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!!

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!

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!

New blogs

First let me tell you that my computer has issues. It hates the internet suddenly which really bites because I love the internet but I can't seem to figure out what the issue is so for now I'm just babying it and goin' on.

This means that I'm writing today's posts now (Monday night) while the goober my computer is cooperating and will schedule them for tonight at midnight or so...

Hopefully I'll be able to get online tomorrow and visit all of you but if not, I'll be there as soon as I can!

Now let me tell you that I am a horrible person! Ok, not really, but I am really bad about forgetting to tell you about new blogs that I follow. So, finally, here are the newest blogs that I follow:

• Chronicles of Marnia (this is one of the FOTTSP bloggers and I finally found my way over to her blog...sorry it took me so long!)

• Food As Art (this is our own Beth from Beyond the Garden Gate but it's her food blog)

And she has a cutsie button :-)

*By the way Beth, something is wrong with your button code on your Garden Gate blog. It won't let you copy it sweetie...just thought I'd let you know!* 

• Graceful (I've tried to follow Michelle's blog before but it would never let me. It finally is letting me but now it won't let me leave comments...yikes)

• Jingle (this is Ji's new Blogger blog)

• My Blessings of Kinship (This is Shakira's new blog just for awards)

And one more new button....click on it to visit duane~scott :)

More new blogs and two new awards :)

I wanted to tell you about three new blogs I'm following. They are wonderful! Visit them if you can!

• food for thought

• Putting the FUN in DysFUNctional

• Southern Loving Food Blog

I also wanted to tell you about two new awards I got! The beautiful and talented Ji has honored me again by awarding me The Blue Love Award and Your Blog Is Grand Award! Aren't they just beautiful?!

Thank you so much for these awards! It is a pleasure visiting you and your kindness and interior beauty far outshine the beauty of these awards ♥  Please click here to visit Jingle. She is truly a gem!

Lots of love ♥

I FINALLY figured out what was wrong with my comment form...I had it hiding the existing comments but now it's all fixed up and I'm totally happy with it! Now on with my love...

I got lots of awards ♥

The first ones are from a new blog I'm following The Johnson Diaries: Life on the Edge. I've visited Lola lots of times because she participates in several of the memes that I participate in but I just started following her. I should have done it earlier...she has an awesome blog :)

The awards she gave me are for my blog Me & My Memes. They are The Lola Award & The Superior Scribbler Award...










My next award is from the beautiful Jingle. It's The You Make My Blog Smile Award...






And my other awards are from my dear friend Shakira @ You Are Never Alone. They are The Mischief Maker Award (hehe do I make mischief?), The Friends Forever Award, The Most Promising Poet Award and The Princess Playground Award...

Thank you ladies for all my awards! I just love them ♥

Click on their blog names to visit them all. I know you'll love them as much as I do :)

On another note I was up late last night playing...did you notice? I changed up all my blogs except my Memes blog (because it's fairly new and I'm still in love with it's template lol). I was especially happy to see that my cookbook is in the Top 100 Food Blogs on Technorati. Woohoo! That made me happy. You know how much I adore visitors!

That's all the love I have for you today. Come back soon and have a wonderful day!

New blogs

I just wanted to tell you a few new blogs that I'm following today. About the comment form, I'm really liking it now that it's working correctly (at least I think it's working correctly...I'm going to give it a few more days before I decide for sure) and if it keeps doing what it's doing then I'll tell you how to add it to your blog :)

Here are the new blogs...check them out. You'll like them!:

• duane~scott

• Me, Myself and Aphrodite

• Reflections...by Kathy
  

Blog buttons, new blogs and an offer

I decided to go through the newest blogs I'm following and see if they had any buttons because you know I loooooove buttons :) These are the ones I found...

And Shark Bait's button which somehow I have missed every single time I've been there (sorry!)..



Which made me realize that I hadn't told you the new blogs I'm following in a little bit...yikes! Sorry I forgot! Here they are:

• A Little Sugar on the Weekend 

• Jingle

• Living Between the Lines

• MY CRAZY LIFE

• Queen-Size Funny Bone-Don't let your Funny Bone go limp!

• Wizard of Otin

Now.. I said I had an offer and I do. Would you like a blog button? Would you like for me to make you one? If you do then just leave me a comment on this post and I'll talk to you about what you would like and we'll get you one made :) Happy Thursday everyone!

