Creating My Blog Background

I'm not completely new to Photoshop. In fact, I use it almost daily for my job. By no means, however, am I an expert. Creating my blog background took a LOT of trial and error. There is no possible way for me to explain all the things I learned while doing it, but I'll show you my final product. I knew a few things. I wanted a simple color as well as a simple pattern. My big question was how big does my background need to be?

I did some Googling (which you will see as a trend throughout this process) and never really found a good answer. So, here's what I figured, I knew that the standard dpi for web pages is 72. I also knew that the largest screen resolution that my monitor (which is pretty big) would handle is 1920x1080. So, that's what I made it. To make it easy, I've taken some screenshots and am going to break it down:

1. Create a new Photoshop document

2. Size it accordingly. This will vary for what type of background you want to make, but for my simple pattern I used 1920x1080 at 72 dpi.

I used a pattern to create my stripes. I found it here. I'll include the instructions on how to install a downloaded pattern (the same technique works for brushes as well). To use the pattern I created a "New Fill Layer." This option will allow me to fill the new layer with a pattern of my choosing.

After choosing my pattern and filling my layer with it, I wanted to change the color. In order to do that I first needed to rasterize the layer. This basically solidifies some of it's properties. It's confusing. Just trust me, you have to do it. Make sure you have the correct layer selected.

Now, we can alter the color. To do this, we will go to blending options.

Select the color overlay option.

If you want to change the color, you will need to click on the actual box where the "color overlay" option is written - not the check box. There you can click on the color box and select your desired color. Then click "Okay."

Now you just have to save and upload it! Make sure you save it for the web.

Come Out, Come Out, Wherever You Are!

A little ahead of schedule, my new blog is now live. Now, don't get your hopes too high. It still looks like a blog. It's not a full website or anything. But I've made some pretty major changes.

• Completely new color scheme and header*
• I've added some new pages and a navigation bar*
• I've updated my About Me section
• Made easy access buttons to posts and info that people seem to like
• I've made myself a blog button (!)*
• Easy to follow social media links if you want to follow me elsewhere*

Everything with an asterisk next to it, I plan to do tutorials on. It might take me a bit because they can be a bit labor-intensive to explain, but I will try my best. If there is anything you would like to know about let me know and I'll try my best to address it!

What do you think? I thoroughly enjoyed myself with this little project and am quite proud. It may not be professional quality, but I like it and I hope you do too.

P.S. Any Mac users out there? I tested it on Chrome, Firefox, and IE, but I have not a clue about Macs and the browsers they use. Everything look and work okay there? Thanks!

Getting My Nerd On: Sneak Peek

I promise, I haven't so quickly given up on blogging! I've been working quite busily on updating my look. This means a lot of photoshop and a lot of HTML/CSS. AKA, my inner nerd is just giddy with excitement right now. I thought I'd share a little sneak peek of how things are going. I think I finally settled on my header/color scheme. This could absolutely change, but I'm kind of loving it right now and the overall look of things.

Here you go!

Pretty sweet huh?

Some other things I've been cooking up:

• New background/color scheme as a whole
• Social media icons
• Better links to certain, (what I think are) popular topics
• A new snazzy navigation bar

Is there anything in particular you like to read that I should make buttons for? Are there things you look for on a blog to make it easier to read? As much as I write this for myself, I do get some slight satisfaction knowing that others are enjoying it as well. And I, of course, love making new friends! I know I have a few of you out there, but just thought I'd ask! It's a work in progress, but hopefully I will be able to unveil it before the end of the year. I have quite a few things still to polish as well as some updated pictures of the family I need to take. Oh, and you can look forward to a few tutorials as well. I'm not promising they will be the right way to do it, but so far things seem to be working. Is there anything anyone as ever wanted to learn how to do?

Long Overdue Updates!

Oh, my. It's a bit of a vicious cycle when it comes to making a blogging comeback. It's like an old friend that you haven't talked to in a long time. You want to reconnect, but it just isn't top priority. You think, "We should go get lunch and catch up.... But, maybe next week. I need to {insert excuse here}." Then you start to get embarrassed because it's been so long and so you put it off longer. Well, here I am. Again. I know how much I used to enjoy blogging. I could list the excuses I've used for the past year, but none will make it easier to get back in the habit. Finally though, I realized what an opportunity I'm missing to document the fleeting moments in my life. My sweet baby is 1!! And, I've thought to myself many times in her first year that there is no way I could ever forget when she first smiled or how often she nursed. But my heart is breaking because I realized something. It's fading. Those sweet memories aren't as vivid as they once were. And I don't want to lose them.

