Did I mention that I’m going to Blissdom?

I know you’re probably tired of hearing that, but I’m just so excited to go and it has consumed my last several weeks. Its multi-faceted for me. Its part work, part play, part personal development, part something else (important, I’m sure). This will be my third year attending and if you’re a serious blogger (aka, you blog in some professional capacity) I’d highly recommend attending in the future.

So later this afternoon I’ll be joining my fellow Arizona bloggers and conference roomies, Becca, Karen and Kara, and we’ll be boarding the Blissdom-bound plane.

And thanks to some wonderful sponsors, we’ll be well fed and clothes. Not the most intelligent combination, if you think about it. Delicious Angie’s Kettle Corn that you cant stop yourself from gorging on, then trying to fit in the cutest jeans on the planet (from DownEast Basics)??

Totally worth it.

Incidentally, want to see what I plan to wear? I posted a few of my outfits on Polyvore…

I’m thinking it might be cold in Nashville, so I plan to take this scarf I finished a couple of days ago…

Isn’t it yummy? I found it here on Pinterest and made it in a pretty mustard acrylic blend yarn.

So that about wraps it up. Im packed, prepped and ready to go! If you are the Twitter type and would like some juicy tidbits (I promise not to make them all about outfits and Rascal Flats…), follow me and I’ll pass on the Blissdom goodness through out the weekend.

A big thank you to my sponsors for Blissdom, DownEast Basics and Angie’s Kettle Corn. Its going to be super thanks to you!

Are you hosting a giveaway this week? Link up here!

For “Name”, use this format: Blog Name: Giveaway Item (End Date)

Are you looking for giveaways to enter? Take a look at this week’s links!

What do you do on the weekends?

Run your errands? Veg out on the couch? Attend your kids’ sporting events? A little of everything?

Me, I like to relax. I’m a homebody, so a day spent fartin’ around the homestead is fine by me. And after a week spent in front of a screen, the last thing I want to do is get on the computer.

I’m also a busybody and have to be doing something with my hands (or a few somethings at once…) or I just get restless. Most weekends, you may recall, you’ll find me at a crop with the girls, scrapbooking, or making something out of my yummy yarn stash.

This particular weekend I got a little crazy with the whole re-purpose slash up-cycle slash altered-art mindset. See, I had all these cute tags from my little shopping extravaganza at DownEast Basics last week. Aren’t they the cutest? Way too cute to throw away…

Before…

Soooo…looky what I made for my Blissdom roommates. (And if your name is Becca, Karen or Kara…just look away. What? Nothing!)

After…

Maybe they can use them as bookmarks, or hang them on a bulletin board or stick them in a scrapbook to remember the great time we’re bound to have at our little blogging conference.

So what did you make this weekend?

A big thank you to my sponsors for Blissdom, DownEast Basics and Angie’s Kettle Corn. Its going to be super thanks to you!

Im all about series. You may notice I tend to start many of them here on my little ol’ blog.

Anyhoos, this one has been in the making for quite a while. There are so many quick and easy ways to beautify, simplify, whatever-else-ify your blog and I’m super excited to start sharing some quick and easy tips with you!

Today I’m starting off with a fun one. Photo collages. Using photos on blogs is more important than ever, thanks to Pinterest. Its a wonderful way to promote your blog and grow your traffic, and you can read more here to find out how if you missed it earlier. So by all means, use great photos and illustrations  (legally, of course…I don’t even have to say that, right??).

One fun way to add a little pizzaz to your images is to create a photo collage. Its a great way to get a lot of imagery in one small space. Now, there are eleventy billion ways to make a photo collage and plenty of services out there to help you. But one word (or three…) of caution.

Less. Is. More.

You dont need purple butterflies or airbrush fonts adorning your photos. Let them speak for themselves. Trust me, they will.

I have researched many techniques and my pick is Picasa. Why Picasa? Well, its free and easy. Plus its a Google product so that right there tells you its awesome.

So here we go (if you have a hard time seeing the screenshots, just click on the image to open a larger view)…

1.

Launch Picasa (if you dont have it, get it here).

2.

Create a new album and name it accordingly (i.e. “Birthday Party Post Collage”)

3.

Import the images you want to use in your collage. This can be done several ways. If you already have an image library, like iPhoto, it should be listed in the left hand column. Open the appropriate folder and select the images (holding down the Cntr/Cmd key) you want to import into your newly created album.

4.

Simply drag and drop them into your new album.

5.

This is important. Select all the images in your album (otherwise they wont be included when you try to create the collage). You’ll know they are selected if they all have a blue outline around them.

6.

Now the fun part…right under the album title, click on the second icon from the left, “Create Photo Collage”.

7.

Picasa will automatically create a layout, but you can change settings…

In the first dropdown, select Picture Pile…

Mosaic…

Frame Mosaic…

Grid…

and so on. (For the rest of this tutorial I’m going to use Mosaic.)

8.

You can add spacing between photos using the “Grid Spacing” slider.

9.

To change the photo arrangement, click “Shuffle Pictures” below the collage preview, or drag and drop each photo until you are pleased with the design.

10.

When you’re done editing, click “Create Collage”. Picasa will process the image and when its finished, you can continue to edit it as a whole (ie. crop, red-eye, etc.)

11.

Now, click File>Export Picture to Folder. This is how you’re going to resize the image to fit in your blog.

Most likely, your posting area isnt more than about 600px wide, so select the 640px option and you can resize it from there if necessary. The export function is going to save your image inside a folder named whatever you enter into the first field. Click Export.

12.

Now just upload it to your post and you’re done!

Easy huh? Ok, who’s got questions?

You may have noticed I’m in love with Pinterest. I’ve also got a hankering for a good women’s clothing website.

For today’s Pinterest Pretties, I’d like to share my “Fashion” board…I love all the pairings I’d never come up with myself. Click the image below to go to my full board.

Don’t know about Pinterest? Click on over here to learn more about it!