My daughter is grown now and lives in a state far away, but a Mom never forgets the precious memories! Here she is with my first cairn terrier Tessa. So cute!
Monthly Archives: May 2013
WordPress-Be a Nerd
Part III-Be A Nerd
This is the third of a five-part series for newbies to WordPress. Be sure to join me each Monday for the next three weeks to learn how to set up a WordPress site.
*See Definition of Technical Terms
So now that you have chosen a domain name and host provider, and have selected a theme, it’s time to become a nerd and get that website or blog started! I don’t know about you, but for the most part I am a firm believer in reading instructions, particularly when stepping into unknown territory. That definitely being the case with WordPress, my best recommendation is to thoroughly read the WordPress.org site’s “Getting Started with WordPress” section for Beginners. Bookmark this site, create a new tab in your browser, and login to the “administration area” of your newly created WordPress site. You do this by adding “wp-admin” after your domain name (e.g. http://example.com/wp-admin). You can also place “login” after your domain name in more current versions of WordPress. Now you will be able to go back and forth between the two sites as you are learning. Be sure to also bookmark your WordPress login page for future use.
Once logged in, you will see your *dashboard; this is the place where all the creating happens! As the WordPress.org site says, this is where you will be spending a lot of time over the next few hours, weeks, months – so take the time to go through the sections and set your site up the way you want it. Take a sheet of plain paper and make notes of other websites that you admire when setting up the structure for your own site. What do you like about them? Not like? Do you like the look of the backgrounds used, how the footer sections look, how photography is presented, the types of information provided in the sidebar? How are links used for *social media on other sites? Think about the different names/types of pages you might like to have. Time invested now will mean fewer changes to your new site later.
*Dashboard ~ a collection of information and data about the activities and actions on your WordPress site.
*Social Media ~ refers to the means of interactions among people in which they create, share, and exchange information and ideas in virtual communities and networks. Examples are Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest.
While in your dashboard you will be able to quickly toggle back and forth to see the changes you are making to your site by clicking on your website name in the top left corner, directly above “dashboard”. Your main navigation menu runs along the left side of the dashboard, and will allow you to create posts, insert media (photos, videos), apply links for your social media, and set up your pages. Your chosen theme will also have an entire set of choices for you, allowing you to further customize your site. You will be working in “settings” a great deal as you begin. As you work through the WordPress.org instructions, be sure to open up suggested links as they appear to focus on setting up specific areas of your site.
One of the first *plug-ins you might want to install is Askimet, which helps protect your site from spam. This plug-in is available free for personal sites, with a low monthly subscription cost for business sites. There will be many types of free plug-ins that can be added once your basic site is set up.
*Plug-Ins ~ Plugins add function and sometimes fun to your site. There are hundreds of different plugins from adding custom links like related articles to your sidebar to adding weather reports.
If you run into issues with the way your pages or posts look, you can often find help in the WordPress forums, or in your chosen theme’s online forum pages. This is where your earlier selection of a theme with great customer support is invaluable. In the past they have helped me with specific code that needed to be placed either into my theme, or added to the page or post I was working on to make it look the way I wanted it to. Be sure, when creating your first post, to click on the “text” box tab next to the “visual” box default tab in the top-right corner of the post. You may not have any desire to learn *hyper-text markup language (html) coding, but it helps to see the language that web pages are written in. And after some time, you will want to know how to go into this “text” box tab on your posts to make specific alterations. Here are several sources that might help with your website terminology along the way:
Glossary of Blogging
Computer Technical Terms
HTML Quick Codes
*Hyper-Text Markup Language (html) ~ the language web pages are written in.
Just remember, this is a constant learning adventure. The solutions are out there if you are persistent, and lots of help is available online or perhaps through your more tech savvy friends. Next week I will discuss the importance of widgets to your site – much more fun than the basic setup – I promise!
Peyton Curls Up
Peyton loves to curl up in a ball…upside down!
WordPress-Theme Parks
Part II-Theme Parks
This is the second of a five-part series for newbies to WordPress. Be sure to join me each Monday for the next three weeks to learn how to set up a WordPress site.
*See Definition of Technical Terms
Well, WordPress.org boasts about a famous 5-minute install, and about how setting up WordPress for the first time is simple. Seriously? Perhaps my mistake was trying to install it from their site, rather than through my host, but whatever the issue I can’t say it was “simple” for me. After a couple of failed attempts I contacted my host provider and they downloaded it to their server for me. If all else fails, do as I did, but hopefully you won’t have those same problems.
Next came the decision on what type of theme* I wanted to use to best represent my website. Wow. There are so many choices you can make. You can go to the WordPress.com site and explore the many options available. Many are free, but some premium themes have a one-time cost of $30-$100.
*Theme-A template with built-in coding and a pre-configured design for your website
There are also many third-party themes that are built for WordPress; this is the option I finally chose. With so many to pick from, you ask, where do you start? Think about what type of website you are trying to design and work from there. How much do you plan to write? Do you want to include lots of photographs? Do you need a site that will support e-commerce? After looking at several options, I created a list of design features I might like in my theme. They included:
- Responsive design – allows the design to adapt in size to whatever device it’s being viewed upon. Hey I don’t have an iPad (yet!!), but know many people that do have mobile devices, and a responsive design allows them to view your website on these devices without “chopping off” parts of the design.
