Aging Gracefully – A Creative History : My Blog Feb 2011 – Jul 2019 😊

A Little Background – Starting my blog early 2011 in Galveston

Over eight years ago now, after moving back to Galveston from Austin for a planned year and a half stay after we retired, I began my WordPress blog February of 2011 with the over-arching idea of Aging Gracefully.

First with yoga, like my Gratitude post with Sheila modeling on the Galveston seawall above. Plus I quickly developed my format to include internal links within my site and even within some pages, plus really liked adding photos! Long before I’d read or learned those were really good things to do. I just liked doing them. 😊

Sheila and mine’s fitness classes and certifications also progressed and I soon was adding fitness bits posts, like, using elastic bands to practice heart openers. I’m actually in (slow) process of a new post regarding using elastic bands as a way of talking about being aware of alignment, especially one’s wrists. Notice in the linked posts how I (mostly) try to keep my wrists aligned with my arms.

Vermont, 2011 – late 2012

I’d of course been painting and taking photos since when we’d lived in Galveston back in the 80’s and late 90’s, and once we moved on from Galveston to Vermont for another year and a half planned stay (to be near Sheila’s family for awhile), I jumped – or should I say hopped! 😊 – at the chance to show in my first Art Hop, one of the largest art shows in Vermont!

This is Sheila enjoying an art stroll down one of the many halls in many locations of lots and lots of art!

Sheila and I were teaching senior fitness classes, picking up what we’d begun in Galveston, and I was rapidly diving into more of the arts I’d loved for most of my life – so soon, I was also adding poetry back into my life and often combining it into what yoga meant for me.

Photography, of course, was never far behind, often working in the background, but – maybe for the 1st time since we stayed in Galveston in the 90s and I had one of the first digital cameras (no external memory, and less than 1mb internal memory!), and before that, when the kids were very young – I began to spot and capture “moments” I liked.

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Often again combining with something else, like poetry.

Like, my first substantial snow scenes and autumn colors in late 2011 and into 2012 — yes, I’d been deprived of most of that in Texas. Though my Vermonter wife reminds me I’d also missed the years of zero degree winters, brrrrrr lol! 😂 Still, I recorded “my” first encounter with a real winter 😊

For another photography perspective, I should also note, the top image of Sheila on the seawall, as per my image editing program Affinity Photo, was shot with a Polaroid t1035! Take a look at the dates my screen shot my search for that camera shows!

A long way from what Polaroid (and all the other camera folks) have now 😊

5 1/2 Week Detour Back to Texas – Paris

By the time we left Vermont (delayed a week due to Hurricane Sandy; we were “stuck in Stowe” 😊) I was in full picture taking mode, often combining with poetry and/or fiction segments.

It’s hard to express what that relatively short stay in Paris gave to us in terms of a wealth of vision and beauty and history —

— I’ve tried to, in numerous mini-photo travel memoirs and fictionalized stories of again, “moments” of our stay.

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Series link on Amazon – https://amzn.to/2LPTr3q
My author page on Amazon – https://amzn.to/2YAkyp8

My blog posts I felt kept up better. The longer more intensive work would and will take years of creating, formatting, and releasing. That’s ok. It’s like a nearly inexhaustible piggy bank in our hearts. As is Vermont. As is, I realize more and more, Galveston. And I’m sure, eventually – it’s my pattern – in Texas.

Return to Texas

Returning back to a crowded urban area being pulled apart to either remain iconoclastic, or burst into an unknown future modeled on developers’ dreams of a new urban Manhattan – I fell ill for several months.

Our youngest grandchild was born – a pure joy added to the four we already had ❤️

That helped. A lot 😊

Finding spots of beauty, and finding words to match the moments, held me for quite awhile, and let my blog continue.

But eventually I couldn’t keep it up. I blogged less. I tweeted less.

At least not until we began to visit Vermont in the summers. And one short ten day surprise trip to Costa Rica.

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My Vermont Images @FineArtAmerica – xx
My Costa Rica Images @FineArtAmerica – xx

The Social Media Boost

And slowly, I started tweeting more. It’s simple. It’s fun. I can pick what I like, who I like, and when I like to tweet relatively easily.

