Tuesday, April 10, 2007

Your input, please! *updated*

Well as you have seen, I've been changing up my blog template lately. I wanted something more springy... My landlords gave me those orchids you see up at the top there yesterday (from their surprise wedding on the weekend! How cool is that???), so I contorted myself in all manner of directions and took a few photos - you should have seen it: I was standing on my counter, one leg bracing a light balanced on the chair, one hand on the camera, one hand on the ceiling so I didn't fall... a studio photographer I am not! hehe! I kinda like the banner, but there's definitely too much white in the template. Springy green as a background? I'd like that, but it looks funny with the orchids. I could keep the banner background white, but a big white box on green looks kinda funny. I could jsut get rid of the borders for the sidebar and the content and have it all white... or something totally different! Suggestions? Anyone? Anyone?

*Yep, that header is H-U-G-E, particularly on lower resolution screens. I'll change it, but probably not till the weekend. Till then, um, happy scrolling?

15 comments:

sarah cool said...

I LOVE the picture!! It is beautiful, and I am surprised you took it, I thought it was a stock photo because it looks so.... professional!!! Love it!!

The only thing I might suggest is to make your header less... long? Is that the right word? When I open up your blog, the header is the only thing on my computer screen, and I have to scroll down a lot to get to your posts.

What about turning the flowers on their side? I don't know if it would look weird, but in my head, it might work. Heh.

I love it, overall, though!! Nice word! I like the color of your tag line, too.

Unknown said...

I agree too that the header is too large...but the green border is good, I really like that. It gives it a great springy color! :)

You're at least ahead of the game...I totally need to change my stuff...ugh.

nachtwache said...

It's a beautiful photo! Almost worth taking a chance at a tumble. We fall harder, when we're big. I like the way it looks. Not much help, I know. I also enjoyed your "Happy" post, with the fun photos.

Jean said...

I also thought it was a stock photo! Good job!! What about possibly making it smaller? I was going to say what about making a red box around the header, but then I thought that would look christmasy...so don't listen to me..i have no fashion or style sense. :)

sarah cool said...

Jean, you are adorable, I loved your clothes in Chi-town.

But do I remember you saying your hubby picks out all your clothes? Or am I wrong?

Hehe :-)


I cheat w/ my header... I just change a tiny pic on the corner and the quote randomly. Easy, but not a lot of fun.

Anonymous said...

Gorgeous shot!! Completely worth the gymnastics :)

I don't mind the size of the header, but I'm viewing at a high resolution, so I could see how it might be a bit big. Perhaps cutting the size down would also alleviate that "too much white" feeling.

If you do want a background - what about a lighter variation of your sidebar colour?

Hillary said...

Wowza! I just looked at my header here at work, and yeah, that sucker's huge! Apparently I have a high resolution at home, too, so I didn't realize how big it was. I'll fix that when I get home. Thanks for the tips! I'd love to hear more! :)

CeCe said...

There's no header right now. But I thought I'd tell you your new profile picture is wonderful!

Paul said...

Despite this comment being so long, I do like it. I like that the header sits in a big white space, unconstrained by any boxes, and I love the photo.

My advise for saving space is to swap the header text and photo over, mirror the orchids so they face the other way, loose the border around the main blog section, then move the blog up and the sidebar down (setting the blog background to transparent if it's not already). Perhaps you could lighten the sidebar background a bit too (keep its border though).

The result of all that should be that the stems of your orchids hang down below the level of your first post, taking up about a third less space.

Hillary said...

Awesome! Paul, wanna help me with that code??? *GRIN*

BarbaraMG said...

What a great new look!

Anonymous said...

Very pretty! I was gonna suggest you make the header smaller but then I saw that you're already on top of it!

Jean said...

You remember correctly Sarah. He and Anne are my designers. :)

Hillary said...

Well Jean, they do a fabulous job! :)

Paul said...

I guess I could. I need something to destract me from the horrendously complicated template that I'm trying to fix.