Friday, April 10, 2009

A Challenge and a Change

I believe I've already proven myself to be a geek, but if you are looking for further proof I am prepared to provide it.

You may have noticed there has been a change to my blog. This is a change I've been wanting for a long time. I was tired of the monochrome look created using the limited features of Blogger. I wanted something different that would help me to express myself better. So I looked around.

Sure, there are plenty of places online where you can find free blog backgrounds, but they don't quite cut it for me. There is nothing wrong with them, really, but I don't like how they don't scroll with the rest of the blog. A personal preference, but a severely limiting one.

And so began my search for instructions on how to change the html of my template to get what I wanted. See? I'm a geek. I did google search after google search, but didn't really find anything. To make an extremely long, boring, and geeky story short, I finally realized that my friend Liz, who has a background that moves as you scroll, had gotten her background from Smitten Blog Designs. So I checked them out. In all my searching, I never found any blog template so accessible as these.

But, being the geek that I am, none of their templates really fit me. Instead of using one of their templates, I studied one to see what changes they made and where. From there it was "easy". Now I'm off to create a new heading using Paint, Picasa, and any other free program I can use. Wish me luck!

6 comments:

Delirious said...

I'm a creature of habit. I have had the same background for the 3 or 4 years that I've had my blog. I'm happy with it, and probably won't change. :)

Cailean said...

Isn't free great? If you want a big challenge, download GIMP and watch your brain slowly ooze out of your ears. It's free and can do what Photoshop can but without the nice interface or manual :) Your blog looks great and I can't wait to see what you do with the header!

Bridget said...

Neat! I like making my own, too. But I did get lazy with my girls' and just found a template (aquapoppy, I think). I let Miriam choose it so that part was fun.

There are some neat background patterns at citrusmoon.net. That's where I've found all mine.

Bridget said...

Make that http://citrusmoon.typepad.com/patterns/

Fromagette said...

Actually, Bridget, I did recognize your background. Citrusmoon was one of the places that I checked out when I was looking for background patterns. The one I got was from www.squidfingers.com.

Cailean, I'm going to have to try out GIMP. Sounds like just the headache I need!

Liz Johnson said...

I love smitten because they're so easy, and because I have no idea how to work html. I'm glad that helped, even if it's just a springboard!