So, this is my attempt at holding on to that thing that is so precious. This beautiful life that God has blessed me with. There is way too much to possibly put into one post, so I'm going to do what has somewhat worked in the past: make a list of what's to come. A little sneak peek. And, if any of you are still holding on out there (or, you are like me and never actually clean out the subscriptions in your Google reader) thanks. I hope you enjoy my return... :) I'll try to make it a little more permanent.

Until then, to hold you over, a little glimpse at what's to come:

• A terrible picture, but I love it nonetheless: My Baby Turns 1! Remembering Evelyn June's 1st Year

• Party Planning from a Lazy Mom

• Nursing: How it Rocked My World
• Cloth Diapering Through the First Year and Beyond
• Adventures in Babywearing

• My Mom Thinks I'm a Hippie (And So Do I)
• Green Cleaning
• Unjunking My Diet
• I'm a Wannabe SAHM
• Our First Big DIY House Project
• Evelyn's Big Girl Room! (Still a Work in Progress)
• Dudley's Story
• Surprise!!

Wow, I've got my work cut out for me!

A Good Read

Recently, I discovered an awesome website called Goodreads. Thank you internet gods! My favorite hobby (who has time for those?) is reading, it always has been. I go through spurts where I read constantly (now) and some times where its maybe not so much. Often the lack of activity in the world of my favorite hobby is due to the lack of time, entrancing material, or ability to move on after the end of a good relationship (with a book, that is). When I have time, and a good book, you'll likely find me reading. There are moments, though when I must mourn the publication of the final book in a great series and will abstain from diving into a new world for a little while - Harry Potter and Twilight were my most painful moments.

It's quite amazing, really, that one can become so attached to characters whose lives only exist on the pages of a book, created in the mind of some genius author who means to torment me by sucking me into his/her invention only to cut my relationship off and leave me wondering what happened for the rest of their lives. Phew, that was a long sentence...

My relationships with books are love/hate. I love meeting new "people" learning about them, and feeling the emotions that emanate from the pages as if I was right there with them. If you know me, you know I don't cry at just anything, and usually only when I'm mad or frustrated. I have a respect for a book that can make me laugh, or cry, and invoke a plethora of other feelings that I didn't know I was capable of feeling. I often stop to wonder how a word can carry so much feeling and meaning opening little places in my heart and mind I didn't know existed.

But, I digress... back to my newfound website. This place is great! I have found so many good books to read from here and I love my ability to read reviews and see what other people are reading. I am also able to write reviews for books I have read and keep tabs on my list of books I want to read.

I just finished the Mortal Instruments series and it was amazing! If you liked Twilight, I'd give this series a whirl. I'm willing to bet you'd like it too.

I'm debating beginning putting book reviews on my blog... what do you think? I don't consider myself an exceptional writer (especially of reviews) but, I know I always like to see what other people think before I dive into something. Let me know!

Isn't it funny...?

I love it when I hear the phrase, "I'd like to settle down." You know when you're talking to someone who is still exploring what life has to offer and they say, "I think I'm ready to settle down. Get married, have kids." Whoever said anything about settling down? I, for one, don't consider this whole marriage thing to be a "settling down" experience. I mean, sometimes growing up sucks the big one. I find myself thinking that once I get past school things will "settle down" a little bit. ::Snort:: Riiiiiggggghhhhtttt.... When someone finds out how to get life to settle down, let me know. Mmmkay? I'm really interested.

I got on blogger today with good intentions of updating my look and making a post about changing up my blog in conjunction with my transition into life as a married woman, but alas, the internet here is getting a big fat 650 kbps. For all you non-techies out there that's called slow as molasses. So, there will be no fabulous pictures and no face lift because I refuse to wait 10 minutes for a picture to upload.

So, hopefully tonight, while I'm procrastinating on my homework I will get some motivation to use our sweet 15mbps connection at home and get some stuff going.

On a lighter note, consider this an interim post until I get in a better mood. :o)

A Long Time Coming

Yes, I'm still here. No I haven't given up on my blog. I'm just EXTREMELY busy.

I keep wanting to post, but I have so much to say that I can't even begin to comprehend where to start and the longer I wait the worse it gets. So here's what I'm gonna do, I'm listing below all of the topics I will blog about in the hopefully near future (pending homework - although I'm reaching for activities to use as an excuse to procrastinate...). My hope is that listing these topics will inform my lovely readers (I'll know who my fair weather fans are!) of what's to come and give me a little boost of motivation to actually post about these numerous topics.

