Today we have a fun guest!  I met Melissa when she volunteered to help out during our move.  Melissa is the mommy of SEVEN kiddos, FIVE of them are adorable girlies.  Lucky Duck!  I love Little Monkey to pieces, but I am excited for the day when I get to play dress up and do hair and make cutsie tutus and hair bows.  Melissa has an awesome blog where she shares the hairstyles her girls sport.  What a cool idea!  So, here is Melissa from Hairstyles By Mommy…

Hi there! My name is Melissa from Hairstyles By Mommy! I am so excited to be here posting for Krista! I love her blog! She has tons of GREAT ideas and tips! I am a Stay At Home Mom of seven with one more coming in June!! Five of the kids are girls with LOTS of hair!! Growing up a tom boy who only put her hair up in a ponytail I was at a loss as to how to do my girls’ hair. What I did know was I hated that their hair was always in their cute faces! So I started! I started experiementing and doing hair and then started hairstylesbymommy.com to share with others.

Most of my do’s are quick and easy because I don’t have a lot of time! Since I have a variety of ages, I have hair do’s for all different ages. You might even find a hairstyle or two for YOU!! I give you step by step instructions, with pictures, so that anyone can do hair!!

So lets get started!!! One of my absolute favorite do’s is called Thin Knots. This is great for all ages and any type of hair!

Here is a do that puts a new twist on ponytails. I call it Double Knotted Ponytails.

This fun do is perfect for teens/tweens and Moms. I do the Twist often at my house!!

There are fun up do’s that would be perfect for prom, a flower girl or any fancy occasion, like this Curly Up Do!

My kids love crazy hair day at school because they get some Crazy Hair!!

There are hair do’s for holidays too. like these cute Valentine’s Hearts! You don’t have to wait until Valentine’s Day to try this one out!

Thanks again Krista for the chance to be a guest blogger on your blog. And don’t forget to stop by hairstylesbymommy.com for lots of hair inspiration!!

Thanks for visiting, Melissa!  Head over there are check out all the cute and easy-to-follow tutorials Melissa shares for these and other amazing hairstyles.  And if you don’t have girls, even mommas and all cute girls need some great hairstyle ideas.  Go check them out!

Ok, I am definitely not a pro at this blog thing.  I’ll be the first to admit it.  But, I am the sole force behind While He Was Napping.  I design my background, my buttons, my links, the navigation bar, my logo and icon, and the favicon (the little icon next to the URL in the address bar).  Everything you see, I did.  Now, I’m not trying to toot my own horn or anything, just giving you an idea of how much time and work I put into this.  Because I spend so much time doing these things, I have learned a thing or two.  I thought I’d share some of my findings with you.

When I want to do something to While He Was Napping, I typically have to Google it.  I know a little HTML code, but definitely not enough to just sit down and write out a new element in HTML.  Ha, that stuff can be really confusing!  You miss one period or bracket and it messes up EVERYTHING!  So, pre-written code will totally be your friend.  Just make sure you copy every little thing.

Today, I’m gonna walk you through designing your own background:
I cheat when I do my backgrounds.  I just don’t have time to make them from scratch, so I will use digital kits I find on the internet (I always give credit to the designers, although I should probably post it permanently instead of in a post).  Or I take photos of scrapbook paper/elements I actually have, upload them and then edit and use them that way.  My current background is from the Chore Day kit and the Courage kit available at Summertime Designs computerscrapbook.com.  Ok, the kit isn’t by Summer.  Correen Silke is actually the author.  But both of these ladies are SUPER talented.  Seriously, these girls are Ah-MAZE-Zing!

Ok, first, you’ll have to download the kits or upload your photos.  Then, open up PhotoShop or another editing software.  PhotoShop is my preferred program.  Open a new project.  There isn’t really an industry ‘standard’ as for dimensions on your site.  It depends on screen size and since everyone has different size screens, it will vary.  You have to decide what you want.  The two most common dimensions are 800×600 pixels and 1024×768 pixels.  Not very many people have a screen resolution of 800×600, but there are some.  It all depends on what you want. Anyway… good luck with that decision (I use 1024×768, in case you care).

Layout your design as you wish.  It’s just like scrap booking on the computer!  With less mess!  That’s my favorite part.  If you don’t know how to do this, do some Googling on “digital scrap booking”.  Or email me.  I’ll answer what I can.  When you get it laid out like you want, save it as a .jpg image.

Now, you will need somewhere to host your image.  Photobucket or Flickr work well, I use Photobucket just because I had that account before I had Flickr and all my stuff is already there.  Photobucket also provides the code is an upfront and easy to access html code for your image.  I’m not sure if Flickr provides all that or not.  After you sign in, upload the image from your computer to your Photobucket.  Save the image to your account.  On your home screen, hover over your image.  A box should pop up with a bunch of different html codes.  Click on the “Direct Link” code and copy.

Once that code is in there, hit the preview button to make sure it worked.  In editing your blog, the preview button will become one of your most treasured friends.

A new window or tab will open, showing what changes your code has made.  In the preview, you should see your new background.  If it’s not there, double check your code and make sure it looks exactly like mine does in the photo above.

If everything looks good, make sure you save your template in order for the changes to take effect.  Now go visit yourself and admire all your hard work!  =]

Good Luck!

Welcome to this week’s party!  Real quick, I’ll give ya’ll a couple features and then we’ll get right along to the party!  Last week was a great party, there were soo many cool things.  I hope you checked them out.

I had to give Joy at Momma’s Kinda Crafty a shout out for her link up to Momma’s Tool Box.  Every momma woman needs one of these.  My life would be soo much easier right now if I didn’t have to go hunting for a tool every time I need one.

