Short Notice: Holidays

I just wanted to let you know that the school holidays have begun here in Indonesia. They last from December 25th, 2009 until January 9th, 2009 and I still don't know how much I will be around the Blogosphere these days. I am wishing you joyous holidays and a wonderful New Year. Enjoy every moment. I took the following photo at one of our malls.

Music is expression of harmony in sound.
Love is the expression of harmony in life
~Stephen F. Gaskin

Thanks for every visit and comment to Music of My Life.

Keep a song in your heart, my friend!

Wish for A Joyous Holiday

I am wishing everyone joyous holidays and a wonderful New Year.
May we become even better persons in the upcoming year.

Music is expression of harmony in sound.
Love is the expression of harmony in life
~Stephen F. Gaskin

Thanks for every visit and comment to Music of My Life.

Keep a song in your heart, my friends!

The Perfect Mother Day Gift

Did you know that tomorrow is Mother's Day in Indonesia? I think I already have received the perfect mother day gift .

Today my 9 year old daughter asked me to escort her to a Strawberry store after school, because she wanted to buy something with her own savings. But when we finally arrived she asked me to wait outside and took her 5 year old brother inside the store. It took the two about 20 minutes before they came outside again with a grinning smile on their faces. "Here, Mom." the older one said. "You can't open it 'til tomorrow. Promise." That's when it finally hit me. Tomorrow is MOTHERS DAY! How could I forget this?! Silly me did my own mother day gift search for my mother after that . But I think nothing can beat the perfect mother day gift I already received right now. It is not the lovely package sitting on my night stand, waiting to be opened tomorrow morning. No. It is the sweet thought and effort these sunshines went through to give me the perfect mother day gift.

Music is expression of harmony in sound.

Love is the expression of harmony in life
~Stephen F. Gaskin

Thanks for every visit and comment to Music of My Life.
Keep a song in your heart!

My Son's Weekend Reflections

This is the first time I join Weekend Reflections hosted by James at Newton Area Photo. Thanks for hosting, James . The photo above was taken by my 5 year old son who just loves to experiment with my camera. Do you know what it is?

My son actually put his Ben 10 wrist toy near the window, so that the sun could shine on the changeable transparent figures and create some reflections. It seems that he was very excited changing the figures on top of the wrist toy, moving them into several directions, resulting in different reflections and then taking photos of them. Children really do know how to have a great time, don't they. Sometimes we could learn from them .

I appreciate every visit and comment to Music of My Life, but love even more to become good friends. Have a wonderful weekend, everyone!

Counting Your Blessings While You Still Can

Thank you, Susanne!

It is time again for another Friday’s Fave Five hosted by Susanne at Living To Tell The Story. She says:

It's a place to come on Friday's and think back over your week and just post about 5 favorite things from your week. It can be anything that tickled your fancy over the week. Favorite quotes, posts, happenings, scriptures, recipes, pictures, great internet finds, etc., etc.

I really like the thought of thinking back over our weekly life. It is a good way to reflect and find these hidden gems of blessings. Here is my Friday’s Fave Five for this week:

1. Last week I wrote that I love it when my husband takes a day off from work. It turned out that he actually took a week off. What a wonderful surprise! Family time is definitely a favorite.

2. My husband's birthday. Wishing him a lot of joy and blessings as he steps into another year. All of us had a great time!

3. We just began renovating the house to make a room for my son. I know there's still a lot of work to do, but getting things started is good.

4. Torch lights and a long weekend. Last night a torch march passed our home. I grabbed the camera and took a short video, but it isn't anything compared to the real event. I know you can hardly see a thing, but I hope it will give a sense of how exciting it was. You can hear the sound of traditional drums. We have a national holiday here in Indonesia, and therefore a long weekend. I LOVE long weekends! If only there were more of them.


5. On a sad note, three mothers passed away at school this week. It is always hard to receive news like these. But I think it is also a reminder to appreciate life even more and try to spend every minute as best as you can. I hope that they rest in peace and the families left behind will soon find the strength to cope with the great loss.

