Thursday, January 29, 2009

The Tinkering Continues ...

Hanna says: My computer dude daddy is way too obsessed with this blog thing, but he says that I'm going to be a star, so I guess I should cut him some slack for now, even if I don't understand just yet what it's all about. He says that I'll be appearing regularly in something called "posts" so as long as I'm part of it, I'm okay with that!

As you can see, I've been tinkering with more templates again tonight, and have tentatively settled on this one for now ... at least it is not cropping my photos or breaking margins (that I don't know yet how to control), so I'm somewhat pleased with where I ended up tonight. I do like the expanded flexibility to play around with fonts and colors the new templates offer, though not being able to center or alter the header photo still perturbs me. So if any of you more Blogger savvy folks have suggestions on how to do that, please let me know in the comments! And general suggestions or thoughts about the design are always appreciated as well.

I really wish I had the time to truly learn HTML and create something even more flashy, but given my coding limitations and general lack of free time, I'd rather focus my energies on what I think I do best, which is garden chronicling, the original intent of the blog after all. But any tips folks may want to pass along will definitely be welcomed!

I'm really getting antsy for winter to just move on, but we're only about to start the beginning of February, which historically can be a brutal month snow wise, so I think I should head to the archives for some previously un-posted shots to get us all in the mood for the warmer months to come! Though work continues in crazy busy mode, I'm going to be making a better effort to keep up with posting around here ... after all, this activity has always been my sanity refuge, so I owe it to myself to keep it up!

I really need to get some flowers back up here, so I don't risk turning this into a total "dog blog!" But for the moment, forgive me the new puppy infatuation and just enjoy (tolerate?) the puppy pictures! The evil side of me sees this as a bit of revenge for all the baby pictures I've had to endure over the years ... you know the ones ...Oh yes, that's lovely drool, what a cute smile (I bet the kid just crapped the diaper!) ... why doesn't that kid have any hair? Ok, time for this old curmudgeon to commune with the puppy and call it a day at the newly reconstituted blog. I hope you regulars are liking the changes you're seeing!

I'd like to offer a special shout out to Botanical Interests, who I noticed added me as a followed blog today! They're a great family based company that provides a lot of really great organic seeds ... flowers, veggies and herbs. Whenever we're looking for particular seeds, if we can find the Botanical Interests label for what we want, we always buy theirs, even if they might be a bit more expensive than the run of the mill Burpee or other companies. We've always had great success with their seeds, and it's nice to support a family owned business that isn't some overly commercialized operation. And did I mention? Their seeds are organic. Nuff said.

Thanks for all the fish,
IVG

12 comments:

Roses and Lilacs said...

I followed your link to the Botanical Interests site. Looks like they have a nice selection of organic seeds.
Marnie

boran2 said...

I'm with you, IVG. I'm ready to move on from winter. Will it ever end?

Larry Kollar said...

Hanna says: does this wide angle lens make my head look big? ;-)

I'm kind of old-skool about HTML, so my advice is to not obsess about margins & let the readers decide how wide they want the page to be. Personally, I like a narrower margin for text, simply because it's easier to read online.

Just a guess to center the pic: go into the template and find where the "GiantCrocus" pic is placed, and change the style "background-position: left" to "background-position: center" — that should do it. There's also a Blogger help forum where you might get a better answer: click the "B" in the upper left corner to get to the dashboard, scroll to the bottom, and check out the "Help Group" link.

March is the heavy-snow month on Planet Georgia. We have at least two more winters, with intervening mini-springs to tease us, before I'll be breaking ground on a garden (although the cold frame will be coming out sooner).

Annie in Austin said...

FARfetched said what I was going to say - looked in View page source and noticed "background-position: left;".

The color is kind of pale apricot on my monitor with green type if you're keeping track.

My husband & kids and their families also say Thanks for all the fish, IVG...reading that last line here was a fun moment. Better go think up dinner since there's no restaurant appearing in my universe.

