How I got more life out of a free flower bouquet that costs us oodles and oodles of money

February 16, 2012

How is that for a long title, he!

This post starts with a bunch of flowers I recently received.

Actually this post should start with the weeks and weeks, if not months, of time my Love spent searching for our new bird mobile. You see we bought ourselves a ‘new to us’ car recently. I didn’t take any pictures of it yet, but maybe I’ll drape myself on the hood one day and show you. Or maybe not….

Anyway we bought a ‘new’ car for oodles of money, (I don’t even want to think about how much white paint I could have bought for that heap of euros) because the old one was dying on us. When we picked the car up I got a bunch of flowers. Oh and a lot of compliments too.

Apparently the sales guy hadn’t met many women who went straight for the tools compartment when he mentioned the car had one.
Or women who had to try for themselves immediately, right there on the spot, how to take all of the seats out. But you understand don’t you?! I need to know how to make room for that wonderful thrift store dresser I am going to find soon. A girl has got to be prepared for the next find-of-the-year.

Anyway it was a fun evening and we drove of in a newish car with a free bunch of flowers.

Holland is known for its flowers, and you usually can’t really buy an ugly bunch here. But those mixed bouquets just aren’t quite my thing. Maybe they aren’t your thing either?

Well this is what you can do with your next gas station bouquet.

Break it up!

I love breaking up bouquets into a collection. Somehow the flowers together make a much bigger statement that way and at the same time the individual beauty of each flower shines through much stronger.

As you can see I used everything that seemed right to me. Vintage bottles, a small lemonade glass, a liquor glass, medicine bottles. Just anything that got in front of my hands and that might work.

I always think flowers that are cut short like this, last longer too. Maybe I’ll do a little experimental research one day to test my hypothesis (sorry researcher in me surfacing). Maybe it’s because they don’t need to sustain a long stem and lots of green leaves this way. But these flowers are still on my little side table and I think they are almost two weeks old now. They were a week old when I redid the bouquet like this (I tried to like it the way I got it, silly me) and took the pictures. They still look like this a week later. Just a tad older, but still with lots of life in them.

I don’t think I have ever bought myself a bunch of orange flowers. Orange just isn’t really my color. But I must admit that the punch they bring against the white background is really nice. I guess orange just has the oomph factor. I suspect I will see a lot of orange this year, considering that Tangerine Tango is the color of 2012. Who knows, maybe it will grow on me.

Yeah. I guess this little bouquet really was worth thousands of dollars euros

So are you always happy with the flowers you get? Do you re-arrange the bouquets that the florists carefully crafted together too? And will you add a little orange to your life this year?

Love,

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Filed Under: Decorating

How to Follow Blogs. Part III

February 14, 2012

Good evening (or morning) my sweets how are you all doing? Busy trying to keep up with what’s happening in the blogosphere? That’s a full time job isn’t it. Well here I am with the promised third part in my series on how to follow blogs, the easy way. Today I am going to share some alternative ways on how to keep close tabs on all of your favorite blogs and sites without having to resort to skipping showers, not feeding the dog and becoming glued to your couch.

There are so many ways to read and follow blogs there is bound to be a way that suits you and your lifestyle.

So let’s get on with it.

First things first. Why did I start this series again, let’s recap.

Word is that Google Friend Connect is going to go away, first on WordPress blogs, probably later on Blogger blogs too. So if you rely on that followers gadget to keep you updated about new posts from your blogging friends you might need to start looking for another solution. Or do you?

UPDATE ON THE DEMISE OF GFC!!!

About Google Friend Connect going away. I have recently learned some more about it that has made me modestly optimistic that there might not be a problem at all, at least for most of you. Let me tell you quickly what I learned, and I need to start with a little history lesson.

Once upon a time there was Blogger that decided it would be neat to have a little gadget that would make it easy for people to follow blogs and add blogs to their sidebar blogroll. The followers gadget was born. And we in the women blogging community loved it and jumped on the followers train. We put a FOLLOWERS gadget on our blogs and started to FOLLOW blogs through it.

Some time later Google decided that it would be nice to have a function where people could become members of sites and enter into discussions, sign up for newsletters, share the news from those sites with friends. And Google Friend Connect was born.

Fast forward a couple of years (or months). The guys and girls at Google and their Blogger department got together over lunch, started yapping and decided that there were a lot of similarities between followers and members: they both loved a blog/site, they both signed up for updates, they both made a ‘connection’. So they decided why not join those two functions. And that’s what they did.

I think most of us didn’t even notice that we no longer had followers but instead now had friends, and that the name of the gadget changed. It seemed like a hardly noticeable, peaceful merger.

