Collar City Brownstone has MOVED to WordPress

Happy Tuesday!,

 I am still working on the switch from Blogger to WordPress but my Blogger site is not where you will find me anymore from here on in.  Please try to put up with me for just a few more days.  I am using a WordPress customized template called Pinboard and on my homepage the posts are overlapping.  I am still trying to get it worked out with WordPress support.  The new blog site URL is without the www in front of the name so it is http://collarcitybrownstone.com/

The old address with the www in it I will set to auto direct to the new URL as soon as I don't need to come on the old Blogger page anymore.  This account will never be deleted however because all the photos are linked to Picasa.  If I delete this Blogger blog the links will be broken.  If there is some way around that please let me know.  If I am never going to use this site again so it makes no sense to have it active.  I would prefer to delete it eventually.   

If you are "following" me from Bloglovin you don't have to do anything.  Bloglovin with update your feed.  

You can also subscribe directly from the new site at WordPress.  The link is above.

What do I think of WordPress so far?   There is a learning curve, but I do love it and I am glad that I made the switch.  You don't necessarily need to know HTML but it does help.  I know how to design websites so I think that is helping me to not tear my hair out.

It was very easy to bring over all of my blog posts and all of your comments into the new WordPress site.  However, all of my tags went into categories and the posts have no tags.  I am still going through every single post I ever wrote to tag and categorize them correctly for search engine optimization purposes.  The task is labor intensive but important.  

Blogger makes it easier to resize photos.  I have not gotten the hang of that yet in WordPress.  I am still familiarizing myself with the WordPress dashboard.  I still have to "master" to Pinboard temnplate as well, but that will come over time.  

I love the Pinboard template and it is FREE.  There are literally thousands of free WordPress templates so you do not have to buy one.  Out of the thousands of free templates, surely you can find one that you like in case you are thinking of switching.   The spell and grammar checks in WordPress is far superior to the one in Blogger.  As I am going through my posts I cannot tell you how many misspelled words Blogger missed.  Even after you try to go over your own writing you do miss so much.  Or sometimes you mean to write wander, but you write wonder instead.  Well, in WordPress that stuff is highlighted more efficiently.  This post is probably full of writing errors, so please forgive me.  If you are on Blogger try to find a really powerful plugin that catches spelling and grammar errors.  It is so worth it.       

An IMPORTANT word of advice is that if you do think you will end up making the switch, do it before your blog gets even bigger.  The more posts and pictures you have the bigger the switch project will be.  I can understand why some people pay professionals to do it for them.  I had over 500 blog posts and many, many, many, many pictures.  Besides going through all the posts to re-tag, categorize, fix spelling and grammar, I also have to fix many of the photos in the posts.  For example there are huge spaces between photos and also the text paragraphs.   I am also fixing the links on the new pages because right now they are taking you back here....LOL   It is an easy fix, but takes up time.

Overall,  self hosting WordPress.org is a lot more robust and I like that a lot.  If you are not interested in having a robust blog than Blogger or WordPress.com is for you.  You can still have a very professional and beautiful blog with Blogger and WordPress.com.  Remember that with Blogger, you don't own your content. 

I will always hold a special place in my heart for Blogger since it is where I started out.  I will never be a WordPress person who talks bad about Blogger as I have heard many do.  It turned me off a lot while I was blogging on here.  So I promise not to become "one of them".

I hope that you will come on over to my new URL at WordPress.  I also have a personal Pinterest page and a Facecook page for Collar City Brownstone.  You can find the buttons for those on the right hand side of the header.  You can also join me on GoodReads.

 Well, that's all folks.  This is probably my last blog post here on Blogger.  I will see you in my new neighborhood!

Love and Hugs,

Xenia
Collar City Brownstone
     
 

        

Lovin Bloglovin

Many of you probably already know about the Bloglovin website, but just in case you don't I will tell you about it.  I learned about this website that allows you to keep up with blog posts all in one place.  I kept seeing it on other blogs, so I checked it out for myself.  It really is a neat tool for bloggers and blog readers.  I use it to keep up with posts from blogs I like to visit on a regular basis.  It is much better than receiving separate emails for each blog you subscribe to; especially if the blogger often writes more than one blog post each day (like me).  I do tend to write multiple posts in a 24 hour period.  

