I shopped around for a new internet home for quite a while.

I packed my bags.

I painted the walls.

Finally, it’s time to make the move to the new place.

All of the archives are there, although I can’t guarantee there aren’t broken links.

This blog will be here for a while, to give people time to find their way over. Then it will start to redirect, and eventually maybe it will even go away altogether.

I hope you’ll join me at the new blog. It fits me so much better now than this one does. This isn’t goodbye. It’s a new beginning.

Photo Credit: trickhips

Thanks to Trop 50 for sponsoring my writing about fabulous bloggers. This year Trop50 is granting 50 fabulous wishes. Click here to enter for a chance to win $1,000 to help grant a friend’s wish!

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Remember in the time before e-readers when you read your favorite books over and over, and they became worn and dog-eared from being repeatedly handled and loved? Some blogs are like that for me. The nice thing about great blogs versus treasured books is that you don’t reach the end; there’s always something new in the next post. Narrowing my favorites down to five was difficult because there are so many of you out there that I love. In the end I chose five blogs that inspire me to be better; better at being true to myself, a better writer, a better communicator, and a better photographer.

Miss Britt

It doesn’t matter whether Britt is writing about her adventures in cooking, the truth about marriage counseling, or helping you face your fears, Britt has the unique ability to put you right there in the moment with her. You will find yourself nodding and maybe even saying “yes, YES!” as you read, because even though you may not have experienced exactly what she’s talking about, chances are you can relate it to your life in some way. Britt recently restyled her personal blog into one of inspiration, where she shares her journey along the road to discovering and realizing her passions while encouraging her readers to do the same, and I find myself more motivated than ever to find ways to incorporate those things that feed my soul into my daily life.

Faiqa

Faiqa makes me think. About everything. As her “about” section explains, she wants to help both her readers and herself find the answers to the questions they might be too afraid to ask of people who seem very different from them. She tackles the difficult subjects with a grace that I admire and wish I could achieve myself. Not only is she a talented writer, it turns out she’s a great speaker as well. Take a moment to listen to the piece she wrote thanking her husband for the sacrifice he made for their family by becoming an American citizen.

Jane Devin

Jane Devin’s writing is a recent discovery for me. I found her through Twitter (thank you Twitter!) when someone shared her post about why Snooki’s book deal was a slap in the face to those for whom writing is a passion and a craft finely honed through years of hard work. Jane’s writing takes my breath away. Her words aren’t always hearts and flowers, but they will surely make you feel. They will shine a light in the dark places in people’s hearts that maybe you don’t often want to think about, and they will tell you that you are not alone.

Hyperbole and a Half

Hyperbole and a Half is brilliant. Allie’s stories and drawings are something I look forward to with anticipation. It’s one of those blogs that, if you read it at work, you are in danger of laughing out loud at your desk and you will be forced to forward it to all of your coworkers or they will never stop bugging you. It only takes one reading of the God of Cake to learn that you need to set all beverages out of reach before reading. This post about moving with dogs is one of my favorites because my little Coco Bean is the personification (dogification? let’s go with embodiment) of the simple dog.

MCP Actions Blog

This is another new-to-me blog on which I can spend hours falling down the rabbit hole of the archives. I have just started experimenting with Photoshop actions and this site is a great resource, not only for tips and tutorials but also for fabulous action packages to purchase. I have enjoyed checking out the featured photos from this year’s Project 52, and am considering joining it if I can fit it in my schedule.

There are so many truly great blogs out there, but I could only choose five. Which blogs are your favorites, the ones you read without fail?

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Don’t forget to enter the 50 Fabulous Wishes contest for a chance to win $1,000 to support a friend’s wish. I was selected for this Tropicana Trop50 sponsorship by the Clever Girls Collective, which endorses
Blog With Integrity, as I do. I received compensation to use and facilitate my post.

I’m over here today! Come see my funky shoes!

Yesterday I was at No More Muffintop talking crazy talk about Triathlons.

Parsley, Sage, Rosemary & Thyme: I finally planted my herbs!  It seems like the cold weather has gone on forever, and I didn’t want to plant them only to have them freeze so I waited.  Hubs and I mixed up a lovely concoction of soil, compost, manure, and peat and I planted them.  It makes me happy to have fresh herbs growing outside my kitchen window.  I still need to get some tomato plants, but that and some flowers are going to be the extent of my gardening this year.  I’m just too busy and I’m concentrating on other things.

Alone Again, Naturally: Hubs is gone again for the week.  I have to say I’m not a fan of out-of-town jobs.  We work together, so we are together ALL the time.  Most people would hate that, but we’ve made it work.  This? Is the opposite of that.  I know there are people who do this all the time and it works for them, but I used to be a military wife and would go through this for months on end.  I’ve done my time.

