Happy New Year! (+a survey!)

Happy New Year!

I'm so thankful for all of your support! I can't thank you enough for following along, liking photos, commenting, and visiting this site! I'm super excited for the new year and all the wonderfulness I know it will bring! I'm so glad I have the opportunity to blog and I have some exciting ideas I cannot wait to publish!

There is one favor I would really, really, really appreciate. I would be super duper grateful if you would be willing to take the survey linked below so I can know what is important to you all! I have some ideas of where I want to go with this whole blogging thing this year, but I would love to know what YOU would like to see!  So if you have a spare moment, pretty please click here to take the survey. A million thanks in advance!

I love this time of the year and all the motivation, hope, and excitement that surrounds it. 2015 was a pretty great year so I cannot wait to see what 2016 holds!

I wish you all a wonderful, happy, fantastic new year filled with joy, accomplished goals, and lots of fun new adventures!

-Shelby

ps. Don't forget that you were planning on clicking here to take the survey:)

NEW Blog Button!

Shout out to all the wonderful women out there, I hope you all had a wonderful Mother's Day! I am eternally grateful for the influence my mom and all the other amazing women who have impacted my life. I know that the work you all do is more important than anything else in the entire world. I am so grateful for the love and amazing example my mom is to me!  Keep being the amazing Christlike examples you are!

You may have noticed a week or so ago that I added a blog button to my side bar.... that was terrible. <sigh> After reading lots of online tutorials I tried it and it failed. The little box wouldn't show up, the picture was super shrunk and it was hard to read. Well fear no more! I finally got a new one! I super duper appreciate anyone who put the first one on their blog! It means so  much to me, especially since I know it wasn't super convenient, since I didn't have the code easy to grab.

How did I finally figure it out? This grab button builder helped me SO much! All you have to do is put in the information and it works! Then copy and paste the code it gives you into a HTML widget and the little box beneathe it + the button pops up! It was magic;) haha but really it was SO easy!

Also this week I plan to add some other blogs' buttons to my sidebar. There are some pretty amazing ones that I have been meaning to add so watch out for that!

Have a great day!
-Shelby

PS: Check out the new let's connect page at the top.

The mistake that almost ruined my blog & how to fix it + other google+ tips

If you recall this post, I accidentally deleted all pictures off my blog. Through Google+. So today I wanted to tell you all how to avoid this tragic mistake, but if you already have, how to fix it.

How to avoid:

I accidentally clicked on this "deadly box"

And that my friends is what caused all of my troubles. I was confused about it's meaning so I clicked it. I know it was totally my fault and I really should have read Learn More, I just want to warn people- do not click this box- it will not be good!

How to fix it:
To be honest I am not 100% sure how I fixed it, but this is what I am pretty sure happened.
After they all disappeared I started to upload the basic ones for my design (header, about me pic, etc), then I began updating and reposting pics. As I did this I shared a few posts on google+ and put them in my Moore Light Shine folder. I had previously unchecked the setting above, but it wasn't until I uploaded photos that they came back. No promises this will work for you, but it really saved me!

If you can't fix it
Then take this opportunity to revamp some posts. Fix that really bad graphic from one of your earliest posts, edit that one post you wrote super late. Clean out a few posts that are irrelevant, repin, and reshare some old posts, organize tags, etc. I redid my cherry crisp post. This was one of my very first posts so it was super bad. The pics were blurry, the fonts didn't match, and I had a pic for every single step which was way too much! So I went back, took the best pic I could find from the photos and edited it in a way that concealed some of the mistakes. I then deleted the old pics, rewrote a few things (grammar mistakes, promises of a blog series that never happened,,whoops..... reformatted  ingredients and instructions into easy to follow lists, etc) Now the post looks a lot cleaner, is easier to read, and really simplifies the recipe. So even though it stinks that you can't fix it, take the opportunity to improve your blog!

Very Important Note about Google+ Photos;
What ever is downloaded to your blog, even if it is just a draft or is deleted out of a post, is saved. This is something to be careful of if you accidentally upload a picture of your house, what city you live in, etc that you plan to delete (ex, you are uploading multiple photos and it is on the same row so you click it accidentally). If this happens you can click on the photo and delete it, note that if you delete a photo off google+ it will disappear off your blog. Other thing to note... if you want to delete your Google+ be careful not to delete your google account because it will delete your blog(s) to. Luckily I read the read more and ended up not deleting my Google+ or blog.... that was very good.

