Monday, July 6, 2009

Pardon The Chaos...

Lately, I've been bored with the look of my blog. After my recent inspiration from the Jamboree, I've been wanting to rejuvenate my research as well as my blog. So I set out on the internet in hopes of finding a new layout.

I've been experimenting with different layouts, so this blog might be in a bit of chaos over the next week or so. The content will always remain here but the layout might change and might look weird as I try to change the look.

There are a TON of free blogger layouts out there. Some of them are nice, some are just plain ugly, and some are just plain strange. I've been going through site after site in an attempt to find a layout that was just right.

Then I realized I didn't know what kind of layout I even wanted. So I stopped searching and starting listing the qualities that I wanted in my new layout:
  • 2 column
  • colorful - preferably green
  • scrapbook-like
  • historic-looking
Besides those four ideas, I really have nothing. Let me tell you - there aren't genealogy related blogger templates out there (at least ones that are free and easy to find!).

I'm open to suggestions if anyone has any....

Thank you for dealing with the chaos over the next couple of days.

5 comments:

Family Curator said...

Hi Elyse, It was great to meet you at the blogger's dinner at Jamboree. And Yes, you are old enough to blog! and you do so quite well, too.

I've looked for exciting new blogger templates too. Here's a site to try (despite the cutesy name) http://www.thecutestblogontheblock.com/index.php

Family Curator said...

Here's a few more:
http://mashable.com/2007/09/13/blogger-templates/

http://www.bloggertemplates.org/

http://www.photoshopsupport.com/tutorials/jennifer/blog-templates.html

I can't wait to see what you choose.

Julie said...

Hey Elyse,

There is nothing wrong with your current blog. It's simple, well organized, and loads quickly.

But I understand your desire to get away from the traditional Blogger templates. Just a word of caution: Some templates are built poorly and don't work very well. Pay attention to the comments people leave about them...that will give you an idea as to whether or not they're worth it. And sometimes the comments provide quick-fixes, which are helpful to make the template work.

The template I use for all of my blogs (modified per blog) is from http://www.ourblogtemplates.com/. These were the best I could find after a lot of searching and trial and error.

Good luck! Can't wait to see what you decide to do!

Gini said...

Good Luck with your blog constuction Elyse, I know what you mean! I too have been wanting to change mine more to the way my header is but I am just not savvy that way, plus no time right now to play.
I also want to thank you for footnoteMavens card, I got it and I am so grateful to you thanks a million. It was so good to meet you and thanks for hanging out with us!

Jack said...

Hi Elyse,

I'm new to bloggng but have done online genealogy for many years. So I'm just using a wordpress default and looking around for something better. So this blog entry and comments were helpgul to me.
I'll be checking back to your blog from time to time. Nice to know there are young people interested in genealogy. By the way, my blog is http://www.jackreidy.com/blog/.



Jack