I took me seven whole days of very hard work. I am not sure I knew, or even know now, what I was doing, or how I did it, but I suddenly decided that my blog needed a fresh lick of paint. The new template still needs some tweaks here and there, and I plan to add some more items to my blog roll, but I just couldn't wait any longer. The time to unveil it is now.
"a change is as good as a rest"
I have tested this new template in firefox and internet explorer and although there are a few differences between the two, I think they it is working well enough in both to be usable but please let me know if you come across any huge problems.
"PS: Looks like I spoke too soon. The sidebar is dropping to the bottom in internet explore. Although I tested this exhaustively, something has gone awry in the translation to my main blog. I thought it might have been because I had some rather large pictures, so I just scaled them all down but the problem is not fixed. I will be busy for the rest of the weekend, so won't be able to get back to this for a while, but, my dear internet explorer readers, rest assured I will be doing everything I can to fix it as soon as I can. [Cheeky aside: in the meantime you could always download firefox - it's much better than ie, anyway!]"
Auguri on the new look, Sam! I love the banner!
ReplyDeleteSam - it looks great in Safari! The banner is awfully nice. I thought of you a couple of days ago when I cut into a big red pepper and a little green pepper jumped out!
ReplyDeleteIt looks great. Love that picture at the top. Congrats. I'm sad I won't be able to congratulate you in person tomorrow.
ReplyDeleteYour blog still looks fantastic. Love that "strawberry pepper" shot. Like Catherine, I've found baby peppers inside mummy peppers too.
ReplyDeleteI can't figure out the Internet Explorer thing either. (If you do, let us know. Pretty please! :))
Haha! The strawberry within the pepper photo is fitting to your "unique" blog and new layout! Looks incredible!
ReplyDeleteI love the new banner !
ReplyDeleteAnd I agree, firefox is way better :-)
Awesome job Sam! Unique and gorgeous!
ReplyDeleteI'm looking at it in IE and it looks great to me! I also love the "strawberry pepper."
ReplyDeleteHi Sam,
ReplyDeleteWoah, your new site design is *gorgeous*. I love it. Love that tomato, too. :-)
Yay! Return of the freak tomato! I like the new layout, it's so clean a crisp!
ReplyDeleteWow, Sam, it looks great! I love how clean everything looks -- very fresh and reader friendly. Makes me want to hang around for a while :)
ReplyDeleteAh, that explains the slowdown of posting in the last couple days, I love the new look!
ReplyDeleteVery nice! I especially love the photos on the drop down menus.
ReplyDeleteLovely, Sam. I agree with Kalyn...the pics on the drop-down menus are cool! Great job :)
ReplyDeleteThis is so gorgeous Sam! And it looks like it was loads of hard work so well done!
ReplyDeleteWoooooooooow Sam, this is a huge change and itirefox and everything is just PERFECT!
ReplyDeleteFanny
Looks fantastic! And I love that photo of the cut pepper in the banner :)
ReplyDeleteGorgeous! I noticed you'd been quiet, hoped you were on holiday. And given the "rest", I guess you were! Great work, Sam, a real inspiration.
ReplyDeleteLove it Sam! Beautiful new design!
ReplyDeleteLove the clean redesign!
ReplyDeleteIt looks good Sam; hope you had a fantastic picnic
ReplyDeleteThree cheers from another Safari user here (wink, wink to Catherine).
ReplyDeleteI wish I knew how you did this, but then, you don't know!
Looks clean and aesthetically pleasing. Love it!
ReplyDeleteumami
http://umami.typepad.com/
Hi Sam,
ReplyDeleteVery nice job on the redesign. It's like repainting a room that didn't really need to be repainted. A lot of hard work, but totally worth it in the end. Kudos!
A change is as good as a feast.
ReplyDeleteI like your new colors...Pale blue. pale orange, very delicate! And I find pale colors more apetizing, too, and the new banner is Oh so cute!
bravo :)
Sam, Your new look is very, very visually pleasing. Soft palette choices - great! I can see if perfectly using my IE. Seems like everything is lined up as it should be, sides bars included.
ReplyDeleteI love your new design! I added an Link to your Blog to my Link List. Hope that's okay :-)
ReplyDeleteLet me join the chorus and say it looks fab-tastic.
ReplyDeleteThat must have been a lot of work, so kudos!
One thing though, are the links on the right supposed to bring up one site or list like you had before? Currently, they are direct links to one site. At least in my (IE) browser.
Bravo again,
Rachael
Love the freak pepper in the banner
ReplyDeletelooks fab sam. love the image on the banner and colours!
ReplyDeleteAnother kudo from a Firefox user. Beautiful hybrid. What do you call it? Strawbell? Strepberry?
ReplyDeleteLooks great! worth the hardship!
ReplyDeleteLove the new look Sam!
ReplyDeleteFirefox and Safari both are looking good!
Well done!
Congratulations, the new look is awsome. and it works just as well in safari. good to know.
ReplyDeleteLove the new banner photo! The new design allows for getting lots more info in your sidebars -- so clever. I'm using Firefox most of the time, and it looks great.
ReplyDeleteBlogs, like food itself, are best when fresh.
ReplyDeleteNice job!
Very nice and clean. Go on wit' yo' bad self, woman!!