All you have to do is create an account and then add the URL of the blogs whose posts you want to follow regularly.  You can then either log into your bloglovin account each day or have updates sent to your email address in one feed or every time a blog you follow updates.  I have my settings to one email per day and it goes  into my mailbox at around 2:30am every morning.  If a blog that you love to follow is not listed on bloglovin you can add the blog URL to the bloglovin list yourself.  If you do not already have a bloglovin account you can easily create one HERE.   After all this time I still have a couple of blogs I need to add to my bloglovin list instead of receiving feeds in separate emails. 

If you are a blogger it is a great thing to add onto your blog.  Bloglovin has three different widget styles that you can add to your blog and you can see images of them below.  Many bloggers made their own widget design as well.  I actually just added a pink button on my sidebar where it says Let's keep in touch.  It is the first button on the left of them.
   

       Bloglovin widget styles

 

Happy blogging and blog reading!


 

I Switched To Disqus Comments

Yesterday I made the decision to switch to Disqus for my comment section.  I love using Blogger as my blog platform, but I was not crazy about the comment section options.  I have been noticing that many blogs and other type of websites use Disqus.  After reading why another blogger switched to Disqus HERE I decided to give it a try.  It was very easy to make the switch.  I am still waiting for the comments made before switching to Disqus to be loaded.  From what I understand it takes 24 hours for the older comments to reappear, so there is still time.  I should be able to see them by the end of the day today.

Since I have become such a serious blogger I have been looking into ways to make the experience more fun and pleasant for myself and the audience.  At one time I was thinking about changing the main body to two sidebars, but when I tried it I found it to be too crowded.  Having one sidebar is a cleaner look and makes it easier for visitors to navigate, so before hitting save, I switched back to having one sidebar.

My labels/categories are now on the very bottom, but I am not sure that I am going to keep it there.  I added a widget for my Pinterest page and put it on the sidebar.  If you would like to add a Pinterest widget click on Pinterest Button and Widget Builder.  I love being creative and learning about all the widgets you can add onto your blog.   Now I need to master my DSLR camera and start taking many of my own photos.  

Below are links to some of the blogs whose designs I really love for different reasons.  Often it is because the page has a very clean and uncluttered look.  A few times it is because the banner is really creative and makes a statement.  I have to give kudos to those ultra creative banners.  Other times it is the page layout that I love.  Sometimes it is the color scheme used.  There are many blogs out there that are aesthetically beautiful to look at, as well as easy to navigate.    

Anticipation   .
Brooklyn Limestone 
Cabin & Cottage, etc.   
Dispatch From LA
Eyes On Vintage
French Laundry  
Gennine's Art Blog 
La Pink Paperie 
LouLou Sucre 
Morning T 
Natural Belle
Oneika The Traveller
Paris In Four Months
Paris Loves Pastry
Restyled Home
Rusty Hinge
Simply Cyn 
Simply Me
Sixpence & A Blue Moon
Quips and Tips for Successful Writers
We Heart Vintage 
         

I Won The Liebster Award....YAY!!!

After a little over a year of blogging I FINALLY won something.   YAY!!!  I would like to thank Veganopoulous, Blogger, my parents, and well....ME.  The Liebster Award is one of the most PRESTIGIOUS awards, so I am starting off winning something BIG!!!  I would like to thank  the Academy of Bloggers Arts and Sciences. 

There are a list of 11 questions that one must answer after winning the Liebster Award, so I will jump right into that now.

1). If you had the choice to travel either forwards or backwards in time (one way trip), which would you choose and why?  

I would definitely go forward in time.  I firmly believe in the Golden Age of Enlightenment which will lift humanity out of darkness.  The world will be a place where only love exists.  Wars is a thing of the distant past and people are walking the earth as fully engaged Christ beings.  Get me there right now!


