I really love asking people to “Pin Me” …. doesn’t the idea of sticking it to someone make you take a second look at what is being shared on social media?  I’m officially inviting you to come “pin”  a group of amazing bloggers I just followed Val’s Food and or Art Blog over to Natasha In Oz where I was connected to a group of amazing photo sharing bloggers who love to use Pinterest just like me!

If you are not to Pinterest or perhaps you have not heard of this top social site for 2012 : Everyone is talking about Pinterest, the social “pinning” site used to share just about ANYTHING! It is no surprise that serious bloggers are using this site to connect and get traffic to their domains.  The social site Pinterest is different from Google+, Facebook and Twitter sharing because it is ALL about the image and comments are not required to get strike up the conversation.  The fact that NO WORDS are required makes this site my favorite because I’m all about the photos!  Pinterest members  post images of things that interest them to get the social buzz flying.  Users can share any topic from any site using social netiquettes.  Pinterest is giving us an opportunity to share our interests and find other people who enjoy the same.  What a great way to get to know your network but to see what they are posting about beyond their normal niche.

Most of my connections know me as Bren who lives and grows in zone 5b Ohio but I’m also a huge fan of Travel, Food and Art.   Pinterest has allowed me to capture all my favorite websites, events and even Twitter contacts all on their own special board I’ve created.

Click Image to Pin Me!

Don’t stop at the follow, like or repin on someone elses board.  Take some time and comment on pins and ask questions.  Just like any other social media site you need to engage in conversation to get good connections. Be sure to search topics that interest you  and let Pinterest users  know what you think of their shares.  Join existing conversations and share your point of view.  Not to contradict what I said in the opening paragraph,  Pinterest is a photo sharing site but you have to engage to build your community.

I’m excited to add the Pinning Blogger Logo to my site to encourage others to join in the fun on Pinterest.  Sharing the positive things in life giving everyone a voice is what social networking is all about for me and this is a perfect example of how it works!

If you would like to be included in my weekly feature post I just ask that you have one of these cute “I’m a Pinning Blogger” button anywhere on your blog… More Information on Natasha’s Site.

In Autumn of 2011 the new Growing Style App was introduced by my friends at Costa Farms.  I was fairly new to owning my own iphone and was extremely excited to have downloaded a new application that was easy to navigate and filled with loads of useful growing information.  Did I mention that this app was also FREE?!  What’s not to love about all that packed into one 5 second download?  This past week the new spring edition of Growing Style became available.   I hope you will click over to your App Store and search for “Growing Style” so you can be inspired this growing season from the amazing people at Costa Farms. You can also click over to www.growingstylemag.com for your free copy!

Colorful Images and Informative Articles at Your Finger Tips

Here’s what Costa Farms has to say about Growing Style Spring / Summer 2012

Why go digital?? Because the world is changing at a rapid rate and we wanted to go the extra mile to EDUCATE, CONNECT and ENHANCE the relationship between gardeners and those ‘plant curious’. Our editor, Karen Jimerson, has a deep, undying love for anything green and affinity for teaching others how to ‘do-it-yourself’, thus we feel GrowingStyle is the be-all, do-all App for iPhone, iPad and Android tablets.

About Growing Style Editor – Karen Weir-Jimerson

Karen Weir-Jimerson is a magazine writer and book author who has been gardening since she was 8 years old (when she planted mint and learned the lesson of invasive plants). Karen lives on three acres in rural Iowa where she and her husband raise perennials, annuals, containers, herbs, vegetables, and water gardens.

Karen is a writer, editor and Master Gardener. She is author of So Much Sky, essays about living and gardening in the country, as well as eight books about gardening, including Better Homes and Gardens Container Gardening Made Easy and Better Homes and Gardens Herb Gardening. Karen is also a columnist for Country Gardens magazine as well as a frequent contributor to gardening and lifestyle magazines including Better Homes and Gardens, Midwest Living, Country Home, Family Circle, Nature’s Garden, Garden Ideas, Horticulture, Country Woman, Creative Home, and Country Almanac magazines. Visit Karens website at Author Site.

I’d love to hear from you … share with me what app’s you are using on your mobile devices that make it easy to stay in the garden!