Last, but not least...
So I know you all are dying to know... how can I follow you? Haha;) Thanks for asking! Follow me here.

Random Ramblings

• New blog header! Yay! The old one just wasn't working for me with the dark background! I thought I would love the chalkboard, but not so much. 

•  I also made an about me page! You can click on the "Hello let's be friends.." on the sidebar and it will take you there. Still figuring out how to make that more obvious....

•  I haven't been to school in a week due to snow! We had about a foot, with lots of ice. Monday there was a foot (a TON for here!), they had already called off school to Wednesday. Then it was -21 degrees windshield (Brrrrr!) and the snow was blowing everywhere really hard! Then over the past few days we got 6 more inches. A solid layer of ice has formed under the snow so it is slick! Today it is raining, which makes the foot of snow like super cold, wet mud. Eww. A few buildings have flooded or collapsed because of all the rain and snow! I know it's nothing like what Boston is going through, but still crazy! 
• Church is cancelled tomorrow. I'm so sad! 
• My first stake dance was tonight and now it's cancelled too:(

I hope you enjoyed my random ramblings:)

Picture Trouble

I'm just wondering. Are there any other bloggers out there that are having trouble inserting pictures into their post? I have quite a few posts written and ready to post (and a few guest posts!) but I can't because blogger won't let me insert pics. Any advice? Is it time to move to wordpress?
Hope you are having a great day!
-Shelby

Post Edit Note: Photobucket fixed my problem! It does take a little longer, but it does the trick! You just have to upload them and then copy the HTML code. Then switch from "compose" to "HTML" at the top of your post. Just paste the code and switch back to compose, your picture should be there.

I need your help!

I don't really have a plan for this post so get ready for some (hopefully) awesome randomness:)


I am so excited for the new youth theme- it is amazing guys! ! But more on that later (it's in my talk that I will be posting Sunday/Monday)


I know Christ loves us- that has just been on my mind so much lately and it is the most influential piece of information I have ever learned.


I have been thinking about my clogging blogging (that was a typo but it made me laugh so I'm keeping it in there) a lot lately. I feel like most of my posts are super similar. And while they are all 100% true without a doubt, I feel like I need a variety.


The gospel will always be my focus. But I need your help! What do you want? What would you like to see happen here on the blog?


PLEASE comment or email me! I really would love your opinion!
Some things I could possibly write about:
     -DIYs/Recipes (no promises here- they take a bunch of time but I could maybe do a few)
     - Quick Projects/Tips
     - Printables/ quotes
     -More about me/ happenings in my life
     -Music
    - Decorating
    - Blogging
   - Photography
   - Inspiration from around the web
   - Other (please specify! I am open to anything!)


I also want to point out that I think it is so ironic that right after I post about easing up on blogging I start writing a little more consistently. I guess my work isn't done here;)


I just want to say again- I believe what I have posted before 100%. I am not tired of writing about my Savior, the gospel, and the role it plays in my life- nor will I ever be. I just want to mix it up a little. He lives and he loves you. He is the way, the truth, and the light.
 I hope you all have an amazing weekend!
-Shelby

How far I've come with some blog tips mixed in

Today I'm going to be taking a small trip down memory lane..... How far my photography has come and blogging in general has come in just one short year. (I recently celebrated my 1st blogaversay!)

Here is my first blog header, it isn't the most terrible thing in the world, just pretty generic, and dark, and hard to read. Yeah, I guess it was pretty bad:)



{First Post}

 Here is my current blog header. A lot better definitely! Not exactly where I want to be, but better. The other major change I made at this point was to change my background color to plain white. I highly recommend this! The other background would never load and white gives your blog a less distracting feel.

 This was originally in my sidebar and there are a lot of problems with it! You can barely read it because the font is too small and it looks pretty cheap.

 Recently I switched to a picture of me with a short paragraph under it. I like this much better because it feels a lot more crisp and clean, plus it adds a more personal touch because it includes a picture.

  My first DIY post included a picture like this:


{Cherry Crisp}

 And this: Thank goodness that I've improved! The photos are grainy and I don't really like to instructions on the picture anymore. I remember being super proud of this post though... probably because it was only my 3rd:)

This is a little later and the photography is MUCH better, plus I realized you don't always need a picture for every step :)

 {How to make your brownies 10x better in one easy step}

{3 Step Mousepad DIY}

I started with this in my sidebar: 

And then switched to this. The rectangular shape is much better for sidebars, the words fit nicer, and it is a little "cleaner", if you know what I mean. I recently decided to move it to my footheader and I like it there a lot better. 

