Jan 30
WinterWarm: A sneak preview…
I’ve done a fair bit of work on the site design and only have a few things left to tweak. I found a theme I absolutely adore but the layout is fairly image based so I had to do a lot of editing in Fireworks to change the colours.
But, boy, do I love the colours now! So here is a sneak preview…
(Note: I’ve compressed the image so it looks a little blurry here, but at least I’ve saved you some time on page load.)
The base theme had no header image so it took some work to build that in, although the hardest part was finding the right image to begin with and then blending it so that it would work full width while the content itself was fixed width.
I also incorporated a more website-style menu, rather than the usual blog-like list of pages beecause the blog isn’t the most important feature of the site: Making sure people have access to all the information they need to help us out is. I couldn’t take a screen shot with the hover effect - because I had to use my mouse to get the screen shot, but on hover the menu item changes to a lilac background, also with the little arrow indent.
Like I said, the CSS is a little image based but I haven’t created something like this before so I’m quite pleased. The 3 pictures there will change. I’ve just used stock images while working on the layout. Unfortunately my mother’s external hard drive got stolen so I don’t have access to all her photographs from Afghanistan.
It was a horrible loss for her after a decade of working overseas and travelling to exotic places and meeting so many wonderful people. Unfortunately her laptop only has thumbnails so everything is gone. It’s a good reminder to backup, I guess. But what an awful reminder!
I also switched the theme to left sidebar instead of right, again, so it appears more as a website than a blog, and I removed the top navigation bar all together.
I’ll probably write more about it the base theme later - and bore you all to tears - but I just wanted to show you a little bit of what I’ve been doing while abandoning this blog to hurried, un-proofread posts.
And when I finally have some free time? Boy, is this blog’s design in for a major overhaul!
January 30th, 2008 at 9:23 pm
I love the colours too. And the concept of the project. Looking forward to hearing/seeing more.
January 30th, 2008 at 9:38 pm
looks great!! You’ve done a terrific job on it!
January 31st, 2008 at 12:00 am
Looking nice. Our Year 12s are studying The Kite Runner this year, so I’m going to have a word to the senior English teachers…
January 31st, 2008 at 1:29 pm
Looks bloody wonderful, darling! I think you are infernally clever to be able to do all that.
February 1st, 2008 at 10:48 am
Still more to do, but I’ll take my bow now. Feel free to throw roses.
I’m feeling a bit exhausted, but also excited. And I’ll be glad when this part is all over and we can focus on the really important part of the project.
Heath, have you read it or seen the movie? I’ve heard the film is a little gloomy in comparison to the people of Afghanistan who, like many people in countries less well-off than ours, are bright and friendly and quick to smile.
But I’d love to hear what the senior English teachers think, when it’s up and running.
February 20th, 2008 at 11:59 pm
Wow - it looks great. But what does your mother do that she travels to Afghanistan and Sudan?
February 21st, 2008 at 3:01 pm
She’s a teacher. She used to be a big corporate type, but she retrained and chucked that in. She’s been overseas for more than a decade now, I think. And has worked in Nicaragua, Mozambique, Estonia, Thailand, Algeria, Pakistan, Qatar, Afghanistan, Indonesia, and Sudan. The school she teaches at in Sudan, incidentally, is the school where the “Teddy Bear Teacher” worked.
I wrote a post about her a while ago, The best mother…, and I’m glad you made me think of it just now because I got to read back over it. I think I will add it to a “favourite posts” list. I love my Mum.