Two new sites and a serious question

Today I'd like to share two new sites I'm following with you. They are:

• 2 Stews

• Beta Dad

Check them out if you have time. I think you'll like them. Now for the serious question....



What in the world do you want to know how to do????? Seriously. Tell me and I'll tell you. Please. Otherwise I'm just going to sit here twiddling my thumbs and wishing someone would leave a comment asking me how to do something!

I'm no expert...

ex·pert:

–noun

a person who has special skill or knowledge in some particular field; specialist; authority: a language expert. 

–adjective

possessing special skill or knowledge; trained by practice; skillful or skilled (often fol. by in or at): an expert driver; to be expert at driving a car. 

pertaining to, coming from, or characteristic of an expert: expert work; expert advice. 

No, I'm no expert. I like to help people out by telling them how to do things that I had to figure out on my own. But I'm no expert.

I'm just a girl that likes to blog and likes to help other people blog.

I respect people who have been blogging longer than I have and I respect what they have accomplished.

(In case you're wondering, I've been blogging since 2008.)

I never second guess anybody or act like I knew something that I didn't know. I think that's just wrong. But (you knew there was going to be a but there didn't you?), I have to say that the sites I've found to have GREAT blog backgrounds bite the big one when it comes to Twitter backgrounds!

For real. They don't show up at all on my page! Grrr! So, just so you know, be wary of Twitter background sites. They aren't working for me. Of course that doesn't mean they won't work for you. It could totally be me. I told you, I'm no expert.

Just so you don't go away feeling jipped of a Blog Love real post today, here are some new sites I'm following:

• Capt'n Nancy
• Us and Them
• YOU ARE NEVER ALONE! 
  

More great blogs

It's time again for me to update my blogroll and share with you the newest blogs I'm following. Check them out if you have the time :)

• A Real Housewife 
• Beyond the Basics 
• BLOG PROMOTIONS 
• Fellowship of the Traveling Smarty Pants 
• Marty Duane 
• Mary Tomaselli's Photos
• Sepia Scenes
• The Ratio of Failures
• True Confessions of a Single Mother

More new blogs

Yes, I'm insane :) I've added more blogs to my blogroll. Like I wasn't following enough already LOL Here they are....check em out....I think you'll like them:

• Muse's Mystery Meatloaf
• Shark Bait's Reef
• The Red Clay Diaries
• The Un Mom

Photobucket is a great tool

I told you yesterday how to link Photobucket pictures to different sites and then last night I had a new Blogland friend of mine ask me how she could put a picture in her post that was animated. That's what I'm going to tell you about today. First though, let me tell you about the new friend :)

Her blog is here: Canadian Blogger

And she gave me this lovely thank you for helping her:

You are quite welcome Terry! And thank you for giving it to me!!

I've told you several times now about Photobucket and encouraged you to make an account there. If you need more reasons then here are a few:

1. It's free

2. You can upload tons of pictures (I have almost 2000 and have only used 44% of my storage space and only 7% of my bandwidth) which makes them safe from loss in the event that your computer crashes...which mine has done twice.

3. You can upload videos and make slideshows

4. You can save your Blogger/Wordpress space by adding pictures using HTML

5. You can choose from tons (probably millions) of pictures that other people share including animated pictures like the one Terry gave me

Convinced? Cool :) Oh, and I don't get anything for telling you this stuff....I just really like Photobucket and it's been a lot of help to me and I like to share stuff that works.

The reason above that I'd like to talk to you a little bit more about today is #4. When you upload a picture to your blog post, it uses space. You are only allowed so much space and after that you won't be able to upload pictures anymore. Granted it's quite a lot of space but I like saving things and this is something I can actually not use up thanks to Photobucket.

When you save a picture to your Photobucket album it gives you three different codes:

1. Direct Link: This works for uploading pictures to your blog or giving someone a link to a picture. It still uses your space on Blogger/Wordpress but if you want to use it you can. When you select "Add Image" there is a place that says "Or add an image from the web". That's where you put that code. If you just wanted someone to be able to visit your picture (I sometimes send these links on Yahoo Messenger) then just give them the Direct Link: http://i269.photobucket.com/albums/jj57/mommacow39/blog%20stuff/thankyou-1.gif

2. HTML Code: This is the code that you will use to add pictures without using your space. When you put it into your post, go to the tab that says "Edit Html". Your code will look something like this:

(<)a href="http://photobucket.com" target="_blank">(<)img src="http://i269.photobucket.com/albums/jj57/mommacow39/blog%20stuff/thankyou-1.gif" border="0" alt="Photobucket">(<)/a>

(Don't forget that I only put the red parenthesis to show you the code and they will not be a part of your code) You either want to delete the parts that I made purple so that all there is is the image code or link it to something else like I told you about yesterday. If you leave the purple section of code then when someone clicks on the picture it will take them to your Photobucket album.

