Changing Directions

Photo by P.Lynne Designs (c) 2016

I just said goodbye to a blog.  I said goodbye to another blog 90 days ago.  Am I sad?  Of course, I am.  It is not easy to admit when things go south, and there is no room for recovery at all.

The first one, the one that has now been deleted for 90 days, was a specific topic.  It covered Walt Disney World, it’s attractions, and all things Disney.  I started out strong, because, after all, I was a Disney fan.  I loved the parks.  I have to come clean on this failure; I do not live near Disney World.  I do not live near Disneyland either.  I live in Ohio.  Ohio is a good 15 HOUR drive from Disney World and a 24 HOUR drive to Disneyland.   Forget about the plane fare. You can also forget the international parks too.  I cannot just show up every weekend.  Well, I could, but, I might as well move to Orlando.  So, how does one report on what is going on at the Disney parks without being a travel agent?  You rely on others.  I would read what was going on in the parks, write about it in a blog post.  I would do that after I would write on how I am planning my Disney trip.  That was how the blog started out to be. Traveling to the Mouse's House was the name of the blog.  Well, after letting it sit for a year, and no beginning to my family vacation, I decided to let it go (as Elsa sings).

The blog I let go as of a whole two hours ago was a home blog on all things family and household (and almost ended up being the home of Traveling to the Mouse's House).  The name of the blog was Simply Organized Crafts, and I have mentioned the blog several on this blog.  When I was not posting about writing on this blog, crafts on the P. Lynne Designs blog (now a WordPress blog), or my Longaberger business on Tricia’s Baskets (which is still active), I was writing about organizing your home with Simply Organized Crafts (SOC).  At least I got one thing right in my blogging (besides this one-My Ambiance Life).

The reason why I decided to let go of SOC was again I changed directions in my blogging.  That does not mean that I will not have an organizing, decorating, or family blog again.  In fact, I loved doing it.  What happened was more on the WordPress version of SOC.  Just like P. Lynne Designs, I switched it to the WordPress version (self-hosting) of the blog.  I was preparing to launch the site (publishing it to the public) when something terrible went wrong.  I could not log on the admin side of the account. (Back office).  Then I received a notice from HostGator and Life Lock that there was some malicious activity happening to my website, and they had to shut it down.  I was upset because I did not do it.  I know nothing about programming viruses into a program.  Heck, I barely learned HTML and WordPress, and what I learned was from an online course.  The funny thing about it all, is I am still paying for it ($11.00 for the baby account).  P. Lynne Designs is on HostGator too, but it is more protected against these things, and at $16 a month, it better be in stealth mode.  I was going to put SOC on the same protocols as P. Lynne Designs after I finish creating P. Lynne Designs.   In order to do that, I had to shut down SOC (Blogger).  OK, I know, it is complicated.

So, is this the end of Traveling to the Mouse's House? Yes, I am publishing an e-book on Disney travel planning, hopefully for Amazon Publishing.  I am in month 6, and I am just taking my time.  It is a mixture of me planning for this trip (yes, I am still planning) for people in my family, ages 1-78, and the information I gather on my experiences with Disney and researching.  This is not the end of Simply Organized Crafts either.  It is getting a new name, a new domain name, and a total re-design of it.  It will not be returning to Blogger.  It will be a Wordpress blog from the very beginning under Weebly or Hostgator (the same smaller plan that it started out with).  Hopefully, someone will not do what they did to the Simply Organized Crafts blog. 

So, what does this mean for you?  For the beginner blogger (someone who is just starting out), research, research, research.  I do not think that I made bad choices, but I should have found better choices.  I still think that Hostgator is one of the better choices for hosting a WordPress blog out there if you do not want a Blogger or Tumblr blog.  I do have a Tumblr blog, but for the moment, it is just piggy-backing my blog posts from this blog (making a copy), so it does not have an official name. 

For the more experienced blogger, always watch your back.  You never know when you have to change hosting sites for whatever reason.  Make sure that when you change your blog (name change, content change, or delete it), you are ready to move on, and you are comfortable with that decision.  Always backup your site. I am in search of a 5 TB External Hard Drive (yes, my example from the last post), and I have 5 clouds. I knew one day I would close these two blogs, and even when I changed P. Lynne Designs from Blogger to a WordPress format.  I just had to make sure I was ready for that change.   I had not blogged in any of them for a while, even though P. Lynne Designs the Blogger version is still active, and ready to receive my next post.  I now use it for updating the new blog, which still has the “Coming Soon” page on it. (I promise it will launch before the holiday season).

