Between the Lines blog series week 7

Between the Lines Blog Series Week 7-

Welcome to another week of “Between the Lines”, the blog series where I introduce bloggers age 50 and older that you should be following! Blog land is celebrating the Between the Lines Series too. Please know that I did not create the Facebook group. But, I did create a Google plus group HERE if there is enough interest I’ll keep it. If not, no problem I’ll let it go.

Are you ready to meet some more fabulous bloggers of a certain age?

Meet Mandy blogger at Mandy Eve Barnett- She is a successful Author and she provides support and inspiration to other authors. She keeps us apprised of her latest projects and shares her books for children and adults

I asked- Do you have a favorite blog post topic to share with your readers? I organize blog topics for the year every December and then publish my intent. This keeps me accountable and gives my followers an idea of what to expect. Dependent on the topics or choice of posts, my schedule changes. I even scheduled every day for one year using a word of the day diary – thus, each post was my interpretation of that word! Yes, it was a busy year and some words took longer for me to come up with a post but it was a wonderful creative exercise for a writer! For example, this year, I post Monday, Wednesday, and Saturday. Jan -May Monday’s were Lost Words, Wednesday’s alternative living options (inspired by my speculative fiction novel, Life in Slake Patch) and Saturday’s are a prompt contest. The second half of the year – Monday’s are various topics including an invitation for my followers to suggest one, and Wednesday’s are reincarnation / life after death and related topics. (inspired by my romance based on soul mates reincarnated, The Twesome Loop).

Throughout the time I have run my blog, I have covered many topics but a favorite one is interviews with other writers and authors – I get to know them and their writing.

When was your last pinch me I’m dreaming moment? I have had a few – publishing my first children’s book, Rumble’s First Scare, and subsequent books, The Rython Kingdom (an adult romance novella set in medieval England) and another children’s book, Ockleberries to the Rescue.

Also becoming Secretary of my writing group, Writers Foundation of Strathcona County and also Vice President of the Arts & Culture Council of Strathcona County.

Writing has become the focus of my life and a true passion in my later years. Although I have always been creative, painting, sculpture, knitting and pottery, it was not until I immigrated to Canada from England and happened across a leaflet in the local library for the writing group. I went to the first meeting and instantly found a fellowship that has enriched my life.

Meet Beth blogger at Its Just Life- finding the extraordinary in the ordinary is her motto and it is obvious when you visit her blog. She shares posts about her travels, family,  teapot collection,with my teacup collection and her teapot collection I think we must drink tea 🙂

I asked- Do you think the colors of a blog layout affect your subscribers and activity? I am sure that everyone had different ideas when it comes to color schemes for their blogs. I love the color red and it denotes excitement and happiness to me so that is why I chose it . I have always had some red in my template since the day I started blogging so I don’t really have any experience with reactions from subscribers to different colors of my own but I know when I visit blogs I enjoy seeing some color in the design. The ones that do not attract me are the ones that are just black and white with no splash of color.

When was the last time you saw the sun rise? Why just this morning! I am a morning person and usually am up with the sun and when I am home I see it out my bedroom doors rising over the lake which is pretty spectacular and not something I want to miss.

Meet Margaretha blogger at-Equine Guided Growth, Margaretha is an MD and a dedicated and nurturing person. She realized her dream and she shares it with us. She is an advocate of meditation, yes, just like me. She uses other alternative therapies to help others too. she is currently hosting  eqyuine assisted therapy retreats for women of a certain age.