This is my 9-year-old daughter's list for this week:

1. Drinking warm tea. (She has a sore throat, so I really think this must be a real blessing for her right now)

2. Good grades on her examinations.
3. Riding the bike with her brother.
4. Her father's week off.
5. Wearing her new pajama. It was also a birthday present.

This is my 5-year-old son's list for this week:

1. Watching TV (I told him that I'm not too fond of this choice, but he said Why not, Mom? It is my list, isn't it?)

2. Riding the bike with his sister.
3. The weekend.
4. Worn out clothes.
5. Holidays.

I appreciate every visit and comment, but love even more to become good friends. Have a wonderful day, everyone!

Going Through Recoveries

It is time again for another Friday’s Fave Five hosted by Susanne  at Living To Tell The Story. She says:

It's a place to come on Friday's and think back over your week and just post about 5 favorite things from your week. It can be anything that tickled your fancy over the week. Favorite quotes, posts, happenings, scriptures, recipes, pictures, great internet finds, etc., etc.

I really like the thought of thinking back over our weekly life. It is a good way to reflect and find these hidden gems of blessings. I went through a lot of stress in the last part of this week, but I'm glad that all seems to get better now. Here is my Friday’s Fave Five for this week:

1. My mother's recovery. She has been suffering from diabetes, low calcium levels, and dysentery for a few days. I'm so glad that she got better after receiving IV injections for two days.

2. My aunt's recovery. The women in my mother's core family are effected by electrolyte imbalance, including me. My aunt spent one week in the hospital and just got released. I feel so thankful for this.

3. My recovery. I don't know if it was the humid weather or something else. But my heavy breathing troubles occurred again for three nights. I'm so thankful that it seems to be over now.

4. I didn't get a chance to capture a painting of the sky this week. But I'll share one of my daughter's sky. The colorful drawings of children is always a great pleasure. I always find them giving away warm feelings.


5. My husband's day off. I love it when he takes some time from the office, even if it's just one day.

This is my 9-year-old daughter's list for this week:

1. Hugging her Teddy Bear.

2. Creating an invitation with Mom for a school task.
3. A handmade pencil case from her friend.
4. Going to the swimming pool.
5. A new Disney DVD from Dad.

This is my 5-year-old son's list for this week:
1. Playing games.
2. Going to school (I wonder why this answer showed up again ?)
3. Taking photo shoots with Mom's camera.
4. His transformer toy.
5. His father's day off.

I appreciate every visit and comment, but love even more to become good friends. Have a wonderful day, everyone!

Random Dozen #15 | Simple Notes

Thanks for hosting, Linda

1. Which physical trait do you now accept--maybe not love, but accept--and no longer feel extremely self-conscious about? First of all, I had to google what physical trait meant . This is what WikiAnswers said:

Physical Traits are traits that you see right off the back. For example, your eye color, hair color, your nose shape.

I think I belong to the kind of persons who are not too concerned about physical traits. I like the way I am. To me it's really more about who you are at the inside than the outside.

2. This week Meredith Baxter Birney, best known as the mom on the favorite 80s sitcom "Family Ties" came out of the closet, which led me to formulate this question: Who do you think is/was the best TV mom? Hmm, let's see... There are a lot of sitcoms (with Moms) I love from the 80s. We have currently some re-runs here, like Family Ties, Growing Pains, and The Cosby Show. Talking about these sitcoms I also remember Golden Girls and Valerie. So which Mom would it be ... I'll go for Clair Huxtable. Emphatic, smart with a warm heart. But it does not mean I don't like the others. All Moms had their own uniqueness.

3. Do you speak any foreign languages? Are there any you'd like to learn? I'm from Indonesia, so English is a foreign language to me . I also speak German, because I was born in Germany and lived 10 years of my childhood there. I'm very curious about languages as they are means of communication. So I would love to learn as many languages as possible !