 2).  What’s the worst job you’ve ever had?  

I once worked for a company where my co-workers were some of the  most evil people I ever met.  I enjoyed what I did for a living, but the people I had to work with made the environment extremely toxic.  The experience stressed me how daily and I developed stress related eczema.  


3).  Describe an outfit you had as a child which made you feel all super special important.  Photos if you got ‘em. 

 It is too challenging for me to pick one out since I loved everything that my Mom bought for me and made me feel special.  I picked this photo below to scan and post for this question because it takes place during my very first Christmas in the United States of America.  I had just immigrated to the USA  from Panama a few months before with my family, so it was also my first winter.   In the photo I am holding my baby doll.  I am wearing a dress which is actually tucked into my snow suit pants.  We had not long returned home from being out in the winter snow and I did not take the snow pants off yet.  The dress was actually very pretty. 
 

No cracks about how old the picture is.  I was born somewhere between 1900 and 1972.

4). Say you formed your own nation.  What are three of your laws?   

- All electricity and gas to heat your home is FREE
- No one is allowed to speak in negative terms, EVER.
- Animals shall never ever be used as food.


  5).  What is the theme song to your life?   The Candyman song sung by Sammy Davis Jr.

Who can take a sunrise, sprinkle it with dew
Cover it with choc'late and a miracle or two
The Candy Man, oh the Candy Man can
The Candy Man can 'cause he mixes it with love and makes the world taste good

Who can take a rainbow, wrap it in a sigh
Soak it in the sun and make a groovy lemon pie
The Candy Man, the Candy Man can
The Candy Man can 'cause he mixes it with love and makes the world taste good

The Candy Man makes everything he bakes satisfying and delicious
Now you talk about your childhood wishes, you can even eat the dishes

Oh, who can take tomorrow, dip it in a dream
Separate the sorrow and collect up all the cream
The Candy Man, oh the Candy Man can
The Candy Man can 'cause he mixes it with love and makes the world taste good

The Candy Man makes everything he bakes satisfying and delicious
Talk about your childhood wishes, you can even eat the dishes

Yeah, yeah, yeah
Who can take tomorrow, dip it in a dream
Separate the sorrow and collect up all the cream
The Candy Man, the Candy Man can
The Candy Man can 'cause he mixes it with love and makes the world taste good
Yes, the Candy Man can 'cause he mixes it with love and makes the world taste good
a-Candy Man, a-Candy Man, a-Candy Man
Candy Man, a-Candy Man, a-Candy Man
Candy Man, a-Candy Man, a-Candy Man

source: http://www.lyricsondemand.com/s/sammydavisjrlyrics/thecandymanlyrics.html


6).  What shoes would you love to wear but can’t (for whatever reason).  What is that reason?  

I can actually wear any type of shoes.  I have great feet that I take care of with bi-weekly pedicures.  I usually wear flat shoes though.  I used to wear heels all the time, but not so much anymore. 

7).   What’s one thing you wouldn’t ever eat, even for a million bucks?  

 Red meat.


8).   Describe the worst hairstyle you’ve had.  

It wasn't so much a hairstyle.  I colored my black hair auburn many years ago and it came out fire engine red.


9).   Which is the greatest ABBA song ever?   

I don't know because I never listen to them singing.


 10).  Think of a family tv show you watched as a kid.  Which character did you have a secret crush on?  You’re disqualified if your answer is Phillip Drummond.  Bonus points if it is a parent character.     

 I had a crush on Steve Frame from the soap opera Another World when I was a little girl.  Actor George Reinholdt played the part.  Steve Frame was an early day Jasper Jax.  He was very rich and suave.  I was delighted when Steve fell in love with Alice Matthews.
  

 George Reinholt.

Mr. Reinholt is 73 years old as of this post.

11). You have a magic wand (or magic baguette, or something).  You only get one turn and you must wish for something that improves the world somehow.  What would you wish for?

