Random thoughts on blogging and a question for you

I have been staring at my computer screen for two straight hours now.  Granted, I've been catching up on recorded shows at the same time which is part of the reason I'm still staring at a blank screen.  :)  But the other part of the problem - my problem - is that I have so many random thoughts that are all jumbled up in my head lately about blogging and I don't really know how to share them.  So this post will be a bit scattered since at the moment, I am a bit scattered.

When I decided to start a blog four years ago I did it for two reasons.  1- I love to write and take pictures and record memories so I thought it looked like something I would enjoy.  2- I wanted to share pictures of my kids and my life with close friends and family who lived in other areas.  So I started a blog.  And my family and close friends read it.  And aside from sharing what my kids were up to, I also started sharing what I was up to.  Because that was fun for me.  And I never once thought that people I didn't know would start to read my blog.

But people I didn't know started reading my blog.

And those people I didn't know commented once in a while.  And that was exciting too.  It was exciting and it was a little scary.  I knew I'd never know who was reading and it made me feel a bit vulnerable.  For a while I seriously thought about making my blog private because I was sharing so much about my family and kids and life.

For a while I also thought about writing two blogs.  One about my family that would be private and one about my projects for anyone who was interested.

But I never separated the two topics.  And the reason I didn't is because I couldn't.  My family is everything to me and everything I do is about them or for them or because I need an escape from them.  :)  But regardless, it's all about them.

(picture from a post on toy organization... supposedly)  

So I didn't change anything about my blog and I kept sharing pictures and projects and the funny things the girls would say and the slightly annoying things that Kenny would say and how much I loved it all - even when it was slightly annoying.  And during the process I was "meeting" and connecting with all sorts of wonderful people.  And it made me love blogging even more.  Blogging has been a lot of things to me.  A creative outlet, a way to record the little things that I know I'll soon forget and never want to, motivation to complete projects, an escape from difficult days being a stay at home mom to three wonderful but incredibly active children who leave me feeling a mix of blessed and exhausted at the end of each day, a way to make new friends - most of whom I've never met but who I still feel incredibly close to.  Blogging has been a huge blessing in my life.

Right now, I need a little direction when it comes to blogging.  I am completely scattered.  (Did I mention that yet?  That I'm feeling a bit scattered lately?)  I think my problem is that I have a lot more on my plate than usual with the new house and Kole's therapy (which we recently bumped up to six days a week because he is showing a lot of progress).  I have very little time to do the things I love.  When I do find a 15 minute break to work on something for my blog I am completely torn!  I have so much I'd love to do and I don't know which direction to go in.  Should I organize something on my list?  Decorate the front porch for Halloween?  Complete a page in Kole's scrapbook?  Take a picture of what I'm wearing?  Share more new house updates?

I will always post about my family and what my kids are up to.  Those posts are the heart of my blog and the ones that are the most precious to me.  But because I am feeling so scattered lately when it comes to the other hobbies I write about, I would love some direction from you!

So here is a question that I hope you will take a minute to answer:  What kind of posts do you enjoy the most?  

I'm not planning to change anything about my blog, and like I said, the family stuff will remain the same.  It would just help me to hear if your favorite posts are about the new house, organizing, scrapbooking, decorating, fashion, etc. because I love to post about them all and right now I need some direction!

So direct me!  :)

I would love to hear from as many of you as possible!  I want to get an idea of what the majority of you come here for.  Plus it would just make for a really fun weekend.  :)

Thank you thank you thank you.  Thank you for sticking with me through this post.  I know how completely random it was.  Thank you in advance for taking a minute to answer my question.  And thank you mostly for checking in with me and making Sunny Side Up a part of your routine.  I am truly touched each day by the wonderful people who read this blog.  Your kindness and support mean so much and like I said, I consider you all friends.

xoxo,

Erin

A new look!

Hi everyone!  So sorry about the lack of posting this week!  Forget the face lift.  We went for the full body makeover!  :)  Which ended up being a bit time consuming.  You all know that I love to make my own blog headers.  And I love to switch them out with the seasons.  (You can see past headers and how I make them here.)  You also know that things are so busy for me right now that I don't have much time for making my blog headers and switching them out with the seasons.  But I was getting tired of the Easter Eggs.  They just seemed so... Easter.  :)  So I called my darling friend Haylee who is an amazing graphic designer and enlisted some help.

