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   I am so excited to share some Fabulous new news!                                    
                                   
I have a new friend.  Isn't he cute!  I've signed up for Mail Chimp.
 I think he is soooo cute and helpful . . . 


Using this super cool service you can sign up and I can send emails.  I think it's better than the option I used before. 

I can actually write email content rather than having 'you know who' (Google). 

I hope that you'll sign up.  It's super simple!  And BTW did you notice me new layout.  

I can feature posts like this . . . 

 Come over and  link your Fall/Thanksgiving posts.  Click Here.
So even if I am posting a book review I can also feature a different post so in case your not interested in the reviews you can see I am still posting.    

I'm still working out some kinks in this whole process so if you have suggestions or comments please let me know.  I do have a comments option!  Yea.   


So be a doll and help my little friend stay busy.  Sign up!

Are You A BlogLovin' Blogger?

There were days not so long ago that it was sooo much easier to blog . . .
                                       
                                             At least I think so!  
Now a days there's a lot to think about.  And frankly it's a little 
overwhelming sometime . . . 

                                   
Not long ago in the near distant past you could write a post.  Link to a party and a whole bunch of people would visit you and leave a comment and even become a follower of your blog.  

It was simple and easy to do.  Just a click.  And it was easy to visit and follow other bloggers.  

It's not so simple anymore. In some ways it is with the options to follow via Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and Pinterest you can grow your audience.    

There are other ways too one of them is Bloglovin.    It's simple to sign up.  Some of the benefits of Bloglovin are:

It allows readers to easily follow along with your posts.

It allows you to see which of your posts are the most popular. 

It helps new blog readers find your blog.

Do you use Bloglovin' to follow along with your favorite blogs?          How have you utilized this site for your own blog?

What Makes Me Smile About Blogging

. . . Has anyone ever asked you that question?   The one I get more from my circle of friends and associates is 'What is a blog?'                                                                    
The subject usually comes up when I mention that I review books. 
And then they are all impressed.  I kind of giggle to myself.  It's not a big deal.  
                                       
These questions and comments are made mainly because the people I see on a daily basis are either working parents, or senior adults.  They either don't have the time to blog or even read a blog or don't use a computer.  

Occasionally I do get asked the question Why? My answer is a smile.  Before I speak or utter words the thought that goes through my mind is it makes me happy.  It makes me smile. 
                                           
What makes me smile you.  It's your visits and your comments that make me smile. 

And so I have a wee little bit of a problem.  Google or Blogger has so messed up my blog that I can no longer get comments here.  
I have tried and tried and tried to fix it.  But I just can't.  
                             
Which brings me to the bigger problem.  I need this blog to continue doing Book Reviews.  Which I love!    

I can't just change blogs because I have to have over 100 followers to review for most publishers or publicists.  

And so how do I fix this?  Are you a wordpress blogger?  Should I change?  

     Maybe if you have a chance you can email me and give me 
so advice.  Or maybe just commiserate with me.  Maybe you have the same problem .    
                               
 I'd love to hear from you.  Slegan@yahoo.com

My Love/Hate Relationship

updated:Blogger or Wordpress ... Where do you blog? 
Yes. I do have a Love/Hate relationship...
                               
and it is with Blogger and Google.   Yep.  They drive me nuts.  I'm wondering if all this annoyance
is what causes Bloggers to change to Wordpress.
                               
                              This isn't my typical post.  And, it might not fit into your wonderful linky parties and I hope you don't mind but I am linking at all the parties I can find!  Because I need your help.
                                    
                                
I seriously am not in the mood to deal with learning something new.  And I seriously love my blog.
                                                             

But I am  frustrated and totally annoyed.   The newest issue is for some reason every time I try to
post a photo from my computer I get an error message.  I end up having to completely exit out of  blogger.
And then re-enter.  So far since I 'save' alot I haven't lost anything.  But this is annoying.


                               
Also besides annoying I can't use Picmonkey or Picaso which are my sources for cropping, adding text and
making Mosaics.
                                                              
                               
                               And I found out this morning when I tried to link it won't let me link.                                                                  
                                                                        So
Here are my questions .  . .
1. Does anyone know how to fix the error message? (is this happening to anyone else?)

