Friday Friday

How long do you think that I can get away with these pedestrian amazing  titles? 😉
I do love Emojis. Have you found yours yet? Thanks to Pam at Playing With My Camera for pointing them out. They are at the top of your compose page between insert a video and insert a jump break. Not only Emoji, but all sorts of symbols. I won't have to make any more dividers. Yay!
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So it's been a good week. Mostly a good week. My poor tenants...the furnace went down. Not good, but it will be fixed before the ☃  comes. (You'll be happy to know that the furnace is already fixed. 😌) What? Too much with the Emoji?
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The mailman brought some wonderful packages on Wednesday. This was my favorite from my friend Rosella at Rhubarb and Roses. 

 Amazing gifts. Whatever gave Rosella the idea that I like love candy? Coffee Crisps, KitKat Chunkies, and what  is that? A Mint Smoothie in the beautiful gold package?

Does it look as delicious as it tasted? I hope so. Man! That Mint Smoothie from Rhéo Thompson was seriously creamy and heavenly.
 I went to the cemetery Wednesday to plant the tulip bulbs taking advantage of the mild weather. This entire autumn has been a huge blessing  and this week is no exception with temps at or near 60F each day. Anyway, Canada will celebrate her 150th birthday next year and there will be tulips blooming from sea to sea and all over the place in celebration, including my Canadian mama's grave. Thank you so much, my dear Rosella. I am mailing out a thank-you card today. Let's see how long it takes to arrive. 
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Fading and getting a little skimpy, but still here!
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Yes, I have been shopping on QVC. Christmas is coming and it came for me on the same day that my Rosella package arrived. 

Pretty Packaging...

I have not had new makeup in years. It was time. The last time I purchased an entire collection was in college...Mary Kay...some 💋💇👸💁💦💨💟 years ago. I still love Mary Kay, but this collection was a whole lot less expensive and it goes on a whole lot faster.

 ~A~

Aside from the squirrel-nibbled eyebrows, I think the make-up looks pretty good. 

~B~
Now here's a question for you...which of these "selfies" into a mirror do you prefer? A or B? I have a reason for asking...
I've gained some weight (lost some, too) in the years I've been blogging. The photo below, also taken into the mirror, was one of the first shared, circa 2007 or 2008.

I was trying to decide if I liked the perm.

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My darlings were here this week. Yes, there were cookies in the can. I think I have this figured out now. There were no comments about how much they don't like my house now that John is not here. It's not easy, but we're finding our way, slowly and some days are better than others. So many have recently told me how much they've been praying for us. Thank you. Your prayers have been a great blessing. I can feel them. I truly can. 
Catch you in a few; hopefully before Thanksgiving.

P.S. And it was the week of the Super Moon so I'm tossing in my best photo of it. 🌕 I sure have enjoyed seeing some wonderful Super Moon photos in Blogdom this week.
Edited to Add Sunday evening: 

And I see that a majority of you agree with me! Thanks so much for playing along. I realize now that such things are highly subjective and my heart was blessed when some metioned that they liked seeing my wedding ring in photo A. That's as good a reason as any to like a photo. I may have to switch to Photo A myself based on that criteria. As you can tell by the clock, the time between photos was mere seconds so there's no accounting for lighting, etc., as I made only one change (that I was aware of) and that was to shift the direction of my gaze.

Stuff and Things

In the spirit of sharing and paying tribute to the theme of Enchanted April, I thought I'd link to some of the tricks/tools I use. There may be no cohesiveness in these offerings at all so prepare yourself for whiplash.☺

Source   Every now and then I need a photo not having one of my own that'll work. I go to Photopin and usually find just what I need. One still needs to check for licensing, but this one was free to use without constraints as long as there was a link back.

Source This has been shared here before but it was so long ago and I love how fun this is!
This is another resource of books that I sometimes don't remember: Source — Oh look — The Enchanted April!
A teaser...

Frederick had been the kind of husband whose wife betakes herself early to the feet of God. From him to them had been a short though painful step. It seemed short to her in retrospect, but it had really taken the whole of the first year of their marriage, and every inch of the way had been a struggle, and every inch of it was stained, she felt at the time, with her heart's blood. All that was over now. She had long since found peace. And Frederick, from her passionately loved bridegroom, from her worshipped young husband, had become second only to God on her list of duties and forbearances. There he hung, the second in importance, a bloodless thing bled white by her prayers. For years she had been able to be happy only by forgetting happiness. She wanted to stay like that. She wanted to shut out everything that would remind her of beautiful things, that might set her off again long, desiring . . .

