Bloggiesta – Page 2 – Book Journey

Bloggiesta Finish Line

Published on January 24, 2011 by Sheila (Book Journey)28 Comments

*gasp!*

There it is! No longer a mirage…. it is… it is…

the finish line.

So what happened here?

I cleaned up my sidebars, uncluttered and put into storage the old challenges, seasonal links, and tossed the outdated.

I took part in all the mini challenges which are always such fun

I prepped posts for upcoming reviews with cover pictures and synopsis of book to give me a jump-start when writing the reviews

I took the vacuum cleaner attachment to my tag list and blew away all the unused and no purpose

I created a scrolling blogroll of my favorite blogs to read – thank you Hannah at Wordlily for walking me through the process!

I prepped “rainy day” posts – fun topics, bookish thoughts for the days my brain says “you got nothin’!”

For a brief moment I thought I would color tweak again as that has become a Bloggiesta tradition but I am happy to say that I changed my mind and feel I have finally come up with just the look I want for this blog and I am happy to stick with it.

My only task I thought I would accomplish and I did not was I wanted to visit all the participants. I did this the last Bloggiestas but there was no way this time. The participants list is huge and I just did not get there. 😀

Total hours invested: 27

I am thrilled with the outcome. It was nice to set aside a weekend and dig into the things that have really been bugging me but I did not have time to do anything about.

And so…. until we the next Bloggiesta…. So long, farewell….

Morning Meanderings… Bloggiesta Day Three

Published on January 23, 2011 by Sheila (Book Journey)31 Comments

Good Morning! Hello to my little friend – COFFEE COFFEE COFFEE 😎

Yesterday was a pretty good day as well as I continued work on the Bloggiesta. Between house cleaning, a little reading, and an afternoon movie – I managed to put in 6 hours for a total of 16 hours in the past two days.

Today being the big finale what I most want to do is visit other participants. I love visiting new blogs. I have a little more sidebar work to do and a couple of post ideas to finalize but I feel good about what has been accomplished. I will post my wrap up tonight before I put up the Monday, What Are You Reading meme.

I hope everyone who has participated this time is having a lot of fun! I think this time around is the first time I didn’t have a lot of internal work to do…. mainly, I have spent this Bloggiesta working on updating and future posts. Two things I have wanted to be working on for a while now but did not have the time.

Now here is my early morning funny happening. At 6:03 a, my cell phone rings. It is in the kitchen on the counter but I can hear it from my bedroom. I drag myself out of bed and fumble my way to the phone . I check to see whose call I missed and it was my Pastor. I dial back thinking something must be going on, first service starts at 8:15, maybe something is needed, there was an accident (my imagination is vivid!). He answers the phone and I ask him what’s up.

He says, “Did I call you?”

“You did.” I say.

“That’s weird,” he says, “this phone rarely does that, did I wake you?”

“Yes, but that’s ok, I thought maybe something happened.”

He laughs, “Nope…. sorry about that.”

I laugh and in a strained high-pitched voice I say, “Are you calling everyone?”

“Yes,” he responds. “Just trying to drum up some first service attendees.”

LOL. I LOVE my church.

Have a great morning everyone. I am up now and going to make the most of it 😀

Morning Meanderings: BLOGGIESTA STYLE!

Published on January 21, 2011January 22, 2011 by Sheila (Book Journey)36 Comments

Good morning! 25 below zero this morning in Brainerd Minnesota …. a perfect day to BLOGGIESTA!!!!

This morning kicks off the 4th Bloggiesta weekend and I have participated every time Natasha at Maw Books has hosted this. I have said this before but I feel it is worth repeating… Bloggiesta is probably why I am still blogging today and loving it so much.

Here is the short version of that story:

When I first started book blogging on June 9th, 2009, my blog looked nothing like what it does today. I knew how to basically put up a post. That’s it. I knew nothing about changing the background color of my blog, linking, copyright,drafting new posts for the future, RSS… basically – if it had to do with blogging, I probably didn’t know it. 😀

The first Bloggiesta (my post here)was 10 days after I became a blogger and I embraced it fully. I wanted to know how to do the things I had seen on the other blogs. I literally spent every free hour I had that weekend working on my blog, doing the mini challenges and learning as much as I could. I came out of that weekend a better blogger and I know that has to do with everyone who participated in Bloggiesta and really helped me with all my questions.

Every Bloggiesta since I have participated and I have learned something new. If you have not already signed up to participate – pop on over to Natasha’s and learn more about this. You will not regret it.

My goals going into this challenge will be posted here and I will cross them off as I achieve them. I am sure I will add to this list as I think of more:

Clean up my sidebars – I have some thoughts on this – just have not taken to time to do it

Participate in all the mini challenges

Go through and update my blog tags

prep posts to books I have started or plan to be reading soon with book cover, basic synopsis and notes to make things quicker when I do write the review

Clean up posts I need to write for book completed

Prep 3 – 5 “rainy day” posts for the days I literally…. got nothing.

Visit all participants – I love seeing the other blogs!

Possible color tweak… it is kind of a Bloggiesta tradition that my blog background changes but I am not sure about that yet. Changed my mind…. I like it the way it is.

On a side note, I was just thinking how I met Natasha at BEA this past May, She was with Amy from My Friend Amy’s and it was great to meet them both because of what I see them do throughout the year to contribute to my favorite part of all of this: The Book Blogging Community. Both of these bloggers invest a ton of time into events like this Bloggiesta, and Amy hosts the BBAW (Book Blogger Appreciation Award).