I love my current ligneous blog template of white main body with pink and black combinations throughout. White and pink, and black and pink are combinations that could never go wrong. In my opinion, that is. Furthermore, I have not stumbled upon any other blogs using the same ligneous template too.
I started blogging in 2004 and my blog is almost hitting its 10th year anniversary. I'm looking forward to a minimalist feel as my blog matures along with me and adhering to it.
I dabbled around, switched my template to one of those default white blogger template and previewed it. While I really love how clean and minimalist my blog would look with that white template, I have so many stuff to tweak. With my limited html knowledge, I would certainly need a lot more time to fully transform my blog layout into what I've envisioned.
The following are screen shots which I've captured during the preview. All pictures could be enlarge upon clicking.
I definitely need a better header. Content wise, I've always liked my blog title and the little description that goes with the title. I wrote that in 2004 and I'm so glad that after 9 years, the words still hold true to my blog. Aesthetic wise, I'm envisioning a banner that truly reflects me and my blog, probably a really well-edited photo or an illustration by myself for the text to be encased in. I'm wrecking my brains about which photo or what to draw. And yes, I need to get rid of that ugly font!
I'm not sure if some of you noticed that I've created social media buttons for my blog as seen on the sidebar. I love the light and dreamy swirls of pink and corals which would match the future minimalist layout. The colour of the clickable hyperlinks has to be changed from blue to pink. The blue text doesn't complement the pink tone buttons at all. Does anyone have any idea on how to change the clickable text to pink?
In my current ligneous template, the categories are classified in a list. I am irked by the way my categories are classified as a cloud for this white template. It is such an eyesore. That has to be tweaked as well.
I do not like the borders surrounding my photos too. I have to find out how to tweak the html code to remove them. I'm already editing my photos with borders from Photoscape and hence the additional border around the photos are really redundant.
The border's redundancy might not be that obvious for all the photos shown so far. The overall aesthetic appeal for this template clearly dips when seen lining borders like the one shown below. The extra lines are really unnecessary.
Above are the few changes that could be tweaked with html knowledge. In addition, I'm also deciding on how to style my blog. Should I have a left or right sidebar or both sides or none? Should I place my buttons under the header? Do I need more buttons for my blog? How do I create buttons like "about the author", "the author's journey" and other buttons to complement the appearance of the social media buttons? Gasp! I clearly need to update the contents under these two pages now that I am re-reading them.
What kind of blog template do you have? Is having a clean feel important to you? How do you style your blog to reflect your personality?
I have always wanted a clean, white blog, because I felt the white look was less distracting, and looked more professional, sleeker. The "cute" theme (sparkle, gifs, bows, cutesy thingies) was never really a thing I liked. I tried it a few times, but it never felt like me, since I'm not really a cute person, I think.
ReplyDeleteMy blog template started from the simplest, whitest one that was available on Blogger, tweeked with so much css- and html-codes I lost track of them.
As for going through the first bits of tweeking, go to the Template tab of your blog, CLICK THE BACKUP/RESTORE BUTTON, DOWNLOAD FULL TEMPLATE AND SAVE TO YOUR COMPUTER (so important or else you might lose your original template and that won't be any type of fun, always make a backup in case something goes wrong). After doing that you can click the orange Customise-button below the "Live on Blog" image. You can play around there.
For example, changing the colour of your clickable text: go to the Advanced-tab; Links-tab; then you can change Link Colour (colour before clicking), Visited Colour (colour after clicking) and Hover Colour (when your arrow hovers over the word); change to whichever colour you like and click the orange button "Apply to blog" on the right upper side of your window.
Hope that helped you out a bit :) Good luck!
We'll keep coming back no matter what it looks like. So feel free to experiment. :)
ReplyDeleteHey Jo! Do you know Laura of "The Blog Of Worldly Delights"? She does this kind of stuff and well. She changes her blog like every month and has recently done blog makeovers for bloggers I read. Sometimes it's good to hire someone knowledgeable. I hired someone for mine.
ReplyDeleteI guess the white and minimalist design works for many bloggers. It's neat, clean, and cool. Though sometimes I want to view other refreshing looks hehe. Sometimes the too white looks so plain at some. And each blog looks the same. Oh well :)
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❤ ~Chai
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Bibi,
ReplyDeleteI like your blog. It is so personalised into your style. You've got the so-very-bibi header. You have personalised icon of yourself, you have those cute crayon? drawing, the tabs to clic all on a clean white background.
Thank you for the tips. I haven't played around with my template yet as I've been busy. Almost dozing off to sleep when I reach home at night almost every day and I surf everything on my smart phone. I know yout tips would come in very handy once I go searching for your key command in the css template. Thank you for the detailed description, Bibi!
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Rick,
I know you would! =)
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Kim,
I haven't heard of Laura. I would go search for her on Google soon to see her blog and some of her works. Your blog was professionally done? No wonder! It really looked like it. I would experiment on my own first and try to tweak here and there and if I still can't get more than 50% of what I've envisioned, I would probably look into professional help. Thank you, Kim!
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Chai Chen,
Yup I agree with you. There are actually quite a number of white blogs around. Hence, I like how each of the owner express their uniqueness through their header, sidebar and other customisation. I'm racking my brains on how to change my blog but I'm also short of time to really sit down and work on it.
i like the neat white and clean! it's less distracting i think.. with my own page i keep it white.. with just accents of pink.. because well.. i love pink hahahaha!
ReplyDeleteexcited to see your new blog layout IRL :)
oh i dunno. hehe.. the singapore noodles.. are called that in the US and in taiwan.. dunno what they are called in singapore.. they're thin rice noodles w/ curry so good!!! my aunt use to live in singapore for work a little bit.. and she said she ate it so much there she got sick of it hahaha.
Lisa,
ReplyDeleteI am looking towards white and pink for mine too. It would take quite some time coz figuring out the html coding takes quite some time.
Oh the noodles are with curry? Thin rice noodles meaning they are mi fen (that's in Mandarin). I think it doesn't have a proper name here. Haha.
I always prefer to read white blogs since a clean view is good for my eyes and I can see better all the contents on it!:) xo
ReplyDeleteHi dear! just found your blog! Love it!!! Do you want to follow each other? Let me know please and I follow you back!! See you sonn and kisses xxx
ReplyDeleteyou've gotten a lot of help and feedback on your theme already! :)
ReplyDeletei am always tweaking my theme, too...a clean look is great for highlighting your content and photos!
looking forward to seeing what you come up with :)
Yes, I love a clean feel for my blog too! I am always changing up the fonts and colors though.
ReplyDeleteWill wait for the new look on your blog. Have fun with that. :)
xx
That Sassy Girl
That Sassy Girl on Bloglovin
Lilli,
ReplyDeleteMy exact sentiments. =)
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Helena Nicolau,
Thanx for dropping by. I will check out your blog soon.
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Xlovehappyx,
Thanx for dropping by. I love seeing newcomers here. I would check out your blog and the layout soon.
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Seepz,
Thank you for dropping by my blog. I would take some time to change my layout in phases possibly.
Hi Jo! I'm excited to see your new layout! To be honest I think you should just make it to your liking since you're the one looking it the most and it is your blog <-- at least this is what I think lol! I also want a new blog layout but am terrible with html etc.!!! I also think your social media buttons are adorable! *sigh* I might end up hiring someone to just revamp my page ><
ReplyDeletesuki pooki,
ReplyDeleteThanx babe. I would do it how I like it but the problem is I'm bad at my html coding too! Hehehe... And yet, I don't wanna hire someone coz I feel a sense of accomplishment if I do it myself.