A year of blogging!!!

Happy blogging birthday to me!!! I met my goal!!! One year ago today, I decided to start a blog and told myself I was going to write something every day for a whole year. That first blog was an introduction of sorts.

And what a year this has been! Here are some highlights about my blog:

I have learned more than I ever wanted to know about html, uploads, downloads, digital scrapbooking, slide shows, music videos....that list is endless! But hey! At least I'm still learning new things at this age!!!

I have met some wonderful new friends via this blog! Hi everyone!!!

Over 35,000 visits have been made to this blog, with over 50,500 pages viewed. WOW!!! An average of 125 people look at my work every single day. That just blows me away!!!

I think I've had visitors over the past year from every country in the world. I've had emails from France, Holland and Germany that have forced me to learn how to use online language translators. I think we've done quite well with that!

"tattoo girl" has had the most hits - but I think that's just people looking for tattoos.

I've done 32 tutorials - almost 3 a month. Never intended to do a single one when I started this! And I'm still hoping to learn how to put together video tutorials.

There are 105 of you who subscribe to this blog via an email feed. Again - "hi"! I do just love the emails that you send me - it's so much fun hearing about your life and how it parallels mine! There have been days when I thought I just didn't want to keep this online journaling up - or I didn't want to make something new to share. But then I'd think, oh, Gerri would want to see this, or Edi would like this....and it's all it took to motivate me one more day!

Seriously though, I have no idea where I will go for year 2. I don't feel a need to blog every single day - but might just see if I can do this for 2 whole years! I might start writing more about life, I might write more about religion. I promise I won't write much more about politics - unless someone sends me another stupid email!!!

My personal goals for the next year are to design more stamps. Go to CHA as a buyer with Scrapbook Your Life! Play tons. Try to keep my husband a little healthier. Learn how to do video tutorials. And get the 300 or so ideas that are floating around in my head out of there and into real projects that I can share with each of you!

In July, 2009, I'll be in Chicago teaching at the Metal Clay World Conference. In February, I will be teaching again in San Diego. And there's a possibility that I might be teaching in England the end of February. Wouldn't that be fun???

Life is truly amazing. Who knows where we will be a year from now? But no matter where life's road may wind, I hope you will always remember to thank Jehovah each day, praise His holy name each day, find a little humor each day, and play a little, every day.