Catching up

This site is experiencing technical difficulties. If you are having problems viewing photos, please be patient, I'm working on it. Thanks!I can't believe how fast this year is going. We are already a week away from midterms. The Barrett-Jackson car show, the Phoenix Open, and the Arabian Horse Show have come and gone. It's getting ready to be spring, and we've only just had our first rain of the year. Probably one of the more perfect times in our corner of the desert, and what people fall in love with when they come for a visit. Especially with the kind of winter everyone has been suffering through this year! Polar vortex indeed.It makes me glad to be here, but at the same time the snowbirds glory in our 80° February, what they don't realize is that even for us, it's unseasonably warm - and dry. It harkens to a tough year ahead for fire season, drought, habitat loss, and stress on wildlife. Not to mention a scorching May - September. I'm trying not to think of that now, and just revel in the glory of living someplace snow-and-windchill free.I feel a blog re-vamp coming on (again), so look for some changes coming up. While I have loved using Wordpress.org, and having the customization freedom it offers, I am frustrated by the fact that when I read through some of my posts, half the time the pictures don't show up (WTF?). And the whole hosting situation is a pain in the rear. So I'm looking to move the whole operation over to another web hosting site, hopefully with lots of improvements.I'm taking Austin Kleon's advice from STEAL LIKE AN ARTIST, and stealing ideas for how to make this site better. Austin sends out occasional newsletters with a quick update on his projects, along with links to interesting things he's found on the internet recently. Alex Yeske from Dreams + Jeans blogs beautiful pictures and product recommendations. I really like how both of these bloggers give a succinct post, paired with images, and suggestions from around the web, and hope to implement their best practices here. I'd also like to make to make this site better for YOU, my readers. Any comments? Suggestions on improvements? I'd love to hear them in the comments section below.Here are some recent photos: 

Free Publicity? No Way! (Ok, but you have to buy me shoes)

If you have a blog, website, are a newly published author or some other type of quasi-professional needing free publicity, and would like your farm or book or thing featured, please send your website and email address to: wcgypsy(at)me.com or use contact form below. You will be contacted when space becomes available. I am also interested in emerging artists, and would be happy to consider adding a "gallery" category to the blog.If you have a strong dislike for swearing and brutal honesty, you probably won't like my site.Writers: If you have an idea for a guest post, please send me a brief pitch and a link to your blog so I can see what your writing is like. With your post, you will get a link back to your site, social media promotion for the week it is posted and I expect the same from you. We help each other out. wcgypsy(at)me.com Make sure your idea fits in my blog somehow. No religion-themed writing accepted.Only those with a website or blog will be considered. (If all you have is a Facebook fan page, step up your game and get serious. Facebook is essential for social media, but it does not substitute for your own website. There are tons of free hosting platforms. I recommend Wordpress.com or Tumblr. My site is run on a self-hosted Wordpress.org platform which I don't recommend unless you: 1. really know your computer shit, in which case you already know about wordpress.org; or, 2. you are completely crazy, like me.) (Update: I no longer use wordpress.org for this site, but wordpress.com. I use Squarespace for my art portfolio site.)I do not do paid promotions, I recommend things that I personally like and do not hire out my opinion. Anything and everything on my site that links to another site is either because it is information that I myself find useful; or I am giving credit to a source; or I know the author or business owner PERSONALLY and by talking about their craft, service or linking to their business, I am giving them my personal support.If you like what you read or would like to thank me for linking to you or talking about you, Please reciprocate by sending people to my site.Here is a link: http://westceltgypsy.com(To share a link, right-click on the link, choose "copy" from the drop-down menu, open up a new email message, and in the body of the message, right-click again, choose "paste" from the drop-down menu, and a copy of the link should appear. Then put "Check out this awesome website!" in the subject line, and mail it to as many people as you know. You can also paste the link into your facebook status or tweet about it or PIN ALL THE THINGS!)Also, I wear size 7 ½ shoes.

 [contact-form subject="I want free publicity, and BTW, your blog rocks." to="wcgypsy@me.com"] [contact-field label="Name" type="name" required="true" /] [contact-field label="Email (will remain private)" type="email" required="true" /] [contact-field label="Website" type="url" /] [contact-field label="Comment" type="textarea" required="true" /] [/contact-form]

Bear with me

So...thank you to my readers. It's been almost two months since my last post, and I can see by my stats that I still have readers, so, really - Thank You.

I have been working on my latest post for a while - it's a tough one, and not quite ready. But I felt I should at least check in with you and give you something. I don't know why...like your lives are so empty and meaningless with out my mindless blathering...

