It's confession time. I'm pretty much
lost without my admin, my digital guru, my “would you please when
you have some (ha!) free time maybe make me...” go-to guy. I miss
you, Jeremy. However, I think this forced “figure it out yourself,
Tina” time is really what I needed. Who knew?
For a while, my blogging mentor, Amanda of House Revivals, has been encouraging me to make my posts
“pinnable” and adding the Pinterest button to what I write.
She's amazingly sweet, and kind, and even made me my first two
pinnable images as a gift.
Well, life kinda happened after that,
but life (though it's Good!) always happens, and I didn't get to more
than opening a Pinterest account. I have no idea where all my
followers came from because I had maybe two pictures of nail designs
I like and new followers everyday. Probably because jenn of quirky pickings, and one of my
Tina's Terrific Team of minions, is doing a give-away, and since I
contributed, I could “make” people follow me on Pinterest.
Thanks, all of you. I am learning. And I followed you back.
I thought I'd share some of my
adventures with you, and Jeremy, please don't laugh at how
picture-manipulating challenged I am. Because of course, I wasn't
going to go the easy route and just use one of the fabulous images
Amanda made for me. No. I had to figure out for myself how to make
them so that when I'd used hers, I wouldn't be out of material and
all Pinnable-Interest (oh, I think that was a good one...) would die
off.
So I google, I help menu, I ask The
Transporter about software. “Are you kidding me, Mom? That's like
$700 dollars and that's why you can't find it on your Windows 8.”
(I'm used to the NOT finding things on W8, so it really wasn't
THAT stupid of a question...in my opinion, based on previous
experience...) For example, W8 doesn't come with a DVD player.
Here's where I am right now. I can
make a pinnable image using PicMonkey. I have learned how to add a
non-removable watermark (unless you're a genius – the tutorial
promised that it would be really hard for even the most experienced
photo guru to remove without a trace.)
I have new, free, Norton approved,
photo-editing software. (Oh-please-don't-let-me-lose-the-original
while using it...I'm really trying to follow the directions and so
far my favorite button on either program is UNDO...)
I even made a pinnable image! It has
nothing to do with this post. I just picked a favorite picture that
I knew would make a post someday. However,
I also learned the painful lesson that the two programs I'm using
don't like each other, so you can either have the watermark, or the
title of the post, but not both, if you made one with the first and
the other with the second. Territorial rights, I guess. So I'm not
putting it up.
Despite
my (very well known) quest for attention, I will not add it to this
post. This is just me whining about learning something new and it
being hard to do. But hey! It's a COMPLETELY NEW TOPIC OF WHINING. So be
happy for that.
Now
all that's left is to get that little pin-thing onto this page...I've
really tried following the directions...but for now, I'm leaving it
with the ½ finished picture. As in waiting for later.
What
have you tried to learn lately that challenged you?
~Tina
19 comments:
Hi Tina .. good for you on 'keeping on trying' is all I can say. Techie stuff and getting 'clever' is something I need to make my next major project ..
Good luck with all of the bits and bobs ...
So many not too well at the moment and need support in lots of ways .. Jeremy, Roland, Michael and you ... hope improvement comes this week ..
Cheers Hilary
Jeremy would be so proud of you.
I could help you, but I think you are doing fine on your own.
You're doing ok Tina, by the way is anyone else being in a dated with ads? I am fed up with it.
Yvonne.
whew. you are way over my head...i dont pin, i barely tweet anymore...sounds like a bit of work to get up and running for me...patience....i am working on patience with stuff like that...ha
You are way beyond me too Tina. I joined Tweet but don't use it and although somehow I am a member of Pinterest but I never use that either.
I have yet to figure out the watermark thing (because I haven't actually tried....). I love Pinterest and have uploaded some of my personal pics to my boards.
But last week I actually troubleshooted a printer error and got it to work. And I figured out how to get pictures off my 10 year old desk top computer (that has no port for a flashdrive), and put them all on my new external hard drive so...yay me!
Woo, way to go!
So I've been learning a new drawing program on Windows 8, one that's more than just MSPaint for doing book covers. Our last book cover came out well, so I think I'm making progress.
No Pinterest for us, though. I'm already all social media'd out. If I join another one, social media's just going to be my unpaid day job.
I don't mess much with pictures, so kudos to you for doing it. I own a Roxio program that I mainly use for music, and making DVD's of the kids for the family.
Way to go!
So what you're saying is that in a few weeks I can hit you up to make stuff for me, right?
:P
Good luck. The most I can do is crop photos on my phone. I've never even been on Pinterest nor have I used any software to edit a picture. I should probably learn but ehhhh, no thanks. haha
My struggle to learn? Cooking. My mom taught me how to read a box and smell to add ingredients. My dad taught me that guys will typically eat anything as long as they don't have to cook it. I can make one thing (almost) from scratch but buying all the ingredients is so expensive when it only lasts two meals, that it's not even worth it.
Gah, Pinterest! One more bloody thing to worry about!! I've done a teeny bit of photo manipulation, but haven't spent any major time on it. I did try Photoshop for awhile when my son was a baby. Digital scrapbooking. I much prefer doing the real thing.
Try and you shall succeed. I'm positive you will. See, moments like these force us to push harder, dig a little deeper.
Sorry, I'm not on twitter. I know you asked, and I should get with the program. Maybe I will soon. Right now just on facebook, although I'm thinking I'm missing out on the fun. :)
You'll find you do 99% of your photo editing with picmonkey. It is stinkin' intuitive, so there's just not a huge learning curve. And you can add your watermarks with picmonkey. When you add your watermark text, a box will pop up that gives you the option to change the color, size, possibly boldness (depending on font)and fade. Fade to about 60%, give or take. Good luck! Also, I was hoping to see some ads on your site -- you are a professional writer, and you deserve to be paid for your services. You won't get rich with ads, but it will help to keep the lights on. It doesn't make you a sell-out, either. Even sites with no adsense type ads, will often have products or services that they are promoting, or links to their shops or books. Other sites have affiliate links, or do sponsored posts. It's okay to get paid for doing something you love.
I've never looked at Pinterest cos I'm afraid to join something image-based. I know I'll get timesucked. I'll wait till I'm done with the two books I'm writing and then come to you for tutorials! :)
The pin thingy is right there at the bottom of your post, next to the other social networking buttons. Thank heavens Blogger added it recently. It's so much easier to pin individual blog posts now! Definitely plan on following you when I do my sn today. Learning new things is challenging, but more often than not, it's worth it too :)
I promised myself I'd work on a badge for Ask Elsie but have yet to do a darn thing since I made myself the promise. I have about two weeks to give it a try. I'm going to use Pic Monkey too.
Good job on expanding your knowledge base. I don't think I've ever even visited pinterest before. But sometimes just jumping in and figuring things out can be fun.
Well, I joined Twitter. Good Lord, can't believe it. Your post and the A-Z post about not squandering opportunities convinced me. I shared the A-Z post as well. Silvia__Writes.
Thanks, Tina.
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