Module 1: My Blog Theme

Ahhh, the first blog post entitled Week1: My Blog Theme.  In reality, I must admit that I really wanted to call it "An Exercise in Protraction!" Snarky much, Ginger?   

Upon using my Gmail to access Blogger, I came to realize that I had already created an account in 2008.  I had given myself the name "Introspective Diva," because, well...that's what you do when you're in your late thirties and write your first blog post about the financial recession debacle, right? 🤣

Now for the assignment

There isn't anything profound about why I chose the theme that I did.  If I had taken more time and infused the blog with sprinklings of my personality and the goal of this ongoing assignment, I may have arrived at a very different aesthetic.  However, I tried to keep it relatively simple, yet true to my nature, with some customizations that represent some of my current preferences for color and style.  I elected to use the dynamic views magazine theme with its standard layout.  Also, I altered the background image as well as some colors and page font.

The dynamic theme was the only one that "spoke" to me in the sense that the others seemed too plain, too busy, or not in alignment with the purpose of the blog.  Purpose and aesthetics need to be a match for me to feel as if the mood is being conveyed accurately. For example, I didn't select a travel theme because my messaging is not about travel, although this is a journey.  Perhaps the pictures used to display the dynamic theme contributed to my leaning in its direction.  Truth is that I very quickly scrolled through the options, yet instantly knew this was the theme for me.  So as not to be hasty with my decision, I went back through them twice and my decision remained unchanged.  

Then came the internal question, "should I modify the layout?" So...I looked at the options.  What did I know about how these would change what I would be trying to convey?  I don't know what I don't know which lead me to the answer about modifying the layout.  It was a resounding, "nay, nay."  Why you ask?  Well, I will need to play around with a few blog posts to get a sense of what seems appealing and functional.

I needed this theme to have some pizazz to it; not too distracting though, but something with visual texture and an inviting tone.  I went through all the options for a background (as opposed to choosing based on categories) because, at this point, I was becoming more engaged with the assignment and feeling in flow.  Again, similar to my mindset when choosing the theme itself, I wanted to balance what was pleasing to the eye with what was congruent with content.  I found what I was looking for under "Hobbies and Crafts." I opted for the natural, earthtone background with muted autumn colors: orange, yellow, green, and blue. To my dismay, when you preview the blog, the image is not fully displayed.  I may tinker around with this in the future.  

Now, because color was becoming more central to my theme creation, I opted to make a few advanced modifications.  I wanted to use a gradation of green that shows up in the original "Hobbies and Crafts" tile to offset the banality of the header bar, so I changed the color to #696f00.  I, also used that same color for links, but decided that the link hover and visited links should be different colors for ease of use.  What do I mean by this?  If you were hovering over multiple links, it would be nice to be able to discern one from another and know which one you had already visited, without too much contrast, but just enough to be palatably pleasing.  I opted to make the hover color #6c3311, which is the orange/brown family, and chose good old-fashioned black (#1a1a1a) for the visited link color. 

And the crowning stroke: philosopher font for the page.  A font named for taste and a subject near to my heart.  Alright, that is hyperbole, but who doesn't like a little exaggeration to tidy up a blog's conclusion?