Day 26: Look back over what you’ve published. What have you been most proud of? What are the common threads? Which have been most popular? Create and save at least two draft posts with ideas that come from those.

What a valuable assignment this has been, and what a surprise to see how much has been accomplished in the last 25 days:

• Days 1, 2 & 3: The start of this 30 day quest for “hero-hood” which began on my other site, thechangingpalette, with a goal of becoming “a better blogger”; together with an explanation as to why I ever started. It was to allow family and friends to follow us, “virtually” on our trek of a lifetime to Machu Picchu last June. Now here I am still blogging away eight months later; who’d have thought it?
• Day 4: theotherpalette is borne! Rather than experiment on thechangingpalette, I felt that a new site would allow me the freedom to develop new skills, which I could then apply to both sites.  Success!  This was also the day we were asked to “Explore the Neighborhood”. One of the great blogs I discovered in the process was The Ugly Volvo, and I would recommend that you visit today’s posting “10 Reasons Why Tiger Momes are TOTALLY AWESOME“, that is simply brilliant!
• Days 5 & 6: Trying different themes introduced us to what’s out there. I also published a post with the new element of sound having been inspired by Kristy’s blog Hills & Bridges.
• Day 7: A new header and background, with great advice from Michelle, who has continued to encourage and advise us each and every day. Thanks Michelle if you are reading this.
• Day 8: Finally tackling an “about” page, which was eventually posted on Day 10. I haven’t revisited it, but after reading it through again perhaps I should.  Thoughts?
• Day 9: The Ten Best Reasons to travel in the Blogosphere; still time to add yours.
• Days 11,12 & 13: A great conversation with Michelle from Ilovemyplot, and an understanding of what it means, both to be inspired by and to be inspiring to, others in the blogging community.  This led to a “blogroll” in my side bar.
• Day 14: Who would have thought that you could fall in love with a “window” but I did, and confessed to Kristy that I had done so when I saw her Weekly Photo Challenge!
• Day 15: A useful exercise in “customizing” to be applied as time goes by.
• Day 16: A personalized take on the Daily Prompt: Reputation, although I confess mine was not a particularly personal one. Nevertheless the post using text and a small adjacent image I felt showed definite visual improvement.
• Days 17 & 18: A happy “virtual” meeting with Magdalena and her lovely travelers blog Just Visit Siena. My post “Siena Revisited” has been one of my most successful ones, mainly due to Magdalena generously featuring it on her blog.
• Day 19: Definitely a format I hadn’t used before – poetry and photography.
• Day 20: Another “small step for man”…well anyway it was for me. Menu items for the first time, having tried unsuccessfully several times over the past few months. Proof positive that this 30 day journey has been worthwhile every step of the way, with menu items now present on both blogs. Finally an understanding of what I have to do to create a menu. I even added one today (see Day 26 below).
• Day 21: Linked to my Twitter page @changingpalette.
• Day 22: Viewing the Blog Events Listing led me to another happy “virtual” meeting, Sonel’s Photo-Editing Challenge, and an introduction to many other great photo bloggers. (Which reminds me to submit to this week’s challenge: (Not) Alfred Hitchcocks…..The Seagulls. What a great title for a challenge don’t you think?)
• Day 23: A links and roundup day of some really great blogs, all of which I look forward to following
• Day 24: I dedicated this post to a real life Hero, which I hope you will read if you have the time.
• Day 25: Yesterday’s post was a shout out to two great photographic blogs, Deb Gale’s Carry My Camera and Tina Schell’s Travels and Trifles. I would like to re-quote a quotation that Tina used from E. A. Bucchianari, because it is such a perfect one for all of us, “Make your lives a masterpiece, you only get one canvas

…And so we are back to where we started, with Day 26 and a draft page that has become a reality.  Earlier this month I decided I would post a bouquet each Monday morning throughout the year on thechangingpalette.  As I started posting I thought it would be great to have a final post at the end of December with all the bouquets from the year. But then I thought…”why wait”… which is why you now see a new item entitled “A Year of Monday Bouquets” under photography on the menu bar. Instead of waiting until December I will just keep adding the Monday bouquet each week and let the page keep growing; at least that’s the plan.

…and that’s what they call in show business, ” A wrap”…