GIMPing

The other day, I downloaded GIMP! I have been thinking about GIMP for a while. I decided it was worth it if I want to really get somewhere with my shop.

So I downloaded GIMP and got down to learning how to use it. And let me just say, it's much, MUCH harder than I thought to work out.

It took me a while to understand everything I was doing, but after a bit I started to understand it all:) I even created a fun blog design using GIMP.

Have a look:

What do you think? I really love it. I'm quite proud of it:)

So, yep, GIMP is totally worth it!

-Willow

p.s 100th post!

Rename?

I am having a bit of a problem at the moment. I can't decide whether to rename this blog (again) or not.

My ideas for new blog ideas so far are:
Warrior
Girl at Home
Forever and Always
The Perfect Disguise

If you have anymore ideas please tell me. And do you think I should rename? Please vote on my poll!

Last time I renamed my blog I didn't really think about what I was calling it and I really don't think that it really is the best blog name ever.

My main problem with renaming would be that fact that I would have to redesign this blog and I really love the design Morning designed for. So I'm not sure, help please!

Bye!

-Willow

A Win + Important News!

Hi guys! I'm so excited at the moment:) I have just won Camp NaNoWriMo and I must say that now I'm done, I'm really glad I did it and put all that time and effort in.

It does take a lot to do Camp NaNo, but it's worth it in the end I reckon.

From now on I will be trying to go back to posting everyday. I don't know how well I will go, but I will be challenging myself to go back to that:)

Yes, I'm back and hopefully for good this time!

I have one small bit of news. This is a very hard bit of news to tell everyone.

I have been thinking for a very long time now and I have decided to stop writing on my other blog. It's too much work to keep two blogs going!

I'm sorry guys. I will leave the blog up so you can read the old posts, but from now on I'm just writing on this blog.

That's all for today. Sorry this is very short, but I'm a bit busy at the moment!

-Willow

Miss Calulating Everything

I have no idea what's going on. I have never had this problem, I have no time to write! No one would think it the amount of time I spend writing, but I don't.

What is going on? Well, you see I'm spending all my time writing a novel, not blogging.

Last April I did Camp NaNoWriMo. As I won I thought that I would be fine to do it again this July. Oh how wrong I was.

You see, what happened was that last April wasn't even keeping one blog up to date, but this July I am trying to make sure that I keep both blogs up to date.

It takes a lot of work and I'm not sure I'm going to be able to keep going. You see that either blogging or novel writing is going to suffer.

At the moment it's the blogging and I'm really not very happy about that, but I don't want to loose Camp NaNo either. Things are so complicated.

I have so many blog posts ideas. I have so many things I want to tell you about, but I don't even have the time. What to do?

The time that annoys me the most is that I can't read all my friends. Sorry to all you guys I'm not commenting on. Sorry! I just don't have the time.

I wonder if I will ever do Camp NaNoWriMo again. I enjoy novel writing, but the pace is so fast that I don't have time for anything else.

This post has made me feel a bit better. I guess what I needed was a bit of a pet talk. Sorry for making you all read this, but it felt good to put it all down here.

Thanks for reading. Hopefully I will sort things out soon. In the meantime, I'm sorry!
-Willow
P.S another blogging tip coming soon!

Problem of Being an Everyday Blogger in the Holidays

Well I thought that when the holidays came around I would write better on this blog, but guess what, as normal I was wrong.

You see the one thing I didn't take into accounts was the fact that I would be doing things with friends and my family.

So guess what has happened? I have missed a couple of days. It might seem like nothing, but after trying so hard to write everyday I feel kind of like a let down. I don't know why!

I guess half my laziness could be due to the fact that I'm doing Camp NaNo at the moment and that that's taking up more than half my time. So yeah.

Hopefully I can get back to scratch soon. Sorry about this everyone:)

-Willow

Blogging Tip:Write Regularly

Today I thought I would start a bit of a blogging tip series! It will be done in no real order, these posts. Just what I feel like writing at the time:)

Today's tip is to write regularly. Now you don't have to write everyday like, me, but it is a good idea to write often, not once every two months or so.

The reason for this is because you will loose readers if you don't post. Your readers look for new content every time they visit and after a while of seeing no new content they will stop visiting.

A way to make sure you write regularly is to write your posts ahead of time. When you have a spare moment and are looking for something to do, go write a post.

Another thing you can do is make schedule your posts. This way you won't have to stress about remembering to post them. Trust me, I know all about this:P

My last suggestion if you're not an everyday blogger is to make set days to publish your posts on and that way you will know you have to get it done!

These are just a few ideas. I hope it helps:)

-Willow

P.S I will tell you who won the writing contest in a few days!

The Lifesaver

via

After deciding to write everyday on my blog, I only found one problem. You see I thought it might be a good idea to write my posts ahead of time so if I didn't end up having time to write the post I would have one to go.

