Yes, really.
We’ve spotted Santa at Starbucks a few times while Mom and I were mall-walking. The first time it happened, I tried to double back and and nonchalantly shoot a picture with my Treo camera. However, he saw me through the window and waved. I was too embarrassed to bother with a picture and sheepishly went on with my walk.
The next time we walked by Starbucks (the one located on the Second Level, West Market Street, across from Eddie Bauer), Mom saw him and decided to go inside and ask him his permission for a picture. He graciously obliged.
You never know, you might bump into Santa the next time you go to Starbucks! Edited 12.4.07 Santa also rides a motorcycle! (Scroll down to the last picture; thanks Tracey!)
In other news… I noticed that this blog’s number of comments is approaching the 2,000 mark. I hope to reach it before the end of the year. If someone leaves the 2,000th comment on or before December 31, 2007, I’ll award a $20 gift certificate to that person. The winner will be able to choose a certificate from one of the following: Amazon, The Loopy Ewe, or Woolgirl. Will you be the lucky commenter??
general, site updates | 14 stitchesI’m still behind with posts, so many pictures to sort through and and posts to proofread.
Meanwhile, I was finally able to merge my old Wordpress feed with FeedBurner. I had signed up for FB ages ago, but couldn’t find an easy solution at the time. ESCknits at Ravelry clued me in to FeedSmith. This plugin made the transition so much easier. Now that my feeds are going through FB, the formatting should look much nicer now.
Since I was so happy with the feed improvements, I decided to change my blog template. It has a bit more white than I’d like, but is very clean and readable. I’m kind of picky about my templates… too many files or too many graphics can require more work to customize than I’m willing or have time to apply. This one is well designed and was easy to tweak here and there. The green color in the header navigation bar and the comment background is still a bit off. I always have trouble viewing light green colors on a LED monitor. I’m satisfied with it for now but don’t be surprised if it changes. Do let me know if anything looks wonky, thanks!
general, site updates | 7 stitchesSockapalooooza signups are open! Go here for details and the signup link. Signups are open only for 48 hours or so.
In other news, this blog is approaching another milestone. In a week or two (that’s my estimate), someone will post the 1000th comment. That lucky person will receive a $15 gift certificate!
knitting, secret pals or swaps, site updates, socks | 12 stitchesFirst, some excellent news! The Mermaid socks are finished! And I had just enough yarn to finish both toes (whew)! I’ll get pictures soon.
Now, I had a short to-do list for January. Let’s see how I did.
knitting, site updates, yarn stash | 10 stitchesHere’s a PS for the recent post. I’m trying out* the ZenPhoto gallery, which some WordPress bloggers use. I love its clean interface and bulk uploading features. There’s a ZenPress plugin for WP that makes inserting images from the gallery fairly easy and painless.
Both appear to be relatively young in development; I think ZenPhoto has potential. If you’ve ever used Coppermine or Gallery2 for hosting your own gallery, they are massive compared to ZenPhoto, which uses fewer files, has simpler options/configuration, and is more dynamic. There are plans for WordPress integration, which I think would be awesome.
I used it for the hat pictures in yesterday’s post, so you may have noticed the difference. I displayed clickable thumbnails instead. I haven’t dressed up the ZenPhoto gallery on my site yet, but you can preview it here. I’m curious about a few things. Do you prefer thumbnails in blog posts (loads faster for reading) that you can click on-demand, or the larger images I’ve used in the past (loads a bit slower)? If you clicked to view a larger image, did it load quickly? Was it too much of a nuisance to have to back-button to the original post instead of closing a pop-up window? Many thanks! :)
*Because my Picasa integration plugin for WordPress has suddenly started duplicating my pictures… sigh.
site updates, technology | 3 stitchesI’ve finally finished transferring all the posts and comments and have now just switched things around to make WP live. I hope you all like what you see!! Continue reading »
site updates | 4 stitchesI’ve transferred all my pictures, and most of my posts. I still have about 37 posts and accompanying umpteen comments to transfer. Then I’ll finalize a new header and any last-minute tweaks. Fingers crossed, by this Sunday, I’ll make the final switch to WordPress. My URL will still be the same, but the feed URL will be slightly different. Go ahead and change that info in your news/blog reader now. I don’t plan to make any more posts until after the switch. Note that you will get an error until the switch takes place. PS, today is Friday the 13th! I love when that happens in October. ;)
site updates | Comments OffWell… I’ve decided to install WP in a test folder to see if I can get everything moved over and setup to my liking. I gotta say that was the easiest installation ever, and I’ve tested various blog and CMS platforms during the past 3 years. Nice!!
site updates | 2 stitchesRemember these Halloween treat bags I posted earlier? Turns out Nicole is right about the black bag being a cat! My mom and I couldn’t figure it out, I think because the lighting was pretty bad and it was all floppy. There’s a much better picture at the store’s website.
Though I haven’t installed WordPress, I’ve been researching the plugins and features available to see how well it’ll meet my needs.
I’ve reverted the blog back to the default theme/skin. (July already!) If you’re registered here, you can change back to the blue theme by editing your account (the theme section is near the bottom). I’ll leave it there for a while. : )
They’re finally done!
events, knitting, secret pals or swaps, site updates, socks | 1 stitch
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