January – A Look Ahead

A new year! A fresh start! And happy 3-year anniversary to my dear little blog! It’s hard to believe how much has happened over such a short period of time. Please look for a bloggy giveaway post next week. Marty will announce a special gift to commemorate the event!

A year ago, I took some very significant steps with this humble web site. First of all, I taught myself how to widen the main template column. (If you want to do the same, I put together a nifty tutorial and the link is on my sidebar.) The purpose of this effort was so that I could share a bigger format of my photographs. With all the trips we took last year and the chronology of our homebuilding, aren’t you glad that I made that improvement? I hope so! I also created featured my own blog backgrounds and custom graphics for my monthly “look ahead” posts. The custom decorating will continue this year too!

Another online improvement I did last year was to start using Flickr for photo storage. I load up my better, higher resolution photo images there and then link them to my blog posts. I’ll be signing up for the pro version this month. Some of you may have noticed that I have a convenient link on my sidebar to my Flickr images. You are welcome to go over there anytime and see slide shows of various photo sets that I have organized.

As a side note, I was a bit surprised to see a huge spike in my web viewing statistics last month. After a little investigating, I discovered that Colonial Williamsburg Facebook page had a link to my post about their nontraditional Christmas decorations! I was quite honored that they discovered my blog and sent web traffic my way! You can read about it HERE.

Now that the winter months have settled in and the holiday season’s flurry of activities are over, I will be spending some creative time in my studio room. I have a few sewing projects planned and will share the results with you. Though the room isn’t fully decorated, I’ll be sharing some pictures here of this lovely space. As soon as you see it, I imagine that you will want to come on over and join in on “play time”! As dear Miz Jenny can attest, we love to meet and entertain blogging friends!

My consulting contract expired last month and did not get renewed. So I am happily back to the footloose-and-free retirement life again! It is nice to have that extra time back. We’ll be resuming our visits to a local fitness center, and I am renewing my commitment to get fitter and down to a healthier weight.

We have already been discussing and planning our 2011 journeys! We put down deposits for a Canadian Maritimes tour in September to Nova Scotia, Prince Edward Island, and New Brunswick. We’ll also be making reservations soon for a special photographic tour of Alaska in July. We’re looking forward to a year of more traveling adventures and new photo opportunities!

This month I will be featuring blog posts with photos of past journeys, including grizzly bears in British Columbia and breathtaking scenery in western USA. I’ll also be sharing photos of treasured pottery pieces that we took home last month from Seagrove, North Carolina. So grab you a cup of coffee or hot chocolate and come visit me and Marty during our special 3-year anniversary month!