4. Who is your personal hero? I love both of my parents, but Mom is my number one hero.

5. What is one holiday food that you find extremely difficult to resist over- indulging in? We have very variant food here in Indonesia with a lot of different spices, especially on holidays. It's really difficult to choose from all of them, because I loove food. I made a collage from a few choices that were available in my photo archives. Let me tell ya, it's really just a start!

6. Tell me about a Christmas decoration that has special meaning or sentimental value. Some say that I'm a very sentimental person. That might be true. Every decoration or gift - little or big, Christmas or not - has a special meaning to my life. I love to see the time, effort and love devoted to it.

7. How do you feel about snow? I looove snow, and miss it very much. Not stormy snow, tough. We don't get any snow here in Indonesia . But the bright side is we have a lot of sunshine .

8. On average, how many hours of sleep do you get each night? Not that I'm jealous of any number over three or anything. Having to deal with electrolyte imbalance, I need to rest well or my physics will drop drastically. So, usually I go to sleep around 7, 8 or 9pm each day and weak up around 4 or 5 am each morning. That gives me about 7 to 10 hours sleep each night.

9. Tell me about your first crush. Elementary school. Fourth grade? Deep brown eyes, a killer smile! Nothing unusual. LOL

10. You're stuck in a room for 2 hours with only a chalkboard and chalk. What will you write/draw? Well, unless I got stuck in the room because of detention and had to write some sentences from my teacher... I probably would draw some flowers or write LET ME OUT. Two hours are too long for me in a room like that. I'm allergic to dust.

11. Do you dress for the current temp or for the day's forecast? For the current temp. I rarely check out the weather forecast.

12. Favorite Christmas movie is? Home Alone. (PS. I just came from my friend Quilly's Random Dozen and was reminded of While You Were Sleeping. This IS definitely one of my favorites! I just had to add it here. Thanks for the reminder )

I appreciate every visit and comment, but love even more to become good friends. Have a wonderful day, everyone!

A Perfect Idea | Microfiction Monday #8

Welcome to Microfiction Monday,

where a picture paints 140 characters...or even fewer.

Susan at Stony River Farm hosts Microfiction Monday. Every Sunday evening she posts a photo or illustration, and you compose a story in 140 characters about it on your blog. Click on the button or link above to get further instructions. To help you along she also has posted a link that counts your characters at Design 215. Thanks for hosting this meme, Susan.

Here's Susan's picture for this week and my story

Hey... are you sure Mom's still in the kitchen? I'm almost done here.

This is a perfect idea! Do you think we should leave the plate, too??!

I appreciate every visit and comment, but love even more to become good friends. Have a wonderful day, everyone!

Items that Give You Joy

Thank you, Susanne!

It is time again for another Friday’s Fave Five hosted by Susanne at Living To Tell The Story. She says:

It's a place to come on Friday's and think back over your week and just post about 5 favorite things from your week. It can be anything that tickled your fancy over the week. Favorite quotes, posts, happenings, scriptures, recipes, pictures, great internet finds, etc., etc.

I really like the thought of thinking back over our weekly life. It is a good way to reflect and find these hidden gems of blessings.

It seems that I'm always far behind on blogging lately. The only post I got published this week was on Monday. LOL. But I'm glad that I have time to share my Friday’s Fave Five with you:

1. Another beautiful painting of the sky. It was a very refreshing view after long rainy days.

2. We have been through lots and lots of rain this week. I'm so glad that all of my laundries got dry. I had to re-laundry some of the clothes because they gave away an unpleasant smell. Any tips for me?

3. I got out of focus on the road, after escorting my daughter to school. I feel so blessed that I became aware just a few inches before hitting into a car. I've got to be more careful. Anyone should be paying good attention.

4. My daughter's birthday. Click on the photo below to read the original post. Could you guess that this was my only post on Monday?

5. My friend's blessings are my blessings, too. There has been a lot of joy in and out of the Blogosphere. Congrats to all!

