Celebrating and Following

SO SORRY, THE DRAW IS NOW CLOSED

Hello everyone!  So, I've reached that time: the one-year blogaversary... well, almost - 19th June is the day.  It's been the most incredible year - with so many new adventures, new friends, new discoveries - that I'm slightly lost for words (and you'll know how extreme that is) to describe how I feel about it all.

I have to say an enormous thank you from the bottom of my heart to all of you who are with me on this journey.  Your amazing support and generosity seems boundless, and the inspiration I get from travelling around Craftyblogland is an endless source of joy to me.


I'm saying thank you with a blog candy too, in the time-honoured tradition... and there are really no hoops to jump through.  Just leave me a comment here saying that you'd like to be in the draw and we'll take it from there.





If you would like to share the picture and link in your sidebar, then obviously that would be lovely, but it's not compulsory, and nor is signing up as a follower.  

The only reason I can see for following a blog is if you like what you find there... so, of course if you like it here, then it would be great to have you join the gang.  But it's not required!

(Sorry, neither the wooden tray nor the wrought iron chair are included!)




On the other hand, I would like to take this opportunity to invite all my current followers (and any potential newbies) to consider how you are following me.  

I'm so sad about the demise of Google Reader on July 1st.  I love the Blogger Dashboard, and it's my route to seeing all your new posts. It seems like Blogger Dashboard might all stay fine for Blogger blogs, but might mess up receiving others, like WordPress. So I have made sure I've got all of the blogs I follow (yup, that's most of you, and then some!) safely stored both at Bloglovin' and at Feedly while I decide which one has the least horrible interface.  As long as you do it before July 1st, it's very easy to export the list of blogs you follow to either or both of these.  Then at least you'll have a back-up, ready for whatever happens! 

There seems to be some doubt about the exact consequences of Google Reader's disappearance.  It shouldn't immediately impact on Google Friend Connect (the way most of us follow each other), and I love having all your pictures there, so by all means continue to sign up in the normal way.  But some advice seems to be that it's possible Google will decide to drop that too.  So, to be on the safe side, there are a couple of extra possibilities.


The safest seems to be to follow by email - the widget is in the sidebar, just under the Followers.

And I'm also now offering the chance to follow via bloglovin' (despite that missing g on the end which really bugs me - I suppose I should be grateful they've got the apostrophe but, still, what's wrong with a g?).  Again, the widget should now be in the sidebar... fingers crossed.

But, as I say, none of that is required for the candy.  I hope you'll celebrate with me by leaving a comment to say you'd like to be in the draw.  Make sure you leave your comment by midnight (British Summer Time) on the 19th June, and I'll draw it after that.

And I do hope we'll manage to stay connected as we move on into the new post-Google Reader age... I'd hate to lose any of you.  See you out there!

Write it on your heart that every day is the best day in the year.
Ralph Waldo Emerson

Update on all the Following stuff... It seems that Blogger Dashboard may still function fine for Blogger blogs - it's others, like WordPress which may disappear from the lists of posts there...  The lovely Chris Warner is offering up some Techy Tips from her expert IT knowledge if you want some more details.  So, for now, it does at least look as though the Followers widget is still favourite - do hope I haven't confused the issue for everyone!