Well that was ok. I had no problem writing the posts. But the problem came when I had to publish the posts.

The first one was fine. I just hit publish and walked off, but the next day I very nearly forgot to publish the post. I had thought I had done everything I had to.

I never wanted to forget to publish a post again and so I found the best lifesaver! It's the schedule button. I can't believe I never saw it before.

Now I schedule my posts and they're always on time! What could be better?

Thank Azia for telling me about schedule!

-Willow

Please Like!

You see today I had this brilliant idea (or not). I have been thirteen for months and I never joined Facebook. I never really saw a point in it, until today.

I was reading some of my favourite blogs and then I saw a post which caught my eye. It was about how the owner of the blog had set up a facebook page for her blog.

Not even knowing that was possible, I went and did a little bit of research. I was soon learning how to make myself my own facebook page!

So yes, know I'm on facebook. I never thought I would join, but I have:) If you are on Facebook, please friend me and like my page!

HERE is the link to my profile and HERE is the link of my page:D

-Willow

Deciding to be an Every Day Blogger

I have found out that choosing to be an 'every day blogger' is harder than you would think. I have been wanting to do this for a while, but I didn't really do much about it until now.

I have been reading quite a few new blogs recently and I have seen so many everyday bloggers. They're blogs are so awesome and well kept up to date. In fact I have found that the everyday bloggers are the ones who have the best content on their blogs. (Though I do follow a lot of good other blogs which have create content).

The past few days I have been getting really serious about blogging everyday. I have a few reasons why I should do it and a few why I shouldn't do it.

My main reasons I want to do it is because I enjoy blogging so much and I like writing and making friends. But there are a few things holding me back. I have no idea if I will have the time to put in the effort or if I will be able to think up enough things to write about.

Finally I made up my mind. I decided it would be worth the effort to become an everyday blogger. I think that if I work hard I really can keep this blog going everyday.

So here I am, heading out into a huge challenge! Wish me luck:)

-Willow

Blogging Challenge

I have been blogging since June 2013! To me that seems like a long time. My blogging anniversary is coming up on the 19th and I thought I would do a writing challenge for it:) (Thanks Eve for inspiring me to do this).

It has only been in the past few weeks/months that I got enough followers to even be able to think about doing something like this.

Before I got any farther, I just want to say, thank you! Thank you to everyone who has commented, followed and made my life awesome!

Now onto this challenge:) Let's start with some rules. Because what's fun without the rules?

Rules:

• No bad language
• No complaining about my choice of winner
• No bad pictures

Now you can write whatever you want, poetry, short story, whatever!

To enter:

• Write something
• Post a picture with it
• Post it on your blog
• Leave a link to it in the comments below

I so hope you enter! I am really excited about this:) Entries will end on the 19th (if anyone enters). I will spend up to five days choosing the winner and then I will post it here.

Prizes (sorry a bit lame):

• Featuring on my blog
• Choice of next kind of post (things I have been doing, piece of writing, something like that).

Sorry the prize is really bad but this is my first time doing something like this. I hope you will enter anyway.

Last of all please put my blog button in your sidebar so people can know about my contest and enter!

-Willow

P.S Thanks Eve for helping me learn how to make the button!

Lovely Blogs

Hey! Some of you might have noticed that my blog page 'Awesome Sites' is gone. (probably not) In it's place I have put, 'Lovely Blogs'.

I have put links to all the blogs I like that I could think of there. If yours isn't there or you would like yours there, please feel free to ask.

If I haven't put a link to your blog there, please don't feel offended. I didn't mean to leave you out. I just probably forgot to put the link it. I'm very sorry if this has happened. Please warn me if it has and I will put your link there at once!
-Willow

Thanks so Much Eve!

Has anyone noticed my new amazing design? I hope you have! Isn't it awesome?

I just want to thank Eve for making it for me! Eve you are totally amazing:)

I don't know how she does it. She is so good at making blogs look awesome. I love the design so much! (as you might have noticed!)

If you want a totally amazing design you should definitely check out Eve's blog design shop! It is all totally free and it is all totally awesome:) If you feel like a change I would go and at least have a look.

Again, thanks so much Eve! You are the best:)

-Willow

Down to Three

Everyone knows I have a lot of blogs, but something happened this morning!

Yesterday I got into a bit of trouble. I redesigned one of my blogs, but in the new header I gave it the wrong name!

See:

I fixed it up this morning:

But it has taught me a huge lesson! I have too many blogs, so I have done something about it.

I deleted one (after downloading it) and removed myself from the blog that I shared with my sister (we never wrote on it) and now I only have this blog, In Willow's Mind and the blog I share with Beth.

I hope this will make posting and remembering things easier. I should be writing more often from now on.

Thanks for reading!

-Willow

An Update: Hannah and Beth

I looked at my dashboard.

