Make your post links open in new window

So I don't know if you see it or not, but I have been making a lot of changes to my blog. I have learned quite a bit of little tricks and tips to make it look better and easier to navigate. If I want to figure out how to do something I just Google it.
Here is my most recent Google search "how to open a link into a new window".  Blogger doesn't have an option for your links to open up in a new window, and I sure don't want my readers to wander away from my blog by clicking on a link I posted and not returning to my post. Sure they can right click and open into a new window themselves, but some people (mom) don't know how or remember to do that.
Its so incredibly simple to do so I thought I would share the info with you. This is assuming you already know how to add a link to your post.
Now lets suppose I want the link for my Photo Blog to open up into a new window. Here is what you need to do-
*Once you have your link added click "Edit HTML".
*Next find your html code for that link. Easy to spot because its all gibberish looking. It will be directly after the last words before your link. In my case its right after "link for my"
*Now paste this code    target="_blank"     just after the second " and before the > mark.
It would look like this in my code //sistersphotoblog.blogspot.com/"target="_blank" > Photo Blog
* Click compose and you are ready to finish writing your post.

See! Its super easy. Use the same code every single time and for each link. My OS has a "Sticky Notes" program that I like to use instead of real paper. I just copy and pasted the code onto a sticky note so that every time I post I can just copy and paste it from my computer wall.
For your viewing pleasure I went back and changed all of my old posts links to open up in a new window. Hope this helps you.

Photo Friday

Another B&W. Did I mention how much I love taking black and white photos? 

This one is also from 2007.

Natural, Non-toxic, Face Cream.

Did you read my post on Toxic Beauty? Well, I thought I would share with you my easiest non-toxic beauty product. Its so simple! Raw Unrefined Shea Butter... thats it, really. It is my most favorite face cream. I use it at night and in the morning.
Shea butter is a natural wrinkle cream. It is great for stretch marks, dry and chapped lips and skin, acne, cracked heels, diaper rash, eczema, psoriasis, bug bites, dark spots, cuticles, hair and scalp, sunburns... great all around moisturizer and skin protection.
I have been using it for a few months now and I am so pleased with the benefits. I recently tried a different homemade face moisturizer recipe and the next day my face was all red and bumpy.

 Here is what my shea butter looked like when I bought it. 

Shea butter is great all by itself, or you can add some essential oils. I have mixed mine with Frankincense and Myrrh which are great for your skin. Be careful of Myrrh if you are pregnant though because ingested it can cause bleeding. Going on your skin it may be fine but I would be safe and avoid it. If you like lavender it is good for your skin also, as well as tea tree oil.
To mix I added some chunks of Shea butter to a small glass jar, then put the jar into a cup or bowl. Something that is taller or as tall as the jar. Into the bowl add boiling or very hot water. It's like a stoveless double boiler method. This will melt the Shea butter quickly since it has a low melting point. I don't recommend using a microwave but that's just me. I stirred mine with a toothpick, popsicle stick, or bamboo skewer. Makes for easy clean up. Once it is melted add your essential oils. I dont know if there are any rules to how much you should add. I read somewhere that 10 drops to every 2 oz. was a good ratio.
I have learned a lot about Shea butter. Here are a few things you should know before buying: you definitely want to get the unrefined. Refined is often done so with chemicals and we don't want chemicals on our face. I don't think the benefits are as great either.
Shea butter is very soft with a low melting point, so it will melt on your skin from your body heat. When you rub it on your face it feels almost oily, don't panic, it will absorb and leave your skin super soft. I was afraid that my sensitive skin would break out badly by putting this "greasy" feeling stuff on it, but it didn't. It healed my acne and my skin has a smooth appearance now. I still slightly break out  monthly, but it heals quickly now and is not as bad.
It has varying yellow colors, so if you get yours and it doesn't look like the picture from the site you ordered it from, don't worry. Depending on how old it is or even what part of Africa it came from can make a difference in the color. It also has a smoky, nutty... strange smell. Not bad, just strange, natural, different. Since it is a nut I don't recommend using it if you have nut allergies.
You can find it all over the place, its often found mixed with other ingredients. Stick with pure, unrefined. That's all you need. I bought mine from Soap Goods, because they had a decent shipping price.
I have made a couple other recipes with my Shea butter which I will share with you later.
I figured I pay $0.56 an ounce... so cheap! Olay anti-wrinkle cream is about $6.00 an ounce and contains toxic ingredients. So see!  In this case its cheaper to go "natural". Give it a try and let me know what you think.

p.s.
I am not a doctor, have no medical degrees or licenses or anything. Just sharing what I have read, and learned and experienced. Your results may vary from mine. I have very sensitive, acne prone skin.

Sisters.... Sisters....

Many of you know I do a photoblog with my sister. Its random and fun. If you don't know about it I would love for you to take a peek at Sisters... Sisters. I just posted a new post, and we try to do so twice a week.

Knit Wire, Beaded Napkin Rings

One day while looking at knitting patterns, I came across a pattern for knitted wire, beaded napkin rings. I found them facinating and never having knitted with wire I decided to bookmark it and try it out. Well it took me a few years to do so, but here are the results.

