How to Make Cute Symbols in your Blog or Twitter Posts

Have you seen blog or twitter posts with special symbols like these?   

“I ♥ cupcakes!”

”☺ Hey Cutie ☺!” 

“Don’t stop the ♫!”

I stumbled on how to do this at work earlier this week.  I needed a less than or equal to symbol:   ≤. 

The process is really simple.

First, make sure the “NUM LOCK” key is turned on for your keyboard.
Next, hold down the ALT key.
Finally, type the number of the symbol you want.

Here are a few:

Number/Symbol
1     ☺
2     ☻
3     ♥
4     ♦
5     ♣
6     ♠
14    ♫
171  ½

For a complete list, see Alt-Codes.net.

Linking up to these great blogs.  Be sure to drop by and show them some ♥! 
Finding Fabulous
Tidy Mom
Funky Junk Interiors
Skip to My Lou.

Cute Patchwork Wristlet

I’ve been wanting to make a little wristlet purse for a while now.  You know, just a small little something to throw a few dollars and my ID in when I have a quick errand to run and don’t want to haul out my 10 pound purse. 

I have a ton of gorgeous fabric scraps left over from my daughter’s quilt.  (More on that later.  Nearly finished!)  So I went a searching and I found a great tutorial for a patchwork wristlet at Two Peas in a Pod.  This is an awesome tutorial with detailed  instructions and plenty of photos.   It was a perfect project to use up some of those fabric scraps.

 

Off to pick up my daughter from practice.  Guess what’s around my wrist?

Linking up to:
The Shabby Chic Cottage
The Shabby Nest
The Inspired Room 
Tatertots and Jello.

Bathroom Vignette

Beth over at Stories of A to Z is hosting  her monthly “Ready, Set, Vignette” party.  Beth used to host a mantel party, and I always wanted to link up, but unfortunately I am mantelly challenged.  I seriously need a designer to come to my house and makeover my mantel.  But a vignette, I think I can do! 

When I redid our hall bathroom a few months ago, I added this old medicine cabinet.  The top is a perfect place to display things.  I don’t have to worry about them getting knocked over by my kids.

  
I put together an unrelated group of objects, just because I liked them.  :)

 
An old sake bottle, because I liked the color.

 
A couple of old bookends that I found in a box of my Grandma Mae’s things.  They’re holding up books that belonged to both my father and my father in law.

 
I love this water color my Mom brought me back from a trip to Florence.


Finally, some dried hydrangeas from my yard, placed in a bargain vase I found at a discount store.

 
And there you have it:  my first vignette!  


Thanks for hosting Beth!

Make it Yours Day {#14}

It’s Wednesday!  I don’t know about you, but Spring is is making me super energetic.  I’ve been busy gardening, baking, sewing and doing all of the regular mom stuff. 

Did you have any time to create this week?  Show us how you added your own special spin when you redid it, revamped it or remodeled it?  Organized something?  Created or updated?  Cooked, sewed or decorated something new?   How’d you make it yours?

<center><a href="http://mybackyardeden.blogspot.com/"><img border="0" alt="Make it Yours @ My Backyard Eden" src="http://i46.tinypic.com/28jck5l.jpg" /></a></center>

When you link up your project please be sure to:  

1. Link to your specific post, not the main page of your blog, so people can easily find your project.
2. Add the button above to your post, or at least link back to this party from your post so everyone can follow along.  
3. Please only link up projects that are new to Make it Yours Day.  In order to keep things current, I will start deleting projects that have already been linked up here before.
4. Finally, show some love!  Visit some of the projects linked up and leave a comment! 

Each week I will highlight a few of my favorite posts from the links submitted, so check back and see if the spotlight is on you!  Thanks so much for linking up!

How'd you Make it Yours this week?

(Submissions start April 28, 2010, 12:00 am)

Link tool by inlinkz.com

My First Loaf of Bread

I tried baking my first loaf of homemade bread this weekend.  While it was a fun experience, the jury is still out on whether it was a success or not.
My 14 year old said, “Hmmm…this is different Mom.”  From my carb-loving teenaged boy, that’s not exactly a rousing endorsement.

