Archive for the 'Site Updates' Category

WOWee!

Published by Sarah Bray on April 26, 2008 in Site Updates. 1 Comment

Wow. Thank you guys SO MUCH for your excitement about the carnival. Yesterday, there was a huge influx of people from Home Ec 101 just giving their congrats and entries and support. Amazing. Thank you so much! I will get back to each and every one of you very very soon!

And thanks to Shak in Style and North of the 49 for posting about us yesterday. Amazing!

I hope everyone has a FABULOUS weekend. We are currently getting ready to go “Touch a Truck” at our local rec center. Lots of trucks. Lots of fun for the little ones. See you Monday!

Thanks for promoting the Carnival of Modern Home Dwelling!

Published by Sarah Bray on April 25, 2008 in Site Updates. 0 Comments

I just wanted to thank the people who responded to my plea for help a few days ago. I really appreciate it! I am so looking forward to the carnival, and I can’t wait to share all of the goodies I’m finding with you. I especially want to thank the following people for posting about the carnival:

Heather and Ivy from Home Ec 101.

Jennifer from The Laundry Is Never Finished and Bliss Home Goods.

Julia from Kingdom Jewels.

Robin from Ideal Design.

I just submitted the carnival to BlogCarnival.com, so I am hoping we’ll get some more entries from that. So far, there has been a TON of positive response, but only 20 or so entries. Which is absolutely fine! I’ve got a bunch of stuff saved up in my “Adore” folder to showcase in case we don’t get enough entries.

Anywho, if you’ve been waiting on submitting your stuff, I’ve extended the deadlines for entries a wee bit to May 12th. And sponsors now have no deadline for promoting the event. The carnival is still scheduled to run May 14th thru the 21st unless you hear otherwise.

There have been a few other changes in the sponsorship information, so I’ll just share it with you here.

THE GOOD: Anyone can now be a sponsor! Yes, even if you are entering the carnival. Visit the sponsor page to find out more.

THE NOT AS GOOD, BUT STILL GOOD: We are no longer accepting donations for the prize packages that are being sent to the winners. Why? Well, sadly, we haven’t (yet! still hoping!) gotten the publicity we needed to be able to give you a good return on your investment. So now we’re offering sponsorship benefits to anyone JUST for spreading the word. (See? Still good.) And the winners are STILL receiving their prize packages…it’s just that I’ll be footing the bill. :)

Thank you everyone for supporting us as we’re gearing up for our first “big” thing here at Today’s Homemaker. I knew it was risky in the beginning, and I’m still praying for some blogger diva to come by and say “Wow! This is cool! Let me send my 50 billion readers her direction!” but I am guessing that’s not likely to happen.

(Note to all of you small-time bloggers out there, like myself. It might be better to attempt something like this if you have 2,000+ readers a day instead of 200!)

But to end on a positive note: I’ve been putting together a detailed cleaning/organization plan that is going to knock your socks off! I may actually wait until AFTER the carnival to debut it, which would be the smart thing, since I am perpetually prone to getting so excited about what I’m doing that I do it RIGHT NOW without thought to all of the other things I have to do. But anyway, it’s going to be great! Thanks so much for reading and subscribing and all of that jazz. You guys are the best!

>> Official Entry Form
>> Sponsor Information

I need your help: Carnival of Modern Home Dwelling getting nearer!

Published by Sarah Bray on April 22, 2008 in Site Updates. 1 Comment

Carnival of Modern Home Dwelling

I need your help! The Carnival of Modern Home Dwelling is getting closer, and in order to have a successful event, I need help spreading the word! You can use the image above or the smaller one in my sidebar to proclaim this fun event to the world over.

ALSO, for helping me spread the word, I will automatically include you on the sponsor list and will thank you profusely for all of my days. Just send me the link at sarahjoy AT todayshomemaker DOT com or leave a comment on this post.

Another easy thing you can do? Click the “skirt this” link at the bottom of this post. I am so thrilled about showcasing the best in modern living, and I know this event is going to be such an awesome one. Thanks in advance!!

Comments on Today’s Homemaker

Published by Sarah Bray on April 22, 2008 in Site Updates. 2 Comments

The community aspect is my favorite thing about blogging. I love meeting new people, and it’s so cool to me when people respond to something I’ve written. Usually, I email anyone who leaves a comment. But recently, I’ve decided to stop doing that in favor of responding in the comments section so that everyone can read my response. When you leave a comment, there’s an option that lets you subscribe to it via email in case there are any follow-up comments to that post. I’d definitely recommend doing that when you leave a particularly dashing comment.

I’ve also implemented the CommentLuv plugin so that it will automatically post your latest blog post’s title underneath your comment. I’ve always loved that feature on other blogs, so I thought I’d do the same here. Happy commenting!

Strike that, reverse it

Published by Sarah Bray on April 17, 2008 in Site Updates. 2 Comments

Today I had the most glorious, wonderful, filled-to-the-brim day with friends who had recently moved away and returned for a visit. We braved the beach even though it was chilly, went to Chick-fil-A (which Nolan lovingly refers to as Chickalay…emphasis on the “Chick”), played at the playground, and finally ended up at the mall play area. Needless to say, we had a blast. It was THE most fun I’ve had in a really long time, even though everyone was really worn out at the end.

