Brash and Luster

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2 Things Challenge

"Brash" is an old tattoo shop here that's been around forever, even before tattoos were cool again. I would say guess that when getting a tattoo, one wouldn't want to be brash about it.

"Luster" is a little beetle caught in a sudden gust of wind while hanging on to some luster-y, bluster-y grass.

And here's something extra today. A mini-tutorial. Lisa from New Zealand asked how I do my "calendar" and it's not hard, really.

After posting your daily post, doing my calendar format means every day you have to edit the calendar. You replace that day's date box with a thumbnail and then link the thumbnail to that day's post.

In order for the calendar to show at the top, you have to change the date and time of the calendar so it's at least a minute later than your latest post. You go to "Edit Posts," select your calendar post, and at the bottom select "Post Options" where you can fiddle with the date and time for the calendar.

Ok, so what does the calendar look like? Well, it took some time playing, but the best fit for my blogger template was 80X80 (pixels) box for each day. I used Photoshop* to create 32 individual images (white boxes with a black border), entered the numbers 1 through 31 in them, and left one blank. You'll upload all those boxes, arrange them properly for that month's calendar, and using the blank boxes to fill in around the beginning and end of the month .

Here's one more pointer, probably a really helpful one -- I copied the calendar post before I used it, saving it as an unposted post. Each new month I open that unused calendar, copy it, and then paste it into a new post for the upcoming month, re-arranging the weeks as necessary.

And there you have it. It's not magic, just a bit of trickery really. And it's a willingness to do two things for each post: post your post and edit the calendar. Feel free to use my technique, or any modification of it, if you like.


*You'll need some software to create your numeric boxes and to make your daily thumbnails. If you don't have Photoshop, there are several free alternatives. For creating the boxes I found myimager.com that allows you to start with a blank image, add text, etc. For editing photos and making thumbnails, I suggest picnik.com. Both are free (some of picnik's advanced features are pay-for), both work with Wins or Macs, and you don't have to sign up to use either of them.