Cleaning Out the Cobwebs

Pardon the dust and cobwebs flying around as I do a bit of Spring cleaning!
Image courtesy of FreeDigitalPhotos.net ID-1004852

My name is Tessa and I neglect my blog. There I said it. I've heard that admitting you have a problem is the first step toward recovery. But all kidding aside, I have been so busy on Google+ (and please I know that Blogger works with Google+ - I just have not worked out the best way to share) and with three great groups - the Guild of One-Name Studies, Society for One-Place Studies, and Legacy Virtual Users' Group Community - that I was not tending my personal family blog. How does everyone else get it all done?

It is so quick and easy to engage in the Google+ Stream, Communities, and Hangouts-on-Air either with my laptop or my mobile that I was simply forgetting to get back to my blog and post some of my comments right here at home. As a result Scandia Musings resembled that dilapidated house at the end of the street with broken shutters and an overgrown lawn. Well it was time to make a decision - did I want to continue with my blog or put it out of its misery? I thought about it why I started blogging in the first place and gave myself a good shake. Then it was time to roll up my sleeves and start cleaning, painting and moving the furniture around here at my blog.

I also gave some serious consideration to my time constraints as well as what I want to do with my family history and genealogy. I know that blogging is the best way to find those unknown cousins and share stories with my own extended family members who (for some reason) do not enjoy going through family group sheets or pedigree charts but love stories and photographs. I need to give a bit more focus to my own family history and remember to make time to blog. That said I am making no grand resolutions (those usually crash and burn in a few months' time). I am going to start small and build up those unused blogging muscles.

• You may have noticed that I have spent some time sprucing things up here and my blog is a bit more minimalist. Although I am not quite finished, Scandia Musings is definitely headed in the right direction.
• I plan to focus on my family by using a family history calendar (an idea borrowed from Linda McCauley and Cheri Hudson Passey - thanks). Using a birthday and wedding anniversary calendar I will be able to blog at least once a week and scatter that cousin bait at the same time!

  Okay baby steps - see you back here next Sunday when I start publishing the calendar.

Cleaning Out the Cobwebs

I'll Show You Mine. Why Don't You Show Me Yours ~ Tuesday's Tip

Digital Art by Stuart Miles at FreeDigitalPhotos.net 

I love reading genealogy blogs because there are so many great writers out there who freely share their knowledge of history, geography, research resources, how to tips and tricks, and process resources (all that tech-related stuff), not to mention all those great personal family stories.  Many Geneabloggers share by writing individual posts (with great detail and photos).  Many more, after a great webinar presented by and with a little additional gentle prodding from Thomas MacEntee, have put together Research Toolboxes that list their favorite websites with links.

Are you a Geneablogger?  Do you have a Research Toolbox on your blog?  If so, do you keep it up to date?  Does your Toolbox address a particular niche in genealogy or is it's scope wide-ranging?  Why not share the link to your Toolbox page with the rest of us, either on Google+ or by directing us to your blog?   Have you found a particular Toolbox especially useful?  If so, why not share that with us as well.  These Toolboxes are great additions to our genealogy arsenal - why not check them out.

Here are five to get you started:

• Destination: Austin Family (Thomas got the Toolbox ball rolling for me ~ check out his Research Toolbox)
• Ancestrally Challenged (an amazing blog with great pages including My Research Toolbox page)
• Genealogy for Novices (a terrific blog with great resources for Swedish research via Links page)
• Greta's Genealogy Bog (no that's not a typo - check out My Genealogy Toolbox page)
• I'll Be Seeing You (from a new blog, check out the Genealogy page for website and offline resources)

Here at Scandia Musings & More, I have a Favorite Websites  page that lists my go to resources.  It is a work in progress.  Right now I have a number of Swedish, Norwegian, and Minnesota websites. If you are looking for your Swedish or Norwegian ancestors, check out my Favorite Websites  page.  Do you have any websites you would add?  If so, why not drop me a line (at Google+, comment here or send me an email).  Thanks so much.

I'll Show You Mine. Why Don't You Show Me Yours ~ Tuesday's Tip

Just A Few Tweaks

This weekend (while others were enjoying Jamboree ~ thanks to all those who blogged about their adventures and thanks to the coordinators for streaming some of the Saturday lectures) I took the opportunity to make a few changes to my blog.  This was a project I originally undertook for The Keough Corner blog and I found that I really liked the idea of clearing away many of the side gadgets and making pages.

If you use the Blogger platform, pages are static ~ which means that the template will be the same on all additional pages and only the actual post will be different on each page.  As a result, gadgets selected for your home page template will appear on every additional page.  Since that is the case, I made the following tweaks:

• People, Places & Things Page added ~ allows me to write in greater detail about each of my family trees and corresponding surnames, as well as mention the various technology and genealogy programs I use.
• Favorite Websites Page added ~ this is an idea that Thomas MacEntee introduced and the Favorites Websites Page is my version of a Research Toolbox (my go to websites for general research and my Norwegian and Swedish research).
• Posts By Topic & Posts By Date Pages added ~ a great idea I found (linked to) and discussed in my April 26 post at The Keough Corner.  I much prefer the posts listed by topic or date on separate pages rather than a lengthy list in a side gadget. 
• Labels, Blog Archives, My Favorite Things, and Where It's At gadgets removed ~ with my new pages, these gadgets were now redundant.
• Print Friendly Link added - this is a great idea that DearMyrtle mentioned (also linked to in the April 26 post) and it makes it easy to print a post with a simple click.

Since I was already noodling around in the design section of Scandia Musings & More, why not change up some of the colors and fonts?  So, a bit a tweaking here and there and voila ~ an improved (hopefully) Scandia Musings & More.  Please let me know what you think of my changes and share any changes you have made to your blog format.
Cheers!

Just A Few Tweaks