3. HTML Thumb: This is just a smaller version of your picture...a thumbnail. It will look like this if you use it:

When you click on the thumbnail it will take you to a full size picture of your picture.

I hope these tips have helped you today. You are always free to contact me either by leaving comments here or emailing me. I don't mind at all :) Have a wonderful day everyone!

New awards and sites

I was so excited to find out that I had received two new awards! You can click on the awards to visit the blogs that gave them to me.

The first one is from my new and dear friend William. William writes beautiful poetry and awesome short stories. Here is my award from him:

Isn't it beautiful?! William says:

"Hello friends, as there has been so many kind people giving me awards I thought I should return the compliment and give one back, this was created by me and it is called the

"BLOGTASTIC SPECIAL FRIENDS AWARD".

Thank you so much William! I am so proud of it!!

The second award came from my friend Susan. Susan has a wonderful blog and hosts Outdoor Wednesday. She made this award to bring Georgia bloggers together. Here is my award from her:

Thank you so much Susan! I'm going to check out all the other Georgia bloggers on your list!

I promised you some new sites to visit and I always try to keep my promises :) Here they are:

One Perfect Bite

The Red Clay Diaries

And now you can become a fan of my cookbook on Facebook! Here's that page:

The Eat Food NOT Money Cookbook

I hope y'all have a great day! See you soon!

Lots of love: I'm back, some prizes, a few new blogs and a tip

Well, since the last thing I said here was "See you tomorrow if all goes well" and I didn't see you then, I'm sure you figured out that the internet DID get turned off. As they say in France, C'est la vie...Such is life. It's ok though. It's all over now and I'm back :D

On with the post...

I received a couple of ummm not really prizes but sort of prizes just the same while I was gone. I was so happy to get them! The first was an apron from Foodista. Here it is:

They are having a contest right now that I have entered several of my recipes from my cookbook into and because I submitted so many, they sent me the apron. Isn't it nifty?! I love it!

The second thing I received was a cookbook from all*you . Here it is:

I do a review for Cooking Light magazine and this cookbook is published by the same company (Time, Inc.) so I imagine that's why I received it. I think it's an awesome cookbook!

As I eluded to in my title, I've found some new blogs to follow. A couple of them are people I already know (one is a family member) and all of them are worth the time to visit...

Billy Coffey

Learning to Cook

My Wife Has Agoraphobia!

We Are Scoopy Doo

And finally, I promised you a tip. I thought today I would tell you about Site Meter. Site Meter is a cool way to keep track of who visits your blog. As a matter of fact, you can see who visits you, where they are from, how they got to you, your page ranking and even your visitors IP address (which is good if you have a stalker....yes, even Blogland contains stalkers!). If you've looked at any of my sidebars you've seen this:

That's my Site Meter.

First, sign up. (Just click on the link above...where it says Site Meter the first time...) As you know, I only use free stuff and Site Meter is free. You can pay for it and get a few more perks, but I'm completely happy with the things they offer without paying.

When you first get there, it looks like this:

See where it says Site Meter Basic? Click "Sign up" and follow the instructions from there. It's all pretty simple but I'll tell you just a couple of the tweaks I use...

At the top of the page (after you have your account set up...) it says "statistics", "manager" and "logout". Go under "manager".

Almost to the bottom of that page it says "Customizing your account". You want to ignore your own visits (unless you just want to bump your numbers up by visiting your own page 5000 times LOL....of course, if you DO want to have a higher number there is a place to start your counter at a higher number. It will still tell you how many REAL visits you've had even though it tells everyone else the FAKE amount. I'd rather stick with the real even if it's a low number...).

You also want to set the privacy level of your meter. I keep all of mine set to "medium". If you have it on "normal" then anyone can view your statistics. If you have it on "high" then no one can see your statistics but you also won't be listed on any public lists which most people want to be listed on. So "medium" works out well. One note about "medium", if you are logged into your Site Meter account and someone clicks on your Site Meter then they can see everything so be sure to log out as soon as you're done checking out your stats!

Well, that's all I have for you today :) I WILL see you tomorrow!