Speechless~~

Just when you think everything's peachy with those nasty gremlins their big ugly uncle comes a'visitin'...

At this point I'm rather speechless with all the image issues we had and I'm sure all of you are even more frustrated and baffled. I do sincerely apologize. Even though these type of things are out of our control we can't help but feel a sense of responsibility for it all.

Today's issue was caused from a server outage with GoDaddy so none of our lovely PrL images were showing up, not even my website. ugh! Several headaches later, the issue has been resolved and all is as it should be. (you may need to refresh/delete your browser cookies to see them again)

Sometimes I think about getting out of  theme game, although there aren't alot of problems they sure do wreak havoc when there are... but then I remember how much I love making pretty things. So if the monsters are done now, the faeries and I can get back to work~~

Update to Previous Post

Here's a bit more info from my last post about missing images, just in case there was some confusion... 

Paid Users: If you purchased a banner or a complete theme from me in the past then contact me through email (click my signature below) and I will send you the link to the new theme page. That way you will have all of the codes for that theme ~ no additional cost is required.

Free Users: If you were using one of my blog themes that used to be free and you still have the code installed on your blog then you can follow the instructions in my last post to fix the issue. The images will return and there will be no cost to you. This way my previous freebie users are still included ~ love you guys too♥

Installations: If I installed one of my themes on your blog in the past then just follow this tutorial to add me as a guest: http://www.plumroselane.com/tutorial-add_guest.html I will re-install everything so your blog is back to what it was before. You'll need my email address for the tutorial so go ahead and click my signature at the end of this posting to get that and while you're at it you can send me a quick message letting me know you'll be adding me. ;~)

And remember that all of my "Just Backgrounds" are still available for free and will remain that way. You can click this title to access the page.

Hope that helps everyone and thanks for your patience! *shakes fist at gremlins*

Gone Missing? Here's the Fix~~

It seems the internet gremlins have been up to no-good and many of my lovely Plumrose Lane images have gone missing, humph!!  If you find they're missing from your blog and you installed the images yourself then use the steps below to easily fix them.

If I installed the theme for you, then click my signature at the bottom of this message to send me an email and we'll get things back up for you~ ♥

To fix the missing images you will be replacing a single word in some code on your blog. Here's a quick key of where to find the different codes for each image type.

Background
Click on the "Layout" section of your blog then locate the "Html/Java Script" gadget for your background.

Post Divider
Click on the "Template" section of your blog, then click on "Customize". Click on "Advanced", then scroll down to "Add CSS". The code should appear under the "Add custom CSS" area.

Blog Signature
Click on the "Settings" page of your blog. Click "Posts and comments", code will be found in the "Post Template" area, 2nd choice from the top.

Button, Badge, or Tag
Click on the "Layout" section of your blog then locate the "Html/Java Script" gadget for missing button, badge, or tag.

The Fix
Once you find the code to fix the missing image you will simply need to replace the word: "prl-images" with "plumroselane". This word may appear several times within one snippet of code so I recommend using the "Find" feature in your browser to make sure you replaced them all.

Here are quick search links to help you find this tool for the most commonly used browsers:
Chrome
Internet Explorer
Fire Fox
Safari
Opera

Once all of the words have been replaced then click "Ok" or "Save". The missing image should now be back.

Please feel free to contact me if you  need any additional help ~ just click my signature below to open an email message.

Blogger Changes Html

It seems Blogger has once again changed things up ~ this time they've completely revamped their Html interface, so if you've been trying  use my tutorial How to: Setup and Adjust the Picture Window Template, or just working in the Html area of your blog, then you've notice things looking... well... entirely different...

new view

It's kind of like going to sleep with this...

photo credit - Leandro Cavinatto stock.xchng 

and waking up with this...

photo credit - Ehsan Namavar stock.xchng 

I get that change is nice but is it really necessary??

Ok, so my example is  a bit over-the-top but let's face it... after the fiasco of Blogger's "updates" last year and all the recent glitchiness with their interface, it's enough to make any Blogger want to packup and move to Wordpress.

