Monday, September 27, 2010

hello kitty

this morning it was chilly. like 60* chilly. i think the high is only 67*, which is cold for this time of year. but it's also been really hot the past few weeks.

the weather changing has really messed me up. i can barely breathe and i feel like someone punched me in the face. not so great. but i do love the cooler weather!

it's not supposed to be this chilly all week, but it's supposed to be decent. not too hot, not too cold. just right!

since it was chilly, i dressed addison warm. i got her an adorable sweater dress thing from h&m during my trip to atlanta, and i couldn't wait until she could wear it. today was the perfect day for it!

i tried to take pictures of her in it this morning, but she was a little busy and didn't want to stay still. these were the best of the ones i took. she was excited to go to school in her new sweater.





i'm actually kind of jealous, i wish i could wear a cute hello kitty sweater still. i think i'm a little old for that though. but addison can, so i'm just going to have her wear it for me :)

Saturday, September 25, 2010

c's birthday party

one of addison's friends had a birthday party last weekend. he's just 2 months older than her. there are a bunch of babies i knew that are around her age. c's mom went to middle school with me, and once we both found out we were having babies, we reconnected. c is such a cutie, and he's a true boy. he was running around all over the place. i'm glad i had a girl that i can dress up and i don't have to worry about mud and bugs :)

he didn't want to stop playing to come blow out his candles, but his mommy was able to grab him and he blew the candles out like a champ!



addison was obsessed the bubbles. she would run over to where they were and keep saying 'bubbles" over and over until i got them and blew them. she tried to blow bubbles, but she wasn't able to. we're gonna work on it.


she was people watching a lot. she would just stare at someone who was talking. it was pretty funny.


see. isn't he just adorable?? i remember when he was itty bitty. i can't believe he's 2 already and addison's birthday is just around the corner.


and there she is people watching again! the party was during her morning nap time, so we had a little meltdown when we left. she was super tired, and passed out right when we got home.


i really can't believe addison will be 2 in 2 months. i don't even want to think about planning a birthday party. maybe we can add a few hours to each day so i can have more time to get stuff done. i wish.

Friday, September 24, 2010

finally some tutorials

this giveaway is now closed.


since i only had 4 people comment on my tutorial post, i figured i'd show how to do all of the things (at least the ones i can show you how to do).

first, megan asked how you can put cute fonts on your blog. i learned how to do this from kevinandamanda.com. amanda makes amazing fonts, and they're all free! and she also posts lots of great tutorials. she shows how to use custom fonts for post titles/date/sidebar titles here. it's really easy to do, and she recently added some common problems people had and info to help fix all that. i know, i didn't actually write a tutorial, but there was already a great one out there. and now you'll be addicted to her fonts too. you're welcome :)

next, venassa asked how to get a horizontal navigation bar. she was wondering about a regular one and a dropdown one. the dropdown is quite complicated, and i'm still figuring out how to do it, so i'm just going to tell you have to do the regular one! so here we go!

1. from your dashboard, go to design, then click edit html.

2. add this code under right under /* Header*/

#menubar ul li{
background: none;
}
#menubar ul li{
font-size: 150%;
font-family: century gothic;
font-weight:none;
font-style:none;
list-style-type:none;
padding:0px;
margin:0px;
border:0px solid #fbcb89;
display:inline;
}
#menubar li a{
color: #fbcb89;
}
#menubar li a:visited {
color: #fbcb89;
}
#menubar li a:hover {
color: #fbcb89;
}
#menubar {
margin-left: -15px;
margin-bottom: 10px;
border: 0px solid #fbcb89;
text-align: center;
color:#ffffff;
background: none;
height: 30px;
}
body#layout #main,
body#layout #sidebar {
padding: 0;
}

3. now you'll want to customize it.

#menubar li a{
color: #fbcb89;

is the color of the link.

#menubar li a:visited {
color: #fbcb89;

is the color of the link once it's been visited.

#menubar li a:hover {
color: #fbcb89;

is the color when you hover over the link.

i usually keep the first 2 the same color and change the hover to a different color. make sure to leave the # and put the color code after it, like it is now.

you can also change the font where it says font-family, you can change the font size where is says font-size (just keep it in %), you can change the margin, which is the distance between the links (only change it in the section where you change the font), and the height in next to bottom section. you can customize more if you want (like the background and the border), but i usually don't and sometimes it requires some html knowledge.

