From Inmates to Playdates

Posts Tagged ‘Bloggy Fun’

When I first started this bloggy gig, I contacted a blog designer by e-mail. After a few e-mails back and forth, I kicked it into high gear and sent a list of questions that probably had her questioning her decision to work with such an incompetant client me. My questions ranged from ‘Why is a hosted blog better than an un-hosted one’ to ‘Which one of these blog titles do you like best?’

I knew what I wanted but I had no idea how to make it happen. My URL friend, Jo-Lynne and my other URL International friend, Cathy over at Desperately Seeking Wordpress are the brains behind this operation. I guess you could say they make me look good.

Since that time, I’ve learned a little bit (a big emphasis on little bit!) about Widgets, Themes, HTML code, headers, Plug-Ins, and blog design.

If you are attentive to detail, and you notice a few changes here at From Inmates To Playdates, you should know that it is not my doing. I know only enough to be dangerous. Basically, I just e-mail my latest, greatest request to Jo-Lynne or Cathy with a message to ’send me a bill’ and days later I show up on my doorstep and smile because I know they’ve been in there playing around.

For instance, Cathy changed my font last night.

And made a few changes to my theme (the layout of the page) and my widgets (those things in the side-bars like my picture, my blog button, and the calendar).

At this very minute, (or maybe not) Jo-Lynne is designing a new twitter button, subscriber button, and e-mail button because I saw snazzy new buttons over at her place and inquired about them. And before I knew it I was begging asking for them, too!

So, for today’s Thursday Thirteen, I thought it might be fun to feature some bloggy friends and facts since starting this gig back in November, 2008. The statistics are courtesy of Google Analytics.

1. Cathy – “The geek behind the beauty” at Desperately Seeking Wordpress - Can I just say that Cathy is a bloggy genius. She is also “really artistic, nerdy, and nice!” She can fix what is broken, and coincidentally, she can fix what I break, too!  Which happens more often than you know. You should visit her place if you are in the market for a blog. DSW also hosts my blog which means my stuff is stored on her server somewhere.

2. Jo-Lynne – The creative owner of DCR Designs. – If you scroll through her designs, you’ll see my current blog design, as well as my old one. She is very affordable and easy to work with.

3. Over the past year, the post, It Was Me, Wasn’t It had the most page views (1000+).

4. Christmas Tour Of Homes yielded the second highest page views.

5. 12% of my new visitors over the past year came from MckMama.

6. 8% of my new visitors over the past year came from We Are That Family.

7. Google is responsible for approximately 9% of my traffic.  5% of that traffic is searching for wet t-shirt contests.

8.  Besides the words From Inmates To Playdates in some form or another, the words Preparing For Deployment were the most googled words landing people at my place.

9.  60% of my readers use Internet Explorer.

10. The average time spent on my site per visit is 1 minute 15 seconds.

11. The average reader reads 1.5 pages in that 75 seconds.

12. 12% of my readers over the past year were from West Virginia. Next was Texas, and then California.

13. And just for fun, my favorite blog is Big Mama.

And that, as they say, is that.

Hope you enjoyed my bloggy bidness.

Last year, I read about a favorite things blog swap over at Mamarazzi’s place. It was a lot of fun receiving my box from Jessica. I was like a kid at Christmastime.

Today, Mamarazzi announced she is hosting another swap. I’m excited to participate again and hope I make the cut.

A blog swap involves shopping for my favorite things, filling a box with my favorite things and mailing it to my bloggy swap partner. In turn I’ll receive a box full of someone else’s favorite things. Then, in fine blogger fashion, we will both take pictures of the whole sha-bang and post it here for the world to see. This swap thing is right up my alley because the possibilities are endless.

Head over to Mamarazzi’s place – Our Dandelion Wishes to join in on the fun! Act fast though because space is limited!

Thanks for hosting this again, Mamarazzi!

For this week’s edition of Works For Me Wednesday, participants are supposed to share a blogging tip.

I am going to offer a few tips that have worked for me!  And a few that work for me as a reader, too!

1. Your title, is um, vital. A few months ago, I wrote a post entitled Wet T-shirt Contest. That post has sent tons of visitors my way thanks to Google.  In addition to the whole Google title tip, I have to say that I am more apt to click on a catchy title than something ordinary. A catchy title is more apt to catch the attention of readers, especially if your post is featured on Blogher. I’ll click on a catchy title every. single. time.

