Author Archives: Honey

About Honey

Honey is a homeschooling mama of five amazing children. She and her husband Jonah run Sunflower Schoolhouse together. She provides the content and he provides the technical support. Please see the About for more information.

Learning Graphic Design

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If you have been around here for any length of time, you will know that I learned graphic design about 1.5 years ago. It has been an amazing process learning how to create art with a mouse and a free computer program, Inkscape.

I feel like I have come full circle in the last year. I started out learning how to draw with the computer because I could never get my "in real life" drawings to look like how I wanted them too. This is why, until now, I have always painted abstract paintings. Now, I have come back to real life drawing (and painting) and I am able to look at my work differently and somehow make it work. My real life art is still more cartoony and fun than realistic (much like my graphic design), but I'm okay with that.

I have tried a variety of different things with my graphic design. I tried having a graphic design site with it's own domain (Sunflower Graphic Design), I tried merging it with my other site (Marketplace Mommies), and I even considered using my new Sweet B Studio, but I have decided that I don't really want to be running all over the place managing blogs.

Don't get me wrong, I have tons of fun doing the blogging part of Sunflower Schoolhouse, but I want to spend my time creating. I want to create graphic design, I want to create homeschool products (free and paid), I want to help my husband create our animations (more on that in the coming weeks), and I have so many other ideas for projects that there just are not enough hours in the day, so I am bringing everything back to Sunflower Schoolhouse. Be prepared to see all kinds of new and exciting things here at Sunflower Schoolhouse.

You may have already noticed that I recently incorporated my Graphic Design into Sunflower Schoolhouse and I will be highlighting some of my designs into my posts. One of those designs is coming up in the next post.

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Top Ten Tasks For Tackling My Blog To-Do List

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Today I have been tackling tasks on the blog that have been on the to do list for far too long.

Some of the things that I have been tackling might be helpful/useful to my average, everyday readers just reading my blog (making it easier for you to read and navigate) and others will be more useful to those who are bloggers themselves and wanting to make some improvements to their blogs.

I don't know about you, but I am a very visual person, and if something isn't in front of my face I will forget to use it.  That is the reason for a few of these tasks that I have tackled on my blog today.

Just a note: we are using WordPress self hosted.
  1. I added some white space to the sidebars because they were feeling very top heavy.
  2. I added the subscribe counters for feedburner to the sidebar so I have an easy way of checking my subscriber stats.
  3. I added the subscribe counter for twitter to the sidebar using twitter counter.
  4. I added a twitter widget to the sidebar that links to all of the tweets that I have favorited through twitter.
  5. I have been collecting tons of links and putting them in draft posts (where they sit until I get around to writing a post) and I thought it might be more useful to start using my delicious account again. In order to remind myself, I put a delicious linkroll on my sidebar.
  6. I updated my Sexy Bookmarks plugin and chose different share buttons to focus on. If something is missing that you liked or regularly used, please let me know.
  7. I added the "Add to Any" plugin to my posts (so they show up on the front page posts and all pages and posts - even in the feeds).
  8. I updated the blog button on the Sunflower Schoolhouse Facebook Page (which I haven't used in forever, but plan on using more regularly to connect with all my amazing readers - that's you!).
  9. I finally got up the nerve to add a few affiliate link buttons to the sidebar for products that I have actually purchased and used. I was scared to do this because I thought it would be a really difficult process (it wasn't). Have a look and you might find something useful.
  10. And finally, I added some legal stuff to the sidebars including: Blog With Integrity, Copyscape, and My Free Copyright.

This is my Top Ten list for Tuesday. I am linking this post to Tackle It Tuesday because this was a big job that needed to be tackled. And just on the off chance that my homeschool mama friends want to do some tweaking to their own blogs, I am linking to the Hip Homeschool Hop. If you need any help with tackling your blogging to-do list, please leave us a note in the comments and we would be happy to help you.

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We Apologize!

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We have had a big oops today. I want to thank one of my readers for bringing this to our attention.

Over the past couple of days I have been adding a Graphic Design section to the website and I apologize that these pages went out through the feed. We are working to correct that (pages were never meant to go out through the feed).

We are wanting to add a store to Sunflower Schoolhouse because we have been secretly developing some products for you and your families. For this reason my husband has also been testing out some store plugins through WordPress and apparently one or more of them decided to send things out through the feed all on its own.

I was NOT trying to advertise to you in anyway by purposely sending these things out through the feeds and I am sorry that this has happened. Please know that it was not my intention at all.

Please feel free to send an email through the contact form if you have any concerns or questions.

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We’ve Got A New Look

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I am so excited! I have been working like a busy bee creating headers and buttons for clients and my site always sits there waiting patiently until I have some extra time, which is why I am so excited to share that we have a bold new look over here at Sunflower Schoolhouse. If you are reading by email or on another reader, please stop by for a little visit.

I have created a quirky and fun new header with a whimsical bee and a giant sunflower. I am not saying more about that. You will just have to come and have a look.

Through the graphics on the header you can get to some of your old favorites: Homeschool4Free, KidLinks, Freebies (AKA The Beehive), Workbox Blogroll, and my A Trip Across Canada. The first three of those will be changing (yet again) to make them easier to upkeep for me and more searchable and functional for you. I am sorry that I don't have any more information on that yet because I am still thinking through it all. I do know that the Workbox Blogroll is in desperate need of updating and I will be getting to that soon too. A Trip Across Canada will be getting an overhaul and I have a big surprise there too that I can't wait to share. All in due time.

I created a new post signature to go with this new look and I even managed to make a post divider. I have never had post dividers before.

My husband has been instrumental in the installation of the new design. He is in charge of all the tech details because he comes by it so naturally.

We are trying out some new fonts for the headers and text. I would love to know what you think of them (are they readable?). Now keep in mind that I have really bad eyes, so I was trying to choose fonts that I could actually see (I feel so old).

Oh, I almost forgot to tell you that I have a new button. Check out the right hand side bar where you can grab your own button. While you are at it, you might like to subscribe by email or RSS or maybe follow on twitter or facebook.

So, what do you think of the new look?

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Sweet Finds Saturday

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Sweet Finds Saturday

I have some great homeschool finds for you today. I hope you enjoy.

  1. Home Grown Learners is a new find that I thought you might enjoy.
  2. I found this awesome list for making busy bags for toddlers (and I have 2)
  3. Here is an amazing list (with photos) of sensory bins.
  4. A creative use for those old Duplo blocks.
  5. Mama May I is loaded with tons of great activities.
  6. Just in case you missed it - The 10 Days of Homeschooling Blog Hop over at Heart Of The Matter.

What sweet finds have you found this week?

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