April Introductions: Drew at Okra Cola

Okra Cola

My name is Andrew, though I go by Drew on my blog because I wanted a way to differentiate between normal emails and blog emails. [Aside: Most of my friends from high school call me Drew too.] I started Okra Cola in September 2009 and promised myself if I still had posts in my head, and people (at least a handful) reading them by 2010 I would actually do a custom layout, header and URL and so I did.


I started blogging because I work with many northerners (and "otherners") and they often talked about how different our cultures are. I would then explain things to them and while they were still confused, they sort of understood better. That's what I try to do, explain what we do and why we possibly do it; even though most of us have been doing it for so long that we only do it now because we don't do it any other way. I guess I could be considered an apologist of Southern culture, spreading the gospel of Southernisms to any part of the world that cares to listen.


I also blog because I love when people comment, email or contact me via Facebook or Twitter to say they connected with a post I wrote. That feels good. I'm a musician and a ham and love to connect with people on any level I can.


I have spent most of my time in Walker County, with stints in Tuscaloosa and Hoover, both lasting fewer than 5 years each. I am married to my high school sweetheart (though we went to different high schools) and I have two daughters that I'm raising to spot Southern gentlemen, and am doing my best to teach them how to avoid those who are not.

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If you'd like to be featured during April Introductions, email me at rachel@alabamabloggers.com.

April Introductions: The Organized Homestead.

By Karon

I’d like to welcome my fellow bloggers to my newest blog, The Organized Homestead, written while the chickens scratch and the squash seeds try to pry their way through the hugging red clay. I’ve written several books [inspirational books for women mostly] and continue to write and speak and love meeting readers. My husband and I live on the south side of Mount Cheaha where not many visitors find us but we’re never low on bugs. I hope you’ll visit me at The Organized Homestead or my site here about books and stuff, Karon Goodman. Thanks for reading!

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If you'd like to be featured during April Introductions, email me at rachel@alabamabloggers.com.

April Introductions: Amy of Ordinarily Extraordinary

Hello! I'm Amy of Ordinarily Extraordinary. I began blogging in the Fall of 2006 mainly to share my scrapbooking and share our lives with our out of town family.

I live in a very small east central Alabama city ,that feels more like a small town, where my husband grew up. I spend my days being a mom to our son, running my part time photography business, substitute teaching, and enjoying all crafty and artistic hobbies. I was born in east Alabama and grew up among the Appalachian foothills near Jacksonville, Alabama. I am proud to call Jacksonville State University my alma mater.

I titled my blog Ordinarily Extraordinary because if you look extraordinary things happen even in the most ordinary of lives. Most of the time these are just normal, everyday aspects of our lives. A child's excitement over a caterpillar. A beautiful rainbow appearing. So many extraordinary things we overlook. My blog is a reminder to myself to slow down and remember these extraordinary moments.

Now 3+ years later I still share my scrapbooking, but also book reviews, my photography, photo a day project, art and painting, other crafty endeavors, recipes, small town life and anything else that strikes me. I also write here on Alabama Bloggers bi-weekly about the people, places, & experiences that I find extraordinary about Alabama.

So come visit me at Ordinarily Extraordinary and leave me a comment. I love finding new blogs and discovering extraordinary people and places about our state.

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If you'd like to be featured during April Introductions, email me at rachel@alabamabloggers.com.

April Introductions: Southern Hospitality

Rhoda of Southern Hospitality

Three years ago, I barely knew what a blog was. Now I'm pretty much a blog addict.

As an introduction to my blog, Southern Hospitality, I'll just tell you all a bit about myself. We moved here from Atlanta about 4 and 1/2 years ago and I have fallen in love with Birmingham. It's a small Southern city, but plenty big with enough excitement going on and I sure don't miss that ATL traffic.

I love, love blogging and started my blog 3 years ago on a whim and now it's grown to be much bigger than I ever anticipated, but I love it as much as ever. Blogging has really opened up my world and it has been so much fun to connect with everyone out there in the blogosphere.

I'm a big DIYer and love home projects and decorating and that's what you'll see a lot of on my blog. I spend a lot of time going yardsaling and thrifting, bringing home all sorts of treasures, redoing them to fit my house, so that's a lot of what I share on my blog. I also share recipes, travel around the South, and a bit of gardening and just life in general. Every Monday, I host a Thrifty Treasures party for everyone to show off their found treasures.

My hubby has a 91 year old Grandma Eleanor and she's part of my stories too and is a big hoot. Everyone seems to love Grandma Eleanor posts and I even do videos of her.

So, if you love making your house a home and love thrifty decorating, I think you'd enjoy stopping by for some Southern Hospitality!

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If you'd like to be featured during April Introductions, email me at rachel@alabamabloggers.com.

April Introductions: Belinda Faulkner

www.belindafaulkner.blogspot.com
A Simple Life

I've been blogging almost two years, and I post about the thing most important to me... family. A Simple Life is divided into five sections.

Monday - Party/Events
Tuesday - Recipes
Wednesday - Seasonal Traditions
Thursday - Blog Linkage AND Child and Spouse Date Ideas
Friday - Weekend Happenings

In the midst of all the "regular" topics, I blog about my family, my son's OCD, my own panic attacks, my first son leaving for college this past year and surviving a house filled with teenagers and friends.

I have contests, monthly Special Guests and a ton of other "stuff" weekly on A Simple Life.

I started a second blog called Belinda's Project 365 in August of last year on my 48th birthday. I have documented this past year with a picture a day (and will continue to do so until my 49th birthday rolls around). It has been fun recording this year in such a unique way.

www.wwwproject365.blogspot.com
Belinda's Project 365

I'm learning how to use Alabama Bloggers as I go. It's a great idea.

