New Blog Header

I've been playing about with my blog header for a while now (which if you've visited more than once in the last week, you will realise was left in a state of disrepair as I couldn't be bothered to fire up my old computer and find more photos!).

But now it's done.

Ta da!

I thought it might be fun to explain the photos in the header...


Snowy Tree
I took this photo in my local park which is at the bottom of the street I live on. It was early morning and I had the whole park to myself as I trudged through the snow to my parents house. It was peaceful, beautiful and I snapped the photo on the spur of the moment so I was thrilled it came out so well. I decided to use this photo to remind me of the peace and tranquility you can find close by.


 
 

Double Biscuits
I enjoy baking and made these scrummy double biscuits at some point in the past. It's likely they didn't survive the day!





 

Rosie
My Rosie. We had her for 10 years and I will love her forever.







 

Herbs
I am a novice gardener and enjoy pottering about. There's something about these terracotta pots of herbs that sit on the steps outside my back door that make me happy.




 

Harewood House
This is Harewood House in Yorkshire. This place was amazing and I'm definitely going to set my romance novel here. Visiting historic places, especially houses, is something I very much enjoy.





Tilly
Crazy Tilly. She's 13 weeks old as I write this and she's already changed my life so much!




 

Crafts
I have so much craft stuff and it's definitely something that I want to do more of.





 
Me!
This is me! I'm sitting in a window seat, reading a romance and staring out onto the quiet countryside. This, to me, is bliss. Now, if only that was my house!!



 

Keep Calm
The last one is a hot steaming mug of tea (milk, no sugar, please) in a pretty mug. I'm chilling on my couch in my comfy trews while watching the TV. I'll bet there's a book not too far from me, either. Happiness.





So that's my header and what the photos represent. Hopefully they show what kind of things that I'll be blogging about here from now on!

I claim you! (Or, Claiming your Bloglovin' Blog)

Follow my blog with Bloglovin
 
Although I was never a user of Google Reader, I was aware of the controversy when they axed it. Ironically enough, the big hoohah was probably the best piece of free marketing for all the other websites that allow you to follow your favourite blog. You couldn't pay for that kind of exposure. Well, you could, but you'd be bankrupt.

So this is where I learned about Bloglovin'.

As I played about, I was advised to "claim my blog". This sounded slightly primitive and definitely something I wanted to do. Who hasn't dreamed of claiming something in their own name? Okay, maybe just me!!

In Bloglovin', you press the little blue heart and choose to edit your settings.

Halfway down the page you'll see a button called 'Blogs by me'. Click to add your own blog.

It's time for the claiming. Click that claim blog button!

Now just add the name of your blog and search. If your blog doesn't come up the first time, try a few alternatives and it will suddenly appear.

When your blog appears in the list, click to claim. Yay!

Now some html code appears, asking you to add to your blog.

The html code that appears is thus:

Follow my blog with Bloglovin

So, what happens then?

Don't do what I did and get so confused that you go through the process about a hundred times! Then, you read the text that says, some blogs require you to put the provided html at the top of the blog post. Ooops.

Then don't do what I did next and keep going round in circles again.

Keep the window that has the code open. Now go to a separate window and add the code to your blog post - at the top just to be safe!

Once you've published your post, return to the window on Bloglovin' and press the button to claim your blog.

You are now taken to a page where you can change details about your blog on Bloglovin' to make it easier for new readers to find you.

You can add a description, thumbnail and category. It's like social media for blogs!

There's also a nice little statistic tracker where you can watch your followers as they (hopefully) go on the up and up!

You'll also get a shiny email with 5 top tips to find those readers. Good times.

So that's what I learned today. Every day's a school day!