Look at what I won!!

I won this Pillsbury Pie Pack from Midwest Mommy!! I'm so excited! I got an awesome Pyrex pie plate, really cool measuring cups (and egg separator which I could have used last week, just sayin'), an apple corer, a really cute apple kitchen timer, a pot holder, a trivet & a coupon for a free pie crust!! Woohoo! We're having pie!!!


Thanks go to Mommy from the Midwest for sponsoring this giveaway so.....THANK YOU SO MUCH!!

I just ♥ it all!

Ho Ho Ho

Gobble, Gobble!

Happy Halloween!

It's officially here! I just wanted to wish you all a very happy & safe Halloween :)

Thank you Jennifer!

My friend Jennifer over at Confessions of a Kitchen Witch honored me with an award!

Here are the rules:

1) Thank and link back to the person who gave them to you
2) Share 7 things about yourself
3) Pass onto 15 other bloggers you have discovered
4) Contact the bloggers and let them know they have been chosen

I most certainly thank Jennifer for thinking of me when she was passing out this award and I linked back to her too...that's #1 done :)

#2 Seven things about myself (I'll try to tell you things you might not know...):

1.) I have Graves Disease. Sometimes I don't even know I have it and other times life is a real struggle.  

2.) I drink coffee from the time I wake up until I'm ready for bed at night. I very rarely drink anything else...except tea :)

3.) I don't understand what the Do Not Call list is all about since I'm on it and still get at least 10 calls a day from random strangers wanting me to buy something or vote for someone or do a quick survey. Do Not Call means Do Not Call. It's very irritating.

4.) I never "baby talk" to babies. I talk to them just like I talk to grownups. I don't understand the concept of baby talk. I don't want babies to learn how to talk like a baby, I want them to learn how to talk like I do.

5.) I love music and very rarely find things I don't like to listen to...that includes rap, classical, opera, country & rock.

6.) I have a HUGE movie collection....over 1,000 movies. For real.

7.) Speaking of movies, I have many horror movies but I never watch them. Those are Tim's. I can read Stephen King all day, every day, but I can't watch people being killed even though I know it's not real. It freaks me out.

#3 & #4 I'm sticking together and doing it right here (TWSS, I know). I have way too many blogs to choose from to narrow it down to just 15 so if you'd like this award then it's for you! That's right, take it! And I just told you all about it :)

Thank you again Jennifer for thinking of me ♥ I love your blog too :-D







Sometimes I'm so silly lol Jennifer just let me know that she gave me 3 awards not just the one :) Yay! Here are the other two...

You are welcome to these two awards too!

Updates

I wanted to update you on a few things today and the best way I can think of to do that is in list form. Here we go...

1. I'm sure you've noticed that I've changed my blog template. I also took out the Intense Debate comment form which means a couple of things...It means that all your old comments are gone which isn't cool but I can live with it and it means that you can't leave comments on older posts now. You can't do that because when I had the I.D. form on here, I had to have the settings say "Don't allow, show existing" and unless I go back and edit each individual post to "Allow comments" then new comments aren't allowed. I honestly don't have the time to change each individual post so that's why it will tell you that new comments are not allowed. You can, however, post comments on my new posts including this one.

2. Speaking of time, I still don't have a lot of time to post new tips but the 50+ tips that I have already posted are still under the tab **BLOG TIPS** at the top of this page. If you design your own blog, there are a lot of good things there that will help you. Please remember that Blogger has changed their "Layout" button to "Design" so anywhere that I have told you to go to "Layout" just go to "Design" instead.

3. I do have the time to work on your blog for you though. If that's something you are interested in, then just go to the tab Kats Kreations at the top of this page for all the information. I'd love to help you out!

4. I have been slacking on picking up my awards lately. I'm sorry about that. Life has just been downright hectic. If you gave me any awards then thank you so much! I really appreciate the recognition and love ♥

5. Finally, I'd like to thank those of you that follow me here and on my other blogs. I enjoy the friendship, the comments, the emails and the encouragement. You mean the world to me and I wouldn't want to be here without you!

Have a great day everyone!  

Question..

