News - Moving To Wordpress - Lets Keep in Touch

If you're here looking for the Bead Soup Blog Party post please click here, but please read this.

Moving to Wordpress

That's right this blog will be moving soon, from my own domain on blogger to a self hosted wordpress site.

Now, I know what you're thinking, "Karen it's right in the middle of the Bead Soup Blog Party!". Your right it is, but I've received the most amazing offer to set up a site on Wordpress with a Genesis theme and a huge discount on hosting for the first year. I've been contemplating moving from Blogger for some time, there are just some things that are too difficult to do on the Blogger platform. Wordpress (.org not the .com) makes it easier to install plugins for your own shop, have custom sidebars for different parts of your site and built in SEO and social media will make it a whole lot easier to keep the blog up to date.

What this means for you.

For most of my regular readers, you don't need to do a thing!

Those of you subscribed to my email newsletter will continue to get updates in your inbox. If your reading this in a feed reader such as Feedly, Bloglovin or any of the other Google Reader replacements, it's business as usual for you as well. It will be my job to change some settings in my own Feedburner account to keep things running smoothly for you.

But, for my readers who have connected with me via the Google Friend Connect widget, things are going to get tricky. I can't guarantee you will see any updates at all! The GFC widget is not available on Wordpress so I recommend subscribing via email. It's a hassle I know, but I'll be revamping the newsletter soon to something like a weekly update, so I promise not to flood your inboxes with trivia.

If I understand my Wordpress Guru correctly the blog might be off line for a few days until the nameservers update with the new information and links are also updated. Hopefully the next time you see or hear from me will be via my fresh new site.

Don't forget to sign up for my email newsletter here.

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Back for a few Blog Updates

It's been a while since the last post, and I've been busy with a few updates to the blog. I've installed a new header, I hope you like it, and added an extra sidebar on the left for social media buttons (in my favourite colour too).

The results of the poll are in and 56% of readers read this blog in a news reader or through the Reading List on the Blogger Dashboard. The remaining 31% are happy to receive Blog Updates via email daily, or as they occur, and the remaining 13% would like weekly emails. Since I'm not super regular about writing blog posts I'll leave the email updates to daily and let you know when I switch over from Feedburner to Mailchimp. I received and email from Mailchimp today, apparently they are updating their website and streamlining the setup, so I have to relearn everything all over again - I have terrible timing!

Mmmm, lets see, what else. Oh, you might have noticed some other stuff in my sidebar and tabs. I have a new profile image! I think it is a fair representation of me, glasses and all, and will appear pretty much everywhere I am online. I've also ditched most of my adsense ads and installed Passionfruit Ads. I've done this mainly because its much easier to manage button/badge swaps with other blogs, and also to manage ads. I found that Adsense was too impersonal for me and I couldn't control the type of ads appearing.


Here's what Passionfruit Ads offers

• Sponsors or advertisers use Paypal to buy ads direct from your site and you get to approve each ad before it goes live.
• No messing around with code everytime you need to change sponsors. Passionfruit take care of hosting the images. You insert a one-off piece of code in a HTML/JavaScript widget where you would like the sponsors to appear (mine is in the right sidebar) and Passionfruit manages your ads, auto-expiring and auto-running new ads as they go live. Easy!
• Would you like your ads to auto-rotate/shuffle? Done!
• No need to send invoices. Passionfruit sends reminders to sponsors for you, thanking them and inviting them to renew.
• Prefer to swap ads/badges with other bloggers? Passionfruit can do that too! All you need to do is set up a coupon on their site for 100% discount for swappers.
• Passionfruit also gives you the HTML code for your Sponsor Page, setting up your shop for you!

For all this Passionfruit take $1 per ad! (swaps excluded)


This brings me to my blog, I'm offering three ad sizes. One 250x250 Prime Time ad appearing right under my new profile image, two 250x100 Large ads appearing below the Prime Time ad. Finally, four 125x125 ads especially for swaps (use the coupon code SWAPS) and Australian Madeit stores (use the coupon code Madeit) and you'll get these spots for free! Would you like to be a Sponsor or swap a Badge? Click on the Sponsor Tab at the top of the page and follow the instructions to organise your spot!

Photo credit: andrea joseph's illustrations / Foter.com / CC BY-NC-ND

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RIP Google Reader and what's next

Ok, so we've all heard that Google Reader is shutting down soon and have all gone looking for our own replacements. Personally I use Feedly, I've been using it on my iPad since I bought it.

