We've gotta stop meeting like this

You may (or may not, depending on how often you come by here) have noticed that I haven't been around much lately. That hasn't been intentional, and won't be forever. It's the same old excuse: no time. Things have been crazy-busy around here, with me forging ahead with plans to slightly rehab my home for sale. I'm also getting things ready to launch an Etsy shop soon. Yay! And there is work. Yay! for money! And....I am restructuring things on the blog slightly. It won't even be (all that) noticable, but I feel it is a necessary step towards this blog's future.

Regretfully, I've missed a few Music Mondays, Coffee Chat Tuesdays, Thriftscore Thursdays, and now the first half of the Battle of the Bands month. But I will be back soon! Be sure to come by Thursday for Thriftscore Thursday and April's Mix Tape Shuffle :)

And in the meantime, I am trying to still keep visiting all my favorite blogs. See you soon!

Snowmageddon It!

Oh, how I love a "snow day"! And thanks to last night's arrival of Winter Storm Remus, we here in Alabama got to have one. I feel terrible for the people stranded, though...just terrible. Only last Friday, I waited almost too late to leave work, and ended up spending over two hours getting home - what is normally only a thirty minute drive. But one hour of the two was spent just getting out of the city of Huntsville. ONE HOUR on what normally takes about fifteen minutes.

Why hello there, gorgeous!

It's been a quick minute since my last post and I am still computer-less.  Not completely...my son is letting me use his until I get a replacement...and while I am immeasurably grateful for his generosity, it still hasn't spurred the the desire to write more or post more.  Not to mention, blogger remains a gigantic piece of shit on this computer.  However, I have been doing lots and lots of pinning.  So, so, SO MANY wonderful ideas for things to do to the house, on the stove, for my many "projects," all of which have the potential to be useful blog posts.  And?  Still no real motivation, until now.

With the year rapidly coming to a close, I've been doing some thinking.  (Uh-oh)  I'm thinking that it could possibly be time for another re-branding.  I've had a decent run of 3+ years here.  This place has been my outlet through all the good, fun parts of life for that time, and I feel the name was exactly what fit me - at that time.  But the past three years (and this blog) have also seen me through financial hardship, divorce, empty-nesting, and birds coming back to the nest.  I wanted This Belle Rocks to be a place where I shared my passion for everything from music to books to fashion to home ideas.  I bought lots of music, went to lots of concerts, read lots of books, went to lots of movies, and collected a lot of vintage awesome-ness.  The name just felt right, and fit.

Now?  I'm not so sure.  While I am still very passionate about all those things I mentioned and more, I'm not doing as much with music.  Not going to as many shows.  Reading only when I have a few minutes. I often wonder if people who know me through the blog and get to meet me in real life or otherwise get to know me think "Wow.  This woman lied.  She does the opposite of rock."

So, a lot has changed and I'm not sure if I want to carry on with this brand (non-existent as it may be) and this blog when it no longer really fits.  Because we all know that trying to cram yourself into something that doesn't fit, be it jeans, shoes, or maybe even an online presence, is miserable.  Do I try to make the blog grow with me, or do I just let it go?  I *am* leaning a certain way, but I still have a while to weigh my options.

What about you?  Are you holding onto something (or things) you should let go?

Brief update

Music Monday (and the rest of the blog, and return blog visits) will be back soon. Between work and travel, I am now on about day 15 of non-stop go-go-going without adequate downtime and am exhausted beyond belief at this point. And I still have three more days to go. I have lots to get caught up on here at this blog as well as a review to go up at Girls at the Rock Show. Here's to hoping I make it through this almost three week stretch with my health and sanity intact!

Happy Monday!

Hello, 2014!

You and me? We are off to an amazing start! So far I have lost three pounds, purged a ton of stuff from the house, folded lots and lots of laundry and tackled the massive piles of papers and junk on my desk. I even have my work clothes ready for tomorrow. I will be well on my way to accomplishing everything I hope to if this momentum holds!

With this new year, I am following fellow Music Mama Mari's lead (sort of) and chose a word to define what I want to do in 2014. Or, for me, a word to define what I need in order to accomplish my goals for the year. My word is persistence. After the divorce of last year and the fallout which ensued in its wake, I have a LOT of cleanup left to do. I feel know it is in my best interest to get back to good in some key areas, and the ONLY way I can do that is through persistence:

• Health
• Fitness
• Financial well-being
• Frugality (*not* the same thing as financial well-being as I see it)
• Happiness
• Creativity
• Knowledge
• Patience
• Serenity

Those are just the building blocks, and not by any means a complete list of goals. And it should go without saying that I plan to spend as much time as I can with family and friends.

Also new for the new year? Well, the blog got a makeover. (Link provided for those of you reading in a reader. Yes, you can subscribe now!) It was about time, too. Gone are the magazine-style front page and Facebook comments. I lost them when I tried to re-position them, but hopefully someday they'll be back. What do you think?

I am excited about so much for the coming year, but especially music! The Girls at the Rock Show have their first concert of the year planned for later this month, a band I've been wanting to see since I saw them for the first time in September, and also a band which made my favorite albums cut over at The Music Mamas: New Politics!!

Today's Music Monday selection is New Politics' "Tonight You're Perfect":

The Times They are a-Changin'

If there is anyone still reading over here, HELLO! (waves hello) And a heartfelt thanks for sticking by me despite there being no new content here for quite some time.

As some of you know, this year has been beyond tumultuous for me. While I have had many hard lessons to learn, I am happy to be able to finally spread my wings and pursue a more purposeful and meaningful life. Unfortunately, during the struggle to find my footing financially and physically, I have neglected the blog. And I have decided to send it on an even more extended vacation until 2014. Until then, I am going to do my level best to get my categories/tags/labels rearranged and streamlined, a project I am sure will actually take all that time.