This picture was taken this last 4th of July with Haylee and her cute sisters (and kids).  These girls feel like my sisters too.  Our families have been close friends forever and I love them!  They are all so beautiful and talented and FUN.  One of my favorite things about visiting my hometown is getting together with these girls.  I told Haylee my plan for the blog - yellow and blue and sunny and happy.  :)  Then I sent her the pictures and she went to work.  She did an amazing job putting it all together.  Then we spent the past few nights staying up way too late getting everything uploaded and working just right and now YEA!  A new look for Sunny Side Up!   

And a button!  Can you believe that I've been blogging for almost four years and have never had a button?  I'm dedicating this button to my blog friend Katrina who kept asking me over and over if I was going to make one and then finally gave up and made one herself to put on her blog.  HA!  Now that's a loyal reader.  :)  Katrina - this button is for you!  And for anyone else who wants it.  :)  (code is on the sidebar)

I've also decided to join the party (albeit a bit late) and get a Facebook page for my blog.  I've told you all before that I don't tweet and I'm never on my personal Facebook page.  I'm rarely on my computer during the day (aside from monitor/answering emails) and the blog takes up most of my computer time at night.  But I've had many requests for additional ways to follow this blog so I set up a Facebook page to make it easier for those of you who prefer to follow blogs this way.  I don't know how often I'll be posting on Facebook.  My plan isn't to pop in every 20 minutes and bore you with what I'm eating for lunch.  Because if you've read this blog for 5 minutes you already know that I'm eating a turkey sandwich.  But I do promise to always update my Facebook page when I publish a new post.  And I may include an occasional picture of what I'm up to - kids, projects, shopping, new house stuff.  The everyday.  Ok.  Maybe I'll be boring you with pics of my turkey sandwich after all.  :)

Didn't Haylee do a great job with the Facebook header too!?  Love it.  And I would love for you to "like me."  But only if you want to.  I asked Kenny if he would "like me" last night when the page was up and running and he said he'd have to think about it.  So you can think about it too.  But in the end I hope you do.  :)  You can find my new Facebook page here. 

Haylee - I can't thank you enough for giving my blog a new look!  And we finished just in time for you to start working on my Christmas cards for this year!  ;)  (Haylee has designed my cards for the past two years.  Once Kole came along I was done making them myself.  No explanation needed.)  

2011 Christmas Card:

Kole was such a pill last year!  Cried the whole photoshoot.  Remember this post?  :)  

2010 Christmas Card:

Haylee is amazing and does such a beautiful job.  You can check out her fun website Hey Hay Designs if you are interested in having her make your holiday cards this year.   As soon as she is finished making mine.  :)

{Thanks again Haylee!}

SO happy to have a new permanent look for my blog!  Now I can focus on the posts.  And new house stuff.  I made lots of decisions this week!   Kenny called Tuesday afternoon to see how my morning had been and I informed him that we were upgrading our toilet seats.  Who thinks about toilet seats?? Someone who is purchasing multiple toilets, that's who.  Always a good time around here.  :)  

Enjoy your weekend everyone!  

Under Construction

My blog is getting a facelift.  California style.  A nip here, a tuck there, a little botox on the side.  ;)

Things are TOTALLY under construction right now so please excuse the mess!  It will take a day or two before I get everything up and running the right way since I can't put life on hold for my blog design.

But oh how I wish I could.  

:)

Enjoy your day!  

Clean brushes and blog headers

How often do you clean your hair and make-up brushes?  I was flipping through a magazine last week and came across this little article...

It says you should wash your brushes out every two months.  Oops.  I think I may have gone a bit longer than two months in between washings.  (Maybe two years?)

So I immediately cleaned the hair out of my brushes and let them soak for 10 minutes in warm water with a little shampoo.  

