Okay maybe that was a small bit dramatic, but sure now that you’ve begun to read you might as well carry on.
I’m expecting visitors. Guests. VIPs.
Unless your house is the one I dream of, I bet you go on a major clean up before visitors come to stay. I know I do and end up cleaning places I’d not seen in twelve months, such as under beds or behind boxes in the utility room.
So because of the imminent arrival of my visitors, my guests, my VIPs I’ve got a lot of work to do.
You see my difficulty is that I do not know these visitors, nor do I know when they are going to call over. I know for a fact when these guests call they are very judgemental, and picky, missing very little as they nose around. So I need to get my act together and clean things up.
And I would love if you lot could help.
You see the judges for the Irish Blog Awards are on their way, sometime between now and August 25th. They will be reading what I write, checking how often I write and how I write. With that I have no problem. However they will also be looking at my blog and judging how it looks. With this I have a problem.
You see I think my actual blog is definitely not the swankiest in the blogosphere. In fact I look at it and think… boring, bland.
In a bid to do something better with it, I checked through the other themes available on wordpress. I began with the free
themes, and in desperation moved onto the premium priced ones. And guess what? None of them worked. In fact I think some of them should be brought up for false advertising, as when I pressed preview to see what my blog looked like with a few of those new themes it looked positively scary and nothing at all like the pretty pictures on wordpress. So it looks like I’ll just have to make the most of the theme I have.
Over the next short while I am going to try to find the time to clean up ‘My thoughts of a page’. If you have any suggestions, feel free to share them. I’m not proud so if you see something somewhere else you think works well, no problem I’ll happily rob that idea.
The last thing I must do is rearrange my old posts. I have been nominated in the Best Personal Blog category which is perfect but very strangely I have also been nominated in the ‘health and well being’ category. I did think that was a mistake so paid no heed to it, but last night a fellow blogger over on where is my mind gone (also nominated!) suggested I was nominated in that category because of my posts on grief and those in the bone marrow category on my blog. If that’s the case I’d better try to organise them somewhat, in order to ensure that when the judges arrive they will find them and won’t wonder if they are at the wrong address!
So keep an eye out readers. There are changes about.
The plan is that now I’ve told you all I’ll actually have to go ahead and begin cleaning. However tonight as I sit here sipping a glass of vino, I’m thinking ‘Ah sure this little blog is grand, it’s the writing that counts’ and I can feel that lazy ‘I’ll do it another day’ feeling coming on. Then I remember. I’ve written it, and you have read it. Now I must do it.
photo credit: skampy via photopin cc
photo credit: Report Nbatioco.com via photopin cc
My thoughts on a page. 
Why thank you for the mention 🙂 I think your blog is already very organised and as you said it is the writing that counts, but I will admit to spending a lot of time cleaning mine up this week too!! The thoughts of someone going through it with a fine tooth comb is making me a tad nervous I must say!
You’re welcome Sara. I linked it to that post as I really enjoyed it, happy days!!
Once I make an effort to tidy things up I’ll settle down, but it’s so hard to find the time.
I don’t really think too much about being judged, it’s just a good push to make my blog look a bit better. Best of luck to you.
Now you have me all a flutter Tric – I’m a total mess when it comes to this sort of thing – Arts and Culture is where you’ll find me in among all the literati, but I like you, I’m up for the battle – the very best of luck in your quest for glory – keep a bottle and some glasses to welcome those VIP’s.
Ha ha. God love you in that category, but as one of Irelands finest poetry blogs it is where you should be! 🙂
I think you’ll be joining me with the old bottle and after a couple of deochs I’d say our blogs will look just perfect.
Ah sure God loves a trier and only for him we’d be drinking some sparkling stuff out of a bottle!! There is always someone to blame for everything!!!
Nothing like being held accountable. So, you must do what you must do. Don’t make me come over there to address this in person with you. Wait….wait….yes, YES, if I must I WILL come over there and address this! 😉
Great idea, you could be my plus one at the blog awards!
WOUDN”T THAT BE FUN! Sorry, was I yelling? 😉
I wouldn’t say bland….it looks fine to me, it’s neat, everything is labelled. Nothing worse than a blog that has one hundred different things scattered all over the place, you don’t know where to begin or end.
In my opinion you should win for the bone marrow transplant and the little warrior posts regardless of how the blog looks.
Thanks J.D.
It would be lovely to do well to spread the word, but it would be very difficult. I’ve not organised those posts as I’ve not been able to re read them, especially the one when Daniel lost his battle.
That post went the closest to viral I’ll ever see and was the first time I knew what the internet can do.
I’ve still not had the time to look through the nominations. Did you go for nomination?
No. Not in it this year.