Blogger seems quite proud of their revamp and boast it's newly improved functionality in this posting from Blogger Buzz. Here's the direct link: http://buzz.blogger.com/2013/04/improvements-to-blogger-template-html.html  And while these changes may be the cat's meow down the road, for now it means a boatload of unexpected work while I revamp the set of tutorials I just finished rewriting. *le sigh*

Sooooo... I'm currently working on some rewrites and will make an announcement once the changes have been published.

Best~

A Gremlin's Match for Centering Banners

While working on several customer blogs recently I noticed that the "center banner" code from my tutorial How to: Center a Blog Header, really wasn't working very well.  It's not that it completely malfunctioned, it's just that sometimes it worked and sometimes it didn't. This is something we like to call the Blogger Gremlins.  Those pesky little hiccups that pop-up randomly and interfere with how things are supposed to work, only not all of the time.

I thought it was about time to put an end to this little bit of nonsense, so I went on the hunt for something better and happily I found it!  It's an easy process for "pushing" a blogger banner over to the right and I've put the instructions together in one of my easy to follow step-by-step tutorials titled: How to: Push (or Center) a Blog Banner.  I left the previous tutorial still posted, since the glitchiness comes and goes, so you can try them both out and see what works best for you.  And for now, maybe that gremlin will go off and play somewhere else... I hear Tumblr's a fun place to visit.

Enjoy~

New Tutorial, Themes and Section

The faeries and I are just popping in between projects to let you all know about some new goodies here on the lane ~ after a long wait I've finally rewritten the tutorial for adding sidebar tags.  I know many of you newer bloggers were anxiously waiting for this posting so you can now find that under this title "How to: Install Sidebar Tags" in the Tutorials section of my blog or at this direct link: http://plumroselane-tutorials.blogspot.com/2013/01/how-to-install-sidebar-tags.html

I've also created a new tutorial titled "How to: Setup Your Blogger Profile". While many of you are using your Google+ accounts there are those of us die-hard bloggers who still love the layout and all inclusiveness of our Blogger profiles.  You would also be amazed at how many bloggers simply don't have their profiles turned on or linked to anything.  I can't tell you how many times someone leaves me a nice comment and I while I want to reciprocate instead I hit a dead end as I can't reach their blog. *sigh*  So give the tutorial a look over and maybe you'll find it helps with activating or setting up your own profile.  You can find the tutorial by clicking the title above or using this direct link: http://plumroselane-tutorials.blogspot.com/2013/01/how-to-set-up-your-blogger-profile.html

For the new themes portion of this post I have two to share with you today... The first is a warm and cozy ensemble that's just perfect for chasing away those mid-winter blues. It features a distinctive knitted style with crafty sewn and paper accents and is titled "Cozy".

You can find it by clicking the title or image above.

The second theme was inspired by the popular British series Downton Abbey.  It boast a deep rich color scheme with decadent accents and is titled "Downton".  You can view all of the elements included in this set by clicking the title above or image below.

Lastly I wanted to mention a new section on the sidebar of my blog titled "New Themes".  Now all of my newest prefab designs can be found in one location so no more tiring searches through the A-Z List, although I understand for some of you that's a favorite past-time. *wink*

So that's it for this posting I hope you're all enjoying a nice beginning to the new year!

Best,

Tutorial Revisions and Update

One of the trickiest parts about blogging over these past years has been trying to figure out how to offer snippets of Html code within my blog posts. If you've ever tried to do this it's a real headache because our blog posts are written in the same language so a simple snippet of code inserted within a blog post can easily be mistaken as part of the posting itself. It's been an especially big stumbling block with my most recent tutorial How to: Setup the Picture Window Template.  I feel awful for any headaches my previous tutorials have caused as I try to offer helpful assistance, not additional headaches.

