Blog changes!

I’m slowly ticking things off my to-do list! Last week I finally got around to updating my blog design. It was easy-peasy. I just changed it to a pre-loaded WordPress theme. When you get to preview the choices, it’s pretty easy to pick! I was looking for something simple.

• I like white space.
• I like clean fonts.
• I like clean formatting.
• I like small headings.
• I like proper capitalization.
• I like proper line spacing in and outside of paragraphs.
• I like pictures to show up the way I want them. (Read: no crazy HTML reformatting)
• I like bullet points to be clean and “normal.”
• I need a theme with the option to customize my header.

As you can see, I’m kind of picky about what I want. There are thousands of blog themes available so it can get tiresome looking through them all. I found my theme pretty quickly so I’m happy to say it wasn’t a hard process. I usually scan through and preview ones I like. I make a mental note of the name and look through a few more pages to make sure I don’t see something better. I usually compromise and lose something that I like, but I can’t remember if I am missing anything in this new design. If I am, it obviously wasn’t a deal-breaker since I switched and have already forgotten it. 🙂

Along with my new theme came my new header! As any designer will tell you, I had to pick out my theme before I could design my header. (I am not calling myself a designer. Just pointing out the concepts.) You have to know what you’re matching before you can try to match it. I used my Photoshop eye drop tool to grab the blue in my theme so I could match the opacity and shade of a complimentary color. I couldn’t decide which color I liked better, a light green or violet. So, I decided to come up with a way to include both. My options included background, additional color spaces, and text. I went back and forth on including pictures or not. In the end, I decided I wanted pictures because my blog name isn’t a brand. My blog name is me. So, my header is me (and my family). I’m always thinking about a clever new blog name, but so far nothing has jumped out at me. I did decide that my header should include a little design element in terms of a story. That’s why I decided to do B + K = M. While I like the concept included in my header, I didn’t want to change my blog name. So, I left my name as the blog name and just added some text to my design. I played around a little bit and decided that I wanted descriptors about the blog “players.” Believe it or not, I had a hard time coming up with photos of Bryan and I with Maximus. And, I couldn’t decide what picture to use of Maximus because there are hundreds. I finally decided I would include one with Wrigley too, so it really is all my family. (No worries, no babies were licked during the shooting of these pictures.) 

I’m happy with a refreshed look to my blog. I’m also happy that I can make quick changes and thirty minutes later feel like my blog is rejuvenated! It was just the kind of motivation I needed to get myself back into blogging regularly.