Thing 25

I spent WAY to0 much time looking at hundreds of gadgets/widgets. They were added to my blog then I changed my mind and deleted them and added different ones. So many...just can't make up my mind. The two I decided on: Quote of the Day and Digg. Digg is the most popular news, images & videos voted on by the Digg members. I already have some of the other widgets added to my blog from the first round of 23 Things.

Unexpected visitors

Thing 24

I have been checking in on my blog since Thing 23 but only to change my avatar and add some fun stuff over the holidays.

So I jumped right in and changed the template. But then feeling a little more creative decided to check out the section "For the Curious". WOW! Pyzam has some absolutely beautiful Blogger templates. I stumbled on one of Hawaii's most famous beaches, Hanauma Bay, Oahu. Since I had been there in 2003 & 2005, I knew I HAD to have this template especially since the temps here in MN have been stuck around -40. Looking at that beach immediately draws me back to the Hawaii sunshine and warmth...okay...back to reality and the template!

To begin with I had to copy and save each of my page elements or I would have lost them. After I saved the new template, I went back and added the page elements one by one. The header and text templates were in the middle of the page and I wanted them on the left side to leave more of the beach visible. With a lot of trial and error and help from Linda Wadman we mastered the HTML lingo by making small changes like width and positions in the header-wrapper/header-inner/outer-wrapper/main-wrapper and sidebar-wrapper. It was relatively easy because I could change the HTML, preview it, and if I didn't like the changes I clicked on the clear edits button and kept plugging along until I found the right combination and then saved the template.

I enjoyed learning about editing templates.
I'm feeling a little smarter and a whole lot warmer :)