When you go to the tabs at the top of this page, specifically the Blog Tips tab, and then click on a link on that page, does it take you to that tip or just to a blank page?


Update: It seems to have been an issue with my server. I contacted them last night and everything seems to be working this morning. Thanks to everyone who emailed me! Y'all rock!

Introducing Kats Kreations

I am pleased to introduce you to Kat's Kreations, my home business that was made specifically to help you! If you need any type of help with your blog, then this offer is made for you. Just click on the picture above, the tab that says Kats Kreations at the top of this page or here to get all the information on what I have to offer you. I can't wait to hear from you!

Here's what I'm thinking...

So apparently I'm not going to get any kind of spare time to speak of...which bites but what can I do, ya know? So...

Here's what I'm thinking...

I'll post here when there is something that YOU want to know how to do. You just let me know and I'll write a post just for you on the subject you want to learn about, k? :)

Meanwhile there are over 50 tips that you can find by clicking on the **BLOG TIPS** tab at the top of this page.



Have a wonderful night everyone :)

Thank you Ji ♥

I am the first one to admit to you that I have been ignoring this blog. I promised to get back to it and to keep talking about the new Blogger Template Designer but so far I just haven't had the time to be able to do that. I grovel at your feet for forgiveness. :(

Wait. I have a little more groveling to do...

Ji from this blog and this blog, is always so very thoughtful and sweet and kind. She always leaves me awards and love and I haven't thanked her properly for all the kindness she left me while I was offline with the move and all so that's what I need to do now. 

Thank you so much Ji ♥ I just love ya girl! 

These are for you:

5 weeks ago????

I had no idea that it had been 5 weeks since I posted here. I promise you that I will be here tomorrow to continue with the new Blogger Template Designer discussion. Not to make excuses, but I've been busy moving, had to wait on the internet to get turned on at the new house and had some out of town company. Anywho, see y'all tomorrow....I promise!

New Blogger Template Designer: Backgrounds

I told you about the new Blogger Template Designer the other day. I talked then about Templates. Today I'm going to tell you about the Backgrounds they have available. 

Using the new Designer you can pretty much make your blog look any way you'd like. After you have chosen which Template you want to use, you can spruce it up with a background image. There are TONS of images to choose from under the following categories:

• Abstract
• The Arts
• Business
• Celebrations
• Entertainment
• Family
• Food & Drink
• Health & Beauty
• Hobbies & Crafts
• Home & Garden
• Nature
• Patterns
• Recreation
• Science
• Shopping
• Technology
• Textures
• Transparent
• Travel

For example, this blog is using the hearts that can be found under both Celebrations and under Transparent and my cookbook is using a background that can be found under Food & Drink (click here to view my cookbook).

Once you've found the background image that you'd like to use, simply click on Apply To Blog in the upper right hand corner. Simple as that! Next time I'll tell you about the Layout options. Have a great day everyone!

Happy Independence Day!!

Have a safe and happy 4th of July!

Zemanta gadget

I was reading about a new gadget on Blogger Buzz this morning called Zemanta. It looked really interesting so I thought I'd try it out. I installed it on my Crazy Life blog since that's the blog that I use the most outgoing links on. I think it's pretty awesome stuff.

You can add pictures that they offer, links to related information and a link at the bottom of your post to related stories. And the gadget does all the work for you, adding things in a sidebar next to your create post editor as you type. It finds items related to what you are typing about and lets you choose which ones to use in your post.

You can read all about Zemanta here and see it in action on my post here. If you write an entertainment blog, a news blog or a current events blog, this would be the perfect gadget for you! 

New Blogger Template Designer: Templates

I told you that I would talk to you about the new Template Designer feature that Blogger has added. I thought the best way to do that would be to break it down into sections. Today I'm going to talk to you about Templates.

To get to the new Template Designer, from your Dashboard select Design. Then select Template Designer. 

There are several different basic template designs that you can start with: Simple, Picture Window, Awesome Inc., Watermark, Ethereal and Travel. Under each template design there are different designs using the same basic template. For example, this blog is using the Simple template in red (which is the fourth design under Simple). 