The raising of the consciousness of all humanity into Christ Consciousness.

 Well...that does it for my answers.  Now I have to give the Liebster Award to five people.  If your blog name appears below you just one the PRESTIGOUS Liebster Award!

Phylly's Faves

Hamelette's Soliloquy

LouLou Sucre

Flowers of A Quiet Happiness

Wayfaring Girl On A Mission

I have to add a sixth blogger and she is The Madd Rose 

 

Now that you LUCKY ladies have been awarded this very PRESTIGIOUS award here are the rules:

1. Link and follow the blogger who awarded you
2. Blog about the award
3. Give the award to 5 other bloggers – preferably bloggers with less than 200 followers
4. Answer the 11 questions I asked you and then you create 11 questions for the 5 bloggers you award.

Here are your 11 questions:

1).  To date, what has been the best time of your life and why?

2).   Describe your dream life.

3).  What book do you treasure most and would never loan out to anyone?  Why?

4).  When you were a little girl, what did you want to be when you grew up?

5).  Want country would you most want to relocate to?

6).  Are you a city gal, country gal or must be near a beach?

7).  What is special about you?

8).  What is your all time favorite movie?

9).  What is your favorite song?

10).  Do you prefer Colin Firth or Matthew Macfadyen as Mr. Darcy?

11).  Would a trip to see the ancient city of Petra interest you or do you find touring boring?

The answers to these questions must be answered within 48 hours or you will be stripped of the award.  You are free to answer the questions and give the award to 5 bloggers at your earliest convenience. 

Congratulations Ladies!!!

 

What I Learned About Blogging & Tips To Share

I started this blog one year and a hundred and eleven days ago.  I didn’t know much about how to go about it except that I would have to do a lot of writing, put up photos and come up with a blog design that is aesthetically beautiful.  I learned the ins and outs of blogging as I went along.  When I made the decision to start blogging I also decided to be serious about it.  I wanted to consciously make time for it and apply myself.  I even purchased a Kindle book about blogging titled Creative Blogging: Your First Steps to a Success Blog, by Heather Wright-Porto.  It is an excellent book that covers just about everything that a beginner needs to know.  Some of it is common sense, but you cannot assume that everyone has common sense.  Here are the things that I consider extremely important if you become a blogger.


Blogging is a commitment:   Blogging first begins with the decision to become a blogger.  Ask yourself why you want to become one.  Some people blog as a way to keep family and friends up to date on what is going on in their lives.  It is an excellent way for families to stay connected.  You can actually keep your blog private where only invited people can access it.  Or like thousands of others you may want to share your blog with the world.  If you decide that you want a public blog and would like to build an audience, you had better be prepared to work your blog almost as if it is a full time job.  If you are the type of person who usually starts a project with enthusiasm, but after a time you lose interest, then I would say to really think over whether or not you should start a blog.  The internet is already loaded with blogs that were started and after a few months the blogger rarely makes an appearance.  In some cases the blogger seems to have abandoned their blog altogether.  I know that sometimes things come up in life that can take you away from blogging.  If you have been blogging for a while and built up an audience, it is better to let them know that you are taking a much needed break, and then remember to return at some point that isn’t in the way far off future (like years).  If you have simply lost interest for whatever reason, consider closing down your blog.  Closing it down is much better than having it out there on the internet in limbo for years.  I have come across many blogs that have not been update as far back as 2005.  


