10 Best Blogging Tips From a Newb

 I love blogging!

I had no idea it would be fun and completely addicting.

There are some things that I wish I had known before my daughter and I  clicked the create blog button.

1. Create a test blog

I wish that I had created a test blog before I created my real blog. That way I would have had a place to try out layouts and design features. I could have played with the side widths, fonts, buttons, etc. without subjecting my few readers to abrupt changes. There were a bunch in the first few months.

2. I wish I had known all that would be required to take the best pictures possible before I started blogging. I should have spent a month just practicing photography. 

3. Play with the editing software of a photo editing/hosting site. I use Picasa but there are other ones out there.

I was learning how to blog and take and edit pictures all at the same time. Not to mention doing the projects that I was blogging about.

4 . I wish I had known that I would need a new camera, computer and scanner to get going. I have yet to get the new computer or scanner. This leads to #5.

 5. I wish I had know that I wasn't going to get rich off of monetizing my blog. Which I haven't done because I won't  get rich off of it anyway. :)

6.  I wish that I had spent a month just looking at other blogs and reading what was already out there. 

7. Read, read, read about creating headers, buttons and little cuties for your page.

8. Use what blogger has to offer as far as background paper. I was shocked to find my site was blocked from my virus protection because I was using a free blog background.  I hate to think about those that clicked on my site that day. Warning, warning Will Robinson. (Did I just date myself?)

9. I didn't know about link parties and other ways to promote my blog. I thought that my facebook friends would just pass me on to their friends and I would be a famous blogger.

10.And finally, I wish someone had prepared me for the awkwardness, at least that I feel, when someone mentions that they like my blog. I just write it for fun and to keep me busy. It is therapeutic and it allows me to feel that someone is seeing all the hard work I put into my house. When I hit publish I forget that people I know are actually reading this. 

I will have to get over that if I am to become rich and famous for Let's Add Sprinkles!

Sprinkled with blogging wisdom, (tongue in check)

Katie 
Linking with,
Gold Medal Blogging Tips Linky Party

Industrial Farm Lighting

Bill and I were out antiquing and he picked up two of these industrial farm lights.

For some reason they have languished in the garage for a long time. I think he contemplated giving them away, but I didn't want him to. In the the right setting they would be super cute.

I would love to have them in a farm house kitchen.
Maybe in my 2nd home. :)

I found one on the shelf the other day when I was looking for something. 

It proved to be the inspiration for something for my sunroom.

My sons love these metal light fixtures. 

They used them quite a bit in their early band gig days. 

They are affordable, portable and not uber precious. 

I saw some on display at Walmart and ta da a light bulb went off. 

No pun intended.

I went over to the spray paint and picked up a can of green enamel.
I didn't even get the $3.99 brand. 

I went for the $1.49 brand

Which used to be .99 cents by the way. With all of Walmart's Rolling Back Prices bologna they sure are raising quite a few. (Fabric is what else I  noticed.)

 They don't advertise that!!

Anyway.

I came home and took off the clip and the light bulb socket. 

I sprayed the outside green,

and the inside white.

 Lighting has been a bit of a problem in a corner of the sunroom. You may have been one of the whopping 61 people that read about my dish dresser  paint job.

If not, feel free to read about it here.

There was no cord over on that side of the room, which drove me nuts!  It is a great place to sit and enjoy the view to the outside. No one could sit there in the evening, however.

 I realized we could use one of those computer cord cover thingies 

and an extension cord. 

Finally light. 

I used a fan bulb because the metal on these can get hot. 

I can't wait to sit in this spot and work on my crochet.

I thought it would be whimsical to take a crochet class this summer.

The women in the family were going to get scarves for Christmas. I had big plans to crochet scarves for the homeless. 

 Clearly something just isn't right. No matter how many times I count the stitches it is crooked!! 

Oh well. 
Rebekah says I should make them anyway and sit with a straight face when everyone opens cattywampus scarves. 
Maybe.
 Either way I have a cute and cheap light to sit by.
The light was less than $7.00.

How cute would these be spray painted red?

Extra lighting for a work area or if you needed lighting near a fold out bed? 

How about several of them strung together for a party?

Can I show you the start to my picnic basket collection?

I got the green one during an antiquing weekend at the lake.
I love this green color!
I am going to have to figure out where to put those two other green lights. 
Update: A couple of people have asked me why I haven't used the real farm lights out here. They are pretty big and would be a little over sized for our small sun porch. Plus, they are Bill's frugal find. He is trying to figure out where he would like them. 

Too cute!
Sprinkled with farm lighting,

Katie
Linking with,
Metamorphosis Monday @ Between Naps on the Porch
 My Uncommon Slice of Suburbia for Tuesday's Treasures

Share Your Cup Thursday @ Have a Daily Cup of  Mrs. Olsen
 Wow Us Wednesday @ Savvy Southern Style
 Time Travel Thursday @ The Brambleberry Cottage 

Nifty Thrifty Tuesday @ Coastal Charm

Funky Junk Interiors                                             

Making the Most out of Grocery Store Flowers

Do you know how to make the most out of grocery store flowers?

