Behind The Blog: Bloggity Blog Redesign

I don't know why I call this my "Bloggity Blog."

I just do.

Whenever I save a file or photo for this here blog - "bloggity" is usually somewhere in the title.

I guess that's kind of what I do.

Morph proper names like "Nat's Adventures In Baking" into nonsensical non-names.

It's how my cat became:

Booger
Boosh
Boosher
Boo Bear
or Little Bast@#%...oh, that's not a nice one.

I wonder if he knows his name is Archie?


While I have a real food review post coming up soon, I'm pretty busy working for the next couple weeks so I won't have time for a more detailed post until this weekend.

What better time to give you a tour around the new design, huh?

I've been using the "Dynamic" view in Blogger ever since they first introduced it.

For a complete and utter beginner, it's great because it instantly gives your blog a facelift - no brains involved.

However, I always had issues with it looking different on every computer and not being user friendly.  

Finally, after two successful "test" blogs, I got up the guts to switch back to "Simple" view...and viola!  Here we are.

If you ever want to start a blog, I suggest you never, ever go with the Dynamic View - as tempting as it may be.  Your blog layout may suffer for awhile, but you can build in Simple View one step at a time and it's infinitely more customizable.  

So now I introduce to you the new header and even newer - page bar!

Home Tab: Get the goods.  Here's where all the posts happen in a chain of the four most recently added.

Comments Section: At the end of each post.  What made you laugh?  What made you cry?  

About Me: For now it's just background on why I started this blog, but I'll add more to it bit by bit if I feel inspired. 

Recipe Index:  This is my favorite part!  I've wanted to do this forever.  Now you can find the recipe you need, when you need it.  First, I plucked out my favorites - the ones I'd make again - and put them at the top.  The rest are organized by type.  Maybe you'll find something that intrigues you.

Baking Basics: I also set aside a tab for all the baking 101's, the "how to's" if you will.  Once again finding what you need, when you need it.

Fav Blogs: Giving a shout out to the blogs I follow.  The ones that inspire me.  Hopefully you'll find one or two that spark your interest.

And now, for the Sidebar.

On the top half we have:

The Search Bar.  Looking for a recipe that uses graham crackers? Marshmallows?  Type it.  Find it.

The Follow By Email.  Can't remember to check back here every week?  Me either.  Just type in your email address. You'll get a verification email.  Click the link and you're all set.  You won't have to miss out on a post again.

The Popular Posts.  Here's a running log of the top 5 most popular posts.  So you can relive them over and over ...and over.

And the bottom half:

Blog Archive.  All posts listed by date.  Year, then month, then individual post.

Subscribe.  You can add N.A.I.B. to your RSS feed.  If you don't know what that means then you don't have it.  Basically, if you like all of your news, blogs, etc (anything that is regularly updated) all in one place then here you go.

Become a Follower.  Join the club and publicly declare your affiliation with my blog (-gity blog ;).  Every blog offers this, but in all honesty I've never seen any benefit in it, except that it makes me look good. (I'm popular!)

Translate.  In case you have all these international friends who would just love my blog.  Or you want to brush up on your Bulgarian.  It's amazing and scary how many languages you can translate this post into.  Dang, Google.  Taking over the world, one blog at a time. 

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And that my friends concludes this session of "Nat's Bloggity Blog Tour."

Hope you like it!

And find it a whole lot easier to navigate

...plus a little prettier too.