Blog Design:  Blogging has been around for a long time and over the years it has evolved a great deal.  I remember when blogging just entailed writing your thoughts down and sharing your opinions on various subjects.  Those things still hold true, but now blogging is almost like an art form.  When the audience clicks on your blog for the first time, what they see in the first few seconds is going to determine whether they remain on your blog to browse around or leave right away.  Your banner has got to catch their attention.  Once your banner catches their eyes the reader will be compelled to scroll down to see what else is interesting.  If being creative in this way is not your strong point be honest with yourself about it and have someone else create a blog banner for you.  There are many design companies out there that can create a custom banner for you or even a template for your entire blog.  The costs are not what they used to be either. The prices have come down tremendously.  You can even purchase custom blog templates on Etsy at very reasonable prices.  Click HERE to see a thumbnail list of pre-made and custom blog templates.   Or you can just go to Etsy and type in the words blog templates in the search box.  You can also purchase separate blog design elements on Etsy.  For instance, here on my blog, the buttons that you see on the right hand sidebar to go to my Pinterest, faceback, twitter and bloglovin, I purchased from a designer on Etsy.  Once I made the purchase the designer emailed me the buttons and I installed them myself with the links.  If you don’t know how to install them yourself the designer can do it for you, but they would need temporary access to your blog.  

For my blog design I created the banner myself and then uploaded it to one of Blogger’s templates.  You can choose from a number of different layouts and other settings within the template to create the look that you want.  I also uploaded my own blog background.  What you want to appear on the sidebar is totally up to you, but choose wisely so that the aesthetics of your blog remains of high quality and of interest.  Whatever you do, please do not skimp on your blog design if you want to build an audience and become a successful blogger.  I don’t have a huge regular following yet, but I do get a lot of hits per day and people compliment me all the time on my blog design either through commenting on a post or by sending me private emails.  


Choosing a Host Platform:  As you clearly can see the platform I chose is Blogger, however two other popular platforms are WordPress and Typepad. 




Before you choose your platform it is a good idea to look into the pros and cons of each one.  The book that I mentioned in the beginning of this post lists all the differences between these three platforms.Typepad is great, but you do have to pay a monthly fee for it.  Three monthly price packages are offered at $8.95, $14.95 and $24.95.  WordPress has come a long way in just the past couple of years.  They offer more templates than Blogger does.  WordPress also sells templates on their website from all price points starting from $4.00 to $150.00.  Blogger is completely free, but they do not offer a huge amount of templates for your to choose from.  This is where turning to Etsy can come in handy if you don’t see a template that you like.  Do your research on each platform before choosing one.  You can always switch platforms, but it can turn out to be a big to do.  I love Typepad, but I chose not to go with them because I am not willing to pay a monthly fee for something I could get for free.  Especially since I did not know if I could ever make my blog into something that could sustain me monetarily.  Additionally, not all apps for blogs are compatible with Typepad.  WordPress is also very good but I liked how on Blogger you can add a widget to showcase your followers.  I thought that was really cool, so I went with Blogger.  I do have a WordPress account, but I found putting together my blog much more simple and straight forward on Blogger as well.


Good Quality Writing Skills:   This seems obvious, but I will say it anyway.  Using good grammar is very important.   Do not skip spell check!  I noticed that the auto spellchecker on Blogger doesn’t always work.  When you are finished writing your post read it over again to make sure you haven’t messed up anything.  Sometimes I don’t re-read what I wrote and end up wanting to gasp when I catch a writing or spelling error after I published the post.  I think that all bloggers make writing errors from time to time.  I see it when reading other blogs, but that doesn’t make me feel better when I discover writing blunders on my own blog.  The internet has dictionaries and other writing tools for you to use if you need assistance.  My challenge is knowing when to use commas and semi colons.  I do the best that I can.  

I love to laugh and have fun so I do pepper some of posts with humor.  I think that it  is also important to write from the heart and about what you are passionate about.  Do not try to copy someone else just because they have a huge following. 

 Another piece of advice that I would give is to keep profanity completely out of your writing.  It seems like profanity is used a lot in regular speech these days, but it is still offensive to many people.  Don’t include it in your writing.  Some people do it for shock value, but instead it is just plain offensive.  

Windows Live Writer is a great tool to use to compose your blog posts.  I did not know about Windows Live Writer until very recently (like yesterday).  You can download Windows Live Writer for free by clicking HERE.  You can write all of your blog posts from there, including adding pictures, links and videos and then send it to your blog for publishing.