I made 8 of them. They are really easy and whip up in about 30 minutes each. I used a 32 gauge jewelry wire and I think it was a size 7 needles. The beads were a multi-pack I got at Hobby Lobby. I just randomly strung them on the wire.

 The first one I made was done on the wrong size wire. I got 24 gauge instead of 34. It is much thicker and took me a very long time as it was so difficult to knit. I also added the bigger beads to that one. I didn't have enough bigger beads and couldn't find any to match so that is why I used all little ones on the others. Here is the first (and only) one I did on the 24 gauge wire. I really like the look of it. 

For now it is sitting on the top of a lamp. I think it might make a pretty Christmas ornament too... maybe.

Toxic Beauty

It started off as a desire to do things cheaper and my insatiable urge to make things. My SIL told me she had made some toothpaste. Having always wanted to do so, and now knowing someone who had I said... well I gotta do that too!  While I was searching the internet for recipes (because I couldnt just use hers, I have to research it all myself) I came across so many recipes it made me dizzy. Most of the sites and blogs I visited had not only made toothpaste, but other products for your body and home. I have made several things since, and this is all within the past couple months. I am pleased with the results and I hope to start posting on the things I have made soon.
Now, you may know that I have curly hair. If not and you are interested you can read about it on my post- Straight to Curly. By doing the curly girl method I already knew that Sulfates were bad for your hair and skin. One day I decided to visit the website of my current shampoo and conditioner makers to see what exactly they had in their product. Thats when I came across a list of what they did NOT have in their products and this- "Kinky-Curly TM brand is a proud signer of The Compact for Safe Cosmetics." Me, being the super curious person that I am, needed more info on what this compact was, so I decided to visit the little link they gave www.safecosmetics.org. Where this cute video started playing. (Take a look. Its only 8 minutes long and its not boring at all. A real eye opener)

I was clueless as to all the mess that is allowed to go into products. In 7th grade I did a report on skin where I learned that your skin is your bodies largest organ (some of ours are realllly large), but until recently I never really thought about being careful of what I put on my large organ..hmm that sounds a bit crude. I know that you can quit smoking, control birth, and take all sorts of medicine by simply putting a patch of it onto your skin. Now think about all the stuff you put on your body? Girls we put even more on than men do. Is it safe for you? The safe cosmetics site also gave a link for the cosmetic safety database. Here you can look up your cosmetics, skincare, baby products and even sunscreen, and see how toxic or not that they are. I couldnt believe how toxic my lip balm was. WOW! I jumped right up and gathered all of those lip balms up and told the kids no more lip balm until further notice. Of course by this point I had already decided to try and make my own. This site just gave me the push I needed to hurry up and do so.

I have learned a few things about what to avoid, but a few days ago I went to give my daughter some cough and runny nose meds (childrens Triaminic thin strips). Now that I look at labels more closely I decided to check this one out. The very first inactive ingredient was ... acetone. Yep, the stuff you use to thin paint and take off your nail polish. I dont want that crap in my babies body!
So I encourage you. Look at labels, be aware and keep yourself and those you love healthy. I could probably write on and on about it, but I dont want to lose you. Check it out for yourself. I feel overwhelmed with all the information out there and I know there is so much more I can do including changing what I eat, but I know that I can take baby-steps to a healthy household. Here is a pocket size list of things to avoid when shopping for products. This might make things easier on you.
Stay tuned for some non-toxic recipes.

Burlap Pegboard - The details

Thank you all sooo much for your lovely comments on my Burlap Pegboard. I used it for the first time today and it is so convenient. 

Well as promised here are some details. I am sad to admit I didn't take any pictures of the assembly of the pegboard. I believe I had some errands to run while my amazing hubby assembled it. But I can tell you basically what he did.  We took a trip to Home Depot where we found the pegboard in the lumber section. We bought 2 sheets? pieces? boards? As far as I could tell they only had the one size which was 24" by 48".  They were pretty cheap. About 5-ish bucks each. They were finished on one side, almost a white, melamine type finish. Hubby picked up some 1inch thick by 2inch wide boards. Ok.. I obviously don't know much about the woodworking part of things but I REALLLLLY love powertools and need to learn soon. I tell ya what. I am going to give you a great link with pictures. This article at DIY Network is basically what he did. Brandon (hubby) actually only framed it out in an "H" shape, and screwed the pegboard onto the frame. Then I held it for him as he screwed it into the anchors he had put in the wall. It was very light by the way. Use studs if you can though. Unfortunately we couldn't so we had to use wall anchors. Ugh! Are you bored yet?    oooh look a picture! Those are just the dowel rods sitting there ready to be used.

This is what we had once we hung it up. The boards were 2 different shades of white :( 

Brandon had to cut about a foot off of each board. The extras I used in my craft closet and made a  mini board... awe look how cute! I still have to "decorate" it. That is for another post. You can see in this pic the peg holes underneath.

