Celebrating Lens 25 - A Lensography

I remember when I was turning 25...oops, did I say when? Twenty-five was a wonderful time in my life.

I was "blondish", weighed about 100 pounds and still wore size 5/6. My students thought I was a "fox" (their words, not mine), and I would show up to work only to find a huge box of Godiva chocolates on my desk. One of my 10th graders who was in culinary school even made me a large tray of homemade lasagna or baked terrific creamy cheesecakes for me. Oh, the joys of 25!

Getting to age twenty-five took forever in a young girl's eyes, just as this goal of 25 lenses seemed to take. I finally met my goal, without the chocolates or lasagna and with much more self-inflicted stress. My journey to 25 was quite a surprise even to me when it came to my topics.

There are other 25's in my life that I have celebrated and perhaps I'll share them with you at some point. But today, I'm celebrating another turning point in my life and that is my 25th article/web page here on Squidoo. Follow along as I share all the bloopers, foils, and flubs in the journey of my own quest and goal to reach lens number twenty-five.

Copyrighted Material by Favored1. Do not copy. Photo credit by Favored1 or Amazon unless otherwise noted. This artwork is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 License. When used: Animation by www.glitter-graphics.com, www.picgifts.com, www.photobucket.com and www.animateit.net

Photo design by classicihearts

Hippity-Hoppity

When I first began on Squidoo I didn't have any particular topic I planned to write about except things of faith and encouragement. I guess I've gotten sidetracked with all the activities and quests here that I haven't stayed true to my goals. But everything has its time I say, and I'll do those topics when timing is right.

As I took hundreds of rabbit trails onto other lenses I started to notice some really interesting topics, places, ideas, and mostly...people. If you knew me, you would know that I love to visit with people and learn about what makes their boat float. People are my favorite hobby!

As I traveled around Squidoo I noticed that lenses were popping up like rabbits (probably from all those visits I took). How could someone make/write an article, reseach it and put it all together so fast? I certainly couldn't. Believe it or not it took me a week to finish my first lens.

Christmas Crafts.....(yada, yada, yada...)

Yes, I made the mistake of giving my first article a ridiciously long title. I have no idea why; I hadn't written in this type of setting before, so it was all new to me.

I didn't know anything about search engines, tag words, keywords, html, modules, the list could go on an on as you can see. The only thing I knew anything about was English, writing and journalism, because of my field in teaching (that's another can I don't want to open just yet).

So, I went into think tank mode and came up with some ideas as to what I could possibly do. Frankly, I didn't think anything in my life would interest anyone (yes, I know it's low self-esteem showing through, I counsel myself on it regularly), but I am creative (see I made up for that last comment) and I could do something in that area.

As I visited other lenses, found the forum (who knew there was one?), and asked tons of questions, eventually I was able to hit PUBLISH, and out came Memory Jar. Not too much was opened to me concerning modules so this was pretty plain. I did manage to get a big photo and had no idea how I did it, so I left it alone so I wouldn't delete anything or mess it up. Using a poll seemed simple enough so I added it also.

Since then I have changed it quite a bit. Even though it wasn't the prettiest lens, it has been my most visited and consistent.

The challenge of the video. Flub #2.

Going Home was the second article I created and published 7 days later. It is a tribute to my mother who suddenly left this earth, and a way for me to deal with my grieving.

For this article I wanted to include a video of my mother's recording of yodeling. I had no idea how to do it, so I had to have help. Several video mix-ups and a few days later it was complete.

Out of all the articles I've written here so far, this is the dearest to my heart and the most difficult to write. It has also been the most rewarding, because it has helped so many people.

I am honored that this article won a purple star award on January 6th, 2012.

My First Charity Lens

In 2011 on November 14th I created a charity lens. This was an article about an organization that gives out Bibles in honor of a loved one. I was gathering information and had several weeks into working on this lens, when accidentally it got published before it was even nearly done. Mistake, foil or flub, it was oops #3.

To fix the mis-publish issue I had to work on it throughout the night hoping nobody had seen it. So on December 11th, 2011, after 27 days, Living Legacy, my first charity lens was ready for the public. This was the first lens in which I used a link.

A quest lens.

My first product lens, and it was a doozey. When I received this quest I had no idea what I could write about, much less make a sales lens about one product. I took the challenge and created the lens on November 20th, 2011. Mind you I had only been a member 20 days.

It took me 15 days to write this article, and I had to bypass 2 others I had already started just to meet the deadline of the quest. This is the first time I used the caption module. On December 5th, 2011 my promo advertising lens Wind Song hit the webwaves.

Although it was the 6th lens I created, it turned out to be the 4th one published.

