Happy Birthday!

Happy Birthday to us!! To Daisiesandbruises.com. Woo! One year old.

And as promised, my blog layout is updated with many new features including an updated photo, a sidebar that’s much more fun, and a drop down menu at the top of the page. I’m actually going to be tinkering with things for a bit still, so it’s not written in stone, but that’s the internet for you. Some of the new features:

My Art, hosting pages on my visual art and my poetry.

Inspirations, featuring a list of books and a page of quotes that will be updated frequently.

In the past year I was invited to speak at a few events after readers came across my blog, so there’s now a Hire Me page to answer some of the questions surrounding that stuff. On the same page, if you scroll down, you’ll find testimonials from my awesome readers, a list I visit frequently since behind the scenes I get cold feet and worry that my words have no impact. You have convinced me of my worth.

In the next week or so I will be adding some advertising banners for you to put on your own site if you feel inclined, as well as that “ask me” box that I’ve mentioned wanting to do before. I want readers to be able to ask me questions anonymously to feel safe and secure and heard all at once.

And we now have a Facebook page! Follow along there to be notified of posts, snag some freebies and further inspiration.

So, here’s to sharing more of myself with you, risking stalkers and spammers and the like. If I can’t always share myself face-to-face in this world, the least I can do is have a presence online. Baby steps.

Anyway, I’m super excited to share this with you. Can you tell?! You know I’m not usually this happy. I only have you to thank!!

Cheers to entering the second year of daisiesandbruses.com. We’re in this together.

Housekeeping & Snail Self-Talk

Isn’t that a rad typewriter? It’s my sister’s, even though I’ve tried to get her to sell it to me a zillion times. I thought it was fitting for this post because those little yellow snails on the top are my various negative-self-talk voices.

“You suck!” – snail on the far right

“This is way too depressing to post.” – snail 2nd to the right

“No one wants to read about this.” – next snail

“Why are you writing a blog post on a typewriter?! WTF!?” – snail on the far left

Okay, that last snail does have a point.

Needless to say, I’ve had a bit of anxiety about posting here lately. I’ve written probably seven posts in the past five days and every one of them isn’t “good enough.” I need some new editors, preferably ones that don’t leave slime trails across my pages and monitor.

Moving on!  There are some maintenance questions about this blog that I’ve been meaning to ask you. Your feedback would be greatly appreciated!

1. For those of you who comment, do you get my replies? Either through email or checking back on the post later? Do replies matter to you?

2. What are your ideas around an “ask” box? I want to put something on the sidebar to let readers anonymously ask questions for me to answer, however I haven’t found the right widget to do so. Any recommendations?

3. Can anyone recommend a good web designer, artist, or website that could work with me to create a 100% unique WordPress layout? This one is too common and generic.

4.  What are your favourite post topics?

5. What would you like to see more of here?

This is my 98th post! If WordPress didn’t count these things for me I’d probably guess I’d written fifty or so. This blog is almost a year old. The feedback I’ve received so far from all of you has boosted my confidence so so much. Thank you! As you can see from those questions, I’m thinking about expanding and making this blog even better. I feel my passion for writing and art coming together into a movement. I’m pretty excited to continue on this journey. :)

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