"Wow, its been ages since I have written anything on In the Heart of Hannah," I said. "I must write another post soon."

Here's that post. It has been posted even later than I meant because I have been really busy with Camp NaNoWriMo. Your can read more about that on my other blog In the Mind of Hannah.

Beth and I are friends over the internet. We met on each others blogs and found we had a lot in common.

A little while ago we started emailing each other. Then I had this great idea. What if Beth and I made a shared blog?

I asked Beth about it. She agreed at once that it would be an awesome idea.

The first problem we had thought we what to call it. It is easy to name your own blog, but when you have choose something two different people like its a good deal of hard work.

We at last settled on Hannah and Beth: Two Crafty Teens. The name was perfect!

Beth designed the blog while I made a header and blog button. We are very proud of what we have done. The blog is just about finished, YAY:)

Please visit our blog. Here's the link: http://hannahandbethtwocraftyteens.blogspot.com.au/

If anyone would like to get to know Beth (and I suggest you do, she's awesome) please visit her amazing blog: Beth's Corner. She truly is a very inspiring friend:)

-Willow

My Best Friend

I don't know if I have ever mentioned my best friend, Sierra! She's is fourteen years old and a total bookworm. She is always recommending books for me to read.

The other day she followed my example and made herself a blog. Well done Sierra! Its called Little Miss Tiny. The name suits her because Sierra is very short.

Sierra has two big sisters and one little sister. There names are Alexis, Makayla (hope I spelt it right) and Jocelyn. They are all very fun and amazing.

Besides being a bookworm Sierra love rainbow loom bracelets (she has promise to post some pictures of them) and motor racing. She also likes listening to music and doodling.

When ever I meet Sierra we always spend a long time giggling over the latest hairdos she is trying to perfect.  She is determined to be able to do lovely hairstyles, but her hair is a bit short.

Anyway, I am sure that you will find much more about Sierra if you pop over to her blog. Please do. She will be delighted. Please leave her a comment!

-Willow

Image: Best Friends by therapycatguardian (CC by 2.0)

Willow's Thoughts

Does anyone remember my blog Willow's Thoughts? I made a very long time ago and sadly its been months and months since I posted on it.

Well to cut a long story short the blog is back in business. I got a post up on it yesterday and I will have more up as soon as I can.

Just beware that this blog is different than this one and In Willow's Mind. I will be posting just random bits and bobs.

Some people think I am a bit crazy and just can't keep my finger off the new blog button, but that's not true. I haven't made a new blog for some time and this is a very old blog. It was the second one I made.

I have to go now and decorate by blog!

-Willow

P.S Please check out my blog.

P.P.S This post is scheduled so I don't know what time it will publish!

ENDED

Hey guys! The poll has ended:) I got great results. Everyone voted header in. Thanks guys you are so totally amazing!

We have a header, quick, I must go put it up! (That's just my excuse for this very short post)

-Willow

P.S I was so busy I missed the end of the poll. So sorry this is a few day late

Header or No Header?

I am having a poll at the moment. I have just finished redesigning my blog after being inspired by Beth from Bethany's Cave.

I came up with a slight problem though, to have a blog header or not. I have made one which does look good, but I can't decided whether it looks better with it or with out.

If needs be I am willing to make another, better header, but let's see what it looks like first!

with header

without

Please leave your view! Whether to make a different one or not have one at all. Please be truthful. Thanks!

-Willow

Louise, the Raven Girl

Ok! So what am I writing about now? Something interesting I hope:)

Right, so last post I told you about my whole family, well I never told you about my awesome cousin, Louise in detail.

She is a new blogger, total of two posts. She is a much better writer than me(she says she isn't though).

Her blog called The Raven Princess! I didn't even know what a raven LOOKS like before I visited her blog. She really loves ravens and other birds like that.

Louise gets on with everyone. She is that sort of person, she just says something nice and she has another friend! She has such a talent for it, I wish I was like that.

Well please visit her blog! I am sure she will visit yours back:)

-Willow

Image: Raven

In the Name of River

My sister River, has made herself a blog (with mine and Mum's help). She really proud of it! Here is her first blog post:

All About Me

Name:

River


Age:

Six

Interests:

Read, writing, singing, dancing, playing with my barbies

Favourite Foods:

Chocolate, lollipops, porridge, cake, biscuits

Family:

Dad, Mum, Willow (13), Otis (12), Mack (10), Luka (9), Me

Favourite Outfit:

Jeans, pink tank top, sandals

Favourite Time of Year:

Christmas or my birthday

Hi! Thanks for visiting my blog. I hope you come again soon. I hope to write many more posts. Thanks again!

 

The link to her blog is here: http://katherinemitter.blogspot.com.au/ The name of the blog is In the Name of River. Mum came up with it! River is good at writing for six, isn't she?

 

-Willow