My Blog’s Name — March 3, 2009

Welcome to the My Blog’s Name carnival where we’ll all share how our blogs got their name.

I’m your humble host, and I’m glad you’re here. If you’re visiting because of the carnival, welcome, and I hope you’ll look around. If you’re a regular, welcome, as always. 🙂 Now on with my story.

I had a Live Journal blog for awhile in the summer of 2003. You won’t be seeing that one. 🙂 For reasons I can’t quite remember, I stopped blogging in December 2004.

In the summer of 2007, I decided to start blogging again, also for reasons I can’t quite remember. When I got to the point in the Blogger set-up where I had to decide on my blog’s name, I chose Random Ramblings, mainly because I couldn’t think of anything else. (The stress, I tell you!)

My first clue “Random Ramblings” wasn’t the best name for a blog SHOULD have been the fact that the Web address http://www.randomramblings.blogspot.com wasn’t available, meaning someone else was likely already using the name. Sadly, I did not “get” the clue. So my blog’s name was Random Ramblings, and my blog address was http://www.ramblingsbyreba.blogspot.com. (Reba is a nickname some friends gave me in college. It stuck, at least among that group of friends.)

In early 2008, I decided I wanted to move to Word Press and rename my blog. I knew enough by then to know that Random Ramblings would NOT cut it. But I already had what I thought was a good Web address and decided to make that my blog’s name.

And on January 31, 2008, Ramblings by Reba was unveiled. It’s still not the most EXCITING name, but if you’ve met me in real life, you know I come by the name honestly. And that’s perhaps the MOST important part of a blog’s name: that it FITS the blogger.

Now get to telling me YOUR stories. Don’t forget to sign the Mister Linky, so we can all come read the story of YOUR blog’s name, too. (Please link to your specific My Blog’s Name post, not to your main blog address.) I can’t wait to visit you!

My Blog’s Name (a blog carnival)

I am nosy curious and want to know how your blog got its name. So I’m going to host a blog carnival, so we can all be nosy curious together. 🙂

Let’s meet here on March 3 and swap stories. Mister Linky will be all set up and ready to go at 12:01 a.m.

Spread the word on your blog, via Twitter, or by whatever your favorite mode of information transport is.

And if you have a friend whose bloggy name story you want to know, invite THEM to participate, too.

More details and a blog button still to come, once I decide on the details and MAKE the blog button, that is. 😉

I hope to see you on March 3.

Edited on 2/20/09 to add: You know that blog button I mentioned? I’m not making one. Honestly, it was frustrating the CRUD out of me, taking away a lot of the joy doing the carnival was bringing me. And one doesn’t actually NEED a button to have a carnival. That said, y’all still come!

Fall 2008 Bloggy Giveaways Winners…

The winners of my Fall 2008 Bloggy Giveaways Carnival giveaway are Jen, who picked this photo

Tiff, who picked this photo

and Vicki Wurgler, who picked this photo

Congratulations to the three of you! 🙂 I’ll e-mail you tomorrow or Sunday to get your snail mail addresses. (I’m very sleepy now.)

And if you liked what you’ve seen of my photography, remember to leave me a comment asking me to let you know when my Cafe Press store opens. 🙂

More photos to be won. WHOO HOO!

Comments are now closed. Thanks for participating!

It’s good to have you here for the Bloggy Giveaways Carnival! Feel free to subscribe to my feed and look around when you have a bit more time. 🙂 I usually find a few new “reads” during blog carnivals, and I’d be honored if I became one of yours.

Now to business…

I’m giving away a matted 5×7 print of one of my photos to THREE different people. Winning is EASY! All you have to do is look at the mosaic above and leave ONE comment that tells me which photo you’d like if you win. I know you’re in a hurry now, so if you win and want to change your selection, that’s o.k. 🙂 No stress!

That’s all. I’ll close comments on Friday evening and notify the winners Friday night or next weekend. Good luck!

(ALSO, several people have expressed an interest in PURCHASING some of my stuff… Because I aim to please, I’m going to be opening a Cafe Press store in the next few weeks. If you’d like me to e-mail you when I get that up and running, let me know. I will NOT spam you, and agreeing to be e-mailed is NOT required to win the giveaway, so don’t worry. I just wanted to spread the word a little bit.)

For more giveaways, visit Bloggy Giveaways. Have fun!

Bloggy Giveaways Carnival winners

The winners of my summer Bloggy Giveaways Carnival giveaway are Terra Heck (who liked the pinwheels), inlandempiregirl (whose favorite was a leaf) and justanothersahm (who liked the photo of trees and a lake).