Just be prepared for anything when blogging and know that nothing is ever permanent.

It is all about connections

Connection (c) 2016 P. Lynne Designs

Lately, I have been writing about a lot of little things when it comes to blogging or writing in general.  Sometimes, it is not just about writing about what you know, your passion, and getting your point across, it is about other things as well.  This is the reason why I talk about knowing your self-worth, copyrighted materials, and other things in this blog.  I read posts just like you that talk about things, such as being constant, gaining traffic, and being authentic, but it does not matter if you do not have the little things, such as the next topic I am going to mention.

A connection is an action between two or more people, where there is an invitation from one person to ask another person to see what they have to say.  The connection comes when the other person is interested in what the first person has to say.  In most cases, it is called networking.   For example, a salesperson may talk about a new computer system that will revolutionize the world.  You have heard of these people.  They have the ultimate solution to the world’s computer problems.  OK, I disgrace, but the point is they want to sell to you the idea that your present computer is not going to work for problems you are currently are having at the moment.  It could be storage problems, memory issues, or printing issues, but they have a solution.  If another person is happy with their present computer, they will move on and not stop to look at the computer system.  Say that you are looking for a new computer.  You may stop to hear the presentation.  As you listen, the seller may mention that the external hard drive has 5 TB of storage, with plenty of room to grow.  You are looking for that type of computer, so you listen further.  Now that salesperson has made a connection with you.  As you listen more and more to the presentation, the salesperson may mention some other things that you have not thought about needing in your potential new computer (they have not sold you on purchasing it yet), but the more you hear the sales pitch, the more draw in you are.  Now, you are trying to figure out how to fit this product into your budget.  Once you do that, now you are trying to see how to get it home, and into your life.

Now, let’s translate this into a blog post.  I do not care if you ever talk to another person face to face ever again.  When you are writing, you are writing to make a connection with others.  You are like that computer salesperson, only you are selling the idea of getting readers.  Everyone is looking for something, and it is your job as a blog writer to sell them on the idea that they need what you are writing about.  The only difference is you may not see that connection, but it is there.  It shows up as page views, clicking on ads inside your blog, and comments.

Let’s look at this same concept of selling a new computer.  As a blog writer, you first of all need to know a thing or two about computers.  This includes what works in the technology world.  In order to talk (sell) a person into needing a 5 TB external hard drive, you need to make a connection, and the first thing is to provide great information.  You may talk about what happens when you have an external hard drive vs. having a 1TB internal hard drive that most computers come with.  You may even write about how many photos the hard drive will hold, and the security you will get when it is not hooked up to the computer. 

The point is when that when a reader likes it so much, they will share the article with others on social media.  This is how connections are made, and this is one of the ways you can gain traffic on your blog, because, If they are like me, they will click on another older post to see what else you have to say on computers.  This is why experts say to have great content because not so great content can also have a negative impact on your blog as well.

Once you have made the connection through your blog post writings, you can move on to other areas, such as creating an e-book and videos, or even webinars.  By that time, you would have mastered the art of making a connection, because, you will know what it takes to make that initial connection with your readers to gain new ones.

Finding your own self-worth as a writer

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Put in Bay Lighthouse (c) 2016 P. Lynne Designs