You can click on the design and see how it looks on your blog without ever changing anything on your actual blog which I think is cool. When you find a design that you like, go to the top right hand corner and click on APPLY TO BLOG.  Don't hit that until you are sure that's the design you want to keep though because once you do, that's your template. Of course it's really simple to change if you just don't like it at all. 

Next time I'll talk to you about the Background feature. Have a great day everyone! 

Changes

Well I've been playing around with the new Template Designer that Blogger has added. Can you tell? It's really pretty cool. I'm still checking stuff out but I'll be here soon to tell you all about it!

New blogs

I know I've been neglecting this blog lately and I'm sorry about that. Life has just been a little too crazy and I'm super tired and pretty blah. I thought today I'd tell you about the newest blogs I'm following. I think you'll like them too so give them a visit when you can...

• Stacy Uncorked
• The Todd Blog
• ~Where Memories Are Made~

And don't forget to go enter my giveaway on my cookbook and have a chance to win a Monkey Bread Kit! Only 4 days left!!

A blatent advertisement for myself

I'm having a giveaway on my cookbook this week! You can click here to enter to win an awesome Monkey Bread kit :) I promise I'll be back to this blog soon, soon, soon!

Dear Blog Love,

I realize that I have been neglecting you, my sweet blog, the most out of all of my blogs. I'm sorry blog. I didn't mean to ignore you. It's just that I don't have a lot to tell you about right now. But when I do have something to say, you'll be the first to read it dear blog. Now, jump over to Blogger Buzz and read the newest, neatest things available on Blogger k? Thanks blog. You know I love you. I promise I'll use you again soon!

Just for fun

Did you ever want to play around and have something written ǝpısdn uʍop? Hehehe just for fun, go here, type in the text you want upside down and hit flip :) 


Or, if you wanted a unique look to your blog title, you could simply put in whatever you wanted upside down and then copy and paste it under Settings, Basic, Blog Title...

Blog Loʌǝ

Use your imagination! Oh, by the way, I worked in restaurants for over two decades and they would always have us flip one letter either backwards or upside down on our sign outside. It attracted attention and made people remember it. Just something to think about ;-)

Blogger changes

Blogger is always making changes to improve your blogging experience. The newest changes I noticed a couple of days ago but I haven't really explored them yet. I HAVE looked at them though, so today I thought I'd just give you a quick summary of what I've found.

On your dashboard where it used to say Layout, it now says Design. When you click on it, it still takes you to Page Elements where you can add gadgets and rearrange your page elements. Edit HTML is also still there.

The new part is Template Designer. Here you can change your template, add a background image, choose your main color theme, tweak your layout and add advanced CSS. 

As I explore these options, I'll tell you all about them. 

I've also noticed that when you select Preview under your post, it opens your preview in a new page so that you can see the whole page and not just preview the post in a little window. I think that's pretty cool.


Have a great weekend everyone and I'll see you soon!

How to toggle the navigation bar

I received an email asking how to toggle the navigation bar (have it only show up when your mouse is over it), so that is what I'm going to tell you about today.

I told you before how to hide the navigation bar completely but some people want it to be there so that the 'next blog' option is available still. They also like to show that they are a Blogger blog, have the search form available up there and be able to sign in from it. They don't, however, want it there all the time because they believe it interferes with their blog look. I understand that line of thought. I don't like it up there all the time either.

One more thought before I tell you how to do this... A lot of new blog templates have the nav bar hidden in the HTML so when you use their template, the bar is automatically hidden. This code will help that too.

1. Go to your dashboard and find the blog you want to toggle the nav bar on

2. Select Layout


3. Select Edit HTML


You may want to download your full template if you're afraid you are going to mess up. That's up to you. I live dangerously and never do this but it's a good idea if you're unsure of what you are doing ;)


4. Find the following code:

#navbar-iframe {

There should be more code following it. More than likely it will say something about 'hidden'. Highlight all the code between the # and the } (notice that that symbol is backwards from the one above..it's the closing symbol)

5. Replace it with the following code:

/* Blogger Navigation Bar */
#navbar-iframe {
opacity:0.0;
height: 10px;
filter:alpha(Opacity=0)
}
#navbar-iframe:hover {
opacity:1.0;
height: 30px;
filter:alpha(Opacity=100, FinishedOpacity=100)
border: 2px;
}

