Creating My Way to Success Feature

Hope you all had a fantastic weekend!  We just got back from being in St. George and Vegas and had such a great time!  Just in case you missed it, I thought I would share my feature at Creating My Way to Success from a couple weeks back since I didn't have time to get a post ready for today:

What do you create?

 Well, let's see...I keep a blog of my favorite things (from life and from the things I see in blogland,) I am a photographer and do a couple shoots a month usually, and I also love to try out new craft projects here and there.

Why do you create?

I started really blogging after Allie was about 1 1/2.  She was a lot easier to take care of and I had a lot more free time on my hands.  I had to do something to keep me from getting too bored.   That is the same time the crafting came into my life; since I didn't really have an interest in it before that.  For my photography, I do it because I love to document life and see it in its beauty.  Photography is my passion and I love that I learn more about it constantly and improve constantly.  

Do you sell your creations?

I just started an etsy shop for the random craft projects I do.  I also plan on selling vintage treasures I find and photographic prints.  I am not currently pursuing my photography business, but I take whatever jobs and learning opportunities come at me here and there.  I usually do 1-3 shoots a month and I charge a minimum amount for the time I put into them.

 (some of the items in my etsy shop right now)

What mistakes have you made or lessons you have learned?

I can't really think of any specific ones off the top of my head.  I have had some less-than-perfect experiences dealing with companies or other bloggers, but those are things that just come with the territory.  For my photography, I decided when I first started it that I would be the kind of photographer that I would hire myself.  I always give my clients the digital copies of their photos (since, to me, this is like having insurance on my photos) and that I would only charge what I felt my experience was worth.  This may be a bad thing for business, but it makes me feel good about what I do.

What, to you, is success?  Have you achieved it yet, or are you on your way to success?  

A year ago I would have said that success is being well-known and making the kind of money that could support all the travel and hobbies I would like to have.  Now, however, I would say that success is knowing that you are doing what you are supposed to; and putting yourself second.  I try not to get caught up in numbers and focus more on my priorities.  Making my family and religion come first, then my business aspirations come second.  For example, right now I know that I am supposed to focus more on being a mom and raising my kids the way they deserve with my blog and photography being more of a hobby than a business. 

(My husband, daughter and me)

So, what's next?

Well, my husband will soon be starting grad school, who knows where, and I plan on blogging more about money-saving tips, our adventures in grad school, having more kids, and eventually working on our future house.  I also hope to start digging deeper into the business-minded aspect of photography, when I feel the time is right.  I look forward to all of this, as I love change and adventure, and feel like my life just keeps getting better!

10 Reasons I Blog

I often ask myself if I really need to blog.  I mean, it takes up more time than I should let it, but balancing my time has never been my strong point.  Besides the time, I really haven't found reasons why not to.  But, why do it?  Here are my top ten reasons:

1. Its fun.

2. It is a creative outlet for me.

3. It inspires me.  For my photography, style, and life in general.

4. It lets me see that there are so many good people in the world; and that many of them blog.

via we heart it

5. I get free stuff.  Who doesn't love that?  Giveaways, reviews, advertising, etc.  Often they are things that I had been wanting or things I was going to buy anyway (money saver.)

6. I get to relate to others in ways that I need (especially motherhood), and also see the world through the perspectives of others (different opinions than my own.)

7. It helps me be more patient with my toddler, especially when I hear stories from other moms.

8. It helps me count my blessings...I am, after all, blogging about my "favorite things."

9. It helps me define my personal style (i.e. photography, decor, fashion) and learn more about myself.

10. Because I get bored easily...there are always new things to see/think about in "blogland."

So, why do you blog?

Take My 2 Question Survey?

Quizzes by Quibblo.com

Thank you MUCHLY! :)

For All You Google Readers

What do you think of the new design?  

Along with some new buttons:

Go check it out if you haven't seen it and let me know - it is a work in progress and I love to get feedback!

The New "Weblog"

I am SO excited to share with you my new photography website/blog!  I will just call it my photo weblog for fun :)  I got the idea from Jessica Claire (a successful photographer in Southern California) who uses her blog as her website also.

One of my friends from church that designs websites/blogs (who is also a talented writer - go check out her blog) came up with the perfect blog for me.  I absolutely LOVE it.  Thank you so much Tiana.  I am excited to be doing some photo shoots in the near future with her and her husband (they are a very cute couple.)

Go see it!  I am so excited about it!

I am sharing this at some of these

Blog Tip: How to Number Your Comments

For those of you who want to start doing giveaways on your blogs, you may want to know how to number your comments.

I read a lot of instructions on this that were outdated and didn't work.  For the best explanation, go to THIS blog.

I have some fun stuff planned coming up soon...a guest here on Favorite Things and another Giveaway!  Just wait patiently...

I promise it will be soon.