9 to 5: Speaking of work, Staycation is over and I’m going back to work tomorrow.  I’m not looking forward to mucking out my in-box, but I have to say that deleting my work email account from my phone during vacation was the best plan ever.  I actually took time  off without looking at or thinking about work stuff.  I highly recommend doing that if you’re going on vacation and your personal phone is also used for work.

10: The first three months of the fitness plan are over and I crossed over the 10% mark this weekend.  If you’ve ever done Weight Watcher’s you’ll know what I’m talking about.  They give you a key chain for losing the first 10% of your starting weight, and old habits die hard.  It’s a milestone I’ve been looking forward to for the past few weeks when the scale seemed to have a mind of it’s own, so it was nice to reach it at the 12 week mark.  It seems to tie everything up neatly with a bow.   Now I just have to do it 3 more times, but I’m not looking at the big picture right now.  Smaller goals like this keep me going.

Help:  Avitable posted a story about Mindy this weekend and she needs our help.  Please go read her story.  Anything you can do will help.  I know you may see this on many blogs across the internet, but that’s one of the best things about blogging – the ability to get the word out when necessary.

Have a great week everyone!

What do you do when you have become an infrequent blog poster?  Why you start a new blog, of course!  Check out my new photo blog when you have a chance.  It’s something I’ve been wanting to do for quite a while, and this weekend the sudden snowstorm gave me the chance to finally work the kinks out of the it.  There are still a few tweaks I want do, but the basics are there.

I’m just going to say it.  I’ve been struggling.

These past couple of months have been hard, in several different ways that I’m not going to talk about because I’m not a sharer like that.  It’s enough that they have been hard.

My struggle hasn’t so much been with the parts that have been hard, but with the dilemma of how to react to them in ways that would make them not be so hard now and in the future.  One of those reactions has involved what to do with this space, because clearly I’m not using it effectively anymore, if I ever did at all.

Things are changing.  I’m changing.  Again.  Well, I should say still because the one thing that is always constant is change, right?  I have toyed with the idea of just stopping with the blog, but that doesn’t seem to be the right thing.  I’ve done that before and missed it terribly.  So I will continue in this sporadic, maybe even somewhat anemic, fashion until things become more clear.

But I need to step away from a few things.  I am in this mood to circle my wagons, to draw my few close peoples very close around me, and hunker down in a cave for a while.   Because if there’s one thing I’ve learned lately it’s who my friends really are.  And also that I have reached a zero tolerance level for bullshit and facades.

I don’t know why I feel compelled to even make this statement, other than the fact that when people disappear for a while without some sort of notice it never goes well upon re-entry.

Not that I plan on disappearing, per-se.  Just that I plan to not be around as much.  I am limiting my online time because there’s no internet connection in the middle of the cave, yo.  I’ll still be reading, I’m just going to be quieter about it because lately I don’t have a lot to say, and what I do have to say right now is not always what people want to hear.

So I’ll be here, sometimes.  The rest of the time I’ll be working out my shit.  Send me an email or catch me on Twitter or Facebook.

Avitable posted his Rules of Blogging the other day, and since I dig rules I thought it was such a great idea I snatched it right up.