This is my 9-year-old daughter's list for this week:

1. A lot of birthday presents (of course!).

2. Changing her school bag almost every day, because she got a lot of cute bags.

3. Delicious food and drinks.
4. Playing with friends.
5. Writing stories on Mom's Netbook (I think she might be good at this.)

This is my 5-year-old son's list for this week:

1. A new Ben 10 wrist toy from Mom and Dad. (He got a little bit jealous of his sisters' presents, so he was allowed to choose a toy.)

2. New toys from his aunt (It turned out that afterward, he went on a visit to his aunt with Dad and got a bunch of new toys. How lucky is that!)

3. Playing with his new toys.
4. Playing with friends... and the toys.

5. Studying at the kindergarten (His sister told him that it must be a lie. He loves going to school, but definitely not to study. LOL)

I appreciate every visit and comment, but love even more to become good friends. Have a wonderful day, everyone!

My Girl's Birthday | Family Matters

Hi everyone!

I just wanted to let you know that my girl is having her 9th birthday today, so I haven't been around much since yesterday. We don't have a big celebration, but it is her special day. You can see a collage of her milestones in this post. Like almost any mother, I'm very proud of her. She is the apple of my eye. I'll catch up soon on visiting. Have a wonderful day.

My Girl

Here's a wish for happiness and may dreams come true

Not only on your special day but always, all life through.

I appreciate every visit and comment, but love even more to become good friends. Have a wonderful day, everyone!

The Little Precious Things That Make You Breathe

It is time again for another Friday’s Fave Five hosted by Susanne at Living To Tell The Story.
She says:

It's a place to come on Friday's and think back over your week and just post about 5 favorite things from your week. It can be anything that tickled your fancy over the week. Favorite quotes, posts, happenings, scriptures, recipes, pictures, great internet finds, etc., etc.

I really like the thought of thinking back over our weekly life. It is a good way to reflect and find these hidden gems of blessings. I'm a day behind, but here is my Friday’s Fave Five for this week:

1. Being able to wake up early in the morning to begin with my daily house chores, especially when the morning looks like in the photo below. I think I have mentioned his before, but I just love to see the paintings of the sky.

2. Better health. I am so relieved that I haven't been suffering from severe sinusitis and electrolyte imbalance lately. It is difficult to breathe and get around with all my daily activities when they decide to strike on me. One of my friends has told me about dates honey, and it seems that I'm better off consuming it.

3. We received news of two upcoming weddings in our big family. Both are very special events for my sisters in law in law brothers. Okay, I admit that might be confusing. My husband has twin sisters and they both have brothers in law who will get married next month and at the beginning of next year.

4. We finally got a better Internet connection. At least it seems so right now... I'll see what happens in the upcoming days or months.

5. Last but not least, it's a national holiday here in Indonesia. It's a special time of sharing. The meat of lambs, goats, cows, and bulls are distributed to the ones in need. To all who celebrate, I hope everyone had a Happy Eid-ul Adha or a wonderful time on Thanksgiving.

This is my 8-year-old daughter's list for this week:

1. Playing with her brother (I had to chuckle on this and asked her if this was a sincere answer. Sometimes these two can be like cat and dog. LOL)

2. Riding her bike
3. Reading the BoBo magazine
4. Having family meals
5. Finding out more about her favorite books on the Internet

This is my 5-year-old son's list for this week:

1. Playing with friends
2. Drinking chocolate milk
3. Watching the movie UP.
4. Reading the BOBO Junior magazine
5. Playing (again!)

I appreciate every visit and comment, but love even more to become good friends. Have a wonderful day, everyone!

Attention! Read carefully

My dear friends host a lot of wonderful memes on Thursday, but it has been a while since the last time I participated on any meme at this particular day. I'm so glad that today I finally can join three of them.

I have chosen another photo from our family vacation to Singapore last month. We went to VivoCity to meet with one of my junior high school friends who has been living in Singapore for a couple of years now. I hadn't met her for over a decade and it ended up as a lovely reunion.