The past month has been filled with life-altering change. One  I'll address later but the other (and both changes happened within a 24-hour period of each other) is that I am now a full-time college student. I'll be talking a lot about that, but in the meantime, until the new post is ready I thought I'd give you a few things to read.For my bookish readers, I must recommend two sites by my very dear friends and critique partners. (If you don't know what a critique partner is: they are the very special people who you somehow trust enough to read your precious, precious manuscript-in-progress and love it when they point out to you the crappy parts that need fixing.)PBookCrazy.com - Crazy about Picture Books

 My friend Dawn is a picture book NUT, and will soon have her own manuscript gracing many an elementary students' shelves. Her writing is so full of energy, character, and heart that kids will love it as much as Mo Willems or even Dr. Seuss. This is her ode to her chosen medium.RMcCormackWrites.blogspot.com - Rhonda McCormack's author siteYou first met my friend Rhonda in my interview here. She is really getting some steam underway with the release of her YA mystery, Wildflowers. If you haven't stopped by her site yet, now's a good time, because she's having a giveaway! Check it out.And if you're new to my site, I thought I'd pull a few favorites from the archives:Focus, in which I discuss the useless information that may one day come in handy if you're ever on Jeopardy.

Colicky Babies and Rookie Mistakes, in which I discuss horse colic, and show an embarrassing photo of myself, circa 1982.

What's in a Name? Part I, in which I correlate Brock Lesnar, Maddox Jolie-Pitt, the storybook Heidi, and a vintage perfume commercial.No, really.So, enjoy reading, and bear with me. I'll have something new soon.Thanks for stopping by.Heidi 

Frampton Comes Alive, Food, and Divorce.

Remember albums? Listening to a whole collection of songs, from A side to B? When's the last time you listened to Frampton Comes Alive?

My brother John is going through his CD collection and rediscovering the joy of listening to an entire album uninterrupted. Recently I was lucky enough to be there for this classic, and while we jammed to Frampton, I put together a little nosh, and played with a new app: Evernote Food.

Evernote Food is an app for your smartphone. On it, you can document a meal: dinner out with friends, a new gourmet recipe you're trying, or just hanging out with your bro, like I did here. Click to see our amazing meal of crackers and fresh midwestern cheese:

Our Dinner in the Woods

I think the idea of the Evernote Food app is to document more expertly-prepared food, but I used it just to document our time together. Which we don't have often enough.If you've read this post about my brother, you know that he was diagnosed with a brain tumor last December. He and I have lived 1800 miles apart since I was a sophomore in high school. It's been hard to live so far away from one of the few people on the planet who knows you better than anyone else.It's even harder when you know you should be spending more time with them, being a part of their everyday life; a regular face among their crowd of friends gathered for drinks on a Tuesday night for no good reason. You should be a part of that.When somebody in the group says, "Hey, remember that time we ___?" You should remember it because you should have been there. But you weren't because you wound up six states away, one of the cons of your parents divorce.If it sound like I'm a little bitter, I am. Divorce is just one of those things. When you're a kid and it happens, you just have to make the best of it, like this scene from Talladega Nights:But as you get older, and are raising your own family, you begin to think of the decisions your parents made. Right around the time your kids get to be the same age you were when your own parents split up, you start looking at the situation with new eyes.You think, Would I have made the same decision? Would I have done things differently? Would I have split up my family?I don't know. It's over 30 years ago for our family, and the repercussions still echo. At least they do for me and John. It's hard. I mean, when you see people together who are obviously miserable, but are keeping it together "for the kids" sometimes you just want to tell them, oh give up already!But then you see those same kids at the airport, with their backpacks and boarding passes, off to see their other parent. The one they don't live with. The one who carries pictures in their wallet and shows the ladies at church or the guys at the work, "Here's my kid," in a wistful sort of I-wish-I-was-picking-him-up-at-the-schoolbus-stop-instead-of-the-airport sort of way.And you wonder: If this parent knew how it would be, would they re-think that divorce? Probably not. I know in our case it would not have been different. But I just wonder sometimes. It's hard not to. Wonder, I mean.So John and I will do what we've done for so long, and continue to make the best of it. We will visit whenever we can. And unlike some siblings who've been able to grow up together and as adults, do nothing but fight with each other, we cherish our time together. We eat cheese and apples and double-dipped chocolate malted milk balls and call each other disgusting names and rock out. To Frampton.http://youtu.be/DON-4ZubYbgWhat's YOUR favorite listen-all-the-way-through album?  John can add it to his list - Leave it in the comments section below.

Get this App - Clearly

I've been playing around with some apps lately, and I came across one I have to recommend: Clearly by Evernote. I'll be getting more into Evernote in another post, but for now, check out

Clearly

I wasn't too sure about it at first and was hesitant to try it since I don't like to clutter up my mac with things I don't need. But it's so simple and beautiful. here's what clearly does.

It will take a webpage that looks like this:

And make it look like this:

No Clutter, no flashing ads. Easy-to-read content.

And all it takes is putting a little extension button in your browser bar:

So easy. Try it! Your eyes will thank you.Disclosure: I receive NOTHING from Evernote or Clearly. These are just my own un-paid recommendations. If you work for Evernote and want to send me presents, that would be awesome.:)

Welcome to the Barn - New Site Launch!