- Built-in slider. And no, we are not talking about baseball. A slider allows you to input photos, content, videos and more to an eye-catching, animated area of your website.
- Custom fonts. Some themes already have these built-in, in others they can be added later.
- Search bar. Again sometimes built-in, but can otherwise be added later via a plug-in*.
- Different types of post formats. Ability for your posts, or written articles, to be formatted in different ways. Looked especially at those that could be posted in the “quote” format, to see how they looked. Some I liked, some not so much.
- Video and/or audio. I knew at some point in time I definitely wanted to add video.
- Galleries. Look at the theme’s different ways to view photos. Again I knew that for some posts I might want to include a group of photos, and needed to know how the theme I chose would handle that display
- Logo. Since I do have a business, I wanted a theme that would easily allow for input of my company logo.
- E-Commerce. Did the theme have any type of e-commerce program built-in?
*Plug-in-A unique feature that can be added to your website via installation, where all the coding has already been done for you. (Ex., a contact form).
With my list in hand, I was actually able to narrow down my search of preferred themes pretty quickly. Whether on WordPress or through a third-party, all sites let you see examples of how their themes work. And of all the items on my list, I decided having a responsive theme was the most important thing for me, with the second thing being the formatting of photos/video. The theme I finally decided on was from a third-party vendor, so I made my purchase and got it downloaded to my host’s server. It was not until after I spent some time setting things up with WordPress, that I discovered my theme had problems. I tried to contact the company I purchased from, only to find that they did not support their themes; they were all sold via individual contributors, and it turns out that my theme’s author only viewed his email about once every two weeks! That was certainly not going to work for me, so I reluctantly went on a new theme search, being sure to verify the support of the company that sold the theme before my next purchase.
Ta-da! I can highly recommend any themes purchased from Themify. I purchased one theme for $35.00, and received an extra theme free. The theme I use is Elemin. This company has GREAT support. You can post an issue through their forum, and typically receive a response in 24-48 hours. Sometimes even other Themify members will respond to your queries. They will also supply the coding you sometimes need, tell you where to paste it into your theme, and…wonder of wonders…it works! So, with great support from both IX Web Hosting and Themify, I have truly been able to develop a website that serves my needs.
Next week we’ll pick up with technical info about setting up your website/theme. More fun to come!
A Child’s Imagination
Tepee and Tent
How creative is this? Not your average teepee here, this one from Tepee and Tent is quite the girly number! Layers of peach, pale pink, and almond colored ruffles form the sides of this lush tent, which has the sweetest peach polka dot fabric on the top half. Perfect for playtime or some really fun photography sessions!
This all-girls tent made by Bubbaloubands in Ontario, Canada measures just under 4 feet wide and long and measures approximately 36 inches from the ground to the inside peak. It is perfectly sized for children under 6 and can typically accommodate between 2-3 children. Tents are available for both boys and girls. It is of course very portable and quickly sets up indoors, or can be taken outside for even more make-believe fun!
Little Goodall
I just love, love, love the childrens’ coats made by Little Goodall in McKinney, Texas! This little fox coat has always been a favorite. I mean, what child would not want to slip on one of these precious coats and take a walk in the wild woods! And check out that fluffy tail! This coat is made of eco-felt, made from 100% post-consumer plastic bottles. This Little Goodall original design features foxy “claws”, a fox face hood, two slip pockets for warming foxy paws, and a fuzzy yarn fox tail.
The interior of this beautiful coat is fully lined with a fun cotton print and closes down the front with three vintage buttons. Sleeves are lined with brown poly lining fabric to slip easily on and off over clothing. The coats are designed by Molly, who holds a BFA in Fashion Design, and is a featured Etsy seller. All coats are custom made in different sizes for both boys and girls, and are dry clean only.
Miss Pretty Pretty
Take a look at this pirate card table playhouse by Etsy seller Miss Pretty Pretty! Julie in Wisconsin makes these in custom sizes to accommodate different table sizes; instantly turns any card table into an imaginative playhouse. They are all completely handmade from wrinkle free eco-felt and are designed to be heirloom toys. All items used in these playhouses and toys are certified completely child safe for all ages. No small parts, no paint, no glue or vinyl! The felt used in these playhouses is produced from 100% post consumer plastic bottles, manufactured in the USA.
Each unique playhouse is created, drawn, traced and lovingly cut by hand. There are no pre-made die cuts and no store bought appliques, which in our fast-paced world is simply amazing! Recently the “Little Red Playhouse” was featured on a “Cool Stuff for Kids” segment on the Today Show.
If you like, there is also an option to make your own version of these award winning card table playhouses by purchasing the Card Table Playhouse Pattern. This pattern will teach you how to make the popular Little Red Playhouse that was seen on the Today Show, and Julie even promises to help you every step of the way through emails or Etsy conversations. She’s making me think again about offering my own patterns up for those who like to create at home.
If you use Facebook, you can “like” her Facebook fan page to receive all of her shop announcements and fun postings of great projects and activities that inspire imaginations in young children and families at www.facebook.com/MyFirstPlayhouse.
Sassmuffins 