Thoughts About Blogging and a Couple Dishcloths

After posting 2 days in a row after a lengthy absence, I might be getting my blogging mojo back. I started blogging in September 2005 on the Yahoo 360 platform. When they "went off the air" I manually transferred my postings over to blogger and I have been here since May 2008. Unfortunately, blogging has become more of a business and less of a way to become friendly with all sorts of folks. Many of the blogs I had previously looked forward to reading are now defunct. The new generation of blogs are designed to make money; I'm not talking about a few Amazon ads or adsense ads but rather they are storefronts and I feel like I'm reading a salespaper. I'm missing the friendly interaction of friendly people with each other.  I have allowed myself to fall behind on posting things to share with you and if I'm honest with myself, I have contributed to the decline of friendly blogging by not writing posts more often so I am reforming my blogging attitude immediately.

I started out with a plan to show you a couple dishcloths I've finished. Here they are--

No pattern

Bubble Dishcloth Pattern

Take care my friends.
Hugs,

Sharon

Fogless Mirror

Just a Suggestion...

I just want to make a suggestion. Many of the blogs I read have music or sound effects on them. I like most of them. Sometimes, I'm listening to audio books (multi-tasking) when I'm on my computer--multitasking you know. So, I just want to suggest that you can turn off the music and let your readers manually start it. I ended up doing that with mine after a friend suggested it to me. If you were a teen in the 70s, you might like to play my music player. Thanks...

My Blog Won an Award

Clara of Clara's Crochet Room bestowed upon my blog a "Stylish Blogger Award." I'm tickled pink about this. Thank you Clara.

According to the rules, I'm supposed to tell you 7 things about myself that you might not know. Here we go:

1. I'm 54 and wishing I had grandchildren but no sign of that happening. Son #1 and his wife can't have children and son #2 isn't married and says he doesn't want any because kids cost too much money.

2. My chihuahuas, Opi and Nellie Belle, are my babies. Well, maybe you knew about this.

3. I blog to meet new friends and maybe reconnect with old ones. Actually, I blog for myself too and if others like what I put in my blog that's icing on the cake.

4. I am so hooked on the game Cafe World on Face Book that I have burned my real supper because I was too busy with my online cooking. :(

5. I'm thinking about writing a novel--if I can stay off of the Internet long enough. One of my college professors was so impressed with my thesis that she suggested I enlarge it as a book. Unfortunately for me, someone else wrote on the same topic. So, maybe a fictionalized version might work.

6. I don't mind washing clothes. I'll do it all day long and fold them too. I really loathe putting them away. Sometimes I get spacey though and leave clothes in the washer too long and have to rewash them.

7. Last month, I received my first check from adsense. Wooo Hoooo--took me 14 months for enough readers using the google search box on my blog and clicking on google ads. I was so thrilled.


Now I have to pick some blogs to pass this award on to. I'm picking some different-type blogs that I hope you will enjoy reading.

Some impressive blogs in no particular order:


1. Loom Dude Because his blog has me anxious to finish up some ufos so I can take out the knifty knitters again.

2. Posh Pooch Designs Because she has some awesome free patterns for chihuahua accessories.

3. The Old Jarhead Because he posts articles on current events that show various sides of the issues.

4. Ramblin' Southern Woman Because she's down-to-earth and a nice person with similar tastes in crochet projects.

5. USS Houston CA-30 When I was in college, I wrote my thesis on this ship and her crew. They were sunk during WWII and the crew were held as POWs for the duration of the war. I was impressed by the few survivors I was fortunate to meet and I believe their story needs to be remembered.

6. Butterfly Loom--Another crafty thing I want to do after I finish some ufos. Very good video tutorials for butterfly looming.

7. About Amish--I find this interesting to read because there is a large Amish community close to us. Very detailed information about the Amish from an educated source.

I did not choose Clara's blog only because she just received this award and passed it on to me. Her blog is fantastic and a favorite of mine so please drop in and visit her. I'll be sending out notifications to my selections pdq so if you're in the list know that I will be sending you a notice to pick up your award. Hugs to all of you.

Search Amazon.com for blogging

What Do You Look for in a Blog?

When I read blogs and intend to follow them, I look at several things. The first thing is subject matter--does it interest me? Does the writer talk down to the readers or is she even friendly? Is the blog just a "store front" for etsy or other sales venue? Let me explain what I mean.

Subject matter--that should be pretty much self explanatory. The vast majority of the blogs I read are about crocheting. The authors post pictures of their finished projects and usually post what patterns the project was made with. I also enjoy blogs that are about being thrifty--within reason--I may make my own laundry soap but I'm not going to grow my own coffee beans :).

Authors who talk down to their readers. I don't mind if you mention that you have certain talents or educational background. Just don't be a bragger--it is boring to hear someone go on and on about how great they are. Be friendly with how you present yourself and also realize that your way of doing something isn't the only way.

