Early September Look Of The Garden

The hyacinth bean vine has beautiful purple blooms. Hard to believe it began as this...

I purchased one packet of these seeds from Renee's Heirloom Seeds several years ago. And I have sown the seeds ever since. 

What do you think of this cute green little fellow?

I have been finding lots of little critters lately. The other night I saw the tiniest little frog in one of my zinnia pots.

 

I've been busy cutting back the plants in the yellow chair Wish, Dream, Believe gardens.

I feel the heady anticipation of fall in the air. I got in the garage and started digging out fall decorations this afternoon.

The nights are growing ever cooler...

And this kind of weather puts me in the mood to decorate inside and out.

So tomorrow I will show you what I've been working on the past couple of days. The pavilion is all dressed up and ready for fun.

A Friday Cloche Party

I'm a little late to Marty's Cloche Party. But better late than never, huh?

I've been seeing some scrumptious photos in Blog Land the past few weeks. Scrumptious!

Oh, how I dearly love to look at decorating magazines. But bloggers' photos are every bit as good!

You can take that fact to the bank and cash it.

It just makes me feel merry to see all the pretty displays everyone's got going. Keep them coming!

Stroll on over to visit Marty to see what the other participants have for you. And have a fantastic weekend!

Creating A Free Blog Banner With Picnik

Today in our Blogging Series we are going to take a look at banners. 

I have seen some absolutely beautiful banners in Blog Land. I'm not nearly as creative as many of you, but I will walk you through how I do it. If you see a banner on a blog that you just love, email and ask how they achieved the effects you desire. I've done this plenty of times!

There are lots of free photo editing programs. Pat told you about some last week. Lately I prefer to use Picnik to make my banners, because you can move your photos around in the collage until you're pleased with the looks of it. 

Go to the Picnik site. On the Home page, click Collage.

My banner has four photos from my home in the collage. But for learning purposes, I will make another.

Below is where you choose the size. If you want something other than what is offered for free, you will have to purchase the Premium Picnik. I have never felt the need for that.

You can upload five photos for the project you're working on. Find them wherever you keep your pics and upload them to Picnik.

Below are the ones I chose from my files for this tutorial. If you don't like your placement, simply drag and drop to the spot you want the photo until it is pleasing to the eye.

The default separator line between photos is black. I am going to move my cursor over the colors and choose white to separate my photos.

See, now it's white.

You can adjust the spacing of the separator color choice here. I have narrowed mine some.

Yes, I think I like the narrowed separator line better for this collage.

Next I'm going to choose a frame to outline my collage/mosaic.

You can adjust the size and thickness of your frame with these tools.

Next we're going to choose a font for our blog title. Once you click Text, this empty box will pop up.

Remember to click the Add button when you've made choices, such as for a frame or text.

Once the text for your title is added to your collage, you can move it about to get it placed where you want it. You can tug at the corners and move it up or down. And you can also make it bigger or smaller.

Use the little toggle tools to move it about your collage.

Here is where you can change the size of your banner. When you have it the size you prefer, remember to Save it. I saved mine as Brendas collage. (My banner actually is 880 pixels by 224 pixels.)

I'm going to say something here about banner sizes. I find that the bigger the banner, the slower it is to load to my browser. Same with photos. 

I read recently that some prefer to be able to see some of a post when they click on your blog. So I made mine smaller. 

If you want to check how long it takes your blog to load, go to Stopwatch and find out.

I often switch from Picnik to Photoscape to add a frame, because Photoscape has a wider choice of frames for free.

Additionally, I did not overlay my blog title on my collage/mosaic. I chose to use a Blogger Template Design and have my blog title be in a separate box. Since I spoke of my banner last, I have figured out how to center my blog title within the allotted space. There is some coding involved.

There are endless ways to create eye-catching banners. And so many tips and things I still haven't figured out. Maybe we can pool our blogging knowledge and figure out how to get a pleasing look for our blogs.
In our Blogging Series, please let me know what else you'd like to see covered. If I don't know how to do it, I will attempt to find someone who does. Just leave a comment or email me with your ideas.

Welcome Wagon Friday 9/3/10

It's a rainy day here again today, and I'm mighty thankful for it. 

I've rounded up some new bloggers for you to welcome. 

Salt 2 Sea is Chook's blog. She is a homebody living in a coastal town in Western Australia. She loves reading, cooking, gardening, dogs, horror movies, True Blood, music and anything that doesn't involved a crowd. (Me too, sista!) She'd love it if you stopped by and said G'day in her neck of the woods.

All That Glitters is Jennifer's blog. She is a stay-at-home mom in South Carolina who loves to shop at yard sales, thrift stores and flea markets. She freely admits that she breathes all things "junk."

The Chicken Keepers are a family living in the rural Midwest. They raise chickens, pet goats and bunnies. Their egg stats proclaim they've counted 247 chicken eggs in August 2010. This is a fun bunch that will show you what all they won for their entries to the county fair. And give you hints as to how to keep rabbits cool in the summer.

So hitch up those wagons and head out a-visiting. They'll love being greeted. And you'll obviously encounter junk, dogs and a fair amount of eggs. Maybe they'll even fix you an omelette! 

Do remember though that there's a thieving raccoon out there stealing some corn. (They've put a loud radio in the cornfield, so be prepared for some racket.) And another tip: Butch the goat loves people. But Duke is somewhat grumpy.

A New Member Of The Family

Today is grocery shopping day. Eating lunch out somewhere. I haven't been out since Wednesday.

But then Wednesday was quite an eventful day...

You see, we decided to add to our pet family...

My husband took off work and we drove to the Dallas area. We visited an area near Highland Park where I love to shop. It has Pottery Barn, Crate & Barrel, and the like. Lovely seeing all the holiday displays.

We had lunch at a trendy little place there. I was amazed to see that they allow dogs in restaurants in this area. But pleased that they're including our canine friends.

At 1 p.m. we were to meet a woman named Jackie from an animal rescue at a Dairy Queen in a small town. That is where we met Emily. (This was already her name.) And to transfer her into our own cat carrier and then drive home.

Emily made nary a sound the entire way.

We don't know her exact age, as she's spent her whole life in shelters. We think she's around two years of age.

I would love nothing more than to show you a photo of our Emily. (I'll probably call her Emmy.) But truth be told, I'm not even sure exactly what she looks like. As she's been cloistered, huddling fearfully under the guest room bed, for days.

I have seen her in glimpses in the darkness under the bed. Once I was able to hold her for a few seconds and pet her. But then she turned and scratched my face and flew back under the bed.

Instead of exchanging presents this year, we thought it would be nice to rescue a cat. So Emily is our Christmas kitty.

Bless her heart, she's terribly frightened. As she's never had a proper home and someone willing to love her.

I've been able to reach underneath the bed and pet her tail a few times. She is eating and using her own litter box I have set up in there. I've heard her mew exactly two times.

I so wish I could convey to her, to reassure her, that this is the end of the road for her to live in a cage. This is her forever home. She will now have a family and laps to curl up on.

But I'm told this will take time and patience. And so when I can tame this poor cat long enough to take a photo of her, I will introduce Emily to all of you.

Any and all suggestions for this transition are certainly welcome!