Thanks for participating, all! 🙂 I had a lot of fun reading about your faves.

Hey! A giveaway! More photos!

Comments are now closed. Thanks for your interest! More prints will be up for grabs at the fall Bloggy Giveaways Carnival. 🙂

I know quite a lot of you are visiting me for the first time. So hello! Welcome.

Maybe I’m a one-trick pony, but you seem to like my photos.

And I LIKE that you like my photos, so for the quarterly Bloggy Giveaways Carnival, I’m once again giving away a matted 5×7 print of one of my photos to three people.

All you have to do is leave me a comment telling me which one you’d like. U.S. and international entries are welcome.

Possibilities are below. If there’s something else you’d like, let me know. With rare exceptions (photos with visible faces, for instance), if I’ve posted it, it’s up for grabs. And you CAN change your mind, so don’t worry about that.

Thanks for coming by. Come back again soon! 🙂

A few bits of bloggy business…

A roadmap to this post.

First, Project Black “subjects” (and the answer to “What IS that?” from today’s other post). Second, the print my blogoversary giveaway winner chose.

Project Black subjects

A few folks have guessed about some of my Project Black subjects.

Some of the guesses were right. Some were wrong. 🙂

So here is a list of all the Project Black subjects, including today’s, which also incorporated today’s PhotoHunt theme (What IS that?)

Take 1: a skateboarder in the 4th of July parade a couple of weeks ago.
Take 2: an antique car in the same 4th of July parade
Take 3: a stack of burnable CDs on a spindle
Take 4: a waffle iron’s “wafflers,” as one commenter posted
Take 5: Ed and me at a movie
Take 6: a guitar
Take 7: an otter I photographed at Dauset Trails Nature Center
Take 8: smiley face stickers on a craft project
Take 9: a button maker
Take 10: a guitar case

(Photos for Takes 6-10 taken on a trip last weekend to visit my best friend from college and her family.)

Blogoversary giveaway winner’s choice

Kam A decided on this photo.

I just LOVE this photograph, and I’m glad she does, too. 🙂

My kind of bloggy gathering…

As many of you no doubt know, BlogHer is going on rightthisminute.

There are WAY more people in the blogosphere NOT going to the conference than going. So some folks decided to have an alternative to BlogHer, which they’re calling “BlogHop ’08.”

I don’t like REAL LIFE parties (one reason I decided not to go to BlogHer — too many people), but I love virtual ones. 🙂

I participated in the Ultimate Blog Party in March. I threw a little giveaway in April (and another one is coming the last week of this month). I’ve hosted three different blog carnivals and participated in a few myself… some big, some small.

So yes. I like reading blogs and “meeting” new people. Blog carnivals, no matter the context, are GREAT ways to do this.

So I’m IN. What about you? For more information, go visit Robin. The party starts at 10 p.m. eastern on Friday, July 18. How long it lasts is pretty much up to us. 🙂

The “Why I Blog” giveaway winner…

The “Why I Blog” giveaway winner as generated by Random.org and verified by my husband…

Kam A!

::: throwing streamers :::

Congratulations!

Why I blog (my blogoversary and a giveaway)

So today is my blogoversary.

I created my blog, called Random Ramblings, on a whim last July. On July 13, we trapped a young female cat, and I blogged about it. That ended sadly, but I was hooked. (Or hooked again… I had another blog for a few months in 2003, but that one won’t see the light of day. Just sayin’.)

In the last year, I’ve published more than 630 posts.

(I’ve also taken over 36,000 photographs. No kidding.)

So why do I DO this, you may ask…

There are LOTS of reasons.

I blog to share my heart.

I blog to be silly.

I blog to be serious.

I blog to show people the cool things my husband finds when he’s cleaning out the garage.

I blog to meet people.

I blog to ask questions.

I blog because of obligation (at least I used to).

But mostly I blog because it’s fun. Because I like it. And all of you.

Thank you for reading. For commenting. For critiquing my photos. For teaching me.

And as a way to thank you in a more concrete way, I’m giving away a matted 5×7 print of one of my photos and a $10 amazon.com gift certificate to one of you. All you have to do is indicate in the comments that you’d like to be included. I’ve pulled together some of your favorites below, but if there’s something you’d rather have let me know. With VERY few exceptions, if I’ve put it on the blog, it’s eligible to be won.

I’ll leave the drawing open until 9 p.m. EDT on Tuesday. Have fun!

And if you’ve shared on YOUR blog the reasons you blog, put the link in the Mister Linky. I look forward to reading your posts.