1. I will not post every day.  When I had a different blog I tried to post daily and I ended up resorting to drivel or laundry lists of what I ate for lunch.  That’s not interesting.
2. I don’t feel bad for going over a week without posting because I’m more interested in posting something that I want to share with you instead of just throwing up a post to fill space.  That’s not to say that I don’t admire daily posters, nor does it say that I think they sometimes throw something up to fill space.  I’m saying that’s what I would end up doing if I committed to being a daily poster.  There’s a difference.
3. It takes a lot for me to comment on new blogs.  I don’t know why, except that I’m shy that way.  I know this isn’t the case, but it feels like crashing a party for me.  Once I do, though, I will usually continue except in the cases where I get the smackdown for what I have to say.  Disagreement is one thing; lambasting a commenter is another.  I won’t go back when I’ve been lambasted or ridiculed for my opinion.
4. I try not to post comments that don’t really say anything.  If I don’t feel I’m contributing somehow, even if it’s just to let that person know that I’m thinking of them during a hard time, I don’t comment.
5. I read and comment on blogs that don’t read mine.  Conversely, I don’t read/comment on some that do read mine.  I read what interests me, and I expect that others will do the same.
6. I don’t mind new post updates on Twitter.  I’ve found several great new reads that way.
7. My voice is my own.  I may write similarly to other people, but that is purely coincidental.  I write the way I talk, and that includes incomplete or run-on sentences, made up words, and starting a sentence with the word “and.”
8. Just because I don’t always follow the rules of polite grammar doesn’t mean I don’t know them.  I choose to make this space an extension and expression of my personality, and not a writing project.
9. I rarely edit.  I don’t (generally) do drafts.  I will go back and read through once or twice to try to catch spelling and glaring grammar errors, but I don’t re-write much.  That drove my professors nuts.  “Just because you can bang it out in one sitting doesn’t mean you should,” was something I heard more than once.
10. I will do drafts for posts that are written in anger.  When something really pisses me off I tend to go off half-cocked and spew onto the page.  More than once I’ve regretted that later, so now I let those posts percolate in the “drafts” folder until my I can think straight again.  If I still feel the same way I will post it.  This is also the only case I will do re-writes, to soften what I feel needs to be softened or to change the names to protect the guilty.
11. I don’t comment anonymously.  Ever.  Even on Hilly’s Confession Booth.  If I can’t say it under my own name, or my bloggy name in this case, I won’t say it at all.  Period.
12. I don’t write about personal things that would embarrass members of my family or my friends.  Not that I won’t post about my vajayjay if I want to – I mean that I won’t post personal things about them, things that are not necessarily my story to tell.  Friends and family already know that they read at their own risk when it comes to my inner workings.
13. I don’t write about work.
14. I don’t look at FeedBurner stats, or have stat counter programs other than the one that came with my WordPress account.  I don’t even look at that.  I don’t even know what Google Analytical does – I don’t care.  When I start caring I drive myself insane, so I just don’t look.  It’s better for me that way.
15. I do look at search strings because they crack me up.  I also look at the weird phrases spammers put in their comments to try to make it look like a real comment.  Those are especially funny when it’s obvious that English isn’t their first language.
16. I do care about commenters and will try to respond to every comment.  I appreciate the time and effort someone takes to let me know they’re reading and have something to say.  Back in the day I didn’t know how important that was and I alienated some people because I didn’t respond.  I don’t want anyone to leave my blog feeling ignored or unvalued.
17. I don’t like truncated feeds.  I can think of only two blogs that truncate I will bother to click through to read.
18. I swear.  Get over it.
19. I don’t do paid posts, or paid/compensated reviews, or advertise.  I’m not morally opposed to these things, I just don’t want them here.  I don’t plan to ever be cool enough for companies to search me out and throw products my way.  Although if someone wanted to throw me the new Canon 7D I wouldn’t turn it down! (hint hint…)
20. Obvious paid posts in what are supposed to be “personal” blogs bug me, and if I see them frequently I will quit reading.
21. As you can see, I always end up being wordier than I plan at the outset of a post.  Just like I can’t cook for two, I can’t write short, concise entries.  Grab a beer before you sit down.

What are your rules?

Every once in a while you stumble upon a blog that knocks your socks  clean off.  Right now I have a huge girly crush on the Pioneer Woman.  I found her blog through the Smitten Kitchen blog, which you should also peruse if you like yummy photos of yummy food. That’s what I love about blogs – it’s like one long daisy chain that leads you to places you wouldn’t have found on your own.

Pioneer Woman cooks amazing-looking food and tells you all about how to make what she made, she takes amazing photos and has tutorials on that too, and she’s darn funny without swearing at all (unlike me, Princess Pottymouth).  She chronicles life on their ranch with joy and humor, and she’s quite possibly the most positive person I’ve  encountered in a long time.

She has about 80 gabillionty readers and commenters so I don’t usually comment there unless she’s giving away awesome stuff, which she does a lot.  If you have the time and the space in your reader, give her a read.  I’m going to go stalk her photography section archives now.

Check out my new buttons   ———————->>

Aren’t they kewl?

They’re GINORMOUS! I know! Hey, size matters baby.

If you tell me how to get rid of the borders I’ll show you my bewbs.

(It doesn’t count if you tell me borders=0 because I already tried that.)

Last week was a week of learning for me.

Thanks to Miss Britt I learned how to upload photos from my iPhone to flickr and have them post automatically to my  Twitter account.  Now I just need to figure out how to do the mobile photos in the sidebar thingie, but one thing at a time.  I don’t want to rush into things.

I also posted my very first item for sale on eBay.  I haven’t done a lot of buying on eBay either, so I am practically an eBay virgin.  Yes Virginia, there really is a 40-year-old virgin!  Keep your fingers crossed because stuff is something I have a lot of, and I would like to have less of it.  Kind of like my ass.  Less is more.

As a sideline to the flickr posting I may have learned how to post new blog posts in TwitterFeed.  There is the chance that  I will end up posting multiple twats between TwitterFeed and Twitpress and end up with a massive Twitter dumping that sends me into a Ben & Jerry’s tailspin.

I also learned how to let go.  I let go of all my anger, pulled up my big girl panties, and was honest with my Mom about why I reached the point of enough is enough.  Granted, I did it in a letter but that’s because I communicate in letters much better than in person.  I even pulled my maturity out of the closet and let my letter percolate for a while before revising it, toning it down, and then finalizing it.  Usually I let my hot-headedness take over and end up tossing the nuclear football around before my better judgement can kick in, and then I have to go in with the haz-mat team to clean it up.  This time I was able to express the things I needed to without anger, guilt, or blame.

Not bad for one week.  How was your week?