ReplyDeleteLet me join the rest of the gang, I'm so impressed!!
ReplyDeletePS...thanks for adding me to the French for Fred blog-roll...I'm chuffed with pride!
sam, your new design is awesome. what a dramatic change in the look and feel; and i love the smooth little click-to-open feature of your lists :)
ReplyDeleteNice banner
ReplyDeleteI like the airy feel and new sections.
I look forward to contribute to the September edition of Wine Blogging Wednesday on 'Champagne'.
I need to do some work on 'Serge the Concierge' myself.
Have a good day
Serge
Biz:
http://www.njconcierges.com
Blog:
http://www.sergetheconcierge.com
Nice! Love how clean looking it is. And, it looks great in Flock!
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Very nice! I love that you have adopted the freaky tomato as your mascot! Great job on the template overhaul. I'm starting to get an itch to work on mine too, but don't have the time or ability currently.
ReplyDeleteThe Bay Area Food Bloggers Picnic also looks like a lot of fun. I hope San Diego will get it together for something like that someday!
wow ! so many lovely, lovely comments.
ReplyDeletethank you all.
ivonne, ok - you got me - i have to go and look up auguri. But i need a clue - is that a swedish word or an italian one?
catherine - its funny. when i started updating my template, it was really to get rid of the drop down menus. a couple of days in i had a brainwave to use that picture in the banner and then everything just fell into place - the colour scheme was instantly sorted. i am very pleased.
ced - don't be sad! I am sure our paths will corss again one day..
belinda - it's actually a tomato, not a pepper, odd as that may seem. the ie problem could be one of many many things. the problem here was with an old post being to wide i suspect. but you can also get the problem occuring if you made some kind of error in your template code.
passionate eater - thank you. but ihave to admits it was a tomato, now i come to think of it , it does look more like a pepper though... or a strawberry?
cioppino - exactly - i can;t understand how people survive these days without tabs!
thank you sweet Zarah-Mariah!
susanV - i think i fixed the IE problem again once I had written the post, phew.
Elise - not as gorgeous as you in your swimming cossie ?!
Garret - would you say it was 'shibby' perhaps?
jennifer - please do stay, there are plenty of archives to go through.
gerald - oops i think it was slightly more than a couple of days, maybe seven of them would sum up my template pain? I hope it was worth the wait.
kalyn - i went through a few iterations with those hotos. At first they were big and clunky but i minimized them to be more subtle. it was fun choosing which picture shoud represent each category.
payal - thank you - I am enjoying your new blog too.
bonnie - you are right - it was a LOAD of hard work. I luckily had a bit of spare time so I am glad I was able to put it to good use.
fanny - thank you - i am a big fan of your template look so I am happy to hear you like mine too.
ellie - it is a fun photo, but would you be surprised if I told you it was a tomato not a pepper?
AK - I can hardly describe that as a rest. On sme days I was even burning the midnight oil!
Bea and WMM- thank you both!
mum - we did read the next post for details.
cookie - i could probably give you a hint, along the lines of "just look at my source code". is that unhelpful of me? that's how i worked it all out myself.
hey umami - so good to see you - its been a while, thanks for stopping by!
mary - cool anology, but now I''ve done it I truly believe it did need to be done. I am not sure that I knew that at the start, though. thanks for the kudos.
del4yo - it saves you from having to illustrate my banner for me! see you tomorrow.
christine - i will let you in to a secret - fred persuaded me to go with pale instead of bold colours and I couldn't be happier with his advice. it works a treat.
dani - of course it is ok - thank you very much! No one ever needs to ask to link TO me!
rachael - you are confusing me - in my version of IE each 'wrod' drops down a menu of links to the various sites. You are not seeing that?
Jennifer - tomato, tomato!
deborah - luckily or me the photo led to the colour scheme - I couldnt really go wrong with that.
chip - how about strawtom or matoberry?
amanda - i might have finished it a day earlier if you hadnt have torn me away from my desk!
meeta and lobstersquad - thank you both for your kind words!
lydia - it certainly makes a welcome change from having hundreds of lines of text actually showing in the blog roll, I agree,
mimi - fresh is a descroption I like, so thanks for seeing it that way
s'kat said "Go on wit' yo' bad self, woman", I said, timidly, "ok, then I'll try"
melissa - i think you have been there for quite a while, but in my old style drop down menus they didnt show up in technorati so you may never have known the link was there.. I didnt actually update any of my links during the template makeover, just updated the ones that were already there.
thak you sarah - I am so glad you like it.
serge - cheers - I am looking forward to seeing your champage entry!
shelly - you have been linked there for a while, but it is only showing on technorati since the template change. hope you are having fun on vacation!
l - flock! you are already using it? I was too tired of hacking to try new software just yet...!
Alice - if you set up a test site, you can twiddle with your templacte a bit at a time. At least that is what i do. I am so glad that the number of SD bloggers is growing. FUnny to think that a just over a year ago whn i visited, I could barely find any blog at all!
I love the new design for the site. The pepper picture is so clean, yet appropriate, it works really well! This is a totally unique design that I think is going to go over really well with the food blogging community!!
ReplyDeleteA Man - thank you - but I have to say, it's a TOMATO!
ReplyDelete