I asked-What one thing do you want your readers to know about your blog?
My blog is a business blog, it showcases the mindfulness meditation retreats we host in summer here on our farm in the south-west of France. In fact, my blog is just a small part of my Equine-guided Growth Retreats website. However, it is not a small blog – it is the most vital part of my website, the pulsating heart from where traffic flows to the rest of the site. Without my blog, my website would be a static shopfront. With the blog, it is a thriving community of people interested in mindfulness, meditation and the ability of horses to help people, especially with stress management. The challenges of midlife feature prominently as well. My horses helped me navigate these challenges when I made a very dramatic career change in my forties, from medical doctor to equine assisted experiential learning coach and having identified a similar yearning for change at midlife in other women, they now help women realise their dreams at midlife during our Radical Midlife Rennaissance Retreats.
What is the best way for you to unwind?Whenever things get hectic, and trust me, in summer, life seems to rush by at the speed of a galloping horse, I practice what I preach. Equine-guided meditation, one of the corner stones of our mindfulness meditation retreats, is my favourite way to unwind. Spending time with the horses, whether it is feeding them, grooming them, riding them or just sitting around in a meadow with them allows me to let all the tension dissolve and reminds me how grateful I am to be able to live this life.

Meet Diane blogger at Diane and Dean- Diane and Dean are DIY Home and Garden bloggers who love to share their home improvement projects from labor intensive landscaping and room renovations to simple crafts and home decor. Diane has a love for chalk painting furniture , design boards, selecting paint colors and creative hand lettering. Dean is a professional landscape architect, master gardener & former co-host of DIY Network’s Grounds For Improvement TV show. Diane and Dean have 4 grown children, a yorkie and currently puppy raisers for a beautiful black lab, Whiskers, for Canine Companions for Independence.

I asked-Do you think you blog more in the cooler weather? We don’t really pay attention to the seasons of blogging. It all depends what diy projects we have going on and when we can carve out time for each one. Living in Florida, we do try to do outdoor projects in the cooler months and indoor projects when it is the warmer humid months so the pergola that was built, gardening, paver sidewalk and outdoor campfire area were mostly done in the cooler seasons. We do have an upcoming laundry room makeover that seems to have taken us all seasons to complete. It is three quarters of the way done but sometimes you just change your colors or design right in the middle of the renovation so it tends to prolong the process a bit.

 Are looking forward to the summer? Not so much. We lived in the Midwest most of our lives before living in Florida and we know how hot and humid summers can get no matter where you live. Okay,with the exception of California which we love. Summers in Florida can be brutal so if we can escape to cooler temperatures we will, especially if it involves a lake. North Carolina and Georgia are our next vacation spots so if you know of any really good deals send them our way.

Meet Suzy (aka Mimi) blogger at A Tray of Bliss. Mimi’s fond memories of her Nanas cooking inspire her to share recipes with us. Her posts extend beyond recipes as she shares bits of life and about being a woman  of a certain age.

I asked -As an age 50 or older blogger, do you find your readers are of a similar age. Yes and No. I find that the readers who comment are invariably of similar age and interests, but as my blog content is so diverse, I generate many views from sources that I wouldn’t really consider ’50+’. By far, my greatest reader sources are Facebook and Pinterest, and I have increased my statistics over tenfold in the last eighteen months by focusing on posts and activity in those areas. It’s not an outcome I could ever have predicted, but it’s certainly helped me identify my niche!

What was the last gift you gave and what was it for? Many of my blog posts focus on creative gift giving, and my most recently gifted item was Romantic themed clothespegs, packaged with similarly themed gift wrap and greeting card. This was given with a favourite classic novel and a beautifully embellished book weight, to my darling sister for her birthday. She loved it! I love tailoring the gift to the recipient, and sharing those ideas on my blog is a constant creative pleasure for me

Meet Fabiola blogger at FabiFabu- Fabiola is a lovely lady who went to cooking school to pursue her passion of cooking, she obtained an Associate Degree in Culinary Arts from The New England Culinary Institute (NECI), in Vermont and she shares recipes and eco friendly ways to recycle too.

I asked- Are you comfortable with the overall appearance of your blog? I’m still kind of a newbie, with a little over 2 years of blogging experience. If any one had told me, how complicated dealing with my blog was going to be, you can bet that looking the other way was going to be my route to follow.

