My Life In Blog Years

Blog design has certainly never been a passion of mine (Really? Then why do I spend 6 hours a day on it?), but\nI have been very keen on learning more about it and have also spent a lot of\ntime making sure my site is designed and laid out exactly how I would like it.\nI've stated before that I am a very visual person, and I need my site to be\nattractive to inspire me to spend time on it. It might be nice if I could turn off that part of my personality so I could just stop worrying about all the little visual details - but then my life as I know it just wouldn't be right. Even with an artistic inclination, applying the \u2018right touch\u2019 to my blog requires knowledge in coding and experience in web design and branding - and I had none of these when I started! I have, however, been able to find numerous resources that have served\nas good tools in helping my inexperienced brain figure all of this stuff out.

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Blog design has certainly never been a passion of mine (Really? Then why do I spend 6 hours a day on it?), but I have been very keen on learning more about it and have also spent a lot of time making sure my site is designed and laid out exactly how I would like it. I've stated before that I am a very visual person, and I need my site to be attractive to inspire me to spend time on it. It might be nice if I could turn off that part of my personality so I could just stop worrying about all the little visual details - but then my life as I know it just wouldn't be right. Even with an artistic inclination, applying the ‘right touch’ to my blog requires knowledge in coding and experience in web design and branding - and I had none of these when I started! I have, however, been able to find numerous resources that have served as good tools in helping my inexperienced brain figure all of this stuff out.

A Mood Board

Technical Sites I Like:\u200B

I stumbled\nupon this blog five years ago when I was seeking knowledge on customizing CSS, widgets,\nlayouts, blog designs, inserting JavaScript\u2019s and HTML codes. The site is no longer being updated, but I\nstill refer to it often as it has a ton of useful information.
Smashing magazine is an online magazine for professional web\ndesigners and developers and offers great tips and techniques in all areas of\ncoding. They cover areas such as web\ndesign, typography, design patters, Photoshop, and so much more. You can also\nfind a lot of great freebies on this site that you can apply to your own blog.
If I need help with coding CSS (my\nplatform requires a small knowledge of this) then I go to w3schools.com. With\ntheir online editor, you can edit the CSS, and click on a button to view the\nresult. It\u2019s pretty neat and I have\nlearned a lot there.

Blog Design Practices I Like:

The\nBlog Maven is a new site I recently found. She offers a lot of advice on the best practices of getting social media\nsites such as Pinterest to work for you, how to make a media kit that rocks,\nand tips on backing up your work.
Do you know what your Prime\nOnline Real Estate is on your blog? Do\nyou want to know how to create a winning first impression? Successful Blogging has a great article about how to use your most valuable\nblog real estate wisely, and blog design dos and don\u2019ts\nregarding what your visitors should see first.

My Favorite Sites to Find Color Inspiration:

Design Seeds is a blog dedicated to \u201Call who love color\u201D and creates inspirational color palettes from every kind of photo. COLOURlovers is a creative community where people from around the world create and share colors, palettes and patterns, discuss the latest trends and explore colorful articles.
This is a quick and easy color scheme designer, and this website can generate a color palette from a photo just by entering the URL of the image.\u200B

I could go on and on about my favorite sites that have\nhelped guide me along my four+ years of blogging, but I think I am going to\nstop and go make dinner. I can hear my\nhusband's stomach growling downstairs. Make\nsure to hop on over to Newf&Hound to see what great links she has for you!\u200B

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Technical Sites I Like:

I stumbled upon this blog five years ago when I was seeking knowledge on customizing CSS, widgets, layouts, blog designs, inserting JavaScript’s and HTML codes. The site is no longer being updated, but I still refer to it often as it has a ton of useful information.
Smashing magazine is an online magazine for professional web designers and developers and offers great tips and techniques in all areas of coding. They cover areas such as web design, typography, design patters, Photoshop, and so much more. You can also find a lot of great freebies on this site that you can apply to your own blog.
If I need help with coding CSS (my platform requires a small knowledge of this) then I go to w3schools.com. With their online editor, you can edit the CSS, and click on a button to view the result. It’s pretty neat and I have learned a lot there.

Blog Design Practices I Like:

The Blog Maven is a new site I recently found. She offers a lot of advice on the best practices of getting social media sites such as Pinterest to work for you, how to make a media kit that rocks, and tips on backing up your work.
Do you know what your Prime Online Real Estate is on your blog? Do you want to know how to create a winning first impression? Successful Blogging has a great article about how to use your most valuable blog real estate wisely, and blog design dos and don’ts regarding what your visitors should see first.

My Favorite Sites to Find Color Inspiration:

Design Seeds is a blog dedicated to “all who love color” and creates inspirational color palettes from every kind of photo. COLOURlovers is a creative community where people from around the world create and share colors, palettes and patterns, discuss the latest trends and explore colorful articles.
This is a quick and easy color scheme designer, and this website can generate a color palette from a photo just by entering the URL of the image.

I could go on and on about my favorite sites that have helped guide me along my four+ years of blogging, but I think I am going to stop and go make dinner. I can hear my husband's stomach growling downstairs. Make sure to hop on over to Newf&Hound to see what great links she has for you!

I am taking part of a Blog Boss e-course hosted by the ridiculously talented Holly Becker from Decor8, and my homework assignment for this week was to do a case study on 8 blogs that I think rock and why. The point of this assignment is to study what I am drawn to (from a design stand point) when looking at blogs and then figure out how I may be able to apply to those things to my own blog.

So because I have two blogs that I run I am breaking this assignment down to 4 blogs that I think rock for each website. Some of these blogs are daily reads for me, and others I just discovered. So, here are 4 blogs that I think rock and why.

House of Harvey is Stephanie’s personal space on the web where she shares all that are creative, beautiful, well-designed and simply lovely in the dog world. She puts together beautifully laid out picture collages of her favorite dog related finds from the internet and also puts her own little graphic spin on her own personal photos. Her blog has a Tumblr style layout which makes her images her main focus. Her design is minimalistic yet fun and friendly, and her navigation is easy and straightforward. I love this blog – I’m so happy I found it!

Newf & Hound is a blog about Four Dogs, One Girl, Living In A Modern World. This blog is another Tumblr style layout that I like very much. Robin is into learning about photography, and her hard work is showing on her blog. Her photos are amazing and I like the way she lays them out within her blog posts - I feel like I could be flipping through a Real Simple Magazine with the way she styles her posts. Her logo is cute and colorful and her text is simple and straight forward.

Kiss My Mutt is a blog that brings style, comfort, and fun to dogs and dog owners alike. I was just instantly drawn to the layout and design of this blog. I love the layout, colors, fonts, and photos – basically everything. I find it very pleasing to the eye as if I’m flipping through a magazine.

The Daily Dog Tag is a blog that focuses on professional dog photography, artful and unique products, and adoptable dogs. I fell in love with this site when I first came upon it. The layout is designed in such a way that makes the images the main attraction, and the illustrations on the top navigation are super cute and creative. I enjoy the way the images are displayed on the blog and that everything (text and images) are always the same width. The sidebar isn’t overloaded with silly stuff and I think overall the site is just lovely.

Do you have favorite blogs that you are always drawn too? Do you know why you find them so appealing? Have you ever spent time analyzing this information and applying it to your own site? You can visit my other site www.prettyshinyobject.com/blog/ to see 4 more blogs I think rock and why.