Annie at the Transplantable Rose

Anonymous said...

Aha!!! Another Hitchhiker! Another reason to totally adore you :)

However I'm... a sweet transvestite... from Transexual Transylvaniahhhhhhhh ah aha! Ahhh Damnit! Janet!

I like the puppy photos and all the other non-gardening photos as it gives us a looky-loo into your world. As Joe Dirt would say, "Life's a garden, dig it." :D

Mr. Damnit and I agree that the "Harvey and the Castor" photo is a bit "cuhreeeeeeeeeepy". It's a bit Donnie Darko-ish.

All this film talk. Must be a film ref blog. Or. Must be the cold medici..zzzzzzzz

I'm going to try to do some yoga before I pass out again. Body aches and I hope the yoga will help. Unless I lose balance and fall and end up with the "crud" and crutches. I'm telling ya, being a clutzy, activist blonde is huuuuuurd werrrrrrrrk. ;)

PS, I love this new layout and look. Also thanks for keeping my pink place. I haven't added to it in a long time but it's still up and ready. I am still in motion it's just I don't "blog" about it. A promise to my family for now.

Gotta jet. Love. XOXO

Iowa Victory Gardener said...

Hi Marnie,
BI definitely has some great stuff, and I can't recommend them highly enough. They also put tons of really helpful info on the inside of the packets that is worth reading, and the artwork is as great as their seeds.

We need to find one of their big packets of California Poppy seed to replenish our supply out in the front garden....

Iowa Victory Gardener said...

Hey FAR,
Both you and Annie in Austin thought the same thing ... then I looked at the source code in Firefox and saw what you meant. Weird thing is that when I go into the Blogger source code, I can't find that reference anywhere ... it appears to be some funky combo of HTML and some Javascript (as far as I can tell). So I tried pasting the source code from Firefox in (saved previous template of course) and it had a hissy fit and wouldn't accept that due to some missing XML tag I guess. So I just reloaded the original template and am leaving this challenge for another day. I'm way too busy at work to be bothered right now, but there should be an easier way to get that photo centered! Thanks so much for the tip though!!

Yeah, March can be brutal here too, but at least you get those "faux springs" in between ... none of that for us this year!

Iowa Victory Gardener said...

Hi Annie,
Thanks for the suggestions! (See comment to FAR above about the HTML.) That's good to know about the colors, because that's the way they should look, though I thought it was more of an earthy "sand" color, but apricot works too!

Glad you liked the Adams quote... not quite sure why that popped into my head just then, but it seemed appropriate. :-)

Iowa Victory Gardener said...

Dearest Janet,
LOL ... I read those books back in college and finally saw the movie adaptation last year (it was so-so, but fun) ... I did love the old NPR readings from years ago and listened every night when they were on.

First time I ever saw your nick back in the old Kos/BT days, I knew I'd just love anyone who went by Damnit Janet! My instincts were right, lol.

You thought Harvey was creepy? Haven't you ever seen Harvey with James Stewart (1951)? It's one of my all time faves and that was my Halloween theme that year. Besides, the Donnie Darko rabbit was Frank... no relation!

Take care of yourself and get plenty of rest, fluids and such. Get well soon!

Iowa Victory Gardener said...

Oops! B2, how did I miss you? Amen to the end of winter! Did you get hit from some of that big storm that passed south of us but hit the rest of the country? I'm glad all we got from that was an inch or so of really fluffy light stuff! The red states can have the ice!

Gail said...

Hi IVG,

I am liking your new look...lots. I so want to make a few changes. One thing I do want to figure out is how to enlarge my photos without letting everyone into my picasa page.

Hannah is still adorable!

I know I wax poetic about snow...but really, I couldn't take it day in and day out. You folks in zone 5 and colder are made of sterner stuff then me!

Have a good day!

gail

Gail

Iowa Gardening Woman said...

I for one love the dog blog, of course you know I sneak a picture in every now and then of my pups...... :)