Monday, September 07, 2009

My posts for BBAW, and Other Updates...

So, I've been shortlisted for Best Romance Blog (and got a nifty button for it!), and for all the newcomers and regular readers, I thought I'd provide the five romance-related posts I sent to the panel that ended up with me on the short lists:

The Secret Pearl Review

The Year in Review - My Best and Worst of 2008
For My Lady's Heart Review
The Price of Desire Review
Just the Sexiest Man Alive Review

In other news - yes, my blog does look slightly different. I decided to find a new template, yes. Partly on a whim, and partly because while searching the shortlists of BBAW nominees I came across Rebecca's Reads and discovered she had the SAME template! I guess I just wanted to find a new style.

I like my new template, in general. The pros:
  • Bigger font, centred posts - clearer to read, doesn't evoke frightening "wall of text" as much, makes reviews look nicer
  • Pretty, pretty colours - to be honest, I wasn't a big fan of orange, maroon, or beige (my blog's old colours) so this was an easy choice
  • It doesn't match any blogs I know
  • It still looks artsy and has three columns for Widgets
Unfortunately, there are some things to adjust to:
  • Smaller columns - lots of stuff has to be trimmed or has its edges nibbled off by smaller margins, thereby looking silly (but I don't know how to change - I used the "shrink to fit" option but that does bupkiss). I wish I could widen my columns
  • Can't change the title font - gaaah, if anyone here is a master of font and HTML, do you know a code to make my title Georgia font instead of the whatever-it-is square font, without offsetting all the tags, etc?
I mean, my blog looks great but it doesn't look perfect. There is a part of me that whispers, "maaaaaybe you were a little hasty in changing your blog template, especially during awards week" but an equal part that likes what I've done differently. Maybe I just need a little computer help. Anyone with any knowledge of coding and computers know how to fix and edit my template? Let me know!

EDIT: This just in - fiddling with HTML for an hour does bring results! Hurrah!

7 comments:

  1. Anonymous1:38 AM

    i like the old one better
    i think it organizes everything better
    things on the side looks squished

    and you took out the wishlist shelf :[
    it was also hard to find the comment button

    the colors and the picture at the top looks better
    but i liked the way the old one was organized

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  2. OMG! You changed your layout... WoW WoW WoW. It looks really cool =D

    Congratz on your nomination!

    hahaha... I think you're editing while I type this! The post keeps changing =P

    Goodluck with the html - I don't understand any of it!

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  3. Looks FABULOUS, dahling! And wonderful news about your nom.

    A trick I learned about blogs -- most are designed to look good in IE -- so if you're using Firefox or Safari, it's a good idea to double check the look in IE to see how it flies there.

    xoxox

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  4. Wowsers. Different. Way different. But I like it :)

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  5. Love this layout. I use Coffee Desk by the same designer. I saw this on his site a few days ago and was very, very tempted to switch. I love the color (though I would have loved it more in pink) and the layout.

    However, don't panic. I just started using Coffee Desk and haven't fallen out of love with it yet.

    He tests all his layouts using Safari, Firefox, and Chrome besides the latest editions of IE. I use Firefox and your layout looks good. At work, where they use IE and it looked a little off. You may have tweaked it more since my two viewings, so don't go by me. ;-)

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  6. I wasn't sure I came to the right place at first *g*. I like, I like.

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  7. hey sorry to cause you to change your template! It does look nice now! I didn't see it before you changed it, but I'm sure that look fabulous too lol!

    Congrats on your nomination!

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