New Year’s Hope & Resolutions

Source: abeautifulrippleeffect.com via Breeana on Pinterest

I am pretty lukewarm on New Year’s Resolutions.  Maybe I’m cynical.  They don’t lead anywhere.  On the other hand, it is  good to have a plan.  Here are my loose ideas:

1. Clean the house more regularly: I am a tidier, which is good, but I need to actually clean from time to time.  I like things clean, I just don’t always do it.  Cleanliness is next to Godliness, remember? 🙂

2. Don’t waste so much time on the computer: that includes blogging, Pinterest, and Facebook.  I spent way too much time doing these things in 2012 and it didn’t exactly make me a better person.  It’s okay to do mindless stuff, just not hours upon hours of it.

3. Always leave them wanting more: more food, more talking, more ideas, more Facebook posts.  I have a tendency to over do it.  I talk so much no one is ever left wanting more.  Something to ponder.

4. Eat better: I know I love to eat, and I know I cook pretty well.  Enough.  Eat less.  Eat healthier.  Simple.

5. Worry less, pray more:  I say this every year.  Time to do it.  I say most of these things every year but I do believe I’m getting somewhere and that leads me to my last resolution:

6. Be hopeful!

Happy New Year!

Related articles

• Do You Have a New Year’s Beauty Resolution? (bellasugar.com)
• 3 Financial New Year’s Resolutions to Make for 2013 (askthemoneycoach.com)
• New Year’s Resolutions – think big and eat more chocolate (earlyinitiative.wordpress.com)
• Starting New Year’s Resolutions NOW (recisdempayos.wordpress.com)

Sharing the joy of cooking

Source: desiretoinspire.net via Josephine on Pinterest

I am enamored with cooking.  It is obviously a very old art and a necessary one.  Cooking is survival and love.

With all the fast food and ready-made overly processed food out there, I know that cooking is essential to our survival.  I support cooking in my life and encourage it in others.  Here are a few things I do:

• Give cookbooks as gifts
• Talk about cooking
• Share recipes by email, mail, Pinterest
• Connect with others who love to cook
• Blog about cooking and read food blogs
• Gather, write down, and keep family recipes
• Teach others, especially younger family members, how to cook

Related articles

• Food makes the world go round (thehindu.com)

Gone fishing

Source: etsy.com via Hoodie on Pinterest

 

 

I am not a fisherman, but my cousin George is.  He has a magazine called Kype Magazine.

What’s a kype, you might ask.  I didn’t know.  I had to look it up.  It is the hook on the lower jaw of a mature male salmon.  OK.  So I still don’t get it.  But that’s OK because as I said, I am not a fisherman.  If you are a fisherman, want to be a fisherman, or want to know more about kype, please visit my cousin’s magazine.  Thanks.  🙂

Related articles

• Personalized Gifts for Your Fisherman Father (personalcreations.com)
• Sea to Table: Want Sustainable Seafood? Know Your Fisherman (huffingtonpost.com)
• Gone Fishin’ – in Seattle (apartmentguide.com)
• Halifax seal befriended by fisherman from China (cbc.ca)
• Facing horrific dangers, fishers look for help from the holy sea (smh.com.au)
• Fishing for Kids (personalcreations.com)

 

I said blogroll not cinnamon roll!

Source: myrecipes.com via Gret on Pinterest

 

Just like cinnamon rolls, your blogroll should not be too big to eat.  Overly long blogrolls are intimidating and tiresome.  I would like to keep my blogroll to 10 blogs but that is difficult.  At the moment I have 13.  The number of blogs, and what I choose to feature, changes from time to time.  It’s a fluid process, like life.

My blogroll is a combination of blogs I like, blogs I think you might like, and blogs that are on subjects of interest to me.  It’s not just blogs I follow.  Sometimes I use my blogroll for myself.  For example, there may be a blog that I can’t easily follow (it’s not on WordPress or Facebook).  So I put it on my blogroll for easy access.   I try to update my blogroll from time to time.  My tastes change.  Blogs die.  😦  I hope you will a moment to check out the blogs that look interesting to you and in doing so maybe fin a new blog friend or two.  🙂

Related articles

• Are You On The Blogroll? (petblogsunited.blogspot.com)
• Calling all Bloggers! A link for a link…. (thegrinningskull.wordpress.com)
• Blogroll Contest – The Big Reveal (clownonfire.wordpress.com)
• A Saturday Morning Blogroll Surprise (clownonfire.wordpress.com)

Happy Birthday To Me

Source: via Katie on Pinterest

 

I am 7 years old today.  In dog years.