Before my friend arrived at VivoCity, we had still time to explore the place. According to their official site, VivoCity is Singapore's largest retail and lifestyle destination. I must admit that I was not too fond of shopping, like the rest of my company. I never was into it, although I don't dislike it. Taking photos on the other hand is great excitement for me. There were a lot of unique architecture and designs. Their playground and Sky Park were my favorite spots.

When I saw this sign, I had to chuckle. I never had seen any sign like this before and only read the first sentence. Nothing spoils a beautiful view like an ugly butt... What a funny sign to mention about this, I thought. That's when I read the second sentence and got some enlightenment. Please put cigarette butts in the bins provided. LOL. It's better to Think Green, everyone (Click the link, if you want to read more of my green posts). Now seriously, please don't spoil our beautiful nature with these ugly cigarette butts!

I present this unique sign to Nature Notes, Think Green Thursday and This Way Thurs-Way.

Michelle from Rambling Woods just created a lovely award last week:

I have been sponsoring Nature Notes Thursday and Think(ing) Green Thursday for months now. I wanted to show my appreciation to those bloggers who blog about their love of mother nature or show concern for the planet. You can’t be a nature lover without being a ‘green thinker’ or a green thinker without being concerned for mother nature.

Please accept this award. All I ask is that one post be devoted to how you try to take care of the planet by trying to live green and being more environmentally conscious. Please link back to Rambling Woods or Think(ing) Green Thursday Meme

Thank you so much for this award, my dear! I think you deserve it the most for your constant concern about our beloved mother nature.

Thank you , Michelle

Thank you , Michelle
Thank you for the idea, Gina

Thanks to Jan, Pacey and Tink

I appreciate every visit and comment, but love even more to become good friends. Have a wonderful day, everyone!

A Child's Adventure

It's another Wednesday and time to grab into my photo archives again. The photo above is actually brand new. I just took it outside our house when my innocent, five year old son came home from his bike adventure. He loooves to go on this daily routine and I always have to be prepared for... Well, you can see it for yourself. Today, he decided to join two men cleaning the pool at my parents house! Can you see the wet cloths? Of course, he had to go through a decent shower right after I took the shot. Not before. LOL

A few days back it was a similar situation with red mud. I was so stunned that I totally forgot to take a photo. Does anyone have a great tip to remove red mud from clothes? If so, please let me know in my comment section ;).

“Every child and every generation must have the opportunity to explore, discover and learn in these outdoor classrooms.”

~ Randy Widera (Source: ThinkExist)

This might not be the kind of outdoor or watery image some of you had in mind, so I added another photo from my blog archives. You can see the White Crater located in Ciwidey, Bandung, West Java. My husband took this shot on one of our family vacations. Sorry to all my friends who have already seen it before. It is one of my favorite photos.

#46
Thank you, Susan

#63

Thank you, T. Bruce

I appreciate every visit and comment, but love even more to become good friends. Have a wonderful day, everyone!

The End Of The Rainbow | Microfiction Monday #6

Welcome to Microfiction Monday,

where a picture paints 140 characters...or even fewer.

Susan at Stony River Farm hosts Microfiction Monday. Every Sunday evening she posts a photo or illustration, and you compose a story in 140 characters about it on your blog. Click on the button or link above to get further instructions. To help you along she also has posted a link that counts your characters at Design 215. Thanks for hosting this meme, Susan.

Here's this week's picture (Beautiful, isn't it.) and my story

He hid at the end of the rainbow.
All it took was to grab the scarf and she would be his.
It was time. He didn't hesitate.
No fairy. A witch!

This is my first time to join Microfiction Monday. I would love to become better with my words, like a lot of my friends whose blogs I enjoy. Have a wonderful week, everyone :)

The Singapore Flyer

It has been almost a month since our vacation to Singapore and I haven't posted a single photo yet. Well, it's about time to change this. Here is my first colorful and watery view. You can see the Singapore Flyer at the right.

