blogging

I had a few people tell me that they are interested in a post about how I blog, and since I like reading this kind of post on other blogs, here you go! I'll also include some tips on commenting and a couple of other things people often ask about, so let's sit down with our tea and have a chat. And if you have any questions, leave a comment!

Pictures. Way back in the beginning, I used to start with words, and almost no pictures. I've since discovered that I love taking pictures and have taken some pretty decent ones. You can see most of the pictures I've ever posted over on my flickr stream. I use two cameras: a little Kodak that I'm comfortable taking to the beach, tossing in the car, and generally doing anything with, and Adam's old Canon 20D, which I'm a little more careful with, since it's his backup camera. I review my pictures in Adobe Bridge and edit and save them in Photoshop. That said, I do not edit very many pictures at all -maybe one in 40- I usually only resize them. And the ones that I do edit will only typically get brightened up a bit or colour corrected. It's much easier to take the right picture in the first place than to spend time trying to make it what what it should have been, later on. I take all of the pictures on my blog unless the post clearly says that they're someone else's. That doesn't happen often - usually the occasional photo that Adam's taken of the boys. I save my resized pictures in folders organized by month, and post them to flickr after I've posted them on the blog. (I'm just noticing that the edges seem to be cut off of some of my posted pictures. Hmm. Must sort that out.) There. I think that's about it for pictures!

I have a few 'blogging rules' that work for me.

1. Never post that you're sorry it's been so long since you last posted, you're such a bad blogger, etc. If someone cares, they'll unsubscribe. And if not, they probably don't want to hear your apologies.
2. No schedule. I very intentionally don't do 'Wordless Wednesday', 'Meatless Monday', or any other scheduled blogging. That would absolutely not work for me. When life gets crazy, it's okay if I don't post for 6 days, and when I have lots to share and post every day for a few days, that's fine, too.
3. I try to write as I think, as long as it's semi-choerent (that might be up for debate). I don't follow any particular 'format'; I just try to include a pretty picture or two and some text.
4. Absolutely no income or ads - I do this solely for fun, and I can do exactly what I want.

I've been asked about commenting on posts several times. And in the hopes that some of you who I know read along will now be able to comment, here's what to do!
1. Below each post, there's a line that says '__ comments'. It might be '1 comment', '3 comments', whatever. Click on that.
2. Type your comment in the little window underneath where it says 'post a comment'. (Don't forget to sign your comment if you want me to know who you are, and you're choosing anonymous!)
3. Underneath that, it says 'comment as', and there's a drop-down menu to the right of that. Click on it to drop it down, and choose 'anonymous' if you don't want to use a Google account or any of the other options. Then click 'post comment'. Ta-da!

Links in posts: If text in a post is coloured and /or underlined, it's a link to another blog, website, etc. Just click on that word to see more. For example,
Adam took some sweet pictures of the boys while I was away.
Click on 'Adam' above and it will take you to his main site. Click on 'some sweet picture of the boys' above and it will take you to his post of the pictures. And you should look - they're fabulous.

There! I hope that's been helpful. Let me know if you have any more questions - I'd be happy to answer. And don't you love the pottery tray? I bought it at Value Village in Saint John awhile back, and only realized after I brought it home that it was made by someone with the same name (different spelling) as me!