So… I’m thinking of changing my theme.
Thoughts? Experiences? Recommendations?
Anyone?
Okay what do I want?
Clean design
I like red.
Widgetised obviously.
WordPress.
Fixed width (I think).
I want to show the entire posts on the front page. No more of this “read more” malarky.
That’s about it.
Your input welcome.
I wasn’t going to change my theme for a while but then I won this groovy new theme called Revolution Pro and I just couldn’t help myself but play with it.
I’ve been using Theme Test Drive to see how it looks and changing bits and pieces every night until it got to the point where I just wanted to look at my new site more than the old. Even though there are bits to fix and fiddle with.
So here you are world – my new look.
Revolution Pro makes use of things called Custom Fields for the images on the home page. Previously ignored by me in the past what you do is add say images in the custom fields and then call them up via CSS to appear where you want in relation to a specific post.
My new little logo I created at SP-Studio where you too can create your own little South Park character. I liked the way I could get books and cards into it – two of my favourite things. You might have seen an earlier version in an avatar I use around the place – it’s a bit racier – I’m (it is) wearing a red bikini.
I downloaded some new fonts from Simply the Best Fonts just for fun too.
There are still a few to do jobs.
And there are probably more things to look at as I get into it.
I know there is a lot of controversy surrounding magazine style blogs so I’ll be interested to read your feedback.
: )
UPDATE: You’ll see I’ve already moved away from the magazine style – simply to make it easier for bloggers to navigate. I know I know seems a waste of Brian’s lovely theme but I am using quite a lot of the elements. The review section in the sidebar for example, the flickr feed in the posts. If I could work it out I’d still have the home magazine page somewhere – but I’m having trouble with it…
The common cormorant (or shag)
Lays eggs inside a paper bag,
You follow the idea, no doubt?
It’s to keep the lightning out.But what these unobservant birds
Have never thought of, is that herds
Of wandering bears might come with buns
And steal the bags to hold the crumbs.– Christopher Isherwood
The observant among you will have noticed I’ve changed my theme recently. It is perhaps the easiest theme I’ve ever changed over to – requiring no repairs or tweaking… although I did make the posts column a bit wider to accommodate my photos and the header to make the Cellobella more prominant. All in all it is virtually the same as downloaded.
Needless to say I’m pretty impressed with Brian Gardner’s themes (although I would like a photo in the banner so working on that).
So when I learned that Success Space have a contest going to win won of his premium themes I was very interested. (thanks Sueblimey)
Nice huh?
So… good luck to me!
(okay and to you should you choose to enter…)
It’s true and no laxatives used either.
Tonight I’ve been clearing out my website. All those old redundant files are now copied across to my thumb-drive and deleted, gone gone gone.
It now looks very neat. Just 2 folders… and three files… my index page, my htaccess and my little favicon which probably needs a little upgrade. And I think it fixed my RSS feed too. Double yay!
I’m feeling geeky that I am so happy about it.
Last night we had the final rehearsal for our choir. In one of the pieces we are joined by the Shine choir – a group of people with various disabilities and fantastic abilities including being able to sing over the top of a 120 strong choir. They have a blind pianist who is brilliant too.
We sing Shine On together starting really softly with a soloist from the Shine choir, gradually we build and last night I must say I got really emotional at the point we all really sung out. I don’t know why exactly but it just felt so special. I could hardly sing. (Which wasn’t good as that was when we were supposed to be loud!)
Our performance is Friday night in Forrest Place. The program starts at 6.30pm and we’re on at 7.20pm. We’ll be wearing bright red tee-shirts and big smiles. I had a listen to some of the recordings and we sound pretty good if I do say so myself. Amazingly good if you consider we only had 7 rehearsals.
So, if you’re in Perth, come on down and see us sing in the city! I’ll be second row from the back. 
For those of you upgrading to WordPress 2.3 and also has tantannoodles flickr plug-in…
When I uploaded the new files my plug-in failed. This was very sad for me as I love the ability to add photos to my blog like this one from Melbourne…
But thanks to Metavida it’s working again!
Here’s the quick fix: In the file “silarpartners/flickr/class-admin.php” comment out (add two slashes “//” before) line 209 “add_filter(‘uploading_iframe_src’, array(&$this, ‘uploading_iframe’));”
Loving your work Metavida!
I’m playing with a new theme (obviously). This one is called Beauty-50… or at least it is a modified version of Beauty-50… I’m still tweaking… not sure about the donkey orchid… not sure about any of it if I’m honest.
I’d be interested in your thoughts.
You’ll also see in the left hand column I’ve got a little RSS feed of a random selection of the people I know have been awarded Community Blogger Awards. You can find a full list too.
Oh please to the designers of fashion web pages out there… stop using Flash. I’m OVER it!
It takes an age to load your front page then when I go to the next, another age. Yes and I’m on broadband.
I really just can’t be bothered.
The true inconvenience of a computer crash becomes clear the day after… It’s May and I want to change my banner collection but I have to reload all the software – photo editing, FTP – and reload my website files… and that’s irritating because I saved earlier versions of pages on my hard-drive, I probably don’t need them but I liked knowing they were there. [update: all fixed]
My new feature artist is Kate Elsey and I’m confident you’ll LOVE her work – find out more and see the whole images on my banner page.
I know I’m going to discover over the next few months missing files that would have been nice to have – like the template for fridge magnet stickers or my funeral plan (don’t you have one??) – I can’t remember what mine is now – how annoying!
But I’m not going to whinge anymore. As they say – I’m just one bestseller away from retirement – must start work on it.
