Buckwheat Oat Mix for the Week

I made my buckwheat oat flour for the week. I make it with one bag GF oat flour and one bag buckwheat flour.

The best part is my son went to the store and bought me a coca-cola in the glass bottle. Now I can sip Disaronno and coke while I clean. I think that was his plan all along. I have been pretty bitchy this morning because my back is killing me. No pain meds + killing back = what monster are you and what did you do with my mom?

He is now quietly hiding in his room watching movies. I am happily making biscuits... I think his diabolical plan is working!

I know my niche!

After asking around I think I figured out my niche. Most people I asked said family-oriented sounds like it fits my niche. If they ignore the 31 Days to Building a Better Blog posts, the rest of the blog is family-oriented. It's mostly family stuff, recipes and my writing. So I will try to leave off the stuff about my writing and go for the family-oriented, "single parent"/ Navy spouse, recipes type posts.

What do you think???

Better Blogging: Finding my niche, Checking out my Competition

Today on 31 Days to Building a Better Blog, I looked into the assignment of analyzing your blogs competition.  The first part was to make a list 10 blogs in your niche.  I got to thinking about it and I don't know what my niche is as far as it goes with this blog.

Discovering my niche

The first thing I did was open my blog and figure out the topic of my blog posts.  Hmmm, there doesn't seem to be much of a theme except for this month’s 31 Days to Better Blogging posts.  The rest are about parenting, homeschooling, traveling updates, photos, recipes, reviews, allergies, life as a CNA and article writing. 

Since I already have other blogs that cover the homeschooling and housekeeping, I can cross those off and use the Homeschool blog for co-parenting and homeschool information.  I can also add reviews to the appropriate blogs of whatever I am reviewing.

That still leaves many topics but I think I can work on narrowing it down a touch.  I'll work on that niche thing over the next couple of weeks.  I plan on researching blog niches and see what I find.

Searching my popular posts

Two of my top ten posts are my Top 13 list of things.  Apparently, people really like lists.  I know I do!  Three are random pictures I have posted of things.  One is about my job and the other is about creating a household budget.  The other three posts are about random garble that I posted on various topics.  Surfing the internet at 41,000 feet, one about the world ending on May 21, 2011 and then house-sitting in the country.

Lists are on my things to blog about as is life as a CNA and photos.  I love photos!

Blog Competition?

I don't know where to start when looking for competition for my blog.  I just don't know.  If you have suggestions, I am all ears!

Question to my readers

If you all could be kind enough to drop me line, leave a comment, email or whatever...  I am wondering.

·                     What brings you to this blog?

·                     Are you coming back?  If so, what brings you back?  If not, why are not coming back?

·                     What do you find interesting on the blog?

·                     What would you change if it was your blog?

I'd love to hear from you!  Thanks so much for reading my blog.

FAQ: Mailbag! Backgrounds part 2

This is part 2 of the original post Where do you get your background?

You'll notice that my background isn't in the images selection for the blogger template designer. That is because I get my background lay out from The Cutest Blog on the Block. They have different backgrounds for Twitter, Wordpress, Myspace and Blogger.

How to find your background

At the top of the Cutest Blog on the Block page, scroll over "backgrounds" and then choose "Blogger". It will open a page for the Blogger backgrounds. You can browse around the different categories (on the right hand side, scroll down a little). They have backgrounds for 3-column lay out, Black and white, etc.

Once you find the background you like, click on it. I'll use the Fluorescent Grunge Glam background as the example.

Scroll down to the code section where it says "copy and paste this code". Highlight the whole code, right click and pick "copy". 

Open your Blog Design Tab

Now go back to your blog dashboard. Click on the blog you want to have the background displayed and click the "design" tab. 

This will take you to a page that shows your pages lay out, with header, footer, posts and the sidebar items. 

Adding your background

Wherever you want, click "add gadget". A box will pop up to choose the gadget you want. Scroll down to find "HTML/javascript" and click on that. 

A new box will open with a title and content box. Paste your code in the content box and then click "save". 

Now open your blog page and marvel at its beauty :)

Tip for Blogger Backgrounds

Once you have added your cute background, you may want to go to the template designer link on the design page and remove the background image. This will help your blog load faster.

If you need any help or have any questions, email me.

FAQ: Mailbag! Where do you get your background?

I found this email in my inbox this morning

I can't figure out how to get a multi colored back ground like you have on your blog.  I dislike my blog background somewhat, it's boring. 

Oh I know what you mean! The backgrounds that come with the blogger templates can be exciting and colorful but for the most part, I want something cute and different. Here is how you change your background.

Getting to the template designer
Go to your blogger dashboard. Near your blogs name there is a link for "design". When you click on it you will be taken to a page that shows the lay out of your blog.

Near the top (but below the "posting", "comments", "settings", etc tabs) will be a link for "template designer". Click on that.

This takes you to the template designer where you see your blog on the bottom half of the page and all the options you can change on the top half.

Changing your background image
The second link down on the top half (on the left) is "background". Click on that.

There will be a box next to it that shows your background image. You can click on it to change your background. There are a ton of background images to choose from. Then you choose to change the color theme to match your background picture on the same "background" option.

Read Part 2 of Backgrounds to see how to get a cute background for your blog.