Thursday, January 21, 2010

Moving Furniture, or The Format Changes


To those of you that actually check back frequently, to see what variety of mayhem is currently taking place at our house, you'll have noticed the frequent changes to the look of the blog.  To those of you that have left compliments, I thank you.  (Of course, you realize you're feeding my neurosis.)  The photo, btw, is from National Geographic.  To the rest of you, who may be surprised or confused when a whole different look pops up every few weeks, I offer this explanation, and a dim view into the dark recesses of my brain:


I like change.  I get tired of looking at the same thing, day after day.  So I move furniture, paint walls, and rotate blankets and pillows and decorations.

And I change the look of the blog.  You may remember these....

Thanksgiving...

Spring...

4th of July...
 
Winter...



When I started blogging, nearly two years ago, (seems like forever), I was really clueless.  Well, frankly, I still am.  I am NOT a tech person.  I don't even have a cel phone.  Really.  But I started a blog.

In all my brilliance, (sarcasm, okay?), I did not realize, that choosing a different template would change the formatting of previous posts.  I already had a hard time getting pictures to go where I wanted them.  Centered, right-justified, left-justified...  it took a ridiculous amount of fiddling to get the (pathetic) end product to look like it did in the little white box before I hit "publish."  And then everything would get screwed up.  Aaaack.

(I know, it's pathetic, really, because who looks at the old posts but me?!  And if I just left it alone, it wouldn't get boogered up, now would it?)

And - adding to my frustration - I was getting kind of bored with Blogger's template choices.

Then I made an amazing discovery.  Free Blog Templates
Ooooooooooooooooooo!

But most of them will only work with Minima.
Ewwwwwwwwwwww.

I like formats with a wider post area.
Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh.

But they're expandable, which means variable, and mess with my hard-won formatting.
Arrrggghhhhhhhhhhh.

So back I went to Minima.  Yes, it's narrow, but I consoled myself with the thought that my posts will keep their formatting and I can choose from all the fun, free templates at Aqua Poppy, and Delightful Dots, and That Blog Place.  Right?  But wait, Minima just isn't wide enough to even show the full width of some of the photos I'd already loaded.

And - of course - not only was I frustrated with my limited options, but with the ridiculous amount of time I was spending fussing about the look of the blog, vs. the content.  Hmmm.  But that's a thought for another day.

At that point something finally occurred to me:  Some of you geniuses are using a layout that looks suspiciously like Minima, but is wider, and... (aha!) not variable.  So, with all five brain cells firing wildly at the same time I threw a bunch of words at the Google search engine and - VOILA! - managed to come up with some very simple instructions for making the post area wider.

And, like the idiot I am, I began messing with the HTML without saving anything.  And by the grace of God I ended up with what you see.

And I'm hoping to be content with it for quite some time.

Oh, I'm sure I'll be changing the photo in the header, and the colors.  But I'm trying to discipline myself to leave the actual layout alone.

We'll see how long that lasts.

7 comments:

Cutzi said...

I like it. Wider is better... in some instances.

Felicity said...

I think you're brave to go trying all these things. I'm getting bored with my look, but I've read somewhere that you lose all the widgets etc if you change the template, and I don't have time to mess with all that again, So for now it'll stay the way it is....
BTW I like your picture.

Tina Marie said...

I get all my backgrounds from Aqua Poppy. She designs many free templates that work with Minima, either 2 or 3 column. And once you get it set, you can use them interchangeably without losing anything.

And my husband HATES that I rearrange the furniture or redecorate. But it helps me stay sane and and a facade of order to my life.

One of these days, you and I will meet in real life, and I swear, it's gonna be like we were old school chums.

Choate Family said...

My husband is always rearranging furniture, too, while I tend to be stuck in a rut and very happy about it. Glad God makes all kinds!

Herding Grasshoppers said...

Tina Marie... YES! Someday :0)

I think I found Aqua Poppy when I saw one of her backgrounds on your blog :0)

And - yes - aren't we glad God makes all kinds? It'd be boring if we were all the same...

Julie

Ruby said...

You did that? Good for you! Following instructions is HARD.
I like it! But you have boys the right age, you'll be all right from now on!

Abi's Blog said...

I LOVE your blog - anyway you do it - You always make me laugh and remember those days when my kiddos were little.
God bless!