~Mrs. Arbuthnut (chapter 1)~ 

Have a favorite author? You may just find wonderful resources containing his/her advice. In this case, the advise comes in the form of letters from one of my favorites: Letters of Note~C.S. Lewis on writing.

Here's some practical stuff like knowing how to create en dashes, em dashes, fractions, and ☺: Source 
That should keep you plenty busy for now. Have a blessed weekend and I promise never rarely to mention ♥Enchanted April♥ again.

Kid's Apron and Fairy Blog Mother Tip

Last Saturday, I don't know how Kim or I ever got a thing done because we were having fun chatting back and forth via email about aprons. She had written this Apron Inspirations post and mentioned how she would test a pattern. Well that led to my testing a pattern and pretty soon, I was back in the apron business.     

I have made a kid's apron before, but *the kid didn't care for it. It didn't have an adjustable neck and it was uncomfortable to take off over his head. This apron eliminates that little problem and will hopefully grow with him for a few years. This is made from half a tea towel. I modified the front to three inches on either side of the dividing line and six inches on the sides. I used the following video tutorials from the Missouri Quilt Company.    Apron Tutorial pt 1 Apron Tutorial pt 2 (Jenny showed the process for an adult apron without mentioning the changes for a kid's apron. Wrong. She mentions it on the PDF download *here.* And I was off by an inch. It should be three inches and seven inches.)
*Oh dear. "The Kid" still doesn't care for it. "Nonni, this makes me feel like a baby. I am seven!" I took a deep breath and moved on to Plan B: some other darling will wear this apron. 
~~~
My fairy blog mother Linda visited over the weekend and made a suggestion that I loved once I understood what she was saying. She mentioned that my background was not covering the width of her computer. Now I had always noticed that I couldn't see the background on my iPad, but since I could see it on my PC, I didn't think I needed to try what she was recommending. Then I changed my mind deciding that if some could and some couldn't, what difference did it make if I tried to make it better. Besides, Linda makes it so easy to understand.  
Anywho, Linda has an easy solution and you'll find it in her tutorials *on her sidebar.* It's called How to Make Your Background Wider. And the side bonus for me was that I can now see my background on my iPad. I like that. Don't forget to look around at the other tutorials —— they're good ones!
Thank you, Fairy Blog Mother!
Have you ever made an apron? Do you have a favorite? Why? Tell me about it. Oh, can you see your background on your iPad?

Of Graphics and Backgrounds and Such

The email read something like this: Thank goodness you got rid of that old, brown background with the musical notes. It was depressing!
Got rid of? Depressing? I had not gotten rid of anything and I had no idea that anyone found whatever I had not gotten rid of "depressing." I really loved it. Really loved it.
So I left my iPad and fired up the PC and, sure enough, the background was gone and the little icon to Shabby Blogs was broken. I don't know what happened to Shabby Blogs; I do know that the owner had put the site up for sale. I hope that it will be back. 
In the meantime, my friend thoughtfully included two links to background sites: *The Digital Bakery* (the background I am using comes from there)and *Vintage Made for You.*
Yesterday, she sent me this funny, which I have already shared with some of you. I know that you might wish to stick in your own state or province.

Obviously, Charlie is visiting a "green" state. Ha!

Just to prove that we are in need of a little humor here...

~taken 3-22-2014~

We never know when "the luge" will be too slippery to use. It's a day by day thing lately. Today it will be too slippery, but Saturday afternoon, after three inches of snow fell, it was great. The boys talked their dad into bringing them over so they could have more time on the hill. How they have enjoyed that thing! And, good news for them, looks as if a rather large storm is on its way. Sigh.

Lastly, I would be remiss if I did not say a thank you to my dear friend Karen Harvey Cox at A Scrapbook of Inspiration for this darling little graphic made for me. It is so adorable; I love it!

As you can see, I'm using it for my "home" button. By the way, do you have a "home" page or button or something that allows your readers to return to your home page without having to scroll all the way to the bottom? 

My friend is not the only one who can stick her oar in. 

A great week to you!

P.S. For all you birthday girls out there... This was in my sister's email one day recently

~in my imagination~

My Fairy Blog Mother

 
As you can see, I had a Fairy Blog Mother busily working away since I was last here. She has done such a lot of tidying up and getting things back to working order. Her name is Linda and she blogs at *Life and Linda.* It's a beautiful blog as you might imagine. I have seen a number of blogs around Blogdom of late that she has worked with and was most impressed, yet it was visiting her own blog that cinched it for me. If you ever need help, tell her I sent you!
So autumn has arrived while I was fussing over less lovely things... 

~farmstand on Sunday afternoon last~

 ~china cabinet top decor built around *Catherine Holman* print~

My grandmother's tea pot with the sweet little house. (I broke the lid while visiting her one day.)  A beautiful day to you...thank you for putting up with me!

Tying Up At Least One Loose End

Thank you so much for another fun Note Card Party! Do you find yourself wandering around in your archives and getting a bit lost there? I do. It's rather like a search through Grandmother's Attic, which I used to love to do...achoo...pardon me. 

