Fireside Chat {part deux}

Welcome to Wired Wednesday! And part 2...or deux {if you took 3 years of French and like to think you're a Fancy Nancy} of our Fireside Chat. Did you miss part one? We'll wait while you go and catch up with us. I'd hate for you to feel like you came in the middle of our conversation....

I'm humming the Jeopardy song now.....I'm awesome at that game, by the way.....especially on kid week....what?.....that week makes me feel really smart....dum, dum, dum, *bong*bong*.
And done.

You up to speed now?
Yes?
Good.
On we go.
(if you're counting that's 2 quotes from Willy Wonka this week!)

So, the talk about comments and adding our e-mail addresses to our Blogger accounts went SO WELL! I appreciate the awesome comments left, and how many of them had e-mail addresses available! I love being able to say thank you and come again. (in a flight attendant kind of way!)

This week, I thought I'd continue with a couple more "level 1" blogger type things.

But first, an extension of the comment discussion from last week. I would like to admit to being slow to getting on the "Google Reader" band-wagon. I was still old-school clicking on every blog I wanted to look at! And I gotta say.....LOVIN' THE READER!

However, I've noticed that it's made me a really LAZY blog follower. It's so easy to scan through, not read things, and definitely NOT make comments.

So just a little reminder to all you reader folks....don't be like me and get lazy on your following. Think how much work you put into your own blog....and remember to tell your favorites how much you appreciate their work as well.



Now on to this week's discussion. Another BASIC blogger subject. It seems, from comments last week, that basics are really appreciated. And I understand that, because sometimes people just assume you know how to do the basics. And it makes you feel so small to have to say, "Um....I DON'T know how to do that!"

I wanna talk blog buttons today. You know the ones that blogs use to advertise, or to link to their parties, or to say they've featured your creation.

First...really basic....

How do you install one from your favorite blog in your side bar:

• Usually they have a white box underneath them with a lot of jargon. Just scroll over all that code...and copy it. (control+c or apple+c for Mac)
• Go to the top of your blog and click on "Design"
• From the design page, locate your sidebar template. Click on Add a Gadget.
• Choose to add an HTML gadget.
• Paste that code in the box that comes up. (control+v or apple+v)
• Save it.
• You now have a button in your sidebar. And when clicked, it should go directly to that blog. (if it's set up correctly)
• This also works for linky parties too. If you want to add a party button to the bottom of your post (which you should...if you enter...only polite!) just paste that jargon at the bottom of your post. BUT MAKE SURE YOU DO IT IN EDIT HTML mode. If you paste it into "compose" mode....it won't work. Just change tabs at the top of your post real quick to add it...then you can switch back.

Now blog button Level 2...how do you get your own button?:

• First you need a graphic. If you can't make one, find someone who can. There are lots of places to have them designed for a minimal fee. (I design all my own things) Blog buttons are standardly around 125-150 pixels square.
• Once you have your graphic you'll have to host it somewhere. I prefer Photobucket. You'll need to set up an account with them. Then upload your graphic from your computer.
• Now I'll walk you through setting it up on the side of your blog...
• You're going to follow the above instructions to get an "html gadget" on your side bar. Only this time you need to use the following code:

<div align="center"> <a href="http://name of your blog.blogspot.com/" target="_blank"><img alt="Less Cake{More Frosting}" src="http://i291.photobucket.com/albums/ll319/taquitobunny/Frosting%20Blog/Cake-Grab-Button.png" /></a> </div> <div align="center"> <form><textarea rows="3" cols="16"><a href="http://lesscakemorefrosting.blogspot.com/" target="_blank"><img alt="Less Cake{More Frosting}" src="http://i291.photobucket.com/albums/ll319/taquitobunny/Frosting%20Blog/Cake-Grab-Button.png" /></a></textarea></form> </div>

• Replace blue with your blog url. (or the url of whatever you want the button to go to)
• Replace yellow with the url of your graphic. (on Photobucket...or wherever)
• Replace red with the name of your blog

That should do it! Make sure you're replacing everything two times. One is for the actual button, and one is actually writing the code that people will copy.

One other tip for more advanced users:

• See this bit of code up there... <textarea rows="3" cols="16"> That is the code that makes the box underneath your button. "textarea rows" is how many rows of text remain visible, and "cols" is how wide the box is. So if you want more or less....fix yours accordingly. I've seen a few buttons out there with just one row showing, and it's kind of hard to feel like I'm able to copy all the code. That's how you fix it....if you were wondering....
  

Last time I admitted to roasting marshmallows over the stove. I'm sorry. I just hate camping. I'm an indoor girl!

This time I'll introduce you to the main reason I won't camp.

Dew face.

You know...the unexplainable dampness that is on EVERYTHING when you wake up in the morning. Somehow I just think an animal came in and peed on my pillow. And no matter how you try to convince me otherwise....I'm sure it happened.

"Dew Face" the weird wetness that occurs on my pillow and blankets while camping. (also makes thin cardboard...like cereal boxes...all soggy. GROSS!)

*Yes, Mr. Webster you are welcome to add that definition directly into your dictionary. No charge. Your welcome.*