Thanks for the compliment, Nell! I've had several personal email conversation about websites with Kate, as well as with another gardener writer, and will share some of my thoughts here. In general, we are well served to design most websites in a common format, because that is what people (and search engine spiders) are used to seeing. This is a menu either across the top or down the left side (or both)  title and logo at the top, and the splash page content on the right. At the last GWA meeting in Vancouver, I got a very valuable piece of advice about the left-side menu. One of the speakers mentioned that your links should finish the sentence: "I want toÂ." So the link could be "Contact Kate" or "View KateÂs Portfolio" for example. It should be easy to find contact information. If you go with ads, they should be unobtrusive, and it should be easy to tell what is your content and what is an ad. I have been testing Google ads on my site for awhile I think that the way IÂve used them is not too conspicuous, but IÂm not fully convinced about their usefulness at this point. The text should be easy to read. Sounds self-explanatory, but IÂm amazed at the number of sites I visit with small fonts, or pale colored lettering. I personally find black backgrounds too dominating, and flashing or moving symbols annoying. When putting content on the site, you have to first think of your overall purpose for designing and paying for the site in the first place. If you are looking for work as a garden writer, then there should be some samples of your writing, a resume, and some illustrations at the very least. (The mention of illustrations is important  People are used to seeing photos or illustrations presented with text, and will more quickly leave a site that is all text.) A page of links on your site will help bring people to you, through a "back door." (They are searching for one thing on a search engine, and your website appears.) As I explained to Kate, one of the best things I ever did was to hire someone to help me with the website. When I was doing it all myself I would have to re-learn the software every time, and so my updates were few and far between. Now I can email new articles, photos, and schedule updates to the woman who helps me, and within a couple of days the changes are made.

Free is always good, but only if you and your vistors don't mind popups and ad banners all over your web pages. Myself, I find them annoying and intrusive. I learned to build web pages using notepad and I am not into all the new fancy coding because I have lots of photos on my site and follow the old theory "K.I.S.S." which makes my pages fast loading even on dialup. If you choose a free host with templets I still recommend learning HTML so you can build your own pages the way you want them and you can always move your pages to another host later where you can be in contol. Another thing to watch out for with a free host is how much bandwidth they allow. It usually measured by the month and if you go over your website is shut down until the next month. Most hosts have the option to pay a fee for extra bandwidth per month, but that defeats the purpose of being "free"! Good luck with your venture and besure to checkout the link that Owbist posted because it is a terrific place to learn and take control of your project.

A website wouldn't hurt, but perhaps for you look into Amazon marketplace. Free unless you sell something. Here is a link that might be useful: Amazon Marketplace

Debbie, your home is very lovely, nice job. I'm also into the blue, blue, blue accents till a few years ago when I started to add the country red and mustard colors here and there. The colors are perfect together and there's more for the eye than everything being blue. The carosel horse decoration you have in your cabinet is just gorgeous as are the other blue pieces. You asked for suggestions on recovering furniture. My sis wanted to recover her couch and chair some years back so she carefully removed the tacks/nails and took the fabric pieces off trying not to rip or literally destroy them. Once she had that done she used a seam ripper to undo the sewn together parts of the couch/chair fabrics she took off and laid those pieces down on her new fabric, cut them out in the exact pattern and sewed them together as they were in the old patterns. Next was to put it all back on the couch/chair and used new nails/tacks where they went. You'd never know she refinished the furniture fabric, looked brand new. My sis is very much into sewing though and loves it so these projects were right up her alley.