Wherein Chris Seriously Considers Fleeing To A Deserted Island With No Wireless Connection

Did you click through from you respective feed readers? Did you hit control refresh? Did you notice you weren’t in Kansas anymore, Toto?

Recently we here at Casa de Jernigan were feeling a bit redesign inclined. That is to say, we were feeling a bit redesign inclined until about 10pm two Saturday nights ago, when we poured ourselves some hearty glasses of wine and gave up attempting to seriously design anything not boasting floating donkey heads, rabbits, and Angelina Jolie’s kids (click each for a larger view):

Oh, and seat belts:

Because this blogging can be seriously dangerous business. Especially blogging while driving, which I don’t highly recommend. Turns out, it’s difficult to simultaneously steer and scroll. I know, right? Completely surprising.

As it got later, the mastheads grew more and more frightening:

We decided to redesign for myriad reasons, not the least of which was that last Saturday Wordpress released their 2.5 version of awesomeness, and Chris is nothing if not impatient to try everything that is great right! this! minute! and did I mention I was still rocking a two-year-old version of Movable Type, and hello? Time to move on.

Ultimately, I’ve wanted to go green for awhile now, and I mean that in both the color scheme and eco-friendly turn of the phrase. While it was mostly a coincidence that the bulk of the design was being realized during Earth Hour, it was also entertaining to code, and argue about code, by candlelight. We ended up leaving the house dark and candle-laden for hours after 8pm because it was actually quite relaxing, the low light tones compensating for the high stress tones resting in Chris’ raised and sometimes incredulous eyebrows. Apparently, an animated Welsh pony isn’t stellar design fodder. Lesson learned.

The Changes, Specifically:

In addition to the more obvious changes of a one column design rather than three, I’ve also been in deep smit with the (as Chris and I deemed it last night) “bottom-feeder” addition for what feels like ages, a stylistic choice wherein the site and the content within doesn’t abruptly end after the last post listed, but instead “rewards” a reader for traveling all the way to the bottom of the page. It also just looks cleaner and more functional. To me, anyway. I like to think of it as my very own junk in the trunk.

Rather than showcasing a week’s worth of posts, the front-page content will simply display the most recently posted entry, complete with the ability to easily scroll to the previous page or the next page. I will herein warn you that I will be posting more frequently than my the once a week schedule I’ve adopted as of late, so while checking back often is enthusiastically encouraged, if you miss anything, it should be easy to move backward and forward between entries. There’s also a hand-dandy search bar, that will happily search and rescue! any word, phrase, or post title you are wanting to view. It’s a function I had in a previous design, and one that I missed in the most recent one.

The page filled with my favorite posts is gone, but for anyone looking for a few key posts to get to know me and what I write, that information will soon be supplemented in my About page, which, in the meantime, has been amply updated. Or, you can just ask me! I like questions.

The Archives page is super new, and super functional, with expanding views by month, complete with dates and post titles.

I’ve never mentioned this (I don’t think), but the picture hanging out underneath the Picture This header in the bottom-feeder? Also an outgoing link, to my Flickr page, amen. I think all the rest is self-explanatory, but feel free to disagree with me.

So. This is the part where I pretend I’m standing in front of a curtain I’ve just opened wide, unveiling my pretty new Barbie Dreamhouse, complete with pink convertible (a hybrid of course) and Ken in the backyard hot-tub with an aneurysm.

I might even yell “Tada!”

You know, hypothetically.

This is the part where you, dear readers and friends alike, toss your two (or five, or ten) cents into the Design Pool O’ Feedback, which is the swank cabana-laden watering hole I dug expressly for the Barbie Dreamhouse’s debut. So relax, have an umbrella accented drink or seven, and click your heels around a bit.

I hope you like my new blog city as much as I do.

If you don’t, I promise we can still be friends. Maybe.

Weekend Update, Leprechaun Edition

I haven’t run a 5k since 2005, when my sister and I signed up to “trot” a Race for the Cure in Portland and then on race day, about twenty minutes before we were set to briskly walk with the rest of the meanders, she asked if we could run. We have different memories of this day, but I remember knowing we would run even though we had said we were going to walk. I also remember that while she → Read more...

Things I’m Contemplating As I Enter This, My Superhero(ine) Phase

This post inspired by my friend and Patron Saint of Divorce Redemption.

We’ve all heard about the five (or seven) stages of grief, the designated personal places you must traipse within and for yourself to be able to stand tall on the other side of whatever loss you are suffering. Stages you need to fight your way through surviving, and really processing, to be able to find yourself again.

In my head I liken the five stages of divorce to a wily → Read more...

Do A Big Sister A Favor?

Today is babycarrot sister’s 26th! Day of Cake. Being that my sister happens to be (awesome, yes! and) one of my favorite people on the planet, I think instead of being here, you should go here, and read all about what made her day great. (Seeing as how we’re all very visual learners around these parts, I will tell you that there are most definitely pictures. Of cake, even!)

You could even wish her a happy! birthday. You know, if you → Read more...

My Heart Is A Nautical-Themed Pashmina Afghan

We interrupt copious amounts of Asia recapping this broadcast for a maritime digression of sorts.

You see, I’ve been a lover of the ocean, and of all things aquatic and nautical-inspired, ever since I can remember.

My love for sea-faring-everything might very well have been fostered during the myriad spring breaks spent exploring quaint coastal communities in and around Port Ludlow, Washington. Some of my fondest childhood memories spring forth from days spent poking my curious face into every trinket shop in → Read more...