Biscuits

My sister-in-law Candace recently shared with me a recipe for some amazing biscuits. Like so amazing, you should stop whatever you are doing and make them right now! 

The recipe is from Paula Dean. You can find the Original HERE.

Candace calls them "Sister Wife Biscuits" because Paula is her wanna-be sister wife. haha

“Sister Wife Biscuits” (Cream Biscuits)

2 cups self-rising flour, plus more for dusting

1 tablespoon sugar

1 1/2 cups heavy whipping cream

Preheat oven to 500 degrees F.

In a medium bowl, stir together the flour, sugar, and cream until the dough forms a ball. Turn the dough out onto a surface dusted with additional flour. Fold the dough in 1/2 and knead 5 to 7 times, adding just enough flour to keep dough from sticking to your hands. Gently roll out dough to 1/2-inch thickness. Using a 3-inch biscuit cutter coated with flour, cut dough into biscuits.* Place on baking sheet coated with cooking spray, leaving at least 1-inch between each biscuit. Bake for 10 minutes, or until golden brown.

*TIP

When rolling out your dough, roll it thin, like 1/4-inch. Then fold it in half and roll again lightly. Cut and bake. When your biscuits are done, they pull apart perfectly with no cutting or crumbling. 

Blog Swap with Kassi from Truly Lovely - Silhouette Coasters Tutorial

Good Morning Lovely All About Us Readers!!

I am SO excited to be blog swapping with the lovely Miss Alisha here today!!!

This is my first blog swap with someone I've actually met in real life...
Which I think is exciting... haha.

Anyway... If you're really missing your Miss Alisha, she's posting over at my blog today as this week's Bloggie Bestie!!!

You can pop over and visit her here.

 In the meantime, I'm Kassi from Truly Lovely with the Laney Sisters.

Truly Lovely is a blog written by myself and my younger sister, Miss Kayli, where we like to write about the things we find to be Truly Lovely.

That's me!

Many of those things include crafting, recipes, and just random posts... haha. But today I would like to share a Silhouette SD crafting tutorial with you... Let's just say, I LOVE this thing! There's SO much you can do with it...

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How to make a photo header using Picasa

For this header tutorial for the Better Blog Series we will be using a program called Picasa.

If you are not already using Picasa to organize your photos, you need to download it. Like now.

It's free and easy to use.

Step 1:

Open Picasa, select your photos, and hit collage.

Step 2:

Select Picture Pile and give them each a Polaroid frame.

Step 3:

Move and resize them so they fit properly at the top of your collage box.

Step 4:

Click Create Collage.

Step 5:

In Basic Fixes, crop off your excess edges.

Step 6:
Add your text and click apply.
The good thing about using Picasa while making headers is, you can use any font you have on your computer to add to the header.

So just go out and find some fun fonts! I really like THIS site.

If you don't know how to download a font, just let me know.

Step 7:

Save your header and upload it!

*note I like to combine my resources to create headers. 

For my current header, I made the dot line in Picnik, saved it with a border and added the text in Picasa.

Easy as pie!

Getting to know Blogger: A Tutorial

Our next step in the Better Blog Series is getting to know the features of Blogger by creating a custom blog layout.

There are a lot of things you can do to customize your blog that most people don't know about.

So, lets get going!

Step One:
Clear out any existing HTML you might have added as a gadget that pertains to your backdrop. For example, if you have a background from the cutest blog on the block, you need to clear it out and start from scratch.
Then, go to your design tab and select Template Designer.

Step Two:

Select the whatever blog layout you would like under the templates tab.

You can change it up later so if the colors are wrong don't worry.

Step Three:

Under the Background tab, select a background image. You can also upload your own if you want to go completely custom.

Step Four:

You can adjust the width of you blog under the Adjust widths tab.

If you use large photos or videos, I suggest increasing the size to the max.

Step Five:

Choose your layout.

There are many choices for you here, just choose the one you like best.

I prefer the three column layout.

Step Six:

The Advanced tab has many things to choose from.

This is going to be your customizing station. 

Under Gadgets, you can change the font, size and color of your side bar and date titles.

Under Post Title, you can change the font and size of your blog titles.

You can change the Date Header and Post Footer to your taste.

When choosing fonts, blogger now has many more to choose from than the basic few there were before.

Explore your options, I know you will find something that works for you.

Step Seven:

To Center the header on your blog, scroll down to Add CSS. 

