Sunday, March 30, 2014

Bucket Listed | Have A Son


It's been awhile since I did a Bucket Listed post. I've just had so much going on that writing any posts at all has been difficult! I knew that when Little Man was born I would probably have less blogging time, but really the problem was my laptop crashed. I finally got it back though so I think I will have plenty of time for post writing! Yay!


Today's Bucket Listed Item: have a son! When I found out I was pregnant I knew right away that I wanted the baby to be a boy. I was the oldest in my family for a long time (until my older step brother came into the picture, but I was in my early twenties by that time). Being the oldest girl was hard and I didn't want to have a baby girl grow up without an older brother. I always wanted an older brother and for years I knew that when I had kids I wanted a son first.


Little Man is so precious and growing so fast! I cannot believe how quickly he is changing and how fast time is flying. He's getting close to three months old! It doesn't feel like it's been that long already. It is true that the older you get the quicker the years go by and that makes me a little sad. I have been taking great advantage of the video camera hubby got me for Christmas and recording little things LM does. Taking pictures is another huge thing for me as well. I don't want to forget a thing!

I'm so blessed to have such a good little boy. Generally speaking he doesn't cry unless he's hungry, sleepy or has a dirty diaper. He is the joy in my life and I'm so glad I have him!

Friday, March 28, 2014

Guest Post | DIY Valentine's Garland

One of my very best friends has finally written a guest post for me! I have bugged her about this for months and she finally took a moment from her extremely busy life to put one together and it's wonderful! She is such a creative person and comes up with some really cute ideas. This post was originally supposed to be for Valentine's Day, but seeing as I have not been online hardly at all since having Little Man I missed the opportunity to schedule it before then. It was too cute to pass up though, so I'm sharing it with you now!
DIY Valentine's Garland

Hello everyone! I'm Kora from over at Eclectic Darling! Helen is one of my very best friends and I'm so thrilled to be able to do a guest post on her blog! Today, I'll be showing you how to do a super cute and easy Valentine's garland that is made with tassels and crochet hearts. This is my first ever DIY post so I'm excited to see how it turns out!
What you'll need:
-Yarn of choice (Pink or red work great with Valentine's Day.)
-Crochet hook
-Scissors
-Yarn needle
-Material (I used a floral I found around the house.)
-String (Or you can use the yarn. This is to tie the tassels with.)
-Ribbon or Lace of choice (I found my lace in a little container at Walmart for a buck!)
If you do not know how to make a crochet heart, no worries! I didn't either until I watched the youtube video below. I watched it a few times to make sure I had it right. Once you get it down, it is so very easy!

Simple right? I have been on a "heart making" kick since. I made an abundance of them, but for this project I only used 8 pink hearts. Once those are made, you can move on to the next step!

Cut the fabric into strips. Fold the strips in half to decide how long you want your tassel to be and cut them to that length. I used about 5 strips of the fabric per tassel but you can use however many you want depending on how full you want the finished product to be.
Tie the strips together in the middle with your string (or yarn) and fold in half. Then tie another piece of string around all the fabric an inch or so down from the top. Now that you've tied it all together you're ready to snip the fabric into smaller strips to create the fringe. Just cut them to whatever width you desire. It does not have to be perfect! That's the beauty of this project. Once all your tassels are done, you're ready to move on! I used 5 for this project.
Tie string through the middle of each heart so they look like ornaments. This will make putting them on the garland so much easier. Since that's done, you are ready to start assembling! Hurray! Thread your lace or ribbon through the yarn needle and start putting them on. I did a tassel first, then two hearts, and repeated till everything was on.
And now, your finished Valentine's garland!


Isn't it cute?! The great thing about this garland making thing is that you can do whatever pattern you want! You could do all hearts or even add little (non-dangerous) arrows. All the sticks outside were wet from snow so as soon as it dries, that is my next garland. I thought this project was so fun and can be used for other things than just Valentine's Day. In the house, at a wedding, a little girl's birthday party... the possibilities are endless! This one is going up in my room for year round. Hope you all enjoy this little DIY. I have certainly loved sharing it with you!
Connect with Kora

Wednesday, March 26, 2014

Blogging Tips | Editing Options for Sharing URL's on Facebook


I love sharing posts on my BEBBlog Facebook page, but until recently I didn't know I could edit the photo and the text which goes to the link (usually to a post here on the blog). When I would enter a link to attach to a post on the Facebook page it would randomly select a photo and text and it usually had little or nothing to do with the actual post I was wanting to share! Because of this I would rarely share links in the past, but I've finally discovered how to edit what goes on the link and I wanted to share that info with my blogging friends! (If you're a non-blogging person, this tutorial will still help you out too if you run a Facebook page of any kind!)


