Blog Resources

I've been blogging for over a year. A whole year. I didn't think I had a week of writing in me let alone a whole year. Before I started blogging, I spent hours looking at all these amazing blogs with beautiful template designs, social media buttons and beautifully edited pictures.

How was I going to do this? How was I going to be able to afford all these things? 

After a bit of research and a few hours on Pinterest and Google, I found a world of pins and sites that offer free blog templates, buttons and loads more stuff.

Yes, I said free.

And seeing that we are all trying to make our blogs as good as they can be, on a shoe string budget or no budget at all, like me, I'm sharing my fabulous little finds with you.

Templates

This is one of the most important things on your blog. This is what sets the mood on your blog. It needs to represent you on your blog. Blogger and Wordpress offer a wide range or templates that you can edit to suit your blog. I used these for awhile and there great to get you started. But they never really the perfect fit for my blog. I did a Pinterest search for "free blogger templates" and there hundreds popped up.

I found my free template design over at Loving Life Designs. I love how it turned out and you too can find something that fits your blog. You just have to dig a little. Just make sure you get it from someone who is trusted. some of these free templates come with malware and things you don't want on your blog. It's also a good idea to set up a test blog so you can test things out and not destroy you lovely blog.

Social Media Buttons

Another important thing is making people can connect with you. And a cute and easy way to do that is through social media buttons. Great fun 4 kids blog has a tonne of cute button to suit every kind of blogger. And if you get board you can just pick a different design and change it up.

Pinterest

Pinterest is great. It a little goldmine. You can find anything you want there. If your like me and you craft/cook/bake/DIY, Pinterest is for you. You can pin your photo to your boards and it will be there for people to find. I needed to make it easier for people to pin things from my blog. So I installed  pin it mouseover button. This allows people to mouseover my blog photos and a "Pin it" button appears in the corner. It's easy to do and it worth it if you use Pinterest.

How to add a Pin it Mouseover button to wordpress blog images.

How to add a Pin it Mouseover button to Blogger blog images.

Pic Monkey

I love this simple online photo editor for three reasons: it’s (mostly) free, they continue to offer new editing options (including holiday-themed stuff), & it helps me create great blog images without the use of a downloaded program. It's really easy to use too, so don't worry if you're not tech savvy.

If you haven’t discovered this little picture-editing gem yet – go there right now!

Blog Lovin’

Blog Lovin’ is a blog reader, like Google Reader or an RSS feed. I have used Blog Lovin for awhile now. With Google reader gone this is the next best thing. I think it even better.

Blog Lovin’ also provides page views for posts you look at, whereas other readers don’t. This is huge if you’re a blogger because it means you’ll get more traffic!

Overall, this reader is pretty, easy to use, and generally more appealing. If you’re in the market for a new blog reader or don’t currently use a blog reader, I’d highly recommend it.
You can follow me on Blog Lovin’ via the link on my sidebar at the top of my page.

Blogger Groups

When I started out I was on my own. I had no one to ask questions. No one to ask for advice.
It was a bit daunting.
Then one day I found Irish Parenting Bloggers Facebook Group.
These strangers have become a family that I can turn to for anything blog related.
I can pick their brains about blog templates, buttons and why this or that or everything isn't working for me.
They are a huge resource for any blogger starting off.
Search for one in your area and you'll be surprised how quickly you'll learn and share.

I hope these tools that I've shared help you to take the next step in starting your own blog or improving the one you already have.

Thanks for reading.

How to create a blog signature

Have you seen those lovely signatures that all the top blogs have?

Did you ever wonder how they got them?

I have.

I wanted one with a long time.

I figured out how to this a long time time ago.

Today I'm sharing my "how to" with you.

And how did this" not so tech savvy" lady get it.... Google of course. :)

I goggled "How to create a blog signature" and clicked on the first site that came up.

Simple as that.

  My live signature is a free blog signature generator.

It has easy to follow instructions and a tonne of choices.

You can type in anything and make it a signature.

Prefect even if you blog anonymously .

When I was finished, I wanted to save the signature to my computer.

All you have to do is right click and save it as an image in your files.

I love how it turned out.

I love even more that I can go back and change it if I get bored.

I hope you find it as easy as I have.

Thanks for stopping by

Blog Makeover and some Freebie Finds

Have you had a look around her lately??

Looks good, right?

Well let me tell you all about it. 

One of my 30 things before 30 was to update the blog and give it a makeover. Now, I was meant to do it by myself but I'm just not that talented. I'm good, just not that good. Ha!

Any way, the blog template came from two very talented sisters over at Loving Life Designs. The template was a freebie from there website and I just love it. It was so easy to download and install. Everything was done for me but I was able to adjust the design to suit me. I made the about me word-art and photo thing. See how I know all the technical terms. Ha! I think it has turned out just fab. 

These ladies also have a lot more freebies like Christmas card , invitation, and poster printable and lots of more blog templates.

How adorable are these!?

Isn't their stuff amazing?

The other freebie I stumbled across is fontsquirrel.com. This site is also amazing. It has a tonne of free font downloads. They are easy to download and install and the fonts are so pretty. I used Dancing script on my blog header. 

I hope you enjoy my freebie finds and enjoy the blogs new look.

Thanks for stopping by.

Am I Lovin' your Blog??

Am I loving your blog? Do you love mine and want an easy way to follow along and not miss a thing. Well Bloglovin is the site for you!

If you don't already know, Google reader is heading out the door, which means that if you read blogs using this site, you will no longer have them in your feed. So, there is an even better site out there to help you organize all those favorite blogs that you love. I think it is so much easier to use than Google reader. 

And to make life easier for you again, here are the easy steps to switching over your feed from Google reader to Bloglovin.

Just click on this link below, and follow the steps to import from your Google reader. It's just that easy!

I have transferred mine and it was easy as pie. I need to update my blogs, as I don't think I have all you lovely ladies added. So link up your Bloglovin account below so we can all find new blogs to follow!

My country girl Ramblings Bloglovin

How to...

Get a blog signature.

I have seen some very lovely signatures on some lovely blogs and i wanted one pronto. And how did this" not so blog savvy" lady get it.... Google of course. :)

I goggled "How to create a blog signature" and clicked on the first site that came up. Didn't like any of the fonts so i went back again. Kind of a trail and error process then til I came across My live signature and i found the one i wanted.

Very easy to follow instructions (even for me). When I was finished, I wanted to add the signature to a post. I just reopened the page on another tab and dragged the image to the blog and here it is.

I saved it in my images by right clicking on it when it was on the post and save image as.

I LOVE IT!!!!

Enjoy!!