July Wrap-Up and Update

Wow, we are already the end of July. It seems like just yesterday I was telling you guys how I had been trying to blog without internet for a while, and that was why you hadn't seen much of me around. Ok granted that was the 9th of July but still. I don't feel like I've been a better blogger, getting back into it is taking longer than I thought...

A week later I explained where I was heading with this blog, my expectations for the future, and asking you for your input (not too late for that, it's always appreciated!).

In that post, I said I wanted to do a a monthly wrap-up and updates. I realize I haven't been up to much this month, but I still want to stay true to my word and see how this goes.

The first post I did after my hiatus was how to clean your iron cast pan so as to not remove the seasoning you've worked so hard to get.



I've been pleasantly surprised to see this post being featured at It's Overflowing this weekend AND it was the most viewed link at last week's Positively Splendid linky party!! So honored!

I did an apartment tour post this month, to have a before of what our apartment looked liked when we moved in, to better see the progress I make on turning this apartment into our home. Just because it's a rental apartment doesn't mean I can't make it homey!

And last week I wrote about the first project my dad and I built last month: my DIY Mug Shelf! My dad was super creative in making those shelf brackets, and I love the result.





Blog Design

After a few people suggested it, I changed my social media buttons, found on the right sidebar of the blog. I'm very sad to say goodbye to my little birdies vignette I made up, but if they were not properly advertising the follow options, then they were not doing their job! So bye bye little birdies :( (It still works btw, if you want to follow go right ahead!)

I've now got cleaner, simpler buttons made with a custom shape from this set. They are more obvious, so hopefully people won't have trouble finding and following my blog. I still want to tweek it a little to incorporate the birdies in it, though. It just feels too blah for my taste right now.

I also got inspired to make new sidebar titles while I was at it. I never liked the old ones. Again, these guys are simpler and cleaner, but still have a little bit of whimsy that I like to have.



What do you think about the changes?! If you have any questions about the blog design, how I did something or where I got the elements, don't be afraid to ask! It would be my pleasure to answer you!

Coming Soon

I plan on writing a post about my vegetable garden this week. Yup, I made my very first ever vegetable garden this year! I'm excited to show you the progress it's made!

I'm also working on writing the post about our laundry shelving unit I mentioned in the DIY Mug Shelf post. By far the biggest project that has come to the blog thus far, and probably for a little while, too.

I'd love to get a couple organization post up next month. I LOVE organizing like woah, and I'd love to show you simple things I use that make every day life a little bit easier and less frustrating.

Apart from that, I'm not sure what's in store for next month. But that's ok, I'm sure you guys like surprises, right?!

Thanks for reading, I hope you enjoyed your stay :)

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Blog design, need some feedback/help!

Well, there it finally is! (go to my blog if you aren't reading it from there) My very own custom made blog design! I'm happy to have personalized my blog at least a little bit. I'm not completely done, but I was getting really tired of looking at the "out-of-the-box" design I had going on. And I've been working on it for over a month and really wanted to show it! I really didn't think it would take me so long to get it together, but, yeah... Well, I did most of the graphics the first week back in December, during my study breaks.

I LOVE my header, and I hope you do, too!! Please, please, please let me know what you like or don't like about my blog design! I also love my social media buttons, it's so cute! Is it too much? But at the same time, simple and elegant isn't my style, either. But if you hate it, I totally won't be offended, everyone has their own taste.

Ok onto the help part.

The part that took me so long, and in the end I still haven't figured out, is for a menu bar under my header. See, someone pointed me to The Blog Design Network and the first post I saw was how to use CSS image sprites, to have images change at hover. Sure it might be a little advanced, but I just loved the idea so much, and for me it really doesn't matter how complicated it is, if it does what I want it to, I will learn how to use it.

So that's how I designed my social media button image. For some reason, it looks a little wonky (the first button, Facebook, is a little higher than the other 2, and also there's a green dotted line above the other 2, have no idea why it's doing that). But at least it works, and I can like with a bit of wonkyness.

