Meet my Package Project Partner

I recently received an email from my Package Project partner, Hayley. My oh my, but did Nadia pair us up perfectly! We have soooo much in common. I absolutely adore Hayley's blog, Indie Thrifter. It's such a blast of colourful, thrifty inspiration! Hayley - I cannot wait to exchange parcels you! 

All these awesome pics are from Hayley's blog. x

New in my Blog Shop

A few new bits in my blog shop including this dress, some skirts, two vintage bags and 

an awesome retro curtain which would be perfect for a DIY. x

Disqus Dramz!

Friends, it would appear that my Blog Comments are on the fritz.

I am receiving your comments and if you click on the comment link below each post, you will see them all there but for some reason every single post is displaying ‘0 comments.’ It’s quite comical really! To new readers, it must look like I’ve blogged for over two years with zilch replies! Ah bless, the loneliest blogger on the interwebs. I haven’t changed my HTML or Disqus settings in yonks so I can only imagine something has been updated on the Blogger or Disqus side. Is anyone else having this prob as well? I’ve tried fixing it but no luck. Hopefully Disqus can help me sort it soon.

Cute 'lil pic found here.

Two crafty ladies

I just wanted to introduce you to my new blog sponsor, Roxies and Monies. 

They're two crafty sisters from Jeffreys Bay who make the most adorable goodies. 

I'm in love with their Tote bags! The slogans and designs are 'super me!' Ha, if I do say so myself. 

The girls are all about spreading cheer and helping out their community. Nice one gals.

Find 'em on their blog, Facebook and Twitter. x

Happy Birthday Gloss

It's Glossary's second birthday today. Happy Birthday al bloggo. I'll probably die a death of cringe when I look back at all the awkward posing, ridic ramblings and sketchy photo editing but at least it's been fun! I've never been able to keep up with diaries so I'm chuffed I've kept up blogging for two whole years. To be honest, it's a bit of a strange time for me to be blogging as I'm going through a sad season in my personal life. I won't be chatting about it online but I wanted to mention it by way of explanation if I seem, well, not all myself for a while. I thought about closing Gloss for a bit but I know this blog brings me a lot of joy and I love sharing inspiration and documenting the good times. My Tumblr on the other hand, will probably be fill of emo quotes and pics! I think fellow bloggers may agree that sometimes blogging can also be, well, a nice distraction from the weightyness of real life. And in light of Gloss's birthday, I've given it a little revamp. Thank you to everyone who has commented and tweeted to say you like it - I'm so chuffed to hear it! Owing to what will also be a skint season in my life, I have decided to add a couple of blog sponsorship spots. Please feel free to email me about those. And yeah, thanks to all of you who pop in and reply with comments. I appreciate every one of them. These pics are oldies but here's to future snappin'!

Blog Template and erm, a blouse

Aloha! For those who asked, my blog template is Minima and I added the third coloumn using this tutorial. I also widened the post area to 540 pixels and shortened the side bars to 170 pixels each. Only thing is, I can't for the life of me remember where I learnt how to do that - soz! Basically, I spent many-a-night tinkering with the HTML and CSS. Long-time readers may remember when Gloss looked like it was having a regular identity crisis! I tried to help someone start a blog the other day and I couldn't find any of the old templates including Minima. In fact, I didn't know what was going on with the new interface! Wow, this is proving to be the most unhelpful post ever. I can suggest this site for those of you using Blogger. I learnt loads about customizing my blog over there. Also, Firebug is a great little gizmo that can help you with HTML and CSS. It's a bit of a minefield to begin with but as I'm sure many of you know, it's helluva rewarding to conquer a 'coding' challenge. Any programmers reading this must be having a right laugh! So...no real nuggets of know-how to share but the web is fortunately full of tutorials. If you have any blog tips, tricks or links, I'd love to hear 'em!

PS: Loving lacy blouses with black ribbon at the mo! This one is Mr Price and the ring is from Diva.