According to Wikipedia it is currently the tallest Ferris wheel in the world. Well, I and the heights aren't quite a match. That's why I might never end up getting on the Flyer as much as I wanted to. Can you believe that I just found out about this phobia in senior high school? A poor friend of mine got stocked with me on an overpass. My feet just refused to move. What drama! Anyway, I still hope that I get the courage to go on the Singapore Flyer when I have another chance to Singapore.

Click the button to see more photos

Thanks for hosting this meme, Martha!

Click the button to see more photos

Thanks for hosting this meme, T. Bruce.

PS. My friend Jama explained in the comment section that the colors are the Marina Bay Floating Platform. It's a 30 000 capacity grandstand seat fronting the floating platform. The Singapore National Day was celebrated there. According to my friend Elaine, the high building on the left is the Ritz Carlton Hotel. Thanks for the information.

Random Dozen #12 | Simple Notes

Thanks for hosting, Linda

1. If you could master one sport, what would it be? I actually participated in a lot of DLRG swimming competitions when I was a teen. So, it would be swimming.

2. When you make a major purchase, do you go with your gut instinct, or do you do research to make an informed decision? Me and my husband prefer to do some research to make an informed decision. But there are also these gut instinct moments.

3. There is an old kids' game that says you can find out what your movie star name would be by using your middle name as your first name and the name of the street you grew up on as your last. What is your movie star name? I don't have a middle name as you can see in my Blogger profile and there were several streets where I grew up. Based on two of them my name would be Friedrich Ebert (I spent 10 years of my childhood in Germany) or Red River (translation of the Indonesian word Kaliabang). I'll go for the second one. It should be Reed River, though. I think according to these game I would be a man.

4. Would you rather give up your favorite music or your favorite food? Gosh, this is a tough question. Selfish me wouldn't like to be without my favorites. Hmm... but if I had to choose it would be... my favorite food. Sigh... bye, bye seafood! I'm not a picky eater, so I think I'll live through it. But when it comes to music, not every tune pleases my mind. I need particular soul food. Music of My Life. Hehehe.

5. There are two types of banana preferences. One is pristine yellow, almost to the point of being green; the other is spotty and more ripe. Which is your preference? I'm not too fond of bananas, because I'm kind of allergic to them. Sometimes my lips get swollen and I have no idea why. But, my choice would be spotty and more ripe.

6. Your favorite tree is? Another tough question. I love nature very much. But if I had to choose it would be... hmm... eh... well... oh my goodness, this is torturing me ;p. I'm going for the apple tree. I love apples and... hey they inspired Newton.

7. On a scale of 1-10, how tech savvy are you? It depends on which level we are talking about from the Begginer to Advanced level. I think as beginner, I'm doing quite well. The scale could be 7-8, may be. But when we are talking about the high-tech level. I'm way below the average.

8. Has H1N1 touched your family? Thank goodness, no. I hope it stays this way. Hopefully in the future no other families have to go through this as well.

9. Are you an analytical person, or do you just accept things the way they are without questioning or scrutinizing? Well, I think I'm in between. There are things that I have to analyze, but some things I can accept without questioning or scrutinizing.

10. Is your personality more like that of a dog, cat, or Koala? I went to Blogthings and according to the result I am a cow. LOL. I have to know more about what kind of personalities these 3 animals represent before I can make a choice.

You Are a Cow

You are strong and very determined. You can remain stoic when times are tough. You are stable and patient. You are able to do mundane tasks without resentment or boredom. You are a caring, nurturing creature. You are willing to sacrifice a lot to take care of those you love. You are smart and very observant. While you may seem passive, you are just taking in everything around you.

What Animal Are You?

11. Do you keep in touch with friends you made years ago? Of course. Some of my best friends are from elementary school.

12. You are checking out at a grocery store. In the express lane, there are more people than the regular lanes, but of course, their load is less than those in the regular lanes. Which lane do you choose (assuming you qualify for the express lane) and why? I think it would depend on the load of the people in the regular lanes. I'll take any lane which seems to be faster.

