Orange you glad I didn’t say banana?

Tags

annoying joke, blog makeover, Bold, Diana Schwenk, easier to read, Hump Day Chronicles, learning, new chapter, new look, Orange, self-discovery, team dynamics, WordPress

First Things First

I have a new look! Well not me exactly. My blog. Some of you already noticed the change. Leave it to me to introduce it 3 days after it’s live, right?

I like the Orange TALKTODIANA. I once did that True Colours personality test and I’m an orange. It’s a bold colour – it says, “Hey – look at me!”

Don’t you think?

I like the cleaner easier-to-read font. My eyesight has waned and this WordPress theme has more white space making the letters easier to distinguish from each other. It’s also way more discernible where links are concerned – which will be AWESOME for my Friday Picks!

I like how it features photos I’ve used in past posts.

It seems fitting – a new look for a new chapter in my life.

Friends I have had an incredible year of learning and self-discovery. Who says you can’t teach an old dog new tricks?

In this last year I have had an opportunity to work with six intelligent, professional, dedicated and passionate people. I’ve learned more than I ever could have imagined possible. I have a great deal of respect for them. Did we always see eye-to-eye? No. It wasn’t all sugar and bliss. Sometimes I was even frustrated. Hey, I’m sure they all felt the same way too at times.

The truth is, if we all agreed all the time, well then, a whole lot of us probably wouldn’t be necessary, right? Shouldn’t the end goal always be to get the best result or product while honouring and respecting the process and people?

The process of figuring out how I fit into an already established team and armed with valuable feedback and insights, I am looking forward to a time of evaluating and re-assessing where my skills and natural abilities will be of good use.

Starting today, I will be very intentional about devoting time to the development of a plan that will guide me into the future. I’m excited. I’m ready for the next chapter! Stay tuned for updates!

I’m very open to your thoughts and insights as I take these first steps. So if you have any wisdom to share, I’d love to hear it.

And now completely of topic and out of left field…

My mom made this Japanese needlework (Bunka) and gifted it to me a few years ago. Imagine my surprise when I saw this same art (the first photo in her post) hanging on stuff I tell my sister’s wall!

 

~ HUMP DAY CHRONICLES ~

Orange you glad I didn’t say banana?

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My One Year Anniversary on WordPress – Wow!

Tags

community, Diana Schwenk, One Year of Blogging, stories, thank you, WordPress, writing

WordPress notified me this morning that I’ve been blogging for a year!

And I am feeling grateful today.

Random Photo: Doing my part to bring sexy back to ATVing clothing…

Grateful that I have this site to unleash my words upon.

Grateful that I have met so many awesome people around the world.

Grateful for my faithful readers (YOU).

You have taught me so much in your thoughtful comments and provocative posts.

One year. Wow! Where did the time go?

In the beginning…

Originally I was posting every day. And one day a friend told me I would run out of things to say every day and I did!

Right after she said that!

It’s funny how that happens.

So I cut myself a break and decided to post only on Sundays (Diana’s Enormous Book of Quotes) and Wednesdays (Hump Day Chronicles)

Shortly after that, after having received several nominations for awards and feeling incredibly overwhelmed by all the work it is to accept these awards, I started up my Friday Pick as a way to highlight one post I had enjoyed that past week.

Statistics

My most read post has been: What are you doing to build community? with 1,143 views.

The top 3 countries to view my posts have been USA 6,474, Canada 4,781 and Australia 1,123 and there have been hundreds of people from other countries, some I’d never heard of, who have stopped by to visit!

My top 3 commenters are: Artsifrtsy at the eff stop, Wyrd Smythe at Logos con carne and billgncs at bwthoughts and they, along with all my other blogging friends, have become such a wonderful blessing to me.

Thank you

I just want to say a great big Thank You to all of you who have shared my journey and yours with me and have made me laugh, have encouraged me when I felt vulnerable, and who have changed my perspective on the world through sharing your beautiful stories and insights with me.

Thank you to WordPress for this awesome blogging site. I was looking for a place to share my thoughts. I found that here. But I found much more – I found a wonderful online community of beautiful people.

And now for something totally different

Tags

blogging, communicate, community, Diana Schwenk, Freshly Pressed, larger audience, Reader's Choice, Slapppshot, SuperStar Blogger, WordPress

Every now and then I head on over to the Freshly Pressed tab.

Heck, that’s where I found and followed some of you!

I love how surprised most of you were – and each of you deserved that limelight as far as I am concerned!

Some of us who have never been freshly pressed hang on to the hope that one day it could happen to us. I once dreamt that I had been freshly pressed and was totally overwhelmed with all the comments flooding my inbox!

~

If you’ve been following my blog, you already know that I feature someone’s blog every week on My Friday Pick. Recently when I did so, the featured blogger told me that he felt as though he’d been freshly pressed. I flippantly responded with something like ‘hardly’ and he immediately shot back with, “…it means more coming from someone who knows me…”

Well hang on to your hats kids!

There’s something new in the blogosphere and it’s a way for you to showcase your own work.

A way for you to share with a larger audience the work you are most proud of while sharing the post of another that you’ve thoroughly enjoyed.

Let me explain…

Several months ago, Slapppshot invited all his followers to post, not necessarily their most read post, but their personal favourite post. Check it out here!

I thought this was a most wonderful idea and very generous of him to do so. I pasted a link to a post  where I had written about the true definition of wealth in his comment section.

Well wouldn’t you know it. Reader’s Choice came along and spotted the post on Slapppshot’s blog with all its submissions and thought it was a great idea.

Welcome to Reader’s Choice, a WordPress site spreading the message of community by offering its readers to share their best work.

They invited Slapppshot to write their inaugural post and this sweet Swedish man highlighted the post I had shared on his blog all those months before!