It has been a long, long journey to get here. As I write this I am listening to Joan Jett's "Bad Reputation," and putting the finishing touches on this here brand new site that you are reading right now. Any posts dated prior to this are from my old Blogger address. Blogger has served me well the past few years, and was a great place to start a blog*. But the time had come to move on.I had been considering a move to WordPress for awhile. While I loved my Blogger site, it was getting a bit outdated and cluttered. And when reading other blogs, I kept seeing themes and design that were just so  beautiful, modern, and streamlined.During this time, Blogger had completely re-done their format with new design features and offered newer, more modern templates. Even a pretty cool Dynamic View feature. But I was still frustrated by limitations of design customization. So I started this: whenever I was out surfing the web, and came across a blog that had a professional-looking, beautiful and easy-to-funtion site, I would scroll all the way down to the bottom of the webpage, and look for the attribution, and this is what I usually found:

And then something else happened: Apple decided to move their MobileMe service over to iCloud.  I had been using my MobileMe account for email, and as a website host for my domain (www.westceltgypsy.com) ever since I moved from Homestead.com, where I first started my online career. So not only was I already looking at a new blog design, but now I was being forced to find a new web host as well. Up til now, my stand-alone site for my horses and my blog were two separate sites.

What I really wanted to do, if I was going to go through all this trouble anyway, was to take my horse website (westceltgypsy) and my blog (Chroi and Me) and blend them into one.

So I started really looking in to WordPress. Now for those of you new to it, there are TWO WordPresses:

1. WordPress.com, where you can go and in about 10 minutes, have your very own blog for free, and
2. WordPress.org, where you can go set up a self-hosted blog.

After starting with #1, Wordpress.com, I got that same old Blogger frustration: I just couldn't get it to look like I wanted it to look. I wanted certain fonts, certain design functions that I just couldn't control at WP.com. So I looked into #2, WordPress.org, and although I knew it was going to be a HUGE learning curve, I decided to jump in.*For those of you who are contemplating your own possible future in the blogoshpere, check around, and see what you prefer. There are other free blog sites out there (Live Journal), and some very nice pay-by-the-month sites (Typepad).  But my own recommendations, based on TONS of research, weeding out the garbage,  AND the fact that I am cheap, is this: stick with Blogger or WordPress.Try Blogger if you:

• are new to Blogging
• need something simple; easy to learn and use
• just need a free web presence that you can link to your other social media accounts
• don't know anything about code and don't WANT to know
• enjoy the power and reliability of Google (Blogger is powered by Google)

But go to WordPress if you:

• are a little more web-savvy
• are comfortable with tweaking a little bit of code every now and then (you don't have to, but it helps)
• are going for a more professional look (doesn't look homemade; lots of design options)
• like the idea of being part of something that is open-source
• believe that this is just a jumping off point for you, and that in the future you will build your blog to something bigger and better

But most of all, like they say in the writing world, if you want to write a book, you need to read lots of books. If you want to start a blog, read lots of blogs. Find out what appeals to you, what turns you off; look at the attribution; read the comments; comment yourself. Be active and get involved. Just like the guy in the group that is so annoying because all he does is talk about himself, and promote his own projects, nobody likes the narcissistic blogger. You can only help yourself by being part of the conversation.Why? Read on.Right around the same time I started to learn WordPress.org, my bosses over at the catering company talked to me about helping them with their Social Media Marketing platform. At the time, they had a website, and a Facebook page that one of their kids had set up two years ago, and that no one could remember the password to. It had 6 likes. They were focused on just updating the Facebook page, but I told them that while Facebook is an incredible marketing tool, it is merely one spoke in the wheel of online marketing. I said, "You gotta have a blog." Their response was, "Really?"Really.While the mainstream world is still just catching on to blogging ("what's a blog again?") and the blogosphere goes through hot-and-cold spells, it is my firm belief that a blog is the simplest, most important, and FREE online resource to entrepreneurs, artists, freelancers and just about anyone else who wants their presence known. Basically your blog is your online "hub," where your audience can find you, and which links to all of your other internet "spokes": your website, Facebook page (a Facebook fan page is different from your personal profile), your Twitter account (yes, you DO need to be on Twitter), your Pinterest page and more. More on all of that in an upcoming article.I started online with a very homemade-looking website with Homestead.com, moved to a better looking site built with iWeb, started a blog with Blogger, a Facebook page, a Twitter feed, and now this all-in-one totally sexy new WordPress self-hosted site. Along the way, I've sold 3 horses, started writing a novel, learned about writing, met some awesome people (who you will get to meet soon!), and now have others reading my work, and learning from me. In other words, I have been building an online presence, hopefully a positive one.Part of the reason this latest chapter has taken so long is that I haven't only been building one blog, I've been building two: this blog, the catering blog, plus a new Facebook Page and Twitter for them. Plus my fabulous job as a magazine and book merchandiser, driving for the caterers, feeding my boys and husband, laundry, housework, shopping, blah, blah, blah...yeah, I know, welcome to life in the 2010s, right? Everyone's working about 12 jobs.So to that end, I would like to say Thank You. Thanks for taking a little slice of ever-elusive time out of your busy day to stop by. I really do appreciate it. And I'm still surprised every time someone tells me that they read my blog. I still think it's just me and my pajamas with a cup of coffee, blathering away into space. One thing that bloggers love? Comments. See that little box at the bottom of this page? Drop me a line, say hi, and let me know what you think. I'd love to hear from you.For now, I am off on a much needed break. I'm heading up to the cool pines with my girl-friends for some R&R at a nice quiet, no wi-fi cabin. We will be reading gossip magazines, drinking wine, watching chick flicks and having pillow fights in our underwear.Just kidding on that last one, wanted to make sure you were paying attention. :)So welcome to the new WestCelt Gypsy/Chroi and Me site, please browse & read, and let me know what you think. I'll be checking in on my phone.Have a great weekend!Heidi

