You guys!! I’ve MISSED YOU…..!!!!!!
I mean, seriously. This is crazy. I mentioned just before Easter that I’d be taking a short break from blogging…. but since that day, you’d be forgiven for thinking I’d dropped off the face of the earth. Apart from ducking in for a brief Mother’s Day post, it’s been almost 3 weeks since I’ve posted properly. It just feels all wrong!
Before I started blogging, I never would have imagined how weird this could feel. I’m seriously having withdrawals from you bunch. Everything feels out of joint. It is so strange!
I mean, I knew it was coming. Over the past month, we’ve had a week away at the beach with our best buddies and their kids…. a four day getaway to Melbourne with another fun couple we love dearly… and another trip to Brisbane for an eye appointment for Allegra.
(Which went VERY WELL, by the way! – if you’ve followed her story at all, you’ll be celebrating with us that she doesn’t have to have another eye operation! Her eye is still crooked, but so much better than it was that the opthalmologist is happy to leave it be until she is older. Meantime, we’re back to patching 2 hours a day to encourage that eye to centre. I’m so relieved! Thank you so much to all those who’ve prayed!)
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| Allegra hugging a jar of Nutella. What can I say… the girl likes chocolate. |
Meanwhile, in between all the packing, unpacking, washing, re-packing, and holiday relaxing that was going down around here, I’ve been working just as hard as ever on this little blog.
In fact, I think an alternative title for this post could be, “HOW TO SPEND 20 HOURS A WEEK BLOGGING, WITHOUT EVER ACTUALLY WRITING A POST.”
Yep. True story. That is no word of a lie.
See, I’ve been working on a little project over the past few weeks. Which actually turned out to be somewhat of a BIG project.
When I had my site designed, I asked the designer to include a project gallery tab. I had no idea HOW exactly I was going to create a project gallery, but I knew I wanted one, and I was sure I’d figure it out somehow. Meanwhile, I just stuck a little “coming soon!” note in there and got busy with other things.
Fast forward 5 months, and that one little tab on this blog has had A LOT of visits.
That means a lot of interested people who wanted to see more…. and clicked straight into a dead end.
That is a problem. I knew I had to do something about it. But honestly, with all the frequent posting I was doing, I didn’t have enough hours left in the day to sit down and figure it out. I was already working on the blog at least 20 hours a week, during naptimes and evenings – until midnight most nights. I just couldn’t squeeze any extra time into my schedule to tackle a big project like this one.
But in the end, I knew I just couldn’t ignore it any longer. So, I pulled a disappearing act. I stopped writing new posts for a couple of weeks and tackled The Big One.
This, dearest people, is a sample of what I was dealing with.
Uh-huh. Yep.
Am I some closet computer geek? Not even close. Until now, the closest I’d ever come to “code” of any description was when I read that Dan Brown novel a few years back. (Turns out that wasn’t a great help in this instance.)
I did find this great tutorial from Craftivity Designs, which actually was pretty easy to follow. If you blog on a Blogger platform, it’s well worth checking out.
The most time-consuming part was going through every post I’ve ever written (how can there be so many already?!), choosing the best image from each, locating said file in iPhoto, cropping the image to size and saving it to a folder. That process alone took the best part of two weeks. Then came all the coding part, where I fiddled around to insert links everywhere so you guys can just click on an image and go straight to the post.
I was completely stoked and a little surprised that it actually worked. I did that??! Really?
You wanna check it out? Eeeeee! This is the thrilling part. Every photo in the project gallery is a clickable link, so you can totally go click-crazy. Yep, you know you want to. Give that index finger a workout. Click on anything and everything so that I feel my life’s work has not been in vain.
I’ll be regularly adding new stuff now that it’s up and running. So for your future reference, here’s where you can always find the project gallery:
Or, you can just click here!
I’m planning to add more categories as we go along. But for now – I’m just super excited to have finally dealt with that massive backlog of posts!
I’d love you to leave a comment to let me know what you think.
