Tuesday, July 22, 2014

Tips for Choosing A Custom Blog Design

Are you thinking about a custom blog design?? 
Then it's your lucky day!

Deciding on a new design and shopping around for the best deals and designers can be very time consuming and requires a lot of patience! 

First, you'll want to start keeping notes of the blog designs you love? 
Jot down the blog name and scroll down to the bottom of their blog to see who designed their blog. You can find this usually at the bottom of the sidebar or the bottom of their page.

Start jotting down and brainstorming what you like! 
What colors, fonts, graphics, styles, patterns, etc. do you especially like or want on your blog design? Do you prefer the simple modern blog or do you want graphics and layered papers? What extras will you want like social buttons, pin it or back to top buttons?? 

Decide how much you can spend on a custom design?

Decide when you want your new design or how long you are willing to wait if there is a waiting list. 

Once you begin shopping for designers, some things you'll want to look at besides their prices are:

What is the wait time?
Is there a deposit required?
Is the ordering process simple?
Do they charge for revisions?
If you want graphics or a scrapkit, is there an additional charge for this?
Their Terms of Use. {Read this}

After jotting down the blogs that I most admire, I came up with a list of 5 blog designers that I had to choose from!!! I spent several hours doing my homework and outweighing the pros and cons of each! It was a very difficult decision!!!

 "A Bird in Hand Designs" offers some reasonable prices....I mean 10 add-ons in the Luxe package??! Most deluxe packages only offer up to 6 and you pay $5 to $15 for any after that!
While she has reasonable prices, a small deposit, and does small revisions after installation.....all pluses....I did not want to wait until December! Which is probably the only reason I did not go with this designer. 



"The Cutest Blog On The Block" really does design some of the truly most cutest blogs on the block, but you're going to pay over $200 for a really nice blog design!! It's really about what you can afford. If you can't afford this option, you may want to check out some of the other options I've posted. 

"Designs by Kassie" is another great designer that you're seeing on blogs everywhere! Her designs are absolutely to die for, but her luxe package is $10 more than "A Bird in a Hand Designs" and only includes 6 add-ons. She offers one of the easiest order forms, but does have quite a few people on her wait list!



"Blog Queen" has some super great prices, as well as a low deposit, easy ordering system, short wait time, and offers unlimited revisions to make sure you get just what you want!!! Her add-ons are also the cheapest by far at only $5 each!


Last, but not least is who I've chosen to custom design my blog! "Design by Christi."
Her wait time is very short, less than a month and her prices seem the most reasonable. The Couture package I'm getting is only $100 and includes 8 add-ons!! Now that's a steal! While I know I'm still going to need a few more add-ons, I should still be able to keep it under $150 bucks! The one thing that did scare me a little though is that she only allows two revisions! Then, $35/hr. Yikes! I pray we get it right the first two times! 

It really depends on what you're looking for and what is most important to you! Decide what matters the most......price, wait time, ordering process, appearance.....maybe reputation!  

Good luck with your new design!
I hope this information has been helpful for you! 
I know it will save you a great deal of time!

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Monday, July 21, 2014

My Etsy Shop is OPEN!

Hey guys! I know I promised a post today on shopping for a custom blog design, but I don't think I'm going to get it finished today! It will definitely be posted tomorrow! Many of you know that one of my summer goals was to open an Etsy Shop....and guess what? It's OPEN!!!! So in the meantime, head on over and check it out. You can scroll down to my cool Etsy widget on the right side to see a slideshow of my items without even leaving my blog or you can click on the button below!

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Sunday, July 20, 2014

Floating FB Widget How To & Blog Troubles

Well I finally did it!! I took the first step to get a custom blog design. I have been having so many blog issues you guys! 

First off, the owner of my blog template went out of business and is no longer hosting my images, so my blog design was wiped out!!! I am now using this yucky generic template from blogger and I HATE IT! 

Today two people emailed me and told me that they were not able to leave a comment on my blog! WTH? 

Yesterday I couldn't reply to my comments!

And for some time now....I haven't been able to paste html code into a post or into a blog comment on other blogs! I'm using this code: <a href="http://thebendersbunch.blogspot.com”>The Bender Bunch</a>
It's worked for the last year and a half! Did something change that I don't know about? 

What is going on?????? So frustrating....I'm pulling my hair out!

It almost seems that I began having problems when I linked my blog with Google+. Has anyone else experienced any of these issue or know what's up? 

So after spending the day blog shopping, I finally contacted, and decided to go with "Design by Christy." I'll post more about my blog shopping and why I chose Christy tomorrow!

While blog stalking and blog shopping today, I began noticing the floating Facebook side tab on everyone's blogs! Hmmmm, this is new! I had not noticed these until today and it seems everyone's getting them! So now I wanted one! See it over on the right side there?? Well to save you some time that it took me to figure it out....here's how ya do it!

Add the html/java script gadget anywhere in your body section of your template. I did it at the very bottom of my blog. (This is assuming you know how to add a gadget. If you do not I can walk you through it.) In the box that opens copy and paste this code, but change the red text to your FB username. Not the address, just username. For instance, mine is thebenderbunch. 