There have been a few blogs that I've read a few times but decided not to continue with because the majority of the posts were illustrations of what was for sale on etsy, ebay or other online store. No matter how cute your blog is, I'm not going to be a "regular" there. You may be saying, "but Sharon Marie, you have adsense ads and Amazon ads on your blog." Yes, that is true but if you notice, I am not selling anything in my posts.

I had been following a couple decorating blogs. They were all about "my house, me, me, me" and I stopped following them. I enjoy reading about your adventures in decorating and commiserating with you over the difficulty in selecting paint colors but when it appears to be a bragging book about what you have then I'm not interested, sorry... Don't care to read blogs that are largely used to promote businesses or products. If I want to read ads, I'll google whatever it is that I'm looking for.

Also appreciate bloggers who ask my opinion. There is no way that I can leave comments for every post I read but I certainly do read the posts on the blogs I follow and often I leave comments when the poster asks a question of the reader--if I have some ideas about the subject matter.

Nothing has happened recently and I'm not upset with anyone or any blog. I just thought it might be interesting to post what I look at before I decided to follow a blog. I follow over 200 blogs (many haven't posted in months so I'm not reading all of them everyday) and I wanted to open a discussion to see what others look for in blogs they follow. So what do you think? What are your ideas? Maybe this discussion can help us improve our blogs... Hope y'all are having a grand weekend. Hugs...

ps--I know that I have to work on being "friendlier" here. I have "people" issues that I'm working on and I do appreciate all of you who visit me here.

Hooked Not Only on Crochet but On Blog Reading Too

I love reading blogs. Since I've started reading blogs, I rarely do the magazine impulse buy at the grocery check-out. This is good--money isn't being spent to toss in the trash or drop in a donation box a few weeks later. Whenever I visit someone's blog, if I see a comment someone left that sounds interesting, intelligent or amusing and I'll visit their blog and soon I'll be scanning comments left for them and before you know it, I'm following a gazillion blogs-lol! I do enjoy them but I often don't have time to leave as many comments as I'd like to. If I don't leave a comment, I still enjoy reading your posts. I have found that many times, I'm reading about the same thing when I visit Crochetville.org and an individual's blog so I may only leave a comment on one place. If I'm visiting someone's blog and I feel compelled to get more information about what I've read there, I will use their google search box and maybe they can earn a few pennies if the writer has google for adsense installed. Anyway, before I started inanely jabbering away, what I wanted to say is that I am now reading 241 BLOGS!


As I was looking for a graphic to put on this post I found this comic that I thought was amusing:

I have a twitter account but rarely go to it, the same with myspace.

Hope all of you are having a great weekend. It's a bit overcast here but it isn't too bad otherwise. The crocheted hat and scarf wearing is having a break today. Hugs...

   

Opened Another Blog

I decided to keep this blog as my family/crochet blog. I opened a new blog to have a place for topics of history, current events and that sort of thing. It is called Little Looks at History. I'm not going to move things from here to there so it's pretty empty right now but I hope you'll stop in every now and then for a visit.

My Blog Won an Award!

I'm pretty excited because my blog won an award! Debi Y. of Hooks, Yarns, Crafts & Gardening selected ME. Now I need to tell you 7 things about myself that you probably don't know.

1. I'm deaf in my left ear and hard of hearing in my right ear. Hearing aids drive me crazy in crowds because noise is very aggravating like fingernails on a chalkboard--those of you in my age category know what that's like :)

2. Because of being a military family, it took me 6 colleges in 4 different states before I was able to get my BA at the ripe old age of 45

3. I was the first granddaughter on my mom's side of the family and my maternal grandmother and I shared the same birthday.

4. I'm a very introverted person, kind of a loner but blogging is bringing me out of my shell.

5. I'm becoming self-conscious in my old age about grammar and punctuation. I know I still make many mistakes but I sometimes lookup things such as "Does a period go inside of parentheses or outside?"

6. I'm a Facebook addict--especially the game Cafe World.

7. I'm older than my husband. Used to bother me until he turned gray and I started dying my hair!

Now I need to pass this on to a few other deserving bloggers. This is a tough decision because there are so many blogs I read. I'll do my best here and keep it to crochet and craft-type blogs.

• Attic 24 
• Handmade by Mother
• Enthusiatic Crochetoholic
• Ramblin' Southern Woman
• The Adventures of the Gingerbread Lady

If I understand the rules, winners should post the award on their blog, tell 7 things about themselves that aren't comonly known in blogland, and select blogs to pass the award on to. I chose 5 blogs because Debi did.

A Few Thoughts on Blogging...

I've been thinking about how I blog and post comments to other peoples blogs.  I use a lot of exclamation points  for one thing.  Why do I do that?  I think that I want to people to know that I want to be a little humorous, excited or impressed and not sarcastic or a smartypants.  That's the same reason I type lol or  some version of :).  All these little things seem to be rather "goofy" for lack of a better word coming to mind.

Another thing I often do is go back and edit my posts if I see a misspelled word or lack of an apostrophe to show the possessive version of a word.  I don't care to have folks around the globe think I'm illiterate!!! :) lol!!!

What do you think--is this goofy?!!!