Adding a link, Adding a Links List

Here are some pictures to show you how to add links in Blogger.

First of all, click on the Basic heading to access your basic settings.
Scroll down until you get to Global Settings and make sure the compose mode is set for Yes so that you get the wysiwyg editor. Hey, I'm not a computer geek, so I want things real simple.
When you create a new post there will be a bunch of little icons along the top. The one that is circled in the picture above is the icon to click on to set a hyperlink. If you want a particular word or phrase to be click able, first highlight the word or phrase. Then click on the hyperlink icon.
That brings up the hyperlink window set to Type http:, and you can click on the little arrow to change it to an email link.
Enter the URL you want to link to. URLs always start http:// so make sure you copy the full link information from the address bar of your browser, or if it's one of your Favourites copy the address from the properties of the link. You are less likely to make mistakes if you copy and paste the URL than if you type it out. Paste the URL in the space provided. The example above shows the link for Jane Eborall's blog. Then click on the OK button and the text (remember the text you highlighted?) will now have a line under it showing that it's a link.

Note: If you are using the link from your Favourites, find the favourite and right click on it. That will open a menu with a lot of stuff in it. Go down to the entry that says Properties and click on it. That will open the Properties dialog and the URL is in the middle of it. Highlight the URL, right click and select COPY from the pop up menu.

If you want the link to really stand out you can also colour the text. Just highlight the text again and then click on the little colour box icon. It's the one to the left of the hyperlink icon. It will open up a menu with a lot of coloured squares. Click on the colour you want and now you hyperlink is a different colour from all of your other text.

To add links in the side bar begin by clicking on Template.

Which will display this screen

Select Add a Page Element which will bring up a menu page of items you can add to your blog. Select Links List by clicking on the button ADD TO BLOG.

This will give you another option in your Template called Links. Click on Edit.

Which will display a screen like this one where you can add, edit and delete links to be shown in your sidebar. Click on Add Link.

Enter in the URL that you want to add and a name that you want to show up in your side bar. In the example above it's Jane Eborall's blog and the name that is to be displayed is Jane.

Once the link is added it shows up on screen with the name you have given the link the words Edit, Delete and an arrow pointing down. Click on Edit if you want to change or modify the link. Click on Delete to remove the link and click on the down arrow to move it down in the links list, or on the up arrow to move it up in the links list. To add another link click on Add Link again and follow the same process.

When you are satisfied that you have everything set up the way you want it, Click on Save Changes. Now when you look at your blog there will be a links list.

Once you have added the LINKS element to your blog you can go in at any time and add to it just by clicking on Edit and entering the new URLs you want to add.

It's as simple as that.

I've been tagged

I've been tagged, by several people including Marilee, Jane and Gail


Here are the rules which you must abide by if you are tagged.

1. Link to your tagger and post these rules.
2. Share 7 facts about yourself: some random, some weird.
3. Tag 3 people at the end of your post and list their names (linking to them).
4. Let them know they’ve been tagged by leaving a comment at their blogs.


Seven random or weird things, hmmm, let me think. There's nothing weird about me, so it'll have to be random.

1. I've been a Christian for 40 years which is almost the same amount of time I'm know my wonderful hubby.

2. I love cheese, I think I'd rather have a big chunk of cheese than a chocolate bar.

3. I'm a tea drinker, skip the booze, just give me a good cup of nice hot tea.

4. My eyes are a beautiful shade of green, but only when I'm really upset and crying, so the beautiful green is off set by a blotchy red face. I'll never make it in the beauty category.

5. I get motion sickness on carnival rides so I avoid them.

6. I tat everywhere, in the bathroom, walking down the street, waiting at the check out, on the bus, train, in the car, in my sleep and I don't think it's even a little bit weird.

7. I love cooking and baking and trying out new recipes and I've often printed off a new recipe from the internet and cooked it for dinner when we're having guests, even if I don't have all the ingredients at hand. (You have to be adventurous about some things.)

So many folks have been tagged now it's hard not to tag someone already tagged, so I tag
Sue because she's gone too long without posting.
Mary who spent so much time hosting the exchanges that she didn't get to enjoy the fun of blogging about what she was doing.
LaRae because like Sue, she hasn't posted for a while.

The embroideredy that didn't work

I have been trying to finish off some things lately that have been hanging around for a while. Some time ago I posted a picture of a partially embroidered butterfly. There was a discussion on the Yahoo group, hand-embroidery, about creating a transfer from a printed page and out of curiosity I had to give it a try. It turns out that any clip art, or scanned colouring book image can be turned into an instant transfer when you use a laser printer. Laser printers make use of powdered ink mixed with wax. When you apply the heat of an iron to the printed page you get a decent transfer image.

At the time the ladies in the hand-embroidery group were working on each one doing their rendition of an embroidered butterfly, so I used the butterfly image as a trial transfer. It worked so well I instantly thought of doing a quilt with a whole series of embroidered blocks. I jumped into the process with great enthusiasm, and selected a skein of turquoise embroidery floss that I had been saving to do the butterfly.

Turquoise is an odd colour. It's just that mix of blue and yellow that it makes it difficult to pair up with other colours and still look good. I did the outer border and then started working on the inner part of the wings. The first colour I tried I didn't like, so after several hours of work I ripped it out. The next colour I liked but not the kind of stitch I had chosen to use, so again I ripped it out. The third time I tried it using a third combination of stitching and colours, and finally found something that looked OK. By this time I had done hour and hours of stitching and my hands really started to hurt. So by the time I got the butterfly done, I was in too much pain to continue. Today I picked it up and finished it off.

For some reason the camera just doesn't want to take a decent picture of it. I guess it's been doomed from the start, but I had to get it finished just so that I can put the embroidery tools away. I love the turquoise colour, but the thread is dull and lack lustre. It wasn't easy to work with, but after everything else I was determined to work with it. When I came to doing the flowers I ran into the same problem of matching up contrasting colours that didn't just clash with the vivid turquoise. The thread is manufactured in China and doesn't have the same sheen and twist as DMC or Coats Anchor and it snagged and snarled all the time I was working with it.

The stitching doesn't show up very well in the picture, but the dark pink flowers have pale pink straight stitches inside the daisy stitches and there is a similar light green straight stitch inside each of the leaves. I had planned on doing the flowers in satin stitch, but when it got down to, I just want this thing finished, I opted for something less time consuming.

When it was all done I, popped it out of the hoop and hand washed it in Ivory soap to get rid of the printer ink and the soiling from working on it, and slapped it down on the ironing board to press it dry. Out of habit from working with lace I sandwiched it between sheets of paper towel and applied the iron. Good thing I did. The lovely vivid turquoise thread bled like mad into the paper towel. I have a perfect imprint of the turquoise section.

The butterfly is done, and now that I know that I could create all kinds of unique transfers just by scanning, cutting, pasting and printing, I'd love to embark on making a whole quilt of embroidered pieces. Unfortunately, I also discovered that my hands won't take the hours of stitching the would be required. So I guess I'm not going to get a one of a kind embroidered quilt, but I am going to be able to sleep at night without major pain medication. Just as well really. I don't have enough hours in the day to tat and embroider. I picked up a pair of pillowcases I may do as a gift, but I don't think I'll be doing much more than that. Now I need to think of something to do with an embroidered 8 inch square that has been embroidered in thread which might bleed when it's washed again.


I think I may take all of the suitable transfer images that I found on the internet and put them into a PDF file. At least then if I do decide I want to do another chunk of embroidery, they'll all be in the same place. I can always put the file into the PDFPick software and use the embroidered butterfly as the front cover to remind me of what's in it.