Suddenly I felt light headed and nausea  after  doing a HUGE upload on to my  5 year old Flickr account. Confusion and dismay filled my happy garden world as I clicked over to my photostream to find over 1,000 photos GONE -  What??? I immediately started clicking around on the Flickr URL to see if a gallery was hidden in a new archive. I Googled ‘Vanishing Photos on Flickr’ to find only google posts from my circle of friends who were using the network but nothing indicating any issues. It’s been 3 days and 500 new photos later and I have yet to find what the issue may have been to cause over 1,000 photos on my free Flickr account to vanish.

My experience from this mystery mishap has inspired me to share with my network some basic tips and new features that I have found on the Flickr network.  As I mentioned above I have found no articles about missing images on the Flickr site that references the issues I had this past week.   From  the research and experimenting on my own trying to recreate what may have happen I would like to share some uploading tips.

One of my sets to disappear was my #fallfest11 image collection.  I had slideshows and links leading to all these images on the web.  This collection had over 4,000 views from October 2011 event at GreensGrow Farm in the Philly area.  Thankfully, I had a back up of these images and was able to upload them to the site again.   However, the broken links on additional websites and twitter shares I can not fix.

#1 thing to remember is to ALWAYS backup your photos.  DO NOT rely on photo sharing sites to be your library.  The only thing that saved me from what could have been a disaster is that I have a DVD copy of my images as well as an external hard drive filled with all images. 

 Uploading to Sets on Flickr.com

I’m crazy about trying to keep organized especially when it comes to my images.  I like to create sets on the Flickr site to keep different gardens I’ve visited or events all in one collection.  Flickr allows you many options to stay organized but today I’m going to share the ‘set’ organizing option.

To create a set you will go to your photo stream.  You will find a link to that at the top of your Flickr homepage once you are signed in to your account.  Once you are on your page click on the Organize & Create link at the top.    Once you are in your organize & create page you will see an option for Sets.  If you click on that tab it will give you many options so be sure to pick ‘create a set’.     You will have to pick at least 1 image from the photo scroll bar at the bottom of the page to place in this set before you can complete this process.

Above is what my Organize & Create Flickr page.  I found that if I create a set in using this option and then upload my photos on the URL main page images did not disappear.

Uploading Images

Once I’ve created a set in the Organize & Create page I can return to my photostream and upload images placing them in the set with tags and descriptions with ease.

Iphone Flickr App

Another option of sharing that is new with Flickr is the Free iPhone App.  You can download this at the itunes store at this link:  App Store / Flickr .  This newly updated app allows you to upload multiple images at one time and has an improved video upload option.   I have not used the video options yet but I love the new multiply image upload option allowing me to share all those fun photos I’ve captured with my iphone.

I’m all about sharing images during the day and ending my day with a few shares on my #instagram account.  With the new features on Flickr mobile I may just have to have a night cap with them as well.

I hope these quick tips help you have an enjoyable experience sharing images using the Flickr network.   I’ll keep you posted if I have any additional missing sets but for now these are the options that are keeping me sharing and connecting on the  largest photo sharing network on the web.

I left my husband scratching his head wondering why I was so excited to see my #gardenchat friend @jchapstk  tweeting away images at the Mid-Atlantic Nursery Trade Show as I run for a refill on my coffee and back to watch the twitter feed in the office on my P.C.   He just couldn’t grasp why it was so fascinating to see what this cyber friend was sharing via tweets from this  Baltimore, Maryland Nursery Trade show.  This event took place many miles  from my growing zone here in Ohio.

Using social media is something to get excited about in the garden industry.  I wish more nursery owners would realized that using social media sites like Twitter can help them connect in priceless ways interacting with a whole new group of the next  generation of potential garden enthusiasts.   It’s free to set up a Google, Facebook and Twitter account and can be done in a matter of minutes so the question of ‘why should I use social media‘ always baffles me. I’m going to use my friend @jchapstk as an example because we met each other on the social media site Twitter.  Connecting one day on the hashtag #gardenchat and sharing our love for growing natural and supporting others who enjoy gardening , we’ve learned so much from one another.  Even though we grow gardens and plant trees many miles from each other and she is a super- Hortie ( my term for master gardeners) and I just wanna grow and have fun WE continue to grow better gardens together.  Jeavonna ( aka @jchapstk on twitter) called me last week asking for tips on attending a garden themed trade show.  I was honored to tell her some of the basic tips I’ve learned in the past few years networking on my own as well as working for the shows.    It was exciting to me to hear that she was inspired by what I had shared  last summer and she wanted to do share the #mants show with the #gardenchat community.     Are you starting to see  how this is MORE then just tweeting out some images?