tweet me

So, thank you for hanging in there. I want to just say to all of you wanna-be bloggers out there. Pick a blog format, and stick with it. This switching nonsense is for the birds.But it's not as if I'm not here. I'm reading up on the latest Wordpress themes, playing around with a few test sites (Tell me what you think in the comments section):

I've been on tumblr:

I could not resist the siren call that is Pinterest:

And all of the cool stuff I see and read about, I tweet about on Twitter. I have a large range of interests - besides horses, of course - including art, cooking, design, marketing, writing, and tons of other stuff. If you like my writing, you might like some of the stuff I share.I promise, one of these days you will be directed to a new site of mine and it will be awesome. But for now, feel free to connect via social media:TwitterPinterestFacebook (be sure to Like us on Facebook)I love hearing your comments and suggestions. Please feel free to comment. (If you are on my main page, you may have to click this post title to get to the comment form.)Thanks!Heidi

hang in there

(Note: This post was written before my move to wordpress)Thank you, thank you for checking back. I promise I'm working rally hard on renovating my site and blog. But nothing is ever as easy as you think it is. I remember when I built my chicken coop I thought it would maybe take me a weekend. The guys at Home Depot would just laugh every time I walked in. And every time I open my laptop, I feel like Wordpress is laughing too.So, in the meantime, please enjoy some random stuff that makes me laugh:

I soooo get Calvin :)

From my Pinterest board ⤴ check it out if you like that sort of thing.

This is a Ryan Gosling meme. ⤴ What's a meme? Click here.

Here's a pretty famous meme.

My kids can attest to this ⤴

The original Weekly World News.

This is true ⤴  I tried it.

Seriously? Yeah.

Horse humor.

I have no idea ⤴

naturally ⤴

For my brother.  ⤴  He's doing better, thanks for asking.

The Darjeeling Limited. ⤴ Watch it.

This last one is in honor of my 20th (yes, as in TWENTY YEARS) anniversary this week!

I'd do it all over again...in a heartbeat.

♡

Have a good week everyone, and check back soon.

coming soon...

It's been needing to happen, I've been putting it off because it is SO time consuming, but Apple's recent leap to iCloud has forced me to completely renovate my website. Currently it is hosted using the soon-to-be-defunct me.com, and my time is running out.So bear with me while I make the necessary changes. I will be leaving the Blogger format (thank you, Blogger for being such a great teacher-of-blogging, and jumping-off point), and moving on to Wordpress. Blogger is a great spot to start out, but I believe Wordpress will provide just a bit more polish, and will give me the opportunity to streamline my main site and blog into one cohesive web browsing experience.Hopefully I will be able to post a few things here and there while waiting for everything to be ready.I've never been too fast at anything, so like my dad says, "don't hold yer breath," but keep checking back and I promise it will all be new, fresh, sparkly, and better than ever.In the meantime, please enjoy this clip from City Slickers, which is what I think of every time I imagine a construction site.(trivia: Billy Crystal's son is played by a young Jake Gyllenhaal)Thanks as always for stopping by, and please feel free to give me some user feedback:What about the blog do you like or NOT like?

• what should I keep?
• what should I throw out?
• too much stuff on the sidebar?
• not enough pictures?
• too much rambling?
• too much swearing?

Don't be afraid to hurt my feelings. I'm a writer; I can handle criticism.Not that I'll listen...:)And just for your entertainment, Here's a video from this morning:[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0VFGfgU0X0Y]

Instagram, Pictures & Gypsy Horses

Instagram is a free photo sharing app that you can get for your phone or tablet. It gives you the ability to instantly post photos to Facebook, Twitter, Flickr, and Tumblr, among others.

But what's cool about Instagram is that it allows you to add a filter to your photos that give them a vintage feel. What's even cooler is that it's not complicated, there's no learning curve, and it's just plain fun.

So I can take a plain old picture of Chroi and Fina running around in the backyard like this:

And make it look like this:

And there's no photo editing; no Photo Shop. All it is is a color filter.

All of the pictures in this post were filtered with Instagram.

I met a lovely woman in the store where I work about a month or so ago.

We exchanged recipes, and I gave her my "business" card (ha ha, as if there is any business involved; more like busy-ness.)

look at those dapples!

She came into the store again the other day, and said,

"I love your writing!"

And, me the dumbass, said

"My writing?"

