I think I did it! I wanted to create a blog page on a white background, and thanks to some contributors to the Mandigo Wiki, the answer was right there. So, instead of having a blog that looked like a page of something on a colored background, I got rid of the “page” look and turned the background white. Then I turned the background for my posts a shade of purple (of course!), because too much white is well, too much.
Which of course then meant I needed to update my image script, because I like drop shadows, and a drop shadow image has to match the color it’s sitting on. Thusly:
sample photo of Kauni yarn
So now, let’s see if this works correctly. Feedback welcome! Does everything look right? Let me know!
Just playing with my blog settings a bit and I need to test my photo script. Bear with me.
Kauni Yarn
So… how does it look in your browser? Is everything staying nicely put? I have a pet peeve about people who don’t resize their images properly so they break the blog layout. I tweaked my layout a bit so that I should be able to get larger photos without breaking things. I guess we’ll see if I did… let me know if it looks weird in your browser. K?
Thanks!
Hopefully a regularly scheduled blog post will appear in this space tomorrow.
Every year, members of our local volunteer fire department take several evenings at holiday time to escort Santa around the city. Our kids get so excited when we hear the sirens! Little man was in his sock feet and Santa hat already, but I let him go outside without shoes so he wouldn’t miss the fun. (Today was the warmest we’ve had in weeks, so rest assured, his feet didn’t freeze!)
I tried to get a decent photo, but alas, my camera was not cooperating. But for a brief moment earlier this evening, our street was lit by bright lights and sirens, and candy canes were available for all.
Many thanks to those who protect us all for bringing a bit of joy to our neighborhood this season. We’re already looking forward to next year.
My DH had been out getting a few essential groceries when upon returning to the neighborhood he saw the fire department folks staging by our swim club. We gave us a call as a heads up, but we heard the sirens within seconds. Luckily, as I said, Little Man already had his hat on and I had my camera around my neck. Why, might you ask? Were we expecting Santa to visit tonight? No… we were just anxiously awaiting his arrival by channeling him:
Were it not for a slight accident this morning with the needle slipping out of the stitches and quite a few more than I would have wanted being dropped, I might be writing the Finished Object Report instead of just a run of the mill progress report. But, such is life when we’re knitting, eh? I’m not sure if I’ve ever knit a project that didn’t have at least some major mishap involved.
When I originally envisioned this hat I thought it might make a nice Christmas present for my daughter. Then I started it so early that I thought she’d get to wear it some this fall. And now? Well it looks like it’s regained it’s Christmas present status again. Oh well, at least I feel like I’m on track for something now!
Last night, we went around the kitchen table and each of us said what we liked best about the holidays. I asked the kids to ignore the obvious (presents!) and to pick their other favorite thing. Here’s what everybody said:
Diana: The Food
Steven: Making Christmas Cookies
John: Looking at All the Lights
Trish: Christmas Music
WordPress Upgrade And Other Site Stuff
Yesterday I upgraded this site to WordPress 2.7. So far, I love it! If you’re thinking of upgrading, there are a couple of things to consider. At least there are a couple of basics that I did that helped make things go smoothly. First, I made sure that the theme I’m using is 2.7-compatible (it is). I grabbed the latest version of my theme, installed the upgrade, then disabled all my plugins, and let my hosting company do the automatic upgrade. Then I went in and reactivated my plugins. That’s all there was to it!
I’m finding that it’s hard to maintain three separate blogs, so I’m going to do some more general type blogging here from time to time. I’ll still keep my family blog, but even that needs a serious update. But I’m going to add a page for my writings and stuff that I had intended to develop at my long-neglected personal blog.
This blog will still be a knitting blog, but you might notice a couple of other sections in the menu over time. I’m just finding it harder and harder to even think about keeping up with three blogs. Let me know if you have any feedback on this issue! For now, I’ve uploaded an article I wrote for my college newspaper, more than 20 years ago. Even though my life is in a completely different place now, this article captures how I’m feeling right now:
Here’s the proof. This is why I don’t do holiday knitting, or occasion knitting in general. It’s been a month and a half since I started this hat, and I’m still working on it. Yes, this has been my main project in most of this time. I’ve done a stitch here and there on a couple of things, but nothing else to write home about. If Christmas depended on my knitting? Christmas would just never come.
But hey! I made a milestone on the hat today. I am on the ribbing! I asked my daughter to try it on and it is just about the perfect size. I am not going to do a very deep rib, because it doesn’t need one. Then the last thing will be to add the words, “Lady Hawks” to the white band in duplicate stitch.
I started feeling stressed about all there is to do over the next several weeks, and I made myself stop and knit for a bit instead. It helped. Now, if only I could teach my DH to knit… We’re seriously behind. No decorations are up and ready. The shopping’s about done, which I guess is a good thing! But I think it remains to be seen whether we will have outdoor lights or Christmas cards mailed before Inauguration Day. And you know what? I’m going to do my best not to care.
I’m getting the feeling it’s going to be a long, cold winter here. It is unseasonably winter-like for this early in December and we even had some snow yesterday. The wind has been cold and biting. Perhaps I should start a countdown calendar for Spring. I’m so ready already!
Hopefully I’ll write again soon. If not, you’ll probably find me buried under a pile of unopened ornaments somewhere.
