Thursday, February 23, 2012

Tuesday, February 21, 2012

Blogger Design: Making Sidebar Buttons.

So, I just had a question in class about some things on my sidebar, in particular, the buttons.

This is going to be an easy, yet somewhat lengthy lesson on how to make these buttons. This is an easy way to connect your readers to your social media sites or within your own sites.
Here goes:

1) These buttons are images to begin with! Who knew?!
So make your pretty little button in photoshop or your software of choice and save as a .jpeg or .png



*HINT! If you make your image with a transparent background, YOU HAVE to save it as .png for the transparency to work.
*Hint! Make your image the size of your sidebar minus 10 pixels. (Ex: my sidebar is 310 pixels, so I make my buttons at most 300 pixels wide).
*Hint! Is this font too boring for you?? Download your own at dafont.com!


2) Upload your photo to a photo-hosting site such as photobucket.com
3) After you've uploaded click and copy the "DIRECT LINK"  under your image.

4) This step will be the most important step of your life, it will change EVERYTHING!! (okay, I'm exaggerating, but it's pretty neat.) The following code will be the html for your image. 

<a border="0" href="Where you want your readers to go after clicking this button" target="_blank"><img src="yourimagedirectlinkURL"/></a>

So for example: in the first set of "" I would put the link to my facebook account, and the second is the direct link to my image. Here is my code: 

<a border="0" href="http://www.facebook.com/pages/Sincerely-Kylee/207198959333654" target="_blank"><img src="http://i1131.photobucket.com/albums/m544/sincerelykylee/BlogButton_1.png"/></a>

*Hint! Anytime I make my own buttons (or anything that requires some coding), I save it in a word doc to have it for the future. It keeps me from making a million buttons. 
*Hint! With this bit of html you can basically link an image to whatever you want! Try linking within your own site to your favorite post or a search label option. Whatever is in the top in the browser bar is what I put into the first set of quotation marks. :) 

5) Final step! Copy your code and place it into a "HTML Widget" in your blogger sidebar. 

Then, you get something like this:


*Hint! Save it!!!

Well, there you have it! Go now, and become designing divas. I mean, you're practically a graphic designer after accomplishing that feat!

Monday, February 20, 2012

I should get real for a sec.

It's been on my heart to share what I'm going through.

I've battled with this for a couple of weeks because I really didn't think that anyone would want to hear what I'm feeling.

But, then I realized that this is my blog and I will share what I am feeling regardless if you read it, hate it and never come back again.


I have been on the verge of depression for about 3 weeks. This past week, I crossed into the dark world of depression. I really haven't ever been "depressed" before so I didn't know what was going on to begin with.


Here's the situation: 
We live with my husband's brother. It was great of him to let us move into his garage so we could save for a house. But, the negatives outweigh the positives in this little living situation. 


Positives:
We get to save about $400 extra a month. 
I get to spend some time with my wonderful nieces. 


Negatives:
Being in a tiny house with WAAY too many people. 
Getting to a place in my relationship with my brother-in-law where he ANNOYS the crap out of me! 
The lack of creativity and inspiration that comes with living in a state of negativity. 


Needless to say, we are BEYOND ready to get our own place. And we're on our way to that. We are fixing to close on our first home. WHICH IS THE BIGGEST BLESSING/MOST STRESSFUL THING THAT HAS EVER HAPPENED TO ME.

Lately, I have been sad. Jacob and I went through some rough stuff together last month, and this month we are both battling with the lack of creative and positive energy we rely on.

We have GOT to get out of here... soon.

Sunday, February 5, 2012

We Put an Offer on Our First Home

I know this is more like a status update, but I just had to post something about it!

Jacob and I just put an offer on our first home. We'll see what happens...

But I wanted to publicly pray about this, I hope that's cool with yall.

--Jesus, I'm asking you today to calm my worries and fears with wisdom.
Relax Jacob, Lord. He gets so worried. We pray in the name of Jesus and
we claim that home in the name of Jesus. We ask that all continues to go
well. We also ask that you bless us financially so we can finish this process.
In Jesus name, amen.

Wednesday, February 1, 2012

Couponing and Grocery Goal

So, I've been couponing for about 3 weeks now. I love it. It's so worth it.

In case you're wondering, I use CouponCloset.net. She does all of the work for me. :P

Since Jacob and I are frantically trying to save money to buy our first home, I am cutting our grocery bill in half (not an exaggeration). I'm trying to spend less than $30/week for one whole week of food. That's 7 dinners, 7 lunches, 7 breakfasts, and 7 snacks... for two people. It's going to be awesome if it can actually be done. Here are my lists.

Couponing Lists:

Homeland: 
Pompeian Olive Oil- $0.25 after coupon
Land O Frost Premium Honey Ham- $1.99 after coupon
Nabisco Crackers- $2.00 for 2 after coupon
Mt. Olive Pickels- $0.50 after coupon
Wish Bone Dressing- $0.60 after coupon
Rotel Zesty Tomato Sauce- $0.59 after coupon
Honey Nut Cheerios- $4.00 for 2 after coupon
Crest Mouthwash- $1.29 after coupon
Manwich and Sara Lee Buns- FREE manwich with the cost of buns.
Kraft cheese slices- $1.33 after coupon
Hormel Chili- $0.70 after coupon
Johnsonville Brats- $2.99 after coupon

My Actual Shopping List: 
2 onions
Chopped Pecans
Hot Dogs
Tortillas
Can of Black Beans
Yellow Cake pkg
Hot Dog Buns
Frozen Corn
Cream Cheese
Shredded Cheese
Eggs
Milk

What's on the menu??
(Keep in mind, I have some ingredients in my kitchen)

--Breakfast: 
Yogurt
Cheerios
Frosted Mini Wheats
Eggs and Toast
Banana Nut Bread

--Lunch:
Ham and cheese melts/rollups
Turkey sandwich
Leftovers
Baked Chicken Nuggets with Mac N Chz
Pizza
Eat Out

--Dinner: 
Manwich with Broccoli
Balsamic Chicken - with mixed veggies
Brats with BBQ - with corn on the cob
Chili dogs- with broccoli
Crock Pot Taco Soup
1/2 price Sonic Burgers
Quesadillas

--Snacks: 
Gummy Bears :P
Wheat Thins
Deli Rollups
Carrots
Smoothie
Cup O Noodles
Dreamy Clusters