Colour me crazy

Not exactly a crazy post but a possible name for my dream art supplies line? I was obsessed with Crayola as a kid. Obsessed. I cringed the other day when an old school friend said I was loathe to share my three-tier koki pack. Sounds like I was a bit of a beast! In other non-related news, I finally got the latest issue of Lula and it is dreamy! Do all you other Lula lovers find yourself wanting to tear out every single page? I'm tempted to frame the lot but I also like the idea of building a complete collection. Also pictured above are my Polaroid, new 'granny hangers' and ducks from the SPCA. And wahey, I'm in the April Elle - pale legs and all. A few pics I snapped of other Durban gals also made it in so cheers for that Elle! (You can see the scan here.) Hope Monday goes easy on us all. x

Little Buddy (and a link)

I spotted this kiddies typewriter in the toys section at the SPCA on Saturday and proceeded to leap for it like a lunatic. When I asked the sweet lady (or old duck as THEY like to call themselves there! ) how much it was, she replied, 'Erm, you can have it for R25.' What a dealio! My future kids will  long for plastic iMacs no doubt, but shame, they will get plastic typewriters ala 1960's kids.

______________________________________________________________________

And in other news, my dear friend Nadia has compiled a brilliant list of blogging resources. Within the list, is a link to an excellent article about crediting blog images.  I know this is a topic which often gets us bloggers fired up but I think it's one worth discussing, no? And it's something that's been on my mind lately after some of my images journeyed around the web unlinked and uncredited.  Cheers for the reblogging button Tumblr! I'm guilty of not linking images properly in the early days because I simply didn't know there was an etiquette to these things (there is and it involves fine china) but the article Nads links to, clarifies any confusion new bloggers may have. I'll let you grab the link to the article on Nadia's blog. Three links to Nads - I think I've covered myself!

Three bloggers. Three photography tutorials!

Carrie (WishWishWish), Sandra (Niotillfem) and Sydney (The Daybook) are mega inspiring picture-takers and bloggers. They get loads of questions about photography and thankfully, they've each blogged their tips and tricks! I've linked to their tutorials in separate posts before but I thought I'd bung 'em together for your picture-taking pleasure. Here is Carrie's, Sandra's and Sydney's - enjoy!

Links to Love

Thank you for the get-well wishes and scrummy comments this week friends. I look forward to replying with a cuppa tea by my bedside this weekend. In the meantime, here are some links to a few blogs and posts I've enjoyed of late: Mike and Kaelah's camera collection ♥ Hello Monkeyface (hilarious and adorable!) ♥ Lulapalooza (so sweet) ♥ Scrambled Notes (my friend Simone has started blogging about her adventures in Durbs. She is pure sunshine.) ♥ Miss Molly's Basement Diaries - Mel is crazy stylish and one of the nicest people I know. The cute pic of Kaelah is by Mike. x

The Rockstar Diaries

Crikey mother, I've 'discovered' some great blogs of late. Aka, clicked through all your blog rolls with a crazed look on my face. The Rockstar Diaries is a new fave of mine to pour over with a cuppa in hand. (Pour my eyes over, not the cuppa.) Tazza and her husband live in Washington DC where they write about their adventures as young, happy thrifters in love. How wonderful are these photos that Leo Patrone snapped of them? My new-found love for bulldogs and bowties knows no bounds! This is just the sort of styling and editing, I'd like to aim for with Smitten. (Shameless linkage!)

Mmmm, I just love how bright, crisp and colourful these pics are. I've been thinking about scribbling a 'Five to Follow' post like the one Lily does on Sundays. Perhaps I'll think up a new name so I'm not completely nicking her idea which I think is just lovely. Part of me loves discovering new blogs but the other part is like, 'When the heck are you going to read all these Missy?' I haven't had a chance to shoot much over the past few days - (That's photos as always. I hate to think of the words 'Glossary,' 'Shoot' and 'Lauren' being indexed together on google.) - but I've got a few cute things that I'm excited to show you soon. Can anyone say 'Blue Typewriter?' I've said too much.

Louder Than Silence

Whenever someone new comments on Gloss, I do my best to click on over to their blog. Well, the other day I received a comment from Louder Than Silence and when I clicked on their blog link, I  virtually lept off the couch with happiness! They are a British couple who scribble about music, design and fashion. Their blog is full of dreamy outfit posts and whimsical encounters. My heart pines for London while reading their posts! They actually remind me of a British version of Hannah and Landon. I especially love to follow London-based bloggers because they help me feel connected to my old home-for-a-year. So if you have a link to share, please don't feel shy.



Thank you so much for your encouraging words about Smitten! It's thanks to you lot that I decided to give it a go so cheers gang!