Issue #4 - no photos to match.

I had wanted to write at least one article for Christmas but not like I would usually write. Searching the web for my mom's article I came across a song by one of her favorite singing artists, Jim Reeves. "And that's why they call it Christmas Day" wasn't a song I had heard. Once I played it I knew I had my article. Lens #3 was created on November 21, 2011.

As I researched for photographs to fit my subject I kept coming up short. So I decided that I would have to create what I needed, and so I did. Two other articles would come before this one as I created the images I wanted, and then 5 days later on November 25th, 2011 Why Christmas stepped into the world. It was in this #5 article that I first used a music video.

About Me

For some reason I felt the need to create an "about me" lens. On November 25h, 2011 my 4th lens was made. It was really, really short and only had a few photos. I thought that I had to have one to introduce myself early on in the community, so I rushed this one off in just 2 days and published it on November 26th, 2011 becoming my 6th lens (one popped in between there).

Over the weeks I have changed it a bit, added some of this and that, put things here and there ... It's getting bigger that's for sure. Anyway, it was fun and that's what matters to me. I had no real worries or problems with it. There's a hodge podge of mods mixed throughout the lens. I suppose that will change too, as I find more fun things to do here on Squidoo. It's my "whatever my fancy" lens for now.

Quest

Now here comes another quest, but this one was about food. At least I think it was this one. By now I had discoved the talk bubble text module and liked using it. If I could only figure out how to use the recipe module. Added lens #5 on November 29th, 2011 and quickly got to work. Working on two lenses back and forth.

My banana bread lens was the easiest as of this date, because I already had the recipe and some photographs. It quickly came together and 2 days later was pubished as artcle #7 on November 30th, 2011.

I did figure out how to use the recipe and the spotlight modules. Even threw in a thumbnail sales module. When the sticky note made it's appearance I'm not quite sure. I don't use it too often, because I don't like the way it looks.

Oh No! Could it be mistake #5,6...?

To be honest I'm embarrassed about this one. I was excited to do an article on the Painter of Light's holdiay clocks, so I created a lens. I got to work and did plenty of research. There was only one problem, there was no Thomas "Kincaid" and that's why I was able to get the URL.

You see, I had a neighbor for 20 years, the Kincaid's, so when I typed in the info I naturally spelled it the way I knew it. It wasn't until several days later and the lens pretty much under way that I discovered I was gathering info and merchandise for a Kincaid, not Kinkade. I had to make another lens on December 4th (#8 again) and rename it because someone else had the "right name" (figures) and begin transferring all the information to another lens.

Because I had to start all over, this "little" spelling error cost me 17 days before the real Kinkade Clocks was published as #8 on December 15th, 2011. Ouch!

Double Take, #5,6,7... start all over

Well, you probably guessed it. That's right. When I created this lens on December 4th, it should have been #18. I was moving along with a few in the works at the same time. But of course, I did it again... yep, the spelling thing.

By now I was just confused. I had several lenses getting close to being published, and this one had to be totally redone. I was so upset as to how stupid I was that I pressed to get this one done. I dumped the wrong one and renamed the new lens having to add the "and more" since yes, someone had the real name. (The nerve of them.)

For this article I wanted the music boxes to be big enough so my readers could get a real sense of the product, so here I used the text module with the big photo and added a link. It worked beautifully, and got bumped to the front of the line. Just 61 short days later (you can laugh!) on February 3rd, 2012 the finely tuned #9 was published.

Silly, silly girl.

You kind of have to know the way I think. See I don't think "single" article, but units, chapters, etc. It must be the teacher in me and I tend to transfer it into everything I do (good and bad points in doing that I suspect). My ideas were running wild and I intended to make several lenses on similar topics. Well, that backfired.

Now I had all these lenses and was pressured to get them done as quickly as possible. In the mean time I needed to visit the forum and go look at lenses in order to learn. Unlike the majority of people on Squidoo, I hadn't been exposed to a computer for about 7 years really, and the internet was totally different. (You want to know why don't you? You'll have to see if I write about it in the future.)

With things in disorder, I created Help Me on December 12th, 2011. As I visited lenses and got information on how to do something, I took notes and put them in one spot... this lens. What began out of frustration has turned into a God-send, and became my life jacket so to speak in this community.

I gained so much help from seasoned lensmasters that I felt others might benefit from it. So even though it didn't have much order to it, I decided to publish it and add to it as I continued to learn. As I read and learn, this lens keeps growing. Since they changed the dashboard, I have no idea when I actually hit publish, but can tell you I use this page every day. Number #10 actually became #10. How'd that happen? As you can tell, it has a bit of everything on it, and notes to myself to remind me who taught me how to do something. I am very grateful to everyone who is actually listed on this lens, because they are behind the making of this article.