Grocery store flowers are not what they used to be. 

I'm not sure they even had them when I was a young bride, but if they did, they were usually only the dyed carnations or the freesias that wilted in a few days.

Today at Kroger I happened upon a sale. 

Two dozen roses for the price of one!

I picked up these beautiful deep pink ones.

I also pulled out my precious Waterford vase. Mr. Bill splurged on this for me for Christmas one year. I have gotten oodles of use out of it.

I got this pretty square vase from one of my darling students.

It just won't work to simply stick the roses "as is" in the vases.

The key is cutting.

Now some of you may feel a bit of trepidation about cutting flowers you just purchased.

It must be done in order for the flowers to look right.

I want the flower to stick up about 4-5 inches above the rim of the Waterford vase.

I cut four inches off of the bottom of the first rose and tested it in the vase.

It looked okay so I trimmed the rest of the roses. 

Make sure they each of the flowers are the same length. Measure from the top of the rose to the cut.

 The part you cut off will not be the same on each flower.

For some reason a square vase oozes sophistication to me.

It pained me at first to cut so much of the stem off to arrange in the square vase but it is worth it.

I lined the vase with leaves from the roses.

I tucked some asters around the roses. An aster is a fall flower that looks like a mini daisy. They will typically last a week or more.

I have found similar square vases at Hobby Lobby in the candle making section. They were about $2.00 a piece.

There were enough to do an arrangement for the powder room.

\

A little one for the kitchen too. 

I got the gorgeous pink (or red) onion scoop in Ruidosa, New Mexico at a lovely antique shop. 

The pattern is the onion pattern. It is not a scoop for onions. :)

Ask your floral department which days they get deliveries. Not all the flowers on display will be from the current delivery.

Kroger has an expiration date on their flowers. I don't know if all floral departments do that.

Also, I have never noticed a difference by using the stuff they give you to make the flowers last longer.    

I have made a subtle change in the dining room. 
I haven't showed much of this room. I will soon.

I hope you will go out and get some fresh flowers. 
Not much is blooming here. It is way too hot!!

Sprinkled with cuttings,
Katie 
Linking with,
My 1929 Charmer Blog

Summer Under Glass

I am so excited that now my new camera actually will take good pictures of something under glass.

I have a couple of cloches. One isn't really supposed to be a cloche, but I made it one. 

I made mine because cloches were the new, in thing and they were priced exorbitantly.

I was not going to pay 30-40 for glass. 

Mine started life as a clock.

I got a clock just like the one below at a garage sale. 

I think I paid $2.00. These can be good clocks but the one I found was super cheesy, cheap and broken!

(I really wanted one as a new bride but never got one.) 

 I had been looking for a while for one to photograph for a cloche post and found this one in Colorado at an antique shop. They wanted $25.00 for it! It is very fake and blingy looking.

Here is another one I found while on the same trip. 

This one is a much better clock.

Since mine was so cheesy, I had no problem tearing it apart.

I safely set the glass aside and started unscrewing the three screws that held the guts in. It took a little doing but it eventually all came out. I saved the face for crafting and threw the rest of the guts away.

Here it is for...

Christmas

 Winter

 Valentine's Day

 Easter

  and summer. 

        The treasured birthday card is from my dear aunt. 

 Are you as wild about this bathing beauty as I am? 

 She is from Japan and was a souvenir from somewhere in Missouri. I wasn't aware that Missouri had beaches, but whatever. I picked her up in a little shop. I'm not sure whether it was a junk shop or an antique shop but I know I didn't pay much. I love her with the little sand castle from a fish tank.  

 I spent hours and hours one summer looking at mermaids, bathing beauties and fish tank decor on e-bay. Seriously days and days! I'm sure my husband was becoming concerned. I bought only one thing because all the items were so high. 

Finally, I found a few things elsewhere when I wasn't really looking anymore. 

 I got this cloche at a thrift store. It had a very vintage butterfly display in it. I guess it was popular in the 70's to make dried displays with real, dead butterflies. I didn't care to have something dead on display. Poor thing. 

 This little mermaid was $1.00 at my old favorite junk shop.

I think the owner was a storage auction hunter, like those popular t.v. shows. She really found some good stuff. Her husband would get mad when she slipped in little treasures for good deals. But as a frequent shopper, I loved finding a treasure in the midst of the more expensive items she had. This little gem would have been 
much more on e-bay.

The new owner of the shop has it with more pricey antiques, so I never go anymore.

 I bet she was a souvenir or an aquarium ornament as well. She doesn't have a mark on the bottom. 

 Small items like this have more presence under glass. 

Sprinkled with souvenirs of summer,

Katie 
Linking with,
A Stroll Thru Life: Summer Cloche Party