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!

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?

It's the first day of 2013

and I didn't even bother to get a year-end post together before now. That's okay, though, as 2012 had been bittersweet, tumultuous, at times volatile, and ultimately even more life-changing than 2011. But while I had direction and ambition in 2011 and was making changes that would benefit me and my family, every bit of that focus and determination slowly slipped away over the course of 2012. I can't possibly recall all the things I didn't like about the past year, let alone post them and have all that negativity just out there, though....that would be starting 2013 off on the wrong foot. So I am currently imagining myself tossing all the year's problems into a roaring fire, to be consumed and destroyed. Take that!

The year wasn't all sadfaces and stress, though. 2012 also had many, many good times and causes for celebration, and I did my best to take none of them for granted. I now see the past year for the lesson it was, and will hopefully move forward into 2013 a bit wiser, stronger, and with a better sense of self and renewed determination.

So what does the future hold for me?

Well.....all the goals I have made in years past still apply. So those. And some of them? Are hard work. My biggest disappointment with myself in 2012 was slacking off my health/fitness/eating right plan, and I paid dearly for it. But I am ready to work hard and get back to good this year.

As for here online? First off, I decided against a blog facelift at this time. Obviously. I am just not ready to give up my trademark "Devil Girl." She's been with me a long time, you know. I plan on participating in more blog hops, networking a bit more, and participating more at Goodreads (my profile link is in my sidebar; add me if you're there!).

But I guess my biggest bloggy news for the new year is that I have started two more blogs! Yep, I sometimes neglect this one like crazy, so I thought "Hey! Why not start two more blogs to neglect like crazy?" One of them will feature my rescues and repurposes (I almost have one finished as I type this!), and another is a collaboration between me and a few others solely for concert reviews. It was only a matter of time before I started something like that! Of course, neither is currently active.

As for the concert review site, I am working on the design and the writers I'm starting off with (oh, and myself!) all have to attend some shows so we have content. I will be doing an introductory post as soon as I have the design and bios finished.

I can go ahead and tell you that my project blog will be called "Be re.BELLE.ious". Of course, it's a take on rebellious; I think being a loud,live music- /classic muscle car- /tattoo-loving mama who plans on helping to redefine/shake up the middle age "norm" qualifies me as a bit of a rebel, no? Belle in all caps, because I'm keeping the Belle theme going. And the "re" refers to not only finding and sharing creative ways to reduce, re-use, and recycle, but also to things like (but not limited to): rescue; repurpose; re-imagine; re-invent; etc. You get the picture!

I will definitely be directing your attention to the new blogs when they are ready to roll, and I'll be keeping this one as well.

Here's to a great 2013! This is how my NYE got started:



Unfortunately, I am a lightweight and couldn't stomach the taste for long!

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

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.

If you see the Comic Sans font, please reload

So I tweaked the blog just a little bit more (and have a teensy bit more to go before I'm truly done), and one of the things I did was tweak the Post Title field. Then, to my horror, I've noticed that when I first bring up my blog after a long period of not having been signed in, the post title field shows up in COMIC SANS FONT!!!

Comic Sans, according to my own Google web search, is always in the top lists of the worst fonts ever made. I personally don't hate it, but it really does only belong in comic books and graphic novels, and maybe on certain types of graphics themselves. Certainly not in the post title field of my blog! But what is weirdest about the entire thing is that I changed this in Blogger's template designer, where I certainly did not select it. I even checked the html of my design, and nowhere is Comic Sans listed as one of the possibilities for font usage. Just so you know, the Lobster font (pictured at right) or a variety of ms fonts in the event that you don't have Lobster installed on your computer, is what you should see when you read this site.

I am scratching my head (and cringing) over this one. If you see the Comic Sans font, a simple reload should get you back to good if it bothers you like it does me.

Comic Sans font graphic courtesty of a Google web search which turned up the photo, but not the source. Lobster font graphic courtesy of fontsquirrel.com

Site re-launch, and blogger awards. Yay!

Despite this post title, it is NOT an accidental re-publishing of my previous post. And so much for getting the re-launch and paying forward done soon. Yet here I am, and here is the itty-bitty "re-launch" (an entry in which I once again declare my good intentions to blog) and instead of going all-out with fireworks and the whole nine yards (by announcing my bloggy return across ALL my social media forums), I'm holding a lone sparkler instead (meaning this entry, and perhaps a tweet).

So...first order of business: BLOGGY AWARDS! I haven't gotten any in forever, and Tere has awarded me with not only one, but two!

The first of which is the Versatile Blogger Award. Recipients of this award are asked to:

*Thank the person that nominated their blog for the award with a backlink to them.
*List 7 things about themselves.
*Award 15 newly discovered blogs with the award and notify them of the award.

So thank you so much for thinking of me, Tere

Without further ado, here are seven (possibly) interesting things about me:

1. I love loud, live music, and attend/travel to as many shows as my time and finances will allow.
2. I love roller coasters and other thrill rides.
3. Gilmore Girls remains one of my favorite tv series ever.   In fact, I grew up in a town that reminds me so much of Stars Hollow.  I could easily see people I actually knew in the Gilmore Girls characters.
4.  I'm starting to try to live a much simpler, kinder, and more frugal life with the help of homemade cleaners, paying better attention to store sales, and budgeting EVERYTHING.
5. I'm also on the road to much better health and fitness by budgeting EVERYTHING.
6. I love re-purposing!  (However, finding the time, motivation and wherewithal to see projects through remains a challenge.)
7. I have a HUGE collection of vintage dishes!   Not. even. joking.  And I just got rid of a bunch of stuff.  I have almost all types and manufacturers in my collection.  