6. Preview your blog to make sure it looks right

7. Save your template

You can also go to Page Elements under Layout and change the look of the nav bar. I have this blogs set to Transparent Light. That allows my original blog colors to show through the nav bar. You can hover your mouse towards the top of this page to see how it looks. I hope this helped! Be sure to let me know anything you want to know how to do! Have a great Thursday everyone and I'll see you soon :) 

Tell me what you want to know

As of today I've given 50 different tips (you can find them under **BLOG TIPS** at the top of this page) on things you can do to improve your blog. Ok, some of them were just for fun, some were technical tips, some were suggestions and some were improvements but you get my point :)

Now I'm asking you once again what you'd like to know how to do. If you'd like any kind of tip at all on things for your blog, please leave me a comment here and let me know and then I'll let you know how to do it! 

I hope you all have had a great weekend and I'll see you soon.

p.s. I'm thinking about coming back to blogland on a more regular basis. Thinking being the key word. It all depends on what life throws at me :)

A guest post

(Instead of being a guest writer today I am more of a hostage takeover writer.  I wanted to speak to all of Kathy’s friends and this was the best way.  I had to twist her arm because she would never ask for help for herself.  But if it were someone else needing help she would be the leader of the brigade.)

 

 

Hello everyone.  I wanted to talk to you about our friend Kathy.  As you know her husband is going through some very serious health issues.  Kathy is taking care of him full time while dealing with her own health issues.  Kathy and Tim are a very loving, sweet and generous couple.  I know that if you needed something and she had it she would give it to you.  Due to the economy they have had a string of bad luck and misadventures along with the health issues.  I wanted to ask you, her friends, for help. 

 

I sent some of you an email about this but I don’t know that all of them were received. Also some of you didn’t have a link back to a site or email for me to contact you.  I am asking for any help that you can give to this very special couple.  No amount is too small.  Anything is very appreciated.  Some of you have already responded and it has made a tremendous difference.  Kathy was able to purchase a blood pressure device that Tim’s doctor said was a must have.  That is so wonderful to me.  It fills my heart with love for people that care about others.  Everyone is having harder times these days so that makes it that much more meaningful. 

 

I have a PayPal Donation button on both of my blogs.  It is labeled “Donations for Kathy” and is on the right sidebar.  The donations received go directly into Kathy’s PayPal account.  Even the smallest amounts can make a big difference.  Reposting or linking to this will also be a big help.  There are posts on both about this named “Helping Friends”. 

 

Thank you all so much for your time and for being such great friends to a wonderful person. 

 

Links to the Donate button are at www.screamingforchocolate.com and www.banksprings.com.  

 

Love Joni/Coco

Turn your blog into a book

Have you ever thought that you'd like to have your blog made into a book? Maybe you'd like to have it printed out to give to family members as a keepsake or maybe you write a technical blog and would like to make it into a book to sell. It's completely possible!

Blog2Print and Blogger work together to make your blog into a book. 

YOU PICK

• Cover
• Images
• Number and Order of Posts
• Comments

You can edit your book, add/remove comments, and add or remove pictures.

---

A 20-page softcover
Blog Book is just $14.95
Hardcover only $24.95. And extra pages are only 35 cents!

---

NEW! Get a PDF of your
Blog Book for only $7.95.

And for those of you that have photo blogs you can now have up to 1500 photos in your book! How awesome is that?! 

If you've ever dreamed of making your blog into a book then this is the best deal I've found. And if you do decide to make your blog a book, send me a copy LOL Have a great day, a great weekend and a great Memorial Day everyone and I'll see you next week!

I'm back!

I have successfully rearranged my schedule that makes it possible for me to be here...at least a little :)

I will be here in blogland two days a week until things slow down around here. Friday's to read your blogs and Saturday's to write mine. That's the best that I can do right now. Hopefully it won't last too long and I'll be able to start posting and reading again on a regular basis. 

