I decided to go with Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.

Hooray, it’s self-hosted! And it doesn’t throw off my referring stats! And it caches and works well in conjunction with WP Super Cache! And it’s totally customizable!

It even adds related posts to your RSS feed if you so choose. Nice.

The default display is simply an ordered list. That’s fine for the RSS feed, but I wanted a layout with thumbnail images similar to the standard LinkWithin widget. So then I started playing around with it to make it look nice…

I quickly realized that I’d have to enable the thumbnail feature that was introduced in WordPress 2.9x. And then go through each of my posts and set the thumbnail, which I had been doing manually. OK. It’s a lot of work, but I can do that. I’m thorough (and compulsive) enough.

Then I began working on a custom template, delving into the PHP.

I got the thumbnails to show up! Hmm, but they were lined up vertically. So then I had to create a table-style layout, using CSS.

The automatic placement stuck the related posts right at the end of each single post’s content, but I wanted to move it down a little. Fortunately, this was fairly easy. I just turned off the automatic placement and inserted a line of PHP into my single.php template of my theme.

OK, pretty good. But now let’s cut to approximately three months later when it is still bothering me that the text underneath each thumbnail does not play nicely with the layout when it’s too lengthy. #$@&!. Of course it’s been so long that I don’t remember all of the work I had already done up until this point, so I have to refamiliarize myself with the CSS syntax that I set up.

But I finally finished!

And you know what? Maybe you would have noticed or maybe not. Maybe I spent hours upon hours, spread out over months working on something that would only make me happy, but I’m fine with that. I’m glad that I was able to really tweak the whole thing to get it exactly to my liking, even if it did take forever. I love a good coding challenge.

© 2010, published by Making it Lovely as Adding Related Posts | 29 comments

What is home to you? To me, it is…

• Surrounding yourself with your things that make you smile. (♥)
• Having a cozy spot to curl up with a book. (♥ ♥)

• Having fun with paint. (♥)
• Covering the walls in a favorite pattern. (♥)

• Being a little cheeky. (♥)
• Taking chances, even when you’re not 100% certain. (♥)
• Adding grace notes. (♥)

• Keeping a space to work, and a place to be creative. (♥ ♥)

• Tending a garden. (♥)
• Having fun with family. (♥)
• Setting aside space for a little one to get lost in their imagination. (♥)

That’s what home means to me.

You can see my original board (along with others that I’ve created) on Pinterest, and be sure to follow along with all of the Pin it Forward participants to see what home means to them. Tomorrow you can visit Brigitte at Covet Chicago for her take, and let’s thank Victoria and Pinterest for organizing Pin it Forward!

© 2010, published by Making it Lovely as What Home Means to Me | 34 comments

icons from WebTreats

© 2009, published by Making it Lovely as Become a Fan | 25 comments

I have a new home! Er, well, the website does. Thanks for being patient this week as I switched domain registrars and web hosts. And if you’re looking for recommendations, I’d go with GoDaddy for domain registration and Liquid Web for hosting (that’s how I’m all set up now).

On an unrelated note, I do not like my new haircut. As much as I love short blunt bangs on others, I have to remind myself that they do not look cute and artsy on me, they just look bad. I look like Jim Carrey in Dumb and Dumber. Thinking I should grow my hair out now.

I decided recently that I should own a pair of gym shoes. Or maybe tennis shoes would be the more appropriate name? You know, the non-bulky canvas type of shoes. Seems like something that should be in one’s shoe warddrobe. Now I’m trying to decide which of two pairs I’ll be keeping: blue Converse or red Keds. I like the Converse style (they’re very slim and they have a star on them!), but blue is my least favorite color. If I could combine them into one super sneaker, I’d be all set.

(Maybe next I’ll buy a pair of dungarees! Or “jeans”, as the kids are calling them these days.)

Guess what… we are having a yard sale tomorrow! Our basement is chock FULL of treasures that will be made available to the general public in the morning. Perhaps I’ll wear my tennies.

That is all.

© 2009, published by Making it Lovely as Brief Random Updates | 66 comments

You can find the bookmarklet by going to “Settings” in Google Reader, then “Goodies”. Happy browsing!

© 2009, published by Making it Lovely as Next: An Excellent Way to Read Blog Posts | 44 comments

I had been planning to use the pitcher as a vase all along, so I picked up some asters and kermits when I was out running errands today. So cheery.

Oh, and I highly recommend checking out The Pioneer Woman’s Photoshop Actions if you like the faded look of the photo above. I used the “Seventies” action on that one, but they’re all pretty amazing.

© 2009, published by Making it Lovely as A Little Pick-Me-Up | 21 comments

To celebrate, I’ve freshened up the design a bit. Yes that’s right, I celebrated by creating work for myself. ;) Nothing drastic, but I’ve cleaned up the layout a bit, changed the proportions, and quieted the color scheme. This is the fifth design I’ve done for Making it Lovely.

I still have some refining to do and a few bells and whistles to add, but the new look is nearly done. Let me know if you notice anything odd (I’ve been working on this very late at night while very sleepy). Oh, and I’ve added support for twitter avatars as well as gravatars, so if you have one or the other your picture should show up when you comment.

Thank you all for reading and commenting, for your friendship and support, and just for all around making my day!

© 2009, published by Making it Lovely as Making it Lovely Turns Two | 65 comments

• Apartment Therapy is taking nominations for the best home blog: The Homies 2008. Votes for Making it Lovely are greatly appreciated (hint hint).
• The full 8-Bit Jesus Christmas chip-tunes album is now available. Judging from the lack of comments when I mentioned the first half of the album, maybe you guys didn’t appreciate this as much as I did, but I still love it.
• BarryBlog has compiled a West Chicagoland Thrift/Resale Driving Map. BarryBlog is how I found out about Jubilee, which is where I got my dining room table and all six chairs for the amazing price of $350.

And as always, check out the Well Said section every so often. Things that catch my eye usually end up linked over there.

© 2008, published by Making it Lovely as Well Said | 10 comments

Awesome.

Download it here: 8-Bit Jesus.

© 2008, published by Making it Lovely as Christmas Chip-Tunes | 5 comments

© 2008, published by Making it Lovely as Pipe Wrench Fight | 17 comments