<!--Floating Facebook Widget by www.TheBlogWidgets.com START-->
<script type="text/javascript"> /*<![CDATA[*/ jQuery(document).ready(function() {jQuery(".theblogwidgets").hover(function() {jQuery(this).stop().animate({right: "0"}, "medium");}, function() {jQuery(this).stop().animate({right: "-250"}, "medium");}, 500);}); /*]]>*/ </script> <style type="text/css"> .theblogwidgets{background: url("https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEixqnTjQlCSH-LzNgnUVeiqAlU_HKEzid6EE09qCl2OZNihVVCVBiZCKme29_LfmyanlbBd5BmT3N8Jb3x8JNbKnNLAvqAUR_UEniitThAJ7lNw8wJlPoV6PPmRJ2tIJjXlbBcnjk05bBO8/") no-repeat scroll left center transparent !important; float: right;height: 270px;padding: 0 5px 0 46px;width: 245px;z-index:  99999;position:fixed;right:-250px;top:20%;} .theblogwidgets div{ padding: 0; margin-right:-8px; border:4px solid  #3b5998; background:#fafafa;} .theblogwidgets span{bottom: 4px;font: 8px "lucida grande",tahoma,verdana,arial,sans-serif;position: absolute;right: 6px;text-align: right;z-index: 99999;} .theblogwidgets span a{color: gray;text-decoration:none;} .theblogwidgets span a:hover{text-decoration:underline;} } </style><!--Brought to you by www.TheBlogWidgets.com--><div class="theblogwidgets" style="">
<!--Brought to you by http://www.theblogwidgets.com/2013/11/floating-facebook-like-box-widget-for.html--><div>
<!-- http://www.theblogwidgets.com/2013/11/floating-facebook-like-box-widget-for.html--> <iframe src="http://www.facebook.com/plugins/likebox.php?href=http%3A%2F%2Ffacebook.com%2Ftheblogwidgets&width=245&colorscheme=light&show_faces=true&border_color=white&connections=9&stream=false&header=false&height=270" scrolling="no" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" style="border: white; overflow: hidden; height: 270px; width: 245px;background:#fafafa;color:000;"><!--Brought to you by www.TheBlogWidgets.com--></iframe><!--Brought to you by www.TheBlogWidgets.com--><span><!--Brought to you by www.TheBlogWidgets.com--><center>
<a rel="nofollow" style="color:#a8a8a8;font-size:8px;" href="http://jasperroberts.com">Jasper Roberts Consulting</a> - <a style="color:#a8a8a8;font-size:8px;" href="http://www.theblogwidgets.com/2013/11/floating-facebook-like-box-widget-for.html">Widget</a></center>
</span></div>
</div>

<!--Floating Facebook Widget by www.TheBlogWidgets.com AND www.JasperRoberts.com END-->


Hit save and that's it!!! It should be on your blog now! That easy! Hopefully this helps you and gets you some more FB followers! 

And if you contemplating a new blog design, stop back tomorrow and as I have done the homework for you on that too!! :)

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Saturday, July 19, 2014

What Are Your Teaching Ingredients?

I'm taking some time out today to link up with Christina from "Sugar and Spice" to share my teaching ingredients with you!

I also need to add high expectations to this list! I can't even believe I left that out! I always set high expectations for all of my special needs students and they always amaze me!!  


Click on this button to head over to Christina's blog and link up your teacher ingredients!!

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Friday, July 18, 2014

Problem Solving Good Character & A FREEBIE

I'm linking up today with TBA for "Freebie Friday" and writing to share my newest creation with you! 


I am so excited to complete this character building set to use in my classroom this year! It started out with a hunt for problem solving cards last year! Do you know how hard these are to find?? This is the only decent set you can find....and I already own them! And my kids have done them all!



So that went on my to-do list for this summer! Also, on my to-do list was to create some sort of system for teaching good character skills to my students to deal with many of the issues that often occur through the year.....things like stealing, cheating, arguing, hitting, and so on. Before, many of these behaviors weren't really taught or modeled until they occurred, and then after that, it was forgotten. In other words, there were no visuals or frequent reteaching or reminders of any of these skills. 

So it occurred to me while I was working on the problem solving cards, that my cards were all actually focusing on good character skills too! 

So that is how "Problem Solving Good Character" came to be! Now I can teach my students problem solving skills and good character skills at the same time! 

The set covers 13 essential character skills that students need and tackles them from a problem-solving perspective! The 13 targeted skills are listed on the front cover above and are behaviors we commonly encounter in our classrooms throughout the year! 

Each skill includes a whole group discussion card like this one. These can be folded in half so the discussion questions are on the back or they can be posted on the wall or bulletin board to frequently remind students of these skills.
Each skill also includes a full page poster for display!
And then the problem solving cards alas!
There are 36 of these; the 13 that correspond with the character skills explicitly taught in this set, plus 23 more problem solving situations!


Here's a look at the preview!




 You can find it in my store {here}.

If this is something you can use, leave your email and I'll pick a winner (or two) on Sunday! 

***Update: It was just brought to my attention that a couple of people got an error message when trying to leave me a comment. If this happens to you, you can email me at thebendersbunch@gmail.com.


Now for your FREEBIE!



I also posted a 3-dimensional shape poster set freebie a few days ago. You can get those {here}




Click on the "Freebie Friday" button above for more freebies!!!



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