I began reblogging people who’s posts I liked.
Artists — Photographers — Writers .

I also began retweeting more folks but adding a comment / remark / or smile face or such – something I still like to do 😊

Google trans,

"A friend is a person with whom you can think out loud." ~ #Emerson ~

me, one of my fav text / image combos @Deli60Ros 🙂 https://t.co/0d2AG6MBU4

— Felipe Adan Lerma (@FelipeAdanLerma) February 25, 2019

A few things started selling online via my photo/art site at Fine Art America

I started painting again. Showed at Art Hop again (my 2nd time)

And finally, started blogging again —

— posting about one of two of my first showings in Austin in years. Both shows being U.S. Veterans’ Art shows, where I was made feel welcome 🙏

And in March last year (2018) started with a few prints and originals at the Old Bakery & Emporium here in Austin.

And most recently I realized I could combine what I do here on my site with products I offer on Amazon – linking to my photo and poetry and fiction books, plus commenting on products I actually use and those I think would be fun to have or try – thus my decision to apply to be an Amazon Affiliate! I even got enough traction in to do an update!

I trust them, I feel good about it, so I’m trying it 😊 If you click on my direct link – https://amzn.to/2Y6Wquc – and you buy something, I get a small referral fee. If you buy one of my own products, I also get my book mark-up and the small referral fee. I like that too 😊

The Tune-up

So now I’m blogging again!

And I need to “tune-up” my site.

Help it match up to what I do on Twitter —
And to what I have on Fine Art America, Amazon & beginning to on eBay.

+ make updated versions of what I naturally created to begin with, starting with my very 1st posts, back in 2011 — Feb 3 — Feb 4 — Feb 11 — Feb 12 — Feb 14 …

Including all the blog posts I’ve cited in this post!

And post citations in my most recent posts –

That’ll keep me busy for awhile, lol 😂

The Details

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More Birds Butterflies & Critters in my Collection at Fine Art America
https://fineartamerica.com/profiles/felipeadan-lerma.html?tab=artworkgalleries&artworkgalleryid=648193

And really – I needed a plan, of how to go about updating approx 400 articles spanning 8+ years, including adding images, updating links, and connecting to related articles before and since the ones here were cited!

Will I update every post the same way, to the same level?

I doubt it 🙂

Most don’t need a table of contents. Many already have good images. A few only relevantly-link to a few other articles.

And meanwhile I’ll still post about new images, photos, art, articles, poetry, and new listings on eBay.

Plus : About new-things-happening —

• * I’m still trying to pick one of my novellas to post fully online through a series of posts and simply have a button for anyone who’d like to donate.
• * I’m finally finalizing details of how I’d like to start actively promoting my idea for Limited Editions of my art & photography; maybe even some of my writings, like Volleyball Setter and others.
• * Post a short story I included in a charity short story collection several years back, The Yoga Bowl. Update it slightly & include an addendum section showing the small changes – a phrasing shift, a spelling correction, a clarifying word or two — that sort of fun writer/creative stuff, lol! 😊

Where I Hope To Get To

Mainly, get to where I don’t need to produce one after another of long anchor posts — to establish where I’m at now with my blog & which I think I’m getting close to — and more spot & reporting posts, like Sundays and My Top Pins on Pinterest…

Being able to link to past posts as easily as WordPress has made it (in my view), is a huge help and contributing factor in making that happen!

And I’ll be quick to add the only thing I fully realize right now is how much more I can learn if I want or need to. And with all the ideas I keep having, and all the social media opps available today, that should be fun!

Thanks everyone!
Comment, tell me what you think!
I still think Sheila on Seawall was the best choice to start this post, don’t you? 😊

Other Options & Ideas
My Amazon affiliate marketing searches & highlights for this post   

My search for this post, and I was curious if anything would even turn up, is –
“meaning of life” – yeah, there was plenty 😊

Don’t forget, images are links!

All the best everyone!
Adan

Twitter / Instagram / FB @FelipeAdanLerma
Amazon Author Page – https://amzn.to/2YpgyUf
Fine Art America (FAA) – https://fineartamerica.com/profiles/felipeadan-lerma.html