Blog anniversary and website...

Ten years...a blog anniversary!

Three years ago I wrote a post about my tenth anniversary as a blogger (here).   But now it is the tenth anniversary of this blog, A Beautiful World.

In March 2009 I started this blog as an addition to my website and my Dutch blog.  Many, many posts later (although not lately) and here we are...March 2019.

[Hortensia+in+vaas.jpg]
Photo from my first post on blogger:  Eastern Influence, dried hydrangeas in a vase...

My first two blogs are both sadly no longer online.  In 2017 I managed to copy all of the posts (and some comments) of my second blog and publish them in a book before the blog was taken offline.  My first blog disappeared before I could save any of it so all of those posts and all their information are lost to me forever.

My old blog published.


It took me three full days and evenings to copy and paste the blogs and fit them into the book.  A lot of work but I am glad I did it because I now have my own reference book.  I used BlookUp for this, but I believe there are many other ways of publishing your blog.  Apparently with the blogger format it is very easy to publish your own book and you don't need to copy and paste for days on end.  I will certainly publish this blog too!

Some pages from the old blog book.

More pages in the old blog book.  

Speaking of copying and pasting,  that is exactly what I have been doing with my website http://josje.bouwt.com .  Last week I received an email with the sad news that my website host and provider will stop his services end of March.  That is only a few weeks away!

My website is running on an outdated system and, similar to my old blog, the copying and pasting is not a simple job.  As my website has around 60 pages, which translates to about 450 pages of PDF files, you can imagine it will keep me busy until the end of March.  But I have to do it.  

The homepage of my soon to be cancelled website. 

I do hope to set up another website in the future with most of my current text and photos on there.  That will require some more research into what is best and what the cost may be etc.   As I said, I have quite a lot of pages on my website and will need room to accommodate them all.  
Also, I will probably need a new domain name as it looks like I won't be able to take the domain name josje.bouwt.com with me.....

I promise I will get back to more regular blogging soon, but first I have to finish saving my website content and -something I've been working on for 8 months now- sell all of Elly's miniatures.  

Until then!




Comments

  1. Hello. I just discovered your blog at the end of last year.
    Will you be able to leave a trail so we can find you again?
    Best wishes moving forward.

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    1. Thank you Dorothy, and welcome! This blog isn't going anywhere. It is my website which will be cancelled. I will of course let you know here on this blog when I have a new website up and running, although that may take a while. In the mean time I will try to be more active on this blog!

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  2. Hello Josje,
    Congratulations on this great anniversary. It has been such a pleasure getting to know and following your incredible work. I wish you many, many more years of blogging.
    Big hug
    Giac

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    1. Thank you dear Giac! I hope to continue for many more years. Hopefully more frequently soon.

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  3. Congratulations on your 10 years blog's anniversary. I hope to see more of your wonderful work in your future posts.
    I find your idea of saving your posts brilliant and think I'll follow your steps and save my own.
    Some day one or more of my great-grand children will get to read them.
    Hugs,
    Drora

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    1. Thank you Drora! I love the idea of your (and maybe my own one day) great-great grandchildren reading about what their great-great grandma was up to!

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  4. Dear Josje, Congratulations on ten years of this blog! We are the richer for it!!! I am eager to know more about the publishing a book part... and have very little time to devote to learning these things... but your process has spurred me to rethink doing it! I have a great deal of content on my blog and want the stories easier to keep track of.... so much to learn! I am now realizing my blog id photo has "disappeared" in the past few days and I don't know why! I did nothing to cause this and I lament the missing image! Good luck with saving the rest of your web page content... I am glad you were notified in time! And the job you are doing for Elly is a gift to the world of miniaturists. I look forward to more posts when you have time! :)

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    1. Thank you Betsy! Yes I would really recommend publishing your content. It is so easy to flip through and search for something. There are several publishing companies who do this 'simply' by letting them copy your blogger content into their publishing format (or whatever that is called). I have a bit of a problem giving anyone access to my content, but it all seems legit. I said 'simply' because of course it is never that simple, or maybe it is with them. Elly's little critter house book was published on blurb and they do the blog publishing as well. My old blog and my website are not compatible with their systems so I had to do it all myself by copying and pasting bit by bit, but if it had been compatible I might have gone for the easy option. One other thing I remember was that I wanted to keep some of the comments because they also contain lots of information, but these 'automatic' publishings don't take the comments, just the blogs themselves.
      I can see your id photo here Betsy. Since publishing Elly's mininatures blog I found that Safari isn't working with blogger. You can't log in even though it looks like you are, your id photo doesn't show and you can't leave comments unless they are anonymous. I have to change to Firefox to write this. Very annoying. So maybe you are having the same issue.
      Thank you for your kind words about my work for Elly!
      Josje

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  5. Happy blog-a-versary, Josie. Just as we all thought the computer would make everything quicker, easier and simpler.... I am sad to hear you lost so much contents from your first blog, but what a great idea backing the second up in book format. Especially since your images are always so beautiful and inspiring.
    I hope pulling everything from your website won't be too stressful. I often visit there for inspirations, or just because it is such a nice place to 'stroll' and will certainly miss it.
    Anna.

