Welcome to the facelifted Ten O'Clock Scholar!

If you are subscribed in a reader or by email, come on over to the blog and check out the new look!

Here's what I did:

1. Added a custom background and tweaked the whole layout (adjusted fonts, moved date to center, removed excess space between sidebar items, switched back to a two-column layout, tweaked margins between posts and between columns to give extra "white" space).


2. Created and added a new custom header


3. Reorganized sidebar items


4. Removed a few unused sidebar items


5. Created and added custom buttons in sidebar


6. Created a Google Calendar for blog events and Liturgical observances with a link in the sidebar.


7. Created and added custom title images for sidebar items


8. Reorganized post labels (added: Adoption, Unlabeled, Home Making, and Great Thoughts) - I still have a little to do here, I want to rename some of the labels, ex: "Reading" to "Good Books".


9. Changed my Archives to a drop down menu (to save sidebar space)


10. Added text with my email addy in the footer.

I did all this myself and for free (ie. I didn't buy any backgrounds, images, etc)! So, if I can do (Art History major, remember) you certainly can, too!

If you have a blog and are interested in some of the resources I used:

Microsoft Publisher (blank website document to create background, button images, and header), but you could use any package for creating/editing images you have - PhotoShop is probably better for this than Publisher, but it is all I have!

Online Image Editor (free web-based image editor - that is where I got the cool "Argos" font in the header and sidebar)

Photobucket (hosting my background image, and it helped me tweak the pixel size on some images)

And these blogs for free html/css advice:

Cutest Blog on the Block's free blog tips

Tips for New Bloggers

So, come on over and check it out. . . and let me know if you see any major mistakes! :)