I love my birthday and plan to have a good day.  Tomorrow I am taking off work and going to the spa.  This weekend I will have a small celebration at home.

I thank God for letting me live 49 years.  I thank him also for my health, my family, and friends!

Here are others that share an October 18th birthday:

Ntozake Shange

Jesse Helms

Chuck Berry

Martina Navratilova

Wynton Marsalis

Esperanza Spalding

Zac Efron

Bristol Palin

Turning my blog into a book

Source: Uploaded by user via Karyl on Pinterest

 

I had a marriage blog called I Love This Husband & Wife Stuff: 365 things I love about being married.  When I got to the 365th thing, I decided to stop.  The blog is still online but I am no longer adding posts.

I wanted some physical record of the blog so I made it into a book on Blog2Print.  It is a personal keepsake.  But I also wanted to make it into a book to sell on Amazon.

I have been working on this book for a few  months.  Whereas writing the blog was mostly fun and exciting, turning the blog into a book is tedious and requires discipline.  I still want to do it but when I sit down to work on it it’s just not fun.  And, I like to have fun!

I guess that’s where commitment and hard work come in.  Just like marriage isn’t always fun, when you want to do something important or good, you have to push though the challenges and difficulties.

There is no substitute for hard work.

Thomas A. Edison

So, that’s where I am now.  I have about 127 pages of text from the blog and I’m about a third of the way through.  Have you converted a blog into a book?  Are you considering it? If you have any tips or encouragement you’d like to share I’d appreciate it.  Thanks.

Related articles

• Can Your Blog Be Made Into a Book? (kdbwriting.com)

Cakespy

Source: cakespy.com via Estela on Pinterest

 

Cakespy is one of my favorite blogs.  It is whimsical, colorful, artistic and all about sweets and fun things.  If you don’t want to smile, please never visit Cakespy.  🙂

Muddy’s Bake Shop

I was in Memphis a few weeks ago and went to Muddy’s Bake Shop with a friend.  I had read about it in Southern Living Magazine and knew it was a “must visit.”  It was an adventure to get there. I thought it would be downtown or in some funky neighborhood. I didn’t expect it to be in a strip mall.  It was a nice strip mall but still.  It just goes to show you that fun places are everywhere.  Keep your eyes open!

I loved it!  It was a cute little place with a great spirit and very sweet staff.  They were kind and engaging and clearly happy in their jobs.  I would LOVE to work at a bakery.  It was light and airy with cute gifts like adorable handmade retro aprons, cool t-shirts and kitchen towels, and other sweet little things.  There was a big portrait of Muddy who was the owner’s Mom or Grandmother.  And then of course, the cupcakes!  It took me so long to decide what to have.  Honestly, about 10 minutes. They had other yummy things too like pudding. pimento cheese spread, lemon bars – you get the picture. I decided on an old-fashioned cupcake which was a chocolate cupcake covered with a marshmallow like white frosting and a cherry.  So yummy.  That icing!  I also had one chocolate chip cookie.  Couldn’t resist.  Then they were giving samples of two cakes.  Turned out they were developing a recipe.  They wanted to know which was better, cherry cake with cherry icing or yellow cake with cherry icing.  I liked the yellow cake with cherry icing. Yes, I tried them both.  I couldn’t let them down! Here are a few pics.  So fun and yummy.

Related articles

• Crave Bake Shop (glutenfreeinga.wordpress.com)

The Beauty of Going Into Work Late

What is blogging?

Image by Barnaby via Flickr

Blogging is like writing a letter to a friend except you don’t know the person you are writing to. In fact, you don’t know if anyone will ever read it.

Blogging is like writing in a journal that gets published across the world.

Blogging is like sitting on the curb talking into space while people walk by ignoring you – yes much like a crazy person.

Blogging is strange.

Blogging is at once super personal and immensely public.

Blogging is kind of dumb.

I wonder how long the phenomenon will last. Both in the world and for me. We all have our goals. For me, I just wanted to try it and have committed to continuing for 1 year. Through blogging I have discovered a few favorite blogs, have experienced a little fun, some connection, practiced writing, and have found some great recipes. And I have shared a lot that may have fallen through the big cyber hole. But that’s ok.