Happy New Years

Hey Everybody-

I posted my first round of free backgrounds at blogaroozer.com yesterday, so be sure to go check them out. I started with Valentine's Day, so make sure to pick one out before anyone else you know beats you to it! And if you could help drum up some traffic, by sending along an email to any fellow blogging friends you have out there, that would be great! It's a little early for Valentine's Day, but I wasn't sure how long it would take me to get them posted, and I figured most folks have picked out winter theme already.

I will probably do Spring backgrounds soon after that. It's a TON of fun to do, so even if I never make very much money at it, it's still worth it! But hey - I've already made 62 cents! :)

Oh - and if you should download one - and you notice any issues - please let me know! I'm still new at this!

On another note - we went to Bannack yesterday, which is a ghost town near here. Bas had never been to a ghost town, and it is always fun to take pictures there. My Mom got this shot of my Dad and Luna.

New Blog Background...

Hey Everybody-

just posted my newest custom blog background. For those of you who get our updates in email, check it out. It's probably not my best "style" ever, but I've figured out some of the issues with photo resolution, etc. www.katieandbas.blogspot.com

I'm still using Scrapblog for the backgrounds, but Bas gave me a copy of Adobe Illustrator for Christmas, so I should be making custom patterns and designs here soon (just need to revisit some "how-to's" with AI drawing tools!) Then I should be up and running with custom backgrounds for Blogaroozer within no time! WIll keep you posted...

Sure am having fun!

Christmas Greeting!

Merry Christmas to All!

New Blogaroozer Button!

I finally figured out how to post a "Grab my Button" widget on blogaroozer. So stop by there, grab the button, and add one to your sidebar (using an HTML gadget) today!

Thanks for all the support, fellow bloggers!

www.blogaroozer.com

Cool Blogs

So in doing some research on different blogs out there (blog surfing, I call it) I stumbled across a couple really cool blogs that I wanted to share...

www.tipjunkie.com is an awesome website, that publishes a new tip from some other blog everyday. It's dedicated to women and mom's who blog and own their own businesses, and providing support through a grassroots type of network. It also has GREAT tips on everything you could imagine, and features great ideas on crafts, decorating and entertaining. Make sure to check out their holiday "Mom-preneur" shopathon - which features tons of Mom-run small business out there, many of which are featuring great promotions and giveaways!

Also in their "Chic Chick" network is www.thesecretisinthesauce.blogspot.com . Which is totally dedicated to raising awareness to great blogs of note out there. They choose women to feature because they have great blog posts or photographs, or are just notable people. Today's post was about a woman who has been fighting for the health of her son her whole life, and has just learned that she has cancer. If you read it - make sure to have Kleenex handy. And some of the woman's friends have decided to elicit a card sending campaign to help bring her spirits up - so send an email, get an address, and send her a card!

The third site I spent some time perusing was www.todayscreativeblog.blogspot.com - yet another site in their network. It features different creative - as in craftily creative - blogs everyday, and is a great source for ideas around the holidays, or just when you feel like getting some inspiration!

Their is a fourth site in their network called Skip to My Lou - but I haven't gotten a chance to explore it yet. I'm sure based on the quality of the first three that it is fab!

I'm considering advertising with them once I get my new website up and running in order to drum up some traffic before I start advertising myself. They are very affordable - and since they seek sponsors independently, instead of using a broker, all of the advertiser dollars go to them directly. How cool!

P.S.

I registered a domain name for the new site - it's now...

www.blogaroozer.com

woohoo. It was only $10 on Blogger. Not bad!

Ready to Roll-

So I've figured out how to publish custom blog backgrounds! Look out "Cutest Blog on the Block!"

No, just kidding - I will have to get Adobe Illustrator, and spend some time "reacquainting" myself with it, before I can publish truly original backgrounds - and even once I've done that, I'll have to spend some time building a cache of styles. BUT - I'm really excited that I figured out the technical part, because that's what I was worried about!

To see the latest background for this blog click the link (for all you subscribers who get this in email) It's a little blurry, because I had to blow it up from 900 pxls wide, but once I have Illustrator that won't be an issue...

www.katieandbas.blogspot.com

I will need to get a domain name registered and then figure out how to run ads, and drum up some web traffic - but other than that - the rest will be fun!! I love doing the backgrounds - and I'm excited about doing design work on the computer again! I'm thinking of providing a fee based service where I do real custom backgrounds with people's photo's (like the one here now) - but keep it super cheap ($15?)

P.S. - If you want to learn how to do it - keep reading Blogaroozer... I'll be covering all of the steps in different posts!

Oh yeah...

And if you have a blog - please link the new site!

New Blog!

Some of you may know that I have an interest in getting into web development, as a work from home opportunity - or at least as a way to make some pocket change! Well, I may be a ways off from actually accomplishing that, but I've started to make some head way...

I'm planning on teaching a class on blogging this Spring. Hopefully we have enough interested English speakers in our area to generate some interest. So as a supplement to the class, and as a means of documenting some of the things I learn as I teach myself to create custom blogs and websites, I decided to create another blog dedicated to blogging tips and helpful hints, etc. So for any fellow bloggers out there getting these posts - follow the link, and sign up for email updates!!

Blogaroozer!

P.S. - I made the entire background, and layout myself! Still needs some work - but pretty good for a beta!

Montana Winter Pictures

Pictures - 24 below zero

We went to a little Christmas party here in the valley last night. It was fun - but 24 below zero. That's 56 below freezing! So I borrowed one of my Mom's fur coats - and we got so me really cute pics with Luna.

Fast Blog Posting-

OK - blogging tip alert! I've finally decided that the fastest way to upload pictures directly to a blog post is by using email. If you don't want to use a slide show, but you have multiple pictures you want to post, it's really annoying using the out-of-box uploading tool that blogger provides, because you can only pick one picture at a time, and after picking that picture you have to navigate back to the exact same file location to pick the next picture - instead of just selecting multiple pictures in one fell swoop. And there's a 5 pic limit on top of everything else.

Well, you may know that you can send an email to your blog, and it will get published as a post. If you need the email address it's on the "settings" page for your blog.

You just create an email - use Microsoft's nice robust file attachment dialog - which will allow you to select as many files as you want, put your post title in the email subject line and hit send! Superfast. Blogger does impose a 10MB file restriction on teh emails, though - so watch your file sizes fellow SLRs...

Now if you want text in there as well, you're fine as long as you just want one whole blurb. If you want text in between the pictures it gets a little more tricky - then you have to paste the pictures into the actual body of the email. As you know, normally when you attach a file into an email, it just puts the little icon in the attachments field near the subject line. But you can actually paste a picture into the body of the email inbetween text, and then send it like that. Will take a little more time, but still less than using the blogger editor I think.

Hope that was a helpful tip for all you fellow blogger/housewives (I really only have a couple minutes to get this done!) folks out there.

More Pictures...