Feel free to let me know what you think of the changes as you notice them. And please, do tell me if there’s anything you particularly loved or hated about the old blog that you would have to see dissapear (or stay!) No blog is an island, or something like that, and you can help me to make the blog something more awesome for you.

Also, thank you to everyone who has taken the time to provide such supportive and thoughtful comments on the last two posts, about Motivation and making Connections. Joan, Carol Emma, Sarah, Kerry, Kristin, Liesl, and Emily — all of your comments have been so wonderful, but that isn’t a surprise, given what lovely blogs you all keep. I wish I could make real-life connections with each one of you.

One-Year Planner and Field Notebook

One of the things I’ve wanted to work on for awhile is my blogging. I like blogging, but I haven’t been very good about doing it as regularly as I would like. I also haven’t been very good at keeping track of ideas for posts. So last night, while I was making the blog rounds, I ended up at Pam’s description of how she plans and organizes her blog posts (via FutureGirl) and I was inspired to give her system a try.

Today I printed out free calendar pages from Vertex42 and one of the free templates from Ahh Design to use as a monthly notes page. Everything got three-hole punched and neatly organized into a pretty binder I had laying around from the last time I tried to be organized (last January).

Hopefully this pretty new system will actually work for me, and we’ll all benefit from more frequent and interesting blogging! If you want to work on getting more organized with a planner, check out all the clever and lovely ideas in the DIY Planner Flickr Pool. Who knew there was so much planner making going on?

Please don’t forget my little blog, because it will be coming back to life eventually. Keep it in your feed reader, so you’ll know when I’m back and ready to really devote my time to Anodyne Design the way it deserves. Also, even though the blog is taking a little vacation, the shop is still open and I will still ship any orders within a day, so no need to worry about that.

Sorry about this little bump in the road. I’ll be back.

Until then, why not visit a few of the cool blogs I’ve linked to on the right sidebar?

I am particularly interested in keeping tabs on what other people have to say about Anodyne Design. To that end, I’m a huge fan of Google Alerts. If you haven’t checked out this free tool from Google, you should start today. It’s a very simple and efficient way to keep track of any search terms or phrases you are interested in. Instead of searching for “Anodyne Design” on Google when I think about it (which is something I may forget about for a month), I tell Google that I’m interested in “Anodyne Design,” and it will send me an email when something new with my search term appears on the scene.

Google Alerts are customizable, so that you can tell Google how frequently you prefer to receive alert emails, and what types of searches you would like it to conduct for you (for example, a search of only blogs or a comprehensive search of all the data available to Google.) There is no limit to the number of alerts you can set up, so I have Google set to alert me when something new about “Anodyne Design” appears on the radar, and also when something about “Anodyne Designs” (a frequent misnomer used for my business) appears, among other things.

If you want to use Google Alerts to help you monitor information about your business, I recommend you set up several alerts for your business name, your own name, your business URL, and if you have a website or blog, the name (if different) and URL for those. That should allow you to cast a pretty wide, thorough net through Google’s treasure trove of information. You may be surprised by what you find. Google Alerts have informed me when my recently listed items on Etsy have been added to the Google search results, when another blog has linked to my blog, and I have created a new profile on a site like Blog Catalog.

Website stuff aside, my sewing machine broke this weekend! It’s sort of like losing an arm (sort of, because I feel a bit more attached to my arms.) But until I can figure out what’s wrong with it, fix it, or replace it, production for my shop must come to a standstill. Talk about frustrating. Maybe this is the universe’s way of telling me to write my dissertation?

If I have to buy a new sewing machine, do you have any recommendations? I’ve owned mine since I was 12, so I’m really not up on the latest in sewing machine technology. I need something that would make a nice all-purpose workhorse, as I’m sewing clothes, bags, and quilts. I probably don’t need anything too elaborate, although it might be cool to do more than just a straight stitch and a zig zag.

Here’s the deal: I get to tell you 6 random things about myself, and then in turn, tag 6 others to do the same. This vicious cycle continues forever.

1. I can’t listen to music and work at the same time. I used to be able to, but now I can’t seem to focus unless there’s total silence.
2. I love the smell of fresh-cut grass. Do they make grass-scented candles? That would be awesome.
3. I think International Talk Like a Pirate Day is a holiday worth celebrating.
4. I rain on e-mail forward parades… send me a forward, and I’ll send a Snopes link back to you about why that forward is bogus.
5. The only foreign country I’ve been to is Canada, and barely that. I’d like to travel more. And if I could, I’d go to France, Ireland, and Italy. And any tropical island. Ok, I’d probably go anywhere with plumbing.
6. I love aquariums, terrariums, and paludariums. I currently have 29 gallon aquarium with angelfish, an assortment of algae eaters, and live aquatic plants. My fantasy is to have an entire wall in my dream house that’s a fish tank… It may take awhile to live that dream.

As I’ve mentioned in previous posts where I’ve been tagged, I’m not so good about continuing the chain. I’m a vicious cycle killer. If you want to be tagged, consider yourself tagged. Otherwise, no pressure.

Here are some of the cool things I’ve found through flickr (so far):

• A tutorial to make cool fabric lampshades.
• A tutorial to make pretty folded star trivets.
• A picture of the lake I swam in when I was a child (and haven’t seen in years).
• A group devoted to pincushions.

Are you on flickr? Will you be my flickr friend?