I’m rolling out the welcome mat and hope to have lots of guests. For the month of May this blog, Home and Vacation, will be hosting the Postie Carnival. The carnival will go live here on May 1 and the theme is “Our House″. Feel free to write about any home projects gone wrong, or any other home building, renovating, remodeling, buying, selling or decorating experience you might have had. Any questions, feel free to ask. The more people that participate the better!

If you don’t know what the Postie Carnival is, I’ll explain. The Postie Carnival has recently gone through a little updating and will now be running on the first of each month. Anyone who is an active Izea/PPP postie is welcome to participate. The Postie Carnival is a fun way to see other people’s blogs and read what they have to say about a given theme. If you are interested in participating, here’s what you need to do. Write a post fitting the theme of that month’s carnival. (Yes, if you have a recent one already written that you are proud of you can submit that too.) Send the link you’d like to show off in the carnival to us. You’ll need to submit the post you want entered a week before May 1. I will be placing a widget on this site for you to submit your posts to. When the carnival goes live I will have a post summarizing all of the entries and including links to all of the participants. It can be a lot of fun visiting everyone’s blogs and seeing what they wrote, especially when everyone’s writing about one theme. I hope you’ll join the carnival!  Hope to see you here!

This evening I reviewed a blog called New York Traveler, written by Mrs Mecomber.

The first thing that catches my eye when the blog loads on my screen is the header. The header contains three photos of what could be photos of sights the author has seen. And then there’s the golf cart with her family in it. I love it! New York Traveler is currently on a three column theme made up of white, red and green. It takes me 23 clicks to get from the top of the blog’s home page to the bottom.

At the top of the blog there are five tabs where pages would usually be seen. I found out by clicking that three of the tabs take you off to New York sites. One of the tabs takes you to one of Mrs Mecomber’s three other blogs. A little lower down, only inches away, in the left of the two sidebars are links to all of Mrs Mecomber other blogs. Be careful with external sites that aren’t yours in your navigation. You don’t want a visitor clicking on something that will take them somewhere else before they might be done on your site. Think sticky. Navigating between one person’s blogs is usually fairly simple. But navigating back to your blog once someone has left it may be more work than they want to do. I would include a tab for the About page up there.

The sidebars are neatly organized but there sure is a lot over there. The category list is REALLY long. If you ever want to organize it you can either put up a categories page or put the categories in a dropdown. The archive list is long because it shows every post made within the month. It’s pretty huge too. The Snowman for the RSS subscribe up near the top is cute.

Mrs Mecomber has included an About page on New York Traveler and it sure is a good one. She writes mostly about topics pertaining to travel (much within the New York area as you might guess from her blog title) and home. Her writing is original and her posts are of terrific length. She often includes pictures. She usually writes from a personal perspective and her personality comes out in her writing. Her blog is an interesting and informative read.

Take a trip over and say hello to the New York Traveler. And please tell her that valmg sent you.

This afternoon I reviewed the blog New York Renovator, written by Mrs Mecomber

When the blog first loads on my monitor the first thing I notice is the header. It matches the blog’s description which is “taking on the challenges of renovating an 1855 farmhouse in upstate new York”. Currently the blog is on a three column white theme. It takes me 32 clicks to get from the top of the home page to the bottom.

I think Mrs Mecomber and I must think alike, or she knew I was popping in and read my thoughts. Her blog looks great, and I have but one suggestion for her concerning the layout. The labels and the archives lists are both very long and would benefit from being placed into a box with a scrollbar or a dropdown box.

As I read through pages of posts, I found myself thinking it was all very interesting. Mrs Mecomber’s posts are all original content. I am amazed at some of the daunting tasks she’s undertaken. She writes about everything in the renovating process including answers to questions she’s got and helpful resources. She frequently includes numerous pictures, which not only break up the white page and draw attention to certain posts, but they also document her progress working on the home. I do wish Mrs Mecomber had an About page. She does offer a couple of words along with a picture, but I’m nosy and I like to know more. I find myself wondering who the picture is of. Is that her? Is it one of her relatives?

I spent double the time on her site than I typically spend reviewing a site because I kept finding more interesting stuff to read. Her blog posts are sort of like chapters in a book the way they blend together telling the story of her home renovation. I recommend you also take some time to get to know the New York Renovator. And please tell her that valmg sent you.

Today I reviewed My Road, one of fellow postie Karen’s blogs.

In My Road, the main focus of Karen’s writing is travel, both near and far from home. She relates many of her posts to her own family and life experiences, which makes them more personal and nice to read.

The blog is currently on a two column white theme. The header reflects a road, making it a great combination with the title of her blog. I clicked eleven times to get from the top of the home page to the bottom. I’d really like to see the pages, archives and categories moved a little higher up in the sidebar, if possible, to make it easier for the viewers.

When I read Karen’s posts I feel like I know her. She writes as though she is writing to a friend. Her posts have original content and nice substance, and reflect that she’s put both time and thought into them. She does include some pictures but with the white background could even use a few more. She could consider using a picture every so many posts to give a nice balance.

I’ve added Karen to my reader because of the friendly feel. Go visit her blog and you’ll see what I mean. And when you’re there, please tell her that valmg sent you.

Today I reviewed Suzette’s blog called the Lazy Bone.

Suzette lives in Kuala Lampur and frequently travels for business purposes. In this blog she writes mainly on travel and related topics including her personal experiences with hotels, services, food. Content is original and relevant to the blog. Because the blog theme is all white, pictures are a necessity. They’ll break up that big white space and make it a nicer experience for the reader.

The Lazy Bone blog is currently on a simple white two column theme. It took me fourteen clicks to get from the top of the home page to the bottom. I would suggest moving your search, about, archives and other blogs as high as you can in the right column. On a related note, the Google maps banner isn’t showing anything except “Google maps - what’s new?. It’s blank space in the middle of other ads. You should either find an ad that will show something other than a Google message or remove it.

I learned something about pistachios that I never knew while reading her blog. I like to learn something new every day so I got off to an early start just by reading her blog. When you visit Lazy Bone, please tell Suzette that valmg sent you.