The good news is that thanks to Rajib over at Techncom I've finally successfully overcome the issues, whoot!  Now, my tutorials will include the required Html code directly within the postings so there's no more cumbersome downloads and additional files to hassle with.  So if you've tried my newest tutorial, How to: Setup the Picture Window Template, and struggled in the past please give it another try.  You'll find it works great now without the error messages.  I even had it successfully tested by a novice with no Html or blogging experience and they were able to successfully setup and modify the "Picture Window" template, whoot! 
Here's the direct link for those of you using your mobile devices: http://plumroselane-tutorials.blogspot.com/2012/11/how-to-setup-picture-window-template.html

Enjoy~

New Tutorial ~ Installing the Picture Window Template

In between custom orders I've been feverishly working to update my tutorials list and prefab blog themes.  The tutorials have been terribly outdated and I miss being able to help empower other bloggers.  My prefab themes need new background sizes and codes as well as new additions to the list of sidebar tags.  It's a daunting task but I've been chipping away at it little by little.

Today I'm super happy to announce that I've finally finished writing a new tutorial titled: How to: Setup the Picture Window Template. This new tutorial enables bloggers to install and modify the Picture Window template so that most Designer Blog Themes can be beautifully displayed without built-in template features interferring with the look of the Designer's theme.

The Picture Window template replaces the old Minima template and works beautifully ~ yes, I'm even using it on my own blog, and updating opens up a world of additional features in Blogger's Template Designer that were previously unavailable with the older templates.

You can find this new tutorial by clicking the title link above, visiting the Tutorials page of my blog, or if you're a mobile user, here's the direct link: http://plumroselane-tutorials.blogspot.com/2012/11/how-to-setup-picture-window-template.html

And for those of you still struggling with understanding the basics of templates vs. themes, I've updated my questions and answers sheet titled: Answering Basic Design Questions for Blogger Blogs. You can click that title or this direct link: http://plumroselane-tutorials.blogspot.com/2011/10/understanding-basic-blog-design-issues.html

Enjoy~

In the Pink

Well October is upon us and as you might have guessed things are rather in the pink ~ that's Pink for October of course!  The website (pinkforoctober.org) is booming with visitors and views doubling daily.

Volunteers are stepping up to help out with popular social feeds (thank you, thank you, thank you) and the Inbox is simply bursting at the seems!  It's a wonderful time ~ a time to go pink, learn more, spread the word and help save a life.

White House going pink (whitehouse.gov)

From around the globe professionals and individuals are going pink!

Jackson City fountains go pink (wlbt.com)

Indeed, a sight to be hold!

At PinkforOctober.org, the drive is to turn the internet pink!  It's a cause started many years ago by my predecessor Matthew Oliphant and a torch I now carry. It's not a solo journey though ~ from the volunteers helping to run our Facebook and Twitter pages to contributing content to all of you who are turning pink ~ it's a mission and journey we can all share.

Case in point ~ my dear friend (and our greatest contributor over at P4O) Sherry of  finding the Fierce is doing a month long series on going pink.  Check out her October 1st kick off by clicking here.

So how do you get involved?  Simple ~ stop by the Pink for October website and grab some pink ~ a button, badge, or background to show your support for breast cancer awareness!  Then... spread the word ~ write a blog post, a Twitter shout, or share on Facebook and follow our feeds  Here are some links to help you find more pink:

Pink for October on Facebook

Pink for October on Twitter

Pink for October on Etsy

Remember, this is about turning the internet pink for the month to help spread knowledge and awareness ~ this is not about making money or corporate sponsors.  Just us little guys helping to make a difference.

Best~

New Tutorials

Sorry I've been a bit MIA the past few days ~ what with class finals, work and trying to catch up on everything else there just hasn't been much time in the day for blogging.  Any free time I've had has been focused on trying to get my Tutorials section a bit more up-to-date for the new Blogger interface.  I'm happy to say I beginning to make a dent in that list and have a few new tutorials added including:

How to: Install a Decorative Blog Background

How to: Install a Blog Header

How to: Center a Blog Header

How to: Add a Favicon

How to: Add a Post Signature

with more on the way very soon.  You can click this link to be taken to the entire list.  I also figured out how to delete a blog, as many of you have asked about that one, and there are other new goodies and tricks I've learned, so just as soon as these little fingers can them created they'll be published.

