Edit:// The winner of this giveaway is… Rashmi the Bookworm! Thanks to everyone who entered!
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Welcome back! This quarter I’m doing two giveaways, so in addition to yesterdays full blog makeover giveaway, you’ll also have a chance to win something I call a “perfect-wintery-weather-package.”

This includes 1 big, soft and warm throw (in red) and a package of instant hot chocolate! Perfect for curling up in front of the fire and reading, or watching a perfect show like “Pushing Daisies.”

To enter to win, all you have to do is leave a comment on this post with a way for me to contact you.

I’ll draw the winner on Saturday, November 1st at 5pm CST. Good luck!

For more great giveaways visit bloggygiveaways.com.

P.S. – Fans of the show (and non-fans too, that’ll work): Please sign the “Save Pushing Daisies” petition!

It’s bloggy giveaway time again! I just adore giveaway time. Of course, I wouldn’t be Flibby Pie Graphic Design if I didn’t give readers a chance to win a full blog makeover!

Maybe you’d like a new design for your drab and boring blog, or perhaps you’d just like something seasonal… it is fall you know, and Christmas is coming up soon. Whatever you choose, I’ll work with you to make it happen! I design on blogger, typepad, livejournal, wordpress, (everything).

Entering this giveaway is easy. Simply leave a comment on this post, with a valid email address for me to get back to you. Here’s the cool part: you can enter once a day until October 31st!

I’ll draw a winner at 5:00pm CST on Friday. Good luck and happy blogging!

(P.S. Check out my second giveaway, the “Perfect Wintery Weather Package!”)

HTML/Blogger Tutorial

First of all, you’ll need to locate or create your blockquote property in your blogger template.

Click “Edit HTML” on your blogger dashboard.

Before you make any adjustments, you need to back-up your current template. You can do this by downloading a copy to your computer hard-drive.

Next, we have to find the blockquote tag in the template body. The easiest way to do this is use your Edit/Find on Page property. This can be found in your browser’s menubar at the top. (File, Edit, View, etc.) Once you’ve brought up the window type “blockquote” and click “find next.” Make sure your cursor is inside the template window.

On my template, the only characteristic of a blockquote is a 20px margin. We have to make some new characteristics. To make a box, we are going to create “background”, “border” and “padding.” I threw in a “font-style” tag to demonstrate what you can do with these. To create a css property, you place the characteristic in between the two { } tags. .post blockquote shows what we are changing, then we open the tag with a {. Each property is followed by a colon, the value followed by a semi-colon.

Adding some new properties to the “.post blockquote” tag.

Now, we have to add values to these properties. For this quote box, I decided to make the border 3px wide, solid, and a dark gray (#666666). These values are separated by a simple space. You can make your quote box have a “dotted”, “dashed” or “double” border as well. Simply replace the word “solid” with one of these words. To adjust the thickness of the border, change the value of 3 to anything you wish. “1px” is the thinnest, you can have borders as thick as you’d like.

I made the background of this quotebox a lighter gray (#cccccc). (For more color codes, go here.) You can also make an image the background of your quote box. To do this, you’ll need to upload the image to an image hosting website, (http://www.tinypic.com/, http://www.photobucket.com/ for example) and instead of putting a color code, you add the direct link to your image, like so: url(http://www.linktoyourimage.com);

Padding is how much space is between the text in the quote box and the edge (border). I added 5px of padding.

The font-style tag tells the server to make all text used in a quote in italics. You can omit this if you would like.

Remember to end all of your values with a semi-colon.

All the properties and values in place.

Save your template and make a post using the blockquote property.

Here’s the quote box we’ve created! Quite lovely, eh?
I hope this tutorial was helpful to you! If you have any questions, feel free to leave a comment or email me. Have fun making some beautiful custom quote boxes!

I received a special parcel in the mail today – a Christmas gift from a dear friend of mine who lives in New Zealand.

She and I are quite a lot alike. She loves reading, especially classics and fairytales, just like me. She loves musicals, dresses, old fashioned ways and children, just like me. We often say that she’s the New Zealand version of me, and I’m the American version of her!

She and I talk online all the time (I love her accent), when we can (the time difference is pretty drastic) and we’re very close friends, even though we’ve never met in person. It’s amazing how the Internet can bring people together!

The gift was so very thoughtful and sweet! It came wrapped in Christmas paper, and on it written in sharpie said, “Don’t open until Christmas…. unless you want to.”

One of the things she sent was a package of “Pineapple Lumps,” an exclusive to New Zealand candy.

They are quite good actually! My whole family had a taste. The middle tastes like a mixture between Laffy Taffy and Easter “Peeps” in a pineapple flavor, all dipped in chocolate. Chewy, fruity and chocolatey! I’m going to bring some to my Nana’s house tonight so she can try them.

Another thing she did was make an entire mock brochure for us on the benefits of moving to New Zealand… she always tells us we should move to New Zealand, and I’m telling you, with the bleak way this upcoming election will end, it’s not too crazy a notion!

Her reasons to move to New Zealand were quite clever and fun to read, this one being my favorite. It made my family laugh at least.

It’s such a wonderful blessing to have friends over the Internet. Advancements in technology are can so often be used in a negative way, but it’s absolutely lovely to be able to use all it’s benefits to the utmost advantage!

Getting this package made my day today! Thank you for being such a sweet friend, Genevieve!

My mother is depressed. She always gets this way when the cold weather starts setting in. It’s here. My dad and I both have colds. This also contributes to my mother’s hatred for cold weather – she also has a condition known as Spermatophobia… fear of germs.

I’m not a fan of germs myself, and I try to refrain from sickness as much as possible, but apparently the change of weather doesn’t agree with me.

Ah, well. The cold weather will be worth it on November 6th. One of my favorite days of the year…. Christmas Village day.

Elisabeth at In My Own Little Corner has tagged me for this fun little meme.

All you have to do is name six random (or, little known) facts about yourself! How delightfully fun!

1. I’m a night and morning person. I really enjoy staying up late, and once I’m awake, I enjoy the mornings.

2. I have a pinky toe that protrudes a tad unnaturally, and I accidentally stub it. A lot. It’s very painful. I guess I shouldn’t walk around with bare feet so much, huh?

3. I always want to drive when I go somewhere. I admit I was afraid of it at first, but now I absolutely adore it. I correlate the feeling of driving to playing the piano or typing. It’s smooth and I like feeling like I’m in control.

4. I might, possibly have a slight adoration for cheesy 80’s love songs.

5. I’m a hopeless romantic.

6. One day, I’d like to open up a cozy little antique book shop.

Alrighty then! I shall tag,
Poppy and Lady Why over at Where the Kudzu Grows.