Meanwhile, I’m back in the blogging saddle, but I’m going to cut my schedule back to 1-2 posts per week for a few weeks while I tackle another massive side project that just has to get done. Now THAT is one secret I cannot wait to reveal!
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Linking up here: Creativity Unleashed // Just Us Four // Tatertots and Jello // TidyMom
The project gallery looks great! i always wondered how bloggers did that.
The project gallery looks great! i always wondered how bloggers did that.
Thanks, Haley! Me too – I was glad to finally figure it out! 🙂
Thanks, Haley! Me too – I was glad to finally figure it out! 🙂
I used the small-scale stencil, Sara! Good luck with the nursery. 🙂
Oh my goodness, I am so beyond thrilled to hear that Allegra will not have to have another operation! What wonderful news! She is looking so beautiful! And your new project gallery– seriously impressive! I barely got mine up and running and I had a widget to help! Kudos to you for doing all of that coding! Can't wait to hear what your secret project is! Hope you're having a wonderful weekend, Karen!
~Abby =)
Thank you, Abby, you're a honey!! You always know how to bring a big smile to my face! I totally have WordPress envy – oh for plug-ins and widgets that can do anything I want them to. :0) I would like to make the switch, but that will be a long-term project I think. Thank you so much for your sweet words about my lil girl! You're the best! xo
I used the small-scale stencil, Sara! Good luck with the nursery. 🙂
Oh my goodness, I am so beyond thrilled to hear that Allegra will not have to have another operation! What wonderful news! She is looking so beautiful! And your new project gallery– seriously impressive! I barely got mine up and running and I had a widget to help! Kudos to you for doing all of that coding! Can't wait to hear what your secret project is! Hope you're having a wonderful weekend, Karen!
~Abby =)
Thank you, Abby, you're a honey!! You always know how to bring a big smile to my face! I totally have WordPress envy – oh for plug-ins and widgets that can do anything I want them to. :0) I would like to make the switch, but that will be a long-term project I think. Thank you so much for your sweet words about my lil girl! You're the best! xo
This is adorable! I've always wanted to do polka dot walls for my girls, thanks for sharing how. Did you know you can get a light conversion kit for most ceiling fans?
Thank you so much. I did not know that! Very interesting!
This is adorable! I've always wanted to do polka dot walls for my girls, thanks for sharing how. Did you know you can get a light conversion kit for most ceiling fans?
Thank you so much. I did not know that! Very interesting!
This room looks just as beautiful as the previous. You are so good at interior decorating, Karen!
Just wondering if you used the same dulux paint colour (petite pink) as the previous room?
Thanks,
Jane
This room looks just as beautiful as the previous. You are so good at interior decorating, Karen!
Just wondering if you used the same dulux paint colour (petite pink) as the previous room?
Thanks,
Jane
Thanks so much Jane, you're so kind! I believe this colour was the same Dulux Petite Pink, but to be honest I can't 100% remember for sure. Sorry about that, I wish I'd written it down at the time – I painted this room pre-blogging days.
If you want to test your paint colour, the best bet is to paint a big poster-sized sheet of cardboard using a sample pot, tape it to the wall in different positions and take a look at it in different lights. It's more accurate that way than painting a small swatch on the wall, as the colour really changes in intensity the bigger the area you paint, and also colours are best compared in context (eg on the wall behind a piece of furniture in the room, or next to the curtains). Hope that helps somewhat! xo
Thanks so much Jane, you're so kind! I believe this colour was the same Dulux Petite Pink, but to be honest I can't 100% remember for sure. Sorry about that, I wish I'd written it down at the time – I painted this room pre-blogging days.
If you want to test your paint colour, the best bet is to paint a big poster-sized sheet of cardboard using a sample pot, tape it to the wall in different positions and take a look at it in different lights. It's more accurate that way than painting a small swatch on the wall, as the colour really changes in intensity the bigger the area you paint, and also colours are best compared in context (eg on the wall behind a piece of furniture in the room, or next to the curtains). Hope that helps somewhat! xo