Part I:

Tower of succulents coming back to life

Today’s Blogging University assignment focuses on the other half of blogging: engaging with your community.  We’re instructed to follow five new topics in the Reader and five new blogs.

It’s been awhile since I’ve explored WordPress Reader, not from lack of interest but lack of time.  I know a plethora of interesting blogs await discovery, but I must be realistic with my time.  If you’re as lucky as I am, you’ll fall in love with bloggers from around the world. Thirty days from now, I’m flying cross-country to spend a week with four other women, all friends I’ve met through blogging. Extraordinary!

Which brings me to

Part II:

I’m off to find and follow five more blogs:  I’ll be right back. 😉

Please close your eyes and pretend your clock is ticking…You can open them now.

Ok, I’m back. I wanted to write part one before tackling this assignment.

Following Michelle’s lead, I added narrowly focused topics. My list:

1. Color
2. Sunflowers
3. Honeybees
4. Fashion Over 50
5. Postage Stamp Art

First up, Sew Katie Did. Isn’t that a clever title? I love her play on words.

Though I’ve sewn all my life, I never learned how to quilt. I admire the skill that goes into each one, as well as the color and artistry.  Sew Katie Did is a feast for the eyes. She’s posted photos of several quilts, both beautiful and eclectic. I’m quite smitten with Tilted and with her Stepping Stone Quilt, but frankly, they’re all gorgeous.

Katie Pedersen says “I’ve always been artistic, but a whole world opened up to me when I discovered fabric as my medium.  My workshops focus on design and finding your own process.  My teaching places a heavy emphasis on the importance of color value when picking fabrics and designing a quilt.  I teach modern quilting and sewing classes in Seattle and provide guild and show lectures, trunk shows and workshops.”

Searching sunflowers lead me to Patrick Mackie’s stunning photography. He photographs a number of beautiful subjects, but the sunflowers called me to his page.

Okay, so I tried to stay away from gardening, but my honeybees search lead me to this:

Lottie Land Girl Kaz Brown “records our journey on our lottie plot 21a through my photography. There’s nothing better than digging on the allotment with my husband Stew and our little dog Jassy (our buns Daisy and Alvin can’t play! They’d eat our veggies.” Her blog is filled with beautiful drawings and photos and…gardening tools. Be still my heart.

Guess what? Two of my Reader searches yielded nothing. Two, entirely untapped subjects. Fashion over 50 for women like me who fear they’ve fallen into a fashion frump and they can’t get up. The fact that no one is writing under that tag sent me further into my frumpy despair.

Postage stamp art didn’t come up either. I recently completed a project using my dad’s postage stamp collection and I wanted to see what others might be doing with stamps. I’ll tag my postage stamp table top liberally so that some future reader will find something on the subject.

So, I’ve added five tags to my reader and I’m following three new blogs. With that, I’m off to bed dreaming of beautiful quilts, sunflowers and the gentle buzzing of honeybees.

Have you followed any new blogs lately? Do you struggle to keep up?