Top Five Pages In September

Squidoo top lenses

I haven't done a "top five" for awhile. What topics rise to the top of the heap in beginning of fall? Some worked their way up and some catapulted through the help of a purple star award.

Which ones?

1. Silver Fox Hair, Stunning Gray Hair
2. Arabian Nights Halloween Costumes
3. Beach House Colors, Interiors
4. Wedding Flowers For Every Month
5. Moroccan Styled Bath

Gray hair has been trending up for more than a year, as people have caught on to the idea of gray actually looking quite stunning- foxy, even. It recently won a purple star.

People are looking for Halloween costumes as their parties will be right around the corner, and trick or treat night is at the end of next month. Time to sew or buy those costumes. Awarded a purple star last year, and floats around the top ever since.

Beach House colors benefit from the end of the summer season, and perhaps some reminiscing of days at the beach.

Wedding flowers have been working their way up the list, no doubt helped by Pinners on Pinterest, including me. Pretty flower and wedding pictures. Needs a purple star, because it is thorough and helpful... not to mention, pretty.

And The Moroccan Bathroom has re-emerged in popularity. This is remodeling prime time before the Christmas season starts, I think.

Newest Purple Star Lens

Since I received another purple star award, it seemed like time to create my gallery of purple star lenses and share a little information on what made some of these purple star lenses stand out (at least from the makers point of view).

The Silver Fox, Stunning Gray Hair Styles

This is the lens to win the latest purple star. Find out why I think it gained positive attention and an award in my Purple Star lensography.
For shiny gray hair, these products might be on your list:

Are You Planning A Wedding?

I have some fun stuff for you! Some Squidoo pages that would be informative and helpful to any bride include some lenses on flowers.

Tussie Mussies are old fashioned, charming bouquets that are perfect for mother's of the bride, boutonnieres, and small casual bridal bouquets. Junior bridemaids are another candidate for these smaller more informal bridal flower arrangements. See the Tussy Mussy lens.

Have you wondered which flowers are in season for your wedding month? Those are also the flowers that are more economical. Find out about the flowers of your wedding month in the Best Wedding flowers For Every Month.

Looking for an unusual and unique wedding theme? An Arabian Nights theme with even a Belly Dancer might be just what you are fantasizing about when planning the perfect wedding. Find out more about an Arabian Nights Wedding.

When ordinary invitations are out of the question, explore Zazzle wedding invitations for  completely customizable wedding stationary in an array of paper, color, and design choices. There are fantastic artist's designs for every theme or taste. Introduce yourself to what Zazzle has to offer by seeing my own Zazzle Wedding Invitation picks.

What if you decided on a garden theme for your wedding? Have you decided which invitations to use? Don't commit to any of them before you have a chance to see this hand-chosen lineup of Garden Theme Invitations.

Besides making lenses about wedding topics, I've been busy creating more wedding invitations. Here are my latest:

Tangerine and Brown Trellis Wedding Custom Announcements by ilonagarden
More Chocolate brown Invitations

Elegant Navy Invitation With Ocean Motif by ilonagarden
Browse other Nautical Invitations

Morning Beach Wedding Invitation by ilonagarden
Browse more Morning beach sand Invitations

White Sand Beach Wedding Invites by ilonagarden
View other Navy blue Invitations

Top Five For May

These were the top five of all my lenses for the month of May:

1. 5 Tips for A Cottage Garden
2. Beach Glass Jewelry
3. Beach House Colors
4. Silver Fox Hair
5. 1001 Arabian Nights Costumes

I never would have guessed that the Arabian Nights costumes would remain popular all year.
Beach topics are seasonally more popular as we go into the summer vacation season, and letting your hair be its best natural gray is perennially popular.

People always like Cottage gardens, and it has turned out to be the best of my gardening lenses during May.

Recent Squidoo News

They keep me busy with quests and stuff... but I have a minute to announce that I made Giant Squid 100 level! That is super good news for me. It indicates that I have made at least 100 great lenses of sufficient quality to qualify.

You have to apply for each new level of Giant Squid. Here's how, Giant Squids .

Squidoo has tightened up their quality controls, much more strict than most net standards (it is hard to post quotations since you need a link to an outside source even for things like Bible scripture verses, etc). Even morguefile photos need attribution ( they don't require that themselves). At least that is the way it appears from working with it, and from reading the guides.
In the spirit of the newly emphasized guidelines there was a quest to make a lens with all the accompanying Amazon products having unique descriptions, etc. I decided to submit a lens on Japanese dolls. I can't remember what the inspiration was... except that I wanted to write about something totally different and that I could tell a story about.  Read it- see what you think.

Japanese Doll

Front Page Features

Some of my lenses have been featured on the front page, and it makes a lot of difference in the traffic and amount of likes and comments. The front page photos are best as square shapes, so I have slowly been changing over all my lens' intro photos.