   
Single Subject Blog?:  Many articles online that talk about becoming a blogger advises that you pick a subject to blog about and stick to that if you want to be successful as a blogger.  Personally, I don’t believe that is true.  It seems that the majority of blogs has a focus such as food, DIY projects, style/Fashion.  There are makeup blogs, book blogs, travel blogs, etc.  I have seen successful blogs that write about a variety of things so I am not worried about it.  

I find that I cannot write just about one or two things all year long because my list of things that I love and enjoy runs deep.  If you are going to choose one subject to focus on you have to be able to keep it interesting and fresh all throughout the year.  My blog started out focusing on my Victorian brownstone, but I quickly realized that I did not feel like writing about my home all the time, so I gave my blog the sub heading of Home, Love, Life.  That covers a wide range of topics.  Many of the blogs that I love visiting regularly do focus on one subject and they do it very well.  I have a lot of respect for bloggers who can do it and keep it fresh.


Turn OFF The Music:  Readers and bloggers alike both agree that one of the most annoying things is clicking on a blog and having music auto playing in the background.  Music auto playing on blogs is extremely distracting.  It can also prove frustrating when you cannot easily find the device playing the music so that you can turn it off.  When you click on anything on the blog and the page refreshes the music starts all over again.   It is best to keep music out of your blog design.  If you really want to include music, at least do not set it to auto play.  Give the audience the option to play it if they want to.  Chances are very high that no one will turn it on.


Turn Word Verification OFF:  When I first started blogging I enabled word verification for the commenting section.  I figured it would be in the best interest of my blog even though I did find it very annoying when I commented on other peoples blogs.  A few months into blogging, Jacqueline from Cabin & Cottage gave me some tips, and one of them was to turn word verification off.  She said that no one likes it and that it was not really needed.  The really successful blogs did not use it.  Since I couldn’t stand the word verification thingy either, I understood what Jacqueline was saying to me about it.  I turned it off and found that, indeed, I did not need it.  

I never had my comments set to needing approval first and after a year plus of blogging I found that you don’t need it.  In Blogger, as long as you don’t allow everyone including unregistered users to comment on your blog you should be fine.  If you click on “anyone”, you will get spammers.  I tried it out once and within an hour of resetting it to “anyone” I got a spam comment.  I deleted it and reset it back to “registered Users”.  Honestly though, word verification is a turn off and sometimes my comment won’t go through because I can’t make out some of the letters and have to do it 3 or 4 times before I am successful.  Besides the one spammer, in the thirteen months since I have been blogging I only had to delete two other comments.  Granted though I don’t have people commenting on a regular basis.  However, very successful bloggers do not use word verification and have no problems.  

I think that in Blogger the word verification is the default so many bloggers that use that platform had no idea that comments had to go through that. Check your settings to make sure it is off. 


Growing Your Audience:  This is kind of a tricky one.  Besides the obvious I am not really sure what makes your audience grow at this point.  Of course you must let people know that you have a blog and you do so by visiting other blogs and leaving comments there on a regular basis.  This is something that I admit I need to do more of.  There are a small handful of blogs that I leave comments on but I need to do it on much more blogs than I am doing right now. 
In the morning I have the best of intentions to visit all the blogs that I love and interact through commenting.  My issue is that once I get on the first couple of blogs I can get so much into clicking on links I find interesting and before I know it an entire hour has gone by without me going to the other blogs I intended to visit.  
As of this post I have 69 charming followers.  My very first follower was Ivy and Elephants, so they hold a special place in my heart.  Ivy and Elephants encouraged me and also offered up some tips.  From there I started to get a few more followers after Jacqueline from Cabin & Cottage featured me on  her blog.  You can see that by clicking HERE.  Now I am up to 69 people after just over a year.  
I have no idea how many people actually subscribe to my blog feed, but I do get a lot of traffic.  During the Christmas season I was getting 5000 hits per day for about a month.  I can’t wait for next Christmas.   Even though many people are visiting my blog daily most of them do not comment even though I made it very easy for them to do so.  For some reason people love to browse around my blog but never say a word.  I do get private emails from people asking me questions about a post they read.  I have no idea why people don’t just comment on the post but emailing me is fine.

