I've looked into this polymeric sand, but I can't find a place to buy it. I don't think the base is the problem as the base seems fine. I didn't do the job myself, I had a contractor do it. I don't know if it's because of a bad job, but I don't notice the sand come up anywhere else other than where the fountain of water comes off the terrace I have, hitting the cracks and uplifting the sand. I think once I bond the sand inside, it will stay in regardless of the water, but I can't seem to find any material that will bond. Mostly due to a lack of knowledge on where to buy the products. I also read that if I swept the sand in, and used a sealer on the pavers, it would bond the sand into the joints. Same problem.. Where to buy the sealer.

well what kind of advice did you want? you don't have to call it a blog, btw. It's just a website really. A website that you're journaling on. So you can call it your website or your journal or whatever. No big deal. I've had a website probably since the 1990's or something, haha... It's definitely evolved over time! I'm reasonably happy with using a customized version of wordpress, but there are many other options. A few bits of advice which you may or may not already know... -- Don't put stuff on the internet that you don't want everyone to know. Some people get a little too personal on their public blogs and that can end up being embarrassing or even dangerous later. -- make sure your images are properly sized for a website. Personally, I would suggest approximately 600 pixel width max on landscape images. no matter what 72 dpi max, that's the most the screen can see. -- if you care about people using your images without your permission, make sure you watermark your images. This can be as small as your URL relatively small, but legible on the image at some point. You can even set up a macro in your image editing program to batch process your images. There's also a wordpress plugin that does it for you :) -- be careful with how many images you put on your page and where. People in webdesign typically encourage your 'content' to start before the scroll cut off of the screen. Ie, you shouldn't really have to scroll your computer to start seeing the meat of your page. So don't make your top title splash image so large that it takes up too much space. Make sure you optimize your images when you save them so they are the smallest amount of kilobytes possible while still looking nice. IN particular, the images that are part of your webdesign and are loaded over and over. -- Make sure any text you use in your buttons or title images are easy to read. The font should be easy to read, and the color should be easy to read on whatever background it's on. If you have a flowery busy photo with your blog title text on top of it like 'Aimee's Garden' or something, make sure the text thickness is bold and the color contrasts with the background. If it still doesn't stand out enough try a drop shadow or drop glow of sorts. -- tagging things effectively can be very useful for you and your readers and help people find your blog. I find it really useful to be able to look back at certain tags to find particular posts to help me evaluate my garden or send a friend to a particular post. -- like others have said, if you're writing for yourself, do what you want (without sharing so much that you jeopardize your privacy...). But if you're writing for others, it's best to keep things relatively short. Use paragraphs. Use bullets when appropriate. Use highlighted larger bold text for separate subject titles. Break things up with images when appropriate. It helps keep people interested. Here is a link that might be useful: Aimee's website

This style worked well for me. :) I raised Painted Ladies (Vanessa cardui) VERY successfully in them and Monarchs (Danaus plexippus) have plenty of room to flutter about as well. I sewed velcro to seal the 'door' on one of the houses but on another I just used wooden clothespins.

It's their prices that are doing them in....they USED to be competitive on their toy prices. Now they're MUCH MUCH higher than the Target which is directly across the street from them in my area. It won't surprise me if ours closes. Sad, really. I hate to see any stores leave. Competition makes for better prices. I'll bet if ours closes, Target will raise their toy prices!