Blog

More Updating…

By Dawn Sailors In Blog News, Design Geek

Yep, you can probably tell that my updates have continued and finally finished (for now anyway) this past week. I’ve talked before about the curse of being a designer, where you are your own worst client and nothing is ever finished. This time though, I think I might live with it for a while. I’m digging the new look and I’m proud of all the coding behind the scenes that I’ve been working to learn and apply for a long time.

Let’s see what’s new! From the top:

The most obvious change is the new darker background. I chose it because i like the contrast and the way the white of the text areas really pop off the page now. It also happens to be the same color as many of the walls in my house, including the nursery and master bedroom. So it seemed fitting and makes me feel right at home.

Then there’s the new header graphic. I really wanted to contrast a hand created look with my modern font choice. A visual representation of the balance of art and design in my life, if you will. The creative and the structured. The sketched graphics have special meaning to me, as this kind of drawing was my first experiment in design as a child. (A similar graphic is also in the date display on each post.) I used to doodle them on everything, filling up entire sketchbook pages with collages of the growing shapes. As opposed to the rest of my sketchbooks that were filled with lifelike renderings of animals, buildings and people.

On to the navigation. This is a coding experiment I’ve been playing with for a few weeks (had you noticed?). I finally got it working how I wanted it to work, and I’m pretty proud of it. For a right-brain like me, having a successful left-brain accomplishment is a proud moment! Go ahead and scroll over those puppies just to watch them slide! On the backend, they are also much more functional, as I can change the main navigation in an instant now without creating new graphics every time. Form follows function, as they say.

Moving down the sidebar, you might have noticed my social area which I introduced last week. If you have a minute, jump over and follow me on Twitter, Facebook and/or Pinterest. Or subscribe to the RSS feed.

I’ve also changed my little bio from a graphic to a coded widget. This helps with page load time and makes it easier to update as well. I’ve also moved the about link that used to be in the main nav area down here. Makes more sense that way, no? And my latest tweets are now displayed in a fun little speech bubble below my picture. It’s almost like I’m talking. :)

Below that is my Top Baby Blogs voting button. Click to vote for me if you like my blog! And thank you so much to everyone who has already voted (you can vote once per day). So far this little blog has moved up to number 307 out of over 1900 blogs! Holy cow.

Below that is my usual category links to make it easier to find what you’re looking for. The main ones are displayed as photo buttons, with others in a drop-down jut below. I’ve also added button links for more info on Twin Tuesday and Room Plans, so check those out.

Next is something I’ve been working on for a while, and I’ll be continuing to update it over the next few days. It’s our virtual house tour, showing the current progress of the rooms in our home, and I’ll be adding more rooms as my room progress reports continue.

Finally we have a list of recent posts, trusty Google Ads and my GFC (Google Friend Connect) box. Join up if you want and leave a message if you do. So I can follow you back! :)

So there you have it. And this will (hopefully) be my last ‘update’ post for at least a little while!

Hope you like it! Let me know what you think.

-Dawn