Shelly’s Journal

Today I celebrate my 3-year blogging anniversary. (Please don’t go back and read the illustrious first post. Ugh.) I had no idea what I was getting into or doing when I started out. I had dreams of grandeur, that’s for sure.

It was quite a different world then. I struggled with mommyhood as Bump began to become this little person. A rebellious teenager lived in the house (my then 18 y.o. stepson, Mark.) And Gil worked the graveyard shift. (11 pm to 7 am.) We still had two dogs in the house who were just as confused about Bump as I was. It was an incredible valley.

My idea was to write about my faith - how it affected every component of my life. I hit some political blogs, played the TTLB list and blog rolls, and made a few online friends. I learned a lot about the various types of Christians there are out there and found that some have more grace than others.

Today, God is still my rock and lighthouse guiding the way. I have two little ones at home, and no big ones. Gil works a better shift, but way more hours. We’re a one dog family. And we’re still on the lookout for a new church. (Actually, I think we’re on the cusp. It’s just a matter of Gil seeing it fully and being willing to step into it.) I feel better physically, mentally, and emotionally. While it’s still a battle in the day, I have much peace through it all.

And I am so blessed by my online family. Some I am close to. Others are like distant cousins, familiar but not so chatty. And I love every one of you. Thank you for all the love, joy, wisdom and words you’ve imparted in my life - directly and indirectly. I look forward to many more years together and watching this family grow and change with my own. You are all very special!

I mean it, don’t lose it or forget it or clear your cacsh - especially if you’re like me - paranoid that someone is going to find out something about who I am and where I live and scare the pants off of me. So, enter a fake birthday or zip code and then try and retrieve your password. Answer the secret question correctly. Explain to them what you did, reminding them that they were the ones that made you switch it all over into Yahoo. Tell them there is no credit card on file for you and that you have a FREE Flickr account and expect them to send you more than one email a day on the above problem.

I’ve been locked out of Flickr for almost a week now. I’m none to happy about it, and really am expecting that when I get my daily update today in the next hour sometime, that they will tell me that due to their privacy policy they can’t reset my password - even if it means sending it to the email they have on file for me - which is not a Yahoo email.

I have tried every password I have ever used in all of creation. At one point I tried so many times that I had to wait 12 hours before I could try or send an email to them about the situation. What a pain. I’m fully expecting them to tell me that they can reset my password and I’ll have to start a new Flickr account. What a pain.

I am now keeping a little notebook in the sidedrawer of the computer desk with all the passwords in it. JIC. Not that most things are that important. Since I’ve reset my cache, everyone else has complied with my insane requests for a reset - everyone but Yahoo….Dorks.

Check over at 5 Minute Mom for your chance to win $300 in gift certificates for Horizon Organic Products.

All the details are there!

Well, my little contest ended at midnight last night. Thanks to my faithful few for entering. The winner was….Mountain Mama. But this is what she won:

I decided to give away two bags after the contest started, but wanted to keep that element for a surprise. Mountain Mama was the Grand Prize winner and given the choice of the two bags. She chose the one above. The runner up, wins this:

And

that

person

is…

Do you really want to know?

Okay, I’ll tell you.

It’s Stephanie!!! Thank you to all who entered. Steph, please email me your address at shellysjournal - at- gmail - dot - com and I’ll mail your prize to you.

You’ve been waiting for it. It’s the first official contest of Shelly’s Journal. You could win a fabulous handcrafted bag!

Here’s how it works. Leave a comment below. One comment per person…but trackbacks to this contest will get you an extra shot at it!

The prize bag is:

This bag is approx. 15 inches wide by 10 inches high (20 inches including the straps). It is constructed of blue batik jelly roll material and wendover cotton in purple. It has been interfaced and has a layer of fleece inside. The handles are 2 inches wide and fleece lined as well. The bag features one pocket (made from scraps from the bag exterior) divided into two compartments and a magnetic closure.

I got the jelly roll for my birthday, but have not worked with batiks much. I pulled out a bunch of strips that matched and happened to find this great purple cotton in my stash.

Contest closes Wednesday morning, July 17 at 12:01 am EDT. Winner will be announced later in the week.

Contest is open to everyone!!!!!

Good luck to you!!!!

I asked Linda how many bags she had, and she wrote this.

So now, how many bags do I have? Well, the ones that I made, I have:

The Big Library Bag

My New Diaper Bag - maybe

And I’m thinking about this one.

And then there’s always the bag to be named later.

I must admit that I do have two more handmade purses that I use that are made by other bloggers.

And I still have my sling bag that I bought at the TOTES outlet when Bump was about 6 months old that I used to use for my bag. Okay and possibly a few more bags laying around to pull parts off of for new construction. But officially, as of right now the only one that’s MINE that I made and use regularly is the Purple One.

Give me a year….

How about you? Are you a bagaholic?

It hardly seems like any time has passed since I laid my pen down to be more productive. I’ve done fairly well at not being as distracted by the computer and my feeds and writing as I’ve been in the past. But did I really make any giant strides in conquering my dirty house and project pile?

Sadly, no.

Oh I did get back to my sewing machine. I’ve been working on my log cabin quilt…a block a day. I also managed to work some more on a crazy, wild, busy quilt that I’ve been thinking about for Bump. I’m 3/4 done with the primary block area, and haven’t decided on borders yet.

I’ve spent more time playing with my kids - trying to work on some homeschooling ideas for Bump - projects to help his development and my sanity.

I’ve cleaned a little - reorganized a few things and continued to work on emptying out the garage.

I sold my 403A sewing machine. What a blessing that is! For two reasons…1) I get to move another tote out of the garage 2) The machine gets to go to a home where it will be loved and appreciated. The buyer learned to sew on one and has been hoping to get her hands on another one for some time. I’m so happy for them.

I learned that the squeaky wheel only sometimes gets the oil with some customer service issues on recent purchases.

I continue to read the news and shake my head.

I am thankful for global warming - but not this weekend.

My dog is perking up, a sure sign that the cold, cold temps are gone.

Gil has been working, working, working.

The sun shines often in Virginia - and God is good.

It’s time for a blog break - reading and writing. I’m so far behind in things around here, and my computer time is really what’s sucking it up. So, I’m going to take some time off and do some Ebay auctions, sew and just get to some cleaning around here.

I will still be logging my exercise here minus the commentary during this time.

Spring is in the air! I’m off to do things springy…

I hope you all made it over here before my former hosting service cut me off. I had 2 days left on my paid time, and I expected that was when it would go kaput. I didn’t even have a chance to catch my blogroll.

I am currently transitioning my url to this site, but it could take up to 72 hours. So I hope you all make it!

I’ve decided to move over to the “free” WP, since there seems to be no reason to be paying for hosting services when I can do it for free.  I wasn’t sure if I could transfer everything over, but it looks like I can.  Now I just need to work on a few more things before I say goodbye to my current host.  Once I say goodbye, you’ll be able to access via www.shellysjournal.net, since I will point my URL in this direction.  But those of you who use feed readers will have to update your feed lists.

Sorry, this should be my last move!