes? - What a strange prompt, are they talking about when we were children, or now in our own home as adults? Anyway here goes - I can't say much about when I was a child, suffice to say I was the eldest of four children and the only girl. One of my brothers had severe behavioural problems which overshadowed my growing up and led to me leaving home at the tender age of 17 to seek love and happiness. Needless to say any port in a storm seemed like a good idea, but I did not find it in the abusive marriage I entered aged 18, but at what age I felt home was different was probably about 10 or 11 years old!. 

Now I'm not sure my home is NOT like others, there's loads of love, it's tidy (well in all the public places and my bedroom, can't say that about my DH's spaces LOL!), there's lots of homemade freshly cooked food available, 4 boxes full of toys for the grandchildren, but wait I have changed the spare bedroom into a craft room, so it does involve musical bedrooms and a put-u-up bed when we have visitors, but it's worth it to have a room totally dedicated to crafting that I can leave stuff out in and just shut the door at the end of the day!

NaBloPoMo - 8th November

Has anything traumatic ever happened to you? Describe the scenes surrounding a particular event! - Does being rushed to theatre with an obstructed abdominal hernia count? I suppose so, I'd already had major surgery 4 days previously but was hoping to go home that day, in fact my DH had arrived to pick me up, when all hell let loose and I was very poorly, quite quickly with terrible abdominal pains. Having eaten my breakfast, this made a GA traumatic to say the least. But I survived, had another 2 nights in hospital and then went home for an extended period of recovery, it took me 8 weeks to get back to work as no driving or lifting for 6 of them!

Burnham on Sea Carnival - 7th November

When we moved to Burnham on Sea seven years ago we had never heard of the seemingly famous winter carnivals that take place in parts of Somerset. There is a carnival circuit in November and the floats are absolutely amazing, the carnival is held at night and all the floats are lit and the participants dressed to impress, coverage of the event is here and I took a few personal photos. My daughter and family came to stay for 2 nights as it was fireworks on Sunday & Carnival on Monday so saved a lot of travelling, but hence no blogging at all, in fact computer was turned off for 48hours LOL!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 The photos on the news site are much better of course!

NaBloPoMo - 7th November

How do you balance your children, relationship, and work life? - Even with a grown up daughter and not working as a teacher anymore I still need to find the right balance between looking after my 2 grandkids, my husband, my home, my art and myself.   

Grandkids take at least 2 days a week (more some weeks), I try to spend some time with my DH, bless him, he's very tolerant of my need to do art and I'm a very lucky girl as I have a whole room devoted to my craft. The home doesn't take much time (I hate housework!), I try to do some art at least 4 times a week, sometimes for a couple of hours, sometimes more, sometimes less, that generally depends on what projects or classes I'm on or if I have deadlines. I work as a volunteer at one of my grandson's primary school (I do cookery classes with small groups of children) and I also help with the school parent association. It seems most of the time there is some kind of balance, but if there's one thing that gets less attention it's probably me as in my health. I have a weight issue and I have severe OSA which is under control as I sleep with a CPAP machine every night.