Some people say "never say never" ... I need to be one of those people. That saying is perfect for someone who changes their mind a lot, like I do. So ... YES THE BLOG DESIGN HAS CHANGED YET AGAIN!!! I put out a warning the other day that there might be some small changes ... but nothing like this !! While it's almost 2am and the hounds are in a deep sleep, let me explain the why and how.
The all white background I had been using was just too bright for me. When I added a slight bit of color, it didn't look right. Then the more I looked at the theme I was using, the more I didn't like it. (At least today) So before the ballgames started at noon on Tuesday I started playing around a little with some small changes and the same design.
After watching the Rose Bowl, I decided to 'get serious' about making some BIG changes to the way the blog looked. Maybe this idea also started when I changed my computer settings back to the 'dark mode' and also went into Firefox settings to change their theme to the 'dark mode.' It's easier on the eyes for the amount of time I spend in front of this computer.
Using the same design that I had for the past week, I made the background black but the post background was white and that clashed too much with the black background I wanted. I could have changed the white background by adding some CSS code but even if I did that, I still did not like that design.
I thought I had found a pretty good theme (template), with page wide images and the columns of old posts on the front page but I ran into the same problem ... the background of the post was white and that is not what I wanted. I wanted the page to be black or dark gray, completely around my photos
I have always known that photos look better against a black or dark gray background. Why would Apple changed their Photos program a few years ago to that same idea? Or when I would look at other blogs that had a black background, their photos looked really good. They stood out with the darker background surrounding them, compared to a light or white background.
So I thought I had it ... but again, I would have had to find some code or get the code from the WordPress CSS forums to change the white background.
I kept looking through templates.
I set three requirements in the WordPress theme search ... (1) Style: Clean (2) page wide images (3) Background: Black
Then I saw it. I clicked on a theme I had used two weeks ago based on the notes I had written in my 5x8 notebook next to my keyboard. It had everything I wanted. LARGE PHOTOS, a 'footer' sidebar and a front page that would show past post in date order, newest on down, with the date or time I had written the post.
I grabbed my iPhone and iPad Mini to see what the new design would look like. It looked great on each. There was one adjustment I had to do with the header image. I had to hide it and go with the plain color header because on the phone, the title could not be seen and there was a menu bar cutting right through the middle of the picture. Besides, a header image is too small on a phone to see it.
I might have to lighten this font color for the blog post. As promised I did keep the font the same as the previous two weeks. I had a few people let me know that it was easier to read, after I changed it. The fonts are the exact same font and the same size as before.
I will have to live with the three columns of past posts on the front page not being exactly even due to the slight difference in the size of the photos. I also have to insert a space between each photo where I have listed them one after another, without content.
I can live with both of those differences to have the most important stuff.
IF you have problems reading the blog or just don't like it ... let me know and tell me what device you use to read the blog. IE: phone, tablet or computer.
That was my thought process for changing the blog. I have always thought since the blog seemed to be about the hounds more than anything else, that the photos needed to be the main focus and they needed to be large for me and the readers that use computers.
In the meantime I am headed for bed. It's 2:32am and I need to get a few hours of sleep before Stella, then Heidi wake me up to serve them breakfast. Since retirement I have never used an alarm clock to get up, but why would I need one since the hounds always whine loud enough to wake me up.
It's been a good weekend of football in 'the tropics' of Southern Indiana.