4. ok, now you'll go down to and find this section:

<b:section class="'header'" id="'header'" maxwidgets="'1'" showaddelement="'no'"></b:section>

you can just hit control+f (or command+f if you're on a mac) and paste that in there. you'll replace the 1 with a 4 and the no with a yes. so it should look like this when you're done:

<b:section class="'header'" id="'header'" maxwidgets="'4'" showaddelement="'yes'"></b:section>


5. last, you'll add the widget with the links. if you're still in edit html, make sure to save the changes you made to the html, then click "page elements".

<div id="menubar"><ul><li><a href="URL">TITLE</a></li><li><a href="URL">TITLE</a></li><li><a href="URL">TITLE</a></li><li><a href="URL">TITLE</a></li><li><a href="URL">TITLE</a></li></ul></div><br />

you'll put the url where it says URL, and put whatever you want the link to say on your blog (like home, about, etc) where it says TITLE. if you want to add/delete any, just add/delete

<li><a href="URL">TITLE</a></li>

6. then you'll hit save, and move it right under the header. save the layout, and you'll be done!! you can go in and edit the colors/margin/size after you save it and see what it looks like!

next, mama pea and stayc asked how to get the social networking buttons. i actually made them in photoshop. you can try to make your own if you want though! make sure to make them the right size (so if you're putting them side by side they will all fit). once you've made them, upload them to photobucket. then you'll add a gadget to your sidebar. it will look kind of like the nav bar gadget. here's what you'll add:

<center><a href="URL"><img src="DIRECT LINK" /></a><a href="URL"><img src="DIRECT LINK" /></a><a href="URL"><img src="DIRECT LINK" /></a></center>

there will be a direct link to the image that you can get off of photobucket, and that's what you'll past where it says DIRECT LINK. save that, and then save the layout, and there you go! i sometimes put a few spaces between the images (which would go between the </a> and the <a href="http://www.blogger.com/URL">).

last, stayc asked how you disable your photos from being clicked on to open up your photobucket page or make them larger in a new page. if you're getting your images straight off of photobucket, just use the direct link and not the html. when you go to put it on your blog, you'll do like you did with the social networking buttons. it will be <img src="DIRECT LINK" /> you can add <center> before and </center> after to center the picture. if you upload your photos through blogger, you'll need to edit the html of the post. you'll remove the <a href="LINK"> before the <img src="IMAGE LINK" /> and the </a> after the <img src="IMAGE" />.

i think that's it. i hope that all made sense! if you have any questions/problems, just comment or email me!

oh, and before i forget, since it took me so long to post these, i've decided to give away 2 sets of social networking buttons! each set comes with 3 buttons of your choice (facebook, twitter, subscribe, email, or any others), and are valued at $15 a set!

just comment to enter to win!

Wednesday, September 15, 2010

wee bit wednesdays



it's wednesday again! i barely have enough hours in the day to get everything done. but i'm taking a few minutes to do this so i won't feel like i've abandoned my blog!

{one} have you ever won a trophy? if yes, for what?
well i have a lot of trophies from playing sports when i was younger. i played softball, soccer, and basketball. i don't know if any of them are from winning. we got trophies for just participating.

{two} what was your favorite subject in school?
definitely math. is it weird that i miss taking math??

{three} what time do you get up in the morning?
around 7/7:30 monday-thursday, and 8/8:30 friday-sunday. oh how i miss the days of sleeping in!

{four} if you could open your own business, what would it be?
i think it'd be fun to continue designing blogs! it would be awesome if i could make living doing it. it would also be pretty neat to be a professional photographer.

{five} if you could spend the evening with one rock star/band, who would it be?
john mayer for sure. he's my favorite. i'd just make him sing to me.

{six} what sitcom character reminds you of you?
this is a hard one. i really don't know.

{seven} what are the 3 most important things to you?
family, friends, and happiness.

{eight} chips or popcorn?
chips. i like popcorn, but i very rarely eat it.

{nine} have you ever ordered anything from an infomercial?
nope. i don't think i've ever been tempted to, either.

{ten} what is one thing that you are grateful for today?
MDO. addison loves it, and it gives me some time to get homework and other things done.

Monday, September 13, 2010

goooooo titans!

since it's football season (finally), chris went out and got addison a really cute titan's outfit. i can't wait to take her to games! i'm not sure if i'll take her this year, but i will next year for sure!



this picture just made me laugh. she looks so serious.




addison got tired of me taking pictures so she closed the doors to keep me out of her playroom. she's sassy already.



i can't wait for the weather to get a little cooler, then it'll be perfect weather for a football game. and hopefully they'll still be winning then!