How to make your blog images fit the width of your post

Every now and then I’ll see someone tweet, ‘How to make your images bigger in Blogger?’ Blogger doesn’t automatically size your images to fit the width of your post area but you can tell Blogger what size to make them! I didn’t know how to do this when I first started blogging and it drove me nuts. I was dead chuffed when I finally stumbled across a solution so thought I’d share it with you. I can’t remember where I found this particular nugget but there are plenty of ‘em scattered around the net.



Step 1
Find out what the width of your post area is. You will find this in your blog’s HTML under 'main-wrapper width' Mine is 540 pixels.

Step 2
Resize your photos to the width of your post area. You can do this with various photo-editing programs from Photoscape to Photoshop. I resize mine to 540 pixels wide.

Step 3
Create an account on a photo-hosting provider. I use Photobucket.

Step 4
Upload your photos to Photobucket. Photobucket will then give you FOUR lines of code per photo – you're after the line of code called HTML CODE.

Step 5
Copy the HTML CODE of your pic and paste it into the window where you write your posts in Blogger. Make sure you’re in ‘EDIT HTML’ mode as opposed to ‘Compose’ mode.

Step 6
Click Preview and Submit and Voila! Your images should fit the width of your blog!

I hope this was of help to someone reading this! If you need me to clarify any bits, please feel free to ask me in a comment. Blog on friends!

How to do a 'mail to' link

The other day, someone asked me how to do what is called a 'Mail To' link.
For example: Email me here or email sonicletters@gmail.com

When you click the bits in pink, your email program will automatically launch a new email with my email address in the 'To' box. Nifty, huh?

'Mail To' links are great because they save your readers time having to search for your email addy and then having to copy and paste it into a new email. Also, if you want to make it easy for people to email you but you'd rather not publish your full email address, the 'email here' option is a great solution.

If you also want to know how to create a 'Mail To' link, I'll tell ya!
 (I'm not familiar with Wordpress so I'll tell you what I do using Blogger.)

STEP 1
For blog posts: Use EDIT HTML mode
For side bar: Use an HTML/Javascript gadget

STEP 2
Insert this code:

<a href="mailto:youremailaddress">here</a>

You can replace 'here' with your actual email address if you prefer.

It's as easy as that! You may not want to give readers the option of contacting you by email but if privacy is a concern, you can always create a separate email account just for your blog. Personally, I'm grateful when blogs have an easy to find email option because comment forms can be buggy on occasion and sometimes I prefer to ask a question privately. Of course, it's up to you to do whatever works for you!

If there's anything else you'd like to ask me about how I did something on this blog, please feel free to fire away in a comment! I'm no code cruncher but I'll do my best to lend a hand.

Wishwishwish and Bloglovin'

Hi guys, if you haven’t heard about Bloglovin’ yet, let me tell you a bit about it. Bloglovin’ is a website that helps you follow all your favorite blogs in one place. If you’d like to add your blog to the Bloglovin’ library, all you have to is register and add one of their widgets to your blog. When your readers click the widget, they’ll be invited to follow your blog anonymously. I’ve been following my fave fashion blogs there for a while now and have recently updated my link list to include some of them.

One of my favourites is WishWishWish, an adorable blog with a very strong following. It’s written by a 19-year-old girl called Carrie who lives in London where she studies Fashion Design, Styling & Promotion. If you’re a fan of Sandra’s,  you’ll love Carrie too I'm sure as they both adore cute sailor tops, puff skirts and grey tights.

Yesterday I popped into Carrie’s blog and my heart just about stopped beating. She’s posted the most beautiful pictures of her bedroom details…dainty forks in ribbons, floral jars of paintbrushes, shiny antique watches…I wish, wish, wish for it all!

Here are some of her gorgeous photographs and if you’re hungry for more, you can visit her here.  Enjoy x

Polyvore

Hello guys, I made this collage on Polyvore! In case you haven't heard, Polyvore is this awesome website where you can mix and match pictures from anywhere on the web. There are some truly inspiring collections of clothes and interiors to browse through and add to your faves. If you've ever fancied yourself as a magazine layout artist, this is the web application for you! I'm on there as Glossary if you'd like to add me as a contact. Have fun!

PS: How amazo is that studded purse and pink amplifier? Want, want, want!