This post is a little different than my usual posts, because, lately I have been seeing a lot of people being torn down by others for the way they look, act, and lifestyle. It does not have to be in the news. The tearing down of self-esteem can be in home, school, work, or even at an event. They come in all shapes and sizes. Bullying has hit an all-time high. It is time to take back your self-worth as a person, which is a subject for a different day. Since this is a writing blog, I thought I would tackle the problem from the side of a writer. At first, I thought about saying that you are a beautiful writer, no matter what style you write in, what type, and where you write. There are several ways this self-worth can be achieved.
1) Own it. I am not talking about just owning your work, I am talking about owning your profession. Everyone has different reasons to become a writer. Believe it or not, mine was it sort of fell into my lap. I have had a whole of jobs that would get me the career that I needed. When I first graduated from high school, I wanted to be an actress and a dancer. I had been in several plays, took all kinds of dance, and I play the keyboard instruments. My father thought it was not enough, so I studied social work and I hated it. Next came Early Childhood Education, and was told that I was just being a glorified babysitter. My math was bad, so I did not want to an elementary school teacher (I could have). These were the first jobs of many, including working at a bank, a web company (CompuServe), and finally settling in on Marketing, and I had found my calling. Humm, I just gave myself several things to write about. Writing gives me the relaxation I need, plus I get to help out others who hate writing. That leads to the next reason…
2) You are helping others. If you are a freelance writer, or freelance of anything, you are helping out other people. What executive likes to write out a 250-word document on the state of the company when they can hire someone to do it for them? You are an outsource for them. They do not have to put pen to paper or touch a keyboard. They can tell you what they need, and how they want it said. A win-win situation. They get the task done (providing that they hired a Ghostwriter for the job), and you get paid.
3) Payment. You get to set your own price. In a sense, you are the boss. What is your document on the colonization of bees’ worth? $25? It may be too low. $75? It still may not be enough. $100? It may be just right to you, but to a client, it may be not make the budget. But, that is the beauty of setting your own price. You can see how much your work is worth. Look at how much time you want to put into writing and how much your overall budget is (including living expenses). This should help.
So, these are some of the ways that you can find your self-worth in your writing. You are confident, you do not tear yourself down, and you get to build others up. You are authentic in your writing, and you speak the truth, even when you are writing fiction. When you are not at your best, others see it, and that gives way to the bullying that may happen. Some may not understand why you do what you do, but that is when you explain your work through your words, because words are powerful when written and spoken.

Random post: claiming Bloglovin

google.com

I did a boo-boo.  The only reason for writing this post today is followers.  I screwed up Bloglovin.  What is Blogloving?  For those of you not familiar with the site or what it does.  Blovlovin to me is like a newspaper for bloggers.  Bloggers write a post as normal on their blog.  Simple, right?  what happens next is more or less behind the scenes work.  A code in HTML sends a copy of this blog post to Bloglovin's website, and it allows readers to read this blog.  You do not have to go to that person's website, in order to read that blog post.
Does it work?  Sure it does, or Bloglovin would have shut down by now.  It does not take much to close a website these days.  The whole point of this website in the first place is to streamline your reading.  
How do I go about getting new readers for my blog?
Well, first thing is you need a blog.  It does not have to be an exiting blog, although, it would not hurt.  You do not need a ton of followers (readers) either.  Next, sign up for an account.  Go to www.bloglovin,com and sign up.  It is free, and it is free to list your blog.  This next part is a little technical, but easy.  Once approved, you want to go to claim your blog.   (sorry for the lack of photos, as I am in a hurry, and I want to reclaim this blog.) So you go to:

•         Search for your blog's URL
•         Highlight it
•         and hit Claim It 

What will come up is a HTML string, and you copy it.  Next, write a new blog post.  You only have to do it once, not every time you write a blog post.  You would do that in you blog program, and do not worry, WordPress, Blogger, and Tumblr all allow it.  One thing:  before you write anything, make sure you turm on your blog's HTML writer, and paste the code FIRST.  Now you are ready to write you blog post.  Write something random like I am doing, or write your planned post.   Now hit publish on your platform.
 It is easy, fast, and takes no longer than to write a blog post.  Just some techie stuff.
Well, I need to publish this, and I will catch you next time.  Oh and subscribe to this blog, while you are at it.  You can subscribe to other blogs through Bloglovin.

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Orlando

(c) 2016 P. Lynne Designs

I have no words about this week, just like I had no words when 9 people were killed last year, during a bible study.  I am sad.  I am sad for this country and this world.  The killings were no different, then when school children were gunned down while in school in Sandy Brook or Columbine, or Virginia Tech and the school in Oregon.  They were no different when a gunman went to a military base in Texas and killed people.  I can even say that these killings are no different than 9/11, or when Michael Brown, Travon Martin, or Sandra Bland were killed. 

They are all the same to me, and the all too familiar scenario goes a little like this:  Someone got hurt.  Maybe it was an injustice, a law change, or a simple color of someone’s skin or lifestyle that trigger that hurt.  It could have been a mental illness (I hear voices that told me that it is right to do it). It followed hatred.  Hatred towards that group of people.  Next, comes the preplanning. “Where can I do it, and who can I do it to that hurt the least amount of people?” Preplanning also involves making the purchase of guns, ammo, training.  After all of that, and finding a target, then the act will commence.  An ordinary workday, a night out on the town, or a school day. 

