This party starts early this time.
‘Coz I can’t be sure what’ll happen tomorrow.
If I’d have access to reliable internet or not.
‘Coz I’m leaving again today.
To the beach this time.
‘Coz Summer is almost over.
And I haven’t been to the beach, not once!
So, take a day off, will you? Party already! Work is overrated, you know. Besides, Kaila @ GF Life 24/7 and Sarah @ Sarah’s Little Kitchen are waiting for your arrival. Red carpet has been laid out, I heard.
It’s also Sarah’s first time co-hosting, so please make it worthwhile for her.
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In other news, I’ve been thinking about ways to make this party hall a little more inclusive and community-driven rather than a personal blog. I already have that with TheNoviceGardener.
The reason I started this self-hosted FiestaFriday.net was so I could continue to party with you. Obviously you can see there’s no ad or sponsored post on this site, since financial gains were not the reasons behind it. It was started because WordPress.com doesn’t exactly allow you to have link parties. Security is the overriding concern, so I’ve been told. It took a lot of effort to host the parties @TheNoviceGardener since the links were not automatically transferred to the blog, but rather, they were being hosted at InLinkz.
Much had to be done to transfer those links to TheNoviceGardener, and although I developed a system to make the task easy, it wasn’t ideal. That’s why FiestaFriday.net came to be.
Now that we’ve had this site running for a few months, however, I think it’s time for it to move on to the next level. I think FiestaFriday.net should be completely community-driven. I’d like to see posts by other authors/bloggers. Maybe there should be a way for anyone interested, blogger or non-blogger, to submit or post a recipe. Maybe there should even be videos, etc.
FiestaFriday.net should be a place for us to find and swap recipes, to connect and get to know one another, and yes, to promote our blogs, too. All offered freely. In short, it should be a resource.
However, and this is a big however, I’m not exactly an expert on how to make all these happen. So this is just thinking out loud on my part, à la Ed Sheeran (a year later I still love the song). If you have any idea or suggestion you’d like to contribute, I’m all ears.
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Voting was a success for FF81! This time, many of you participated, like you should! Here are your top 5 choices:
White Chocolate and Coconut Panna Cotta from Dini @ The Flavor Bender
Lavender Lemonade from Justine @ Born and Bred in Brooklyn
S’mores Dip from Meaghan @ 4 Sons ‘R’ Us
Vegetable Borek from Steffi @ Ginger & Bread
Peaches and Cream Coffee Cake from Lily @ Little Sweet Baker
All five of them offer exceptional recipes! Go check them out!
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It’s time to party! Join Fiesta Friday #82 by adding your link. If you’re new to Fiesta Friday, please read the guidelines
[inlinkz_linkup id=556140 mode=1]
Have fun on your trip to the beach!!
Thanks, Amanda!
I love your idea, too, Angie! But you know me – I zero on ideas. *covers face* Enjoy the beach. I’ll join later – just need to go back to my drafts. 😀 Thanks for hosting, Angie! And I’m so excited to party with you with our new co-host (The CaloriBombing little girl, Sarah) and Kaila. 😉
Happy FF and have a fab weekend!
PS: Glad to know that many have participated this time – mouth watering picks. 😀
I don’t know which is worse, Jhuls. No idea or too many ideas without a single focus (that would be me). I need to spend time thinking! 😀 Have a great weekend, Bubbles!
Too many ideas without a single focus is pretty crazy, too. I am currently organizing my post before I go on a short break and I have about 11 topics to write in advance for FF. And I am trying to get back my ‘series’. It’s like how do I start writing when my mind is busy thinking of something else? 😐 And having no idea is also crazy! But I am somewhat happy having these blog problems. 😀 Sounds even crazier. 😀 😀 Thanks, Angie. And I really love you calling me Bubbles. <3 Have a lovely weekend to you as well.
Enjoy the beach, Angie, sounds like a great idea! I like your idea about making the site more community-driven and will have a think on ideas…just not now as my brain has done as much thinking as it can for one day right now 🙂
We sound so much alike. My brain shuts down as soon as I come from from work usually, and I only work part time! And in Summer when I don’t work at all, it shuts down completely, haha…
Happy Holidays superstar ??? xxx
I think making this blog even more of a community site is a fab idea, it’s already a great resource and I think people should be using it to search for and use recipes from the huge bank of recipes it holds. Is there a way of creating an index or library of all recipes? Can we tag/categorise our posts in a way that they can automatically slot into an index?
I like the guest blog idea too, I’ve always enjoyed hosting guest posts on my blog, I love that sharing element, but is there a way that it can be done without it falling on your shoulders to load them up?
Like you say…thinking out loud…I’m sure more will emerge from my ever pondering brain…?
I love that ever pondering brain! Keep pondering! I’ll do the same, too. And then I need time to sit and think. A lot of time! And probably the help of a web designer. A lot of help! 😀
I think so!!!
Have Fun Angie!!
Thank you so much for the feature… I’m late to the party, but I am so up for it!
I love this community so much because I have met so many bloggers who are like me and supportive each week… it’s so nice to see that support for each other, when it’s not there in most other places!
Have a fabulous holiday Angie… you absolutely deserve it!
Aaw…you’re welcome, hon! We LOVE having you! You’re so talented and every week we can’t wait to see your amazing creativity in the kitchen. I have so many of your recipes bookmarked already! I think I should start trying them, don’t you think? 🙂
Have fun at the beach and soak up some rays for me 🙂
Thanks, Sarah! Will do! 😀
I love love this idea and I’m totally in for whatever you have in mind.
Thanks for that support, Sarah! You are so nice! XOXO
Ah! No way! Find out that my my Lavender Lemonade was voted as a top choice!! Such a great surprise!! 🙂 Also, have a great time at the beach, you deserve it! And I’m definitely open to the new Fiesta Friday format. Let’s make this place more amazing than it already is 😀
Your lavender lemonade was definitely a crowd favorite! And thank you for that vote of confidence, Justine. With you involved, FiestaFriday will surely become an amazing site! 🙂
Hey there, you do marvellously well and put in so much hard work. A community based site would be amazing and especially so if it didn’t fall on to your shoulders all the time. Maybe some mods to help out and answer things and organize? Elaine’s tagging idea sounds pretty good.
Mouth watering recipes you have chosen also, the video is fab, i was hypnotised hehe x
I need to sit down and think of ways to make all these wonderful ideas happen. It’d be nice if I can just snap my fingers. Maybe I should use my magic wand 😀
oh crickey…now that conjurs up quite an image! haha
Have a lovely beach vacation Angie! (And don’t remind me summer is almost over!!) Making FF more community oriented is such an exciting idea… and just as Justine as said above, you’ve always been carrying the brunt weight of FF, and so it would be nice if it could be more self-sufficient 🙂
That would be cool if FF can run on its own. Then I can really spend my time just partying! Realistically, there should be an administrator, though. Who wants to volunteer?! 😀
Haha, yes that is true 🙂 Still, I hope whatever changes come to FF in the future will translate into a bit more time for you to party!
Thanks for the party.
You’re welcome!
Well, I am pretty late to the party, but I am all game for it! I hope you had a wonderful weekend Angie… much love!
Ranjana
As they say, better late than never 🙂 So glad you could make it to the party!
Angie, I hope you gad a great vacation, and come back a little better rested this time. There were so many fruity, specifically peachy, recipes at the fiesta this week. So you’re in for a treat when you return! And, thanks for letting me co-host. I had a lot of fun. 🙂
Yay! After all the fried food we had while on the beach, fruits will be so awesome. Perfect timing! I’m so glad you had fun! XOXO