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    1. Thank you Anna! So nice to hear you visit my website too! I don't have a counter on anything like that on there, so I have no idea if people actually visit or read the content. I will do my best to get another website up and running. Maybe only in English this time... that saves me a lot of work;-)
      Josje

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  6. I have so enjoyed seeing your amazing work Josje and have learned a lot although I haven't put much of the knowledge into practice in a mini house yet. Congratulations on reaching this milestone, it is very much appreciated!

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    1. Thank you Margaret! That is one of the reasons I still have my blog and website. I also learn from seeing other people's work and even though we may not put it all into practise, it is at stored somewhere in my brain and will come out when needed. And I hope showing how I do things can help others in some way. Plus it is just fun to do.
      Josje

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  7. Your post scared me, it's not that I think my blog is great or that it has lots of followers but its a trace of what I do and make and I would hate to lose it ! Your blog book looks great ( as is your fab blog ) , is it just for you or do you distribute it somewhere ? huggs Stephanie

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    1. Hi Stephanie, No, the book I made of my first blog is just for me, only one published. Plus it is all in Dutch so I suspect you wouldn't be able to read any of it ;-) But there are options with some of these publishers to distribute it, have an ISBN number etc. Quite fun I think. I have been working on something else but it takes a LOT of time (which I don't really have at the moment) so that may take years.
      As you said, your (and my) blog is a trace of what you do and make. I agree it would be such a shame to lose your record of that. I have thought before of publishing my posts yearly, like a diary, but of course I haven't done that yet...
      But yes, publish your blog! It is very satisfactory to hold your own work in your hands in book form and it is a great reference book.
      Josje

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  8. Congratulations Josje! I am sorry to hear you lost your first blog. That must be disappointing for you. But your book is so beautiful that I am sure the work saving all those blog pages was worth it. What a great record of your work over the years. I set up my website using Squarespace and found it pretty good. I am happy with my website. I also tried out Wix, which was simpler but less functional. Anyway, just some suggestions. I hope you come up with a solution that works for you.

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    1. Thank you Shannon! Yes you are right, it was worth it in the end. I'll have a look at Squarespace (I have heard of the name) and see if I can find your website to have a look at it as well. Thank you for your suggestions, I'll look into Wix as well.
      Josje

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    2. Hi again Shannon, I just had a quick look at your website, it looks really good! Clean and modern and still personal. I will certainly look up Squarespace.
      Thanks again!

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  9. Happy Blog anniversary! I love your work! That's a great idea about making a book. I often look at my blog for references as to how I made something or where I bought something. I will look into that site you reference. Anyway good luck saving everything from your website! That is a lot of work.

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    1. Thank you Penelope! It is exactly the same for me. The blog is a diary, a journal, an archive. Yes, have a look at several publishing options, blookup is just one of them. One thing I have noticed about it, as it is a French company, they print the text on the spine facing the other way, which is quite odd if you're not used to that. So with the blookup book you have to tilt your head to the left to read the text on the spine. Just different.
      I will do some more work on the website text today...
      Josje

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  10. Dear Josje
    I'm apalled to hear that you've lost a blog and websites so often. Unfortunately, for those of us who have been around since the dinosaurs this is a reality. I've gone through four versions of my website. After losing the second one, I learned to keep a copy of all the images on a hard disk, and to save my text in Word before I publish. In May, I will be moving over to Version5 of my website and I'm excited about it. Although it will be a lot of work, I know I have everything I need.
    Your posts and images are so wonderful, I'm happy that you were able to put it into a book. Thanks for being an inspiration to me!

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    1. Thank you so much Megan! Since the dinosaurs, haha! Good grief, four websites already! Yes it is through making these mistakes we learn to save our images etc. My previous computer with most of my images crashed, so now I back up on an external hard drive. My old website was not compatible with any of my computer files, but it is a good idea to save the text in a text file before publishing. I will have a look at your website. Thanks Megan!
      Josje

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  11. Gefeliciteerd met je blogjubileum, o wat een gedoe om alles te transporteren naar een nieuw blog, laat je ons je nieuwe blognaam weten?!
    groetjes van Marijke

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    1. Dank je wel Marijke. Ja een heel gedoe. Het gaat om mijn website hoor, niet mijn blog. Ik ben nog steeds aan het dubben over de nieuwe naam maar als ik het weet en de nieuwe website online is laat ik het hier uiteraard weten!
      Groet, Josje

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  12. Congratulations on your anniversary Josje, your wonderful creativity and your blog have a special place in my memory of my earlier days in the blog world. I admire you tenacity in putting your book together, it's a great idea, I've never thought of it before but I am now.

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    1. Thank you Norma! Hasn't the blog world changed since those early days?! Yes think about doing your own book. As I said, loads of work but worht it in the end.
      Josje

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  13. Nice to see you posting again and I loved the idea of turning Blogs into books. Something well worth investigating.

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  14. A ten year anniversary calls for a little celebration indeed. Loosing your website is a shame, but preserving all that work in a book is a great idea! I hope that you have managed to save all of it before your website disappeared. I am going to miss your workshop page. I was too late to copy the entry on the 'witjes'.But that is not a problem when the new website is up and running. I wish you good luck with this big enterplrise! :-)

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