Monday, January 05, 2009

New Year, New Look -- A New Recipe for Blog Appetit?

I like my Blogger template. I was thrilled when I started this blog more than three years ago that there was a ready to go template with a vaguely foodie header I could use right out of the box. Many congratulated me on my "professional look." I usually gave Blogger the credit.

Over the years it has served me well and I have had to put little effort (except for the big changeover to layouts) to preserving it and have been able to focus on developing my writing and recipes.

But now I feel it needs an overhaul. When I look at other blogs Blog Appetit's look seems cluttered and futzy. I feel like an AM blog in an HD world. The feeling has been building for awhile, I've just been waiting for Blogger to introduce some new templates. I am unsure if Blogger will be doing this anytime soon, so I am now planning to customize some of the least futzy of the Blogger templates and see if I can make Blog Appetit reflect more who I am, what I am trying to communicate and how I want the world to view me.

I've started looking at the source codes for Blogger blogs I like (I feel like a peeping Tom when I do, though) and it is really amazing to see how many blogs out there are customized off of Blogger templates to the point where you'd never recognize the source template. You'd never guess what deservedly popular blogger bases her blog off a Thisaway Rose Blogger template!

I think of it as code surgery and I'm contemplating a little code lift (facelift) to several of the templates out there. Two contenders are Minima and Minima Stretch (the blank canvases of Blogger templates), but lately Denim (examples here and here for demo purposes only) is leading the pack. ( For an example of Minima, click here.)

I'll add more on this post later as well as some thoughts on revamping recipes for changing tastes (maybe, we'll see)


UPdate 1/16/09 -- Looks like I'm not going Minima. As per my very excellent son's suggestion, I'm going to phase in a new look in stages I'm more comfortable with. More soon.

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