Back In The Zazzle and Squidoo Work Groove

Vintage Hungarian Embroidery on Black iPad Mini Covers by caseNpoint
Browse Hungarian Cases online at Zazzle.com

I had to take time off of my usual projects to post every single day in my Advent blog, and of course, get ready for Christmas. We had a nice one, thanks, and I didn't even go through the usual utter exhaustion.

Now I am producing lots of new stuff on Zazzle and playing around with different styles and designs. I sure hope I find my "voice" sometime this year. One of the things that fascinated me was the vintage Hungarian embroidery and folk art style. So I worked on that along with some chevron designs.

 I had to step away from Hubpages and Squidoo for awhile. They require so much concentration just to keep up this past year and I needed a break. But I recently made a few new pages.

For Squidoo, the classic format:
 Perennial Garden Book List as a review of really helpful, well-written garden books on the topic of perennials. A subject close to my heart.


 For Hubpages, garden writing, also:
 Everything You Need To Know To Build A Rock Garden. An ambitious title, I know, and the first time I have tackled that subject in garden writing.

 Save Money With An Arboretum. A different perspective on visiting public gardens.

 Lemony Kossuth Cookies. This was my first attempt at a recipe hub. I went with my mothers favorite Hungarian cookie.

 So those are some of the newest things... and I have been trying to get ilona1.com and myreflectingpool.com up and running, too. I think I might transfer this blog to one of them.

Another new creation from my Zazzle endeavors:

Orchid And Extras Wedding Binder by ilonagarden
Look at more Orchid Binders at zazzle

I used the new Pantone colors for 2014. This one is Radiant Orchid, although I may have brightened it up a bit. The contrasting color is the Violet Tulip, which almost looks like blue violet here. 

Squidoo Action

Spring will be here soon-before you know it

While I have posted a new lens or two, with all of the actions that Squidoo is taking I have been working on sprucing up my older lenses and making sure they are up to snuff. Quite a few have had Amazon products that went out of date, and others seem to have had some problems with some of my photos. Especially some of the affiliate photos.

As I go through lenses to update, I tend to add new content... that's just the way my mind works. This kind of distraction is why I never can clean up my house. I tend to get caught up doing some little organizational thing or fixing something broken, or sorting through papers. It takes me forever to get things done.

Anyway, new lenses published:

• PC to Mac the story of how I made the switch. This lens was on the back burner for more than a year, I think. but I have plenty of experience to draw on to update it, now.
• Out of Your Gourd Gardening tells the story of all the gourds I grew a couple years ago and the neat projects that I want to make of them.
• Flowering Hanging Planters made a sale recently and it is a fairly new lens with loads of beautiful hanging planters. Some truly unique and beautiful planters that I know I would love to own.
• In time for St. Patricks Day, the Claddagh symbol lens showcases the many ways this adorns products and also has the meaning and symbolism - it was a fun lens to produce because I love Celtic culture.

There were more, because I haven't updated this site with all of them, but that is a start if you want to check them out.

The updated lenses are too numerous to mention, mostly my gardening lenses. Although there is an avalanche of winter themed lenses falling to the bottom of my Squidoo account. I may have to allow some of them to go WIP. Not sure I can keep up with that amount of work in the spring, with all my RL garden chores coming up. Plus there is always the visits to the grandchildren!

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I'm hoping that the new software sweeps don't end up snagging my lenses, even though I have so much originality built in that I shouldn't worry about it. We'll see. It certainly is shaking up over there! Trying to take more pictures and hope that I have plenty of original material to work with for this year. The reduction Angel blessing is actually a blessing in disquise for me. I was worried that I wasn't active enough, but it looks like I was overdoing it. That is me!

Squidoo Added A Major Sharing Feature

Look at this- here is an example from one of my pages, Garden Tools For Beginners, where suggestions for good tools can be placed directly on our blogs. I am really impressed, and hope to explore the possibilities. If you are one of the select few to visit my blog, why not vote for your fav tool? It won't cost a thing and will really thrill me :)

This is the script version, there is also a way to embed with the iframe if you like.

 I got a little carried away with the list, but that is because I do own lots of these tools and wanted to suggest more than just the brands I have ( I wanted to list some that are on my wish list) Favorite Garden tools