the same but different

Eagle-eyed visitors will notice some slight changes here: the addition of a third column, changes to the footer, etc. I’ve converted my theme to run off the genesis framework (mostly for the power of the widgets and templates and all that crap).

In theory it means easier maintenance in the future, and has taken about 4 months to get this far because I only get 10-15 minutes a day to work on the bloomin’ thing (work, babies, house, moan moan moan). Some bits that were broken before (twitter feed) are now working again, but there’s bits that WERE fine but are now broken (no decorational border thing around posts … it’s getting there) Let’s call it a work in progress.

Posted on: February 10, 2013 · Category: Updates 10

Why are Mummy Blogs so Ugly?

I know, it’s true, I probably announced at one stage that I’d never read ‘proper’ mummy blogs (or blogs written by mums, whichever way you look at it). I also said I’d never talk about poo, and look how that turned out. Here is my confession: I, queen of the hypocrites, am a champion “mom blog” reader. If it’s well written or contains suitably awesome pictures, I will dip in and out for as long as my attention is held.

Except, so many of these blogs are just… ugly. Sure, not everyone can afford to hire an awesome designer like Lilian to sex their blogs up but even if you’re stuck using a free theme, there’s no excuse for these:


I tried to anonymise these – it’s not my intention to ‘out’ anyone in particular

Different size ad’ banners, blocks overlapping columns, seemingly random mixtures of fonts / sizes / colours etc. :(

I considered maybe it was just my long standing bias against ad-supported blogs making me grumpy, but Jamie has advertising spots and hers don’t look like they were vomited onto the page. PhD in Parenting has tons of adverts, well over my comfort zone even, but they’re all evenly sized and organised neatly.

I get that these bloggers are not (generally) web designers and that most have better things to do with their time (like mopping up sick and all the other fun crap that comes with having kids) than moving buttons and banners and content blocks 3 pixels to the left / right / up a touch, just one more tweak … I think I just turned into an awkward client. Ahem.

Perhaps surprisingly, given my previous rants on PPP etc, I get that many of these blogs generate that little bit of extra income per month that enables some parents to be at home with their kids (and for that reason alone I’m tempted to spew viagra links all up my sidebar). I just think that you can achieve a nice looking blog without distracting my eyes with spamerific banners and buttons, and without breaking the bank. At the end of the day, the content is more important than the adverts, and if you think otherwise then you’re seriously missing the point.

Posted on: May 9, 2012 · Category: Interwebs

Useful (cool) icon finding site

I can’t tell you how many times I’ve had to find some obscure UK debit card icon, or a certain size of twitter icon (whatever) for work… I have an Icons folder for saving sets that I probably wouldn’t be able to find easily again:

(Like my desktop wallpaper? It’s from vladstudio)

And yet all along, there existed Iconfinder. Either I’m the last person to know about the icon search engine or it’s the world’s worst publicised website (it’s apparently existed since 2007?!) Either way, it’s top of my 2011 cool list.*

* this list is purely imaginary

Posted on: August 17, 2011 · Category: Interwebs

End of an Era, a New Beginning

Tutorialtastic is closing today. Closing, gone. After 8 years of hardy service to you, the blogger, the developer, the web hobbyist.

Don’t cry, my sweets, for where one door closes another duly opens…

It has taken nearly THREE years to get to this point (albeit delayed due to pregnancy, sickness, babies, life, work, etc). Three years of “keep this? no”, “reword this? yes”, updating links, tweaking text, changing themes, poking PHP. Three years to bring together a mish mash — a collaboration — of two of the best geek-oriented websites in our circle of the blogosphere.

Tutorialtastic meets CodeGrrl. POW! GirlsWhoGeek is born.

Let me know what you think, folks :)

Posted on: March 3, 2011 · Category: Interwebs, Updates

Favourite Layouts in July

After posting about my favourite layouts in June I figured this is something I could keep doing! And so here we are, my favourite layouts this month…

Rainbow Stuff

rainbowstuff.png

Ashley has added a personal touch with her cartoon representations of herself, husband (I think!), and cats.

Skylish

skylish.png

I love the splash navigation detail in this one. It’s different, but without being all “mystery meat” like graphic site navigation of the past.

Kya’s Blog Thing

kyanu.png

Be sure to scroll all the way to the bottom with this one, hehe.

Posted on: July 21, 2010 · Category: Interwebs