With blogging, there are so many things that I have to be aware of: SEO, followers, mailing list, engaging content, monetizing, good photography, as well as a beautiful and appealing look just to mention a few.

Always looking to improve the look, I recently changed from a free theme to a designer one. I wanted something that really represented me, with bold letters and beautiful colors and Camila at at TCN Design Studio was able to create that for me.

As of right now, I am pleased with my blog’s appearance, but it is slowly but surely a work in progress.

Do you have a pet; dog, cat or other? While growing up, my siblings and I had two beautiful dogs: Blackie and Brownie. They were brothers and had been abandoned by their mother, so my father brought them home. At that time, we were living in a big house with a great porch and a huge backyard. It was the perfect place for them to run and grow. They were our beloved childhood pets and they lived a long life. Since then, I have lived in apartments, and find it difficult to maintain a big dog (my favorite) inside. Sometimes I dog-sit Kali, my son’s Labrador/mutt mix. Kali is the only pet that I am in contact with during this period of my life. In the future, if I move to a house, I would definitely look into getting a dog. Thank you Katherine for inviting me to participate in your fabulous series: Between the lines…Bloggers over 50.

Meet Marty (walden) blogger at Martys Musings- Marty is a talented faith based blogger. She shares a little bit of everything and a whole lot of inspiration and creativity. Be prepared because you won’t want to leave when you discover how many projects she has to share.

I asked- On average how long does it take you to create a blog post with images, etc. ? I’m a lifestyle blogger but many of my posts revolve around DIY projects or recipes. Disregarding the time it might take to create the project, staging, photographing, editing pics, uploading to the blog, writing content, and all the necessary back end technical details to make the post successful probably takes 10-20 hours per post. There’s a lot that goes into the posts that no one ever sees!

What is your favorite guilty pleasure? Food related would be chocolate chip cookie dough ice cream but time wise it would be watching TV in the middle of the day for a few minutes, something that rarely ever happens!

Meet Sharon (GiGi)- blogger at Blue Willow Cottage,” thrifting and repurposing with southern style” is her blogs tag line and she gives new uses for old things a run for its money. She shares some craftiness, recipes and terrific treasures from thrifty purchases too.

I asked-Have you purchased any literature about blogging?I have attended several blogging conferences where literature is abundant so I really haven’t had the need to purchase any literature specific to blogging. In fact I went to a blogging conference before I actually started my blog. I love to research so I did a lot of online research and read different kinds of blogs before I started my own blog Blue Willow House.

When I was in the corporate world I often attended conferences related to my field of expertise. So when I wanted to start a blog I knew that going to blogging conferences was the quickest and most efficient way to learn the ins and outs of blogging. Of course the big plus was meeting and talking with other bloggers.

What is your current obsession ( anything, food, tv, craft, etc.)

Oh my, this is a tough question for me because I get obsessed with a lot of different things at a time. So here goes:
· TV – Game of Thrones – once you are hooked there is no going back
· Shopping – cannot stop myself from going to a thrift store, garage or estate sale at least once a week but usually more often
· Gardening – obsessing over my hydrangea but thankful that it is finally blooming
· Home projects – my current project obsession is my outdoor living space

Okay, I’ll stop there before I become obsessed with my obsessions.

It is a pleasure to highlight all of the lovely bloggers in the Between the Lines blog series. Please get to know these fabulous bloggers and meet even more here every Tuesday for the next few weeks. At the end of the series all of the participants will be asking me questions! Please send a little comment love their way too. Comments are like hugs for bloggers.

If you miss any of the bloggers of a certain age posts, you can catch up HERE

“BETWEEN THE LINES” a blog series created by Katherine from KatherinesCorner.com
June 7 FEATURED BLOGGERS AGE 50 PLUS
Please visit this weeks Featured Bloggers by clicking on each blog in the list below ♥

I hope to see you all back here tomorrow night ( 7 pm MST) you can start linking your blog early for the Thursday Favorite Things link party.

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