Hiya! Welcome to my remodeled digs! Grab yourself a cup of tea and come snoop around!
This here Wonder Farm has been begging for redecorating for a while now. Things have looked pretty much the same since I first hung my header at the top of my home page, more than three years ago. Everything was feeling a little cramped. I wanted to do away with those wide, empty margins. I wanted to shift stuff around to make it more user-friendly. I wanted to bring a little hand-written-journal love to this pixelated place.
I wanted to fill up the screen!
Whaddya think?
It wasn’t easy to make the space look like the one I envisioned. I switched from my old WordPress theme to Thesis, which bills itself as a DIY theme. Meaning that you gan do a lot of customizing just by ticking boxes, but if you know your way around PHP and CSS, you can make your website look pretty much however you want it to look. Do I know my way around PHP and CSS? Absolutely not. Which is why I’ve spent the last month or so staring at online user guides and lurking around the Thesis forum, getting help from people with screen names like Godhammer and Girlie. (The Thesis forums are amazing. You can post a ridiculous question like, “What code do I need to change the font in my fat footer widget, and how can I make each of the columns a different color?” and someone will not only know what you’re talking about, but they’ll respond with precisely the code you need. Usually within 15 minutes.)
Still in the works is a new about me/homepage. But I was getting tired of waiting and wanted to invite you all in!
You may have noticed that there’s a new Facebook link up above the header. It will take you to what I’m calling my “practically robotic Facebook page”, an indulgence for my Facebook-addled friends who miss my updates here because they never climb down from their walls. I’ll be using that page to post website updates for those folks–but don’t expect me to start friending and liking and tagging old photos of me sitting on top of a pay-phone kiosk in my cheerleading uniform. As I say on the page, if you want some interaction from me, you have to come to the Wonder Farm, or climb a tree and tweet with me.
So please stay a while and poke around. Let me know if links don’t work, or pages take forever to load, or if things just look wonky on your screen. I’m sure there’s still some straightening and shuffling to do, but meanwhile, I’m so glad you’re here. Put up your feet, and tell me how you take your tea.
Well I’m impressed Patricia! I love how you embrace technology, rolling up your sleeves and digging in. When I first read your header I thought maybe you were going to post a picture of the finished curtains that you were working on for the office.
Something tells me you’ve been busy with other things.
I like the new layout but I think a search function would be helpful for tooling around the site. Sometimes you might like to revisit a post but not remember the month (or year…if you’ve been around long enough) that the item was posted.
Love the font choices and the casual vibe. Enough said. Now, about that tea….
Thanks so much for reminding me about the search box, Peaches. I just forgot to add it! I use them all the time on other people’s sites.
It’s there in the sidebar now. I wouldn’t want people who have been coming around for years, like you, to misplace things!
And I would love to be able to pour you a cup of tea.
Lookin’ good lookin’ very good!
I went to your Facebook page and liked it, but I hope you won’t be stingy about liking mine too. We can all use a little help. Since there are numerous people who prefer to use that platform, you’ll be surprised that some would rather leave their comments on your wall. Whatever works, eh? Also, I can’t convince you, but friend-ing people will build your blog following since more people will have access to your blog posts–and you are doing/writing interesting things.
Thanks for the kind words, Kristin!
I have no doubt that I could build my blog audience if I participated in Facebook. Trouble is, I feel pretty maxed out with my online activity as it is. I blog and respond to the blogs of others; I’m pretty active on Twitter; and I participate in Flickr for photography, and Ravelry for my knitting projects. I just don’t feel able to take on another social networking forum right now. My sole reason for making a Facebook page is to reach out to friends who tend to explore the internet via their Facebook portal, and to let them know that I have something new here.
If I like one person on Facebook, I’ll feel compelled to like everyone who stops by; if I respond to one wall post, I’ll feel compelled to respond to all. I just don’t feel able to keep up with that sort of activity right now. I’m trying to be upfront about that by letting people know that they’re visiting my “practically robotic Facebook page.” I’m sorry if that makes me seem stingy. I do follow you on Twitter, Kristin; I leave comments on your blog pretty regularly–and I like you for reals in person! I hope that’s enough, for now. 🙂
Boo Hoo 🙁 I still don’t get it–but I won’t mention it again.
Love your new look!
I’ve been carrying you around in my heart these past few weeks as we venture into our first year of “formal” homeschooling and I keep reminding myself to calm down, listen, calm down, listen. So many of your suggestions for working with little (pre) writers and readers have wisely echoed in my brain right as I am about to pull the panic trigger and rap him over the knuckles with phonics. So instead we listen to Magic Treehouse audiobooks and I help him make comic books full of monsters and robots and I remember that I Am Not Alone and Someday He Will Read (and write, too).
Yay for Magic Treehouse audiobooks and comic books full of monsters and robots!
When it comes to reading and writing (and maybe everything!), I think my best advice for parents is this: what is your ultimate hope for your child? If your ultimate hope is to raise a child who loves reading, then how can you help him or her love reading today? By reading to him? By not pushing her to read aloud? Whatever it takes to instill a love of reading today will help a child love reading tomorrow. And a child who loves reading will want to learn to read. It’s foolproof! It just may not happen on our timetable.
Keep having fun reading and writing together and all will fall into place–just like, down deep, you know it will.
wow tricia! this looks great! a blog makeover always feels so good. makes me wonder what a personal makeover would feel like.
But you’re already giving yourself a personal makeover lately, lady! You’re looking way better than a revamped blog!