Welcome Spring!

March 24th, 2007

What better way to welcome the Spring season than with a new layout design! This actually took me less time than I thought it would and I'm hella glad. I do like my last theme, but I got a little tired of it after a while. I hope that this one is a bit more colorful and organized for everyone! I'm going to work on my pages next, making sure they all look good with this design. Also, I'm going to keep weeding out the unecessary things that I decided visitors weren't interested in, according to my CrazyEgg results for the last site test I ran.

We recorded a new episode of the :podcast: podcast on Thursday and it should be available for listening this weekend! Our topics cover mostly web technology, Google stuff took priority. One of the neato things that have come out lately is themeing for the Google homepage! You can now spice up the page with cool themes that change according to what time of day it is for you, which is wicked. My favorite is "Tea House".

Another thing I wanted to plug was the CSS Naked Day event!

The idea behind this event is to promote Web Standards. Plain and simple. This includes proper use of (x)html, semantic markup, a good hierarchy structure, and; well, a fun play on words. I mean, who doesn't want to get naked? ~ CSS Naked Day

You know you wanna participate! For one day (April 5th) just remove your CSS file from your site, stripping it down to its skivvies! I'm totally getting in on this. I've already tested to see how my site will look without a style, and it's bare but not too ugly, hehe! Luckily, there's a universal snippet of text you can add to the top of your page to explain the nakedness so your visitors won't be confused. And it's only for one day, so no worries!

Oh yeah! On March 22nd Chaz and I celebrated two years of dating! Woot! Yay for us! I'll post when the podcast goes up! Have a great Saturday!

Comments

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Jordan Mar 24, 2007

This changed right before my eyes! I was on here stalking your site, and I go to a new page, and bam! new layout!

Though I’m not sure if it can replace my love for the previous one, but I defintiely like the pink gradients you’ve got going around =) :award:

Melissa Mar 24, 2007

Yay! Thank you! I really love this layout lots! Oh but don’t worry, I am bringing back the style switcher as soon as I sync up the stylesheets. Then the black rainbow style will be back.

Anna Mar 24, 2007

Gorgeous new theme, so fresh! I love it! I especially like the gradient that shows up when you hover over the links at the top, and the top banner itself. Keep up the great work! :medal:

Caitlin Mar 24, 2007

Oh I love the new design!
And congratulations on 2 years! That’s awesome.

Mar Mar 24, 2007

I like it but at the same time I don’t. But I don’t really know why so its safe for you to just go with the “I like it” part of that.

2 years, thats impressive!

Ashley Mar 24, 2007

I love the new design! It’s so feminine and pretty!

Congrats on 2 years! Yay! I know how exciting that can be!!

CSS Naked day sounds fun. :rainbow:

Jessica Mar 24, 2007

Pink & green is hard to do (just look at my site lol) & you do it wonderfully. And congrats on the 2 years! It’s almost time for the next step I think. :gb:

Melissa Mar 24, 2007

@Anna: Thanks, I had fun making those!

@Caitlin: Yay thank you so much!

@Mar: Lol! Oh but is there any way you could tell me what you don’t like about it? I would love to make it better.

@Ashley: Thank youuuu, Ashley-bee! And yeah, go CSS nakedness!

@Jessica: Aw thanks lots! And we will see about the “next step”…

Joe Mar 24, 2007

Heyy. I am so sorry I couldn’t make it. Can’ wait to hear when it is up! Love ya!
Joey

Melissa Mar 24, 2007

@Joe: No problem, hon, we missed you! We need to come up with another kick ass “Web Corner” segment soon!

Angela Mar 24, 2007

Oooo I love the new layout, it’s cute! And woot, I’ll listen in to the podcast :D! I love that you can now theme your google page too, it makes me happy :D!

Melissa Mar 24, 2007

Aww, thanks, Angela! :gb:

Lexi Mar 24, 2007

I really like the new layout, very “springy”!

I don’t think I’ll participate in naked day, lol. I can’t code for crap, so I do what I have to for my page to meet my vision and it always has tons of errors, lol. I’d hate to see it without it!

Melissa Mar 25, 2007

@Lexi: Hehe, thankies! And I get what you mean. Sometimes I get so frustrated with web standards because I want to do a certain thing so BAD because it will look cool but it “isn’t allowed”! Grr…but I guess in the end its alright.

Daniel Nenadovid Mar 25, 2007

dang, you and chaz have only been dating for two years? shit, enduring warriors seems so long ago! like… ancient history, or something… damnit, i’m only 18, and i’m beginning to feel old =(. stupid time and its trappings.

Amy Mar 25, 2007

The new layout looks great Melissa! I love the touch of pink in the layout, very classy! I loved your old layout too.

That is really cool that you make podcasts! I’ve been meaning to listen to the one on the Quilting Bee for a while but haven’t gotten around to it. I had no idea that we could now customise our Google homepages with themes! My favourites are the Tea House and Bus Stop themes.

CSS Naked Day sounds like fun! I don’t think I know enough about coding to make my site look good without its stylesheet though. Congratulations to you and Chaz for two years of dating too!

As for the Wordpress plugins, I’ve been looking for one that allows you to comment directly on comments. I saw it on another site and it looked really cool! I should contact the owner and ask them about it.

Yikes! Sorry about the long comment! :gb:

Bubs Mar 26, 2007

Happy anniversary AND great new layout :rainbow:

Melissa Mar 26, 2007

@Dan: It was a long time ago. That is quite ancient history, but still a good history nonetheless. And quit feeling old you youngin’! I’m 4 years older than you, I should be the one feeling old!

@Amy: Yay, thanks! I love the Tea House one too! I keep trying to find the easter egg in it, apparently there’s supposed to be one. And that sounds like an interesting plugin, you’ll have to let me know if you find out about it!

@Bubs: YAY thanks and thanks!

Scot Smith Apr 15, 2007