~~~

Speaking of Grandmother's Attic, this is my final post on kitchens for a while. I'm rather sick of them, especially mine. Sometimes, mine even turns my stomach. Ha! Anywho, I'm not always fair with my readers. As my mother once said, "How you make this little dump look so good cracks me up." True. She said that or something very close. 

I do it this way — I show you this, which is bad enough ↓

rather than that...↑

Let's try that again. This...↓

And not that...↑

One last time... ↓

And not that↑

This post is dedicated to Ceekay who stamped her foot so cutely during her tantrum on the 14th that I had to indulge her a little. 

Have a super day! It's a corker here and I'm mowing the lawn. What a way to spend the final day of spring.

What's in the Numbers?

Today I promised to share what I've learned about the stats for this place. I did not promise to share the actual stats. They're nothing to write home about, folks. They have ticked up slowly and steadily over the past five years, which is nice and really all that I expected. 

I'm not building an empire here. I just want a "home away from home" where I can share some thoughts (though I've learned which ones not to share), share some recipes (though there are many who do that so well), share some crafts (ditto), share some photos (ditto), practice writing skills (oh do I need practice), and enjoy getting to know people from many different corners.

Remember, these points are what I have learned here. I have no idea if they would be what you learn there. So we're off —

1. Titles must not only be informative, but catchy. We hear it all the time and it can be proven. When I don't have a good title, my stats drop. I can tell that it's going to happen and sometimes still can't do any better for myself than some of the lame titles I've used. I think about titles a lot. There are some of you out there who remember that $ex in the Garden post. Ahem... Well, let's just say, I had a lot of visitors that day and learned a good lesson.

~A custard dish filled with juicy, cold watermelon and eaten using a pickle fork because pickle forks are sharp~

2. A pretty picture is far better than a "keeping it real" one, especially if it's first up. I try to plan accordingly. Not pretty? Not as many people. Period. Just think what would have happened if I reversed the order of the photos today.

3. There is no correlation between number of visitors and comments. I have had very high numbers with low comments and, alternately, high comments with low visitor numbers. We can let it go at last. I'll say it again—just because there are a lot of comments does NOT mean that there were any more visitors than usual and vice versa.

4. Some days of the week are best for visitors. My best days? Tuesdays and Thursdays. I don't know about your best days. Saturdays used to be horribly bad and are now in third place.

5. Variety really is the spice of life. This is true for me across the board and for all areas including word count. When I use a lot of words and no pictures (or few pictures), I'll have more visitors than if I use a lot of words AND a lot of pictures. I try not to do two posts in a row that are about the same length or that have about the same number of photos or that are about the same topic. (If you read here, you know that I've failed on this a few times even lately. I'm still learning.) My goal is to alternate between word dense and photo dense. Of course, I always aim for pithy.

6. Many people who land here do not read my posts. Time is precious. There's a lot of great material out there. I'm considering selling Cliff Notes for A Haven for Vee in my Etsy store because there will be a test. Well, if I had an Etsy store or a test. =D

7. You can know

a. where your readers are from (what state-what country)
b. how they reached you
c. how long they stayed with you (don't be tricked by those one hour visits if the reader stayed on one page...that one was just plain stuck...probably off doing dishes... definitely not reading the blog)
d. where they went when they left
e. how interested they were in your photos
f. if they followed your links.
g. if the same readers are returning even if they never comment
h. which posts are the most popular
i. which ones have been pinned
j. which blog sends you the most traffic — Thanks, Judy! ♥

8. If you have an upsetting visitor, you can learn that person's IP number (his or her address on the internet). In fact, I highly recommend it. Take a photo, keep a record.