A not so nice Fay.

I had no intentions of making a lens like this, but out on my bunny trail I saw websites, lenses, and article after article about what to buy teachers. You can get the wet noodle out if you want to, I did a no-no.

Yes, I wrote an article for the wrong reason... I got ticked off. I know, hard to believe isn't it? Uncharacteristic of me, but it happens. Honestly, I just couldn't bear some of the ideas people were pawning off as gifts. They were suggesting gifts they wouldn't even buy or make for their own family.

So December 16th, 2011 len #9 came, and one week before Christmas I created this work. I wasn't even worried about getting it done so late, because teachers are generally the last person on the list of gifts to buy. Don't feel bad about it, I've done it too. It's like you're in the checkout for 20 minutes already and you suddenly remember you didn't get the preacher, teacher or mailman something. You're not about to get out of line, so whatever is before your eyes as you move up to pay, becomes the "gift" you so thoughtfully picked out for that person.

My mother had always taught us to buy a gift for someone that you would like to have yourself. If you don't like it, why should you give a gift you hate? Find out what the person likes and buy something you like along those lines. Anyway, what's done is done. I was hoping to give people some different ideas, but who knows if it worked. Number 11 was published on December 17th, 2011 and this odd sort of lens was underway.

By then I had discovered the text list and how to add an animated graphic (thanks to my Help Me page).

A Beatle of a mistake (#8)

Since the Christmas season was about to pass, I knew that the next big holiday I probably would write about was Valentine's Day. Oh, I mulled over some topics and even considered writing about how the holiday really came about (you don't want to know.) Remember I was in the middle of all this confusion, so I wanted to do something light-hearted.

I did the SEO and Squidoo search and found the title I wanted was taken. Even though I hadn't technically invited the Beatles into my lens on love, on December 21st they arrived on lens #20 forcing mistake #8 to be made in my URL.

The research caught me by surprise, since I had no idea there was a line of products actually called P.S. I Love You. Neither did I know there was a movie by the samename. Jackpot! Still working on several articles I was able to publish #12 article on 2/8/12 (59 days later).

For this lens I graduated to the Amazon MP3 module and learned how to add color. (I then went back and added some color to some of my other articles.)

Quest almost foiled #9

When I accepted this quest I thought it would be pretty easy and created #16 lens on December 21st, 2011. The movie part wasn't really the problem, but finding more content and products for a movie over 60 years old was.

It took almost 3 weeks to finish this article. There were a few sitting in dock waiting, but 20 days went by and January 18th, 2012 was the chosen day to publish my first entertainment lens. This was #13 for me when it hit the stage.

The debate module was one I had avoided up to this point. However, I felt it was a good place for it so I introduced it into my writing as well as in-text links. Wow. Those were huge for me. Mistake #9 warning, warning... don't write about something unless you know you can get products and content for it.

Twisting into #10 blooper

Can someone please tell me what I was thinking when I chose this title? Say it 3 times fast ... "Satin and Silk Sheet Sets." Talk about a tongue twister. You know I still can't get the title of this right when I'm looking for it. Glad no one else has that problem!

One of my favorite things to do is decorate, and linens are top on my list. Enter what would become the first of my "linens" lenses. Knowing this, would you like to guess what I was doing on Christmas Eve? It ws on December 24th, 2011 that lens #12 was created, during that no-so-bright-starry time in my early days here.

Somewhere along the way Satin & Silk Sheets became lens #14 on who knows what date, but it was one of my favorite lenses to do. It was here I indroduced "How To" videos, and this article has not disappointed me at all. I enjoy popping in to see the luxurious linens and envision how to make it better. Tongue twister though it is, I can live with it I guess.

Not quiet the gem I hoped for: #11 pressure

After Christmas sales are big where I come from, and you have to push those sales ads out the door practically before the New Year's Ball hits the air. Coming up with things to sell this time wasn't a problem; there were tons of things on sale. So even though I didn't work on this campaign/sales pitch idea on this particular day, I created lens #13 on December 24th, 2011 (I know, the lecture can come later).

What do you do when there are too many things on sale? You have to pick and choose, and hope you picked right. January 4th, 2012 white sale lens #15 was ready to market. It was eleven days of pure self-imposed pressure.

I used the highlight theme and my own side lenses for this article. Probably not a great choice, but I wanted to distinguish this article from my others. I guess I did; it hasn't kept my other lenses company. Note to self: Some gems are magnified falsely.

Dan who? #12 enter the unknown zone.

