Friday's Flowers ~ A Flower for FIMBY

A sweet thing happened to me last week which gave me inspiration for this last Friday's Flowers. I was asked for a sidebar button from Kathie at Two Frog Home. Kathie is familiar with some of my long term blogging goals (which includes building readership) and offered this to me as a complimentary advertising opportunity. Free advertising, well, why not.


itty bitty button
I'm no graphic designer but it works

In turn (on my own accord, not because she asked) I am letting you all know that she has just signed a book contract for a cookbook she's written. I'm terribly pleased for her. These successes are shared joys for all of us bloggers and writers who are finding ways to maybe earn some money from our writing efforts. Congratulations Kathie!

So all of that to say that Kathie asked me for a button so I needed to make one. It wasn't hard where to start, my FIMBY flower of course.

Three years ago I took a photo of my backyard Rudbeckia. When I got serious about blogging during the following spring I cropped that photo to a tidy square to be used as my avatar, url icon (if you're reading this on the web you'll see my little flower in the url bar) and overall FIMBY web symbol.

Another year later, spring 2009, I had a local friend and graphic designer create me a FIMBY logo to further "brand" my blog. But it all started with a simple garden photo, taken on the little digital point and shoot I used for years before getting my current D-SLR.

I love flowers. I put flowers in my soap, cross-stitched flowers (gifts from family) hang on my walls, I take photos of flowers and of course I garden for the beauty of flowers. A flower symbol is an honest expession of something I truly appreciate.

I don't want to be presumptuous and say I'm like a flower but there are qualities of Rudbeckia in particular that I'd like to think could be used to describe me. Rudbeckia is a very hardy, no-fuss perennial. It blooms wherever it's planted but it really does love the sunshine. The blossoms last for a long time and although it fits in well with it's surroundings it makes a statement in the garden. And of course it's beautiful (blush).

I wasn't thinking all this when I choose that photo two years ago to use for my blog. It was a practical matter of being one of my nicest flower photos-to-date. Even though I've taken hundreds of flower photos since on my new camera I'm sticking with the original.

This time of summer Rudbeckia features prominently in my bouquets, and this week's bouquet is a handful of Rudbeckia on it's own. Simple and beautiful.

~~~

Today is the last Friday's Flowers. Thanks for joining in. I'll draw a name later this month for a bar of my soap. Use the linky feature below to share your bouquet blossoms.

If you're just visiting today and want to know what's going on please read this post.

Pick some flowers, arrange 'em pretty, take a photo, post it to your blog, link to Friday's Flowers and share it with us. 

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  • Francesca

    Francesca on Aug. 6, 2010, 6:18 a.m.

    Oh my goodness, your post is up before mine, even though my today started way before yours! I'll come back with my link in a little while. I really like that simple and bright flower. It grows wild here near the river bed (or perhaps is just a flower that looks very much like yours). It's such a perfect avatar for your blog. Free advertising? Well, great!

    reply

  • Phyllis

    Phyllis on Aug. 6, 2010, 8:13 p.m.

    You know I love Black-eyed Susans! I was wondering if you would mind if I would take over hosting Friday's Flowers since you do not want to continue with it?

    reply

  • Rana

    Rana on Aug. 7, 2010, 3:28 a.m.

    Really this is the last one? I have no flowers to post this week either. I love the button and the flowers. I'm putting the button on my blog. Have a great weekend Renee!

    reply

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