But the changes. Oh, right. There have been lots of them in my personal life and that has translated to my online presence as well. I think in the coming year I'd like to take the blog in a slightly different direction. Of course, there will be music. There is, and always will be music! But I'm really going to try to focus on reclaiming my life via my other loves: reading, fashion, beauty, fitness, food, home improvement and learning - on a virtually non-existent budget. My new goal with this blog is to grow, learn, share, and be inspired. To build a new and improved life.

This isn't anything new; I've tried my best to commit to the blog before and failed miserably. It's just so much easier to interact with people via social media (BTW, you can LIKE my Facebook page here if FB is more your thing), but hopefully '14 will be my year to pull it all together.

In the meantime, I may pop in with a post from time to time, but if I do, they will be few and far between. I look forward to seeing you in 2014!

Image Source: quotesstack.com

As July comes to a close

I'm scrambling busily to finish all that needs to be done before my sons return home from their visit with their Dad. August is going to busier than any other month, ever. Ever. (that I can recall) One child will start his senior year of high school, while another starts his freshman year.....of college. I have so many loose ends to tie up that I am almost sick with anxiety, and that is no joke.

Oh, and I also plan on launching another blog, solely dedicated to rescued/re-purposed stuff. *IF* I can ever find the time to finish the project I want to kick the blog off with! It will also have to be finished in August, as it's intended owner will be moving and will need it before then. But I should have plenty of projects to get me through the rest of the year. I see an editorial calendar in my future!

In the meantime, this is a bit of what you can look forward to next week....

• Mondays always revolve around music over here, and this Monday will be no different, so be sure to stop by then to see what I have in store for you :)
• Also, I have (shamefully) started reading the 50 Shades trilogy. I am almost finished with the first book, 50 Shades of Grey, and I've got something to say about it! If I can get my act together, I'll probably post that this coming week.
• I need to get back to my other blog-hops this week, as well. The photo ones, and the writer's workshop ones. I don't want this to become a blog-hop-only blog, but at least that inspires me to try to get creative again, so there's that....

Rounding out the week, I'd like to call your attention to some worthy posts around the web....

• Via HuffPo Entertainment: Lamb of God has had to cancel its upcoming tour due to singer Randy Blythe remaining jailed in the Czech Republic since his June 27 arrest in connection with the 2010 death of a fan at one of the band's shows.
  
  This is just a tragedy (and a travesty) no matter how you look at it. For heaven's sake, people, don't be idiots at shows!
• Local celebrity Antoine Dodson speaks out about the Chick-Fil-A boycott. Dlisted has the most entertaining post about it.
• I really wanted to see The Watch.....till it got (at time of this post) one star at Rotten Tomatoes.

How was YOUR week?

Image Source: © Natalia Balcerska Photography; issued under Flickr Creative Commons

Well, this is mighty embarrassing!

About my Monday's Music Moves Me post.....I had some comments. The post itself showed a 0 comment count on the main page, but there WERE several on the post's page. I logged into my Intense Debate account to reply to them, and THEY JUST DISAPPEARED!!!!! They are still in my ID overview, but I have no way to respond to any of them. I sure appreciate y'all coming by, though!

So this is the funny thing: I apparently can't reply directly from ID. Frustrating.

 I've been on the fence about ID for some time now. I originally chose it for all the login choices. You can log in with Twitter, Facebook, OpenID, WP, or link directly to your site via the name/email/site url option. I do love all those features, but I think some commenters have been led to believe they have to join Wordpress, or if they have a Wordpress or ID account, that they have to use that to comment. You DON'T. If you want to link directly to your blog from here, just be sure to sign out of ID, because using your ID or Wordpress account will link directly to your profile there. And if it forces you to use your account if you have one? Let me know, because that is something I need to know, and would never have installed something here that forces someone to sign up for a service or use any information other than what they specifically want to include. (And as for the email, if you choose to sign in with name/email/url - that's only so ID will notify you when I respond to your comment. If it's not? Again, please let me know, because that is something that I need to know, and a determining factor in whether or not I keep ID).

 Anyway...I have submitted a support ticket to ID, and am currently waiting on a reply.

 I have the most bizarre luck of anyone I know with blog stuff. Pfftttt.

 Image source: via Google image search, found at Updates From the Field
 

Why mess with a good thing?

Yes, I'm looking at YOU, Blogger! I tried the new interface. I absolutely hated it. I think I could have gotten used to the different way things were set up, but the thing that bothered me almost the most is that I couldn't just go back and forth from html to visual without messing the html up. (It is much easier for me to just type html in and I ONLY use visual to insert photos into my post in certain areaas) Another thing that bothered me almost the most is that when I tried the picture uploader with the new interface, it only posted the actual size of the picture and not the selected size, so I had to figure that out on my own and manually resize the photo myself. But I think the thing that bothers me the very most is that after all this time, Blogger has had ample opportunity develop and implement a much better commenting system, eliminating the need for a third party add-on, but has not done so.

I will be fine. I will figure out how to maneuver around the new interface eventually, and luckily, I can resize my own photos. I know free is free and I'm trying hard not to complain (I left a self-hosted wordpress site to come back to Blogger, after all!), but the changes I've seen have not been good ones. And what happens to the people who get frustrated who can't do their own html, or position or resize their own photos? Will they just be forgotten and left to go to other free blog publishers?

You'd think with social media sites such as Facebook and Twitter making it MUCH easier to post and interact with others than blogging, that the blog publishers would find a way to make blogging simpler and more useful instead of making their tools more difficult to use.

Hopefully some of the issues I've mentioned will be worked out by the time the permanent interface changes go live and we're forced to use it whether we like it or not.