Coming soon to Purely. Simply. Love:

• Updating the blog. Now that I'm married, do I change my title? Add a catch phrase? What will the new look be?
• Married life: Living it - the good, the bad, and the super-fabulously ugly (and cuteness you can't deny)
• My babies (not human, thank you very much)
• James (the other love of my life - okay, I have a lot of loves, but he definitely tops the list next to Rob)
• Isabella - My Squishy!
• Worky work!
• Preparing for student teaching - ICK.
• Decisions I've Made - Why?
• Things I'm looking forward to
• The newlywed nine... :(
  
• 101 in 1001

 Okay, I think that's enough for now. Bear with me as I try to get my life a little organized and  catch up on this hobby I truly enjoy. To all of my readers, I'm so glad you're still around, I apologize for not posting more comments, but I still LOVE reading your blogs!!!

Leaving you with a glimpse into my stressful life:

Okay, it's not THAT bad, I just needed to have a picture... :)

Playing Catch-Up

I've decided that I'm a bona fide procrastinator. I didn't use to be a procrastinator. This is why I never blog and never go to the gym. I keep telling myself that I'll go later, or I why bother? Nobody really reads your blog anyway. Just don't eat as many calories. I blame my new procrastinating ways on Rob. Case in point.

Me: Rob, this weekend is Memorial Day Weekend, I'd like to get you moved out to the house for the most part since this will be one of our only free weekends to do it before the wedding.

Rob: Steph, the wedding is THREE WEEKS AWAY!

Me: But, I REALLY don't want to be moving our stuff the week after the wedding when we have off. I want to relax and enjoy being MARRIED.

Rob: We have plenty of time.

Me: Fine.

See, how can I not keep a little of this from rubbing off on me? I mean, Rob is the procrastinator of all procrastinators. Example number two:

Rob: What ring size are you again?

Me: Why? (Is he going to buy me two rings!? Oh wait. Oh, no. My thoughts come to a screeching halt as I realize...) You haven't bought my wedding band yet!?

Rob: No.

Me: Babe, the wedding is in THREE WEEKS!!!

Rob: So, all I have to do is go buy it.

Me: What if it has to be sized!

Rob: Oh.

Yup. We're gonna arrive at our wedding day and I'm not gonna have a wedding band. What am I gonna do, borrow someone's? I need to take a deep breath. 10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1. Okay. It'll all be okay.

Speaking of the wedding... I've done a few things in preparation... and I have pictures!!!

Mom and I spent an entire Sunday afternoon tying tags to bubbles with ribbons. It was fun, let me tell you. I'm happy with how they turned out though!


I bought my dress for the rehearsal dinner (again.)! I had bought one earlier and didn't really like it for the occasion anymore so I decided to keep my eyes open. Well, I found this adorable dress from B. Moss for $30! B.Moss is definitely one of my new favorite stores. They have some adorable clothes! (and good deals..)


I also put together my flower girl's gifts... some hair accessories and their Build A Bear giftcards!


Another exciting accomplishment, I dyed my crinoline for the wedding blue! I debated for a while on whether or not to do this, and then thought, what the heck? So we dyed it, and I took it to the bridal shop with Jocelyn to try on with my dress to make sure it worked! I love it.


James' gift came in the mail. I doubled it as his ring bearer gift and birthday gift since his birthday is July 4th. It's a bedroom set with trucks, trains, and tractors on it for the big boy bed he's getting after I move out! He'll love it!


I also had another shower, which I mentioned last time I actually posted. It was a lot of fun. I got some awesome stuff!

My cousin, who's doing my flowers sent a bouquet to see if I like the shape and size of it. It's not at all what my bouquet will look like, but it still looks fabulous after a 4 hour trip in a warm car without water. She also sent a boutonnière, which I'm sure looked a lot better when it was fresh.


One of the gifts I got is a figurine we're going to use for our cake table! Along with this sign. It'll be great.


On a note totally not related to the wedding... WE HAVE GRASS!!! They put sod down at our house on Monday! It makes our yard look HUGE (which, it is at almost 15,000 sq. ft.). Although, now we have to figure out how to water it... since we're hardly ever there. I really don't want it to die.


