2012 Blogging From A-Z Challenge Reflections:

 A-Z Challenge Website

Well, I did it, and for the second year in a row!  Like so many others this year, I participated in the April Blogging from A-Z Challenge 2012 and completed it just fine.  Challenge participants blogged everyday in April except for Sundays, and each post was in alphabetical order.  It was fun, and I enjoyed beginning the day with a bit of creative writing using a new form of writing for me:  Alliteration.

The theme that I chose for this year was the letters of the alphabet themselves.  I prepared my posts during the month of March.  Each post included a flash card made from one of my own photos, and several scanned pictures from The Oregon Alphabet Book.  Every morning in April, I pulled out my Thesaurus (much easier to read than a dictionary) and used it to help me make up a story that included as many words beginning with the letter of the day as I could while it still made sense.  Some stories were better than others, but it seem to make me want to write more and more, and not just on Challenge posts.  I want to especially thank Wendy from Jollett, Etc. for her daily visits and comments; I learned that we have the same sense of humor.  Thanks to all of you who were checking back often to see what was coming up next!

One neat thing was that at the end of March, when we were in Astoria to attend my son's graduation, I met a new friend at the hotel where we were staying.  I was telling Gay about my blog, and she ended up creating her own blog and joining the challenge!  This is her first blogging experience, and what a way to begin.  Please visit her when you get a chance, over at  "soggy in the corner".       

I usually post daily anyway, but the more that I posted in April, the more that I wanted to.  There were 26 A-Z posts, but I walked away with a total of 62 posts for the month of April.  I swamped my regular readers, but we had just been to my son's graduation and I had tons of pictures and stories to share in addition to The Challenge posts.

List of Oregon Gifts of Comfort and Joy's 2012 A to Z Posts:

• A is for Apple "One Bad Apple"
• B is for Basket "The Basketweavers"
• C is for Canoe "Canoe Camping"
• D is for Duck "Dreaming His Life Away"
• E is for Elephant "Elliott's Big Day"
• F is for Ferris Wheel "A Day at the Fair"
• G is for Giraffe "Granny's Pants Loses Girdle"
• H is for Helicopter "Helicopter Hippies"
• I is for Indian "Indian Ike"
• J is for Jellyfish "Jason Is No Longer A Jailbird"
• K is for Kayak "Kathryn and Kade's Kayaking Adventure"
• L is for Lizard "Lillian, Go Lay Down!"
• M is for Moon "Martin, Marie and The Meathead Magician"
• N is for Ninja Turtle "Nigel and Nattie Reunite"
• O is for Owl "Owls in Love"
• P is for Potato "The Pendleton Potato Festival and Parade"
• Q is for Quartz "Mr. Quinn from Queensland"
• R is for River "Rustic River Rhino"
• S is for Seagull "Steve Sterling and the Evil Seagull"
• T is for Turtle "Turtles Can Wait"
• U is for Umbrella "Under Her Thumb"
• V is for Violets "Vex-Con and Billy the Exterminator"
• W is for Waterfalls "William and Wendy's Trip to Wildwood Falls"
• X is for X-Ray " Xylina Exhibits Her Missing Tooth"
• Y is for Yellow-Jacket "Yolanda's Story"
• Z is for Zebra "Zelda's Story"

Thank you very much, to all of you who worked so hard to organize this challenge, including Arlee Bird @ Tossing it Out and his friends.  I met so many nice people this year, and was able to reconnect with others from last year!  I gained 24 new followers, and have been busy building friendships with many of them (some don't have blogs so that makes it a bit harder).  I fell behind on my daily visits to other participants, which is an important part of The Challenge, but I made sure to visit and comment on those bloggers who visited me.  Now that things have slowed down, I will try to get more first time visits in.  I'm glad that the list is being left up this year. 

Here is the list my new followers for April.  Thanks you guys, for liking my blog, I appreciate it very much.  These pictures and names are not linked up to their blogs, but you can go to my followers widget at the top of sidebar to get to their sites:

Catherine

Titania

DawnE

Journaling Woman

The Golden Eagle

Leslie Ann

Bob Scotney

Huntress

Stephen Tremp

Holly Michael

Inger

Cheryl

The Armchair Squid

Hektor Karl

Nick Wilford

Kristen Pelfrey

Cathy Olliffe-Webster

Tammy

Heather Spiva

Ciara Knight

yadin

Wendy

Peggy Eddleman

Encourage One Another

I plan on participating next year too.  The thing that I need to change is to figure out how to visit more people, but on the other hand, I work hard at building relationship with those that I do meet, if we have similar interests and/or personalities.  I found this to be a very positive experience.  To read about others experiences with A-Z, please  "CLICK HERE".

~ Kathy M.

Important Announcements:

Save the date! Fellow A-Z Challenge participant and friend Hart Johnson has her first book coming out in June, written under the name Alyse Carlson.  It is titled "The Azalea Assault", and I can't wait to read it!  Hart's friend, Elizabeth Craig, is also releasing her new book, "Quilt or Innocence", and I look forward to reading it too. 

These two ladies have conspired to celebrate by way of creating the Crazy Cozy Blogfest, encouraging us to write our own short story mystery of 250 words and join in on the fun.  To read about the details, please check out this link:  Confessions of a Watery Tart: Crazy Cozy Blogfest.

Poisoned Dog Food

On an unrelated topic, American based Diamond Lamb and Rice, along with other Diamond dog food products have been recalled.  Diamond also makes dog food packaged as Kirkland (Costco).  For more details, please check out this website: "Ask a Vet a Question"

At Oregon Gifts of Comfort and Joy, if you miss a day, you miss a lot!  All material on this post is copyrighted and not for use without my permission ...Please click here to go to my home page and see what is happening in Mayberry today.