Some of you who have been visiting my blog for awhile have probably observed quite a few noticeable changes lately. I didn’t think I would have THIS MUCH FUN working on my blog, but I’m finding I now have another “hobby.” You know… something you do in every spare moment.

The two biggest changes have been altering the background and adding the JEEP icon in the upper left hand corner. Two weeks ago I didn’t know anything about changing those seemingly “permanent” parts of the template and now thanks to running across a VERY HELPFUL blog, here I am with an entirely new look that I LOVE!

Here’s some background. I wanted something that wasn’t quite so “busy” as far as the color scheme. The previous one had a grey background and an orange square with a star in the middle of it in the upper left hand corner where the JEEP icon is now. It had an aqua strip under the blue title and a black background for the main posts. I wanted something that was a little easier on the eye (LOL)!

I figured there had to be SOME WAY to change these things since I’ve seen so many other templates around blogger that don’t look like the few generic ones available when signing up for blogger. So, I started searching the blogger help forums where I found BlogU . It’s a WONDERFUL site with a TON of TREMENDOUSLY helpful links and information. I sent an email to the contact person, Annie, at BlogU and I received MANY AWESOME replies to my questions. She has been very patient with me as I try to learn the finer points of HTML code… or at least “finer” to me (LOL) considering two weeks ago I didn’t even know how to change anything except those things that can be changed via the blogger template. I started by changing the previously gray background that went with the 897 blogger template to a green/striped background. I saw the background at the Buttermilk Clouds blog which is a blog about baking if you care to visit it. Annie from BlogU also maintains this blog and she was generous enough to send me the picture for that background with instructions for loading it to Ripway. With someone telling me what to do, that wasn’t so hard. (LOL). Then, I shared with her the other things that I wanted to change and the next thing I knew she sent me a Jeep icon with instructions on how to load it, again to Ripway, with instructions telling me where to place it in the HTML code so that it would replace the orange star that used to be in that corner. I LOVE IT! I owe a TON of thanks to Annie for her help via the BlogU blog and her personal assistance via email.

She also sent me information on changing the main background color of my blog posts to match the green color behind the jeep icon! That was the last touch it needed and now the colors are coordinate very nicely, imo.

Anyway. I just HAD to take a few minutes to publicly thank Annie at BlogU for her help! I could not have attempted all of these changes without her help and I’m SO GLAD I ran across her blog while searching the blogger help forums. I hope you all enjoy the new look of my blog!

Thanks Annie!