Kay, so that’s not the original saying, but when it comes to cosmetic brushes and sponges my version holds true.  Now, cosmetic brushes aren’t cheap.  Even cheap ones aren’t all that cheap.  I have a set of Mary Kay brushes that I have had forever.  They have lasted for years… because I make a serious effort to take care of them.  Cleaning your brushes isn’t hard and really doesn’t take long.  Sometimes it’s merely remembering to clean them.

Here’s the how:
1)  Brush the bristles of the brush against the palm of your hand to get the extra loose powder out.  Never pull on the bristles.  If they start to come out, it’s time to invest in new brushes.
2)  Using cool water and an anti-bacterial soap, gently rub the bristles of the brush between your thumb and  index finger.
3)  Rinse the brush thoroughly with cool water.  Blot dry on a clean towel.  Set upright to dry.  Let dry completely before you use them again.

Ideally, brushes should be washed after every use.  Who has that much free time though, right?  I shoot for every two weeks, or at least once a month.  Using clean brushes can help cut down on the amount of acne you experience.  Cosmetics are breeding grounds for bacteria and germs.

Cosmetic sponges should be replaced at least every two weeks.  Wash these with anti-bacterial soap, preferably after every use or at least every couple days.  Let dry completely before using again.  These are huge bacteria collectors.  Use water as hot as you can stand it to wash these out.  I have a hard time finding the sponges I like, so I try to wash them out every day.  It doesn’t always happen.  But, I do try.

I notice a dramatic decease in my break outs when I consistently keep my brushes and sponges clean.  It only takes a few extra minutes to clean them and it’s so much quicker to put my make up on when I don’t have to worry about covering blemishes.  It’s worth the little bit of extra time to wash my brushes up.

Today is a feature I have been looking forward to for a while.  Ever since she first sent it to me and I got to see it.  It’s a great post.  If you haven’t check out Anna @ Ask Anna, you really, really should.  Like I’ll wait while you go take a peek.  But, don’t forget to come back!!!  Hahaha.  Anna has some incredibly fantastic advice and tips.  I want to print off her whole blog and make a book out of it.  But she said she just might compose an ebook, so maybe I’ll just wait for that.  Or the movie.  =]

Here’s Anna:

Kids & Organization

I think it is so important to teach our children organization from the time they are very young.  If we don’t teach them who will?  From the time Malea leaned to walk (10 1/2 months) we started doing clean up time with her.  I looked up a cute little clean up song on youtube.com and tried to make it fun for her.  Now that she’s 2 I’ll hear her singing the song to herself in the other room while she’s picking up her toys. 🙂  It’s my belief that kids need order, they thrive on it.  I also think that if their toys are organized and easily accessible then they will get played with more.  When every toy is thrown on the ground how are they going to know what’s there?   So here are a few tips for getting your toys organized.

1. Organization bins.  If you don’t have anywhere specific for the toys to go then clean up time is going to be confusing for the kids.  My mom taught me that everything has it’s place and that has always stuck with me.  Where do the blocks go?  Where do the books go?  And so on and so forth.  I bought this toy organizer for Malea about 6 months ago and it has been awesome.

Of course the toys don’t always look like this, I’m a mom not a magician :), however we do have an order to playtime.  Another thing my mom always taught me was that once you are done playing with something you put it back.  We have applied the same principles for Malea so when we are done playing with the block we put them away and get out the puzzles.  When we are done with the puzzles we put them away before getting out the animals, etc.

2.  Buy baskets.  Baskets are another great way to organize your toys. They are practical for holding lots of toys, plus they are fun to play with.  Malea loves to do chugga-chugga around the house with me pulling her in her basket. 🙂

3. Be an example.  Be a good example in teaching your kids how, in real-grown-up life, things really work.  For example Malea got a kitchen for Christmas this year.  She LOVES it and plays with it all the time so usually by the end of the day it’s a huge disaster!  I’m teaching her though that just like mommy cleans up her kitchen, it’s important for her to clean up hers.  Each night we put the pots and pans away, the cups back up on the shelf and hang the cooking utensils back on the rack.  It’s a fun way for her to play but also I’m teaching her an important life lesson.  I’m sure someday her husband will thank me!

4. It must be practical but also fit your style.  Right before Malea was born my husband and I bought this ottoman and I absolutely LOVE it!  Walking into our living room you would never know that we have a ton of toys sitting right in the middle of it because they are all hidden!  Every night we clean up Malea’s toys and books and then close the lid and VOILA! our living room looks “grown up” again.  I was actually told this weekend that my home looks like a “model home” and that you’d never guess we have a ton of toys for our daughter.  That was the best compliment someone like me could receive!  Anyways, I think something like this is a MUST.  After I bought this my sister and 3 of my friends when out and got the same one for their kids because they loved mine so much.  Target you are welcome. 🙂

5. Book selves are a must.  We have SO many books.  I was blessed and my friends threw me a book baby shower but man those books add up!  It seems like we have books everywhere in our house.  Finally this January I got tired of having them in every room so I set up a bookshelf for Malea in her room.  The bottom two shelves are for her to read as she pleases and the top two shelves are “special books” that she can only read with mommy or daddy.  I have loved having all of the books put in one place (except for the few left in the living room) because it’s fun when she takes me back to her room and we sit down and read through 10 books at a time.  I think she feels like big girl now that she has so many of the books she loves right in her room.

I hope these few tips can help you get some of your toys organized.  Having kids is hard work and having toys everywhere can just make things worse sometimes.  I have found that teaching Malea how to clean up her things has made both of our lives easier and more fun.  It’s also very rewarding for me to see her learning a life lesson while having fun doing it, “clean up, clean up, everybody let’s clean up, clean up clean up put your toys away…”

Thanks for coming over Anna!  Isn’t she great?  Make sure you go check out the rest of her AWESOME stuff!

Krista