2. Comment frequently – I’ve never met a blogger who didn’t welcome and appreciate comments. In addition to getting comments, it is important to GIVE comments. Commenting is a great way to make URL friends and I’ve found that responding to comments is a great way to engage with your readers.

3. Keep a running list – Sweet mercy, the list has saved me time and time again. I have so much running around in my head, the blog fodder often gets lost in the madness, so I’ve found that making a note of the idea is always a good idea.

4. Turn the music off – I’m not a big fan of a music box on a blog. When I’m reading a blog, the last thing I want to hear is some 80’s mess playing in the background. Or 90’s for that matter. It’s distracting to your readers if you ask me.

5. Post Links – When your daily dose of crazy involves watching an embalming, or your child swallowing a penny, you should link back to it every now and again. Visitors and new readers to your blog will enjoy older posts that perhaps they wouldn’t take the time to scroll through otherwise.

Thanks for stopping by From Inmates To Playdates! I hope you have a lovely Wednesday. Visit THAT familyfor more bloggy tips!

I was making my morning blog run when I stumbled upon a post over at Chic Critique called What’s In Your Make-up Bag?  From there, I visited a few of the gals linking up to the carnival and the next thing I knew I was searching for my camera to join in the fun.

Then, I discovered that my camera is missing.

Now if I’m being honest, actually it’s McDaddy’s camera that is missing because before the deployment, the boys and I got McDaddy the camera for Father’s Day. Only McDaddy pretty much said he liked my camera better because it was smaller, and told me I could have the new one. And now there is a running joke at the McResidence about his camera being my camera. And, unless you’ve been taking copious notes throughout this paragraph you probably have no idea which camera is mine and which is McDaddy’s.  To make a miserably long story short, the fact is that I could only find one camera and basically I’m letting McDaddy know because he will wonder how the pictures of my make-up bag and its contents found its way onto his camera in the midst of pictures of the heap (ahem! I mean JEEP), the truck and all the other car parts that are for some reason stored on his SD card.

Anyway. On with the make-up bag post.

Meet my make-up bag,

And it’s contents,

There are actually a few other items in the bag, but since I don’t use often, I didn’t allow them to take part in the what’s in the bag make-up post.

Nor am I showing the blogosphere the bags under my eyes. (ahem!)

It hadn’t dawned on me that most of my make-up is Arbonne because I have purchased it one or two items at a time from McDaddy’s sister over the course of the past year. She is, by the way, my sister-in-law, but for the sake of clarity I thought I’d call her McDaddy’s sister).

Sheesh. How do I get so far off topic?

The details.

• Arbonne FC5 Nurturing Day Lotion with SPF 20
• Arbonne NutriMinC Repair - Corrective Eye Creme
• Arbonne Virtual Illusion Make-up Primer which I speak very highly of…
• Arbonne Mineral Powder Foundation with SPF 15
• Arbonne eyeshadow in Petal and Linen
• Arbonne Virtual Illusion Eye Definer in Hepburn
• Arbonne Dual Volume Mascara in black
• Arbonne brow waxin blonde
• Arbonne Cream Concealer - Light
• Cover Girl Super Thick Lash Mascara in very black
• Clinique soft-pressed powder blusher in Mocha pink (however it is clearly more brown than pink)
• Clinique lipstick in Guava Stain (my all time favorite lipstick)
• Clinique lip liner in Berry Nude

That’s whats in my bag! What’s in yours?

I’m off to find my McDaddy’s camera.

After years and years of debate the debate rages on.

Many a marriage has suffered due to the debate. Or something like that.

Head over to my Review Page to enter to win a Cottonelle Gift Basket from Mom Bloggers!

Bloggy friends from all over the US will converge on Nashville the first weekend in February to attend Blissdom, 2010. Blissdom is a blogging conference (fabulous, no doubt) that allows bloggers to meet face to face, share fresh, new ideas, inspire each other and share fashion tips, eat, laugh every other thing women do when they get together.

I would like to be among them, however, the ticket price, transportation, and hotel totals a bit more than the mad cash profit I make from ye olde blog, so instead I am writing this post in an attempt to win a conference pass to Blissdom 2010 offered by Kimberly of Mom In The City. She is not able to attend due to family schedules and whathaveyou, but she is graciously giving away a Blissdom conference pass so that SOMEONE ELSE CAN GO.