What you might not have noticed is that I've added two new buttons to my sidebar. One for Feedly and the other for Bloglovin'. It took a bit of digging around to find the code to provide a Feedly button and if anyone would like a copy of the code just email me.

A lot a people are reading blogs in their Reading List on the Blogger Dashboard and there are people who prefer to get their blog updates via email. I use Feedburner to burn my feeds, and although they do provide a RSS to Email feature I am a little nervous since other features have been disabled (Adsense for feeds) and that Feedburner might be next on Google's hit list.

So, I've been looking for a replacement for Feedburner' email feature, and of course I'd prefer it to be free. That brings me to this guy. Mailchimp seems the perfect fit for me, it's free for the first 2000 subscribers and they also offer paid plans, by the month or pay as you go. You can purchase credits for as little as $9AU and each newsletter costs only 3cents to send. They have an excellent range of pre-made templates or you can make your own using their RSS features that "pick up" your blog header and content.

I've tested it out on myself this week and have received a rather nifty email weekly newsletter. My aim was to get it to look as much like this site as possible. I was a bit concerned that if I had posted more than once last week not all of my posts would appear, but both turned up in my newsletter. Unfortunately the mobile version bombed-out with no posts at all (I'll have to fix that!) but everything else looked good.

So, here's the question (there's a poll in the sidebar) would you sign up for a weekly newsletter-style email based on the blog feeds or would you prefer daily emails. Either way if I don't post you, won't get an email. I might even be able to offer both options, I'll have to check it out on the Mailchimp website.

Soon I'll be adding a subscription box for the newsletter (daily or weekly, you get to decide) in the sidebar and including it on my Facebook page and other places. You can be reassured that your information will be 100% confidential, and will never be used for nefarious (love that word) purposes.

Oh, and before I forget, I've changed the Contact Me option in the tabs at the top of the page. A lot of the emails were going straight to my spam folder so I've changed the form over to 123contact. It seems to work better with my email provider and 123contact keep a confidential record of the emails in case something goes wrong.

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Pay it Forward - Handmade

Looking for my Bead Soup Blog Party post? Click here.

Pay it Forward

Last week I read about a meme going around, it’s called Pay it Forward - Handmade and a lot of bloggers are joining in. I joined in on Maša’s blog, HEARTing Handmade :3

Here’s How It Works

I’ll send a surprise gift to the first three commenters on this blog post. The gift will be a handmade surprise by me and will be sent to you some time in the next 365 days (yep, mystery gift at a mystery time).

Here’s what you need to do, leave me a comment and make sure you include your email address (if your profile doesn’t include it). I’ll email you for your snail mail address and a ask a few questions (likes/dislikes, favourite colours, sizes general stuff like that). In case your wondering, I’m happy to sent gifts overseas :)

To complete signing up you MUST play along too. To do this you must blog a similar post and pledge to make a surprise gift for the first three people who comment on it.

So, do you want to play? Comment below and I’ll sent a thoughtful handmade gift to the first three people who do.

Let the fun and games begin!

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Facebook Here I Come!

I’m on Facebook!! I know, It’s taken me long enough.

I've started setting up my page on Facebook and if you’d like to follow me there just click on the link on the sidebar (or the image of my Facebook cover above) and LIKE me there. I’m using Networked Blogs to send my blog feed to Facebook. I hope this works, this will be the test.

Please let me know if there are any problems with my page, or if I've forgotten to include anything. Blogging and basic coding I can manage, Facebook Pages are new to me.

So, I here you ask, why should I follow on Facebook? Well, writing a blog post takes me a few hours, tweaking stuff so it’s just the way I like it. That’s why I only post once a week or so. On Facebook I can write a status update and take a quick photo everyday if I wish, much like Twitter really (you can follow me there too).

I’ll be updating my social media buttons soon, so I’ll add Facebook and links to my Madeit shop then (when I get some things listed there, that is).

That’s all for now, I really must get back to my Bead Soup, one piece down, one to remake and another to put together.

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Pinterest for Blogger Widget

Wordpress users have had a widget like this one in my sidebar for a while now. So you can imagine that I was quite happy to find that Marie at Code it Pretty had written a widget for Blogger blogs to display your latest pins, right in your sidebar.

I required a little bit of editing, to add in your pinterest url and the logo at the top. If I can manage to do it I’m sure most people can. I did have a bit of fun customising the pinterest logo to match my blog, and shrinking it to fit (150px).

