About

Dear Readers:

Blairsvillager.com went live on September 18, 2012, and is an idea born about a year prior to that.  It's taken that long to perform an in-depth study about blogging and the literally dozens of choices one has to make in starting a blog.  Pay for the space or use a free service?  Puchase a domain or not?  Is the domain even available?  Which host site has the best templates?  Is the site stable and does it have a history, or will the site disappear one day along with my blog? Does the site allow advertising to earn money or is it an ad-free site?  And once I study host site after host site, and finally choose one and make all the aforementioned decisions, am I capable of operating and manipulating the code to get the blog to do what I want?

There were already successful blog sites running in the Blairsville area including Blairsville.com, but they are news forums or discuss area events, and there's even one that offers bartering, an idea I love.  Not only did I not want to interfere with their successes, I felt there was room for something different.  I wanted a blog about celebrating the art of living.

I've been a consultant in various creative fields since the 1970s: interior decorating (my career), exterior elevation design (what is now called curb appeal), garden planning, personal chef-ing & catering, packaging design, costume/set/scenery design, graphic design, and I've even opened non-profit thrift stores in three states.  To me, every little thing in life should be celebrated with great ado -- not in a stuffy formal way, but in a je ne sais quoi come-what-may casually elegant way.  99% of the time, when a friend calls, the first words out of their mouth are, "I need your opinion on something."

I have big plans for Blairsvillager.com, and I've only just begun -- still taking baby steps.  I want Blairsvillager.com to be our own little area magazine (e-zine) about design and style and joie de vivre. It will be about food, decorating, gardening, birding, people, DIY, and the arts, of course.  As I've gone live at summer's end, you won't see any true gardening projects until next Spring.  Once I get the format down pat, and have a back-stock of stories to write about, the posts will be steady and dependable, probably twice a week.

I'm very excited to be up and running, and even in my sleep I'm writing posts!  Glad you're reading this, and hope you'll stick with me, become a fan, and submit your ideas for stories and articles.  I need you, dear hearts!

Most cordially,
Jo