Home improvement.

Or at least blog improvement, although I plan to do some home improvement this summer as well (which will probably be in another post). This is one of (several) things on my mind, especially since I have a long-ish paper to write that I don't particularly feel like working on at the moment. I'm not a techno-geek type of person, so while I am adequately adept at making my blog look presentable given nice, pre-swinged* widget generators to work with, I can't really do much of anything on my own as far as blog design goes. Which is frustrating when there are no nice, pre-swinged widget generators that do what I want them to.

Example: I want a nice, classy, unique background for my blog that says, "I am awesome. But not necessarily normal. But not too not-normal, either." And I don't want it to be too scrapbook-y.** Because while scrapbook-y stuff can be cute and fun, I personally don't do scrapbooking and I worry that it makes my blog look too crafty and may mislead potential readers into thinking the wrong things about my blog and pegging it as something that it's not. And the only real pre-swinged type blog backgrounds I've been able to find in the whole (extremely limited) time I've been looking have either been 1) not really pre-swinged with WAY too much assembly required on my part, 2) scrapbook, scrapbook, and more scrapbook, or 3) Blogger's generic backgrounds.

So what's a girl to do?

Turn to her loyal (seven+)*** readers!

If any of you people are gifted in this area (or know someone who is) and want to make (or volunteer them to make) my blog pretty for free, let me know. Because, really, you'll be doing all of us a favor by letting us look at something besides the lighthouse or the black-and-white stationery with ribbons.

Or, if you really, really, really love the lighthouse or the ribbons, tell me that, too.


UPDATE: Wow. The power of procrastination can work wonders. With the input of Shallow Man and some tutorials, I've managed to make it look a lot more like what I want it to look like. This is only temporary, unless it works (or unless no semi-professionals out there want to fix it). Let me know what you think.


*pronounced "swindge-d." This is a favorite family word which I discovered, once I moved out for college and used in on my roommates only to get blank stares as a result, that the rest of the world is sadly deprived for not knowing. Pre-swinged means what (I think) it sounds like it should mean: Already made, no assembly required, maybe-just-add-water but pretty much good to go with minimal effort or assemblage or work on your part. Pre-swinged. Use it in a sentence today and spread the good news. Note that while no studies have yet been made to determine if a thing can be just plain swinged, I am coming up on summer break and will have extra time with which to delve into this and other mysteries of the universe.

**Disclaimer: I do not think any less of anyone who may happen to use some of these scrapbook-y blog backgrounds on their blogs. I think they can actually be really nice looking. They just aren't what I'm looking for with my blog.

***Yes, I know there are actually more of you than that. But "seven" still just has a nice ring to it.