Brown and Pink -- How sophisticated, I hope!

Dear Good Manners Devotees':

I'm experimenting with a new blog format today. What do you think of it?

I should share with you that I am not an artist or a computer programmer, so I am limited to using (and experimenting with) Blogger's formats.

When I first started my blog, I used the Dots template. It was sort of fun, but I didn't feel that it was playful in a mom/kids kind of way. Well, actually, the dots were fun but I couldn't figure out how to change the dots to colors that I liked. I could change fonts and type colors, but not the actual dot colors.

So next I tried Sand Dollar. Sand Dollar let me change colors, but the mixture I came up with was hard on the eyes -- yours and mine! Also, the page background color was supposed to be light yellow/beige, and while it showed in the code that it was, it wouldn't stick or show up for real. I would go in and switch colors around but I could never get the background to change and the other colors just didn't look any better than what I had set up.

In the meantime, I used other Blogger templates to set-up both my Good Sport Bad Sport Blog and my Good Manners Kids Stuff Press Blog. And they look fine -- not awesome, but fine.

Then, I tried out a Wordpress Blog template for my Good Manners Kids Stuff Blog to talk about the products on my website -- and while I think that format is really cute, I have trouble putting links, etc., in it so I don't want to switch this one over there.

So, although I was all set to write about airport manners today, I felt that my time would be better spent trying to find a more attractive design first.

What's fun (and dangerous) with the Blogger templates is that once you've filled in all of your information, you can just select a template and hit "preview." It pops up with all of your information on it. As long as you don't hit "save," you haven't ruined your original template. You can just keep selecting new ones to see what your blog will look like.

As I previewed templates, I came to the same conclusion that I had before -- no new templates had been added so I wasn't going to find any new happy children/mom type layouts. But, while I was going through the motions of previewing them with all with my information, it suddenly occurred to me that my topics aren't really just about young children's manners or doings. Really, I like to think that I'm providing more of a (hopefully) humorous commentary about the world's manners. Maybe my blog doesn't have to look happy children/mom-like.

Suddenly, the templates looked a little more interesting as I previewed them. Then, the younger Good Manners Daughter (and her best friend) happened to be walking past when I previewed a very trendy (and dare I say sophisticated) brown and pink template and they emphatically said, "Oooh, that looks cool!"

So with that ringing endorsement, I hit "save template" ... and in a split second, the garish, old Good Manners Mom Blog was history!

(Not the hugely popular content, I rush to assure you, of course!)

I hope you'll embrace my newest style, and check back often to see if I make any subtle -- but surely attractive -- enhancements. (This template is called Thisaway.) I'd love to know what you think of the new look that I was able to accomplish without being an artist or computer programmer. Feel free to let me know what you think about it or any of my other blogs.

Until next blog,

Leslie