Wednesday 7 May 2008

C.c.c.c.c.changes

I'm a capricious bitch. This blog layout has been annoying me for weeks. When I started blogging I went with my initial layout which was a shocking Pepto-Abysmal pink.. it was the closest to purple I could get.

Then I chose this layout... seemed to be redolent of smoke in a vineyard, calm, peaceful.

But I am restless, strange things are afoot at the Circle K, as they say in the classics.

There is "stuff" going on in pg's kitchen... random thoughts and opportunities. I feel I am at a crossroads, and I am not too sure which way to go. How to turn some recent opportunities into realities.

I look around at blogs I admire and they all have one thing in common (well, apart from food!).. They're well laid out and catch your eye.

They stand out.

So, I am off to research how to make this place less generic and more.... me.

So, dear regular readers, if you drop by the kitchen over the next few days, you may find it in a bit of disarray.

Renovating is a messy job.

Bear with me until I get this place JUUUUUUUST the way I want it.

There's always a chair in the corner, and a bottle of white in the fridge.

Just don't trip over the drop cloths.

pg

11 comments:

stickyfingers said...

I feel your pain. I hate the look of my blog - I really prefer how I laid out the Vanilla Slice Blog but don't want to go over to Wordpress for too many reasons. Not enamoured of Blogger's templates and the ones I like are just so common now.

Look forward to seeing what you do. I may rip into mine when we get back from our jaunt OS.

Ed Charles said...

Good luck and be careful. Everytime I do a reno on mine I metaphorically sit on the triangular paint scraper which is almost as painful as in real life (bus to A&E, blood dripping down leg). Can I request body copy ranged left rather than centred?

purple goddess said...

I've found a few I like...

http://www.finalsense.com/services/blog_templates/chocoblog_image.htm

or

http://bp1.blogger.com/_WIGv0dkWsmw/RqV9z4vnMuI/AAAAAAAABSE/UCwGARO2r6U/s1600-h/toastscreen.jpg

both very different.

What say you??

And Ed.. curious as to why you prefer the left layout.

Any reason??

Cindy said...

I just recently discovered that you can alter the colours on an existing blogger template. (Sign in, choose Layout then the Fonts and Colors tab.) An opportunity for more purple, at least!

I'm also a mite frustrated with Blogger's limited template range and am planning to go a bit more sparse soon.

Happy renovating! Can't wait to see the results.

grocer said...

Hey PG.
Just remember it's the content that counts first - that's what we're here for.

all of you can change colours beyond the range presented up front - you just need to understand the codes.

As for Ed's comments, I think he's referring to the text justification in each post. You have a tendency to post centre... ;)

My blog is far from perfect, as is my home, kitchen etc., but I have had to learn a lot about web design and code over the past year and happy to help where i can.

x g

Sar-Wah said...

keep up the great work pg.... i love love love your marijuana recipe - The Guru's would be proud!!


Good Luck with the renos - I can't wait to see what you come up with!

xx
Sara

thanh7580 said...

I can feel your pain Ella. I went through so many blog template too when I started. I don't really like my current blog template, but can't really be bothered to experiment and change everything. Everytime I change it, something goes wrong.

You can change everything to the template by just editing the code. You can definitely get just the right shade of purple you want, just need to get the right number value.

In the end, I went for a clean uncluttered plain background so that it's the contents that drives the blog rather than the template.

But please please please don't use a black background. It's so hard to read when websites have a dark background.

Jazz said...

Hell girl, as long as there's wine in the fridge, I'm a happy camper. I'm sick of my blog look too... but sorta scared to do anything about it in case everything disappears...

Anonymous said...

PG I like your blog the way it was.
Too many blogs out there are pre-occupied with add-ons, gizmos & what-sits. Yes I know we need to be teckked up but surely its the content that counts?
God I sound like a Luddite!
Seriously though, I have deliberately kept mine low tech & mostly unadorned simply because I want my posts to be read, free from distractions & there are so many of them competeing for your attention on some blogs that its difficult to see where the post ends & the distractions begin?

purple goddess said...

I does hear you all!!

Black background was NEVER going to happen... and when I started, I had all the "Belgian" whistles... the podcasts, the music player.

Hated it.

Have looked into importing a template but none of the ones I found were juuuuuust right, and I sure as $h!t didn't want to be cutting HTML code.

All I really want is SOMETHING a bit different from the boring generic templates that Blogger offer.

So, I think I am done.. with the new header and some static pics on the side that match the theme.

But as I have said, I'm a capricious old cow... might decide to do something COMPLETELY different tomorrow!

stickyfingers said...

Wow! This is the antithesis of your original purple layout - so calm. Nice work.