Hey friends! How are you? Things are good here. I’m back to update you on all those pictures from the last post! We’ll talk about them post-by-post instead of one big collective! So much good stuff is happening lately. I’ve really been working hard on the behind-the-scenes of Chicken Librarian. I’ll have a lot more information about that soon. Other than working on business plans and moving forward with that, I’ve been making and baking! Tis the season I guess. But I do have to admit, all the crafting and baking are for me!
Let’s do a quick run down. First. Bread! I have been making bread machine focaccia. I made it twice (I use the dough cycle on the machine, then finish it by hand). The dough has been great but the bread itself has puffed up. It’s not flat like it should be. I made it twice and it did that both times. Years ago I used to make the exact same recipe in the bread machine and it was fine. I’m not sure what happened. The bread was good so there’s that. I also made a white loaf of bread from scratch, no bread machine! I was looking through my cookbooks and found two Moosewood cookbooks (the Original and this one. How cute is the name?!?!) that I haven’t cracked open in a very long time (I own three and I use the third one a lot more). So in an effort to use the cookbooks that I have I picked out some recipes. I made a butternut squash-mushroom soup (yum!) and that loaf of bread that you see above. The one loaf turned out beautifully (the other loaf just needed a little extra rise time but I got impatient). They are both equally as yummy.
My classes for 2020 are winding down. I have two classes left. One for Port Jervis Free Library (Holiday Cards) and one more for Chester Public Library (Sourdough Starter). I also finished up all my ‘Chicken Librarian Makes’ classes for the year. I ended with Grapevine Wreaths and Homemade Lotion Bars (you can still register for it!). Speaking of classes and such, all my thank you cards have been mailed! Now I’m just waiting for my Holiday Cards to arrive so I can get those out the door. We’ve had issues with one of the major post offices in PA being very, very slow. Lost mail, etc. It’s been extremely frustrating. So the holiday cards have been lost for several weeks but have been found and will hopefully be arriving soon.
And just because I could, I taught myself how to embroider! I took a class a few years ago but then didn’t pick up another stitch until now. I don’t know why I had a hankering to learn, but I did. So I did. I searched the internets for an easy beginners pattern and stumbled upon Cozy Blue. She gives you good instructions on the various stitches and how to get started. I started with the “Joy” pattern and finished it within a few hours. Then I moved on to the “deck the halls” pattern. I started the deck the halls stitch on some linen that I thought was too thin so I changed to some muslin. I was using tracing paper to transfer the stitch onto my fabric (I used Aida cloth for the Joy stitch and it worked beautifully). So when I went to transfer onto the muslin, it was too thick. So I just did the ‘tape it to a window and transfer using a fabric marker’ technique. And that was perfect. So I started that stitch. I haven’t done too much more to it, for no reason other than I get distracted easily.
That’s most of the making I’ve been doing lately, other than making my Christmas village and decorating for the holidays. I have a whole separate post on that (hopefully in the next couple of days). I have a lot to catch you up on. One other thing that I’ve been doing some behind the scenes work (and if you visited my Facebook page lately you kind of already know). Anyway, I’ve been working on lots of things behind the scenes–mostly my business plan and marketing plan that I mentioned above. But one part of the marketing plan is search engine optimization. What the heck is that? Well. I guess it’s how you get listed in internet searches (specifically Google) and Google does not like pictures that load slowly. So you’re supposed to be able to resize and compress your photos to be smaller and load faster. But for the life of me I can’t figure out how to do that and get the pictures to not be tiny. Or if I do resize them using the WordPress editing feature, they are pixelated when I put the pics into a grid (like I’ve been doing). So I spent some time, a lot of time, trying to figure it out only to be frustrated and say the heck with it. In fact, I started this post a few days ago and just couldn’t muster up the energy to finish it, it was so frustrating.
So what did I do? Welllll. I asked around about how others handle their photos. And then I cornered Daenel on one of her Facebook posts. And she said that she doesn’t bother with it. And that’s all I needed to hear! I was going down a rabbit hole that I just couldn’t pull myself out of. I mean, I really need to streamline my photo editing process and have plans on how to do that but it involves learning a new to me editing system and I just don’t think I have the time or resources to learn how to resize and all that jazz. So if I don’t get higher up in the search results or if people bounce on out of my website because of slow loading photos, I guess that will just have to be. But what I did learn and can easily fix is to name my photos and describe them using the alternative text feature. Easy peasy. Can do.