And she said,

"Yeah, I read your blog."

I guess I still get a little dumbstruck when people tell me this.

I know, that sounds totally stupid.

I mean, I HAVE a blog,

I TELL PEOPLE about my blog,

I WANT people to read my blog,

I LINK, LINK, LINK to my blog,

(on my website, my Facebook page, and on my other blog)

I pass out my aforementioned cards,

I check my stats obsessively to see how many hits I've had, and

I can see the silly hit counter right there, in the right-hand column, that says (as of today) that I've had

OVER SIX THOUSAND (yay!)

visits to this blog,

But still for some reason, when I'm sitting here in my pajamas,

having my coffee,

and playing around on my computer,

it's hard to think that there's anybody out there,

and that they even read my little blogger blog,

and that they like it enough to come back.

But that's the WHOLE IDEA,right?

Well,

whoever you are,

I appreciate you.

I am so thankful that you have taken the slice of time out of your day

to visit my blog,

read my silly stuff,

listen to my opinions,

and look at pictures of my horses.

Which, by the way, was one of the pieces of advice my

store-customer-friend gave me:

"You need to show more pictures of the horses!"

To which I thought,

"Duh."

As in, she's right.

Sometimes I am such a dumbass.

So here are some horse pictures, all Instagrammed for your viewing pleasure.

Keira's dapples are starting to show, and her mane is growing back, thank goodness.

Fina is learning how to behave herself while on lead:

I caught her making a funny face:

The girls got a visit from a friend:

This is one of the cutest horse pictures ever. And that's not just my opinion.

I'm pretty sure it's true:

Fina's stylist picked out this halter for her, because it brings out the blue in her eyes:

This is her "The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly" pose:

Four off the floor:

What're you looking at?

Strike a pose:

And because I'm a dork, and I grew up in the 80's, and was an original wanna-be,

and because I love giving you a musical interlude,  and because I just get a song in my head sometimes,

and because it's my blog, and I can do it if I want to,

Here's one of the best Madonna videos ever.

Told you I was a dork.

Have. Fun. Every. Day.

Just Pictures

Well we are on the road again, this time to the north rim of the grand canyon. I'm playing with my new iPhone and blogging while my husband drives.It's unbelievable to me what we can do with technology these days. Video calling and all the stuff we used to see on the Jetsons is here. Now all we need are floating cars and jet packs.I really want a jet pack.But until then I have to say I am pretty thrilled with my new iPhone. It's awesome. And now I will be able to take more video! As soon as I can figure out how to get the video from the phone to blogger, you'll see more of that.For today, I'm posting some random pictures of dirty horses :) and all weekend I'll tweet pics of our trip. (twitter link on the right).Have a great weekend!Heidi

I'm Sending You Away...again

I love you, but go away. Go! Explore, meet new people, read new blogs. I'll be waiting for you when you get back. Maybe I'll even make you some pot roast. Mashed potatoes? Yes, please.One of the great things about blogging is that you get exposed to so many other blogs. Some are just OK, some consist of mostly advertising, but a lot of them are pretty awesome.

1. Will Write for Coffee

Your first destination, if you'll allow me some more shameless self-promotion, is to my friend Anne Tibbets's blog, Will Write for Coffee, where I have been asked to...drumroll please... guest post! I'm so flattered and excited! Not that it takes much to flatter me or excite me, but hey, I'll take what I can get. But as a writer, it's pretty flattering and exciting. This is my first foray into writing for someone else, please stop by and read:

Why You Should Attend a Writer's Conference.

Anne is a writer who has published two books: The Amulet Chronicles, co-authored with Erika Ely Lewis, and The Beast Call, her latest. She is currently working on a sequel to The Beast Call, and an edgy YA nail-biter, The Line. She also just happens to be married to a good friend of mine from high school. Yeah, we go back. I'm so excited for Anne as she builds on her momentum and gears up to be the Next Big Author. Just wait, I'll be able to say I told you so.

2. Everyday Life

Lyn is a teacher, photographer and artist living in West Yorkshire, UK. In Everyday Life, she shares photos that capture the beauty around her. Her images are simple, but she has a way of looking at things that makes you think if you were with her at the time, she'd point out some detail to you that you'd missed somehow, even though it was right in front of you.Not to mention the fact that by showing me a part of the world I personally love, I kind of feel like I'm taking a little journey when I read her posts. She has a penchant for sunrises and sunsets, architecture, gardens and her cat, Lucy.She and her husband take all these cool trips, from walks right around the corner to day trips around England, and this year to France. Lyn snaps away, and gives you a glimpse of something you'd never see if not for her eye or lens.A few shots from Lyn:(Clicking on each photo will take you to the original post)

Cool sites I've found through her site:365 Project: take a photo a day to document your lifeBig Huge Labs: do fun stuff with your photos; mosaics, posters, pop art and much more. Can't wait to play with this.

