Tuesday, October 13, 2009

Blog Frustration

Perhaps some of you have noticed that my blog keeps changing a bit. I said I was in the mood for a change, but change comes harder when I want what I want and what I want is a changeble header without frames or borders. I tried several background colors and decided black shows off photographs the best, so black it is. Now, I want the header to stretch from one margin to the next, not sit in the middle. I want a photograph, that I took, to rest to the right, not be front and center. I want the photograph to fade at the bottom and left. My perfect header would have the blog title beginning at the edge of the photo in a unique font. AND...I want to have the ability to change the photo with the season or when the mood strikes. So for the last week and a half, I've been trial and erroring it through a test blog I set up, changing the template, HTML, and using the preset Layout on Blogger. I'm spending too much time searching for tutorials, suggestions, and how-to's while my frustration level at not finding what I want climbs to the point that I post a blog about it.

So if anyone out there in the blogsphere has any idea how I can achieve what I want, feel free to add your two cents worth and I'll be happy to try your suggestion.

The photo I'm trying to get to the left of the header is of a home that I named, the story book house, many years ago. It sits on a small hill with a brook gurgling behind it. The little barn sports dove cotes and the yard has always intrigued me. I like to imagine a cottage garden gracing the front yard to the entrance.
Story Book House

5 comments:

  1. Sorry to rain on your parade. But white letters on a black background is really hard to read. And that cottage does look so inviting ...

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  2. I adore this little cottage near where I live and it does look inviting. I encourage and respond to suggestions, comments, and ideas. I don't find white as hard on the eyes as I do yellow or red on black. Well now I have another dilemma, search for a way to have a black background for photos only. Hmmm....

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  3. One way to easily eliminate the borders around the pics and header is to make the border color the same color as the background.

    The way to have a wide header is to fit the header photo to the template by changing the dimensions in a photo program.

    The way to have a unique font on the Blog title is to use a photo program that allows you to add text and put the blog title on the photo, not in front as the template does it. The same applies to fades, that happens in a photo program, blogger doesn't do it. Not knowing how you manage your photos, I can't tell you more.

    One more thing, header photos, or any others are not static. If the viewer changes her browser from full screen, things change. My blog may look different on your computer than on my own.

    I don't like the black background and white letters, but that has to do with my vision problems, not your good taste.

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  4. Wow! Thanks NellJean for the suggestions, advice, and hints on my header. I actually removed the border by editing the HTML. I no longer have Photoshop, which is a real bummer. I could create my own header and make it just the way I want it. I use the program Picnik on Flickr to manipulate, add text, or other goodies to my photos.

    My problem seems to be I cannot get the header to increase in width, even though I've changed settings via HTML. I'm doing most of the tweaking/experimenting on a test blog.

    Thank you so much for taking the time to offer these suggestions. Hopefully, I'll have time to work on the header this week.

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  5. I can't really say, but is it possible that using Minima Stretch as your template rather than Minima might make your header a bit wider?

    Until you can get things lined up like you want, you might try putting a photo just under the header, like Susan of A Corner Garden does hers.

    It's all fun, but doesn't it take a lot of time? I have more things I need to do than I can get around to all the things I want to do.

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