That means a couple things: 1. I get to write again! Yay! That's one thing that I love to do and I've really been missing it. 2. You better make your Friday posts rock!! LOL just playing. Your posts always rock :-)

For today's post I'm just going to catch up a little bit...

Prizes

I won $20 from Kathy's blog Reflections!!! I was so excited to get it in the mail that you would have thought I'd won a million dollars. It came at a time that I really needed the money and thanks to Kathy my cats and fish got food that week :) Thank you so much Kathy!!

I won a giveaway from Blueviolet's blog A Nut In A Nutshell. I'll let you know as soon as it arrives! I keep telling y'all that she has giveaways ALL. THE. TIME. so you should really visit her and win some stuff yourself!

Awards 


I got several awards from the beautiful Ji @ Jingle and the beautiful Shakira @ You Are Never Alone...


I'd love to show them to you but I'm a total goober and can't find the ones that were given to me :( Thank you anyway for awarding them to me ladies! You know I love you both!

New Blogs

I found a couple new blogs..

First, Katdish has gotten her own site so Hey look, a chicken! is now, drumroll please, Katdish.net and let me tell you, it looks GREAT! You still get the wonderful Katdish and now she's all moved into her new home. Visit her if you don't already...you'll love her!

I think I told you that Katdish sent me an excellent book called I Became A Christian And All I Got Was This Lousy T-Shirt. Wait, I think I told you that on my Happy At Home blog and not here. Dang. Ok, well, she sent me this awesome book that I fell in love with on the first page and have now read three times. True story.

Anyway, sorry, I know I ramble a lot. She pointed me to the author Vince Antonucci's blog. It rocks just as much as his book does. Visit him.

And finally, I received an email that was basically a hey-follow-my-blog email which I usually ignore BUT they said they read one of the blogs I follow and saw me in a comment there and wanted me to just check out their blog so I couldn't resist. I am so glad I didn't resist. The blog is called Workforced and it is so funny!! You should get over there too!

That's all I have for today. I hope all of you are doing well! I'll be by to read you all next Friday and I'll see you here next Saturday. Have a great week everyone!

Break time

I'm taking an internet break. Click here if you'd like to read the details. Feel free to leave me any suggestions for tips that you'd like and I'll get back to them when I return :)

Updating myself

I am the first one to admit that I am terrible about updating my own stuff. I'm all for fixing up other people's stuff and having it perfectly up to date, but when it comes to MY blogs, I'm super slow. Sorry about that. I don't think I'm lazy...I just think I get distracted easily and forget stuff. Soooo...

Today I went through my posts and updated both my **BLOG TIPS** and my Awards and Prizes tabs that you can find at the top of this page.

Then I went through y'alls blogs looking for buttons and found lots of them that I needed to share. Some of them, like blueviolet @ A Nut in a Nutshell, I've followed for a long time but they've been busy updating and I haven't caught up with them until now. Not that I haven't read them. I read everyone all the time. I just haven't posted their new stuff yet. 

You can get to each of these blogs simply by clicking on their buttons (including blueviolet's pretty new purple button....by the way, she has LOTS and LOTS of giveaways so you should really visit her if you like getting free stuff!). Their sites will open in a new tab so don't worry about clicking like crazy and losing me. You'll still have me and you'll get them so CLICK AWAY!! 

I've also started following a new cooking blog, Laurie Holcombe aka Laurie's Kitchen. You can click here to visit her and also get to know her on my cookbook today where she is my Featured Chef by clicking here. She is pretty awesome and I think you'll like her!


And last but not least, the beautiful Ji @ Jingle has given me some awards that I need to share with you...

Thank you so much Ji!! You are so sweet ♥ I'd like to share all of these awards with all of you reading this so please take them and proudly post them or whatever you want to do :)

Have a great day everyone!

Grrr

Grrr is right. I'm mad at my comment form...again. For some reason it's not letting anyone comment. On any of my blogs. It won't even let ME comment. I tried. Grrr. 

I've emailed ID to ask for help. If they don't get it straightened out, I'm going to remove it. I like it but it's not worth me missing out on comments. 

*Update: I think the issue was my comment luv plugin. You can try to use my comment form or email me. Whichever you prefer :) Thanks*