Monday, January 14, 2008

Anatomy of an Obsession

So last week I started to think, maybe Tuesday, "it would sure be cool to put something new on my blog...".

Wednesday it developed into, "wow I wish I knew how to do as many cool things as Virge does on her blog..." There was maybe a half-hearted attempt to look at blog templates.

Thursday I went to Virginia's blog and stared at it, hoping some of her creative genius would float my way through her blog. I called Melissa and asked if she wanted to come over and have coffee and help me find a new template. (She changes her template a lot). So we looked at different free-template websites. I didn't see anything that really caught my eye, well, I did and I downloaded it, but I couldn't find it on my computer (nice). Crissy came by and we looked at blog templates together (which may have been the reason she changed her template Thursday night) and then wasted time watching Youtube for two hours. It was NOT a waste of time looking at templates. Crissy left because of a bad storm in our area and I proceeded googling "free templates", trying to find something that I liked. I was really looking for a cool header; something that didn't look like the typical blogger stuff that was already available to me. Didn't know how to do that.

Friday, I woke up with the blog on my mind and spent the day thinking about it and trying to figure out how to do it. I would repeatedly try putting a picture up and then the writing would be over the picture and it looked stupid because it was a weird color or not centered correctly so then I would take it down.

Saturday afternoon I went, again, to Virginia's blog and stared at it. Ginger had spent the day with me and we stared together. I moved the cursor to the image in her header and it said "photobucket". A-ha! I went there and, after trying to figure out the site, actually did a pretty cool thing called a "remix" and it was cool, but it was also similiar to the slideshow thing that you can do for your blogs and it wouldn't translate to my header. By this time, I was pretty frustrated, to say the least. Why couldn't I figure this stupid thing out! My husband had spent the entire day doing a car ministry thing with our church and got home dirty and tired. Of course, I had not prepared dinner; other things were more pressing. We actually got into a fight because I would not get off the computer. I sulked around, made pancakes, did laundry, and mopped the floor- all the while trying to figure out what went wrong! Why would it not work? Why couldn't I get it right? What would I do? What COULD I do? I couldn't leave my blog as-is now; I could not be satisfied with plain font writing in my header! Not when I had seen there was CURSIVE font somewhere! Imagine it (me with starry eyes and my hands up in the air) "cursive font". I went to sleep (still mad that Quinn had made me get off the computer) and hoped that maybe Sunday I could figure it out.

Sunday afternoon we had the Bowmans over (well, Lance came but Amy stayed home with the sick baby) and then Quinn, Lance, and Shaun went to play discgolf. I had called Virginia over, luring her with peach cobbler, to come for a visit. She saw through my manipulative charade and knew I needed her to help me with my undying obsession: REPLACING MY HEADER. We succeeded (obviously) and now I am satisfied. I even taught her a thing or two (wink, wink). And maybe I shouldn't say "satisfied". I've done new headers for Rachel (she didn't ask me to, I just sent her one-obnoxiously) and I've just completely redone Quinn's blog (also obnoxiously). Now I'm thinking maybe I could download some cool pictures online and figure out a new header a week...
Thus the birth of another new obsession...

Sigh...

9 comments:

heather said...

Crazy girl.

Anonymous said...

You're funny! I like what you did with Quinn's! You can redo mine anytime!

Texas Aggie in Florida said...

It looks great! I just started a blog makeover business. I'm doing freebies to get practice, if you want any help. I'm working on 2 right now for friends. I use my digital scrapbooking stuff to do them. I did the Pham's. I don't know if you ever saw it. I'll send you my links to the ones I'm doing when they're all finished.

Virginia said...

You are a freak, my friend. I'm going to have to invite you to join the "Geek Squad." ;) LOL

Glad you are a computer nerd now. Hehehe

Anonymous said...

You're hired to do mine. I've ignored my baby all day working on my blog. I've now changed it a total of 14 times. It's currently at the new one I changed it to this morning which was maybe change #3. Yeah, I am totally with you. My problem is I'm never satisfied because the options are endless. This is why I do NOT need to do scrapbooking. My poor family would starve. We should get together again, and this time we'll just eat and watch flight of the conchords. Yeah, that sounds so much more fun. Love ya, babe.

Michelle said...

Obsess away. I love the header and you taught me something new.

Michelle said...

Oh and I just checked Quinn's out...WOW! I can not even tell you how perfectly dreamy and wonderful that looks.

Missy said...

Who Knew....sigh

Marsha said...

Okay, what am I missing here? Everyone seems to be learning from you oh Master of the Blogosphere. PLEASE teach me how to do cursive on my header! I am SO frustrated with the straight line look. I can't afford a professional redo yet...but I'm saving my pennies. So, until then, oh MOTB, please share your secrets.