Then I figured while I was at it I'd clean my make-up brushes too.  Those I actually DO clean every couple of months.  Just rub a little shampoo into the brush and they clean up beautifully.  Nothing like starting the day with clean brushes!  Thought I'd share in case there is anyone else out there who (like me) needs a nudge to clean out their brushes.  :)

Oh!  By the way... I've had a lot of questions lately on how I make my blog headers and buttons for the sidebar of my blog.  I explained it a while back in this post:  BLOG HEADERS.  Aside from explaining how I create headers you can also take a look back at all of my headers I've created since I started blogging (I just updated this post).  Except for my Winter 2011 header.  It's lost somewhere on my computer and it's driving me nuts that I can't find it!  I'm off to continue hunting it down.  I don't handle things being out of order very well.  :)  Anyway - clean your brushes and make a blog header.  Or don't.  Either way - have a great Thursday!

New Buttons and a Carpool Party

Hi everyone!  Popping in quickly to share two new buttons I added to my sidebar...

I finally got around to adding some links so you can follow me on Pinterest or see what people are pinning from my blog.  (Click on these buttons on my sidebar if you're interested.)  It's so fun to see what people are pinning from my blog.  It's never what I expect.  Some of my most popular pins have been recipes.  HA!!  Who would have thought...   

:)

Gotta run.  My day to carpool.  Gearing up to listen to Party in the USA over and over.  That's right.  It's a party when you enter my van.  And you better believe that I'm rocking even harder than all the girls.  (I added that song for the 2nd graders but truth be told, I like it as much as they do!)  My kids aren't old enough to be embarrassed by me yet so I'm living it up while I still can.  I added my tunes to the sidebar.  Click on Party in the USA.  Go ahead.  You know you want to.  That's right.  Hands over your head.

(nodding my head like yeah... moving my hips like yeah...)  

Happy Tuesday everyone!

Stop! I'm blushing!

Just popping in quick today to share some fun news!  Better Homes and Gardens featured my Valentines mantel on their website!  So exciting!  When I got the e-mail a few months ago asking if they could feature my mantel I think my jaw hit the table.  I clicked the Better Homes and Gardens link about five times to make sure it was really them!  (Move over Martha!)

You can check out the feature and see other fun Valentine mantels here.

The link to my full post on my Valentine mantel from last year is here.  

Although I'm working on mixing it up a bit this year.  :)

I've also been noticing a lot of traffic coming to my little blog from Pinterest.  Yes.  Pinterest.  That beloved site that has changed all of our lives.  Mostly by zapping away all of our time.  ;)  Yesterday I landed on the link to all of the pictures people have recently pinned from my site.  Now THAT was fun.  I'm thrilled and flattered that so many of you are pinning my ideas.  It truly makes me so happy!  In fact I was so excited about it that last night I did a little celebration dance in the living room.  (I know - you're all so sad you missed that one.)  I said to Kenny "I'm getting pinned!!"  He gave me that look.  The one I so often get that says I have no idea what you're talking about but I'm not about to ask because I don't think I really want to know.  I know his looks well.

If you're a Pinterest fan like myself, you can see what has recently been pinned from 

Sunny Side Up here.

Ok.  All of this excitement has worn me out.  I'm off to bed.

Thanks for the happy dance.

:)

No sleep and a new header

Things have felt a little crazy around here the past few days with both mom and baby being sick.  Kole is completely sleep deprived - which of course means I too am completely sleep deprived.  Reminds me again of exactly why I struggled so much when my babies were newborns.  Sleep is key to being able to juggle life with my three busy monkeys!  Kole is on a lot of medication (his cold went straight to his lungs) and is doing breathing treatments every few hours so hopefully he'll start to feel better soon.  The only upside to him feeling down and out is that he is awfully cuddly.  I have to admit that I have loved snuggling him and rocking him at night - even though I pay for it in the morning.  I'm actually feeling a little better and am crossing my fingers that I can get some sleep tonight and wake up feeling like a new woman tomorrow!  As it turns out, organizing was only a temporary upper so we need a serious cure for the common cold.  Get on that people.  I know I have a lot of smart readers out there.  

