Showing posts with label Violet Posy. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Violet Posy. Show all posts

Tuesday, 13 September 2011

If I could start my blog over I would...

(Thankyou to the BritMums site for this prompt, by the way - click here to see how a bunch of other bloggers have used it)

If I could start my blog over, I would;

... remain totally anonymous. (Not to other bloggers, pr's or advertisers, obviously. That would be silly). Then I could rant and rage to my heart's content about various people and places without fearing of upsetting anyone. Of course, in reality this is practically impossible, but it's nice to dream.

... choose a different platform from the beginning. Blogger has done me proud, but it is limited and when I cast an envious glance over other peoples' sites, I do wonder why I didn't do a little more investigating before hitting 'publish' that first time.

.... never have used that teeny tiny font which for some reason I did for the first year or so, until a very kind commenter was brave enough to request I take it up a size

... have asked Liz at Violet Posy to give the blog a make-over a whole lot earlier than I actually did.

... be more organised about keeping track of pr approaches, who paid for what and who I should be invoicing for continued space on the side bar etc. I mean, I love spreadsheets! Why didn't I just set one up to track it all?

... archive more often. The shock of Blogger's tantrum a few months back suddenly made me realise that I could have lost everything. And at 915 posts and counting, that's a lot of work to potentially say goodbye to.

But the biggest thing of all?

... I would have sat down and seriously thought through the potential embarrassment of having to stand up in a roomful of professional people and say, with a relatively straight face; "Hi. I'm Potty Mummy."

What on earth was I thinking?

Monday, 30 November 2009

Does my blog look big in this?

So, it's been a while since you looked - really looked - at yourself in the mirror. You know how it is; you find a look that suits you, that you think is the bees knees, and you stick with it. It fits you, it reflects what you're up to at that particular point in time, and you feel comfortable with it.

Time passes, though. Your shiny new look starts to look a little less new and a little less shiny. In fact, it becomes a little grimy around the edges and feel a little uncomfortable in certain places. It doesn't fit as well as it used to. You start to notice that there are other people around who are looking quite a bit sharper than you do. Their colour-ways are clearer and brighter. They are more on-trend, more on-message. They can do things you can't. You start to feel like the frump on the edge of the dance floor whilst the cool chicks are getting noticed and getting on down under the lights, and you begin to feel a little left out.

So you grasp the nettle, take your courage in both hands and decide it's time. Yes. You are going to have a blog make-over.

Well, actually, I grasped the nettle in the summer and got my logo designed then, but in the way of all good ideas, at that point the project stalled. I uploaded the logo, thought 'ah, that looks purty, I must do something about the template now' and funnily enough real life came along and got in the way, dammit.

So it's only now that the final look is present and correct and ready for duty.

I hope you like it. And if you think my blog looks too big from behind, don't tell me please. I'm just enjoying the moment for now...


Please don't think for an instant that I achieved any of this myself, as I am a luddite of the first order (you may have worked that out from the somewhat home-made previous incarnation of The Potty Diaries). If you're interested in doing something similar with your own blog, details of the lovely people who helped me with this transformation are as follows;

Bespoke blog logo design by gesadesign.com

Template design by ourblogtemplates.com

Overall blog design and project management by Liz at Violet Posy Design (Liz's other hat is as the fabulous blogger Violet Posy)