Bloggiesta update #1 and a few mini challenges

I have actually managed to move on from thinking about things, to actually doing things. Not huge things, but something at least! So what is it that I have done? Since the last update? Well, apart from tried to get the boy to hurry up and finish his jobs, and cleaning the kitchen, I managed to clean up my blogroll a little. Over the last couple of weeks I had already tidied up my sidebars a bit, and I do have some ideas for later, but it's a start.

The other thing I have done isn't exactly for Bloggiesta, but it is kind of related. I gave my computer desk and the area surrounding it a thorough clean, moving some of those cords so they aren't so visible, given everything a good clean, putting things away. There's still a little left to do, but for the most part, the view from here looks pretty good right now! I also reorganised my TBR shelves, so that now I can just turn my head and see all the books I have been seen for review and haven't read yet. Hello guilty conscience!

I am managing to multi-task whilst participating in Bloggiesta, and cleaning, but listening to Hunted by P C Cast and Kristin Cast. It is unfortunate that my son just happens to walk in every time there is a swear word (or so it seems), and is shocked! He likes to pretend that he doesn't swear with his friend
I am now working my way through some of the mini challenges:

Rebecca from The Book Lady's Blog is hosting a mini challenge about cleaning out your feed readers. I am planning to do this a bit later tonight when I watch TV.

Beth from BethFishReads is asking us to write an opinion post or a list post, and save it for a later date! I will have to give this one a bit of thought I think.

Jill from Fizzy Thoughts is encouraging us to find some new blogs and comment on them! She even wants meaningful comments! What's that about? **grins** I am planning to work on this one in the morning.

Emily from Emily's Reading Room has details about how to set up a Google Alert for your blog. I actually did this for my blog during the last Bloggiesta for both my blog, and for Historical Tapestry. I also have one set up for the phrase 'Historical Fiction Author'. I do think that the Google Alert works really well, as long as you don't have a blog name that has some common words in, like Reading and Adventures, because a lot of people use those two words in posts! Actually, this isn't the first time today that having such common words has been a little problematic. Earlier I mentioned that I am thinking about getting a domain name. It turns out that if I was to try to obtain readingadventures.com it would cost me more than $5000AU. A little more expensive than I had allowed for! I am assured that this is because the two words in my blog title are very common words.

Deborah from Books, Movies, and Chinese Food is asking us to develop an Elevator Pitch for our blog.  I have always been pretty happy with the first sentence of my About Me section, although my reading has changed a little since I originally wrote it:

My adventures through time and place, all without leaving the comfort of home. Reading is what I do to relax and escape. I enjoy lots of genres but mainly Historical Fiction, Romance, Cozy Mysteries and Young Adult fiction.

I think I will tweak it a little to read:

My adventures through time and place, all without leaving the pages of my book. Reading is what I do to relax and escape, and talking about reading is my favourite hobby. You might find me immersed in historical fiction or romance, young adult, a mystery or a fantasy, but you can be sure that whereever I am, I will have a book with me!

 Off to work on more mini challenges.