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