Sunday, March 5, 2017

my blog review the good the bad and the ugly!

my blog review the good the bad and the ugly!





Do you read the blog Inspire Me Heather?
If not, you may want to add it to your reading list - 
Heather is a creative diy girl, a great writer and truly gracious, 
featuring diy projects from around the blogosphere regularly.

At the moment, Heather has a new feature thats designed to improve everyones blog,
called What I Like About Your Blog.

The premise is simple - 
by signing up, you agree to review two blogs, and likewise two fellow bloggers review your own.
The results are private, only shown to the bloggers participating.

Well, one of my reviews is in, 
and it makes me realize there are some areas of the blog that really need improving.


Want to see the review?

How about I mix in some eye candy?!!









What I liked about their blog: I love all the white. 
It makes it look clean, and it makes the images really stand out. 
I LOVE the large photos. They are so inspiring and it is nice that they are easy to see. 
I like the frame around the buttons -
 that that theme carries over throughout the whole blog (including photos). 
I like the brevity of words. The author does a great job at describing what she likes without going on and on. It is the perfect combination of great pictures + great words. 


**blushing** thank you very much... 

I was thinking about making the buttons smaller, and simpler -
but still using the frame.
Perhaps in black and white.... Ill try some better versions out shortly.

And Im wondering if you like the way the text reads - centred.
Is it more difficult to read?
I know Barbaras reviewers covered this one (thats where I first heard about Heathers feature).
I like symmetry, and having it all off to one side just feels so unbalanced,
but Ill change the alignment if you would prefer to read it another way.







LOVE the header - but I wish it were centered over the whole blog instead of over the posts. 


me, too! 
I made it the right width, 
but I think I need to decrease the height (does anyone know?) 
because blogger keeps shrinking it like that :)


I love that she has inspirational blogs to read - it would clean up the sidebar if she made that a page instead of links on her side bar. Not a big deal though. 


need to share love for the people that inspire me - I can move it down, 
but many of these people have become friends, and theres always room for friends, yes?



She does not link back to the original sources (or at least the pinterest pin where she found) of the photos. 
That is a huge no no.



Okay, this one surprised me, because I actually work hard to include links in my posts.
But its pretty serious, because I dont want people to think that I dont give credit - I think its really important.
I usually do a source "line" under the last image of the post, where the links are presented as numbers.
I used to link under each image individually, 
but it seemed that placing links under each pic is visually distracting, and I usually do photo collages.
Its the second time someone has said this to me, however, 
and so Im thinking that what I am doing is TOO subtle -
thoughts?
What about listing links at the bottom of the post under the signature?
Would it be better to skip numbering and present them as words, such as, "pink vase", etc...?








I dont like the shadows around the images. They seem a little much, and sort of distract from the photos. 



I have actually been feeling the same way.
Frames will be going....



I dont like that the followers widget + subscribe, etc. are all the way at the bottom of the page. 


I was trying to keep down the sidebar noise, and I dont like the number of followers to define a blog -
there are so many great undiscovered reads out there!
That said, maybe I can work these back in - I agree they feel a bit awkward down there.











The font is just a little bit too small. Maybe up the page font size by 1 or 2. 


I dont think its the size, but more what a light font it is -
I would like to keep it, 
but I could move it up in size a little -is that better?
It feels a little big.







** cant help it - must interrupt just for a moment - I NEED THIS BAG!!!.... okay, back to the review.... **





Move the photo of Anne Marie above the text that begins with "Colour Consultant" - Id like to see her pretty face as soon as the page loads. Would like to see some pages - especially about who she is. 



Will add pages. And Id like a new photo, in colour - that one doesnt feel very happy, does it?



There are three buttons - "Crushing on Color" "Palm Beach Week" and "The Great Clean Out" - 
you dont really know what theyre for. 
When I clicked on them I was kind of surprised they were labels for her content - they didnt seem to fit the rest of the blog. 
(I thought they were "Ive been featured" buttons for someone elses blog.).