How to Change No Reply to Your E-mail address

This is super easy to do and will make it easier for everyone responding to your comments via e-mail.  I think this is one great way to carry a conversation with someone (which can be hard to do with a blog.)

Go to your DASHBOARD and then to EDIT PROFILE

The first Section is PRIVACY

Click on the box that says SHOW MY E-MAIL ADDRESS

Some of you may have to enter your e-mail.

That's it!

Now we can all have better conversations!  Awesome.

How to Make a Scroll Box for Your Blog Button

I was so happy that so many of you were able to use my tutorial on how to make a blog button!  I love when my blogging addiction can benefit someone somehow...

So, now that you have a blog button you are probably wanting one of those handy scroll boxes so that other bloggers can take your button if they would like one.

Here's what you do:

1. Go to your LAYOUT page and add a GADGET.  Use the HTML/JAVA SCRIPT gadget.

2. Copy and Paste the following code:

<form>
<textarea rows="5" cols="20" class="html-test-bx" name="link" onclick="javascript: select undefined);"> <a href="YOUR SITE HERE/" title="TITLE"><img alt="IMAGE TITLE" src="IMAGE URL" /></a>
</textarea></form>

3. Now enter your website address where it says YOUR SITE HERE

4. The name of your website on TITLE (i.e. Jessica Hills Photography)




5. Get the web address of your image and enter it on IMAGE URL

6. Then take the name of your image out of the web address and enter it where it says IMAGE TITLE
          For example, my image's address is the following, and the image's name is highlighted:

 http://jessicahillsphotography.blogspot.com//" title="Jessica Hills Photography"><img alt="JHP+Button+Small.jpg" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgz4T4LbtKeSB9v827E6hYiBo6um_E_jwXJihO8UPN-0Fb-gzzDOFAiPMEEBIWQRPIpZqQI93AH-1MSaAdMO0fX5IPLwgFZXP0WBdICJgGBE29F49FRofZNWb4PrbrPQQ_rueO9Lvt20wpB/s1600/JHP+Button+Small.jpg

Now that your code is complete, you will want to do one more thing before you save and close it.

As you can see, I have an example down here to show you what it will look like.

7. You now need to take all of the highlighted (pink and purple) part and copy it.

<form>
<textarea rows="5" cols="20" class="html-test-bx" name="link" onclick="javascript: select undefined);"> <a href="jessicahillsphotography.blogspot.com/" title="jessicahillsphotography"><img alt="jhp+button+small.jpg" src="http://jessicahillsphotography.blogspot.com//" title="Jessica Hills Photography"><img alt="JHP+Button+Small.jpg" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgz4T4LbtKeSB9v827E6hYiBo6um_E_jwXJihO8UPN-0Fb-gzzDOFAiPMEEBIWQRPIpZqQI93AH-1MSaAdMO0fX5IPLwgFZXP0WBdICJgGBE29F49FRofZNWb4PrbrPQQ_rueO9Lvt20wpB/s1600/JHP+Button+Small.jpg" /></a>
</textarea></form>

8. Leave your gadget window open as you go to this website.

On this web page you will see an empty box with a button below it that says "Convert special chars to entities"

9. You will want to paste all of the highlighted area there, click that button, then copy your new code and replace the old code in your gadget window with that new code.

Basically, all you did was replace all of the < with &lt ;
and  all of the > with &gt ;  (but without any space before the semicolons)


You can do this all yourself, but when I did it at first I failed, and using this converter was a lot easier.  These just make it so the gadget doesn't convert the code into a picture (because you need the code to show so it can be copied from your box)

10. Save and Close, You're done!

I hope that wasn't too confusing!


This post was linked to these link parties.

How to Make a Button for Your Blog

I have to admit, I am no pro when it comes to HTML code.  I am a beginner that needs the simplest of explanations and I have had to search multiple websites and their explanations to get one thing done.  I thought, why not share what I have learned with everyone who is in the same place as I am so they don't have to?

So, here it goes, to put a button on your blog you first want to create it in a program like Photoshop.  I used photos I had taken as backgrounds and graphics on my buttons, then just added text on top. (If you do not have a program like this go to this tutorial to learn how to make one.)

Once you save your button as a JPEG file, you want to post it somewhere online so you can have a web address assigned to it.  I just posted the JPEG file of my button on a post on my blog.

To find the web address of your button, all you have to do is right click on the picture and go to "View Image Info"

So, now that you know where the web address of your button is, here is how to put it on your blog:


Copy and Paste into HTML/Java Script Gadget under Edit Layout:



<center><a href="URL address you're Linking to"><img src="URL address of your uploaded image"/></a></center>



The URL address you are linking to is your blog's address.

And, now you know where to find the URL address of your uploaded image.







I hope that helps at least one person!  I will be posting more tutorials soon on how to make a text box for your button, scrolling box, and even a header for your blog.

I am posting this tutorial here