phew!

That was certainly a lot of work! And by "that" I mean my blog overhaul. I started with this:

And I ended with fabulous! But let me tell you, it was not easy! It took months of banging my head against a wall, planning color schemes, drawing illustrations by hand, converting illustrations into vector images, searching the web for tutorials, and trying to decipher coding instructions.

So, for all you folks who'd like to create your own layout I'm going to give you a head start. Here's my step-by-step guide to the general process and a list of my favorite resources. You can thank me later.*

Brainstorm. Grab a sketchpad (or scrap paper) and doodle away. What's your blog theme? What's the title? What other blogs do you love? What inspires you? How can your design tie in to all that? This is the stage in which any idea is allowed. One of my brainstorms involved an illustrated version of myself buried in a pile of dust bunnies like Captain Kirk in The Trouble With Tribbles. So when I say any idea is allowed I really mean any idea.

Refine. Weed out the bad ideas. Bounce your ideas off family and friends. Figure out what the best design for your blog is and come up with a color scheme. Because I've had 2-D design and digital design classes I had an advantage because I know how colors work together and how they affect us, as well as already knowing the basics of using art software. But by checking out some art/design books from the local library, browsing top notch blogs, and trying to educate yourself a little bit you'll get a feel for the "laws" of art and design too. And remember, a cluttered blog is distracting to readers as well as difficult to navigate. Try to keep things simple.

Implement. Make your images. Learn how to fiddle with your template code (always back up your template)! Ask for help when you get really stuck. This is the "banging the head against a wall" phase. It will probably be the least fun but in the end it'll be worth it. Your design may change from the original plan during this stage of the game. That's OK. Sometimes our ideas have no good way to be implemented, or we discover a better idea while browsing tutorial pages. As long as you don't get so carried away in changes that it never gets finished then don't worry about it.

Enjoy. Show off your masterpiece to friends and family. After all that effort and time you deserve a chance to brag.

Resources:

• http://www.bloggerbuster.com/ Lots and lots and LOTS of tutorials. This site is invaluable. Add it to your bookmarks.
• http://tricks-for-new-bloggers.blogspot.com/ More tutorials, but not a great example of simple, easy to navigate blog design.
• http://www.colourlovers.com/ A color lover's heaven! Browse colors, color schemes, website examples, and patterns. It was by browsing and playing on this website that I came up with my color scheme.
• http://www.chami.com/html-kit/services/favicon/ Create a favicon (the little icon next to the website title). It's easy and free.
• http://www.gimp.org/ GIMP is the open source (read: FREE) version of Adobe Photoshop.
• http://www.inkscape.org/ Inkscape is the open source version of Adobe Illustrator. It's the program I used to make all the illustrations you see on this blog.

Or...you can skip all those steps and just pay someone else to do it! But not me. I am soooooo not for hire. I'd like to not go prematurely grey, thanks.

Do you have a blog? If so do you use your own design? Tell me about it.

*Link love, comments, money, and baked goods are all acceptable forms of gratitude.

UPDATE: Woo-hoo! I'm done! What do you all think? Have the months and months of working on this little blog of mine paid off?

I'm doing some housekeeping and finishing up the blog design starting tonight and ending Monday at the latest. If you're a subscriber you may get some strange posts, but I think it will be worth it. Friday is my "day off." But even if I'm not done fixing things up I plan on posting on Saturday and Sunday as usual. Take care!

I love wearing my baby. But our black wrap gets awfully hot some times. It also shows cat hair like crazy. Plus I get tired of people calling Lucy a boy. And...well...I like pretty things. That's why I sold my old Palm Pilot and got this:


It arrived today and I loooooove it! It's a lighter weight fabric so I'm having to get used to how that affects the tightness with which I need to tie Lucy on but it also means that I'm not going to get as hot as I do wearing the black wrap! You can get your own (in many different colors, and even in reversible styles) here.

Now maybe I won't have to choose between dying of heat or wrestling our big stroller when I walk to the fabric store.

PS: Those pants? Yeah, they're PRE-pregnancy! Woo-hoo!

PPS: Do you see how long my hair is getting? I soooooo need a hair cut!

My little girl is growing. She's nearly six months old and some of our small size back up diapers (for when the Bum Genius 3.0s* are in the wash) are getting too tight for her wonderfully chubby thighs. Fortunately I won (yes, WON!) a diaper a little while back that is in the next size up. It's AppleCheeks brand. So far I love it. It can be used as a pocket diaper, or as a cover (just fold the insert and lay it on top)! The color selection is even better than the BGs and it feels a lot softer too. The disadvantage is that, since it has snaps instead of velcro, it isn't as adjustable size-wise and you have to get two sets instead of one (because they come in two sizes instead of being a one-size system like the BGs). It also seems to be a little less bulky. If I was starting fresh with a new diaper system I would probably do a mix of these and BG's. But this is the first day we've used the AppleCheeks dipe so I don't know yet how well it prevents leaks. I picked the "St. Lucia" color because, hey, it's really pretty plus it's from "Lucia" that the name "Lucy" was originally derived.

Mama's little diaper model

Speaking of growing. This little one is now capable of sitting up on her own (though only for so long). That means, since she's shown an interest, we'll be letting her try some avocado this week. You'd better believe I'm going to take video of that! In the mean time, here's a video to show you what I mean about the "only for so long" thing.**

*By the way, we LOVE the Bum Genius 3.0s. Way better than 'sposies. So cute and almost no blow outs (as opposed to disposables which blow out all the freakin' time)!

**The pillow is just there in case of backwards falls. She really can sit on her own without it.

Did I mention that tutu project I was so excited about?

Oh, I did?

Yeah, well, I guess I'm a little too excited. So excited in fact that I couldn't sleep last night, not for a very long time. See, and this is very much an ADD thing, my brain obsesses about things very easily. So I was laying there thinking "shut up Brain!" while my brain had plans of her own, tutu plans.

{And this is the part where you get a frightening glimpse into the way my mind works.}

It went something like this:

Hmmm...let's see...I could make a red and white one for Canada day, and a blue and white one for Halloween*, and a Lorax one for Lucy's birthday**, and a red and green one for Christmas, and ooh! I could take pictures of Lucy in the red and green one to send out with Christmas cards, and a pink, red, and white one for Valentine's day, and one in different shades of green for St. Patrick's day, and maybe I'll make one for myself for Halloween, and I should try cutting triangle points on the ends of some, and I want that thing on Etsy so I can learn how to do fancier ones, and I need to make a different, smaller one in purple and white for Lucy's pictures because Adam doesn't really like the yellow and purple and he's kind of right, and I so want a Bedazzler, and I'm so excited about finding that online source for tulle, oh! I should get a plain white onesie and freezer paper stencil a little Canadian flag with a heart instead of a maple leaf and Lucy can wear it with her tutu and we'll go to the fireworks or something, and I could do a pink heart for a Valentine's day shirt, and...

Well, you get the idea. My brain is really just one big run-on sentence when it gets going.

Someone stop me before I make tutus for the whole world! Hmmm...I bet Sasha and Malia would look adorable in red, white, and blue tutus for the Fourth of July!

*Lucy's Halloween costume is going to be "Lucy in the Sky With Diamonds" and you will think it is the best costume ever. My magic 8-ball and iPod Macro cannot compare!

**I'm thinking of doing a Dr. Seuss theme for Lucy's first birthday. The tutu would match the colors of the Truffula Trees from The Lorax.