2011!! A New Look for a New Year!

Wow, I can’t believe it’s 2011 already.  I think it’s really true that the older you get the faster the time goes.  2010 was a great year both personally and for my blog.  In a recap…

At the beginning of 2010 I switched Three Different Directions over from Blogger to Squarespace.  I wanted better control over my blog, and was ready to grow it beyond what Blogger could do for me.  The switch went well, and there have been a few hiccups over the year, mostly in the comment area department, but overall I’m satisfied with the move.  (More on that later…)

In April my family was blessed to be able to take a Transatlantic Cruise.  For more info on that, you can click the cruising link at the top of the page.  We had a fabulous time, and I completely unplugged for almost 3 weeks!  I thank my loyal readers for still visiting my blog during that time.  While I had posts scheduled each day to run while I was gone, I did no social networking, and had no way to check e-mails, and guess what?  My blog was still there when I came back, and so were my readers!  Note to other bloggers…you can take a vacation and unplug, and come back and pick up!

August allowed me to run posts on Cancer Awareness.  What a learning experience that was.  Many companies came out with information, review products and giveaways to share with our Girl Scout Troop who walked in Relay For Life and for my readers too!  I had great support and feedback for that event.

I also started my new blog Play That Now in August.  I was getting many requests to post information and host giveaways for Music and DVDs, that I just didn’t have the space for on Three Different Directions.  So I decided to niche out a blog for just that purpose.  If you don’t already follow or subscribe I hope that you will consider.  It has reviews of video games, music tracks, TV show information, and tech gadget stuff on it.  That one will have little in the way of personal content (except for reviews) but I hope it helps some people make decisions to purchase (or not), or to watch (or not), games, gadgets and/or movies and music they may have heard of, but don’t know much about.

In November my family and I became American Citizens.  I don’t write a lot of personal posts, mostly because I don’t have time, but also because I don’t have cute little toddlers anymore who do exasperating things like paint walls with mommy’s nail polish or dump baby powder all over the Thanksgiving turkey to blog about.  I also don’t know if anyone really cares to read about what’s going on in my personal life or not.  If you do let me know, and maybe I’ll make more time to write about what’s happening in my life.

And through the whole year, I’ve worked with some incredible PR reps, companies and blogger campaigns, and have learned a ton about blogging in general.

And now we’ve come full circle, and it’s January again.  So what’s on the agenda for 2011?

Well….I’ll have some posts (and giveaways!) up for some diet and weight loss in January (of course, what blog won’t ?! LOL).  And I’m moving Play That Now over from Blogger to WordPress.

About that…I know I said I was satisfied with my move from Blogger to Squarespace with this blog.  And I am.  I love the functionality it gives me, and now that Play That Now has grown to the point that I know it’s going to survive in the blogosphere, I also know I have to move it off Blogger.  And I would have chosen Squarespace again…except for the price tag.  Squarespace comes with a price, and right now I can’t jusify the expense of having two blogs published and hosted on Squarespace.  So with the help of edesign-pro.com (Kat Robertson), just after the first of the year I’ll make the WordPress plunge.  I have full intention of keeping Three Different Directions here in this cozy spot on the internet, but who knows I may love WordPress even more, and make a switch over with this one too.  (Although I’m guessing that will be more of a challenge, since I can’t import my pictures with a backup file!).

I’ll continue my Switched-On Schoolhouse Series until May, and write about other homeschool curriculum as it comes up.

Our family is also planning a cruise to Alaska, so that will be a feature under my Cruising category later in the year.  We’re very much looking forward to that, and to sharing with you the pictures and adventures we take.

I’d love to go to a blogger conference of some type this year, or be invited on a company sponsored blog excursion.  As it stands though I’d either have to be sponsored to attend one, or be invited to one.  So if any PR or company has actually read up to this point, I’m open to offers .

As for the visitors and loyal readers of my blog – if you’re still reading this post…you get an A+, a gold star and a !  I know you all love the giveaways (heck I do too!), but let me know what else you’d like to see for content.  Deals, recipes, really do you want to see pictures of me in my pajamas opening Christmas gifts?  (If you do heh, I’ll break out the camera on bad hair days!).  Leave a comment, pour out your feelings.  And THANK YOU for coming to my site, once a month, once a week, once a day, once an hour <— however often it is, if it wasn’t for you, I wouldn’t have a reason to blog!

Happy 2011!

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