I love it when I can help a reader out.   A few weeks ago a woman in Alabama sent me an email thanking me because her daughter is getting married and found her dream wedding dress on my blog.  They looked everywhere and could not find what her daughter wanted until they came upon my blog.  The woman printed the photo of the wedding dress from my blog and it is now being custom made for her daughter’s wedding in May.  Another reader contacted me by email asking me to help her find something she saw on my blog and really wanted for her wedding reception.  I was able to track it down for her on Etsy.   These things make me feel so good inside.  

Joining linking parties is another way to advertise your blog.  I don’t join linking parties much though because I don’t feel I have much to link about.  I am not really a do it yourselfer and I don’t focus specifically on my home enough to join in on linking parties.  I just purchased a DSLR camera though.  I want to be able to take great photos around my home more often and post updates.  This Sunday I have a class about photography for bloggers from 10am to 4pm.  I am so excited about it!   I have a huge backyard that I have been turning into an English Garden.  My pink knockout rose bushes have matured so much since my Mom planted them for me several years ago.  I want to be able to take fabulous photos of my garden this summer and post them on my blog.   As I learn how to use my camera I am going to start carrying it around with me everyplace.  The city I live in has some of the most beautiful architecture in the world that I want to capture more of on camera. 


Include Images in Posts:    It is very important to include at least one photo image on every post that you publish.  I don’t care how great your writing is, it is very important to include visual interest as well.  Your writing is the cake and the photo images are the needed frosting on top.  When not using your own images be sure to give proper credit and a link back where possible. 


Subjects NOT to Talk About:   Unless you are targeting more a of newsgroup type audience I would stay away from politics.   Usually there is name calling and other insults going back and forth.  There is more than enough of that on Facebook.   In case you are wondering, yes, I did vote for Barack Obama both times and squealed with delight when he won BOTH times
. 
I would also stay away from writing religious posts unless your blog is specifically for that audience.  I do have another blog specifically focusing on my spirituality but I am not going to share the name of it here.  If you happen to find it on your own that is fine but I won’t promote it on Collar City Brownstone.  I do have an image of Jesus and Saint Germain on my sidebar nearer to the bottom but I do not actively promote my spiritual beliefs on Collar City Brownstone as if I were looking for recruits.  I will never do that. 


There are some other points I want to make about blogging, but I will leave them for another time.  This post is already a mile long.   


                        

Dispatch From LA: A Blog

I have been writing in journals since I was 13 years old, but I just recently started art journaling and I absolutely love it.   I came across some lovely blog that are primarily focused on art journaling.  I am so impressed with them that I decided to spotlight some of them here on my own blog.  The first one is called Dispatch From LA.  

The blog owner of Dispatch from LA also has a tumblr page where she highlights other art journalers.  Click HERE to view it.  You will be awestruck by all of the colorful and beautiful art journals that were created.  It will also inspire you.  If you love creating art journals or scrapbooks you will LOVE this tumblr page. 
 

Paris Loves Pastry - A Blog

About two weeks ago I came upon a blog that completely blew me away.  It is called Paris Loves Pastry.  It is one of the most well put together and beautiful blogs I have ever seen.  I think it is possible to gain weight just looking at all the photos of cakes, pies, bonbons and a host of other sweet desserts.  The blog owner's name is Danielle who is from the Netherlands.

Feast your eyes on these photos of desserts from Danielle's blog.

 Mama's Angel food cake with rum creme anglaise.

 Nectarine, pineapple and coconut crumble

 Rustic Apple Tart

 Tarte Tropezienn

 Raspberry Tart

Kay Lime Tartlets

 Angel food cake with cream and strawberries.

Food is not the only thing that Daniele shares on her blog.  She also shares photos of her travels around Europe.  I encourage you to visit Paris Loves Pastry.  Please don't blame me if you put on a few pounds as a result of visiting this blog.  You enter at your own risk.  :-)

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