Now, onto the recipients.....of which I don't even have fifteen, since it's been a while since I've really blogged.  I'm also bending the rules a bit, since I don't have 15 bloggers to pass it along to since I'm a rebel like that since I know not everyone can pass awards along. If you can, great...if not, no worries...just grab the award for your site if you like!

I think everyone should be reading Kitti at Hellcat Mama, a fellow mom, custom clothier, fellow thrifter/collector, and classic car enthusiast.  I especially love reading about her thrift finds.  Her site is a real treat!

The "One Lovely Blog" award also comes courtesy of Tere - thank you again!  There wasn't much information available about this award, but I truly adore this one because I worked so hard on getting the design of this blog just right for me.  I have a really hard time letting go of my anonymous devil girl cartoon in favor of the hot design du jour, which generally involves actual photos and a nice, clean background!  The One Lovely Blog Award rules are:

1. Link back to the one who gave you this award.

2. pass the award on to 15 other lovely bloggers.

3. Follow the person who sent it to you.

I have linked back to Tere and also follow her, so now I'll just pass it along - again to only one blogger:

Tiffani at Sound Check Mama.  A truly lovely person with an amazing heart.  She's also a mom, concert buddy, and one of my best friends.   On her blog, you can find a wealth of information about motherhood, cochlear implants, music, and local events.  And Tiffani's posts are always so inspiring.  You won't be sorry you checked her out!

(And, as above - feel free to grab the award and pass it along if you like )

And there you have it.  Some awards, hopefully a new start on a  new writing journey.

Site re-launch, blog awards, and other goings-on

Hello, blog! I've neglected you for so long now. Can you ever forgive me?

Bless those of you who have landed on this page either via a return blog visit, or just to see if I'm still around. You can't tell from looking at the blog, but I am indeed still around!

So, life's been....busy. In my absence, I've been spending what seems like every waking moment either submitting resumes and filling out job applications, or so burned out from it that I just veg in front of the tv to try to forget it all for a bit. I am interviewing for jobs, working the job I currently have, have changed the blog just a bit, and have been given two blogging awards by my wonderful new blog read, Tere, which I plan to get posted here and paid forward when I re-launch this site.

And that? Will be SOON. I still have a few more things to do, but am ready to jump back in and get back in the swing of things.

Long time, no blog.

I've fallen way behind - not only here, but at The Music Mamas, and I plan to rectify both this weekend, when I have some time off. I can't even blame work for this lapse in writing. Truth is, work is manageable at the moment. I've just been in super-ultra-nesting mode (and no, I'm not pregnant!) when I'm not fighting off a persistent and recurrent sinus infection, trying to get this place clean. And? The more I do, the more there is to be done.

But I am attempting to at least get the main living areas decent so that I can FINALLY get a plumber in here to fix the shower/tub in the main bath. And an electrician in here to look at my back kitchen wall, where none of my electric outlets work anymore. To that end, I've gotten a good bit done. And for today, at least, I've gotten my sleep schedule back on track.

So my plans for the weekend are to: finish flooring in the living room, get my Christmas tree up, get some bills paid, groceries bought, and maybe, just maybe....get some spray paint so that I might finally get some of my unfinished projects done a step further.

Oh....and there will be lots of DIY Network, HGTV, and Hallmark Channel Countdown to Christmas viewing this weekend as well!

Image source: Get Glue (via Google image search

My new digs

So, a recent development on the home front prompted me to finally let my hosting go when it runs out later this year. I will probably let the domain go as well, but I'll wait and see on that one. This means that my self-hosted wordpress blog will soon be no more, so I came over here to set up a new place to call home on the web.

What do you think? I like it thus far. A lot of new and handy-dandy features have been added to Blogger's functionality since I left a few years ago. Unfortunately, a much needed comment system overhaul was not one of those changes, but the default comments are still a lot better than what they were.

I opted to go with Disqus for comments, since I already had a Disqus account and thought they would provide everything I needed. However, they apparently changed their templates to no longer include a url field for someone leaving a comment, and most people do not want to have to register for a service just to leave a comment that will link them to their website for a return visit.

I finally looked into Intense Debate more closely, and I think it's going to work for me over here. I love that registration isn't necessary to leave a url with comment, that there are several different commenting options, including social networking sites. And I love, love, love that you can add plugins to it! In fact, I added one of my favorite WP plugins, CommentLuv, to it. Now, that plugin did make the comment form a bit wonky, and I don't really like that there is nothing I can do about it at the moment because I can not see the code to try to reconfigure it. But still, it's not too confusing.

Other than that, just about the only thing I *don't* like about it is that the name field limits you to 20 characters. But then again, I guess I have to remember that not everyone has a name as long as some of mine have been! And I look forward to customizing it a bit more.

I obviously have more settling in to do, and some kinks to work out. But I'm liking the design, and I'm going to post over here regularly from here on out. I'll still be at my .net for a while yet, and I may eventually try to retro-post some of my favorite entries from that blog over here before it disappears for good.

And for today, and today ONLY!!! (unless I need to again on another day), I am turning back the hands of time so that I can have this entry posted yesterday like I had intended before I ran out of steam, and also get the first in my "31 Days till Halloween" countdown series posted.