3. Moon to Moon and What the Moon Saw

I don't know much about this blogger, but she posts photos of the most cool, laid back hippie-gypsy interiors and images, and sometimes will include amazing songs that you forgot you knew and are so happy to recall.If there's any bone in your body that inexplicably feels at home around the Bohemian, you will fall in instant, romantic, patchwork, vine-y, wooden, floating scarves and natural sunlight LOVE. This is just a small sample:

Here's one of the songs - Sisters of the Moon, by Fleetwood Mac (Tusk, 1979)

Free download.

I tried to embed it as a player so you could listen to it here first but I can't $#%*ing figure it out and I've been pulling out my hair. If you know how, please leave a comment, before I go bald.

So please have fun blog surfing. I hope you enjoy these little spots on the web as much as I do. One of the other great things about blogging is that your peers are very supportive. It's a nice community, another way of getting to know those who share our planet, and keeping in touch globally through common interests.

I wholeheartedly believe in the idea that if we support other artists, not only will this goodwill come back to us, but by sharing ART in general it enriches the lives of everyone around us, and will hopefully bring a sense of beauty and awe that will supersede the pervasive negativity that seems to be pushed upon us at every turn. To experience art is to experience love. 

On that note, I'd like to share a video I found on another blog, Heart Shaped.

The story can be read here. Note: keep watching, you'll see what it's about.

Enjoy ♡

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x3_bCfrOPI4]

I enjoy reading your comments, please feel free to leave feedback. xo

I'm Sending You Away #1

Thinking outside the box, or, Horse Trading

I am so excited! I finally found a trainer to work with the horses! Yay!!

Our main focus, at first, will be Fina, since she is listed for sale, and since she is the least trained of the three horses, being a baby and all. Then, because I am contemplating offering Fina and Keira as a package to interested buyers (deal alert!), I'd like Keira to have some groundwork in place as well.

As of now, they are a mess. Well, maybe not that bad, but it's kind of like if you had your car for sale, and somebody came to look at it, and you hadn't washed it for a month and there were french fries stuck between the seats. It doesn't look that great to a buyer. But after a good washing and de-frying, it's good as new, right? My girls are in need of a little sprucing up, too.

I have to say - and yeah, I'm biased - they really are great horses. They are very gentle, sweet and inquisitive, and when someone who actually knows what they're doing is working with them, they respond quite readily to training. So why has it taken so long for me to get a trainer? Mainly: budget. The horses themselves are not expensive as far as upkeep is concerned. Other than hay, preventative care such as worming, shots, nutrition and hoof care really aren't too bad. But that's just basic maintenance.

But when you look at your check book, and see that you could either buy wood shavings for the horses' stalls or college textbooks for your kid; hire a horse trainer or make your insurance payment... well, you see where I'm going. And I don't want to sound like I'm crying about anything - we're very lucky to have jobs, health insurance, functioning cars, etc., but there's just not a whole lot of wiggle room in our budget right now.

So I started to think outside the box. I know there are people out there like me, who need services but can't afford them. So, what could I offer in exchange for horse training? What service could I provide in trade?

Well, while I'm no web guru or programmer or HTML goddess, I am pretty good with figuring out your basic do-it-yourself-type programs. I started out with my own website for the horses, www.WestCeltGypsy.com.

The first online program I used was Homestead, and that was a great starter for me. For anyone, really. It is very easy to learn and to use. But once I had figured it out and had my site built, there were more things that I wanted to do with it that I couldn't do with Homestead. That's when I bought my Mac.

Back then, the iLife software suite on the Mac came equipped with a website building program called iWeb, which for some reason has been dropped out of the newest version. I had an absolute blast building my site on iWeb. Sure, there are some things that could use tweaking, but for the most part, it's very easy to use and looks great.

Then I got into blogging, and learned a new format with Blogger. In addition to the blog you are now reading, I co-edit another blog with a friend of mine. Please check it out and let us know what you think: www.SeniorShareProject.com. In fact, Chroi and Me is actually a test blog -  I built it in order to learn the Blogger format so we could properly get Senior Share Project up and running.

While I'm no bloggerstar like Pioneer Woman or Nathan Bransford (yet), after a year and a half, 51 posts and almost 3,000 hits, I'm pretty happy with my little "test" blog. I've learned so much along the line, and it's been great practice to help get me started on Senior Share Project, including using social media. I feel confident that I could help someone get started online, get them set up with a decent website that they will be able to maintain, a blog if desired, a Facebook page, and provide several trial-and-error tips regarding online marketing.

I placed an ad on Craigslist suggesting as much, and received a surprising number of responses. After weeding out which ones might work for me, which ones were serious, and which ones were just plain cuckoo, I found one that was perfect.

In the coming weeks, I'll introduce our newest team member and keep you posted as to our progress, both with the horses and with her website(s). As always, I'll fill you in on all the gory details - if I make mistakes (which I can all but guarantee) I'll let you know what worked and what didn't, to save you the trouble.

See you soon,

Heidi

Focus

It's never been one of my strong points. I'm amazed at people who can choose just one thing, make that their prime concern, and follow one straight path all the way up to the top to succeed in that one thing. Examples are everywhere, but one that stood out to me recently is a guy named Jeremy Wade, who Animal Planet describes as an "extreme angler," which means this guy is really good at catching really big fish. Particularly those dwelling in rivers.

