with Lorelle and Brent VanFossen

Author Archives: Lorelle VanFossen

Lorelle VanFossen is one of the top bloggers in the world, and host of the Lorelle on WordPress, providing WordPress and blogging tips for bloggers of all levels. A popular keynote speaker and trainer, she is also editor, producer, contributor, and official disruptive thinker for Bitwire Media which includes WordCast, Making My Life Network, Stories of Our Journeys, Life on the Road, WordCast Conversations, and the very popular WordCast Podcast. She is also author of one of the first books on blogging, "Blogging Tips: What Bloggers Won't Tell You About Blogging" and the recently released ebook, Social Media for Crafters: Covering the Basics of the Social Web. Taking Your Camera on the Road, founded by Lorelle, is one of the oldest personal websites in continuous existence in the world.

Website Layouts – Columns and Grids

We put a lot of effort into our past layouts, and I’ve found that those trying to write a WordPress Theme or website layout from scratch has a terrible time dealing with column layouts. Mezzoblue’s article on Columns and Grids examines the standard layouts in a fascinating way, based upon a grid. They explain that […]

WordPress Plugin – Just One Category

A challenge come up on the forum for a user who had a very interesting wish. When clicking on a category from the main page, he wanted a page showing the categories, but ONLY the categories from that category, not the children of the categories. Let me explain this better. By clicking on a link […]

WordPress Article Series Plugin: In-Series

Plugin Updated* Wow! Just wow! I write a lot of articles in series, connected together by topic and concept developing over the series. I’ve been struggling with various Next Page/Previous Page plugins and tags, but “struggle” is the key word here. Since WordPress deals in chronological order, keeping these articles in sequence is a serious […]

We live on vacation

Friday arrived with a note from a friend wishing me a good holiday weekend and telling me all about what he would be doing on his three day vacation. He wanted to know what I was going to do this Memorial Weekend. All of a sudden that question struck me as really funny. I live […]

Introducing Brent’s The 12th Fret

My husband, partner, lover, and best friend, Brent, is behind every one of these articles, though he won’t claim any responsibility for the messed up ones. He gives all the blame to me on those and I accept them all. Still, it’s time he had his own space to play on our site. I’ve been […]

Successful Upgrade to WordPress 1.5.1.2

I should really trust the folks at WordPress a little more. After all, I work with many of them frequently during my week as a volunteer. When the news of the new releases (plus one security patch they leapt on immediately) came out, I thought “YIPPEEE!” Then I was so busy over the past two […]

Birding, Birdwatching, and Birds in Mobile, Alabama

More than 397 bird species have been positively identified within the state of Alabama, almost half of the total species for the continental United Sates. Of these, 179 breed within the state. Spring and Fall migration attracts thousands of birds along the Gulf Coast, especially on nearby Daulphin Island and Fort Morgan, well known “fallout” […]

Trailer Repair – Rewriting the Knobs

It is amazing the toll heat, sun, cold, and time can do on your trailer when it sits for five years. While we were in Israel, the trailer sat in a storage yard, cleaned out and protected but not shielded by the abuse of time. Over the new few weeks, I’ll be writing more about […]

Cooling technique prevents brain damage

Wow, well, once again a VanFossen is in the news. This time, it’s amazing. In this story in the Billings Gazette called Cooling Technique Prevents Brain Damage, Brent’s Uncle Gordon VanFossen was saved when a miracle of coincidences came together to save his life. While moving furniture in his home in Red Lodge, Montana, Gordon […]

Separating Comments and Trackbacks and Pingbacks in WordPress – The Answer

I have been struggling with the issue of comments, trackback and pings in my WordPress site. Thanks to Nooscope’s article on Separating Trackbacks & Pingbacks in WordPress 1.5 (1.3), I found the answer. Let me clarify why I am an issue with comments, trackbacks and pingbacks. First of all, I love them. Adding the interactive […]

Second Hand Smoke Harms IVF Success

As a married woman with no interest in making babies, I seem to have more than my share of friends who are determined to have children even though their doctors, and their bodies, tell them otherwise. After repeated attempts at all sorts of modern medical cures, surgeries, and pills, many turn to IVf (In Vitro […]

Pumping Water Everywhere

We’ve been driving for 8 hours, our butts are weary from the external throbbing of the road under our truck’s six wheels, the trailer dragging along behind us. We find a rest area, truck stop, WalMart, or anywhere we can pull in, weary beyond belief, to sleep for a few hours before we hit the […]

Different Category – Different Look: Creating Multiple Single Posts Looks for Different Categories

With the amazing help of the supportive folks on the WordPress Support Forum, my challenge was answered and I wanted to share this neat piece of template tag and conditional tag code with you. My very popular series on CSS Experiments in Design consists of almost a dozen pages with hundreds of different design experiments. […]

Latches and Broken Dishes on the Road

Jarring down Highway 10 through Louisiana, Mississippi, and Alabama, our backs were screaming from the rugged interstate. At the Louisiana border, we encountered a huge cavern that cross the entire two lane highway. There was no swerving to miss this one. As it approached, I could see the layers and layers of pavement coming at […]

Ban on Wine Shipping Might Help Travelers

I know this is an odd thing to post on our site, but this article from the BBC on “US lifts ban on out-of-state wine” might seriously impact the traveler. Picture this. Brent and I are in Florida exploring one of those junkie flea markets they have everywhere. We find the perfect coffee table to […]