These are the lenses I am getting lots of activity on ( even the new lenses)

The Quaint Cottage Garden

10 Best Perennial Flowers

Fragrant Lavender

Alpine Strawberries


I have one that dropped into the WIP again, Christmas Knit Sweaters.
One brand new lens that doesn't want to rise out of red nether land:
Martha Stewart Green It is a color lens that goes with the diy lenses.

And that is it for this week, so far.

The Focus is About Flowers

Flower related lenses: These are becoming more popular, and I think it has something to do with wedding planning. January is a great month to really hunker down and plan. The lenses about flowers: Tussy Mussy Bouquets Wedding Flowers for Every Month Cottage Flower Garden And speaking of flowery things, the new lens, "What is a Cordial" includes a recipe for a refreshing drink made from elderberry flowers. You could likely make one from rose petals, too. What is a Cordial? Find out!

Gray Hair Is Gorgeous

And people are interested in finding out about that... my Silver Fox lens jumped to number one in my list (not quite there -#1- on Squidoo yet, but I can hope! Other lenses geared towards gray hair and aging gracefully?
I have a few:

• Helen Mirrens Style - always a great graying role model
• Jamie Lee Curtis -even makes "regularity" fun
• Real Beauty For Real Women - really find out how to age well, without hype
• Mysterious Anti-aging Oil - a new, but ancient, anti-aging secret

Learn to manage stress:

• Unwind and Get Rid of Stress -if you listen to the music while perusing the tips, you will automatically relax
• Your Own Aromatherapy Program - surround yourself with stuff that smells good
• Manicures and Pedicures, at home to have a spa day without the cost

Eat Right:

• Whole Foods has ideas on eating right - I love to shop there
• Mediterranean Food is good for you, and your friends, too. Try the recipes and have a party.

Family Game Night is a great way to eat well together, relieve stress, and have fun...plus build those important relationships. Maybe less gray hair that way, but you can't have it all ;)

People Like...

The people's choice for lenses are the Silver fox and the Moroccan interior decorating lenses: Moroccan style bedrooms, and Moroccan bathrooms. Interesting story about the Silver Fox lens, which highlights gray hair. The actual Yasmina Rossi contacted me and we exchanged a few emails. That was quite an honor! I have several links to her on the page, she is a very interesting person with artistic activities, not only modeling! I listed my graceful aging lenses, but blogger has been acting up and had to rewrite it after some lost posts. That was aggravating. Happened more than once, and the important thing is to close the box that pops up and copy the post. It might be due to the VERY aggravating internet company we have to use. Orange Plug is our only option :(. On a brighter note- My Gardens in Ohio lens got some welcome and encouraging attention when it was voted into the top 100 for 2011. Yippee! That is why people love Squidoo- it is a very supportive community, and very positive.

You can join Squidoo, to write your own pages, earn some income, or just participate in the community. Join Squidoo here.

Yes, I'm a fan, and recommend you join to try it out. It is time for me to update My Personal Squidoo Journey since so much has happened in the past year.

Celebrating Christmas on Squidoo

With quests and the fact that this is the holiday I love the most, of all the holidays in the year, quite a few Christmas lenses have been published.

Here is the list so far:

1. Advent Traditions
2. Grandma Moses Holiday Paintings
3. Best Christmas Cookies
4. Christmas Dinner Menu
5. Christmas Gifts for Gardeners
6. Christmas Spice Cookies
7. Stocking Stuffers
8. Christmas cups and mugs
9. Christmas Lensography Index
10. Christmas Teddy Bears
11. Gingerbread Theme Decor
12. Christmas Trees
13. Deck the Halls
14. Knit Christmas Sweaters
15. Christmas Gifts for Her
16. Holiday Yoga Gifts
17. Christmas Inspiration
18. Christmas Roast Turkey

That seems like quite a list already! Enough to keep readers busy for awhile.

Christmas is Coming!

I have a new Christmas lens, inspired by the little teddy bear ornaments we made one year:
Christmas Teddy Bears

Other Christmas lenses I've published this year, which people don't seem to know about quite yet:

• Advent Traditions
• Christmas Dinner Menu and Recipes
• Christmas Gifts for Your Gardening Friends
• Deck the Halls for Christmas
• Christmas Lensography
• Gingerbread Theme Home Decor
• Christmas Mugs and Cups
• Choosing the Perfect Christmas Tree
•  The Christmas Best Spice Cookies
• What Can I Give Her For Christmas?

That last lens is all about fragrance gifts, finding the right perfume and what makes them different. Once you know a general type of scent is the one you most like, the rest is easy ( easier, anyway).

Movin' on up

Lenses that people seem happy with:

• Tussie Mussie -fragrant bouquets
• Beautiful Peacock Feathers
• Moroccan Bathroom Decor

Gardens in Ohio is not doing as well as the garden season winds down. Grandma Moses motivation is catching more interest this fall.

I applied for Giant Squid 50 status. Haven't heard back,yet. Stay tuned!

Making a huge amount of new lenses. I have 70 featured lenses and
35 works-in-progress lenses.

And I love the Squidutils toolbar- which is linked as a useful resource from the Squid Journey page.