I am telling you all of this because I had a really great post lined up for today’s Everyday Design spotlight, but it is still in my head. So it made me wonder. Whoever gave me the idea that every blogging day has to be about a specific “something”? I think it’s my own propensity toward self-flagellation. So tomorrow’s post will be the one that was meant for today, and I will be completely happy with that!

Unpredictability is a good thing anyway. Even though I’m sure it’s going to keep every one of you up at night…”What is she going to blog about tomorrow? I don’t KNOW! What am I going to do? Ahhhhh…!“

WordPress upgrades…so what else is new?

Published by Sarah Bray on April 10, 2008 in Site Updates. 2 Comments

I love WordPress. Really, I do. And I love the idea of making things better. But I do get tired of going to all the trouble to be good and upgrade, and then discovering that my theme AND plugins are not entirely happy with me for doing so. I’ll get it figured out, but for now, I’m just happy that you can read this!

Twitter Me

Published by Sarah Bray on April 10, 2008 in Site Updates. 0 Comments

I have been going back and forth over whether or not to continue doing the daily challenges. I know you love them, so I definitely want to keep them, but with the new posting schedule, it makes for a lot of posts every day. I am the slowest writer on the planet, perhaps due to my perfectionist tendencies, so more than one post every day can take up to three hours!

So I’ve come up with a solution…I will keep doing the challenges, but they’re going to be twitterpated. You can follow me here or just look on the sidebar below the BlogHer ads at the top under the search box. Every day, I will post what I’ll be doing that day, and if it requires more explanation, then I can post about it. Brilliant, huh?

That will give me more time to focus on the meat of this site — the inspirational stuff that I find and share. And hopefully I’ll get more time to photograph the stuff that actually goes on in THIS house. I’ve gotten a lot of requests for that, so I’ll have to roll up my sleeves and perhaps invest in a new digital camera.

My camera currently requires me to hold the battery in while using it. As soon as I let go, it pops out, and no more camera. I’ve tried electrical tape, but it’s not strong enough. That battery desperately wants out. Since the door that holds it closed is broken, it has finally found a way.

Thanks for all of your suggestions and feedback! Next week, we’ll be fully underway, I promise. :)

Low-key blogging week

Published by Sarah Bray on April 9, 2008 in Site Updates. 2 Comments

I stayed up until 6:30am last night. 6:30AM! What in the world?

When you have deadlines for work, it’s one thing when the office is 10 miles away. You just don’t even think about it. You’re done, you go home, and that’s it. You’ll work on it tomorrow. When your office is 10 STEPS away…it’s a little different. You think about it. A lot. And when it’s 1 in the morning, and you still can’t sleep, you figure, “Why not? My kids are asleep. I can really get some work done.” And then the adrenaline and excitement you get from your work keeps you up. When you finally go to bed at 5:30, you still can’t sleep. It takes an hour.

I’m not complaining, however! I absolutely love my work. But when you’ve got deadlines to meet and you’re kids keep you guessing as to how much time you’ll have available, you make it work, sometimes sacrificing “normalcy” in the process.

But it’s all worth it when your client looks at your work and has the same “YES!” response that you had when creating it. It makes right all of the concepts that you tossed because they didn’t quite work, exactly.

I was blessed to have not one, but two such experiences in a row. One yesterday when presenting my ideas to a client, and one today via email. Ahhh! Right about now, I don’t even care that I’m barely functioning on two hours of sleep!

I know I need to back off of some things to make room for my deadlines, so for the rest of this week you’ll enjoy a “lite” version of the blog. I’ve still got so much I want to post about (yes, I know, you’re missing your gardening delightfulness), but it will have to wait until things slow down a bit. Right now I need to go chill out with my kids…and then back to work. :)

Peek into next week

Published by Sarah Bray on March 29, 2008 in Site Updates. 0 Comments

We’re going to be switching up our posting schedule a bit over the next week (What? Schedule? What schedule? Exactly.), so here’s a preview of what’s coming up. In addition to the daily challenges1, we’re going to be covering:

  • Monday: Food, Glorious Food - Less of a “menu plan,” more of a jumping-off point for your weekly forays in the kitchen.
  • Tuesday: In the Garden - My favorite time of year is HERE! We’ll be celebrating digging and planting in all of its various forms.
  • Wednesday: Inspiration Board - Wonderful things to fuel your creativity and love of life.
  • Thursday: Everyday Design - Creating beautiful, original spaces practically.
  • Friday: Friday Favorites - A round-up of the best internet finds.

I am super-excited about all of the new stuff going on here! Feel free to email me with any ideas or suggestions: sarahjoy AT todayshomemaker DOT com.

  1. Due to all of the email requests I’ve gotten to keep them, they are not going anywhere! [↩]

We’re in the Alltop crowd now

Published by Sarah Bray on March 28, 2008 in Site Updates. 2 Comments

Woah…I’m totally excited and thrilled and generally spasmic about being listed (in an above-average spot!) in the moms category at Alltop. Strangely enough, this happened AFTER I wrote about them earlier but BEFORE the article was actually published (I schedule my posts, you see). Twist your brain around that for a second. Actually, I went ahead and posted all of my posts for the day (instead of spreading them out) because I just couldn’t wait to tell you guys.

Thank you, Guy Kawasaki! Sorry I had trouble with your name earlier! (You see, it’s really not that hard.)

I think I’ll go and have myself a good weekend now. ;)