A New Look for the Blog's 1 Year Birthday

The Rosehaven Cottage blog (and website) turned a year old this week! I can't believe how fast a whole year has flown by. I decided that the blog (and website) needed a facelift with a design that was a better reflection of who I am.

I stayed up way too late last night coming up with designs based on my photographs and my art. I did mock-up homepages using Photoshop CS3 and Photoshop Elements in tandem until I found something that felt right.

Today, I ventured out into the cloud called the internet to find out how I could create my own Blogger template or at least customize an existing one so that it felt like it was my own.

Through the use of Google, I found the site Blogger Buster and the wonderful free eBook that she has available for downloading called "The Cheats' Guide to Customizing Blogger Templates".

With my mock-ups in one window and the eBook in another, I set up a test blog on Blogger so I could tweak the html code to my heart's content without messing up the real blog. Once I got it the way I like it, I went back to the real blog and made the necessary template change to Blogger's Minima and then did the very minor html code changes by hand instead of copying and pasting the code from the test blog. That way I didn't lose all my widgets and sidebar elements.

So this is the result! If I was a white goose, I'd dance with my head in the air.

The website is going to take longer to overhaul particularly since I need to get Mac-based software for the development. I'm leaning toward Adobe Dreamweaver and would appreciate feedback any of you may have on what has worked for you, what hasn't, and whether you've used Adobe Dreamweaver before.

As a little treat to commemorate the blog's birthday, I decided to go back through the last year's posts and feature some of my favorite photos with today's post. Enjoy!

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