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.
It’s alive. ALIVE!
Nice, clean redesign! It looks very very good. I can’t possibly understand why you didn’t want to have bunnies and tulips frolicking on your masthead though ha ha …
Very nice! Especially the bottom feeder part :o)
I like the “bottom feeder” part, especially that it’s a reward for going all the way down.
The creepy mastheads made me laugh.
I like yelling “ta da!”
Looks great!
This is some really great stuff here. Wow.
It’s so beautiful that I want to make out with it.
(All the hilarious banners? MADE MY DAY.)
[...] only do I love Kerrianne’s new site design, her banner ideas seriously made my day. Share and Enjoy: These icons link to social bookmarking sites where [...]
Oh my god, your reject banners had me rolling! So funny! Maybe I can use the miniature pony one? Love the redesign. Cannot wait for more frequent posting. Yay!
Dude! I LOVE it! The masthead with the kid punching himself cracked me up. I also liked the selt belt one, too.
I have some nerd questions for you: did the migration to Wordpress 2.5 go smoothly? I think I’m still on version 2.0.4 – ha! I’m scared to update because I’m afraid my whole site will go ka-blooey. Oh well, that’s what backups are for, right?
I’m going to change my design in the next month, and the thing I covet the most is the ability to archive by year, then month. Your design is so beautiful and elegant – great job!
I love Blogcity! But I also loved the jackass and the miniature ponies. Also the bottom feeder is kickass. Make people WORK FOR IT!
Hurray for redesigns!
This is a rapid departure from the sidebar heavy blogs we’ve seen recently and I like it.
It’s like a delicious blog sandwhich. Beautiful heavy header on top, content all snuggly like in the middle, and big old “bottom” feeder underneath. My only suggestion: put some RSS feed buttons on that beyotch. You are beloved by many, but there’s always room for more subscribers, non?
I thoroughly LOVE it, especially now that I have discovered the bottom feeder. I suck at those small details. Ha. Kerragories. HA! I love you!
LOOKs Superb!! My congratulations to the designer and the one who provided the inspiration! And I declare I am a big big fan of the ‘english nerdery’ , happy you retained it.
I think I’m going to compile all the rejected banners and make them ALL yes.. ALL of them into my new twitter background.
you know.. once i figure out how.
love the new digs! good job, Chris!
(ps.. we’ll miss your cleavage?)
LOVE IT! Your hubby is a genius. Nicely done, you two. And those banners made me pee. Just a little though. I’ll take care of it later.
Friggin’ fantastic. The banners cracked me up. Hilarious!! All hail wordpress.
I adore those banners. Oh my. Esp. Option: Jackass and Option: Miniature Pony. Classic.
Ok, so next time you’re pouring those hearty glasses of wine, can I come over to drink some too? Because this is a whole wack of FUNNY. The banners I mean. The new design is fab.
WOW. I love, love, LOVE the new look! I am so impressed, and would pay you money to design my real site that has been languishing for months now. Well, money or pie.
I actually like it very much! I think it looks simple and lets me focus on your post without any crazy shit going on. Nice!
Ooh, pretty barbie dream house! I love the city-scape, and the green.
[...] Yesterday was a day full of kittens and bunnies and donkeys. [...]
Awesome redesign! The reject banners had me cracking me up. And I want to bite those bunnies, of course.
Those banners are hilarious!
I am a lame-o and thought to myself “wow, I wonder where Kerri’s been, and why is there a little red exclamation mark by her feed?” and then I clicked it and hey! Here you are, and I’m really, really behind. Can you whack me with that masthead that says “Don’t be a jackass?” kthxbai.