Copy and paste the following lines into the Add custom CSS box:

Click APPLY TO BLOG

So there you go.
There are many ways to customize your blog without needing a pre-made template.
Plus, it will be all your own!
Feel free to comment with any questions.
Good luck!

Picnik Blogger Photo Header Tutorial

Today's post for the Better Blog Series is a tutorial on how to make a photo header similar to mine using Picnik.com.

If you want more than 4 pictures on your header, you will need to sign up for a premium account (which I highly recommend).

So, here we go!

Step 1.

Open Picnik and go to the Collage Tab.

Select the collage with 4 boxes and upload your photos.

Change your background color to white.

Step 2.

Drag and drop your photos in the location you'd like.

Change the roundness to 10 so you get perfectly round photos.

Change the quality from normal to high and click done.

Step 3.

Go to the create tab, then the frames tab.

Select a border and increase the size on both the inner and outer.

Change the color to white.

Step 4.

Crop off the sides and top of your border leaving a white strip on the bottom.

Or you can crop the bottom and leave the top depending on where you would like your blog title.

Step 5.

Go to the create tab, then the text tab, and add your title.
Move it to the location you'd like and select your font and color.

Step 6.

Save your header.

And there you go!

Your new photo blogger header!

When you upload, first select the shrink to fit option and then upload your header.

Thanks to my sister Mechelle for letting me use her adorable family for this tutorial.

Picnik Blogger Header Tutorial

I have received a few requests for tutorials on how to improve your blog. 

So, I decided to make a series!

Today's post is a tutorial on how to make a custom (non-photo) header using picnik. 

Picnik.com is a photo editing website you can use for free!

These instructions can be modified to suit your personal taste.

Step 1:

Start a collage and turn the background color to white then hit done without adding photos.

Step 2:

Go to the create tab, then the frames tab, and give it a temporary border so you can see what you are working with.

Step 3:

Move over to the stickers tab and select a geometric rectangle.

Step 4:

You can modify the rectangle into a stripe by pulling the corner circle.

The top circle also changes the direction, in case you wanted to make it diagonal. 

Move them to the place you want them.

Each color has a number so if you want them all the same color, make sure they are all the same number.

Step 5:

Go to the text tab and enter the text you want.

There are a variety of fonts to choose from, just place your words and choose the font to see what looks best.

Change size, location, and color.

Step 6:

Go back to the stickers tab and select a speech bubble.

Flip the direction and move it around until it looks right.

Step 7:

Add more text. Use spaces to get it centered right.

Step 8:

Go back to the Edit tab at the top and select the cropping tool.

Crop off your temporary border.

Step 9: 

Resize your header to be the width of your blog.

(We will go over how to change the width of you blog in another post)

Step 10:

Save your header.

Step 11:

Tada! Look at that cool header you just made!

You are awesome.

Upload it in place of your blog title. 

How to enable a mobile blogger template

Because smart phones are becoming so popular and looking at over-sized websites on said phones can be annoying, you may want to enable the mobile version of your blog template.

Just follow these 4 easy steps that Tommy has given and you'll be all set! Mobile blogging like the best of them! Good luck!

1. Go to http://draft.blogger.com  (very important!)

2. Click "Settings" for the blog you would like to enable:

3. Click the "Email & Mobile" tab:

4. Select "Yes, On mobile devices, show the mobile version of my template." Scroll to the bottom and click "Save Settings".

5. Done! Now go test it out on your mobile phone. (If you don't have an internet connected phone, you can click on the "Mobile Preview" button under the Show Mobile Template setting from step 4.

Before

After

How to make a stenciled onesie.

What you'll need:

1. Freezer paper

2. A plain white onesie

3. A stencil of your choice

4. Fabric paint

5. A paint brush or sponge

6. An exacto knife

7. A piece of cardboard that fits the inside of your onesie.

Step One:

Place your stencil over a piece of freezer paper and cut it out with your exacto knife. I also used a circle cutter to make a circle around mine.

Step Two:

Put the piece of cardboard inside your shirt and iron on the stencil (glossy side down) in the correct spot.

Make sure all of the edges are ironed on really well.

Step Three:

Paint the stencil with your fabric paint.

Step Four:

Let dry.

It will take a few hours for the paint to dry completely.

I sped up the process with a hair dryer.

Step Five:

Peel off your stencil and tada! Look what you just made!

Easy as pie, right?!