Let's Get Started!


1. Go to the blog post or page you want to share. Copy the URL.


2. Go to the Facebook page where you want to share the link. Insert the link in the status update box as shown above.



3. In most cases a preview for that URL will pop up automatically. If it doesn't, refresh the Facebook page and paste the URL again. It should work the second time if it doesn't work the first.

When you run your mouse over the text or URL link it will turn yellow.
This means you can edit these areas!

4. Now select the area you want to change. As you can see here there is an 'upload image' button. Click here to change the image which will display in the finished Facebook status update. To change the writing on the URL title or in the text below run your mouse over the area. It will turn yellow which means you can edit those areas!


5. Copy the text you want to use to replace the current text. Paste it in the box on the Facebook status update you're working on. If you are sharing a post from your blog on your blog's Facebook page you'll probably just want to copy and paste the first paragraph from the blog post itself to insert in the box above.


6. Now go to where you first inserted the URL you wanted to share. Remove it. You can add other text to this box if you would like. (I usually don't when sharing posts from my blog.)


7. Review the status update to make sure you have the correct image, URL title, and text that you want to display in the published post. Once it is ready click 'post'.


8. The URL you wanted to share will publish and be on display for everyone to see & read!

I used the BEBBlog post: Suffering from Corrupted Images to make this tutorial.

Tuesday, March 25, 2014

Sister Style | Spring Green & Blue

Back in the Summer of 2012 I put together some Sister Style outfits with one of my sisters. We had a lot of fun creating them and recently I was talking with another of my sisters (I have 7 sisters!) about how much fun it was to do those and she suggested we put together some more outfits to share over the next few months.

We used a basic denim knee-length skirt (Old Navy) and two different style shoes with different tops to create thirteen different outfits. The outfits we put together are for Spring, Summer, and Fall so they will be shared throughout the coming months as the seasons change. March 20th marked the first day of Spring. With that in mind, here is our first outfit which is perfect for this season!

Green Shirt: Faded Glory.
Floral Tank: Hollister.
Skirt: Old Navy.
Sparkly Shoes: Faded Glory.


Layering a tank over a sleeved shirt is not my favorite style, but some combos like this actually turn out pretty cute. Most of this outfit was thrifted. Thrift stores are a great place to find good deals on used clothes. Of course when shopping for thrifted clothes always remember to check the seams, and whole piece of clothing for holes and/or stains. Floral's and bright colors are great for wearing during Spring months!

These shoes really do go well with lots of different outfits!

Monday, March 24, 2014

Master Bed & Bath Makeover, Part 1

In August 2013, Hubby & I bought our first house. Right away I couldn't wait to begin redoing all the rooms (there are 10, by the way, not including the basement or garage). Since I was pregnant with Little Man then I thought it would be best to start the makeover process with his room. And that was SUCH a smart decision! {Read about LM's room: Part 1 & Part 2.}

It took me a bit to decide which room(s) to work on next. I finally told myself I had to settle on colors before I could choose which room to paint. I think I have colors for the kitchen/dining room (probably a red), the living room/hallway (dark brown & cream), and master bed/bath (dark grey). I decided the next makeover would be the master bed and bath. This past weekend the makeover began.

I am a huge fan of before & after pics so let's get started...the bedroom is up first!

This is the view from the bedroom door.
I've never been a huge fan of the ceiling fan (pun intended!), but I wasn't worried about changing it out right now.

This is the view from the bathroom door way.
We only have one table lamp because the lighting part on the other shorted out.
It's in my basement waiting to be fixed.

This is the beautiful wallpaper on the headboard wall.
It was a little sad taking it down, but it wasn't my style and needed to go.
And as you can see here, some of the border was starting to peel off.

Hubby gave me this when we got married.
I had it hanging over our bed before, not sure where it will end up with the new makeover.

Hubby gave me this when we got married too.
I had it on the wall between the bathroom and closet doors.

I think the room was a little crowded set up like this.

These poor wrinkly curtains! Remember them from the Fail post?
I had to tuck them up because Demi kept trying to claw them.


The bathroom before photos:

The view from the bathroom door.

I used a lot of the same things from our apartment bathroom here.
Recognize the 'bath' basket? Check out it's makeover here.
And my poor yellow roses. Emerald knocked them over and most of them fell off, but there are still two left!
Check out keeping your special roses.

