It Is 2013

a new leaf

I was busy in the last month, since Christmas is a big holiday for me. Still, I managed to fit in some time learning about Zazzle and finishing and creating new lenses. I also started organizing my old desktop computer at the beginning of this month.

Not too much headway in getting more exercise, if you except our two attempts to cross country ski (that is over for now since the snow all melted).

Zazzle Report

I have managed to get some regular orders, although it has been pretty meager, and suffered some cancellations. This month there have been some new images uploaded and creation of more products. I worked alot on eLaine's Locker, which is the store for my daughters  artwork. She FINALLY got a few orders on her stuff, not much in money, but it is a beginning.

I will continue to read up on how to make these stores a success. I created a couple more stores to separate topics, but they aren't live and have no products in them.

Squidoo Progress

The income steadily has been increasing since I now have a ...what should I call it?... stable of lenses? Some have risen in rank, while many dive to the bottom, and I have a number that struggle even though I think they are pretty good lenses.

Still, I keep trying to improve them, and the amount of Amazon sales are rising on them, so it seems that I must be getting a few things right. I try to stay active in the community, but Christmas holiday was challenging for that effort. I had to let most of the quests go by, and mostly tried to Squid Angel bless as many worthy lenses as I could, but wasn't able to spend as much time exploring other lenses. I often tried to find good lenses to like or bless from people who had visited and liked my lenses.... although normally I try to widen my range and go actively looking through Squidoo for good lenses.

New lenses I made since November of 2012:

1. Soup Tureens
2. What To Give Your True Love
3. The Christmas Play Costumes
4. My Vibram Shoes
5. I Spy Picture Riddles Book
6. Ugly Christmas Sweaters
7. Irish Claddagh
8. Decorating Ideas For Christmas
9. Hungarian Apple Bundt Cake
10. Adorable Diaper Bags
11. Flowering Hanging Planters
12. Woodland Christmas Decor

Now I realize just how busy I'd been. That is a lot of work represented there- I take several days worth of work to complete a lens, usually. And it is important to keep up with finished lenses to maintain them. They have images that go missing, or modules that no longer work, comments need to be moderated or responded to, and they often drop in rank if nothing is contributed to their upkeep for awhile.

That is most of the news... except that I've been giving attention some of my websites. I forgot all about posting on myreflectingpool.com until I started updating its software. When I saw that I was reporting on Squidoo lenses, etc but hadn't made entries since sometime in 2011, it reminded me to post here. I will work on things over there, too -eventually.

After all, it is a new year, with new possibilities.

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.

Centenarian Lenses

Centenarian Lenses?
I now have made 100 lenses that are fully finished, published, and featured on Squidoo. That represents a lot of work and time, but I am getting a small, but steady income from a few of them.

Still, not even close to even my regular blogs, which I have not attended to (only so much time). I've thought about how that is a losing proposition, but then, always have valued learning above income. There is a big reason right there why I am a hobbyest rather than a pro.

100th Squidoo Lens 


  Like regular blogging, it is hard work to provide steady flow of writing, mastering the type of community participation that a media requires, and knowing what to write... researching for the writing if you are short on knowledge. Although learning about how to write, and researching topics is probably the big draw for me in "Why I Squidoo".

I think mastering how to present products to sell is hardest for me. I don't like a hard sell, and often feel weird about including products, etc. I like to review, although hardly ever do, and don't do it on demand- ever. Yet.... I personally love the areas of magazines which tell me where I can buy the products they feature. That is why I keep trying to master the method, I guess.


It is now time for me to write all my Advent devotionals for my Advent blog. I was determined to get them written early, but so much family and other obligations kept me from fulfilling that. That, and the fact that I really have to carve out time to consider, design, and write these. They aren't done quickly or lightly, and I have to focus in order to make them. Also, this year it was slower than usual to come up with the theme I wanted to work on, and it still isn't as clarified as I'd like. But need to publish starting this Sunday! Must get cracking today:)

Updating- Suspicians

I've had to update my wordpress sites continually. Not sure how or if, but it seems that there has been an unusual amount of problems since Netfirms sold itself to another hosting company. And not too long afterwards there were "offers" for security "protection" to keep the websites on ones account secure, for a fee of course.The new company is Endurance International Group.

That just seemed a little suspicious to me.

They also have had a number of downs times for my site, which after I ask for support are fixed. Not sure what that is about. Maybe the new normal.

I hope these are just hiccups for the changeover of ownership. Fingers crossed.

Norton caught a couple files when I tried to create a backup of my site. That is what first made me wonder if there was backdoor activity. Google adsense always fluctuates for me, but it had had dropped to unusually low levels, and other such things that made me go "Hmmm".

Then I had a fatal error today in the admin part of one of my sites. The index.php was taking too much memory to load. What? So I downloaded fresh copy of wp and uploaded it. Now everything is working again.