I also designed a menu bar with the same technique/code, but for some reason it just won't work in blogger. I mean, I test it out in a visual editor, and it looks just like I intend it to, but when I put it in a widget, which I position under my header, there is nothing. I really am at a loss of why it will not work. I've found an other way of doing it (still trying to figure out how to add the last image so it doesn't jump to the next line, that's why there's a gap), but if I could get the css sprite way to work, I'd rather have that. I tried asking for help on the Blogger forum, and on the post's comments, but no one is responding. I'm hoping that maybe someone will read this and know what is wrong. Please help me!

I'm probably still gonna tweak it, still want to make a post separator, signature button, put a picture of myself (IF I can get a decent one! I seriously do not have many), but you get the picture. Also, not liking my button, I feel completely uninspired for it (unlike the rest: background, header, social media buttons), or it's not coming out well when I do have an idea. Ok, nevermind, I just tweaked it and am now satisfied, maybe even like it now.

I realize I still have a lot of work to do, but I also desperatly need help for the menu bar, and so this is my cry for help! And a little update.

I actually have quite a few posts in the works, that I have the pictures for, but yet have to edit them and write it. I feel so overwhelmed with house work since I finished my exams (also spent the holidays away), and that is coming first, but I'm almost done, and so you should see more posts from me by next week (there I said it, must keep my word!).

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Blog layout in the works

Now that I've had my blog for a little over 2 months, and have 9 lovely followers (yay!), I think it's time I start working on making myself a blog layout. Make my blog a little more personal. I knew I wanted to design my own layout from day 1, but I wasn't sure how to proceed.

I've since found a few resources, one of my favorites being Making Cute Blogs. They've got tutorials, resources, designers, tips.

I quickly learned that I would have to find my blog layout elements. Those graphics, fonts, etc used to make the graphics for the layout. The blogs that I like the most usually use digital scrapbooking kits as elements, so I had been looking around for that. I found one site that I really liked the kits, Shabby Princess, and they were FREE! But the catch was that you can't use them for blog layouts if you're blog has anything commercial about it. Though my blog, I believe, would be ok, I don't plan on starting an Etsy shop, using affiliates, or basically making any money from my blog, I have still been iffy about using those kits.

There was also Just So Scrappy that I LOVED the kits. But they weren't free. I've been looking here and there for free kits I like but can't seem to find any. So when Just So Scrappy announced their Black Friday Sale, I knew I'd be getting my elements this weekend. For a long time I wanted the Happy Day kit, but then I really started looking at all the kits and what the elements in the kits were, and I thought Tweet Tweet would be much more usable. More elements that I would see myself using: cute little birds, bird houses, leaves, flowers, butterflies, ribbons, clouds, sun, picket fence!, grass. Not to mention 42 backgrounds.



So I bought it. For the low price of 0.75$! Regular 3.99$, but they've been at 1.50$ for as long as I've been looking at them. So I saved 50% really. With that saving, I decided to buy the extra alphas for 0.75$ as well (regular 1.00$). So I paid the same price for the kit AND the extra alphas that I would've normally paid for just the kit. I'm happy with that. Especially when that price is 1.50$ (a little more for me because of the exchange rate).



Now I must put my creative cap on to make my blog header, a button, social media buttons, a Facebook page, sidebar links, a signature, and maybe a footer. Anything I'm missing?

Other layout news. I've discovered FeedBurner, so I now have an RSS button on my sidebar, as well as an email subscription option. Things are coming along slowly, but I'm new to the blogging world; I jumped right into having my own blog after only a couple of weeks reading crafts blogs. I'm really learning as I go.

If you have ANY tips for me, resources, good blogs with tips, I would greatly appreciate them! About blogging, about making my own layout, about content, really anything that could help a new blogger.

Finally, I might be absent from my blog for a few of weeks. Got 2 exams coming up, and a grant proposal to write for one of my classes, so I should really be focusing on that. But I am a huge procrastinator so I might end up posting anyway. I'm having so much fun with my blog, and zero fun with my classes haha!

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