New Look- How to Create a Banner

Since I haven't been doing such a good job on improving myself lately, I thought maybe my blog could use a little face lift!  I have wanted to make a new banner for my title for awhile now, but still don't have the pictures taken for what banner design I had in mind, so I thought I could do something EVEN BETTER, and make my banner be all pictures of Ava for now :)

It is really easy to change your banner... I used Picasa in order to create it.  All I did was use the collage function, and resized the pictures to only take up about the top quarter of the space.  You have to stretch and scale them a bit to make them the right size.  I then used the text box function in order to add my blog's title under the photos... they have an amazing selection of fonts to use.  You can also edit in Picnik (FYI Piknik is going away in April) to add words, effects, but I just used Picasa itself.  You then crop your image to just your banner and save it. When you save it to your computer, you will likely need to choose the export option.  Make sure your size is 1024 pixels if you have a regular template for Blogger, if you have a smaller template, you may have to re-export and try the 600 or 800 size pixels.

To change your title on Blogger, you select Design, and go to your header.  When you click Edit, you will have the option to check "instead of title and description", and then can upload your photo that you just exported.  Make sure you do not do any resizing or select shrink to fit.

Wallah!  A new banner for your blog that looks a little more fancy and a lot cuter :)  Once I have more pictures I can change up my banner however and whenever I would like!

My Very First Sewing Machine! How to get started.

(I need to work on my indoor photography)

I mentioned that I received a sewing machine from my mom for Christmas this year... but I did not mention that it is my very first one!  I am so excited!  I just know that soon I will be designing my own line at Wal-Mart, just like Martha.  Except I would want to have my line at Target.  Just sayin'.

Anyway, I am now the proud owner of the Brother CS-6000i.  It has 60 different stitches... and the best part, is that it is sew easy.  It even says so on the box.  Not only is it easy, but it is also sew advanced AND sew affordable.  Those marketers at Brother are such a bunch of joke-sters.

Here is another photo of the machine out of the box.

 Look at all those stitch options!  I can make leaves!

Now... I have a confession.  It took me until yesterday to get it out of the box, and today to try to wind the bobbin and thread the needle.  Why? Because this is some intimidating stuff!  Not only is this my first sewing machine, but I also have never even been around someone using a sewing machine!  And on You Tube... there weren't any videos of what to do with my model.  It took me more than an hour to figure out something that should take like 5 minutes.  So I made a couple videos.  If you are a beginner, take a peek.  I will probably re-do these after awhile once I hone my video camera skills.

Here is the one on How to Wind Your Bobbin, and How to set your bobbin.  (Using the machine's fast bobbin winding system and quick set bobbin)

And on on How to Set the Upper Thread and Thread the Needle. (Using the needle threader)
This video cracks me up because for like 30 seconds all you see is my hand while I can't get the hook to catch the thread.

My first project attempt is to be a pillow for Ava... one with her bitty clothing cut into letters.  We will see if I can figure it out!