I used this recipe for country style French bread.  It’s not the worst bread I’ve ever eaten.  The inside was all right, but the outside could break a tooth.   It was semi-good toasted. 

Here’s a photo of my misshapen Franken-loaf. 

I really liked the process and can see myself baking regularly IF I could find some good recipes. I put this promising book on hold at the library:   The Bread Baker's Apprentice: Mastering the Art of Extraordinary Bread.  

Anyone out there have a good resource for a beginner who wants to make good bread?

Make it Yours Highlights {#13}

Here are a few things that I’m loving this week.  When you get a spare moment, take a look at these creative projects from last week!

Frame Tray @ Lemon Tree Creations

Painted Buffet @ Between Cottage and Cabin

A Mermaid Party @ Living my Life on Purpose


 Gorgeous Cottage Bedroom @ Cottage Dreamers


Earth Day Rice Krispy Treats @ Amanda’s Cookin’


Anthro inspired dress @ Welcome to the Good Life


To die for studio @ La Maison La Fortune

Have a great week!   See you back on Wednesday for another edition of Make it Yours Day!

Sew a Spring Top

I’ve been inspired by the flash of great weather we’ve been having and decided I needed a little Spring in my wardrobe.  It’s been years since I’ve sewn any clothing or let alone used a pattern.   I picked up Simplicity 2415 and some fabric at Wal-Mart the other day and gave this little number a try.   I’m happy with the way it turned out.  It’s comfortable, easy to wear and cute!


I made View B, without the lace around the neckline.  I added elastic to the bottom hem to make it blouse nicely.

I couldn’t resist adding some ruffles to the front.  I used the super easy ruffling method I blogged about last week. 

For those of you who sew clothing, where in the world do you buy your fabric? 

I’ll be linking this post up to:
Between Naps on the Porch
The Girl Creative
Today’s Creative Blog
The Train to Crazy

Who’s Ready to Grill? – Easy Rub Recipe

I’m ready for Spring to really get here.  Here in Northern California, the weather has been taunting us.  One day it’s 70 degrees, and the next day it’s cold with driving rain.

Here is a recipe for an easy, delicious rub that I use on grilled chicken.  I got this recipe last year at Sunset Magazine’s Open House.

Rubadubdub (yields about 1/2 cup)
2 tsp ground black pepper
1 tsp ground white pepper
1.5 Tb coarse kosher salt
1.5 Tb brown sugar
2 tsp onion powder
Pinch of cayenne pepper
2 tsp paprika
1 tsp garlic powder
1 tsp dried thyme
1 tsp chili powder

Mix all ingredients together and store in air tight container.  Rub on meat before grilling.  Enjoy!

What’s your favorite food to grill or BBQ?

Make a Blog Button with a Code Text Box

Lately I’ve had a couple people ask me how to make a blog button with a scrolling text box for the button’s code, like my button below:

<center><a href="http://mybackyardeden.blogspot.com/"><img border="0" alt="My Backyard Eden" src="http://i47.tinypic.com/2dl69x.jpg" /></a></center>
I’m by no means an expert, but here is how I did mine.    I have a Blogger blog so I know that this method will work on the Blogger platform. 

Before you can do this, you need to have the image you want to use for your button saved somewhere on the internet.  My image is in TinyPic, but you could Picasa or another online photo service.  You just need to be able to find and copy the button image’s URL. 

Once you have the URL of your image, there are two sections of code that you’ll need:

Replace the red code with the URL of your blog.
Replace the green code with the name of your blog.
Replace the blue code with the URL of your button image. 

In the second section, the rows=”7” code refers to the number of rows you want displayed in your box.  You can change it to whatever you think looks best on your blog. 

Once you have your code, you can add it to your Blogger layout as an HTML/JavaScript gadget.

Good luck!  Let me know how it works for you!

Linking up to some of these amazing blogs.

Make it Yours Day {#13}

It’s Wednesday!  You know what that means!   What have you been working on?
 
Show us how you added your own special spin when you redid it, revamped it or remodeled it?  Organized something?  Created or updated?  Cooked, sewed or decorated something new?   How’d you make it yours?

