Overhaul

I can never keep up but don’t stand still.

About the time I was ready to launch my last custom theme, Google started penalizing for mobile compatibility, and I wasn’t designing for mobile. That’s probably why I tend more towards creating child themes of core WordPress themes these days.  When I saw the new twentyseventeen, I thought, “Finally! A theme I can work with.”

I converted the ole website over last weekend, and am currently updating content. Already added new examples for Red Silk Essentials, Alpine Leadership, and FUSJR.

And the sun sets on another design…

Finally! A New Theme

March 10, 2013 We're eady to get on the road again.
March 2013: We’re ready to get on the road again. Does Spring make you want to ramble?

I’ve been talking about it forever (Fall and Oops, Did it Again), but can finally launch my all new theme. It was time to go through the whole site and upgrade the plug-ins and styling on my home-on-the-web. Time to go through old posts and clean up links and pictures.

It. Was. A. Lot. Of. Work.

I had gotten to the point that I didn’t want to post anything because I  didn’t want to have to work that into the new site’s database. A swap over is intimidating enough as it is—although I do them all the time .

Now I can post away, and am considering expanding my content to include a more personal tone. Since, I’m never getting around to that personal blog… I will definitely expand on examples of my work and post articles about some of the questions or tips I’m asked about often. But you may soon also see posts about food, gardening, vacations, dogs, etc. What is a blog for, after all?

April 27, 2013 Time for soaking up the sunshine.
April 2013: Time for soaking up the sunshine.

Wee Bit O’Green Updated

Aspen Grove and Iris near Buckles Lake

In honor of St. Patrick’s Day and Spring—the Spring Equinox this year is Sunday. It was high time for me to change my wintry, gray and white website to something more green, bright and spring-like. The background photo I chose was actually taken in June of 2004 at Buckles Lake which is 20 miles south of Pagosa Springs. We took the VW bus (a 1965 13-window deluxe) and the dogs camping and ended up next to this gorgeous field of flowers and iris blooming amongst the aspens.

The aspens in my yard are starting to get fuzzy catkins but have not started leafing out yet. I think we still have a few weeks, and it will probably be May/June before the aspen groves up high are accessible and look this lush.

With the aid of Cascading Style Sheets (CSS), it’s very quick and easy for me to change elements of my site. The changes today probably took me about an hour—and most of that time was deciding what photos and colors I wanted to use. I think writing and organizing the content for this post took me at least that long! I use Firebug to tweak the colors and opacity and to preview background image choices before I update the final version that you see. It’s a very handy web tool. I wouldn’t be able to design and test CSS sites without it.

Updated (March 22, 2011): I really like the green changes and have every intention of changing the color theme throughout the season, but I’ve been looking at my site since I added the green and feel like something’s still not quite right. Something’s making it too busy. Maybe too difficult to read?

Today I decided to tweak it a little bit more. I changed the background to another image I have of aspen trees on our way to Poage Lake. You can see other photos from this area in my post about The Name of our company. I also decided to flip the background color to purple and accents (like on my portfolio page) to green. I think this is a little easier on the eyes and isn’t quite as intense. It is only March anyway and things aren’t THAT green yet.