Blossom of Hope: Blogging

Some of my favourite bloggers

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Blogging Process

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For people who aren't bloggers, blogging can seem like quite a simple thing. When I have said to my mum (who knows about my blog) I have to write a post and it will take me so long, she says surely it only takes 10mins. I am a perfectionist, and I take so long in creating a blog post! Other bloggers will know that it isn't just about the writing but also the photos and editing and formatting and promoting as well! This is why I have decided to share my blogging process so I can compare to other bloggers and show other people what I do and how long it takes!

I created a video to show my process of creating the blog post 'Hot Chocolate Mug Cake' which was a blog post I wrote back in October. This footage is actually when I took it and then I just spend it up and edited together.

Taking the photos
Usually, I take the photos before I write the post, especially in winter as there is only a small amount of time of good lighting. As you can see in the video, it took me quite a while for this particular post but sometimes it takes less time. If it is a flat lay, I can spend ages moving all the items tiny amounts to make the photo perfect! For the mug cake post though, it was a photo of my holding a mug so I alternated location and also what I was wearing.

Editing the photos
I have done a whole seperate blog post on this which you can read here.

Writing the post
When it comes to writing the post, I usually write whatever I can think of, then go through and edit everything towards the end. If the post requires research or a recipe, this is when I will google everything. After, I will add the photos, make things different colour, add links etc. This is when I also add the label. I also preview the post before I publish it to see how it looks. I always write blog posts on my laptop because I find the blogger app so hard to use. The last thing I do in the writing part is schedule my post for the correct day and time and then I publish them.

Promoting the post

I always find this bit the hardest because I always forget! I normally try to post a picture on my Instagram and schedule tweets on Twitter using buffer which I find so useful! I am so busy with school that being able to schedule tweets is so handy. I am also starting to use Instagram stories more so watch out for that too.

If you are a blogger, how similar is your blogging routine?

Laura xx

Bloglovin' | Pinterest | Twitter | Google+ | Instagram

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How to: Add a hover effect to images

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3 Easy CSS codes for blogger!

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When I started blogging, I didn't realise how much I would come to love blog designing. At least twice a month, I am researching different CSS codes and altering my blog ever so slightly. Today I am going to be sharing with you some helpful CSS code that you can use if you have a blog with Blogger

What actually is CSS?
I am going to give you some helpful CSS which you can copy and paste and apply to your blog! CSS stands for Cascading Style Sheets. CSS codes are basically bits of code that you can use to customise your blog. On blogger, there is a section in the template editor, so you don't have to go messing around with your blog HTML which can be critical!

To find the CSS box on blogger, go to Template< Customise < Advanced < Add CSS. It should look like this:

Customising your post title
This first code is for customizing your post title. You can get so many outcomes from it and make it completely you.

.post-title {
text-align: center;
font:normal normal 14px 'Coming Soon';
letter-spacing: 2px;
text-transform: uppercase;
}

Change the text in pink to left, right or center to change the alignment.
Change the text in blue to change the size and font type.
Change the number in purple to change the letter spacing. If you don't want any spacing, set it to 0 or delete the line.
Change the text in green to uppercase or lowercase, depending on how you want it. If you want it normal, then don't type anything there.

Fading Images
This makes it so that when the mouse hovers over an image, it fades gradually. This is a lot simpler than the last one because all you have to do is copy and paste it into the CSS box.

img {
opacity: 1.0;transition: opacity 1s ease-in-out;-moz-transition: opacity 1s ease-in-out;-webkit-transition: opacity 1s ease-in-out;}
a:hover img {opacity: .6;transition: opacity 1s ease-in-out;-moz-transition: opacity 1s ease-in-out;-webkit-transition: opacity 1s ease-in-out;}

Getting rid of the border on photos
Blogger does this thing where it puts a border on photos, which I personally don't like. You can get rid of it by using this CSS code:

.post-body img, .post-body .tr-caption-container, .Profile img, .Image img,
.BlogList .item-thumbnail img {
padding: 0 !important;
border: none !important;
background: none !important;
-moz-box-shadow: 0px 0px 0px transparent !important;
-webkit-box-shadow: 0px 0px 0px transparent !important;
box-shadow: 0px 0px 0px transparent !important;
}

I hope these codes have helped people in some way and let me know if it doesn't turn out how you want.

Lots of Love
Laura xx

Bloglovin' | Pinterest | Twitter | Google+ | Instagram

Bloggers That Inspire Me

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My advice | Blogging with Blossomofhope

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Blog photography | Blogging with Blossomofhope

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Like I said in yesterdays mini-post, today is a collab with two of my blogger friends, Bobo from Meetmeinmelford and Lily from Lilyblogsalot. Bobo is doing a very interesting Record Clock DIY and Lily is doing a so don't forget to check them out. All the links will be at the bottom of the page!

I am doing a post on blog photography to continue with the How to run a blog series. I think that photos are a big part of a blog and one of my resolutions was to use more which hasn't worked. Firstly though, I am not a professional blogger and the tips I am going to be talking about are things that have worked for me.

The Equipment

I take my photos either on my camera which is a Nikon Coolpix S6300(which isn't a DSLR) or my phone which is a Samsung Galaxy S4 mini . The quality is pretty good and I am happy with the photos I produce with them so I would definitely recommend them. This is all the equipment I use but I know that some people use a lot more and have lights and stuff.

Setting Up

If I am taking a picture of a product I tend to take the photos between 10am and 2pm because that is when I find there is the best light. I will then put them in the place of the room with the most light which is near my window.Normally,I will lay it out on a top /scarf to give the background a little bit more detail but obviously this is totally optional.

Taking the photo

After setting up, I will move the products around and take photos from different angles. I roughly take around 5-10 photos and later delete the bad ones. A tip that I have only learnt recently is to leave your "photoshoot" set-up until you go to write the post because you may find that the pictures look bad.

Sometimes, blog pictures aren't of products and they are of nature or things you see when you are out. My photo taking process is roughly the same but I use my judgement of what I think looks good a lot more.

Editing + Posting

I don't usually edit my photos but if I do, I use picmonkey or the Instagram Editor. Both are completely free which is always good! I post my photos on Instagram (link in sidebar) and they are scrolling along the top of my blog now actually but a lot of them also go on here.

This was such a long post which I kinda liked but there are some things that I missed off. If you need any more advice comment below, DM me or I have a bloglovin' photography collection which I will link.

Links!

The camera I use

My bloglovin' collection

If you have any other tips leave them in the comments!

Lots of Love

Laura xx

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