I've also had several recent requests for my Tutorials Book which is in the process of being updated as well so I'll make an announcement just as soon as that's completed.

One tip I would like to mention ~ for any of you who have signature images installed on your blogs, I've found they're behaving very oddly when writing a new blog post, so if you've experienced a broken image and/or an annoying "skipping" behavior, simply delete your signature code for the meantime until Blogger gets that issue straightened out.

The last thing I wanted to mention is that I finally found the "Send feedback" link I had heard so many referencing ~ if you go into the back area of your blog, on any page, you'll see it showing in the bottom left hand corner...  

Simply click that link to open a small window where you can leave feedback about a specific page or feature.  I encourage any of you who are having difficulty with your blogs to let Blogger now ~ the more feedback they receive the better change we'll have of things improving.

Wishing you all a wonderful start the week!

Enjoy~

Sneaky~

I was logging into my blog this morning when to my surprise I saw this...

The thing is, I'm used to seeing this...

It seems that although Blogger has postponed it's mandatory change to the new format ~ primarily because of the major uproar from bloggers ~ it's still trying to switch us over, whether we like it or not.

For those of you like me who are holding onto the old layout until the bitter end, you can easily switch back to the old view. Simply click the gear icon on the right side, to show a drop down menu, and select "Old Blogger interface". I wrote a brief tutorial with screen shots and you can view that by clicking here.

Eventually we will all be moved over but hopefully by then those of us who offer support will have finished updating our tutorials to help with learning the new layout.

So in the meantime, hang in there... and, if you feel like letting Blogger know how you feel you can leave feedback at this link.

Enjoy~

Google Friends Connect ~ going, going, gone...

You many have heard lately that a few features are being phased out from the Google repertoire. Being that Blogger is owned by Google many of the blogs I follow have become increasingly concerned with the March 1st ending of a little add-on called "Google Friends Connect" and if you're like me you've been receiving a slew of email notices from worried bloggers, concerned they may soon be loosing 'you' from their blogging audience.

To delve a bit deeper, here is the exact wording for this change from the Official Google Blog and their November 22nd posting of last year...

Google Friend Connect—Friend Connect allows webmasters to add social features to their sites by embedding a few snippets of code. We're retiring the service for all non-Blogger sites on March 1, 2012. We encourage affected sites to create a Google+ page and place a Google+ badge on their site so they can bring their community of followers to Google+ and use new features like Circles and Hangouts to keep in touch.

Now while this may sound like a catastrophe for all of us using the "Followers" feature on our blogs, the two are clearly not the same and I believe the key words here are "We're retiring the service for all non-Blogger sites..."

What this means to me is that if you're using the built-in "Followers" gadget that comes along with your Blogger blog then you're safe ~ no need to worry. The wording clearly states that this change only affects those who have this as an add-on for their non Blogger sites.

I hope this helps put some of the recent tension to ease and remember, if you want to follow along with what Google is up to these days you can always visit their own blog found here: Official Google Blog

Enjoy~

Help with Blogger's New Interface - new tutorial

I know many of you have been struggling lately with the new Blogger interface. It's a huge change from the old look and super easy to get lost in. So for those of you who would like to revert back to the old look I've created a brief tutorial to help you navigate your way.

The steps are super easy so just click here to follow along with this new tutorial~

Blogger Interface: How to Revert Back

Enjoy~

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(¸.•´ (¸.•´✻✻✻And don't miss a chance to enter the Suburban Retreat's giveaway for a chance to win one of my custom blog themes all your own! Click here to enter!(¸.•´ (¸.•´✻

New Tutorials Page Item

Recently I've received alot of questions and inquiries about how templates and backgrounds work and what the differences are. While this subject is tough to understand and even harder to explain, it's a real stumbling point especially for new bloggers and so it's one that needs to be addressed.

Since I found myself rewriting the same explanations over and over again I figured it was about time to put it all down in one convenient Q & A format. It's handier for my Followers and saves me time, whoot! I've also made it in PDF format so it's easy to download and keep on your own computer. So here's the direct link: Understanding Basic Blog Design Issues for Blogger and you'll also find it listed on the main tutorials page of my site.

