After a long absence, I've finally decided to write something.  I have cleaned the slate and gotten rid of the old stuff...it was really really old stuff...

I have, over the past month or so, become enamored with blogs about home decorating, crafts, remodeling and of course of all things sacred… homemaking. Yep, homemaking. Decorating, sewing, baking, crock potting, gardening, you name it, I’ve found a blog about it. All things Pottery Barn, Anthropology, TJ Maxx and Big Lots if you are into shopping. It started innocently enough. I had googled how to do something, like paint cabinets or some such thing and I found a really interesting blog written by a SAHM who has a home based business finding trash and turning it into dollars. You know, the incredible woman who can take some piece of ugly from the curbside garbage heap dotting any suburban neighborhood street on trash day just before the collectors appear, spritz a coat of Rustoleum on it or slap a coat or two of leftover latex paint on the heretofore piece of junk and then sell it for 100 times whatever. Foolish me. I was hooked. This gal had what she called a “linky party”. I didn’t have a clue about what it was but quickly discovered there are tons of women out there, worldwide I tell ya, who write blogs about their daily lives, what they make their kids for breakfast, how many loads of laundry they did today and other such mind numbing trivia. They all had cute nick names for their kids, even cuter names for their significant other, and this I am perplexed about…they NAME their houses. Yes, I am not making this up. They christen their lowly abodes with names. They all have names that include “cottage” for some reason, say something like The Purple Pea Cottage….some French appointed street, like the House of Soup du Jour, or a name loosely based on some whimsical relationship with Gnomes and Elves or some deep seated psychological longing…like Little House on the Midwest Prairie…Personally, I blame The Pioneer Woman. Don’t know The Pioneer Woman? Don’t watch day time TV obviously. She has made the rounds recently, promoting a $40 cookbook. Her name is Ree and she has built a personal fortune blogging about marrying a cowboy she refers to as The Marlbourgh man, posting recipes we have all made already, but with really nice pictures, and then weaving her courtship into a romantic continuing serial and then cleverly selling books created from said blog posts. Smart, smart woman. Entertaining reads too. I enjoy reading her blog. I am a sucker for the giveaways she has…Kitchen Aid mixers, I Pods, cameras. Her kids, numerous pets, ranch animals and even friends and relatives are adorable and their photos are plastered all over the internet. I know more about Ree’s kids and her homeschooling (yeah…she does that too..jeesh a bonafide modern day do-it-all gal!) than I know about my own nieces and nephews cause my sisters don’t blog. Or, don't want to share their daily lives.



Back to linky parties…when some blogging mommy has a linky party, they all put up a link up to their blogs on the host’s site so the hundreds of that bloggers “followers” can check out their blog, their latest crafting creation or change of curtains. Yep. I simply click on a link and am swept into the home and life of a blogger. Cute abounds in blogland.you must understand. These blogs drip cute. They also contain numerous photos and “tutes" . A tute is a tutorial on how to duplicate the craft/recipe/décor the blogger has recently completed (or copied or a challenge response) is linking you to. I will state that many many of these bloggers write well…take excellent photos and have some stunning decorating ideas/talents/sense. Others…well, not so much.


So, over the next few days, I am gonna discuss “tutes”, linky parties blogger give aways, challenges and all things blogland.