In fact, he's gotten so good at catching huge fish that he's been able to make a living at it. He goes all over the world, meeting incredibly interesting people, and helping them discover and catch the thing under the water that ate their cousin last week.Now, that's a pretty specialized field of expertise. He started out with a zoology degree, taught school, traveled and wrote, and all the while had a curiosity to find these really big fish.There are days when I would love to have that kind of focus. The problem is, there are too many great things I'd like to try. And some I'd even like to accomplish.I've mentioned my creative side before. That creativity, coupled with a genuine interest in everything around me, or in it's simplest form, curiosity, produce what my dad refers to as a "Jane" of all trades and master of none. Well, he's got the Master of None part right, anyway.

 (side note: this is part of the reason I love Wikipedia. They actually have a page about the saying Jack of all trades. From it, I just learned that I can also be referred to as a generalist -- another useless tidbit of information that might come in handy if you ever qualify as a contestant on Jeopardy!)Anyway, back to focus (see what I mean??) Is it a type A/type B personality thing? Or is it just ADD? I wonder. You hear about focus in regard to athletes. They train vigorously night and day. Championships lead to scholarships, which lead to careers, then sponsorships and if they're lucky they can spend their retirement as network commentators. All because of focus in one specific area.What causes someone like Michael Phelps (a specialist) to be supremely focused on swimming; training constantly, over many years, to reach a pinnacle matched by no other swimmer?

And someone like me to be so macro-focused as to want to try it all:

• ballet
• cheerleading
• theater
• yoga
• bellydance
• sky dive
• deejay
• paint
• sew
• write
• blog
• web master
• horse owner
• cook
• wife
• mom

I mean, does it make me well-rounded or just plain crazy? And what about all the things I have yet to do:

• earn a college degree
• world traveling
• graphic design
• wood crafting
• screen writing
• advertising (Don Draper, you're my hero)*
• stand-up comedy (Kathy GRIF-fin!)**
• star in my own show on the Travel Channel (it could happen)
• write for Family Guy (or at least sit in on a recording session)
• be a guest panelist on NPR's Wait Wait... Don't Tell Me!
• live in a little cottage in the woods, on the beach, with a pasture for the horses and a big red barn. And a studio. And a chicken coop. And a gourmet kitchen. (it could happen)
• finish my book

The problem with being a generalist is that all of these interests and pursuits take time. I've never been fast at anything, and each new thing I want to do, i.e., build a website or blog, takes time to learn.Time, research, and a few ...For Dummies books:

So, even though I don't have a full-time job, and people wonder why I am always so busy, it's because I'm teaching myself new things, learning more and more every day about the way the world is working nowadays, or trying to work, and what trends to follow, what to avoid, products and services that might be better or worse than others, while at the same time keeping up with the latest in publishing news - or trying to keep up, as the case may be, since the industry is changing more and more every time I see it.I'm also trying to keep up with the everyday stuff, too - like everyone else out there. Taking care of my husband and two boys, housework (blah), laundry (double blah), and now that the kids are fully fledged teen males, more and more of my time is spent grocery shopping (eh), cooking (which I actually like), and cleaning up (which I actually don't like).And in my free time :) I sew.

And because I always have a movie playing in my head:

*you have to say this in the voice of Cameron in Ferris Bueller's Day Off .

**you have to say this in the voice Kathy Griffin uses when she's imitating the way Oprah Winfrey welcomes her guests.

So what kind of crazy stuff do you do?

It's 2:00 in the morning...

Why am I up?Well, in the process of writing my next post (about blogging), I realized I was using an awful lot of blog terminology that some of my readers (Yay! I have more than one!) may not be familiar with. I know that when I started writing my blog, and figuring it all out, I would come across terms like blogroll and follow. I didn't know a post from a comment, and I sure didn't know what RSS meant. Well, to tell you the truth, that one's still a little foggy to me, but onward. So I Googled and read my ...For Dummies books, and slowly got familiar with all of this blogology. But I thought I'd make it easier on you, so I made a Glossary page! Wait, you have to say it in the Oprah voice like she's giving away free Lancome or something...ready? 

GLOSS-A-RY!!

OK, much better. Sorry, but it's late and I'm a little punchy. For a multitude of reasons (Horse, Kids, School, Work, American Idol) two o'clock is the time of day when I have nothing else going on and can actually concentrate on writing.

So do me a favor, check out my Glossary of Blog Terms page, and let me know what you think. Hopefully it will bring clarity to those of you new to this medium. Feel free to shout out a term you've been hearing but don't know, and I will do my best to find it for you. It will be added to as need arises. I also plan on adding a Glossary of Horse Terms page in the future.

Now, due to the severity and frequency of my typos, and the frustration of constantly having to correct them, I feel the need to retire to my bedchamber. 

So farewell and goodnight! 

