My membership in the TOS Homeschool Crew has really forced me to take a good look at my blog design. I’ve always liked it from an aesthetic perspective, but I really hated the sidebar. The graphic design looked pretty, but it quickly failed if I didn’t follow the “rules” for it. I couldn’t have more than 5 blog categories, I had to cut off my comments so short they were pretty much meaningless and I couldn’t have link lists that I wanted to feature. I finally decided after almost a year that it really was time for a change. I really wanted something that would offer me more flexibility. With a little bit of poking around and some Photoshop magic, I was able to preserve some of my favorite theme elements and use them to create a design that will (hopefully) grow with me.
Since I decided to go ahead and overhaul the site, I’ve added the following things:
- A “cleaner” design, with hopefully a bit more readability.
- An import of my old blog. The “archives” link to the right now contains posts from 2006-2008 featuring a more itty-bitty Tornado Boy.
- A “top posts” area also to the right. These are my most commented posts as ranked by PostRank.
- Links to some of my favorite blogs.
- A listing of my favorite educational web sites.
I’m excited about being able to add more things that interest me to the blog. Hopefully the “growing pains” will be fairly minimal in the process!
I love your new look! But then again, I loved your old blog design too! I always thought it was kind of cool to have a picture of Tornado Boy wearing headphones and on the laptop. I’m glad you kept that part!
I’ve never seen the top post thing before. How do they determine which is a top post?
min´s last [type] ..Home School Blog Hop – Time for Mom
Min – PostRank is supposed to “score” each blog entry based on a composite of things like how many comments, track-backs and links on Twitter it has. I’m curious though because the ratings on my WordPress dashboard aren’t quite matching up with the sidebar widget. I’ll have to keep an eye on it. I’ve subscribed to Postrank’s free service for a while just for my own knowledge as to what posts seem most relevant for people. They have a WordPress widget, but I noticed that they also have a link up with Blogger.
Hi,
I really love your header. You did an awesome job. I don’t think I have ever been to your site before. I am visiting from the TOS Crew.
Blessings
Honey
WOW! Your site looks great…and I adore your header!!!!
Lexi´s last [type] ..Quint is in Wonderland