Hubby calls me "Bay", in case you might be wondering.
I've always heard things should be done in sets of 3's.
Here I have three different things: a sign, the chalkboard, and the picture.

And a shot from the standing inside the shower.
Notice I have no night stand in my room!
I forgot to take 'before' bathroom pics until I started moving everything out of the bedroom.
I'm so glad I remembered to run and get these before I took everything out.

That's all the 'before' photos I have. Next week I'll share with you the 'during' photos and hopefully it wont take me too long to decorate so I can share with you after that the 'after' photos! If you've seen Little Man's room and are wondering where the 'after' photos are...there aren't any yet! I am having a little trouble coming up with enough decor for his room. I think we're getting close, but there's a few things left to do in there before I share the finished project.

This Post Was Shared!

Tuesday, March 18, 2014

Guest Post | Outfit of the Day with Madison

Today I am happy to have back on the blog: Madison from Clothed In Glory. She guest posted for me back in November {Post: Shopping Modest on a Budget} and I am happy to have her back with us today! Check out the different ways you can connect with Madison at the end of this post.

Outfit of the Day!

I went shopping with one of my best friends, Allison, about a week ago and within seconds of walking into the Sears entrance we both simultaneously yelled “CHEVRON!”. We ran to a nearby rack which was filled with gorgeous chevron tops that we have been actively hunting down for the past few months. They had both of our sizes (thank God!) and they were only $16.00. We proceeded to the fitting room where I fell in love with my lucky find. Allison on the other hand wasn’t crazy in love like I was so she decided against it. I was planning out in my head exactly when I would wear my new top and what with. I literally counted down the days until the next church service… yes I was that obsessed!

To my horror, on the Thursday night after I went shopping, while I was doing my hair for church that night, we got a call from our church saying that the entire New York State was under a state of emergency. Just my luck right? The terms of the state of emergency was that no one was to drive unless it is an absolute emergency.

Other than the fact that I was super excited about wearing my new top, I was talking to another one of my best friends from church about the exciting things God has been doing in our congregation and that 2014 was going to be the year for miracles, signs, and wonders in the Rochester area. We couldn't wait to go to church and hear what God had to say. When we got the call from church I immediately got a text from her and she was so bummed, like me.

We had to wait a whole week until we got to go to church again. That might not seem like a long time to others but I’m used to our Sunday morning, Sunday night, and Thursday night services. It was very dangerous on the roads and many got into serious accidents that day. So it was a must that we didn’t go out that night.

Now that I have told you my sob story you might have a little idea of how much I am in love with this chevron top.

MY OUTFIT
Top: Sears $16.00
Tank Top: JcPenney $5.00
Skirt: Burlington $14.00

Shoes: Justfab.com $19.95

Belt: Wet Seal $3.00

...be clothed in glory!
Connect With Madison

Saturday, March 15, 2014

Double Chocolate Fudge Brownies

I have always loved brownies, but for some reason I usually had a hard time making them. They used to never turn out right and I couldn't figure out what I was doing wrong. Well I think I've finally mastered brownie making thanks to this Better Homes & Gardens recipe from the cookbook I have in my kitchen. {This cookbook is one of my favorites and was given to me by my little brother a few years ago for Christmas. I love it!} When I made these I added a cup of semi-sweet chocolate chips and that just MADE them! If you're a chocolate lover then this recipe is for you!


Ingredients
1 stick butter
4 Tablespoons cocoa powder
1 cup sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla
2 eggs
3/4 cup flour
1/2 cup chopped nuts
1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips

Directions
1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.
2. Melt the butter in a microwave safe bowl for 2 minutes on high.
3. Stir in the cocoa powder, sugar, and vanilla. Whip in the eggs.
4. Stir in the flour until well mixed. Add in the nuts and chocolate chips.
5. Grease an 8x8 glass pan. Pour the brownie mixture into the pan.
6. Bake for 30 minutes.
7. Remove from the oven. Let them cool 10-15 minutes before cutting, don't wait until they're completely cooled, but don't cut right away so they won't crumble.
8. Serve with a glass of cold milk.

Notes
-These are good a few days after they are baked. Just heat them up in the microwave for about 20 seconds to have them tasting almost fresh baked!

Thursday, March 13, 2014

Blogging Tips | DIY Custom Menu Bar


Something I learned how to do in the last half of 2013 was how to create a custom menu bar for Blogger. This was something I wanted to learn for quite some time, and honestly it took a lot longer to figure out than I ever thought it would! However, I did finally figure it out {proof is in my own custom menu bar here on the blog!} and I'm quite pleased with myself.

