BYE BYE GOOGLE READER!!!

Hey guys! Did you hear the news? 

Google Reader is going away on July 1st. 

That's how I read all my favorite blogs, so now what am I going to do?

Well, if you're like me, what are we going to do?

Well, it seems as though the majority of the blogging community is headed towards Bloglovin'! 

I've been using it for about 3 months now. I'm a fan. Let me tell you why!

Bloglovin' is SUPER EASY to use. You can import your Google reader subscriptions painlessly without missing any posts from your favorite bloggers, just follow this link. The site is so nice and clean and organized, just how I like things. They also have several options for you as to how to follow your blogs. You can read directly from their site, have the posts emailed to you, or just use their app!

The app is UH-mazing. {You can download via iPhone or Android} It's really simple to navigate through and leave comments. All around, I give Bloglovin' two BIG thumbs up. 

And yes, you can follow Rantin' & Ravin' on Bloglovin'!

Do you see the social media icons on the top right? The one labeled with "+" is my Bloglovin'! Just click and Follow! That simple!

Also, if you look below the icons you can also subscribe to get my blog posts sent directly to your email!

Happy Monday everyone!

A PINTEREST GADGET FOR BLOGGER!!!

Thanks to Code It Pretty,  I now have a rockin' Pinterest Gadget!

You can log directly into Pinterest to get a simple code, but it only gives you 4 pictures and it is not very pretty. If you have the time, I totally recommend using Code It Pretty's tutorial.

Here is the initial steps...

Ready to get this going on your blog? Here we go!

Get the Code

I've posted the code for this gadget as a Gist on GitHub. Here's the link:
https://gist.github.com/1983220

You can either download the code or simply copy and paste it directly from the website.

Edit the Code

Edit the Pinterest URL

Find and replace the text YOUR-USER-NAME with your Pinterest username. For example, I changed:

http://www.pinterest.com/YOUR-USER-NAME/feed.rss
to
http://www.pinterest.com/tammylu/feed.rss

This tells the gadget to get the photos from my Pinterest boards. If you want to narrow down to one specific board, use this structure for the RSS url:

http://www.pinterest.com/YOUR-USER-NAME/YOUR-BOARD-NAME/rss

Once you've done that, save the file and then let's move forward!

Installing the Gadget

Now, open up your Blogger account if you haven't already.

1. Go to "Layout"
2. Click "Add a Gadget" wherever you'd like the gadget to appear.
3. Select "HTML/Javascript" from the gadget menu.
4. Copy and paste your code into the gadget.
5. Save your gadget and check out your page! If it's not perfect, we'll go over how to make it perfect in the next section. If it's perfect, yay! Get back to Pinning!

Note that the gadget doesn't update instantaneously when you pin something new. New pins usually show up within an hour after they're posted. There's no way to speed that up.

If you want to change the size of images, hover direction, disabling the hover and more, please look at Code It Pretty's site.

MAKING YOUR OWN GRAB BUTTONS!!!

Yep! 

I learned how to make my own buttons. 

It's on the side here. 

Looks like this...

You can take one. If you want...

Anyway this is where I learned, Great Fun 4 Kids.

First, sign up to Photobucket. This is where you will need to upload the button(s) you make.

SOCIAL MEDIA BUTTONS!!!

Anyone who wants to blog knows that in order to get out there... you have to get social!

Well, I had everything that I needed, except those cute little buttons.

I looked everywhere. And I could find one here. And one there. But I couldn't find a uniformed look.

Was I going to have to create my own?

Luckily, NO!

I found this site, here. All you have to do is choose which look you like, copy and paste the codes and then edit the BOLD spots with your social media sites info.

I chose this one.

Once you copy the code, you can delete the codes that you don't have. For instance, I don't have an  etsy or a YouTube, so when you see mine, I don't have it them.

Here's what to do...