When I decided to do another linens article I really thought this woud be a good one. After all, doesn't everyone love Dan River's designs? Apparently not. Old Dan was created as #14 on December 24th, 2011 (no, I didn't work on it, I only had the idea). Due to the holidays #14 was published thirteen days later on January 6th,. 2012.

I enjoyed putting this lens together and really liked the videos on the kids point of view as to how their rooms should look. The problem was that it took a nose dive and got lost in the shuffle of bedding ideas.

Since my Help Me lens now had a resident lens doctor, I did a health check on Mr. Dan. With some tweaking, along with a new title good old Dan River Bedding for Kids became Best Kid's Bedding by Dan River. He is now in recovery and progressing slowly, but we hope he is going to make it. Some lens surgery may still be needed. Feel free to visit him during on or off hours. He appreciates smiles, hugs, comments and really likes thumbs. If I could only get him to like chocolate, but he's on an "all fiber" diet! LOL

The big arrow and sticky note made an appearance here along with the photo gallery. Since this article was first published it has had several titles.

Is boring a mistake? #13

December 24th, 2011 was a good day to pick for making a towel lens, which would have been #21. But getting side tracked on other quests, building lenses for other people, poor bath towels got put on the back burner for 47 days. What was going to be my pretty bath towel article became a little stale. I don't really get bored, so I can't really say it was boring to research, but the spark had died down.

See in my mind I was going to build this "set" of linens lenses one after the other. I think that is how most creative writing takes place. We see beyond where we are at that point and want to run to the next stop, before we're ready. I learned a valuable lesson from this, and that is, that it's ok not to be working on an article every spare moment.

As I worked on the sales article I changed my approach and treated it as if I were adding these items to my guest room or bath. I shopped for myself, added some fun videos on origami towel designs, the about me and bookmark modules, and presto... PUBLISH lens #17. What seemed a 47 day delay, turned out to be a nice article by February 9th, 2012. Boring? I don't think so.

This one I caught before I had the title. I orginally was going to do an article on electric blankets, only to find they no longer call them that. Now it's electric "warming" blankets. Number 15 lens was yet another part of my linens series I created on December 24th. To look at the date, you might think I had abandoned this one, but that's not so.

Finding interesting material on a limited catagory was challenging. Then I found this great product and review about electic blankets that people actually use while riding their motorcycle. It became a good source for a debate module. The funny thing about that was hardly anyone answered the question in the article. Want to know a secret... they did answer, but didn't want anyone to know they did.

My assignment turned into a shopping wish list for myself when I came across those great heated gloves and the heated laptop shawl. Now it became my own bookmark so I would go back and get these items. Another part of the set was released as #18; yes, 21 days after it was created on January 14th, 2012. If you have a tendency to get cold at your place of work, go check these out; you'll love them.

What a pleasure to design lens #10 starting on December 27th, 2011. I can tell you that this article was all about dreams. There is something about white rooms that reminds me of a warm summer's breeze gently blowing the sheer curtains just enough that they float out toward the center of the room. You catch a clean, crisp smell of fresh lines wafting though the air. Oh, I just love it.

Decorating in All White only took me three days and this part of the linens series known as lens #19 made it's debut on Decemer 29th, 2011.

More ideas about rooms decorated in white were added by some wonderful lensmasters thus finishing out this sales article.

Was it a stinky idea #14

Flashing idea bulbs went off in my mind when I created the white linens webpage. Why not do an article on a perfume I wear, White Linen? What a sweet idea! Ok, I'll do it. This would be easy since I know the product. NOT! How can such a famous woman like Estee Lauder have no "real" photographs available to the public?

I wasn't interested in her life per se, or the holdings of the company, etc, but on the actual product. Some background would be needed of course, but I couldn't find what I was seeking. My research was not cutting it. Instead I decided to include the humanity and social awareness aspect concerning cancer research. Add a list of the many products she created over the years and the hot off the press new 2013 line, it came to a sweet close as #20. White Linen Perfume was then published on February 25th, 2012 (61 days in the making.)

Because perfume bottles are so collectible, I decided to include ebay in this webpage.

Quest

Silly Holiday Celebrations Quest was what intrigued me into searching for the right holiday to spotlight in my writing. Picking one was another thing. The list was trimmed down and the final selection became lens #17 on January 19th, 2012 as National Blueberry Pancake Day.

Coming from the Garden State originally I had many outlets to find resources, so I got to work. There is so much behind the scenes work that takes place before the "blueberry" pancake can actually be made, that I wanted to share some of that preparation. I enjoyed taking a step back in time to reminisce about the blueberry fields, open pastures and memories of berry picking.

