A Sincere Thank You

Hey there.  I wanted to say Thank You.
Thank you for those that read and have left encouraging comments on my posts.
That have given me feedback on my layout.
That have sent me emails and/or Facebook messages telling me you enjoy what I've got going on here.

It truly means a lot.  I can't tell you.
To be honest, the whole blogging thing can sort of get me down at times.
I obsess over what I'm going to post, whether people will be interested in it, whether the pictures are good enough, the layout, etc.

I'm still not sure where I'm going with this thing, but I'll tell you one thing,
I appreciate you for taking the journey with me.

A few of you have asked questions about the layout, especially pertaining to my header and the size of my pictures, that is, how I get them so big.
So I thought I would share a few things that I've learned with you all.  And by all means if you have learned any snazzy tips, please share those as well in the Comments section.


Regarding my headers that I change each month.  I create them in Picasa, using a tutorial I found on Clover Lane.  She has a few useful tips on her sidebar, as well as some pretty steadfast views on mothering/parenting and running a household in general.  I appreciate her no-nonsense way of writing.  Her tutorial on creating a Picasa header is wonderful and perfectly accurate, so I'll just link up to hers because I couldn't do it much better than her!

Regarding the size of my pictures.  I used to do it the old-fashioned, changing-HTML-code way.  But then just last week I noticed that Blogger has updated their post editing software!  Here's what you do to change your post editing setting if you have a blog that you created at least several months ago:
     - Go To Settings Tab and scroll all the way down to Global Settings
     - Click Updated Post Editor button
     - Click on Save Settings
Now you will be able to easily drop in pictures in your post wherever you want to and easily change the size of your pictures to Large and Extra Large.  
If you are hesitant to change your Post Editor, then you can still enlarge your pictures the old edit HTML way.  Here is another Clover Lane tutorial on how to do that.

Regarding the Link Index Buttons I created on my sidebar.  This is where I got some help from another blogger and my geeky husband.  Rachel at Heart of Light was so nice to email me with the easy way she created hers.  Thank you thank you Rachel and Art!  Basically:
     - Art first created little pictures in Photoshop for me with the index title. 
     - I then added a picture widget on my sidebar and uploaded each index title picture.
     - When adding a picture widget, there is an option to have the picture link up somewhere.
     - I have each picture link up to a back-dated post that I created that would house all of my individual links
     - In that back-dated post I simply create a link for each separate post pertaining to that topic (i.e., all my
      recipes)
Does that make sense?  I hope it does.  It is time consuming to set up, but then once you do it's fairly easy to maintain.

I found another blog that I subscribe to called Sneaky Momma Blog Designs that has a ton of great tips.  Check out her site and you can find just about any topic you're interested in!

Alrighty then, I think that's enough out of me!  I sincerely wish everyone a happy hump day!