While I was in Home Depot I tried to think of what I would use to hold my dowel rods. I didn't see anything in the pegboard accessory section, and I was looking for those big cup hooks you can get that are coated with a rubbery layer. I figured it would help grip the rods. For some reason I couldn't find them but I did find some Eye Hooks.  I found a size that would screw somewhat snugly into the peg hole.

 

And then! I dipped them in Plasti-Dip! This stuff is so much fun. I have always wanted to try it out and so I thought this would be the perfect opportunity to use it since I couldn't find my plastic coated cup hooks. I found the Plasti Dip in the spraypaint section at Lowes.

 I wrapped a piece of jewelry wire around each one to dip them in the Plasti Dip and hung them to dry. They dry quickly. This gave them a great non slip finish. While I was at it I dipped some pliers handles, a hook, some clamp handles... I had lots of fun plasticizing everything.

These hooks are a tiny bit too long, but I wasn't worried about them going slightly into the wall in the back since I don't intent to ever take it down.

Next, I basically just cut my burlap bigger than the board. Oh, I got my burlap at Hobby Lobby. Cheap, fabulous, burlap. I was able to use my electric staple gun on the sides of the board where the frame was... well only on one side because my gun wouldn't fit on the side next to the wall. The glue gun came in handy there. 

Because we only framed it out in an "H" shape, I didn't have any thing to staple the burlap to on the top and bottom. I tried stapling to the pegboard and it just laughed at me. I suppose I could have used the glue gun on that part too, but for some reason I decided to use this awesome tape I found at Michaels.

 This junk is amazing. I just cut strips, pressed it to the fabric, peeled off the backing, pulled the fabric tight and pressed in place on the back side of the pegboard. Its terrifically strong tape.

 

Remember to pull the fabric tight as you staple then tape. The side I had to hot glue is kinda loose, but that glue was wicked hot. I burned the mess out of my finger (that's southern for crap). After that was all done I nailed and glued in some furniture nails. Got a few packs of these for really cheap at Lowes ($1.24 each). They had several colors but I liked the bronze ones best.

I was able to nail them along the sides but had to glue them to the top and bottoms. Use pliers if you can. The metal also gets quite hot. I started in the corners and then the middle and then about 2 in between those. Just make it look pretty and somewhat evenly spaced. I bought 4 packs of the nails for both boards and still have some left over.

So on to the accessories! I started out on the bottom with my paper. I screwed in the screw eyes and left 2 empty peg holes between the screws for spacing. This would give enough room for bigger rolls too.  I got my dowel rods from Michaels and I didn't cut them. They were the perfect length for me.

 

I found this stuff in my husbands craputer room. Its basically a double sided velcro. It worked nicely to keep my paper rolls from unrolling. Though I think it may be fine without it.

                               

The white baskets I hung with some "L" shaped hooks that came in a multi-pack, pegboard accessories kit. The bags are hung on a pegboard rod. Its just a little rod that is about 7 inches long. I dipped that in the plastic stuff too... because it was so much fun. The scissors are resting in another accessory kit item that is probably used for pliers. It was really late at night and I wanted to get the board done so when I came to the shirt boxes I just used what I could find. I decided to cut some strips of burlap and make loops to hold them in. And sewed on a button for cuteness.

These I impaled on some more accessory hooks.

 

All I was left with was the tissue paper. After some thinking I decided to use a plastic skirt hanger I had and just clipped them, then hung them on another screw hook that I screwed in just behind the gift bags. 

I guess thats about it. Thank you for reading my book. I hope you enjoyed it. I know I didnt. I am so glad this post is over. 

The end.

I'd be happy to answer any questions that I can. 

 

Burlap Pegboard, Ballard Knock-off

 I am so stinkin excited about this project!  So, I had my husband hang some pegboard for me in my laundry room because I wanted a place to hang my wrapping paper and supplies. Now, I HATE painting, but love what paint can do. Still, I soooo did not want to paint! Not wanting to have the ugly look of pegboard either I thought and thought of what I should do. I first thought of breakin' out the Mod Podge and fabric, then I came across this in my Ballard Designs Magazine.

 

 photo source

 I thought... YES! I can make my pegboard look like that! Its not a corkboard but its the same idea. Though I couldn't find anyone online that had done it, I knew it could be done. I have hot glue, an electric staple gun, and I know I can get those nail heads at Home Depot or Lowes.  Plus, everyone seems to be doing something in burlap and I want to join in on the fun. Burlap is cheap and sturdy and... I love it! The weave of burlap is so loose that I wouldn't have to cut holes for the pegs and I could sort of see through it so it was easy to find the peg holes. 

Here is what I came up with.

Here is what it would have looked like without the burlap and nail heads. Ooooh look! It matches the baskets on the shelf! But oh-so-ugly!

 And this is what it looks like with all the paper, bags, etc. all hung up. eeeeee! I LOVE it!

I just walk in there and stare at it. It makes me so happy!

                                Before                                                                    After

The chest freezer underneath makes a perfect place to wrap presents.

I will show you some more details and how-to's in another post.

Update : Here is my post about the details of making this.

 linking up:

SEW DARN CRAFTY