Green, Green of Home

GREEN!

It's so refreshing to look outside and not see dead grass. The rain we've been getting here California is maaaahvelous, dalink!

My daughters brought these oranges home from their grandparents' when they went up to see their Papaw after their Mamaw passed away. We remember when they planted the tree, bitter sweet.

What my craft desk usually looks like, organized chaos, but without the delicious salad and hot tea. We don't have cable, so I craft while watching Netflix, Acorn or Hulu. We recently signed up for Amazon Primetime as well, so I can really get into the craft zone while doing some serious binge watching.

My daughter Dawn and I opened our 2015 “Happy Jar” and took turns reading the notes aloud. This was the third year we’ve done this, and I highly recommend you try it. Throughout the year, when we remembered, we’d ask other people who were visiting to write a little something as well, so there were a few surprises. (I was so hoping my sister had snuck one in there, but January was a rough month for her and then she was gone.)

It was wonderful reading about the things we felt were important enough to put into writing. We decided to change things up, so Dawn renamed it the Journal Jar. Instead of being tied to one format, we’d like it to be more of a what’s on your mind at the moment sort of thing. I already can’t wait to read the things we’ll be writing about this year.

Passing on the Crafty-Goodness

I have been itching to find the time to post something so it wouldn't look like I've abandoned the blogosphere! On the contrary, I'm trying to educate myself on how to do it better. My first step was to purchase two e-books by Sister Diane of CraftyPod, the podcast & blog all about making stuff.

The first one is Making a Great Blog, A Guide for Creative People, the second is Creating a Blog Audience, An Unconventional Marketing Guide.

Since I haven't been able to read them fully yet, I can't review them for you in-depth right now. I can tell you, however, just from the sections I was able to skim over, along with the many reviews I've read, I am confident I will be able to apply some of Sister Diane's wisdom to my own thing I've got going here. She writes in such a way that it can be easily translated into just about any type of blog.

I discovered Sister Diane through iTunes by subscribing to her audio CraftyPod podcast. My job is such that it allows me to listen to my iPod while scanning the hours away, and Diane's is my all-time favorite, hands-down. I encourage you to give her a listen, I guarantee you will learn something new each time.

Really quickly, a lot of "stuff" has been going on that's kept me way too busy to blog, but I hope to be able to ramble a bit by touching on things such as the loss of a dear friend, my beloved 15-year-old dawg and, on the lighter side, the start of the new hockey season featuring our San Jose Sharks (Gooooooo, Sharks!).

That's it for now. As Sister Diane, one of THE most crafty guru-mentors-most-awesome-human-beings I have had the pleasure of knowing signs-off, "...and in the meantime, craft on!"