How generous is that?

The theme for Blissdom is “Follow Your Bliss!”

Today’s Works For Me Wednesday is supposed to be centered around your best gift tip. Unfortunately, I don’t consider myself to be too creative. The scope of my creativity involves those really pretty green, blue, or red glass ornament bulbs from Michael’s (like  the solid red or green ones in the picture) and a fat-tip silver or gold Sharpie marker.

I had fully intended to run to Michael’s to purchase two sets of said pretty green, blue, or red ornaments before today, but you know what they say about intentions. Well, actually I don’t know what they say about intentions, but it sounded like it was going to lead up to something profound. Anyway, as I was saying, I’m not real creative, but thankfully, I have some friends who are and so I’m going to share a craft project that we did at our fall ladies retreat.

First, you start with a clear candle holder / coaster from the Mart of Walls. (I think they are $0.96.) Next, you can either purchase flower petals from Michaels or Oriental Trading, or you can purchase small silk flowers and pull the petals from them to use. (We used the flower petals from Michaels.)

 

You will also need 12 drops of casting craft catalyst and two ounces of casting resin. (For every 6 drops of catalyst, you will need one ounce of resin.) Mix the catalyst and resin together in a small cup.

 

Arrange the flower petals on the coaster / candle holder. Next, pour the concoction over your flowers filling the candle holder to the brim. Quickly pop any bubbles that you see and smooth them over.

 

Leave the candle holder alone for approximately 18 hours to give the glaze stuff ample time to set up or else you will have unwanted finger prints within your flower design (ahem!) and you will wish you would have followed my directions. After the candle holder/coaster thing dries, you can either display it with a candle or a cup, or purchase a metal easel to display the masterpiece or give them away to twenty of your closest friends.

Here is the finished product.

 

 Visit We Are THAT Family for more gift tips!

If you have really pretty hand-writing (which thankfully is one of my best qualitites!) you can make and give a meaningful keepsake by writing a name, adding dots to highlight the name and then drawing snowflakes or decorative lines around the top and bottom of the ornament.

Oops… It looks like I forgot to post this on Friday.

Sheesh. Sorry.

A sweet forever ago, Mel over at A Box Of Chocolates tagged me for a short meme. Even though it has been months since she posted this, today seemed like the perfect day to play along. While I am supposed to tag eight other bloggers, I am choosing not to do that. Instead, I will list eight of my favorite blogs and would love for you to visit them! If you visit, be sure to tell them I sent you.

Oh, and in case you are wondering I am not being compensated for plugging them. It just so happens that I enjoy reading these blogs and want to spread the love!

8 Things I Look Forward To

1. Our family birthdays. My birthday is in two short weeks. 36, here I come!
2. Christmas. My favorite holiday and favorite time of year.
3. Picking Stevie up from school. Even though he is in the first grade, I still miss him terribly when he is at school.
4. Girls’ Night Out – They don’t happen often, but when they do, I whoop it up!
5. The last day of school – It will mean my PTA duties can take a break until school starts up again. Unless of course, someone else is out of their mind willing to head the PTA festivities and duties up next year.
6. May 23rd – Mine and McDaddy’s wedding anniversary. I love our anniversary. Mostly because it means I’m getting a gift it was one of the most special days of my life.
7. Saturday – McDaddy’s family is celebrating Thanksgiving and Christmas on Saturday because all 24 of us will be together. Our boys are really looking forward to spending next week visiting and playing with their cousins.
8. Finishing our basement – We are in the midst of some major renovations to our basement which is scary because hello? I know nothing of interior design. 

 8 Things I Did Yesterday

1. Went to the grocery store to buy cloves (which by the way were $8.65 for a tiny, little container)
2. Prepared Vanilla Delight (which by the way was YUMMY!)
3. Ate way too much!
4. Clipped Alex’s fingernails
5. Watched the Macy’s Day Parade
6. Took a bath
7. Cleaned the basement
8. Loaded and Unloaded the dishwasher three times (So thankful for the dishwasher!)

8 Things I Wish I Could Do

1. Keep the kitchen countertop clear of debris
2. Blog Design
3. Surprise McDaddy with a ginormous garage
4. Get rid of the clutter
5. Be really good at styling my hair.
6. Control my temper AT ALL TIMES!
7. Learn to say NO!
8. Get more help with PTA matters.

