HTML whaaat?!

For someone who's had various personal blogs dating all the way back to the dark ages of 2002, I don't know very much about HTML.  And by not much I mean nothing at all.  Reading code makes my eyes cross and my brain squeal.  When I grew tired of my amateruish tinkered-with blogger standard design-fare, I decided it was time for a wee change of scenery. Gulp.  I saved my current code in about 50 different places and went for it.

I created little social media buttons, linked them to my accounts, and added them in as a new widget. I don't love them, because they look a little low-res, but for a first attempt, I'm okay with them.

I created a new header, because my old one took AGES to load and was frankly way too big and annoying.  Now you can actually see part of my post from the homepage.

I also changed up the title - I was on a big no-caps bender a few months ago, but I kind of like the formality of the large F.  I also love how it fit perfectly so the old rusty nail could function as a period. What I don't like is how limited I was on fonts (I made the new one in PicMonkey).  I used Special Elite, and it is a little cluttered-looking for me.  I'll probably change it again, but for now it's okay. 

Then I added a background.  Now.  I am generally not a fan of backgrounds - I think they can be distracting, particularly when they are busy or have a seam.  I prefer to look at super-clean blogs like this or this, but sometimes find that super-clean look a bit scandinavian minimalist, which I associate with freezing cold.  (Weird, I know, but true.  I reach for a blanket when I read the new issue of Dwell.)

So I'm trying out a background.  It can be done really well, like here or here.  

See how plain it looks? I might as well have ditched the murky green-ish gray for white and gone minimalist.

The bokeh lights add a bit of sparkle and interest. 

So that's it!  I added a simple search bar at the top, and switched up my side-bar.  We shall see how long this version lasts.  I will say it was surprisingly easy to change things up.  I am enjoying PicMonkey's user-friendly interface, but I still miss Picnik. It was cute, simple to use, and included classic photo-editing options.  I mean, I enjoy a Holga filter as much as the next person, but I don't want to look back at my pictures in 5 years and wonder why I was such a fucking hipster.  I hear Snapseed is the photo-editing app du jour.  It's $20, so not a huge investment, but still, I wonder...has anybody used it?