April Introductions: Wade Kwon

Wade Kwon

• Wade Kwon.com


• Wade on Birmingham


• Birmingham Blogging Academy

I resisted the term blogger for years. I was a writer. I was a journalist. I was not, however, a blogger.

But I've grown to appreciate the role of bloggers, and I tell people I blog for a living. I am a proud Alabama blogger.

I write all the time. Sometimes, it escapes onto my blogs, but often it ends up on Facebook or Twitter. I plan to marshal these paragraphs into a longer format this year, but only when I can get away from blogging and microblogging and other stray writing.

As an Alabama native, I have found storytelling to be a part of me. It's why I write. It's why I worked in journalism for decades. I'm proud of my hometown of Birmingham and want to tell the world at large what's happening here. That means accomplishments as well as setbacks.

And I hold myself to these same standards. Sometimes, I succeed. Sometimes, I fail, badly. Mostly, I like to share funny tidbits, wry observations and thoughts on a state behind the times.

On rare occasions, I am better in person. The introverted writer steps out of the shadows to meet fellow residents. I'm grateful to Alabama Bloggers for providing such a community to share, to ask and to laugh.

It's a community I hope to mimic on my own blogs with each passing day.

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If you'd like to be featured during April Introductions, email me at rachel@alabamabloggers.com.

April Introductions: Lisa Isbell

By Lisa Isbell

I discovered blogging just over a year ago but it feels like I’ve been doing it forever. I now publish 3 blogs, this one, another that is associated with my online thrift store White Oak Attic and my marketing consulting business How 2 Marketing Advice. All three of these continue to be works in progress as I try to establish a course for myself in moving away from the status quo.

For practical purposes I blog to share what I’ve learned, stimulate interest in the same things I enjoy so I can find kindred spirits and finally simply because I enjoy it. I’ve discovered I really love to write. I’ve always been a blabber-mouth, chattering on incessantly about whatever topic came my way and I suppose blogging has become an extension of that and now people have the option of shutting off the flow without my ever knowing it Everyone wins, I get to prattle on and any who have lost interest don’t have to resort to hurting my feelings to escape the flow. Occasionally, someone might actually benefit from hearing about something I found or some mistake I’ve made (usually the latter – I’m especially gifted at goofing things up and have lots to share on that topic). To sum it up, blogs are just a very convenient way to be social.

In this blog I write mostly about things I think about, random notions that fit in with what I perceive to be a general shift of society in general to get back to the basics of really knowing other people without the facade of the little shows we sometimes put on and the efforts made to keep up with neighbors or copy each other to fit some kind of mold. Businesses are beginning to discover that people want to get to know the people behind the branded image, the shiny glass and the pressed, freshly laundered appearance of executives. I sometimes write about my own efforts to re-shape my own life.

In my online thrift store blog, I write about collectibles I’ve come across and share the information I discover in researching items I’ll offer for sale and the collectibles I keep. I have built the store around my hobbies and interests. I have always enjoyed rummaging around at estate sales, yard sales etc and this is a creative outlet that also brings the experience to the convenience of home. Other people will now be able to participate with me and maybe find a treasure or two while they are at it. I also include my genealogy research here with a category of posts devoted to an old coal mining town in West Virginia that is connected to most of my recent family history. I’ve found my genealogy buff friends also enjoy collecting vintage goods and antiques so it is a nice blend. My little online attic is also growing into an old general mercantile of sorts that will offer new merchandise that is unusual, has a vintage impression about it or is just something I found that I like.

Finally, my marketing blog. This was born more out of my career path. I was selling advertising for print publications for the past 15 years until I lost my job this past October. Having noticed the trending decline in print media sometime ago is what prompted me to start White Oak Attic a couple of years ago and when I did that I discovered an amazing new facet of marketing – Internet Marketing. This is a bit different than the traditional business community is accustomed to and I found most of the business owners I was in contact with everyday could really benefit from some of the techniques being used by Internet Marketers. Add to that Social Media and the whole changing landscape of marketing in general and I found I had a good niche for myself in communicating things I’ve learned first hand about marketing businesses online using these tools.

So there it is, the story of another Alabama Blogger. If you want to see some others you should visit the website of yet another Alabama Blogger who is bringing us all together to meet and commiserate, collaborate and just enjoy each others’ company this coming Friday, April 2nd at Jason’s Deli in Hoover. I would love to see you there, visit Alabama Bloggers for details.

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If you'd like to be featured during April Introductions, email me at rachel@alabamabloggers.com.

April Introductions

The main reason that I created Alabama Bloggers was to introduce all of us to each other. I have found such value in the relationships that I've formed with other bloggers around the world, and I wanted the same opportunity to do so within my state. Since there seemed to be no other centralized meeting place, I created one.

I have most definitely built relationships with more Alabama bloggers, and I know a lot of you have done the same. But unfortunately, I don't have time to visit all of you.

As the one year anniversary of this site approaches, I wanted to maximize the original purpose of it and set aside the month of April each year to spotlight individual Alabama bloggers by giving us all a chance to introduce ourselves.

Then at the end of April, I'd like to run a carnival of some sort, like we did at the beginning of Football Season last year. If you have any ideas for a theme for the carnival, let me know!

So, if you'd like to write a post about you and your blog, I would love to run it as a part of April Introductions!

Feel free to write about anything you want, but here are some ideas:

Why do you blog?

What do you blog about?

What is your favorite part of blogging?

Where are your favorite places to go in Alabama?

Where are your favorite places to visit in the Southeast?

Who are some other bloggers that inspire you?

If you'd like to participate, please let me know! Simply email me your post (preferably in html, which you can get by writing it in your blog, then viewing the html and copying and pasting) to rachel@alabamabloggers.com, and I'll schedule it and let you know when it will go up!

If you have any questions, please let me know!