2. What is so fabulous about Wordpress?

3.  Should I change?  

4.  Is it worth all the 'learning curves"?  

5.  Will my Friends still follow?

So that's it.  Can you help me?          I hope you have a wonderful day.

Linking with Anything Goes
Linking with Blue Monday   
Linking with Create Joy   for Inspire Me Monday
 Linking with Busy Monday at A Pinch of Joy Create Joy

                                                                 Happy Trails
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                              
                       

Test Post--Updated

Updated: Saturday 8:48 . . . How to add post dividers.(all the way down on my list.)
Updated: Saturday 9:01 ....After I previewed the changes in pink.  I thought it would be pretty 
and make the changes stand out.  They do but a little annoyingly I think.  Sorry.  

Did you notice the new background.  Not sure I really like it but trying some new things like

Adding a post divider. I think this is pretty.  Do you?

O.K. so I've figured this out.  Now I am off to figure out how to add pretty little side bar tags.

Very pretty and cute.  I have this list of things I want to change.
Adding the post dividers is super simple but a little annoying in my opinion.  I am not sure I did it right but the positive for this 'Dummy at Blogging' is I made it work. 
Really all I did was search on Pinterest.  You'll find tons of help.  I chose one I liked.   There really weren't any instructions and I actually searched alot.  Finally I figured out all you do is . . .
  1 Save the image to your computer (it was a little of a duh. moment for me)
  2. Upload just like any other photo.   (to me this is the annoying part. Every where you want it
 you add it as an image. 
There might be an easier way. Or a techy (heck how do you spell that?) way but I couldn't find it. 
1. Adding pretty side bar tags. Check  (comment below)
2. Changing the header and adding a couple more photos
3. Find a background that I really like.
I was able to add the pretty side bar tags.  This was a little more of a challenge for me.  Basically I couldn't find what I wanted.  
Most of the free ones that I found and was half way interested in were in 'Zip Files' here's my 'dummy' coming out again.  I don't know how to open a 'Zip File'.  
I'll write a post later on how I did the side bar tags.  
Now I am off to play in the sewing room/closet while I think about more changes.  
                                 Have a Good Day

                      

Playing with PicMonkey

I  love editing my photo's with PicMonkey.  It is fun to play around with.  Here are a few simple
changes . . .

First I made a fun collage of photo's from our daughters birthday a few years ago.  We took her to lunch at the marina of a local lake.

I added this water effect to the collage.  Just for fun playing around.

Next I played with individual photos adding frames etc.

I love this shot.  This is a couple of years ago.  He has all his teeth.  Now he is missing his two front teeth.
This one I changed the size when I put it in the post.  I love the large size.

Playing in the water.  I framed this one like a snap shot.  This is the size of the photo's straight from Pic Monkey.

Here's the same one with a frosty edge.

I think I like the snap shot best.  And one more with Mama . . .

Pic Monkey is really fun and free.  There are more options if you choose to spend a few dollars and upgrade.   Check it out. 

Blogging On A Tablet Part 2

Hello is is my second post on the new tablt.  I am liking it a little better.  The keypad is wrking now.
There is definately a learning curve changing from a  laptop to a tablet.

I normally feel like I am petty computer savy but this is really a  very new one for me.

The Cowboy is not real patient with me. He is better at learning new things than I am.


The good news is this post is going much faster with the keyboard working.   Except I am used to typing like you would on a typewriter or keyboard.  I am not confident with it yet so I am  using two fingers.  I eel dumb.  But I sm getting pretty fast. LOL

I am going to get real brave now LOL and try to add a link. Have  you visited Sally today for Blue Monday?   ..not  sure how to do this.  Click here.  Looks like it worked! Yea me. 

I guess to put in pics from other sources you will have to use prompts  or commands which I do not know I will have to do some tutorials.

 i hope you are having a great day.     Maybe my next post will have photos!

C u soon!

 Have a good week!

Happy Blue Monday

HappyBlue Mon
On a learning curve.