At this very moment, Kenny is watching some show starring Bruce Willis and is spewing Armageddon references right and left ... "Harry doesn't know how to fail!"  I had to do something to tune out both Kenny and Bruce so I finished my new fall header and changed a few things on my sidebar.  I just love putting up a new fall header!  Makes me so excited for this season.  Here are a couple of past fall headers I stumbled on...

{2009}

{2010}

{2011}

My headers can't be quite as big as they used to because of the Blogher ad placements.  Still, I love going through our fall pictures.  They make me miss living in Virginia!  In other blog news, I also changed my blog url to www.thesunnysideupblog.com.  You can still get here by typing my old url -www.kennyanderin.blogspot.com.  Either one works!  

Well - that's it for me - I'm off to bed.  Wish me luck.  :)

Indecision - my middle name

First of all, thank you for your excitement and encouragement after my fun Becky news!  Your sweet comments and e-mails always make me feel SO good.   

Second of all, thank you to the kind reader who suggested trying all natural 'pop chips' after my eating healthy post.  Bought some BBQ pop chips today and they tasted SO good.  

Third of all, is anyone out there watching Parenthood?  This week's episode was SO good.  I couldn't help crying. 

Fourth of all, I finally got my spring header up!  My indecision with this little project was NOT so good.

Usually it doesn't take me too long to knock one of these out, but for some reason this time things just weren't clicking for me.  First I went through about a dozen picture collages before finally deciding on this one...  

Here are a few of the cast aways...

Then I went through about a dozen different options for my sidebar.  Here are a few of those cast aways...

                       

Finally went with this one...

Then I just wasn't feeling good about the background for the header.  Of course the best way to see if I like it is to put it up on my blog, so depending on when you checked in yesterday you may have seen it...

PINK (I liked this, but nothing was working with it for the sidebars)...

RED (did NOT like this - not springy enough, but right after I put it up I got busy with the kids and so red it stayed for most of the day)...

YELLOW (started this and then quickly decided Sunny Side Up was looking a little TOO sunny)...

GREEN (I just love green, but using green for the header and the sidebars didn't shout Spring! It shouted Leprechaun!)...

And there you have it.  My rainbow blog!  I finally decided to just give it up and leave the background plain old white.  And now I'm happy with it.  I've totally made my decision.  And I'm not going to change my mind again.  Ever.

Unless I decide to go with the flowers instead of the butterfly...          
    

:)

p.s.  See why Kenny is so NOT excited about building a house with me!?  Picky + Indecisive = Erin.

p.p.s.  Speaking of the house hunt, while we haven't found anything we love yet, we have ruled out a lot of possibilities which has helped narrow our search.  I recently vetoed one neighborhood I've always liked simply because it contains too many speed bumps.  I don't do speed bumps.  

p.p.p.s.  Please DO NOT tell me you like one of the above choices better than what I decided on.  I will once again crumble with indecision.  

p.p.p.p.s.  Unless you want to tell me if you like the flowers or the butterfly better.  

:)  :)  :)

THANK YOU!

Oh my goodness! You are all so kind to comment and help me out with my little dilemma. Can I call it that? A dilemma? That makes it sounds so serious. I loved hearing from so many of you! Even though half of you chose #1 and half of you chose #2 making it no easier for me to decide! :) So I came up with a little compromise. I'll use the one above for January and the header below for February.

See. I'm a people pleaser. An indecisive people pleaser. I would spend more time mixing it up from December's look but I just don't have time right now. Kenny and I are completely consumed with some changes that will be taking place for our little family. More on that later...

Thanks again for your help! You were all so kind - don't be surprised if I start turning to you more frequently to make important life changing decisions for me. You know - like which jeans I should put on in the morning, whether or not I should toast the bread for my turkey sandwich for lunch, or if I should take off my make-up right after I put the kids to bed or hours later right before I actually go to bed. I dread doing it, but I'm always so glad I did it early when it's midnight and I've been up too late blogging again...