New Year's Resolutions

Let me start by saying I dislike the idea of "Resolutions" for the New Year. I prefer to think of them as goals. A goal is something you strive for, look ahead to, work toward. A resolution just seems more... foreboding. You are resolving to do this. What happens if you don't? Dark clouds form above and lightning strikes your head? Rumpelstiltskin sneaks in and steals your first born? I'm always thinking of consequences. I don't know, maybe I'm a bit of a commitment-phobe.But on the other hand, when you have a goal to work for, the consequence is that you reach your goal.  Unless of course you don't reach your goal, but then nothing happens and your first born stays right where he is.So for me, personally, I like to have a few goals for the new year. Which isn't to say that I'm not inspired by other people's resolutions. A fitting example can be found in the comments of this PW post.Oh, and the Bransfordonians are having at it as well! Read on!My Goals for 2011:

1. Have Chroi and Keira professionally trained. After baby comes, that is! :)
2. Attend a yoga class more often. I recently discovered Yin Yoga*, and it is awesome; think deep stretching. (*if you can't find a Yin Yoga class near you, there is a great DVD available Here.)
3. Post at least once a week to this here blog.
4. Launch my second blog, Senior Share Project: a partnership with my friend Eileen. Check it out! If you have any special Seniors in your life (and you know you do) you'll love it.
5. Write more online articles. Click here to read my review of the movie Burlesque.
6. Get my eldest to college. Ugh, a biggie this year.
7. Get my youngest into a music and/or sports program.

And my biggest personal goal this year (drumroll please):FINISH WRITING MY BOOK!Ok, there it is. Yes, I am writing a book. I have been kind of quiet so far, only a few people know about it. The reason for this, as many writers know, is that once you tell people you are writing a book, then every time you see them, they'll ask you, "Hey, how's that book coming?" "When do I get a copy?" or "Hey, I thought you were writing a book..." And then you have to go through all the excuses as to why you cannot whip said book out of your briefcase and point to their name on the dedication page: "Uh, I'm still working on revisions..." "I've got a few queries out..." "I'm still looking for an agent...know any?"I don't even carry a briefcase.So my excuse is that I am still writing my book. Fifteen chapters and counting. But I am coming out of the writing closet, so to speak, and announcing it to the world (or to you, my four readers) that I AM writing a book, and hopefully my public acknowledgement of this will hold me accountable for the fact that now I have to finish it, that I cannot go another year planning on someday, when my book is finished... No, this is my signal of commitment.I, the commitment-phobe, am offering you the proverbial diamond ring and promising to you that I am going to finish this book, and that one day, after I find the perfect agent for a partner, who will find the perfect editor, and after hours and hours of labor we will give birth to two covers filled with many many pages of gripping adventure, a healthy dose of fantasy, a dash of romance, and a fulfilling conclusion, all wrapped together with a nice neat character arc.

Will you read me?

Not quite ready to say "Yes?" I understand. You don't know enough about this book. You're not ready to commit. What if it's a Vampire-Time-Travel-Alien-Western-Noir, and you're just not into that? Well, to further educate and entice you, my novel-to-be is a low fantasy (set in the real world, with elements of magic) adventure for 12-15 year old readers.The story was inspired by my dear Chroicoragh, during a visit out to the barn on a stormy night. My aforementioned friend, Eileen, always referred to Chroi as a Unicorn, and after a particularly impressive lightning strike during the storm, whose electric energy must have sparked the idea, I looked at Chroi and thought, "Hmm, what if  you really are a Unicorn?"And that's how ideas are born.  Lightning and magic.To even further entice you, here's an excerpt:

RUBY AND THE UNICORNRuby sat up, shrugged off the wool blanket that had protected her from the rain, and brushed damp hair out of her eyes. She looked up at Chroicoragh. Moonlight shone down on the mare, highlighting her silvery mane, and gleamed on her horn.

Her horn.

Standing up to get a closer look, Ruby examined it in awe. About as long as her arm, the horn shimmered with a pearly iridescence. Unable to refrain from touching it, she traced a finger along the smooth surface, which twisted whorl-like to a rapier-sharp point. Beautiful and dangerous, the horn made Ruby regard Chroicoragh with a new reverence. 

...

Chroicoragh looked at the girl, and the blue of her Unicorn eyes was the same blue where water meets sky: endless. Ruby stared back, lost in that horizon. She became transfixed in a vision -- no, more like a hundred visions, flashing past her like the view from a jaunty carousel, spinning around, trying to find faces in the crowd. Flickering shadow, light, shadow. An ancient forest; gossamer wings; a gypsy caravan; a storm at sea. A journey. Many journeys. Danger. 

All at once it hit her. She didn’t know why she knew, but she knew. 

Chroicoragh needed her.

That's just a small tidbit from somewhere in Chapter 10. I hope you like it, and that it will appeal to at least some of you, or someone you know. I will be working on this story, quietly in the background while maintaining my blogs, so hold it in the back of your mind, and I'll keep you posted as to relevant progress.I'll take all the good vibes I can get.

And here's to you and your New Year.

What's in store for you?