Or did it?

We did notice that the followers gadget became unreliable. Disappearing on us for days, not updating even when we knew people were signing in, no longer customizable etc. Well the problem seems to have been that the two different sets of code that were based on different source programs didn’t really work together very well.

So why is this important?

Well apparently Google is disconnecting the two again. Discontinuing Google Friend Connect but keeping the followers gadget!!! In fact I have read they are going to improve and strengthen the followers gadget. So what does that mean for us? Well if you are on Blogger it means that the followers gadget will definitely stay and probably function even better than before. And for us on WordPress? Well I am secretly optimistic. Since my original followers gadget was set up through Blogger and is in fact still attached to Blogger (I moved it with me without losing any of you) I am hoping it will continue to work here too.

We will have to wait until March 1 to be sure…..

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Ok that about Google Friend Connect and the Followers thing.

If you think now ‘”okay nothing is going to change for me and I am happy where I am” good for you. If you think “there is room for improvement” read on….

Because here is a short list of some alternatives ways to follow blogs

1. Google Reader.

I shared the pros and cons of Google Reader in my last post in this series. Go there for the video of all my tips and tricks on how to use Google Reader. I show you how to set up folders, share on social media platforms, translate, and of course how to set up the ‘one click to the next unread blog’ button.

2. Feedly

In there own words “Feedly is a news reader for creative minds, a simple and elegant way to read and share the content of your favorite sites”.

It has a beautiful minimalized look (and you can choose a theme of choice)
let’s you personalize and customize the way your read blogs
Uses keyboard shortcuts like Google Reader
Remembers your preferences and favorites and adjusts the presentation accordingly
It allows you to read blogs in a magazine style
It let’s you import your subscriptions from Google Reader
By adding a little feedly button to your toolbar you can ‘one click’ add blogs to your follow-list
Is fully integrated with Twitter, Facebook, and Google Plus
Mobile friendly
Many ways to add extra features, preferences etc.

3. Bloglovin’

In there own words: “Sign up, add all the blogs you want to follow, and then you’ll get notified every time one of your favorite blogs has written a new blog post. Both on the web and on your iPhone or Android phone”.

It seems to be designed by and for a women audience
It collects the latest updates of your favorite blogs and gives you short excerpt of the most recent post and one click access to the original source
It gives you lot of suggestions for blogs and sites to follow
You can choose to have email notifications when blogs are updated
Allows you to import from Google Reader etc
Mobile friendly

4. Networked Blogs

You might know NetworkedBlogs as a Facebook app. Well it is, but it can be used a blog reader too. Since Networked Blogs allows you to sign in with your Facebook account you don’t need a separate login and you can easily import and connect to your FB favorites.

Offers a wide range of suggestions to follow
Adjusts those suggestions according to your likes and votes
Fully integrated with Facebook
Gives you a list of recent posts on your favorite blogs and a one click way to the original blog
Has a widget to put on your blog to show off your networked blogs followers and allow following

5. Linky Followers Tool

Recently some of our DIY/ craft pal bloggers got together with the Linky Party coder Brent and developed Linky Followers. It is brand sparking new and new features are being added almost daily.

Easy organization of your blogs in categories
You can see who follows your blog
Gives you the most recent post of your followed blogs and a one click to go to the blog

[updated, thanks Tina], the most recent post is manually added by the blog authors, so it depends on them when you will get notified of the update.
Has a reading panel to read the post within Linky Followers
Has a widget to put on your blog to show of your followers and to allow following

6. Facebook, Twitter, Google+

Of course if you still haven’t found what you are looking for… Then signing up to the Facebook page or Twitter stream of your favorite bloggers is a way to stay up to date too. Most bloggers send an update or message to their Facebook wall or page, their Twitter stream or their Google+ page when they write a new blog. Of course in the mad stream of those social media sites you might miss the notice, but it is still there. Set up a list of your favorites and you won’t miss the link to the update. Of course these sites offer the additional benefit of connecting and communicating and getting to know your favorite bloggers in a whole new way.

So I guess I have given you enough options on how to stay updated on all of your favorite blogs. And if you don’t want to miss a thing from me, simply subscribe and read in your reader of choice, subscribe by email, or follow through Blogger (guaranteed until March 1 ), Like me on Facebook, Tweet me on Twitter, Follow me on Pinterest.

For part 1 of this series: What is a feed reader and why do I need one?

Part 2 of this series: Tips and Tricks on how to use Google Reader

So do you think I covered it all? What’s your favorite way to read blogs? Have I changed how you think about readers? My favorite way is still Google Reader because I know it like the back of my hand, and when I want a little more beauty I turn to Feedly as the runner up.