1. i'm loving ruche. Have you ever heard of it? I stumbled across it on Facebook a few weeks ago and fell in love. Their tagline is "a modern boutique with a touch of vintage". Hello? That totally describes my style. To tell you the truth, though, there are a few things in the shop I don't really care for, but for the most part they have amazing items. Right now I'm loving this dream purse, amazing Japanese masking tape, a super cute camera necklace, and the most adorable boots. Sigh. I'm a bit obsessed.



2. grapefruit is the best. Don't you just love it? So juicy, so delicious. Yum. Linking up the above photo to Macro Friday.

3. yes, i admit it. I'm a bit country music obsessed. Blame it on the fact that I was born and spent the first nine years of my life in Texas, but I still love it. It seems that my siblings can't get enough of country music either - they all blare the country station on the radio in their rooms. One of the sweetest songs I've heard in awhile came on a few days ago...I'm a sucker for adorable stories in songs :)

4. that lilly. She cracks me up. If you don't believe me, check out these photos...oh, and every single pose you see her are entirely her own. All I did was capture her antics with my camera...I didn't tell her to do anything. That's just how the crazy girl acts ;)



(Left - What you think Lilly looks like. Right - what she really looks like.)



(She thought it would be so hilarious to give the leaf bunny ears. Snort.)





Lilly definitely keeps us all rolling with laughter. Man, I love that girl to pieces.


5. paper cuts hurt. A lot. One wouldn't think that such a tiny incision would hurt so much, but it doesn't. Gah. I can't wait for this cut to heal on my finger.
Speaking of injuries, it seems that I've been very accident prone lately. Yesterday morning my day started out by falling down the stairs. Lovely. I have a big bruise on my forearm to show for it, too. Then, when I was getting dressed, I stubbed my toe - hard. Oh, and I ran into a wall. Twice. Although, that isn't really anything new...I'm super clumsy. Sigh.




6. hats are lifesavers. They're perfect for those days when you didn't have time to wash your hair and need to go somewhere. Not that I would have any experience in that area. I never venture out in public with greasy hair. I have way too much class to ever do something like that. Ahem.


7. baking soda. I've been seeing everywhere people who quit using shampoo cold turkey and switch to baking soda and apple cider vinegar to washing their hair. I admit I could never do that - I have a tendency for greasy hair if I don't use shampoo. I found an article in a magazine a few weeks ago that suggested you add a bit of baking soda to your shampoo. The next time I washed my hair, I half way filled a very small glass with baking soda and added it to the shampoo in my hand. It worked beautifully. My hair got cleaner so much faster and I was left with squeaky clean strands. And my hair felt wonderful afterwards. Try it sometime!

8. my desktop background. Isn't it just the cutest? I found it via Olive Tree, who in turn found it on oh, hello friend. So adorable. 

What background do you have on your computer's desktop?


-carlotta

I've gotten several requests lately on how to make a blog button. Because I think it's something every blogger should know and because I love ya, here's a tutorial on how to make your own blog button with a grab box. It's really very easy - honestly, the hardest part for me is coming up with the design ;)

To design my button, I used Picnik, but you can use any software that lets you resize and add text.



Upload your photo to Picnik. Make sure it's something very simple that lets you read the text easily. You could always use just a plain solid color background as well.



Once your photo is finished uploading, select the crop button.



Select the square crop. You could leave it rectangular (or whatever shape you photo is in), but I think having a square button just looks cleaner. Go ahead and drag the cropping box to as large as it'll let you.



When you're finished cropping, go to the "create" tab...



...then click on the text button.



Now is when you add your text. If it's a button for your blog, it would make sense to write the name of your blog :) I just wrote "I love pumpkin bread", since this is just a sample button.



You can play with the fonts - there are plenty of options. Just make sure you don't put too much text on the button, since we're going to be resizing it to a much smaller size.

After this step, I like to round the edges of my buttons (which you can do under the frames tab), but you don't have to.



When you're all done fixing your button to your liking, hit the "save & share" tab. Under dimensions, we're going to resize the button. I chose 160px, as it fits in my sidebar quite nicely, but feel free to use a bigger size. I wouldn't recommend going above 200px, though.



After resizing, go ahead and hit the "save photo" button and select your desired destination for the button.

