new look and a blog design giveaway!

Notice anything new???

We now have “Friday’s Five Featured Followers” on the right sidebar!

You’ll never guess which day it gets updated each week…

Featured Followers!⇒

→

Not only will the newest featured followers be on the sidebar and changed weekly, you’ll also be able to see the history of all past featured followers from each week by accessing it from the buttons at the top “Featured Followers” tab.

{Only because I love my followers more than I should and I love to give credit to sweet, talented blog-world people! It’s my way of reaching out and hugging your neck without gettin’ all up in your personal space ;) }

 

*Don’t forget*: if you are one of the “featured followers” – feel free to grab the new “I was featured/I am loved!” button. It’s super upbeat design leaves me a little giddy and reminds me just a little of Napoleon Dynamite for some reason…

{I’d flip if I actually saw it on someone else’s blog besides my own – that goes for the other new blog button too!}

 

Now down to business:

It was time for changing things up around here.

We’re in the dead middle of the year when things are starting to get old and a little sprucing up is a much welcomed change.

I’ve recently been changing the decor around the house after getting tired of looking at the same old stuff in the same old places. For a new look without spending a dime, I switched a few things from the guest bedroom into the family room, family room accessories into the master bedroom, and so-on and so-on until every room was revived. {I call it “shopping your home”.}

New decor that feels fresh and is FREE?!

Count me in!

 

With the fresh room decor change-up also came a fresh new blog change-up.

I wanted a new look, a blog button, a new signature… but all for zero dollars.

{Ya see… I’m cheap – or as some call it, "thrifty*.}

So I decided I could do it myself with enough internet research and a sprinkle of craftiness.

Thank God for nice people and their helpful tutorials!

The only negative side has been the time dedication which has resulted in my right hand’s fingers becoming locked in a painful cramped claw.

{FOR REAL.}

{Feel free to grab our button from the right sidebar HTML code!}

I used scrapblog to make the different pictures used in the header and buttons, downloaded them and edited in Picasa, and then uploaded the blog buttons to Photobucket in order to have access to an “HTML” code for embedding them in the blog.

Sound like a bunch of rubbish? You’re not alone. Figuring out how to do it myself was not happening at first. Then I found these wonderful tutorials to walk me through it - I must give credit where credit is due! I’m also leaving the links for you in case you would like to do the same:

• How to make a blog button.
• How to use Picasa to make a blog header.
• Where I snagged my free blog background and borrowed buttons.
• How to remove the border around the header.

Still don’t feel like doing it all yourself? WIN OUR GIVEAWAY!

Out with the old:

 

In with the new!:

 

In honor of our new look and the 400th follower (YAY!), I’m giving away a gift certificate for a pre-made blog layout to 4 lucky bloggers from Leelou Blogs! {or you can put the gift certificate towards one of Leelou Blog’s other many design services for blogs, twitter, myspace, business cards, Etsy, and logos!}

{It’ll save you from the dreaded painful claw that comes from doing it yourself.}

Wanna see the truckload of layout possibilities? CLICK HERE. Be sure to keep clicking “Older Posts” at the bottom of the page to see more.

Some of my personal favorites from Leelou Blogs:

Layouts just for the holidays!

 

If you would like to be one of the 4 blog followers to win our giveaway:

{pre-requisite: you gotta’ be a follower of course! =) }

• for 1 entry – leave a comment on this post

• for 2 entries – post about this giveaway on your blog

• for 3 entries – grab our blog button and post it on your sidebar

{Be sure to let me know in your comments if you posted about the giveaway or put our button on you blog!}

 

Winners will be announced next Tuesday, July 6th.

Good luck to all and THANK YOU for following!