twitterday: pause

For six weeks, I've talked about Twitter on Saturdays, and now I'm going to pause this mini-series. Most likely, there will be more Twitterday posts in the future, but for now I'm going to simply tweet.

It's hard to believe that in just about 2 months time, that I have around 350 followers and have tweeted over 700 times, but wow! If you'd like to follow me, I'd love for you to "hear" me say clever things like:

Okay, so maybe they aren't all that clever, but I have found it to be quite fun on my end!

twitterday: background patterns

After I updated the look of my own Twitter page (as well as my blog), I thought it would be fun to make some background tiles that you all might want to use. I received some lovely suggestions, and although I didn't make all of them, I had so much fun making these patterns, that I might make more soon.

First, here's the deal. You can use these seamless patterns on your personal anythings (Twitter, blogs, websites, printed, whatever), and you don't even need to credit me. But please, please, don't use these on anything that you're selling, and don't use them in a way that would appear to be branding for your shop. Okay? Okay.

Now, here's the first batch...some different designs and sizes:

To use them, just right-click (Control-Click on a Mac) then choose to save the image to your computer.

In Twitter: Go to "Settings", then to "Design". Scroll down under the images they give you, and choose "Change background image."

Click on "Choose Image" and locate the file that you downloaded to your computer. Make sure that you check the box that says "tile background". Save your changes, and your new background will show up!

In Blogger: Go to the "Design" tab, and choose "Template Designer". Click on "Background", then click in the area under "Background Image".

Click on "Upload Image" then "Choose File" to select your downloaded image. Hit "Done" and Blogger will automatically tile the image for you.

(I'm afraid that I only know how these get set up in Blogger, but other blog platforms will have a similar situation, I'm sure. Also, I work on a Mac, so I realize that some of the directions could look a little different for you.)

But you didn't think that I would make those patterns, and not have something embroidery related, did you? You already got a peek in the Twitter screen shot...and I shan't disappoint! (yes, I just used the word "shan't") So, here's some embroidery floss in some of my favorite (signature!) colors. You'll be wanting to switch out backgrounds on things constantly to fit your #flossmood (see what I did there?)

Again, just right-click (Control-Click on a Mac) then choose to save the image to your computer.

All of these patterns can also be used as computer desktop backgrounds too. Just set one as your background, and choose "tile". If you want to print something with the patterns, Photoshop allows you to "define patterns", which basically saves the image so that you can fill an area with the tiled pattern.

Oh my. This ended up being a far more technical post than I planned on it being. I don't usually write instructions for this kind of thing, so if I confused anyone, I apologize! Leave any questions in the comments, and I'll do my best to answer!

Now, go prettify your backgrounds!

twitterday: changing the look

I love simplicity in design, so for a while, i didn't have a problem with a super basic look for my Twitter page. But then I realized that maybe it needed a little something. I mean, I wouldn't leave my blog with only a little photo of me, and nothing else to say what this is is all about, right? Right.

So I looked for a tutorial on how to create and add a custom background. I found this one, and it was just what I needed! Here's what I ended up with:

The strip of pattern goes all the way down the edge, and I love it!

But maybe you don't want something only in the top corner. Maybe you want a pattern that covers the entire background? I've been wanting to create some fresh new patterns, and maybe you have some ideas?

Leave me a comment with some patterns and colors you'd like to be able to add to your Twitter or blog background, and next week, I might just have some here for you to download. Really!

twitterday: a hashtag project

Last Twitterday, I started asking about tagging tweets. This week, we're going to start something fun with our tags. If you're not on Twitter, I've done some checking, and you can participate too!

I'm in a color mood right now. As in, I'm thinking a lot about colors that I like...especially embroidery floss colors, because, well, you know me. Often I get so attached to a particular shade of floss that start to feel the color, and the color describes my mood or emotion. Does this sound silly? Perhaps.

But here's my thought. What if I wasn't the only one to do this? What if all of my embroidery floss loving blog friends shared their moods with floss colors too?

Here's how it works: Choose your floss mood color, then tweet it with the hashtag #flossmood. Example:

Today my #flossmood is DMC 3328!

-or-

Ugh. I'm feeling rather DMC 998 #flossmood

You can also use this tag on or in a blog post, or you can leave it here in a comment. This isn't a common phrase/tag, so we'll be able to find it easily.

This isn't restricted to DMC colors, but those are what I tend to have around. And one of the things that I like most about this is that we all get to look and see what color it is that you're feeling! (You can find the DMC color cards here.)

Come back on Monday, because I'll have the first of a few projects for expressing your #flossmood in real life!

Are you ready? What's your #flossmood?

twitterday: tag, you're it

Last week I started a mini-series that focuses on trying to get in the swing of using Twitter. (You can find me here.) It's not all tweets though, so if you're not into it, there will still be some thoughts and ideas in here for you!

Yesterday was Friday, which means, if you visit Twitter, you'll likely see a lot of this:

#FF

My first week of joining I was so confused! What in the world was this referring to, and why were so many people's names included with this mysterious term? I soon found out that this meant "follow Friday", in which users suggest other users to follow. What a nice idea now that I understood!

There are still plenty of terms and ways of doing things that I don't get, but let's talk about that #tag today. Twitter tags are preceded by this: #. Easy enough. But what about the tags themselves?



My mom loves labeling things. She enjoys putting sticker tags on things that I really don't think need to be labeled. I, on the other hand, resist marking things that probably should be tagged. It's true for tangible items around me, my blog posts, and now Twitter.

To the best of my understanding, tagging on Twitter is like what my mom does. It's putting a label on a container so you can find the contents easier. Even if the container is clear and you can easily see what's inside!

For example, I could tweet this:

Watching videos to perfect my bullion stitch!

And add this tag at the end:

#embroidery

That makes sense, because the tag describes what the tweet is about, right? But I could tweet the exact same thing and add this tag at the end:

#embroiderygeek

Is that tag necessary and helpful? Um...probably not. I feel like those tags are just there for the fun of tagging.

Like with sticker labels, I'm bad at using tags in either way! Only recently have I made an effort to label my blog posts so they can be found easier. This kind of organization (for fun or practical purposes!) does not come naturally for me!

How about you? Do you label or tag things? Do you have any tips for me to get better at this? Is there something that I'm missing when it comes to tagging?

I do have some ideas for tags that would potentially have a group of us stitchers sharing some specific kinds of things and tags would make it a lot easier. Watch for more about that next time around!

twitterday

Not too long ago, I finally joined Twitter. (You can find me here!) I'm really liking it and am trying to jump in with both feet, but am feeling so behind. I thought that to help me get more up to speed, I'd dedicate Saturdays to the subject of Twitter. Just for a little while.

Don't worry...if you're not on Twitter, these "twitterday" posts will still be fun for you. I promise!

When I share things on Twitter, I don't want them to just be personal bits of my day. I want to share things that are fun and useful too, so I feel that it's important for me to be intentional about my tweets.

Yesterday, I realized how many times I think about something to tweet, but at the wrong time. Or I'll think of 6 things at once, but forget them when I go to spread them out. Since I don't have a smartphone, my first step in fixing this was to make a little tweet cheat strip.

This is a sentence strip, the kind used in schools. You can find it at teachers' stores and even at the dollar store. I folded it up and can keep it with me to write down the important ideas for tweeting.

I've this with my blog when I'm needing to gather ideas, or if I'm not quite in the swing of things. Plus, I still like a bit of analog, and writing things down on real paper is comforting to me.

Do you have any ideas or tips for keeping track of upcoming tweets (or blog posts, etc.)?