Style-Edition Blog - style-edition

A break from my regular style postings for some technical advice: I often have family and friends ask me about how to keep up with the many blogs and sites that they are visiting everyday, so I figured a quick "how to" might be helpful.

Are you bookmarking every blog you like and visiting it every day? If so, there is a better way!!

Using a Reader:

RSS readers allow you to subscribe to feeds from sites and read them from a central location instead of visiting each individual website on a daily basis. (Saves time and puts all the content you're interested in, in one place!) Most sites will have a little orange RSS logo or a link that says "Subscribe to feed" that allows you to easily add that site to your "Reader" of choice. I use Google Reader because I'm always on gmail and that way I can pull up my reader on any device (personal computer, work laptop, iPad, iPhone etc) I also love how it allows you to label, file and "star" articles so you can reference back to them (I especially found that useful pre-Pinterest). If you use Microsoft Outlookto manage email, you can also subscribe to RSS feeds so they pop up right in your Inbox. This is great if you want to read messages offline. (Microsoft Outlook RSS info here)

Here is a quick step by step on how to set up your favorite blogs on Google Reader:

1. Find a blog (uh.... Style-Edition.com.. duh)

2. Find & Click on the RSS/Subscribe to Feed link. With some browsers, this takes you to a page where you can select your reader. Here you can select "Google Reader"

3. If you can't find th RSS link and/or it doesn't give you the option to select a reader, Don't fret! Google Reader is smart. Just copy the URL of the blog and click "Subscribe" (image below) Smarty-pants Google will automatically find the feed and add it to your Google Reader list.

4. Now, you should be all set up! Instead of using a bunch of bookmarks etc, just go to Google Reader everyday to see the new articles from your favorite sites.

Bonus: If you follow a wide variety of blogs/sites (for example I have fashion, decor, news, work-related sites etc) You can creat "Tags" for each them to file them separately.

Bloglovin:

Bloglovin' is another easy to use "reader" to follow your favorite blogs. I prefer Google Reader, except for when I'm on my iPhone. Bloglovin has a great, easy to use app that allows you to read blogs on your mobile device. Setting up Bloglovin is super easy.

1. Create a Bloglovin' account

2. Find the Bloglovin link on your favorite blogs

3. This link should take you directly to Bloglovin, and as long as you're logged in, you should just have to click "Follow" and it will be added to your list.

4. Either head on over to Bloglovin.com or download the app, and then you can use the site to read all the new articles an aggregate every day.

I hope that helps!

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PS - Here are the Style-Edition links:

Style-Edition Blog RSS Feed

Holiday How To: Salt Dough Ornaments & Gift Tags

This winter I decided to revive a holiday project that I did as a kid: salt dough ornaments. Not only is this a super simple project, it uses items you already have in your kitchen (double easy). I made a bunch of these to use as gift tags, but with a hook, they will easily translate to the tree.

The recipe is simple:

Salt Dough Ornaments

½ cup salt
1 cup flour
½ cup water

1. Pre-heat the oven to 250

2. Use a rolling pin to roll out the dough to ~1/4 inch thick. Cut out shapes with cookie cutters (just like sugar cookies) I used a glass to get simple circles.

Optional: Use a stamp to imprint a 3-d message or image onto the ornaments.

4. Use a drinking straw to poke a hole for a ribbon or ornament hook.

5. Place on a parchment lined baking sheet. Bake for 1.5 hours.

Optional: Paint. I used a wash of green acrylic paint to give the gift tags I made a bit of color. In the past I've also spray painted them and modge-podged them for a shinier affect.

Let me know if you have questions!

1 Comment | | Posted on

Wednesday, December 21, 2011 at 9:56PM

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