I had to use multiple tutorials and tricks to figure out the process. I thought it was long & hard, but once I got it I realized that it really was quite simple. There are a lot of steps, but most of them can be gone through quickly so don't stress over it. You will have to make changes to the live HTML of your blog, but they're small and *shouldn't* bother anything on your live blog.


Lets Get Started!
There are four parts to this tutorial. Each one is vitally important and can be time consuming and frustrating, but almost everything is repeated multiple times so by the time you get through the first run (parts 2, 3, and 4 have repetitive directions) you get the idea and it gets easier and easier from there on out! *hopefully!*

PART 1

Here you will edit your blog's HTML. You can have the option of adding a custom menu bar to your blog page. This part is not difficult, but it may take more than one try before everything shows up like it is supposed to. Don't give up if things don't work out quite right the first time through. When I was working changing these settings for BEBBlog it took me three times because I didn't change all the settings the first two times.


STEP ONE: Go to your blogger Template. Click on the button which says 'Edit HTML'.



STEP TWO: When you see the screen above pop up, click anywhere so that the cursor is in the text. Next go to your keyboard and push the button 'CTRL' and the letter 'F' at the same time (it's not upper or lower case specific). You should then see the search box like the one the pink arrow is pointing to here. If not, click anywhere in the text area and repeat this step until it does.


STEP THREE: In the search box type or paste these letters: showaddelement. When you get that in the search box press 'enter'. Each time these letters appear together in the text it will have a spot where it will say 'yes' or 'no'. Press 'enter' to be taken immediately to the next point. At each point where it says 'no' you will need to change that to a 'yes'. For BEBBlog it shows up 8 times from top to bottom.


STEP FOUR: Once you get each of the showaddelement spots changed from 'no' to 'yes' go back through them by using the 'enter' button. The section you need to focus on next has to do with the 'header'. (Notice that typed just before the top pink arrow in the photo above.) Where it says maxwidgets change it from '1' to '5' (I use 5 because it's easier for me, you can do 2 or 3 though, it doesn't really matter). The second arrow is pointing at the locked='false'. In your blogs HTML this will say 'true'. Change it from 'true' to 'false'. This will allow you to add the custom menu bar to your blog.


STEP FIVE: Save your template. Once that is done, click on the 'template' tab on your blogs left sidebar. You should now have a lot more options of where to 'add a gadget'. The main one you will need for this project is the third 'add a gadget' bar down. {I did find that I had to refresh the whole blog page even after the HTML had been edited before my blog layout looked like the one shown in the photo above. I guess the settings need a moment to catch up with real time. Not sure why this is.}

If you reach the end of this first part of the tutorial and your scree does NOT look like mine in the photo above, go back to the 'edit HTML' and double check to make sure you changed the 'no' to 'yes' and the '1' to '5' and the 'true' to 'false'.

PART 2

Now that the HTML has been edited and you have the option to add a menu bar, it's time to create the images for your menu bar pages! For this part of the tutorial I will be using a transparent background on Picmonkey. If you don't already have a transparent background to work with you can click here and download one I made and uploaded to my Picasa account. It is 600x600 pixels and more than big enough to create menu bar buttons. When you click on the link it will take your right to the photo, however it will look like nothing is there. Just right click and 'save image as'. Make sure it saves as .png or it will no longer be transparent!!!


STEP ONE: Go to Picmonkey.com and upload your transparent background. You will need to resize the image into something that's more realistic for menu buttons. Click the 'resize' button on the left and uncheck the box which says 'keep proportions'. Now type in 400 x 100. Your transparent background will resize automatically.


STEP TWO: Creating the buttons for your menu bar is something you want to do all at the same time. Make sure you know what pages you want to link from your menu bar before starting this step. You will want to start with the longest page name and work down to the smallest {if you look at my menu bar you'll see the button I have on the screen here is my longest page name}.

Select your text! There are lots of free options, or if you have the Picmonkey Royale you can select from ANY of the texts available. Free options DO NOT have a gold crown next to them. Type in your text. I chose to put the little line to help distinguish between pages on the finished menu bar. That is completely optional though.


STEP THREE: Once you get your text typed in you will need to go back to the resize option (it's in the first list of options). This time you WANT the 'keep proportions' box checked! The buttons along the top of my menu bar all end in x50. The first number changes with the length of text in the image.


STEP FOUR: Repeat these steps until you have created all of the buttons for your blog. Start with the button which will have the most letters or characters in it and slowly crop down the width of the transparent box to fit each new button image. This way your transparent box and text size don't change and everything will appear perfectly even once you get it in the custom menu bar.

