Bloggiesta Wrap Up

This has been a great weekend!! This was my first time participating in Bloggiesta and I hope to continue to do so! I'm not near done with this and plan to work on my goals until they are done. Hopefully I'll complete them before the next Bloggiesta!

Special thanks goes out to our fearless leader and coordinator, Natasha of Maw Books for putting this weekend event together. I also want to thank all of the challenge hosts for the great tips and ideas to help us improve our blogs!

I didn't get as much done as I would have liked, mainly because I'm on dial-up and it's so slow that it was taking forever to load webpages. Here is what I was able to accomplish this weekend:

1. Finished reading Green and Calamity Jack. Review for Green is posted and blog tour for Calamity Jack begins tomorrow. I also started reading Thicker than Blood for upcoming blog tour next week!
2. Updated my Mailbox Monday post which posts on Monday.
3. I am almost done designing my first blog button. I hope to have it posted by Wednesday for everyone to grab!
4. I updated my 200 followers and The Last Surgeon contest documents in Google documents.
5. I signed up and am working on the Comment Challenge hosted by Pam from Bookalicio.us
6. Completed Danielle's challenge to make a cheat sheet. I have a new appreciation for Google Documents!
7. I completed Karin's challenge of checking for broken links. I'm still trying to figure out how to use the information.
8. Completed Jenn's challenge of brainstorming for new posts. This was fun but took me forever to post my slides (again, thanks to dial-up!)
9. Most of all, I had FUN doing this! :)

Bloggiesta Challenge Update and Day 1 Wrap Up

I just completed the "Come Up With 10 Post Ideas" challenge that Jenn is hosting during Bloggiesta. This was a most helpful challenge that I hope I can continue to do on those days when I don't have anything to post. This completes my second challenge for the weekend.

Bloggiesta Mini Challenge

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Earlier today, I completed my first challenge, which was to create a back up document of commonly used websites and codes. I already have a pretty systematic method of tracking which books I own, when I got them, where they came from, and what challenge(s) they can apply to. On that page I will also add each individual book review address so I don't spend so much time search for the link when I need it for something else.

I also completed reading Calamity Jack by Shannon and Dean Hale with illustrations by Nathan Hale. I'll be posting on this one next week during a blog tour on the book. I can tell you that it's fantastic! I'm almost finished reading Green by Ted Dekker as well. I can't seem to blog as much as I'd like on dial-up so I'm getting a lot of reading in this weekend.

Please continue to follow my Bloggiesta experience! Happy Bloggiesta-ing!

I have been trying to post this since very early this morning. I realize that I will be soon writing a wrap up post for day 2. On dial-up, it might take until Monday at this point! I am participating and enjoying it, albeit I'm getting more reading in while waiting for pages to load!

Bloggiesta is here!

I love the weekends!! This one is going to be great! It started off at 5:30 am when I got a call from the Superintendent saying that school was canceled due to the snow! Those of you living in the North would die laughing if you saw our snow. It's ridiculous...there is more snow in my freezer than on the ground in my 8 acres of land! LOL I'm glad they are concerned about the ice on the road though...it's worse after the sun goes down.

Anyway, the other great part of this weekend is Bloggiesta!! Natasha, over at MawBooks is our gracious hostess and she has all sorts of great things planned. I won't be able to participate as fully as I'd like but since I'm not working today, the party for me will begin a few hours earlier! Some of my goals for the weekend are:

1. Finish reading Green by Ted Dekker Finished at 2:30 AM EST 1/9/2010. One of the most interesting books I've read. Look for review soon!
   
2. Finish reading Calamity Jack by Shannon & Dean Hale with illustrations by Nathan Hale Finished at 4:25 pm EST 1/8/2010...look for blog tour next week! 5 of 5 stars!!!
   
3. Write reviews for above mentioned books
4. Start Mailbox Monday post for next week Set to post early Monday Morning!
   
5. Write Teaser Tuesday posts for month of January
6. Clean up Google Reader (too many blogs that are not even active anymore)
7. Learn how to make buttons for my contests
8. Learn how to make a signature for my posts
9. Write up contest posts for upcoming blogger birthday (there will be many so be sure to come back and check it out)
10. Update numbers for 200 Followers Contest and The Last Surgeon giveaway
11. Update spreadsheets with new books and challenge books for this year Completed at 7:32 PM EST on 1/8/2010.
    
12. Participate in at least 5 challenges (Here's the list to choose from)
    

• Rebecca from The Book Lady’s Blog – 2010 Resolutions. You know you got them!
• Pam from MotherReader - Blogging is about community, so check out this Comment Challenge (watch for a Mr. Linky to be up on Saturday for you to complete this challenge).
• Danielle from There’s a Book – Blogging takes time & I’m sure we’d all love to blog faster. Using a cheat sheet is just one idea of how to save time. Completed at 10:35 PM EST 1/8/2010. What a great challenge!!! Everyone should do this one!!
  
• Pam from Bookalicio.us – There is nothing worse than seeing your post on somebody else’s blog. Talking about blog copyright and what you need to be doing to protect yourself.
• Beth from Beth Fish Reads – Using categories & labels to find what you’re looking for.
• Jackie from Farm Lane Books – Do not lose it all! How to back up your blog.
• Karin from Karin’s Book Nook – There is nothing worse than landing on 404 error pages. It’s time to go on a dead link hunt!
• Chelle from Tempting Persephone – You have some great content. But can people find it? Here’s showing off the best of the best.
• Kristen from Bookworming in the 21st Century - Introducing a new blogger mentoring program and forum.
• Jenn from Jenn’s Bookshelves – Got nothing to say (not likely – that’s why you’re blogging in the first place!) but here is an opportunity to brainstorm blogging topics. Completed at 1:30 AM EST 1/10/2010. Now trying to figure out how to upload PowerPoint into Google Documents to post here!
  

13. Comment on other bloggers posts!!! I don't do this near as often as I should!

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