 I have had a friends comment on if I like the tablet the jury is still out.  If I had to decide tonight t I would say no.  I am planning on looking for a few
Reviews or posts, and tutorials one question I have is how to add photos. I don' t have any stored. So not sure if  I  can use two windows and copy paste from other sources which is what I am used to.


I have separate keyboard but haven't had time to install it.

Test Post-Dummies At Blogging--Applying a Watermark

I am fighting with my computer!  I am determined to make this work!

Trying to get the watermark to work.  For some reason my computer won't upload this photo.  For some reason some of my photo's my computer won't save.  I have them stored on another private blog. It makes no sense to me.  Some from every upload won't work.  It's random when it happens.

 I finally went around through the back door to get this to work.   I posted the original above photo to my private Facebook page.    Since it wouldn't upload from my computer I started this post and put it at the top of the post.  Published it.  Then I opened the post and copied the address and posted to FB.
The photo showed up.   Then I stored it into my computer from the FB post.  It would not store it from the Blogger post.   It's so weird.   

Look at the two different sizes.   Once I got it stored I uploaded to Pic Monkey to add the watermark.
I can't seem to save anything from Pic Monkey to my computer.  So I posted it to Pinterest.  Then I copied from pinterest and posted here. 

In a long round about way.  I managed to get this photo watermarked.  Wow.  That was really an ordeal and not one I would normally undertake. 

I'm posting this crazy post on all my favorite linky parties in hopes that someone else might know what the problem is and have an idea how to fix or change the settings on my computer which is where I think the problem is. 

Before I close I am going to see what happens if I try and insert the photo again below and change the size . . .

I usually just go into the HTML on the post and find the numbers and change the size to what I want. 
I know that with blogger you can choose Small, Med and Large but those sizes just don't make me smile. 

Let's see what happens. 

Opps apparently not going to work.  Because I copied this photo from FB I guess the size numbers don't show up.  Let's see what happens if I use Bloggers sizing option . . .

Very fuzzy way too big!  Let's try another . . .

Still fuzzy.  It is much better here in the original . . .

But no watermark. 

So, does anyone have the answers?    Is there a setting in your computer that won't allow it to copy certain photo's?      Just a reminder.  These are all my personal photo's the I uploaded onto a private blog to store.  I uploaded them to save from my original computer a slow death. 

So, if you can help I would love it! 

I am going to link this Crazy, Chaotic post of my world on all the linky parties listed on my sidebar. 
Click here to visit the original post it's So Sweet!




I really enjoyed writing the original post.(Click Here)   I love playing around with the pics and making fun mosaics!   Here's the original collage/mosaic made using Pic Monkey.  I wasn't able to save it on the computer so it is posted on my Pinterest page.  I copied it and pasted it here.  This is the original size.


Sizing changed by going into HTML.  Original above photo was 736x736.  This photo is 536x536

I'd love your comments and tips!

Have a great week!  And please visit the wonderful linky parties listed on my sidebar. 
The following parties require a direct link to the weekly party.
Carrie at Frugal Crafty Home
Lydia at Much Ado About Monday

So Sweet

Last year I had the opportunity to help with a Tea party photo shoot. 

You can't have a tea party without a little Princess Fairy Pig!

Hello!  Will you come to my tea party?

Oh they started without us . . .


Where's the cake?  Tea Party's always have cake!

Mommy can I ride the pretty horse?

These photo's are all mine.  They have been stored in my photo blog.  For some reason I wasn't able to move them to add watermarks for this post.  I'm sure it is a glitch with my computer.  Or because I am a dummy at blogging.  So this post will be in my Dummies at Blogging Label!

Linking at the regular party's.  Check the sidebar for links.

Inspire Me Monday--A Photo Sizing Posting Tutorial

The other day a blogger friend posed the question? 
How do you change the size of your pictures.
She was having a problem with them being too big and 'bleeding' into her side bar. 
Like this . . .

 

 

I played around with the size of this one and stretched it so you could see was I was talking about. 

 

How about if your photo is too small?

 

I shrunk this one a little to show you what I mean. 

 

I learned by trial and error how to fix this problem. 

 

I have no training.  I haven't taken any classes or read any books.

I have learned from trial and error and reading other blog tutorials. My wording may not be correct.  