8 Shows I Watch

1. Grey’s Anatomy
2. Desperate Housewives
3. The View
4. The Young and The Restless
5. Criminal Minds
6. Bones
7. American Idol
8. Dancing With The Stars

8 Blogs I Read

1. Big Mama
2. Boo Mama
3. Such The Spot
4. We Are THAT Family
5. These Are A Few Of My Favorite Things
6. Slice Of Heaven
7. The Queen B
8. Fiddledeedee

Enjoy your Friday, y’all!

One year ago on this very day, “From Inmates To Playdates” made its way onto the bloggy scene with this post.

My blog design looked like this, and I have to admit I’ve missed this cute little gal a time or two since Jo-Lynne redesigned me with a skinnier, older princess.

For those of you who have been here with me from the beginning, I appreciate you! Around the halls of Inmates, you’ll find 393 posts, 2,480 comments and lots and lots of crazy!

My most loyal commenter is my McMotherInLaw, Jean logging in 144 comments. My URL friend, Kellyn [who works within sight of The Mall Of America] came in a close second with 133.

The post that yielded the most comments was entitled I’ve Been Expecting You which happened to be linked to Boo Mama’s Christmas Tour of Homes.

My highest comment day is Thursday because that’s the day I post my You Capture photos. I’ve enjoyed learning more about my camera each week in a feeble attempt to ‘run with the big dogs’ over at the You Capture carnival. We’ve photographed shadows, reflections, red stuff, technology, ourselves, fall stuff, old signs, Joy, and all kinds of other stuff that I can’t think of right now. Basically if you can think of it, we’ve shot it. I keep waiting for the week when Beth assigns CRAZY. I’ll be all over that.

History was made here at Inmates back in June when my daily visitor count reached 1,008. I watched it slowly climb toward 200 and I was thinking it wasn’t even noon. Just before midnight, I hit 1,000. It was an exciting day! That was on a Monday and I was the first linker to link MckMama’s Not Me! Monday post.

This blogging gig has been enjoyable for me and I am grateful for the opportunity to make new friends, review some cool products and make a teensy-bit of cash through advertisiting opportunities.

My most controversial post by far was this one about animal rendering.

Remember all these posts about deployment? It was a long six months with a trip to Guantanamo Bay thrown in the middle of it. I appreciate the kind, encouraging words y’all left throughout the McDeployement Journey.

I think most of you would agree that the thing that sets me apart from most other bloggers is my quirkiness -and believe me, there is plenty of it. My quirkiest post was entitled Things I Learned At The Funeral Home and was a result of my watching an embalming. Yes, you should go there right now and read it. I’ll give you a second.

You back?

I told you it was quirky!

What can I say? I’m a quirky girl. A quirky girl who loves to give stuff away.

And, with the holidays just around the corner, this give-away from uPrinting is perfect!

I am a card-writer. I try to send cards ‘just because!’ Giving custom thank you cards is the perfect gift to express sentiments to your loved ones. 

One lucky reader will be jingling all the way with a pack of 50 Custom Thank You Cards with envelopes! UPrinting cards are made from high-quality paper and cardstock and will surely bring holiday cheer to your friends and family.

 I am so excited about this give-away! I can’t wait to design custom made thank you cards for the McFamily.

Prize Offered: (50 ct.) 7 x 5″ (folded to 3.5 x 5″) Custom Thank You Cards with plain envelopes
Shipping: Free UPS Ground within United States
Blogger Appreciation Prize: (50 ct.) 7 x 5″ (folded to 3.5 x 5″) Custom Thank You Cards with plain envelopes
Eligibility: Limited to US Residents due to shipping costs.

*Pursuant to the FTC ruling on Blogger Reviews and Sponsored Postings, I am fully disclosing that I will be receiving fifty (50) thank you cards from UPrinting.com for hosting this giveaway.

To win, simply leave a comment on this post about how you plan to use the thank-you cards.

A winner will be drawn at random on Sunday evening, November 15th at 10:00 pm ET.

Thanks for celebrating with me!

—————

Updated to announce the winner of the 50 custom thank-you cards.

And the winner is…..

Random Integer Generator

Here are your random numbers:

8

Timestamp: 2009-11-17 04:06:45 UTC

Congratulations to Commentor #8 Michelle who does not have a blog but has a Yahoo e-mail address.

Thanks for stopping in for a daily dose of crazy, Michelle! Enjoy!