I hope this helps to make things just a bit clearer for those of you who are struggling to understand the differences and allows you more time to do what you love ~ blog of course.

Enjoy~

Blogger Photo Issues (!)

Recently a customer contacted me to help out with an issue she was having with her Blogger profile picture. Instead of seeing her image show up whenever she left comments on posts she would see this awful black exclamation point instead. I was able to figure out a fix for her and so I'm sharing it here with you ~

Remember, you can enlarge any image below by clicking on it.

I began by visiting her profile page ~ you can get to your own profile page by logging into your blog and going to your "Dashboard"...

Once there click on the "Edit Profile" link...

This takes you to the page where you control what people see when they visit your "About Me" page...

It's a log page so I've only shown a portion of it above.

What I found was that by simply reinstalling the customer's profile photo she no longer experienced the photo error so regardless of whether your photo is showing up or not, we're going to reinstall it from your own computer. So be sure you have a copy of your photo on hand before you continue on to the next step.

Now, scrolling down to the "Photograph" area, if you have an image there click on the "Remove image" link...

Now click the "Browse" button to locate your photo on your computer...

Scrolling down to your own profile photo, click on the image and then click the "Open" button...

Your photo will now appear in the box...

To save your changes, scroll down to the bottom of the page and click the "Save Profile" button...
That's it!

I know Blogger has been undergoing loads of changes lately including how they handle post images so my guess is this issue has something to do with those changes. Whatever the case I hope this fix was helpful to all of you as well.

Enjoy~

Help with Comments

Have you been having trouble leaving blog comments lately? I know many of us have and just this morning I helped one of my friends remedy that situation so I thought I'd pass the info on to you in the hope that it will help.

Now I think there may be several different issues with comments these days and I wrote a short post not long ago about how to potentially resolve some of them so if you find the info below doesn't help your particular issue then you can read that earlier post by clicking here.

So here's what we found...

The issue ~ Every time my friend tried wanted to leave a comment she was prompted to sign-in, however upon signing in, she was returned to the comment area where she was prompted once again to sign-in ~ and so on, in a vicious loop. Terribly frustrating.

The fix ~ We realized that if she went directly to her own blog and signed in there, you know, through the top bar on the right hand side, that she was then "officially" (for lack of a better term) signed into Blogger and could then go to any blog and leave a comment.

This is something I automatically do every day without thinking about and if you build it into your own daily online routine it may help you overcome this issue as well ~ here's hoping!

Enjoy~

Comment buttons above can be found by visiting the Elements/Buttons section on my blog.

Glitcherific & Backups

Sometimes when things get especially glitchy I tend to makeup words to combat feelings of frustration ~ hence the post title. It seems functionality is exceptionally glitchy lately on Blogger and I know it has all of us concerned.

I'm not sure if it has anything to do with the pending name change or if it's just exceptionally buggy these days but whatever the case, I took the time to make a quick backup of my blog template and recommend you do the same.

While noone can guarantee it will safeguard us from the unthinkable loss of our blogs, it certainly doesn't hurt and it's super easy to do. So if you're looking for a little temporary peace of mind just these simple steps below.

To back up your blog template:

Log into your Blogger account and navigate to the "Design" tab...

Click on the "Edit HTML" link...

Next click on the "Download Full Template" link...

Be sure to save this template somewhere you can easily find in case you need it in the future.

I would recommend backing up your blog template at least once a week to ensure any changes have been included and saved.

Enjoy~

A Worthy Event

Recently I stumbled across a shop titled Aid for Abby which features a lovely selection of handmade art by Abby. Abby deals with an assortment of daily difficulties including autism and finds art a valuable escape from the day to day challenges.

Through this Etsy shop Abby's mom works to raise money to help support Abby's rising medical costs. This Friday Abby and her Mom will be hosting a 100 Treasuries in a Day event to help boost funds for Abby's needs. To find out more, follow along, and participate in this day event simply visit Bonnie Blair @Etsy Cents on Twitter ~ I hope to see you there!

Enjoy~