Now for all the HTML junk... ;)

Upload your button to an image hosting site such as Imgur, Photobucket, or Flickr.



Whatever you use, make sure you copy the direct link - if you don't, your button won't work.

<center><a href="PasteBlogURLHere"><img src="PasteDirectLinkForPhotoHere" /></a><textarea>&lt;a href="PasteBlogURLHere"&gt;&lt;img src="PasteDirectLinkForPhotoHere" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;</textarea></center>

Paste in the direct link and your blog URL (which you must copy directly from the address bar -- if you type it in, it won't work) in the spaces I specified.

Go to Blogger > design > page elements and select "add a gadget". Select the HTML/JavaScript gadget, paste in your code.

<a href="http://www.pastorsgirlsponderings.com/"><img src="http://imgur.com/BN8n5.jpg" /></a>(Don't be like me and make your font way too small...hehe. Oh well, it's just a sample button.)
Congratulations! You've just successfully made your very own blog button - that wasn't so bad, was it? :) If you have any questions, don't hesitate to ask, whether via the comments or email! 
-carlotta

Lately I've really been loving frozen raspberries. They're healthy, delicious, and are the perfect snack when I'm craving something cold. They're also wonderful subjects to photograph, especially when all your siblings refuse your pleas to let you take their picture. Not that I would have any experience with that. Riiiight guys? Jeremiah and MeMe, I know you're reading this...you can pass on the message to Lilly, too. Ahem.

Moving right along.

<a href="http://pastorsgirlsponderings.com/"><img src="http://imgur.com/AS92y.jpg"/></a>

Is there a photo that makes you happy? One that warms your heart or tells a funny story? One that puts you on cloud nine? Here's your chance to share it! 

Just put up a post on your blog containing one photo that you've taken. You can add as much or as little text as you would like along with it. After writing your post, come back here to link up - you have until Thursday at 11:59pm CST to do so. Don't forget to link back to me so others can join in, whether it be via the above button or a link. :) And remember to visit others' photos as well! 
Have fun!
-carlotta

1. Today I'm going to go all Pioneer Woman-esque.

2. That's just a different name for saying that I'm stealing Ree's post idea.

3. Don't tell anyone, but I'm writing this because I really don't have anything else to post about.

4. That's because my life is boring at the moment. School, homework, blogging, homework, school, blogging. Yep, that's my life right now.

5. Oh, how I miss Europe. My life was more exciting there.

6. I finally picked the winner of my photo challenge.

7. It was a really tough decision, which didn't surprise me...y'all are amazing photographers.

8. I'll start with announcing the finalists first. Because I like keeping people in suspense.

9. Speaking of suspense, I had the best Halloween on Sunday that I've had in a long time. Even though we don't celebrate Halloween. I walked around my neighborhood with a couple of my friends and tried to scare trick-or-treaters. Key word tried. Ha. It was still a blast. What did you do on the thirty first?

10. I'm digressing.

11. Where was I? Oh yes, the finalists. Ashley Jean, Janell, Violet Incredible, AJ, and Mikayla. If I thought choosing the finalists was hard, it was nearly impossible to pick a winner out of the finalists. I had enlist the aid of my mom. :)

12. And now for the winner...

13. ...Violet Incredible! Congratulations, Violet. I adored everything about your photo. The colors are so vibrant and fall-ish, the perspective adds so much interest, the depth of field is so pretty...you should be very proud of your photography skills :) Great job!

14. It's November second. Dude, when did that happen?! 

15. Don't ask me why I just said "dude". I don't know either.

16. I helped Lilly with her worksheets for school yesterday. She turned to me and said, "Dude, I need some crayons, please." 

17. It made me think of this photo and I about died. 

18. She's going to be five in February. When did that happen?!

19. I've been craving baked macaroni and cheese and pizza lately. Yum. What's your favorite food?

20. I like sarcasm.

21. If you haven't already, you know, noticed.

22. I've been seeing all these beautiful fall photos taken in New England. It makes me want to go there. I've been on the east coast once or twice as a baby, but I don't remember anything.

23. If you live on the east coast, I envy you.

24. I'm rambling. Again.


25. Have a great day!

26. -carlotta

27. PS I'm going overboard with the numbering.

28. See?

29. Okay, I'm going to stop now.

30. Really.