October 11, 2010

New Pages: Garden Journal, Recipes, & Critters

I've been working on a few blog projects for the past several weeks, taking advantage of Blogger's new pages feature. It all started with my Garden Journal. I abandoned it awhile back, because it was becoming too time consuming and so was no longer helpful.  About the same time I started participating in the Independence Days Challenge, which helped with record keeping, just from a different angle. From these two things, I think I'm beginning to figure out the information I need, how I want it recorded, and how often to publish it. I think now the journal will be more helpful for me.

My second blog project was to start a Recipe Page. I found myself hunting for one of the recipes I'd posted, and discovered a few I'd forgotten about. The Recipe Page is a way for me to find them. It's not complete yet, and did present some challenges. My recipes aren't necessarily in their own individual posts, but often within posts. I've tried to use internal page links so that the recipe links will go to that spot on the post. Also, not all have photos, and sometimes the photos are at the beginning of the post, aways from the recipe itself. Oh well.

I've also made a Critter Page. This was a rainy day project. When I'm reading others' blogs (that's yal'll), and pets or farm animals are mentioned, I enjoy having photos to refer to. Many bloggers list them in the sidebar, but mine is already too full. So, I decided to take advantage of Blogger's new Pages feature. There are photos and links to their "gotcha" posts.

Speaking of sidebar, I've moved all my gardening links to the rightmost sidebar of  my Garden Journal. I makes it easier not to have to maintain two separate link lists, especially when the entries are mostly redundant.

OK. One more. I wasn't sure whether to add this page or not, but here it is, House Projects. According to StatCounter, a lot of my visitors come searching for home improvement information. A couple of our most popular posts are tearing down our chimney and the woodstove alcove series we did last year. Anyway, I've added that page too.

All these pages can be found on the tabs at the top of this blog. I hope they're useful.


14 comments:

Woolly Bits said...

I just nipped over to the recipe section (where else?:)) - interesting to see that you seem to live mostly on desserts:)) maybe I should put up mine too, but I usually write them down in a few words in an old school copy book, so it would be double the work.

The Mom said...

Aren't you good?! I've been meaning to use the pages, but can't seem to get there. Maybe this winter when it slows down a bit.

Mr. H. said...

I had no idea that blogger had come out with a pages feature...how interesting. I will have to take advantage of it. Also, thank you for all the good info. on fencing.

Leigh said...

Bettina, LOL, yes, it does say something about my priorities, doesn't it? :) I'll get the rest of them up soon. I would love it if you would do a recipe page on your blog! It is a bit of a bother to post them, but I love to share, and love it when others share too.

Heather, like everything else bloggish, they are a time killer! I've just worked on them here and there; a good thing to do for insomnia. :)

Mr H, it's a cool new feature, isn't it? Actually Blogger has added quite a bit, which I didn't find out about until I had problems formatting my posts. I went to the Blogger help group about it, and someone asked if I'd enabled the new post editor, which I didn't even know about! That's also when I discovered the pages. I'm thinking about doing one for our house projects as well. (In all my spare time :)

Do post photos when you do your fence! It's always fun to see what others are doing and how they're doing it.

Michelle said...

I was put in charge of our dressage chapter's new blog, and have been wondering how to do "pages." Thank-you so much for the link; our blog is MUCH better now thanks to that!

Theresa said...

New stuff on blogger, okay, I'm lucky these days to get any post done. Have to put that on my to-do list. Thanks!

Callie Brady said...

Congratulations on making you pages. I started mine and then haven't finished them yet. Maybe this Winter I will have time to play with my blog.

Nina said...

The pages feature certainly makes it easy to sort different trains of thought and ideas.
Spare time seems to be at a premium these days for a lot of people. Around here, we're all trying to get things done before the snow flies!

Leigh said...

Michelle, I finally subscribed to Blogger Buzz. There have been a bunch of things I wasn't aware of and that blog is a good resource.

Theresa, Callie, & Nina, oh my. Ya'll made me feel like I'm spending time on blogging when I ought to be doing something productive! I confess, it's true. It is though, one of the reasons why I get up before 6 am, to have time to write before it gets light enough to begin outdoor work. Still, I could be doing something indoors!

bspinner said...

You are so organized!!! Which in this case is a good thing. Thanks for taking the time to do all this work.

Nina said...

Leigh - Goodness... didn't want to make you feel badly.. was just commiserating over the fact that indeed, we're all busy and getting blogging time or any other time means stealing a few minutes here and there for ourselves!

Task for the day - finish sewing the fall jacket before it's too cold to wear it -

Alla said...

WOW, Leigh, you are organized! That is such a good idea for recipes. I seem to always be digging for mine because mine are so unorganized. Maybe this winter it will be something I can work on. Thanks for the great ideas.

Michelle said...

The page feature is helpful esp when I try to go back to a blog in search of a recipe I'd like to try.
Nice that you have put it to use in your blog, good work there!

Leigh said...

Barb, actually I'm disorganized which is why I need something like this! LOL (Plus I just love computer stuff and couldn't resist trying pages out.)

Nina, I have to confess that the thing I neglect for lack of time is my fiber work! I've only gotten one pair of socks and one small child's afghan made since we moved here a year and a half ago. My spare time always seems to be spent at my computer!

Alla, it's very helpful. I've actually been working on these for quite awhile, and had hoped to complete them before putting them online. Then I didn't have time to get a proper post written, so up they went!

Michelle, I've noticed quite a few blogs make a recipe page. I don't feel my recipes are up to par of the foodie and cooking blogs, but I do like to share and I especially like to be able to find them! :)