On Tuesday ,  January 10th in the  late morning the tweets began to stream on the #mants hashtag streamline on Twitter.   One of the first to start sharing images from the show floor was Jeavonna.  Knowing it was her first show,  I could imagine her excitement knowing she’s the eyes for the 120,000 plus audience we attract on the hour of #gardenchat.  Just writing about this experience knowing the adrenaline rush I get goose bumps!  YOU TWEET GIRL!!!   One of the  first pioneering garden net-workers , Annie (@greensoil) who connects using social media all the way from her ranch on the West Coast was supporting our friend @jchapstk as well as sharing in the excitement by retweeting the event to her followers.

Some of my favorite shares by @jchapstk are featured in the collage below.   It was awesome to see some of the new perennials for 2012 that I’ll be looking for in my garden centers locally.   I’m also interested in possibly attending this Nursery Show next year to help support my community of growers and those who provided the products  by sharing all the exciting things going on in the industry!

View more of @jchapstk shares on Twitter by clicking on the collage above.

Have you been to a trade show or would just like to put your 2 cents in on my blog ?  Please leave my a comment so we can connect!

Cozy Slippers, Coffee, Dahlias, and my icloud for sharing it all

This is the one cloud that is truly creating continuous sunshine in my Apple world and I hope to share with you what I’ve experienced in this short post.  I recently became an Apple user and have had a 90% positive experience since purchasing an Iphone and Ipad for business use.     These products have become so much more then a business adventure with the introduction of applications like the icloud.

First note you must be an Apple user to be able to use this application.  When you sign up for iCloud for your Apple devices  you automatically get 5GB of free storage. <bonus… right?!> You have to be sure to do all current updates on your mobile devices before these options will work properly.  I updated my iphone / ipad from my PC on Wednesday after my brother told me about his positive experience with the icloud.  If you don’t have the new iPhone, the 4S, you’ll need to install the latest mobile operating system, iOS 5, a free update that will require hooking up the device to a computer.  The new beta, which is available to all users with an Apple ID, features web-based version of Mail, Contacts, Calendar and photo sharing. luding iTunes Match.

What does icloud do now that I have it updated : When you turn on the icloud fuction in your app settings you will now be able to view your images on any devices using wifi. HOWEVER,  I can’t figure out where this function is allowing me to view the images on my PC if it is at all.  The official apple webpage says that it works on PC so I will have to do more research and get back with you as soon as possible.   As for now the icloud is making it easier to share images from my growing experience.

By the way,  the 10% negative about Apple experience I mentioned in the beginning of this share has to do with camera to Apple processing which save  a totally different blog entry.

I’d like to hear from you if you use any Apple products for garden related networking.  Be sure to leave me a comment below.

You can find out more information from Apple Store by clicking HERE.

Why is it that the temperature drops and my mouth begins watering for some yummy autumn harvest treats from the garden?  Today is a tad below normal in temperature and I’m looking at my pumpkin plants longing for them to be ready to harvested.  That just isn’t going to happen in my raised bed for another few weeks as planned planting this early summer has these Autumn favorites blooming just in time for Halloween decorating.   To cure that ‘salivating’ going on I’m digging through my pantry looking for some quick fix pumpkin bread mix.   As luck has it my friend Jess tweets me to inform me there is a pumpkin sitting on my front porch.  A gift from their early harvest and about to be made into some pumpkin bread in my kitchen this morning.

Like most mornings I’m documenting my growing experience using tools like Twitter and Instagram sharing what is growing on in my garden.  I happen to share photos of the pumpkin bread I had just made and received some awesome suggestions on what to add to this mix.  I can’t wait to try some of these suggestions in my next batch of pumpkin bread.

Click To See Suggestions For Pumpkin Bread Recipe

For my original pumpkin bread recipe please click here.

I would love to know what your favorite pumpkin recipe is!  Do share by leaving a comment because I love to visit other bloggers sites who enjoy sharing what they grow.