All the cool kids have the BYW Friends badge. You can maybe get your own later by keeping your eye on this site.

Today marks the very last day of the month-long amazingly awesome blogging e-course class I’ve been taking, given by the insurmountable, unsurpassable, super-fantastical Holly Becker of decor8. I’ve only been reading Holly’s blog for a few months, but I was sucked in quickly by her pretty pictures, beautiful decor & design finds, wonderful writing, and…well…I can best describe it as “inspiration”. She’s inspiring both on the page (the screen?) & off, and the fact that she lives (& blogs!) her passion is, um, inspirational!

When she announced that she was going to offer a blogging e-course to a limited amount of students, and offered a sign-up form to get notified right away, I had only one thought:

“Duh.”

Not only is decor8 extremely successful (the blog has almost half a million visitors a MONTH!), but Holly is so sweet, so positive, so thoughtful & personable that I knew whatever she put her stamp on would be worthwhile. When she priced the class at less than half of what I thought it would be, I had only one thought:

“Double duh.”

I’m so glad that I signed up when I did, because Blogging Your Way‘s sign-up reached 800 students (triple duh) – and Holly only kept the first 207 of us! She wanted to keep it small & intimate & manageable, & I’m sure every single one of the BYW students is thankful for that.  I loved getting to know every one of the creative types that participated: artists, knitters, architects, Moms, jewelry makers, and even a rug aficionado! Everything  Holly wrote about, everything she said (yes, there were podcasts – I’ll be posting one soon!), was a gem & a spark & a take-away.

If you’ve been my reader for a while, you might have noticed the changes I’ve made to my blog. They’re mostly in the sidebar content, to make things more streamlined & simple & pretty (& alliterated!). In terms of the content, I’ve decided to clean house and not be tied to every series on a weekly basis. So if you like surprises, then come back here daily because you never know what you’re going to get*!

I’ve done so much behind the scenes – so many weekend hours! so much learned! – that I hope dropping in to my lil’ blog is pleasing and fun and inspiring and sweet and sunshine and rainbows and My Little Ponies. I want you to know that my door is always open & I’m always happy to have you.

There are some people in the BYW class that I have to give a special shout-out too, and I couldn’t think of a better way to do that then giving them some link love. If you’re looking for a fresh voice, or some new inspiration, or even a recipe on how make homemade ice cream, make sure you visit all of these fantabulous ladies.

Holly at decor8 (our fearless leader!)

Sandy at Cookie Cutter

Kristen at Discover Interior Design

Karen at For Your Inspiration

Laura at Lolalina

Raina at Frozen Brooklyn

Maggie at Magchunk

Sam at Sam’s Notebook

Tiina at Sparkling Ink

All the women above were part of the Fearless Scribblers group in the class, & they took a look around here & told me what they loved, and what could use some more love. Because of Holly & the Scribblers, I’ve learned so much & have some wonderful ideas left to implement!

Of course, I value your feedback too, dear readers! Can I ask you now to take a moment and give me some feedback on my blog? Whether it’s the design or the content, or something technical that you like or don’t like, I would love to hear it. It would mean so much to me. Please don’t be shy! And if you are shy, then you can fill out this anonymous survey instead. Or make it unanonymous (but for my eyes only) & fill it out with your email address to win my booty**.

Thank you Holly,

Thank you Fearless Scribblers,

Thank you readers!

*besides a crapload of awesomeness

** please note that this takes you to the link I posted which describes the booty you can win on my blogthday. It does not post to a picture of anyone’s booty or anything NSFW. I might decide to curse but still….There is a (fine, fine) line***, people.

* If you now have the song, “There’s a Fine, Fine Line” from Ave Q in your head, then please reward yourself with 20 musical theater nerd points.

Tags: Rousing Reviews

This entry was posted on Monday, May 4th, 2009 at 3:50 pm and is filed under Happy Hooplah. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.