On a note related to the house, we had our first security scare (and hopefully our last). I got a call from Brinks a couple of nights ago saying that our alarm had gone off in zone 4. I missed the call, so this was a message. I was thinking that zone 4 is the basement (which is guarded with a motion detector) and wasn't too terribly worried considering we live in the middle of a field and a mouse could have gotten in or something (which isn't good, but it's better than a burglar!). Turns out the alarm tripped was the glass break detector in the great room! It detects if glass is broken within a 30 ft radius. They called my house and asked if I wanted them to send the cops. Um, YES! Turns out it was nothing. A false alarm. But, regardless that was scary!

The Moment You've All Been Waiting For...

I thought it would be kind of me to let Oliver speak his mind. My poor babies have been extremely patient with my house obsession and how much I neglect them with my busy schedule. I'll make it up to them, I promise.

I really hope no one is disappointed by this post. Looking at the pictures, I feel like I have put so much time and effort into the house and don't really have much to show for it. Then, I've gone and made such a big deal out of it that I've gotten everyone's hopes up. So, now I'm warning you, the house doesn't look like a page out of an interior design magazine, but let me tell you, it's much improved!

Let the fun begin! We did SO much (Mom and I for the most part...) and I'm gonna kind of take it step by step. I have to apologize though, because I don't really have pictures of the house "finished" before we fixed it up.


The Front Entrance:

Before (During Construction)

After with a little paint, some curtains, and a rug

The Kitchen:

Before (At the end of construction)

After! We painted (it's green...), added a couple of house plants, and some furniture. This is one of my favorite rooms in the house!

The breakfast room, also painted and our awesome counter-height kitchen table which I love (with Dudley looking out the back door)

The kitchen again (can you tell I like this room?) With our new fridge, some paint, a couple of rugs, and some paint!

Rob's Office:

Sorry, no before picture, but we just painted it an awesome shade of blue. It has some furniture in it now too!

Master Bathroom:

Before (During construction)

After, we painted it the same color as the kitchen, just because it so happened to be the perfect color and added some decorations. Now we just need a shower curtain rod!

Guest Bathroom:

After, paint, and various awesome decorations from Sears

The Great Room:

Before (Right at the end of construction)

After, paint, furniture and a few electronics... :o) Rob refuses to watch the "little" TV.

Another shot of the great room from the kitchen.

The Master Bedroom:

After some paint, furniture, and a lovely bedroom set from Linens N Things!

One of the dressers

I'm so in love with my house right now! It feels good to work on it and watch things take shape. There will definitely be more in the future! Next on the list is getting some pictures on the walls. But, we'll be doing a lot of that after the wedding. I hope it was at least worth the wait! I can't wait to move in!

Also, any suggestions are welcome as to how to make it better! I hope to be doing a lot of yard work in the future as well. Maybe we'll get grass soon?

Oh, and we got a TON of free carpet from our neighbors house and laid it all over the basement floor. I didn't get pictures of it yet, but it definitely helps warm it up a little bit, literally!

Have a great evening everyone!

Can I help you?

Yes, I know, I'm supposed to do my big post. But, I'm currently stuck at Rob's house, away from MY computer, with MY pictures on it to make the big post. So, you're just going to have to wait. Sorry.

In the mean time, Oliver has something to say...

Hi everyone, this is Oliver. I've had a little something on my mind for a while. You know, this year's been pretty rough for me. I mean, my Mom is getting married, which is cool because I love Dad, but then they decided to build this house. Now they never spend any time with me! They are trying to get this house ready for after the wedding. You mean them getting married means I have to MOVE? What? I never agreed to this! Then, they pushed it too far... they thought I'd like a companion. Someone to play with. Now I have this annoying little thing called Dudley sleeping in bed with Mom and me, where I used to sleep. I don't like it one bit! Mom swears it'll be fun! Um, guess what mom, there's no grass in the backyard! I'm not peeing or pooping on mud! And, there's no fence which means every time she tries to take me out to go pee in the mud, I have to be on that stupid leash. I've made it my goal for now to show my disgust for this whole situation by refusing to show any positive emotion whatsoever. I think she finally gave up trying to get me to look happy in a picture. But, maybe this whole thing won't be so bad after all? Mom says it'll all be okay after the wedding. She says we'll all move out to the new house (including Dudley) and they'll put up a fence, and get some sod and I'll have the backyard to play in. I'm still skeptical. Maybe I'll just go poop behind the chair and blame it on Dudley... yup, sounds like a plan. Peace out.

Don't believe a word he says people! He's just too stubborn to admit he's excited.

And, I promise, as soon as I can I'll get that post going.... I took the pictures today. Don't get your hopes too high though for an amazing transformation because it's really not THAT great.