The Tiniest Flower On the Internet

This post is for everyone who uses Blogger and especially those indoor-bound gardeners still suffering from extreme heat who might need something to do. Take a seat by the AC and read on...

I wonder, have you clicked on your blog's Design tab lately? Recently I did because I wanted to add something to my sidebar. I was pleasantly surprised to see a new feature. Right at the top of the page is an option to add your own Favicon. What's a Favicon, you might ask. Well it's that little icon next to your blog title. All Internet sites have them. For Blogger it's that rather ugly looking orange B. Know what I'm talking about? But now, thanks to the intrepid programmers at Blogger, you can say goodbye to that orange blob and make your own unique Favicon. Why would I want to do that, you're probably asking. No reason. It's just fun and a great waste time, a way to learn a little more about the workings of the Internet and maybe, here's the best part:  allow your blog to stand out in the crowd. The Favicon, albeit a tiny thing, shows up nicely, among other places, on blog rolls around the Internet and I'm so proud of mine it makes me giddy! [Thank you to all of you who have me on your blog roll!]

So, I'll try to make the instructions as easy as possible to understand given that I'm not good with all the Internet lingo and procedures and all that. Okay? First, you need to choose a photo. Here is the one I chose.

Once I decided this was the photo I wanted, I went into my photo editing software [I use Microsoft] and cropped it so it would be basically a square. It's best to have a close up of an object [or face] and to make it square. You'll see why when it's done. Then I moved the photo to an easily accessible folder in my computer for easy upload retrieval, if that makes sense. Okay, with me so far? Then I found a site that formats this photo into a Favicon file. There are hundreds of these sites on the Internet. All you have to do is Google "Favicon Generator Free". Here is one such site. On the site it will instruct you to upload the image/photo you want to format into a Favicon. Click on that, find your photo and upload it. Allow the site to make the Favicon then download and save it on your computer. Again save it in an easily retrievable folder because then you'll want to go into Blogger and click on the Design tab. At the top of the page where it shows the Favicon option, click on that and upload your finished Favicon. Voila! You may have to restart your computer or close all your Blogger tabs first but it works. The reason I'm so thrilled with this is because a year ago I was fooling with HTML and all kinds of weird coding to get a unique Favicon for my blog. Now it's easy as pie.

If you do this, let me know. I'd love to hear from you. If you have questions, let me know and I'll do my best to answer them. Wouldn't it be fun if we all had our own unique Favicon?

Since this is a garden blog, I'll confess that my Oriental lilies are beginning to bloom in the garden. I just swoon over the luscious scent.

One more thing before I go. I wanted to direct you to my sidebar where it shows the book, The Moment I Knew. I'm proud to announce that a short story I wrote about my best friend's suicide in 2005 has been chosen for inclusion. The book is slated for release on August 26th. You can read more about the book by going to the Reflections for Women Facebook page. I'm psyched!