 

I don't use the default setting on the sizing that blogger offers.

Small, medium and large.  Unless I forget and don't preview my post before I am finished with it. 

 

Even if you use the default you can still change the size. 

 

Here's how you do it. 

1.  Write your post in Compose.   Until you get the hang of

re-sizing only write a few lines and import a photo. 

2. Once you've added your photo.  Switch to HTML. 

You'll see something like this . . .

 https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhz0CM_3IteDN_o_Is_PQC2J3_IgBdHnDFBdPYtncmpAtSIppbqWKrCXYuR1zBsk9g0Hdo9IIKqytpJzTLn4RpcC6hgZIV6RALatdslI-6FLSgCgk_gkgPbmZPsqrMeRVSOIMW0vlZNYXtr/s1600/BluechristmasGvine.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;">https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhz0CM_3IteDN_o_Is_PQC2J3_IgBdHnDFBdPYtncmpAtSIppbqWKrCXYuR1zBsk9g0Hdo9IIKqytpJzTLn4RpcC6hgZIV6RALatdslI-6FLSgCgk_gkgPbmZPsqrMeRVSOIMW0vlZNYXtr/s1600/BluechristmasGvine.jpg

" height="240" width="620" />

You'll want to look for the area (at the bottom in the example) that has the words height and width.    Like this:

    height="240" width="620"

This is so easy you'll wonder why didn't I figure this out. 

 

I'll answer that.  Your just afraid.  Yep.  I was but I bit my tongue and figured I can't mess it up too bad.  If your still a little nervous you can always click the 'save' option before you go further. 

 

But if you took my advise and only wrote a few lines then if you mess it up you have lost an entire post.

 

But trust me it's simple and it works!

 

Ok back to it. 

height="240" width="620" />

 

All you need to do is change these numbers. 

I have found that for the look I want my photo's to be between  "450" and "500" High.  And about "525-550" wide.

You just change the numbers.  It is as simple as that. 

 

Here's an example with the first photo...

First the original photo before I stretched it.

 Here's the original photo and sizing. . . height="240" width="320"

A little too small? Let's change it a little . . .

 

Changed to:  " height="440" width="520"  

 

 So that's how I do it.  I've done it so much that now I write my entire post before I bother to change sizes.  Its really very easy once you practice. 

 

Hope this helps and Inspires you to Re-size your photos!

Did you notice my photo's are from Christmas? 

I love Christmas!  Come and join me and link your Christmas photos, posts, house tours.  Or play around with sizing your using your Christmas photos!  Click here to link.

 

Linking with Create with Joy for  Inspire Me Monday.  Click Here.

Linking with Count Down to Christmas.  Click Here.



 





Dummies at Blogging Part One

Making a few changes today.
Opening the shop on February 14th. 
Happy Valentines Day.

  And, announcing a new program. 
I'll be adding some ad space to the blog.
  More details to come soon! As In a few minutes when I finish this post!

But first why this is a Dummies at Blogging post. When I decided to make these changes I knew I didn't want to loose some of the things I have on the sidebar. I only had the one on the right. So I needed to add one on each side. When I did and I don't know why Blogger put two gadgets on the new left sidebar. Kind of weird but maybe that is how it is set up so you know that there are gadgets there. Anyway one was a Christmas photo. And the other was this photo.

Here's where the dummies part comes in. Something has been happening to my computer actually I think Cowboy changed something. We've been getting tons of popups. I think he fixed by changing settings. For a few days I have not been able to add photo's directly to a post from my computer. Another weird thing. The only way I seem to be able to add is to cut and paste. Hence why this photo is here. I didn't want to loose it. So I just copied it into this post. So that then I can save it to the computer again. Now the weirder thing is I can't upload photo's into posts but I can upload them to the gadgets.


So, I pose two questions. Has anything like this happened to anyone else?              
Or Am I the only Dummy at Blogging?

Never mind please don't answer questions #2 

OK.  Before I go I will try to redeem myself.  Part Two of this post coming soon.  How to resize your photo's.  Notice the photo above?

Do you like this one better?




Smiling along the Journey,

Sherry