This was my original "sign off". It wasn't made that blurry, just making it this big makes it look blurry.

 Love this one so much better! The fonts, colors, clarity. Everything! 

The next few pictures show how my photography and design has improved:

Blurry, plus the colors don't mix well and the background is too distracting.


{Acorn of honest Inquiry}

I still really like this one. I feel like it is pretty simple, but still cute.

{I'm Grateful for ...in Pics}  

I also really like the following three. These are some of the first times I combined my graphic design with my photos.


{You measure up... A Lesson in comparison}



{Life is Beautiful}

{Shine}

These are some of my favorite photos.


{I'm proud to be an American}



{Seeing the Beauty}

I was trying to change things up by using a journal entry and taking an artistic picture of it and using that instead of taking the time to make a whole other "title picture" for my post or even worse leaving it pictureless. (gasp!:)

{And the people came running}

Recently I made a blog instagram account- my first social media outlet for my blog! (Hint-you should follow me:)

{We are on Instagram!}



This isn't meant to make anyone feel bad, it's mostly for my fun and to give you hope:). If you are doing some of the things I used to and now think are not my best moments, that's ok. Everyone's style is different and everyone is in a completely different place. So even if you aren't happy with where you are right now, just know there is hope for your future:) Some people say you have to take expensive courses or whatnot to be a good blogger. I 100% disagree with this, will it speed you up? Maybe. But it is totally possible to learn without paying a lot of money. I have never taken a class, but I have read many free tutorials online. A lot of my pictures are edited and/or taken on my phone because that's what I have with me. I still make hundreds of mistakes and we all know I'm not the most consistent blogger:)

Desicions, Desicions

I thought I would be better at this whole blogging thing once summer started.. but I guess not ;)

I have been blogging for about 1/2 a year now. It has been amazing and super fun. I know I really want to blog for a long time. But lately I have no clue where I am headed:

-Do I want to do more DIY posts? All this DIY stuff is awesome and I love it!

-Do I want to have a photography blog? I love taking pictures!

-What about a lifestyle blog? I have read some of these lately and they seem as though they would be fun to write.

-Should I combine them all? Just keep throwing them together like I am now?

- I also really want to change my blog name. I love this little light of mine, but that's a pretty common name. I still want to focus on light and joy and beauty for my name...hmmm.... and then- should I redo this blog? Or start a whole new one? Decisions, Decisions!!

All I know is that I want to keep the Lord at the center of this, he prompted me to start this blog and I want to fulfill his purpose.

For now I just want to keep posting random things.....

I have 21 drafts plus other posts started on my iPad mini and in word- guys, that is ridiculous.
New goal: POST THEM!!

Have you ever had a dilemma like this? I would love to hear your advice!

And because every post needs a picture....

 

 

 

Thank you for listening to my randomness!

 

 



This Little Light of Mine

Welcome to my blog! My name is Shelby and I am a teenager from Kentucky. I am a Mormon, I live it,  and I love it! I started a blog for a Personal Progress Value Project. Personal Progress is a program for girls that encourages them to be their best and grow closer to their Father in Heaven. It focuses on 8 values: Faith, Divine Nature, Individual Worth, Knowledge, Choice and Accountability, Good Works, Integrity, and Virtue. For each value we complete several requirements and then complete a ten hour project. This is my 10 hour project for knowledge. I hope to be able to share my knowledge with others and to gain some knowledge myself. Why a blog? About a year ago I started to love reading blogs, I especially loved gospel and crafting/organizing blogs. I loved (and still do love) how they inspired me. I would read them and then think I could totally do that, or I would read a post and gain an insight on the scriptures that I had never thought of, an insight that changed my perspective. A little later in the year a young woman at church did a blog for a value project, as I read hers I was so inspired, I loved it! I knew that I wanted to try starting a blog. I kept working on my personal progress, but I could not get the idea of a blog out of my head! I was looking over my personal progress and I realized that I was almost done with the value Knowledge. All I needed was a few more experiences and a project. So I few weeks later and here I am. Lastly, I want to explain the name. One day we were driving to church and listening to gospel music. I was thinking about starting a blog and suddenly I started listening to the song. They were singing This Little Light of Mine, I'm gonna let it shine..... I had just asked my mom for blog name suggestions- and this was perfect! I hope when reading this blog you are inspired to let your light shine.