The article was flowing along, but I wasn't happy with the cooking tools used to make the pancakes. This wasn't something that was talked about in the videos, so I had to guess what they might have used. Corrections were made with the help of some lensmasters, and I published the article 4 days (about 30 hours without a break) later on January 22nd, 2012.

Even though it was a long article, I really enjoyed writing it and lens #21 was one of my favorites to do. I especially like the pancake game. You didn't play the pancake game? Shame on you.

Not only being a "berry" colorful lens, I was able to incorporate the photo gallery, text with big photo, link list, a quiz, featured lenses and a few other modules to pull this article together.

Quest

A new quest was released for Valentine's Day. What did I want to make that would be somewhat easy, gooey, creamy and chocolately. See that's the way I come into a food article. If possible I would put chocolate on the daily food requirements list. In this case, I could.

For Christmas someone gave me a Hershey's Chocolate cookbook (think they know me?). There were so many to choose from that I could make, but there it was, staring at me and begging to be made. What else could I do but fill that request; on February 5th, 2012 lens #19 was created.

The recipe called for a chocolate topping/frosting/icing, but I decided not to add it to the cheesecake. It was already so rich and tasty, really I didn't think it was needed. However, the next one I make will have it, but I'll use 1/2 the chocolate chips in the batter.

Two days later on February 6th, 2012 this recipe was published. The road to lens #22 was paved with a debate and cafe press modules making it a very delicious journey.

Quest

Do you feel compelled to do every quest or challenge that comes your way? For some reason I like challenges and usually take the opportunity when I can. For this article I wanted it to be on something I hadn't done. On February 11, 2012 I decided to make lens #22 about an animal, making it my first writing in this category.

This research turned into an educational study unit filled with quizzes, videos, charts, etc, and my first color pages. I was also able to add maps and use the You Tube module for the first time. Lens #23 was finished 12 days later and was open for public viewing on February 22nd, 2012. It turned out to be long, because it was divided into units for the classroom. I hope you enjoy it.

Quest

I was getting close to my goal, and wanted to achieve it without egg on my face. Accepting another quest may not have been a good idea if it were in another area. However, I was about to do a vegan recipe, so I began this quest for a great March recipe on February 29th, 2012 making this my 24th lens.

This was my dilemma. I set a goal for myself that I would have 25 articles done by March 1st. Now in reality I had 23 published and it was the last day of February. As you can see I didn't make that goal, but I did get article #24 published late that night. This was easy to do, because I had planned on making the asparagus and egg casserole for dinner. If I wanted to get technical I could say I did reach my goal by writing articles elsewhere, but not for myself. (psssst... I didn't make this that night, I got Chinese vegan take out.)

Other lensmasters were praising the Amazon Voting (Plexo) module. I had never used it and thought here was just as good a place as any to give it an egg over. The Polaroid and YouTube modules I had tried once before as well as a little animation. Using the Links Voting (Plexo) made sense to me in this article, because I wanted to have other lensmasters add their recipes making this a complete work.

Reaching a goal can sometimes be challenging. What do the experts have to say about setting goals that can be achieved? Find out in these selections below. Click on the title for more details.

My Own Quest - Went out like a splash! GOAL!

#25 Lens created on March 1, 2012

#25 Published on March 7th, 2012 (7 days)

Lens #25 (goal to make 25 in 4 months)

So here I am, lens 25. Now what should it be about I asked myself? I was planning this 5 articles ago thinking that this had to be something special since I set my own quest and goal.

Would it be about becoming a Squid Angel or Giant Squid? That would mean I would have to have a certain amount of articles, and what if they didn't think they were good? No, no. no... maybe something about my pets, teaching, my degrees or accomplishments. They were all too involved and more than likely would be several articles.

Why not make a lensography? Traveling around Squidville I read several fantastic lensographies. Someone asked a question in the forum about how many lenses you should have before writing one, and there were a few answers about what would be acceptable. I made the decision on March 1st, 2012 to make a lensography on my journey to making lenses, along with all the bloopers, foils, fumbles and follies... this became (drum roll please) LENS #25! Yes, I created this on March 1st, but sorry to say, it didn't get published that day.

Now I have the topic, what modules could I add that I haven't used in my articles? I had to think about that one. Let me try the Comments and Amazon Plexo and see what that's all about. What Exactly is EveryZing? I guess we'll find out along with Engadget. Like they say, the only way you'll know what it does is if you try it out, so here goes. Maybe I'll add a few "this and that's" or even some" whatchamacallits". That should be interesting. Ready, set, PUBLISH! (3/7/12)

Well, that's it - Celebrating the first 25!

This week's challenge on my: Daily Favor Blog