Happy New Year = New Beginnings All Around!

Happy Vacation and Happy New Year!  I just LOVE being on vacation so I can wake up without the alarm and catch up on all the chores I let lapse, i.e. tidying up the piles of "stuff" (papers) that I create all around the house.  Of course, now I'm procrastinating, but it's so much more fun and productive!

I've been focusing on redesigning my blog.  I purchased the Sophie template from Georgia Lou Studios and new clip art from Striped Elephants.   Most importantly, I had an incredible opportunity to be a beta tester for Rachel from A Tall Drink of Water DIY Blog Design Course (click on this link to learn more - the class will be offered on January 1st).

Thanks to taking this course, I learned how to design a header and make all different blog elements such as a signature and a footer.  It was an amazing opportunity, and if you've ever wanted to learn blog design, check out this course for yourself!

The first step of the process was buying my own domain, and I chose happinessiswatermelonshaped.com.  As I've been redesigning my blog, I've been looking at A LOT of different blogs - other than teacher blogs - and, I've even done some link-ups about fashion (I'm not a fashionista, but I do love picking out clothes than go with my personality/style).  Plus, teachers from other grades might want to read my blog so I decided to delete the "in 3rd grade" part of the title.  This meant I needed to create a new blog header and a new button, and I knew how to do this!

Here's another bonus I picked up from my DIY blog experience, I learned how to take a stock photo, add a quote and a watermark/blog button.

If you have any questions about the course, you can click on Rachel's link or write a comment below.

Thanks for visiting today!  Enjoy the rest of your vacation, and