Help

It's late and I'm very tired. I am really struggling with my "winter" header. I always struggle with my winter header. It's my least favorite header every year because we don't have any snowy winter pictures. I told Kenny that we need to go snow skiing again. Aside from the fact that we love to snow ski and haven't been in forever, there is the added bonus of getting some snowy pictures for my winter header. I made three options and don't love any of them. But like I said, it's late - I'm tired - my to-do list for the next few days is a mile long - and the reality is that it's not going to get any better. Help me out by picking your fav of the three. I'd call my mom but it's midnight in Utah. I'd ask Kenny but he's asleep on the couch and he'd just mumble a number without really looking anyway. You're all I've got!

{Option #1}
And yes. I know we're all sick of the snowman picture. But I don't have much else to work with and snowmen are usually a January/February theme, right? People who live in snow? Back me up here? I'm really milking that costume. Got to use it for Halloween, all things Christmas, and now it works great for January. I'm thinking next Halloween all three of my kids need to be snowmen.

Did I mention that it's late? And I'm really tired?

{Option #2}

{Option #3}

Blah blah and another blah. I know. Not much to choose from, but thanks for your input!

Heading to bed now.

Blog Headers

Ok - I'm going to attempt to explain how I create my blog headers, but let me first warn you that I don't know "blog tutorial etiquette" so stick with me and I'll do the best I can. I use Photoshop 7.0 to make my headers, but you can use any Photoshop program. If I'm doing one with several pictures (like the summer header above) I also use Picasa. Picasa is a free editing system that you can download for your pictures. If you aren't using Picasa at all you should be! It's SO easy to use. I used to make a lot of my collages in Photoshop, but Picasa is so much easier and faster that I use it instead now. I could type a long tutorial on how to use Picasa to make collages, but Sarah from Clover Lane (love her and love her blog) has already explained it so click here to learn the first step.  You can create your whole header in Picasa if you want to.  I prefer to make the collage in Picasa and then jazz it up in Photoshop because I have so many digital scrapbook supplies to work with.  So here we go...

After I've used Picasa to create this:

then I save it as a jpeg - just like a regular picture. Creating the rest is just digital scrapbooking.

1 - Buy and download a digital scrapbook kit you like. I always use the kits because they come with coordinating paper, embellishments, and usually alphabet letters (those are what I use for my blog sidebars). Two of my favorite digital sites are Little Dreamer Designs, and The Shabby Shoppe.

2 - After you've chosen what parts of the kit you want to use for your blog, open them all up in Photoshop along with the picture collage you made in Picasa. Then I just play around with everything - (click, drag, crop, etc.) until it looks the way I want it to. (I'm assuming if you have a Photoshop program you know how to do this, but if you don't, it's easy to learn by just playing around with your sidebar tools - trial and error).


3- Once you've created your header, save it in Photoshop (in case you ever want to change or edit it) and then save it again as a jpeg. Once it is saved as a jpeg you can upload it to blogger just like you would with any header.

4- I also use Photoshop to make the words for my sidebars. First open up each letter (just like you did with the paper, etc. from your digital scrapbook kit) and open up a blank file (which is just a white background). Drag each letter for your word onto the white background and when you're done, crop it.

Save it in Photoshop and as a jpeg just like you did with your header.

5- Now that it is saved as a jpeg you can put it on your blog sidebar the same way you add a picture. ("Customize", then "Add a Gadget", then choose "Picture") Then you can move it where you want it to be located on your sidebar. (Example: the word "Topics" above your list of topics, etc.)

Here is a look at all of my headers (before and after jazzing them up in Photoshop) and sidebars in the order I created them...

So did any of that make sense? Creating the headers and sidebars is easy, explaining how to do it is a little tricky. Plus it probably didn't help that I was typing this post while I was watching the season finale of LOST (I know - I'm probably the only person left on the planet who hasn't seen it yet. Been a little preoccupied lately with the new baby and well...recovering from almost dying) ;) So now none of us are satisfied. I'm left with all sorts of questions about the show...still. And you're probably still wondering what in the world I do to make my headers. If you have specific questions left unanswered about how I make my headers, ask me in the comments and I'll try to answer them for you. If you have specific questions about LOST, join the club.

----------------------------------------------- (added later....)

(Had to start making my headers smaller because of the Blogher Ads from here on out...)

(Summer 2011)

(Fall 2011)

(December 2011)

(Winter 2012)

(Spring 2012)