Blog Design and Social Icons

Recently I have been spending quite a few hours researching blog advice and design tutorials.  I love blogging and enjoy having this little piece of creative space where I can design things and express interests to the world in ways that are (hopefully) appreciated by my readers!  So it is only natural for me to want to improve the aesthetics of my work space and the creativity of ways I communicate, right? Don't get me wrong, I would probably be blogging even if I didn't have any followers, but having followers and commenters definitely adds to the enjoyment! (which I believe any blogger can attest to)

That being said, Last night I finally struck gold!  I came across an easy tutorial that helped me get my "follow me" social icons on my blog!  Man have I had trouble figuring that out!! I had probably spent a week looking for tutorials and how-tos on getting social icons and if it wasn't for Olivia and her blog My Favourite Things I would probably still be searching. (THANK YOU OLIVIA!!!)

- Let's just all take a moment to glance over to the right and appreciate the social icon buttons..... little bit longer.... one more time... ok, great.  Aren't they awesome!?-

 Now that the icons have been appreciated I can move on to my next big project, My Header.  Oh goodness.  I read a tutorial last night and this morning on how to create your own header with photoshop.  Wow.  Am I the only one out there that thinks photoshop is absolutely confusing?  Whats up with the layers.  And how the heck do you get a good looking image from the pen tool?  That thing is crazy!  Anywho, the next few days I will be testing my eye's computer screen endurance while spending hours upon hours trying to figure this photoshop stuff out.

*Disclaimer*  once I become a mastermind in photoshop there will be no stopping me.  Prepare to be amazed.....

Curtain Rod Picture Hanger

 (Please excuse the bad picture quality; Its hard to take good pictures in a hallway, haha)

   This is one of my absolute favorite things I have done to decorate our house. I saw the idea on pinterest and just knew it was perfect for the blank wall in our hallway.  Even more special is that the curtain rod was used as part of our arbor at our wedding, so its not just any ol' curtain rod.  Plus, I made the canvas in the middle- so this whole project really is crafted by me:)  Can't say that about too many things!
   Here's how I did it:
   1. I chose how long I wanted the curtain rod to be and then decided how many pictures would fit onto it.  5 fit perfectly for my length.  I knew I wanted the middle canvas as part of the decoration because its my favorite picture of Wil and I, so I needed to get 4 other pictures and frames.
   2. Then I went to walmart and got 4 cheap matching frames.  (I think I paid $1 each for them.) I wanted all of my frames to be the same, but you could always use frames that you already have.
   3.  I had some ribbon left over from our wedding as well, so I used that to hang the pictures.  I had to lay it all out first and choose the length I wanted the pictures to hang.  Once I chose the lengths I hot-glued the ribbon to the back of the picture frames.

  4.  Then I made bows out of the ribbon.  This took some time for me because I had no idea how to make a big poofy bow.  I just worked on it and poofed it up until I was happy.  Sorry, I have no special techniques to tell you, just kind of go for it.  

   5.  Once the bows are just how you like them, hot glue them to the ribbon that is holding the frames.
   6.  Viola! You have yourself a gorgeous, one of a kind decoration!

   I love having this little piece of art in my house because everyone comments on it when they walk in. I guess you could say its a centerpiece here.  All I can say is, thanks pinterest for coming through for me yet again!

*I got the curtain rod picture hanger idea from The Lemond's Family Blog.  You can check out her blog post here.