she who blogs: Site of the Week (A Little Space for Me)

Her Sidekicks:

Your blog has changed quite a bit since you joined She Who Blogs. Tell us how you started blogging and what influenced the changes.

Well, I started blogging in November last year after stumbling onto a fun blog called Temerity Jane, through a World of Warcraft gamer's blog (did I mention I'm a geek? Yeah… I even have a WoW blog - A Little WoW for Me.). She had mentioned how she was going to do the NaBloPoMo challenge for November, I clicked the link and signed up to see what it was all about! After reading a few blogs I thought it would be a great way to share photos of our newest addition (about 1 month old at that point) to the rest of our family, and anyone else who wanted to nosey in too! :)

The changes (oh the changes!!)… I initially started off on Blogger… then moved to wordpress.com, then back to blogger because it had more customization than the hosted WP. Then the first "mommy blogger" I'd ever read, Veronica of the Sleepless Nights, had decided to make the move to a self-hosted site, as had her friend Lotus, so I guess I considered it because the cool kids were doing it! I also wanted to make sure the blogging didn't just become yet another 'hobby' that would fall by the wayside after a couple of months which normally happened. I figured if I actually spent some money on it (ie hosting and domain name) then I would definitely keep going! Well, 6 months on and I'm still here, so it worked!

Tell us about three blogs you visit often and why you keep going back for more?

I always go to TJ's blog, it's all her fault I started blogging in the first place, so I'm pretty attached to her writings :)

Veronica is the first mommy blog I ever read, and she's just such a sweety, I love her writing style, and her sense of humour rocks!

Sandy definitely deserves to be in the top 3 here too - I remember the first time I read her blog, I thought she was one of those seasoned 'been blogging for years' bloggers - she already had a self-hosted site after all! Turns out she had only started earlier this year! I love reading her posts and finding out how little Ella is doing :)

How easy was WordPress to install and learn?

Getting used to a self-hosted blog is hard! Not only do you need to learn how to use the platform, but also figure out how to work the control panel for the hosting. All the plugins that you take for granted on a wp.com blog you have to find, download and then upload to the right place in your blog, and the same for themes - it was so strange to start with! I just kept saying to myself *in a month's time I'll be doing this like I have been for years* and I was right. Now I chatter away to the hubby about it and he nods his head clueless about what I'm talking about - he's the computer savvy one and I outsmart him with this stuff! hehe.

Tell us about the graphics programs(s) you're using.

Well, I've just started using Photoshop Elements 6.0. I'm still learning and have a looong way to go but I'm definitely enjoying getting to grips with it! It's got a pretty decent learning curve, although I do keep pestering the husband about how to do some simple things. There's only one way to learn though and that's by doing things yourself! Mnd you, I have some of the best posers for my shots, so I think it's all them really! I've also been trying out Picturesque over the past couple of days which is really great for slight touch ups for pics to go on a blog. I think it's something I'll start using pretty regularly :)

So Max, Zack, what do you think of being the main players on your mum's blog?

Max says: Well, obviously the best content we can give our mum is the moaning about lack of sleep posts. Zack has fallen into the sleeping through the night trap but I have thoroughly snapped Mum out of her cosy sleeping all night routine! She says I should be sleeping through cause I'm 7 months old now, but come on - what would she blog about then? Come to think of it, she hasn't written one for a while, I must be slacking, but then I have been doing a lot of posing for Mummy's new camera recently... *sigh* I guess I'm just going to get used to being blog-fodder aren't I? *burps* Mind you, Zack likes to keep her on her toes by climbing all over things and trying to give her many heart attacks a day, so I guess we both have our parts to play, but she definitely prefers to take pictures of ME! It couldn't possibly be anything at all to do with the fact that I stay still where Zack is a blur most of the day! *needs a nappy change*

Zack says: Mummy!!! Stop blogging and come play games with me!!! (repeat to infinity). I want a go! Can I have a go? Let me on the puter! I wanna go! Muuuuuuum!!! *sigh* I'll just go draw on some walls again to get your attention away from the blogging then…

Mummy says: Ok ok, just let me finish these questions...! Time to go girls... thanks for making me Site of the Week, I've really enjoyed answering these questions!

Frances says: Are those two boys cute or what? I'm just about ready to WALK to Scotland to give them hugs and kisses.

Happy Mothers Day Marylin.

Happy Mothers Day Everyone.