You may have noticed some changes around these here parts recently. (If you haven’t noticed, um…look again?)
The boys are getting bigger. And the blogs are getting more diverse – you never know what life will bring when you’re experiencing it with tiny twins. (I just write the stuff down people.) This summer, I’m heading to a conference back east to join up with other BlogHer’s and I wanted to step up my brand.
Yeah. I said brand. I’m creating one. Or, at the very least, if I want to be a writer when I grow up I can play dress up now.
Enter LG-Graphix. And down the rabbit hole went we.
I’ve always had the black and white photo of the muppets as the blog header. And this was used as the cornerstone for it all. (Photo taken by Keary Dee Photography.)
It’s official. I’ve got business cards. My twitter stream has been gussied up. It was time to tackle the big bad website.
Side note: Constructive criticism does not come in the form of “I liked it the old way. Put it back.” Tell you what, Mom and Dad, you put my room back the way it was when I was a kid instead of the “guest/computer room” you’ve Frankenstein’s Monster cobbled it into and we’ll revisit the conversation about the look of this website. (I don’t care that I’m over 30 writing about my own family now. That’s not the point.)
What was wrong with the old design?
Nothing. Nothing at all. In fact it’s one of the most popular themes for blogs. As such, I was looking for something a bit more unique – a bit more me. Doesn’t that sound like a good idea? (Can you see where this is going?)
Oodles of themes were examined to figure out which style, look, “feel,” would look best with the black and white sleeping muppet photo.
I saw the proposed design on a dummy site. And I loved it. A friend noted it felt like “jazz” – interesting considering the name of the theme is Piano Black.
It was classic.
I was smitten.
And all we needed to do was implement. How hard could that be?
My site and the dummy site didn’t match in terms of options. The header wouldn’t appear. And as mentioned above, that’s kinda the key point of the site. Ok… Let’s try exporting the dummy page. You may lose all sidebar widgets. Goodie. Let’s give it a shot – fingers crossed!
Didn’t work.
At this point the option the main question was why the dueling account options didn’t match. Ah hah! The dummy site was WordPress hosted; Stream of the Conscious is self-hosted. (MY SITE!)
So into the bowels of my SQL database I went a spelunking. The branded black and white image got uploaded. Somewhere.
With a deep breath I warned the world of social media, “I may be about to blow up my blog. Things are about to get interesting. PUSH ALL THE BUTTONS!”
I started playing with the CSS. (This is a computer code. This is a computer code that really should be best left to professionals. I am not a professional. I am not really even an amateur. I am a button pusher.)
Well. That didn’t work. The first attempt resulted in an image that was EFFIN HUGE!
Honey, I blew up the blog. Literally.
I pushed more buttons.
Hell. Now everything was itty-bitty. Too small.
Curiouser and curiouser. The first was too big; the next too small. I felt like Alice in Wonderland. I’m pretty sure I saw the Cheshire Cat smile down on me, disguised as the crescent moon. It knew. Of LG-Graphix and I, “We’re all mad here. I’m mad. You’re mad. You must be or you wouldn’t have come here.”
The label on the wine bottle morphed into lettering reading, “Drink Me.” Who wants to join me in Wonderland?
At this point I turned any and all spelunking duties over to LG-Graphix. Remember what I said about the professionals?
Email: “Login info didn’t work…and no you’re not crazy. Now I’m starting to think I’m crazy.”
Ultimately it was fixed. Dear LG-Graphix, I love you. Kisses, Tricia
“If it wasn’t so early I would totally be in need of a cocktail after that one! Sheesh!”
I didn’t care what time of morning it was. That wine bottle was still reading, “Drink Me.” Who knew that simple site updates could be so complicated?
With just a few more changes (like text size for readability required), I had one final foray into coding button pushing.
Guess what?!
I successfully edited CSS coding on my blog. Blog still works. I RULE! #geekout
And with that, I even have a blog button now. Won’t those of you with your own blogs, BUTTON UP and help me spread a stream of ramblings around the interwebs?
And seriously, if you have graphic design needs, check out LG-Graphix. You’ll need them if you’re at all interested in heading down your own personal rabbit hole into Wonderland.
Love it. And whomever said it’s classic and “jazz” was spot on.
Gotta tell you – my age is showing – call me your parents, but I much preferred the old one – this is too hard for us 50somethings to read – love you!!
PS – Mitch will love it and the jazz idea 🙂
I am such a luddite, all the Css stuff is what the dog heard to me…I’m trying to spiff up my blog too so can totally see what you’re going through. I never saw the old blog and this face looks great to me…
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I just now read this…thanks Tricia!!! And what a perfectly said description…lol! Cheers!