<center><a href="http://mybackyardeden.blogspot.com/"><img border="0" alt="Make it Yours @ My Backyard Eden" src="http://i46.tinypic.com/28jck5l.jpg" /></a></center>

When you link up your project please be sure to:  

1. Link to your specific post, not the main page of your blog, so people can easily find your project.
2. Add the button above to your post, or at least link back to this party from your post so everyone can follow along.  
3. Please only link up projects that are new to Make it Yours Day.  In order to keep things current, I will start deleting projects that have already been linked up here before.
4. Finally, show some love!  Visit some of the projects linked up and leave a comment! 

Each week I will highlight a few of my favorite posts from the links submitted, so check back and see if the spotlight is on you!  Thanks so much for linking up!

Make an Easy Ruffle

I learned to sew in Girl Scouts years ago.  I can’t even tell you how many ruffles I’ve made in my lifetime.  Here’s is a super easy technique.  I wish I’d known about this years ago.

Start with a strip of your favorite fabric.

Set your machine to the longest stitch length.
Set your tension to the highest number.
Start sewing slowly.  You’ll notice the ruffle forming behind your presser foot.

Make sure you leave long thread ends at both the beginning and end, and don’t backstitch.  You can adjust these threads to get your ruffle to be just as ruffly as you prefer. 
 
Voila!  Automatic ruffles! 
 
I love adding ruffles to things.  My kids and dog better keep moving!

Linking up to some of these amazing blogs.

Make it Yours Highlights {#12}

Wow friends!  137 amazing and unique projects were linked up to last week’s Make it Yours Day.  Here are a few of my favorites:

Stephanie Lynn at Under the Table and Dreaming made this amazing hanging succulent basket.  Just gorgeous!

Jenni at Shared from Way Over Here showed off her revamped craft space.  Such a bright and beautiful space.  She used scrapbook paper on the edge of her desk.  Super clever and pretty!
 
Sherri at Design to Shine revamped a thrift store find with a little paint and created this amazing table.  I just love this color!

The Comfort Zone found a Kitchen Aid mixer at a garage sale and made it over with some red paint.  Gorgeous!  My mixer is definitely getting a makeover so it can come out of the cupboard and live on the counter!
 
Nikki from Nikki’s Nifty Knacks made an armillary from metal strapping she found in the dumpster!  I didn’t even know what these were called before reading her post, but I know that I love them!
 
A Little Bit of Everything shared a recipe for peanut butter dog biscuits.  My peanut butter loving dog Rosie is going to be in heaven when I make these!
 
The Cape on the Corner revamped her dark sunroom into this light, airy vision of beauty.
 
Sarah at Creative Jewish Mom made this super sweet mobile out of embroidery hoops.  So pretty!

Kim at Simply Domestic prettied up an old step ladder with some paint and made something beautiful for her garden.  Love this color!
 
Last, but definitely not least, is the project with the most page views.  Michelle at Between Cottage and Cabin shared her cottage office, and the beautiful bookcase built by her hubby.
 
I am loving the variety of projects being linked up!  If you were featured, help yourself to a button:

<center><a href="http://mybackyardeden.blogspot.com/"><img border="0" alt="Make it Yours @ My Backyard Eden" src="http://i50.tinypic.com/zmyxxg.jpg" /></a></center>

See you on Wednesday for another great Make it Yours Day!  Have a great week!

Stuff I Love ~ Ethel Gloves

I garden a lot and love to spend time out in my yard.   I want to share with you one of my favorite things:  Ethel Gardening Gloves.   Ethel and I like to do lots of things together.  Sometimes we prune roses, sometimes we shovel compost, and sometimes we pull weeds together. 

I love these gloves!   They have stretchy fabric on the back, and some kind of synthetic leather on the palms.   They are SUPER comfortable.  The best things is that they’re fully machine washable.  They come out of the wash feeling and fitting like a dream.  Not all shrinky, or stiff like some other gloves I’ve owned.   They feel great on and protect your hands from all kinds of dirty nastiness you might uncover in your garden!

This was a totally unsolicited, uncompensated testimonial for Ethel gloves.    They’re just stuff I love.  They sell them at Amazon, but I got mine at my local nursery. 

Got to run, Ethel and I are going to go outside and plant some tomatoes now.