A Tour of My New (Blog) Home

Posted On January 21, 2010

“I see your new site is up,” Dear Husband said to me this evening.

Yeah, it’s only been up for 24 hours now. He’s very observant.

But I kept my smartass to myself because I wanted to hear what he had to say. Eagerly anticipating his next comment, I leaned in, straining my ears so I didn’t miss the compliment that I was sure would be flowing from his lips next.

And then I heard it. Only for some reason the compliment sounded like this:

“I don’t like it.”

Weird way to word a compliment, I thought. And then it dawned on me: It wasn’t actually a compliment!

But in his defense, I think he felt bad after he said it, and although it DID hurt my fragile feelings for a moment, I actually do appreciate his honest feedback. Because, you know, I don’t want my blog to suck. The reason he gave for saying he didn’t like it is because he said it’s “confusing,” which is what I was a little afraid of. So allow me to show you around the place so you don’t get lost too.

First of all, you’ll probably notice my large feature gallery that changes every few seconds. Those are just some of the posts I’m featuring at the moment (usually the newest ones). You will see a little blurb about the post at the bottom of the photo. You can click right on the photo to go to that post and read it.

Another way to find the latest post is to go to the right of the feature gallery to the box that says “Recent Posts.” The newest one will always be listed first. Here, I even took a picture for Husband you so you don’t get confused.

Then you just click on the title to read the post.

Right above the feature gallery is a bar with a list of categories for my past posts. Right now I have them divided this way:

• To Blog: Posts about blogging (Clever, yes, I know…)
• To Do: Posts about family life or things you can make or do
• To Laugh: Posts that are basically just humorous, about anything
• To Share: Review and/or giveaway posts
• To Think: Posts about “heavier” subjects, my Deep Thoughts moments (with Jack Handey)
• To Thriftify: Posts about how to save money or live frugally

Oh, and I also have “Stuff That Doesn’t Belong Anywhere Else,” which I am trying to hide. That’s basically just everything. So ignore that.

Under the feature gallery are three boxes. Each contains posts from one category. This is just another place you can find posts in what I think are the most popular categories. Eventually I’ll probably do something different with these, but for now they are what they are.

Okay, now look right under the header (I hope you like it, by the way. I made it using Picnik, and it was really easy!). The bar right under the mustache lists my pages. The “Home” page is (duh) the front page. “About Paula” is a page with a little bio. “Blogs I *Heart*” is my blogroll. If you mouse over the name of the blog, you’ll see a little something I wrote about each one. These are the peeps I read and recommend you read too! “Paula’s Picks” and “Gift Guide for Boys” are pages I’m still working on, so don’t worry about those. Eventually I’ll have links to my favorite stores, brands, products, etc. as well as a Gift Guide for Boys (possibly in the form of an Amazon.com store) that people can use as a resource year-round.

Other than that, we have “See Me Tweet” in the sidebar, which just shows my most recent Twitter ramblings. I’m hoping to add some ads to my sidebar soon too. Apparently it’s not cool to just continue to spend money on a blog (and go to conferences for your blog) and never make any money on your blog. Well, when you’re in debt up to your eyeballs and only working part-time, that is. And your husband already has 2 full-time jobs. (Sheesh, how demanding is HE?!) So if anyone reading this would like to place an ad, just let me know. Prime real estate, this blog is…

Now that I’m on WordPress instead of Blogger, I can do a lot more with my blog (once I figure out how), and I hope you’ll like the changes. Same content, but hopefully more of it and with some enhancements and better organization (eventually, that is). Oh, and maybe someday I’ll also figure out how to display the correct date at the top of the site, instead of tomorrow’s date. (Maybe it automatically does that because I am soooo ahead of my time. Ya think?)

So come on in, and make yourself at home. Help yourself to whatever you can find in the fridge—but I’ve got dibs on that three-week-old ravioli. And don’t worry about taking your shoes off at the door. Seriously, dude, leave them on. You never know what you might step on.