You can even customise the widget even further if you wish. Instead of showing the latest pins, you can set it up to show the pins from a specific board. I’ve added row and column padding, set the pin side to 110px and increased the number of pins.

The feature I like most though is the “hover” effect, try it out, hover your mouse over anyone of the pins and it pops up to show the full image. Neat huh! Most of the common problems you might experience Marie resolves in the comments section of the post.

Go on over the Code it Pretty and download the widget, you won’t regret it!

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Blog-Train

Hi, Just a quick note to let you know I haven’t forgotten about you.

I have a couple of projects on the go at the moment and a few blog posts in the preparation stage. Just waiting on final finishes, (yep, being cryptic) time to take photos, and some time to read a new book that has arrived.



In the mean time I’ve discovered a new website called Blog-Train. You list your website when you join and get points for visiting other Blog-Train members. Technically it’s supposed to help get more visitors to your website, but I think it’s a great way to find new blogs.

Time to go, the dishwasher and washing machine are calling. ;)

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2012 - A New Year and a New Look

A New Look

Hello, did you have great Christmas and New year celebrations? We had a fantastic time on Christmas Day. It was a gathering of our extended family with us, my SIL and BIL and parents, my mother, my sister and her kids and cousins of varying degrees (23 people for Christmas Lunch!) thankfully at my SIL’s place in the country.

After Christmas I decided to spend some time re-designing my blog. I hope you like the new look. I’ve used the “Strawberry Shortcake” theme from Powered by Pastries. You can find the template (and others) at Pugly Pixel. I had fun making my new banner and sidebar dividers. I’m really loving the coloured polka dots.

Hubby has had the week between Christmas and New Year off from work and has been in and out and all over the place organising his Scouting commitments for 2012. Unfortunately, we ended up with a heatwave of 40^oC (104F) over the New Year, which meant that I couldn’t use my laptop or write any blog posts.

My Word for the Year

I’ve noticed that many bloggers are choosing a word to inspire them for the year, so I’ll follow suit and pick…

 

Original Photo from Dreamstime

I've chosen this word for a number of reasons. Firstly because I’m basically and introvert, happiest when I’m by myself or with my family, so I need a little encouragement to connect with the rest of the world (or even just the neighbours). And secondly, this year my kids have reached the ages when they are starting to go their own way. Don’t get me wrong, its not an empty nest yet, my eldest daughter is starting University (hopefully) and the youngest is starting High School, they’ll need me less but still like to have me around (again, hopefully). So I’ve declared 2012 the year when I’ll connect with the world around me.

New Year’s Resolutions

I’ve never made New Year’s Resolutions, I figure that if you’re going to change your life you can do it at any time of the year. But,  I’ve decided to join in and make one solitary resolution.

Replace bad habits with good ones.

Nice and general and quite achievable. I remember reading somewhere that is is easier to break a bad habit if you have something to replace it with.

Have you chosen a word for the year? or made a New Year’s Resolution?

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Welcome to My Craft Adventures

 

Hello and Welcome

Welcome to My Craft Adventures, my new blog.
My name is Karen and I’m a craft-a-holic
For the last ten or so years I’ve been making jewellery to sell at local craft markets. What was meant to be a hobby has recently become too stressful, so I’m planning to sell my handmade crafts online instead.
This blog will allow me to expand my interests in craft and get back the fun! I’ll be decking out my new blog with sidebar stuff and other goodies over the next few weeks, but I thought I should get started and let you know what to expect.

What You’ll See

I’ll be posting two to three times a week. On Mondays I’ll share some of my favourite finds from the Madeit website. Since I hope to open a shop there soon this will help me become familiar with the site and give you an idea of my taste
Later on in the week I’ll share some of my favourite colour palettes. I’ve been making colour palettes since I bought my first copy of Photoshop Elements 4 and I’ve found that they are a fantastic inspiration for so many things.
You will also find a fair sprinkling of craft tutorials from around the internet. Especially ones which I plant to try out myself.
Of course there will be plenty of my handmade jewellery. Mixed Media jewellery is my passion so you’ll find jewellery made with ribbon, lace, silk, yarn, wire, beads, paper, fabric, resin…….
So, if any of this is of interest to you please feel free to subscribe to my feed or follow me. Comments are always welcome and I shall try to reply to everyone.

Thanks for reading,

Karen - Over the Moon

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