Yes, it would be great for the whole bone marrow transplant issue to get some much needed recognition and publicity. I knew nothing about it until I read your posts, and it would be nice for some good to come out of it, if it only makes people more aware then it is something.
i love your blog and if i were good with tech, i’d be happy to help in any way i could. unfortunately i’m not but i agree that the ‘health and well being’ category should be made up of your little guy’s journey as well as your grief when he lost his brave battle, along with your follow up on feelings and dealing with this terrible loss. (this actually matches the category perfectly) mental and emotional health as well as the illness at the center of it all.
Thanks Beth. I think I’ve work to do, although it is not easy to go back through those posts.Thanks for your kind offer of help if you could…. it’s the thought that counts!
I don’t think your blog needs a big overhaul or even much cleaning up! And I’m kind of picky about organization and aesthetics, I think. The only thing that could help is to add your grief posts to the bone marrow transplant page – broadening it. I don’t think you need more pages or categories necessarily. But I read pretty much everything you write, so trying to find things isn’t an issue for me!
Good luck!
blessings, Lucia
Thanks Lucia I’ll make a start. Not sure what to title them other than “when our world stopped”, it’s not really a job that appeals to me, as I’m sure there’ll be tears but it will be good to have it done.
Good to know you wouldn’t change too much, but I’ll see what I come up with (possibly nothing. 🙂 )
Um, that Health and Wellness nomination might be some of my doing. I nominated you for “Gone” in that category. I think you deserve to win both categories. I like the way your blog is set up. It is neat, organized and well written.
Aha! That solves that Charlene. Thanks so much, and you know you have done me a massive favour. I have been putting off organising those posts as they make me sad, and this has given me the push to do it, not to mention the favour of being nominated in a different category to the one I saw myself in. Thanks a million my great blogging buddy!
How is your book coming on?
I am avoiding the hard chapters, my excuse it that I am waiting on information to come in, but I could write it without that information. I wrote a blog a couple days ago titled “Just A Quick Hello” that tells all about it.
I can’t wait to hear about how your nomination goes, I am so excited for you.
I just popped over there. I think it sounds like you have a lot done already. You’ve no comments on your post so here’s mine.
I’d not be too pushed about what others think of what you are doing. This is your project and something you want to do. Your comments on the lack of interest and support of some reminds me of when I disclosed about abuse. Some people can really surprise you and others let you down dreadfully.
What you went through as a child was horrendous. Take care going back there. And thanks again for the nomination.
You’re welcome for the nomination. I am taking care. I have a great support group that I can talk things through with, and my husband has been amazingly supportive. So even though it is going to be hard to write, I have some place to go to balance things. They don’t mind my talking it out with them and will bring me to laughter when we are finished.
have one suggestion, tric
(I might have more when I’ve finished work and got
a bottle1/2 a bottle of red inside me)Add the WordPress Category Filter widget to the top of your sidebar – close to your Search box
visitors to your blog can then click the ‘down’ arrow on the right of the search box to see a drop down liist of all the categories you’ve used to file your posts under
if you haven’t already done so, create some overall categories, such as say ‘leukemia’ then go back and edit all your posts about Dan, tick the leukemia category, and save/update your post
when anyone selects the leukemia category from your new category filter widget, their screen will redraw to show all your posts on Dan gathered together in the one place
[you can see how it works by using the Category Filter on Madhatters, and selecting ‘Something fro Weekend from the drop down list that appears]
create as many categories as you want/need. edit your posts to file them under an appropriate category
this step alone will give your readers the sense of a well-organised, neat and tidy blog
You’re more than a pretty face Duncan! I did as you suggested. There was no option for a drop down as I’m on a free site but after some messing about I think the cloud worked best. I’ve still a bit more category tweaking to do but I’m really pleased with it.
Thanks again Duncan.
Congrats on the nomination – your blog is most definitely good for the health. A blogging hug a day keeps the doctor away.
Why change for their visit? Every home has it’s confortig aspects and if you take them away them you’ll become a clean and tidy “Ikea” interior – all perfect but no personality because it could be anyone’s place. This blog is yours.
For what it’s worth, I like your blog set-up – it’s clear, clean and not too “busy” for the eyes. Everyone has their personal preferences, but I prefer those that are easy on the eyes (I have difficulty with white typing on coloured backgrounds) and don’t have too much decoration and or links all over the place that distract from the text. I’d say that the success of your blog is a fair indicator that it’s theme and organisation are pretty good!
I took what you and others said on board and decided to make minimal changes, like a category cloud, and new menus on my header ( which meant a lot of re tagging of posts).
Thanks so much for always being there, not only now but throughout the year blog buddy.
That’s my girl 🙂 Thanks to you for being there for me, too. The new categories are ace. Just one thing I noticed : you need an apostrophe in “Daniel’s story”. At the same time, can you remove the unnecessary apostrophe in the “it’s” on my last sentence above? Tsk tsk. Bad MM.
Ha ha. I think I’ll leave it there one more day just to drive you mad!!
Thanks MM. I corrected the Daniel’s. I knew I had to but then I had to figure out how to change the category so I’d put it off and then forgot to do it. Timely reminder.
Thanks for checking it all out.