Minus One

Granny and Grandpa (my parents) took my almost 3 year old to a playdate with his cousin this afternoon. They picked him up around 2:00 and they should be back any minute. It's amazing how much easier life becomes when you're minus one child for the day.

After running some errands, cleaning, and some class prep, I spent some of my free time this afternoon learning how to create blog banners. The formatting and coding is somewhat tricky at first but I think I created a good enough banner on my first try. When I started this blog, I decided I wasn't going to spend any money on decorating the blog or paying someone else to do it! So basically I opened up my photoshop this afternoon and went to work. After an hour or so of figuring out how to create picture designs with backgrounds, I finished a very basic new banner that you see above. Hopefully the more I learn about website design and formatting (those darn HTML codes are tricky), the better blog design I'll have.

Some new features from last week include audio playing when you visit my blog. I currently have 5 songs downloaded on the blog, those will change periodically. Also, I've added a "label" feature on the right hand side. I'll put my posts into a category if they fit into one so that readers can easily find the information they want. If they just want recipes, then they'll click on that label "COOKING" and all the recipes from the blog will load on their screen.

That brings me to my next topic. For over a week I've been re-doing the side buttons, links, and comment features on my blog. I have a lot to learn about how everything works and what formatting I like or don't like. Having said that, there are two issues I'm currently having.

The first has to do with readers leaving comments. I changed my formatting last week so readers shouldn't have to enter a password to leave a comment. People should be able to simply type in their comment and leave their name. On a side note, if you simply want to leave your name and don't have a google account, then select the "Name/URL" option within the "Comment As" list. You should be able to enter just your name (leave the url space blank if you like) and click continue. The problem that seems to be happening is that readers have to hit the "Post Comment" button twice depending on what explorer you use. This has only happened a couple times so I'll keep working on it.

My second issue is that two of my link buttons on the sidebar won't connect with the specific webpage they are linked to. That usually is the webpages problem on the other end. Hopefully that will iron itself out in time.

So basically I'm working on the blog. It will probably be constantly changing and updating with different features. I'll try my best to update everyone on what those features include. I sometimes feel like I'm minus one blogging assistant. Someone who tells me how to do things and how to make things works. But I'm proud of myself for doing it all on my own and learning more and more about webpages.

Now, if you'll excuse me my "minus one" child is knocking on the front door, home from his playdate!