So. This brings me to the end of this update. I think I’ve learned that blogging isn’t for the faint of heart. There’s so much to know. So much to learn. And I’m still working a lot behind the scenes to move to the next steps with Chicken Librarian. It’s slow going but I feel good about it. And for that I’m grateful.
’til next time
-k
xoxo
Leslie Susan Clingan
Your embroidered pieces are so sweet. My aunt and my mama taught me a few stitches years ago. Did a lot of cross stitch when I lived in Panama and had nothing else to do!! But haven’t picked it up in a long time.
Hope you can figure out the focaccia (hard to spell). I have been very frustrated making homemade bread this year with my family yeast starter. Not sure if it is our altitude or what, but I cannot get the bread/dough to rise. Asked for a bread machine to see if maybe trying to make it in it will help. Bread making can be such a temperamental process.
chickenlibrarian
I love my bread machine! I use it mostly for the dough cycle but will occasionally use it to make the loaf from start to finish.
I do enjoy stitching and I’ve found now that I’m back into crafting and making on the regular, I can teach myself things much easier. I guess it’s because I’m focused on it rather than the ‘hit or miss’ method of prior attempts. I also think it’s like riding a bicycle, once you’ve got the skills it doesn’t take long to dust them off. I do need to pick up my cross stitching again. It intimidates me a little so I keep putting it off! HAHA! I guess I should practice what I just wrote and be done with it. lol.
Tracy
The Joy embroidery is absolutely lovely – lovely! What a pretty decoration. Your photos are amazing and it looks like you are keeping your days filled to the brim with making. Enjoy the tangible results of your work. It’s important to be able to touch and see what we spend our time doing. My perspective has been trending toward if we cannot at least see, touch, and share what we do, it can be hard to establish meaning for ourselves. (My perspective / opinion.)
SEO – So…. I read this post several days ago and wrote my reply several times in my head, but I decided to keep this short. Years ago Mr. Gordon and I ran a boutique web consulting business. He served as web dev and I managed projects and helped our clients navigate on-page SEO. (I was certified by Market Motive.) There is so much that goes best practice SEO – from nuts and bolts of narrow keyword/keyword phrase targeting per page, to yes, optimization of photos. (Quite honestly, I would not sweat the images. Alt tag what’s appropriate, but don’t knock yourself out over it.)
But if I were to distill best practice advice down to 2 or 3 things that were important then and now (i.e., unchanging rules), it would be this:
1.) Create and post on your website frequent, relevant content. (Social media is important, but that’s a different hat and you don’t “own” the real estate on Facebook, etc. Focus on building your content on your own website. You do this.)
2.) Think about the architecture of your website in relation to keyword phrases. Your home pages and top pages should own their own phrases. (You will not likely ever “own” a keyword because you do not have the million dollar budget. Stick to keyword phrases and target local when you can.) Blog pages are “supportive” pages. They will help you get out fresh and relevant content, but won’t be your “keyword-focused” pages.
3.) When you drive traffic back to your site via social media or a newsletter, encourage visitors to stay in your site. If they come in through “this door” to a post, take them through to another page(s) to combat (somewhat) page bounce rate.
Ultimately, Kristin, it’s good, relevant content combined with thoughtful page architecture that serves as the best foundation for on-page SEO.
Gee, and that’s the short version of my two cents. 😉
Okay, off to slay the dragons!
chickenlibrarian
Tracy. This is great. Thank you. I read this a few weeks ago and kept it in the back of my mind. I’ve been busy doing and making, but also giving my business and website a lot of thought. I’ve decided to focus on the website as my main landing platform. I get a lot of movement on FB but not as much on instagram. And if you’ve followed along for any length of time (which you have) you’ll know about my love/hate relationship with insta. So I’ve redesigned how I’ll use my platforms and I think it mostly lines up with what you mentioned. I just did another update to the website and came up with a regular blogging schedule to help me stay focused. I’ll use FB as my main social media and then get to insta when I can.
With that said, I totally agree about having all things point back to my website and have been working on that plan too. I updated my newsletter template and also how I’ll use that platform as well. In fact, I’ll be sending out a new newsletter this week and would love feedback on it!
As for the pictures, I’ve given up (for the moment) on learning a new editing system. I can’t take any more time away from actually making money! HAHA! So back to the old way. And if I get time to ‘optimize’ the photos on the blog so be it. If I don’t? It’s something to work on in the future. I think it’s more about being organized than anything. Some things will need to wait until I can figure them out. Or get to a point to where I can hire that part out.
Thank you for your words of wisdom. I appreciate it! xoxo