People are getting ready to go about their day.  Children getting ready for school (Sandy Brook and Columbine), People getting ready for a day of work (9/11), students getting ready for classes (Virginia Tech), and people getting ready for a night out (Pulse Nightclub and Paris, France).  They kiss their loved ones, and off they go.  People are learning, working, or having fun.  All of a sudden, everything changes for the worst possible moment.  A shooting, a routine traffic stop gone bad (Sandra Bland), a walk home gone bad (Travon Martin), bombs going off (9/11, Paris France, and Boston Marathon).  Utter chaos erupts. People are hurt, forever disfigured, or killed.    In the next few days, weeks, and months followed, lives are changed, funerals, memorials, and plans for better security are made. 

Here is my question for all who read this:  Where are those plans now?  It is the job of the administrators and leaders of this country and the world to come up with a viable solution that not only deter these people from doing harm to the general public but, make a peaceful coexistence for all.  It does not matter what race you are, gender, creed, belief, sexual orientation, or race, one of our jobs as humans is to try to peacefully coexist with our environment and with each other.

The president came up with a plan that bans the use of automatic weapons.  He did not say that you cannot own a gun, such as a rifle (manual-think westerns) or handguns (I can think of a Saturday Night Special).  Automatic guns are the kind where you put your finger on the trigger and you only have to pump one time, and multiple bullets come out.  A semi-automatic is slightly different.  That is all I know about guns. The NRA (the National Rifle Association), is a good old boy’s organization, which thinks that the president is going after their 2^nd amendment rights to bear arms.  You will still have the right to bear arms, and to protect yourselves, and to hunt for sport (although I do not see why for sport when you got to eat), to me, you do not have the right to own an automatic weapon.  Why would you have one in the first place, when it is made for combat and military use ONLY, O-N-L-Y.   

I have written a comment (a letter) to the wife of the minister in Sacramento, CA, who said in his sermon, that “Orlando is now safer since 50 Pedophiles were killed in a nightclub.”  This letter is what sparked this post in the first place, because, I had said all I had to say on Facebook, Twitter, and in person.  I had to write it on their family blog page because their church did not have a comments section on their blog.  Don’t worry, I did not blast him out.  I simply reminded her to remind him of the compassion that Jesus Christ showed all people, and to not hate the person, but the act. I have made a copy of comment, and is listed below:

“Mrs.  Jimenez, I come to you with deep concern for your husband as he leads your congregation towards showing Christ's love towards others.  Christ teaches us as Christians to love one another.  You do not have to love the sin that a person does, BUT love the person anyway.  We all need a reminder of that.
When I heard on the news of the things that your husband said about Orlando, Florida in his sermon, I was very dishearten.  I thought to myself "please tell me he did not say what I thought he said."  How could he say that Orlando is a little safer because 50 Pedophiles were killed in a nightclub?  These are not the words of Christ, because, Christ teaches us to love the person despite the sin. He taught us to love people, so to say that Orlando is a lot safer does not show love nor compassion.  It shows hatred towards the person who has committed the sin.
Mrs. Jimenez, I do not know your husband and his heart, only God does, and I am not here to show that hatred towards him.  I have nothing but prayers for him, for you, and for your family and your congregation.  I am not part of that community, I am straight, African American female who is a United Methodist in Columbus, Ohio (although it does not matter what denomination I am).  My minister, on his last day at my church, as he and his family are moving to a new appointment, Sunday, encouraged us all to have compassion and prayers for not only the City of Orlando, but for the victims, friends and families of all who were killed, that they may be comforted.  My minister, as well as I, do not believe that any of them are pedophiles, but people who are trying to have a good time that night.  No one knows these people's hearts but God.  They may have confessed their sins as they took their last breaths.  You may never know.
May God bless you and your family for now and forever.  I wish you well, and I will be praying for you and your city and congregation as well.”

I hope this was a misunderstanding, as the news media has a tendency to take things out of context, and sensationalize it.  I like to believe that Pastor Jimenez has the love of Christ in his heart, and again that this was all a misunderstanding.  We, as Christians have to really watch what we say to others, me included.

#prayersforOrlando

My Review of the Graze Box Subscription

Two weeks ago, i got my first Graze box subscription. I want to apologize for the poor audio. I am working on that. This is not a sponsored video. I bought my own subscription. Graze- www.graze.com

My Review of the Graze Box Subscription