Now Reader’s Choice is inviting all of you to submit your favourite post.

Maybe you wrote a post that didn’t quite get all the attention you think it deserved. Or you are new to WordPress and could use some more company. Or you’re itching to enlarge your on-line community.

Reader’s Choice is a wonderful blog built on an idea that Slapppshot had way back when…

You can read their guideline here!

So what are you waiting for???

Check out Reader’s Choice here and start to follow them immediately!

Oh, before I conclude this post, because Slapppshot blessed me out of my socks with this lovely gesture, I’m gonna put in another plug for him (I say another, because he was my Friday Pick 8 once upon a time).

Go ahead. He’s an awesome guy. He’s funny as all hell and he has a heart of gold.

Check out my friend Slapppshot and if you like what you see, follow him.

I did!

~ THE HUMP DAY CHRONICLES ~

I’m looking forward to reading your favourite post on Reader’s Choice!

Happy 87th to me!

Tags

Barcode, Diana Schwenk, Lurpak, Rule of Thumb, Tesco, WordPress

Yup, that’s right! This is my 87th post! I can’t believe it. Who would have ever thought I’d get this far?

What!!

87 isn’t a milestone?

Well I’ve been trying to hang on until my 100th…

but it’s taking WAY TOO LONG!

So in honour of my 87th post, I’ve decided to post 87 random thoughts.

Put on your seatbelts and hang on!

87 RANDOM THOUGHTS

1. Why do you park in a driveway and drive in a parkway?

2. If certain convenience stores are open 24/7, why do they have locks on their doors?

3. Yes, as a matter of fact, I do own the sidewalk!

4. I’m so hungry right now I could eat the arse off a skunk! (chicken soup is heating on the stove)

5. uh oh, I’m running out of thoughts…

6. Wazza matta you HEY! you gotta no respect HEY! whadda ya tryin’ ta do HEY!

7. I miss my daughter.

8. I want summer back!

9. I like Australian Shiraz.

10. I’m reading the final book in the Clan of the Cave bear series.

11. It’s called the Land of Painted Caves.

12. I just hiccupped.

13. I just realized my zipper is down.

14. I have a collection of pens that don’t write anymore…why do I keep them?

15. I like peanut butter

16. I like bubble baths.

17. My hairdresser says that bangs on 40-year-old women are called BOTOX.

18. My hairdresser is funny 😉

19. My co-worker gave me tomatoes from her garden – mmmmmmm

20. Only 67 more random thoughts to go

21. Yawning….

22. I should have thought through this 87 random thought thing…

23. WordPress is suggesting Lurpak as a tag.

24. What the heck is Lurpak?

25. I like red.

26. My dream kitchen would have a black and white checkered floor and red would accent cupboards and appliances.

27. Only 60 random thoughts to go!

28. WordPress is suggesting Tesco as a tag for this post.

29. What is Tesco?

30. My daughter had all four wisdom teeth removed on the 14th.

31.  When does Once Upon a Time start again?

32. Is it true that more people are alive than dead?

33. Only 34 more to go!

34. haha gotcha 54 more to go!

35. 52 now.

36. Now WordPress is suggesting I tag barcode…so I will!

37. They say a 65-year-old woman has more testosterone that a 65-year-old man.

38. Once I posed for a photo as a hitch hiker by Stud Creek Road.

Told ya it was real!!

39. Stud Creed Road is so a real road!

40. Only 47 to go!

41. Song lyrics: I don’t like spiders and snakes, and that ain’t what it takes to love me… well duh!

42. WordPress wants me to tag WordPress.

43. Okey Dokey.

44. I’ve never been to a High School Reunion. Nobody’s!

45. Ever hear Sister Mary Elephant?

46. Put lemon in the tidy bowl?

47. Did you know that the saying “Rule of Thumb” originated as a suggestion not to beat your wife with a stick bigger than your thumb?

48. Just tagged Rule of Thumb!

49. Always be yourself! Unless you can be a Unicorn, then always be a Unicorn.

50. Only 27 more random thoughts!!!

51. You can’t have the cake and eat it too.

52. Gimme dat! Gobble, gobble…

53. Use Lurpak in a sentence…I dare ya!

54. Quick! A word that rhymes with eighty-seven!

55.  I wish I thought of this random thought post on my 11th post!

56. Quick! Somebody check what my 11th post was!

57. I like when I notice my digital clock at 11:11!

58. I think Mr. Rogers was scary as hell!

59. Who are the people in your neighbourhood?

60. I’m no stalker, I just know stuff. By the way, you’re out of milk. 🙂

61. I make really good home-made soup!

62. Quick! What colour are my blue eyes?

63. I can’t remember if the first boy who kissed me was Peter Stevenson or Steven Peterson…

64. Only 23 to go!!

65. Only solicitors and survey people call my land line.

66. Why do I keep my land line?

67. I just burped.

68. Pardon me…

69. My computer just completed a scheduled scan.

70. Only 17 more random thoughts!!

71. The top 5 all-time visitors to my blog come from: United States, Canada, Australia, United Kingdom and India.

72. The most commonly searched word that leads people to my blog is community.

73. The second most common is alone.

74. 13 more!!

75. 12 more!!!

76. Today is the youngest I’ll be for the rest of my life!

77. Ha! WordPress wants me to tag Peter Stevenson!

78. Who the heck is Peter Stevenson?

79. What?

80. Hang on, I’ll be right back 😉

81. I’m back!! Did you miss me?

82. LOL

83. This is hard!

84. 3 more!

85. I’m out of Windex and every time I go out to get supplies I forget the Windex!

86. 1 more!!!!!!!

87. Please share a random thought in the comment section.

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