9. I have learned not to fret over the inevitable ups and downs. If I have an opportunity to go and do, I will. In doing so, I will have chosen the better part. I do not become grief-stricken if the numbers tank. It's really only when they reach zero that I become distraught.

~Sob~

In all fairness, Site Meter, a free online service and my favorite stats program, has been having troubles changing servers. Many bloggers are unaffected; I happen to be one of the affected ones. Perhaps afflicted is a better term term. < insert a twitch >

10. Time of posting matters. Apparently, I have trained my readers to expect a post between 7 and 8 am. If I'm tardy, the numbers will be down enough for me to know the reason. It probably has to do with work schedules or something.

11. Finally, the most important thing I learned about stats came in the form of a comment from Abby just two days ago: "I'm here ~ not just a stat but your friend."

If you read all the way through this post, you deserve a medal. Thanks so much. Questions? 

An Odd Assortment of Topics

Another chatty little post where I pretend that I have something to say, but actually don't. Nothing. Zip.

Wait! I do want to thank you for the sweet comments yesterday. John rarely reads here anymore so he has no idea all the sweet things we said about him, but if he did, he'd be touched and surprised.

No, he doesn't read the blog much anymore. He says that I write funny. (I talk funny, too.) It's all the incomplete sentences and one word thoughts...and my penchant for using the ellipsis...and whatever else that annoys a reader. Pardon me while I sniff a little. *sniff* There. All done with that.

Did you notice the Note Card Party announcement is back at the top of the sidebar? That's because months whirl away on us so quickly and next week, next week, will be the 18th  (third Wednesday of July). Hope that this gives you time to ponder what you'd like your note card set "theme" to be. I have. A little. Maybe.

(Edited to Add: Michele asked a good question: Do we have to have a theme? Answer: No, as long as you select only 4 photos, you can mix apples and oranges with abandon. ☺)

Some of you have been dealing with my entreaties to release the word verifications. I'm not naming any names, though there are quite a few. When it was a mere suggestion sitting in the sidebar, nothing happened. When I made it personal and asked those favorite bloggers if they could please do something about it, they responded in the affirmative across the board. It has really made me happy and I want to thank you again. Now this is a new concept for me to be direct and just ask.

For those who don't know, you can find your settings following this path if you're using the new interface:

Design at top of home page
Settings at left of page
Post and Comments-listed second
Show Word Verification- yes or no option (Please choose no. I'm not ashamed to beg.)

To manage your comments (and to report as spam)

Design at top of home page
Comments at left of page (you'll see a menu and button options)

It's very easy to handle unwelcome comments these days.

Have a wonderful day...

Keeping a Blog Private

Bless you, bless you, bless you to those who rose to the challenge of answering yesterday's question. Your varied responses prove that there is more than one way to do a thing. Lovella answered in the simplest of ways and I'm sharing her response up front:

The new private blog which is unseen at all is easy peasy. In your edit profile ..simply unclick the blog you do not want to be visible on your profile. I am not sure if that is what you mean but from what I can tell you want it completely invisible. . .for only family to read. You would give them permissions in the permission slot.

Edit Profile is found in the Dashboard Section

Several options are listed

Including which blogs to display

As you can see, I have two blogs. *I decided to show only one on my profile. As Lovella says, "easy peasy." Thank you, Lovella!

Now all of the above was for those of you who, like me, didn't know. Go forth and create a private blog...oh the possibilities!

***

In other news, my hands have seized up after all that crocheting so I'm all done with that for a while. I managed to move forward instead of in circles on the tiramisu blanket mentioned yesterday and now have a little white number suitable for John's little great-granddaughter's baby doll. It's kind of cute, but has a few minor issues the largest of which is that I changed the pattern. Still that edging and the woven ribbon are what make it for me. Some fine day, when my hands have calmed down, I'll get back to doing it properly.

Whatever am I going to talk about now that I can't discuss crocheting? ☺