How I Ended Up With Three More... | Simple Notes

You might already know that last week I decided to give my blog a new look. But did you know that I ended up with THREE more in the process ;p.

Well, I actually don't know if I can keep up with them all. Let's just say that these Blogger templates were just too tempting for me. No, I'm not getting paid for writing this. LOL

Before deciding on Music of My Life's new template, I came upon BloggerTube - The First Blogger Video Template by Dante Araujo and decided to make it the new home for A Compilation of My Favorite YouTubes. I think it is a real great way for me to have easier access to all my favorite videos on this site.

Next, I came upon a beautiful travel template. I just loved how you could add links into the destination sign at the header. I thought it could be a place to share some reviews, photos and/or travel tips in A Family's Travel Guide. Okay, okay... I must admit that these destination sign links did it for me. Not a match for my personal blog, though.

Then, I finally got a click when I came upon this now applied template. Like my dear friend Pacey said in my previous comment section. It is very obvious that I loooove green... and flowers as matter of fact :). This is my ultimate comfort place, where I connect with my beloved friends. Please forgive me, if I still haven't put you back in my Bloglist. I forgot to keep a back up of my Bloglist links. So, there might be a possibility I have missed you.

Last but not least, I decided to join Zazzle.com and created some designs based on my photos. You can see them at Amalia's Gallery. Amalia is taken from my daughter's last name. We don't have any family names here in Indonesia. That's why I kept my family name. I have one, because I was born in Germany.

To be truth, creating these products gives me a very mixed feeling. I actually don't know, if I will proceed or not. I love spending my time working on the product designs. Hopefully the products will always be as good as they look on screen. You can say that I have a great passion for crafts and designs... and now photography. Even though I don't have as much time as before and I'm not a pro, there is something very appealing in the creative process. Challenging, relaxing... PASSION :)! Zazzle seems to be a place to combine all of my hobbies. Besides, I love the thought of having my own store (well actually it's not my store, only designs). Not that I'm not grateful as Stay at Home Mom. I have decided to leave my career for almost ten years now, and I'm positive that the decision would be exactly the same if I could go back in time. I'll just wait and see what happens next.

How To Change Your Blogger / Blogspot Template

Last week I decided to change the look of my blog and started to search for some free Blogger templates. It turned out that there are so many great sources on the Web that I had a hard time to choose. But first things first. My dear friends Thom and Keats reminded me about safety and I couldn't agree more. Before searching for a new template, I copied and saved all of the html/javasript codes in my sidebar. I have been blogging for almost a year here and it would be a shame, if I lost the data. After that, I copied the codes file again for double assurance .

Now, back to those awesome Blogger templates. There are a lot of sites offering there wonderful help to give your blog a new fresh look for free. Just make sure that you get the codes from their original source, not somewhere else. Here are my favorite sites for free Blogger/Blogspot templates:

Blogger Templates
Dante Araujo
Deluxe Templates
FalconHive

All you have to do is to read the description of template, view the template's demo blog to see its real look and then download your choice on your PC. I advice you to read the comment section as well to find out some possible bugs or problems from other users. Please respect the creative rights of the template developers by keeping their link intact. Don't delete them and change it with your own name! You have to be grateful to people who help you. It's that simple.

Extract the file, go to your Blogger dashboard, click layout and then edit html. Click browse to get to your extracted file and after that upload.

Uploading a new template usually will delete your added page elements and widgets. That's why it is so important to save and back up your codes first, before you start. It would be a great loss, if anything goes wrong. You definitely don't want this to happen! After uploading the new template, Blogger will ask you to confirm and save. Click at the button and you should be able to access your new template. Contact the template designer for further questions, if you get some troubles. I don't advice you to change your template, if you are not sure about the process unless you are okay about losing your page elements and widgets in the worst case.

Have fun rearranging your Blogger template