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Shades Blogiversary - I'm Back! Say hello to Amy Miller Ross and Mabel Robb of Liberty, Missouri. They're here to pass on the news that it's Shades' fifth Blogiversary, five years of blogging as Shades Of The Departed. With this post, No Place For A Lady, Shades started down the road to blogging history. The history part is that I still love Shades five years later.

It's been an extremely difficult year for me personally. I've had to place this blog and Shades The Magazine on hold to focus on getting well. Yes, getting well has been my full-time job and I can report I've been pretty good at it. And so, I return.

Return to find the online world has changed completely. Why, it's like buying a car with a standard transmission when your last car was an automatic. Now where's first gear?

So, did I fiddle while the online community burned brightly? Not on your/my life. I bought some fantastic new photographs I'm dying to show you. I acquired some amazing new books on photographic research. I'm so much more informed. I took classes on creating and streamlining Shades The Magazine. Faster? I hope so. I outlined that book I'm going to write. Write this year. I have so much to share with you.

I'm also working on two new adventures associated with this blog, footnoteMaven.com, and our community. Now, just what could that be? April will see them announced. April, my favorite month, the month I was born, and the birth of new ideas here at Shades.

Shades The Magazine is in the works again, back better than ever with the April Issue on School Days. Thank you Shades readers for twittering, emailing, and commenting; keeping Shades alive in the minds of our community. We do it for you, but we can't do it without you. Thank you!

And if that wasn't enough to spur me on, I received three emails this week from readers who have made a connection through Shades; from this blog and one very exciting connection through Shades Magazine. Stay tuned, to hear about them. As you know, Shades is all about the connections.

I'm so excited, that I just can't hide it. I'm back!