“Continue Reading” Links – Yay or Nay?

What do you prefer? Hugely long posts showing up in all their fullness on my blog home page and/or your blog reader? Or just the beginning bit followed by a “Continue reading” link?

See, I just discovered that what was once a huge undertaking on Blogger is now (as of 2+ years ago, actually!) as easy as clicking the “Insert Jump Break” button. That means, on my blog home page, I can hide the fact that I’m long-winded and picture-happy by inserting a simple “Continue Reading” link after a paragraph or two.

So I did that on a few recent posts. And then I also changed my feed settings, from “full” to “until jump break.”

But I’m not the one affected by this – you are. And I know what I prefer, but I’m curious to hear your thoughts and reactions. (Scroll down to the two Heart Art Party posts to see examples.)

* * *

By the way, I found this info on how to create post summaries on Blogger with “Read More” at Blogger Plugins, written by a guy named Aneesh who seems hugely knowledgeable and helpful, judging by all his replies to people’s comments on various (fantastic) posts of his.

Sophie’s Heart Art Party :: Personalized Painted Frames

Clearly, at this “Heart Art Party,” we had to do some art. And it should include hearts. This was project number one – painted frames, personalized with each girl’s name.

It came from a marriage of Sophie’s idea to paint picture frames and my idea to paint over contact paper letters, like Amanda did with her children at ImpressYourKids. (Part of her post includes a video tutorial on how to cut out letters.) I love the pinks and greens on the one her daughter did!

Sophie’s Heart Art Party :: The Cake

This cake was all set to be pink and white… and forgettable. But thanks to my husband’s inattention to detail, Sophie got a heart-shaped artist’s palette cake for her “Heart Art Party” instead. So much more fitting, and fun. (Fuller story of how it came about is at the end.)

Reverse Applique “C” Purse :: Birthday Gifts for Cassie

Sophie’s party is now over and done, went well, have some fun things to post about. But first, I’ll finish up Cassie’s gifts. Along with the stenciled horse shirt, she received a monogrammed purse.

Usually, I cut out the initial (or other embellishment), use fusible webbing to “glue” it to the flap, and then sew around the edges. That’s what I did with the “e” on Ellie’s purse, for example…

…and with the crown on Mikayla’s purse.

But this time, I didn’t have any fusible web. (Or, rather, couldn’t find it.) So I sewed a layer of black fabric over the animal print fabric, sewed a “C” outline through both layers, then cut away just the black layer inside the outline.

Hmm, Lucy’s going to a party this weekend for sweet little Cora down our street – perhaps I should whip up another “C” purse…

I Heart Horses T-shirt :: Birthday Gifts for Cassie

I’m right in the middle of party prep for Sophie, which reminded me that I never posted the stuff we made a few weeks ago for Heidi’s friend, Cassie.

Gift #1 for the girl who loves horses and the color blue: a blue “I Heart Horses” shirt.

The “I” and horse image were done with freezer paper stenciling. Rather than read any of the 71,800 tutorials online, I remembered that Lorraine had recently rocked a freezer-paper-stenciled R2D2 shirt, so I asked her if she had any last-minute tips for me.

Is there a group for this?

Was talking to a friend yesterday who I haven’t talked to in about a month. I told her about our recent Card Night and she brought up seeing the last post about the little charms I made.

Then she added “I was glad to see that post. I was beginning to wonder if something had happened to you.”

Nope, I just didn’t post anything for almost a month.

But here’s the thing I don’t understand. During that almost month:

• I had blog posts ideas swirling around in my head.
• I took photos for blog posts.
• I jotted down notes for blog posts.
• I even WROTE ENTIRE blog posts.

I just didn’t post anything. What’s the deal?

Guess how many drafts I have in Blogger right now…

12.

Three years ago, I started using LiveWriter instead of Blogger for writing posts; guess how many drafts I have there…

16.

Guess how many photos I have for possible blog posts…

45,721.
(Well, maybe not quite that many –
unlike the drafts, I didn’t actually count the photos.)

And those blog post ideas swirling around in my head? Some of them have been in there for YEARS!

“Hi, my name is Karin* and I am a non-posting blogger.”

 

*pronounced like “CAR in the garage”, not “CARE-en”

Goblets and Glasses and Mugs… Where’s Mine?!?

While preparing for our neighborhood Court Whist card night last Saturday, I eyed all the the various beverage receptacles we were setting out and wondered how guests would keep them all straight, with all the mingling and moving between tables I knew they’d be doing. 

Would Sharpie names written on mugs, goblets and glasses be tacky?

Then an amazing thing happened! We were finished setting up … and there were still THIRTY MINUTES until guests were supposed to arrive! Which left plenty of time for me to grab some supplies from upstairs and get to work.

The wire was hardly thick enough. And Pony beads are only one step up from Sharpie-names-on-goblets tackiness perhaps, but their bright colors offered the only means of differentiation (the whole point of this project) that I could find amongst my supplies. Paired with some crystal-looking beads (same as the ones I used to make the “chandelier” in the light-up dollhouse), they gussied up nice enough.

Goblets got little rings around their stems.

Mugs got little charms attached to their handles. (While attempting these, I was glad I’d spent some time watching how my friend Mo makes her jewelry.)

And glasses got little bands around their bottoms. Lucky for me, they have a nice little groove down there for the beads to nestle in.

Ran out of Pony beads, but found other beads to keep things different.

I raided my button jar too.

And, with about 7 minutes to spare, everything was set up once again.

We had SUCH fun hanging with our neighbors. And as far as I know, nobody lost track of their beverage.