PART 3

Creating custom clickable buttons is the next part in this process. Your images are made. They are the same height and text size (though width varies depending on the text in each image), and they are ready to be added to some custom HTML.


STEP ONE: Create a new album on picasaweb.google.com/home. Upload all of the images for your custom menu bar to this album. Since I was doing a huge makeover there are a few other random photos shown above which are not part of my menu bar images.


STEP TWO: Open a new draft post on your blog. Add the first photo for your menu bar do the blank post. On my menu bar that was the 'home' image.

This is the HTML code for you button image.
This is the HTML code you will be editing to create custom clickable buttons.
<a href="http://blueeyedbeautyblogg.blogspot.com/p/blog-restyling.html"><img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgMt4v7HNrt65ZZMrL345FLiuz34YXR0YQ6dfeAFwthj1SXqAKx8MgL3IMCBKPRYY7lw4vHnKCIysUXHB3KGwRkJH_1OoSQ4fMKSVq2BVSxCOVH9A5h3K1J3vEN7-uhb-pbUbQA2O2uxU0s/s1600/100x100+want+me+to+restyle+your+blog.jpg" /></a>
The hilighted part is what you will need to copy from the image code to replace the yellow part in the code above.
Highlight the URL for the page you want the image to be linked to.
This is my HTML for each of the buttons for the menu bar.


STEP THREE: Click on the button 'HTML' and you will see the complicated HTML for that image. Leave this page up and open a new window in your browser.



STEP FOUR: In the new window open a second draft post and click 'HTML'. Copy this code and paste it into the box:



STEP FIVE: Go back to first draft post where you uploaded the menu bar image. Copy the code as show above. This is the direct URL for the image you created and uploaded to Picasa. So to be clear: copy the code from http:// all the way through .png by highlighting it and pressing 'CTRL' & 'C' at the same time.

STEP SIX: Paste this image code into what was the yellow part from the code in step four. You will completely replace the original image from that code with the new image you just created.


STEP SEVEN: Now go to the page on your blog you want to link this button to. For example: if you're doing the 'home' button go to the home page of your blog and copy the URL. Paste it where the pink part of the text was in step four.

STEP EIGHT: On the draft post click 'compose'. You should now see your button for the page. Go back to 'HTML' mode. Copy the code you just made and paste it in a word document. I find it easier to label each image code so I can easily find the one I want when it comes time to mash them together. Of course this is also why you might want to create the button codes in order of how you want them to appear on the finished menu bar.

STEP NINE: Repeat these steps for each menu bar button you want on your blog. Save EACH new code you create into one word document for easier finding later.

PART 4

Code mashing time! Once you get the code made for each individual button on your menu bar it's time to mash them all together. This part is fairly easy, but if you're not careful a link may not work and you'll have to start the whole code mashing process over again (unless you know what you're doing with HTML and then you can just look for your error and continue on).


STEP ONE: Go to the word document where you saved each image code for your menu bar. As you can tell, I put them in order of how I wanted them to appear (and if you did this your job is simplified!). Copy the code for your first button (example: mine was for the home page) and paste it into a new or blank draft post in 'HTML' mode.


STEP TWO: Copy each of the following codes and paste them one after another in the draft post. It is important that you have the a><a parts touching and no gaps or <div> between them. If you don't do this it will cause problems when you try to load it on your blog.


STEP THREE: Once you get all the codes for each button lined up switch the post back to 'compose'. Click your cursor at the end of your images and then 'center' them. Although they appear in two rows on the draft post, they should show up in one straight and centered line on the menu bar of your blog.

STEP FOUR: {Just a note: I went ahead and added my own custom header to the front of the mix and then lined up the buttons underneath it, that is not necessary, but is an option.} Copy the code you just created.


STEP FIVE: Go to your blogger 'layout' and click on that third 'add a gadget' button. Scroll down through the list and select the gadget: 'HTML/Java Script'. Paste your code into the empty box and save.


STEP SIX: Go to your blog main page and admire your work! Be sure to check out each indivudal link so you know they all go to the correct pages. NONE of them should open in a new window (blog pages don't need to open in a new browser window, links to places outside the blog SHOULD open in a new window, but the code used here will not do that automatically). If one of the buttons is incorrectly linked just replace the page URL and try again.

THE END!

See? It's lengthy and probably slightly confusing, but a lot of repetitive steps in between! Good luck on creating your own custom menu bar! If you have a question please leave it in the comments and I'll do my best to help you out.