I was sitting in my van in the pick-up lane the other day trying to decide what to do for this week’s edition of Thursday Thirteen.

It dawned on my how easy Thursday Thirteen was when I was making my way through the alphabet. I’d love to do that every week. Or have someone direct me every week with a TT topic. Sometimes its just not easy to come up with thirteen of something.

I thought about making my way through the colors.

I started with white and had four items on the list after two days.

I scratched that and thought about it some more.

So, here we go with Thirteen Firsts.

1. My First Teacher- My Kindergarten teacher was Mrs. Richardson. She was a soft-spoken woman with glasses and a tender heart. I loved kindergarten and I remember that Mrs. Richardson treated each child with a snow-ball cake on their birthday. That would never be allowed today. They’d have to give a rice cake or pretzel thanks to wellness requirements. Blech.

2.  My First Car- It was a black 1981 Buick Regal with maroon interior. I loved that car. My friends nick-named it The Skregal.

3. My First Plane-Ride- I was 14 years old and I flew (with two cousins) to Los Angeles International Airport. We were given a plastic pin that resembled pilot’s wings to wear to indicate that we were all minors. We spent 2 weeks travelling with my aunt and uncle all over California. I was blessed to see San Fransisco, San Diego, Disneyworld, Alcatraz, Hearst Castle, and lots more stuff that I probably can’t remember.

4. My First Church – was a little country Free Will Baptist Church. We sat in the fourth pew from the back on the right hand side. The church bell was rang by pulling a wooden stick-like thing right in the door-way of our church. It was a sweet little church that taught the love of Jesus to me at an early age. I often think about all of those who were committed to the twenty something children at our sweet little church. I am thankful for them!

5. My first date – was in the 7th grade. It was actually a group date to a movie with a red-headed kid who I am still friends with to this day. I have no idea what movie we saw, but knowing me, I wrote it down somewhere in one of my many diaries and if I was guessin’ I would say its probably up in the loft in a foot-locker signed, dated and certified. Because that’s how I rolled back then. And still do. I write everything down.

6. My First Friend- lived four houses down the road from me. We shared clothes, dreams, memories, laughs, cries, and hair accessories. We are still friends and thanks to Facebook we talk often.

7. My First Pet – was a black cat named Prissy. She was a timid cat and she was able to meow. mew. quite. She was not very nice and didn’t really like kids because we aggravated the snot out of her.

8. My First Broken Bone – Thankfully I’ve never broken a bone. I did however have broken jaws when I was a senior in high school. This was the day after surgery. I was swollen and my chin was bruised pretty badly. The surgery corrected an overbite and gave me a beautiful smile. Thankfully, once the wires were cut, I resumed talking as if my jaws had never been negotiated.

9. My First House- that McDaddy and I lived in was in Flatwoods, Kentucky. It was a cute little townhouse on a wonderful street. Our address was 1907 Hamor Street #6 and our phone number was 606-836-8365. I will never forget it. (Ours was the one in the middle with the wreath!)

10. My First Pregnancy- was such a neat experience. There was the issue of 18 weeks of vomiting, eight weeks of bed-rest and bi-weekly non-stress tests, but other than that, it was a normal pregnancy. I’d do it all over again though because my sweet Stevie was worth it. My second pregnancy wasn’t much different, but I’d do that one again, too!

11. My First Born – had a lot of patience with me. I was a new mother who questioned herself daily. I did a lot of things wrong but I sure tried to do my best. Of everything I had fouled up in my life, I wanted to do this right!  THE girl in that picture knew nothing of raising babies. The hospital let me take that little angel home without checking our credentials. I am so thankful to be a mommy!

 12. My First Blog Post- Before starting From Inmates To Playdates, I blogged occasionally on MySpace. My blog over there was called “A Piece Of My Mind.” My first post was about Stevie and Alex. I didn’t know it then, but that blog post started me on a path that led me right here to ‘From Inmates To Playdates!’ I enjoy sharing my crazy with you! My first blog post here at Inmates was written on November 8, 2008. That means that my bloggy anniversary is coming up on Sunday AND THAT MEANS FUN!!! If you’re interested in reading that first post, entitled A Hearty Welcome you can go over there and check it out!

13. My First Ride in a beloved Saturn Sky – *SIGH* – What a great day this was. It’s a day I will never forget….

Tune in next week for a week of fun, celebration and give-aways!!!