Charlotte’s Web recently turned four, which in blogging years is about eighty. This blog sits in a corner all by itself, rocking and remembering the good old days when blogging was new and it was a whippersnapper. Instead of consigning it to the scrapheap of ex-blogs that lanquish in the dusty corners of cyberspace, I decided a revamp was in order. We’ve plucked the old lady’s whiskers, lashed on some red lippy and got her ready to face the world again.
Here are the things that are changing around here:
1. The Look: Renaissance woman Lilalia, whose blog Yum Yum Cafe many of you know, designed me a lovely new header. She gulped when I told her my favourite colour is white and she took it bravely when I described in detail a dream I’d had about a seagull and a hill and a road going nowhere and how my new blog header should look that way. Using the art of gentle persuasion, Lilalia helped me choose the image you see above.
2. The Tecchie Bits: These were done by Canadian graphic designer Kim Hadley, whose beautiful work you can see here. Kim has also designed my new business writing website, and you don’t have to look carefully to see how she whipped up a theme for me. It would be ambitious for a micro-business such as mine to claim branding, but the two sites have a similar look and feel, and I’m thrilled with them.
3. The Side Bits: As promised, I did some spring-cleaning and sorted out the blogroll. I have a main blogroll, a list of publishers’ and agents’ blogs under the heading Required Reading, and a roll of writers. Please check which category you are in and let me know if you not happy with it. Also, if you are a regular reader, new or not, and I haven’t linked to you, let me know. This is your moment! I could let the blogroll go mouldy for two years again.
4. The Content: Lilalia and I had a meeting, face to face, with lots of coffee (me) and tea (her) and worked out some new topics for Charlotte’s Web. These are the some of the post ideas we came up with:
- Interviews with writers published and unpublished
- Book reviews
- Posts on the process of writing a novel
- Posts on the process of trying to get that novel published
- Thought-pieces on feminism and other issues I like to contemplate/get hot under the collar about
- Anything else I want to write about because I’m the boss here
But mostly this blog revamp is about having fun and bringing the playfulness back into blogging. And that’s where you come in: go over to the Big Bad Bloggers’ Competition and enter yourself for some mystery prizes.
This old lady’s kicking up her heels and going dancin’. Want to join her?
Charlotte's Web 
March 25, 2010 at 6:30 pm
Inspirational, Charlotte! My old lady blog is the same age and is looking a bit sad and forlorn, forgetting to put on her make up and shuffling about in her bedroon slippers. I need to get that husband of mine to work on smartening her up.
March 25, 2010 at 7:01 pm
Lovin’ the new look! I’m also very flattered to be in the ‘writers write’ section of your blogroll. That lifted my spirits a lot, thank you.
I’m very excited to read your new ideas for content as well; interviews and feminist rants especially.
March 25, 2010 at 7:08 pm
I like the new look too. Wonderful header.
March 25, 2010 at 7:13 pm
P.S. I like clean white too. And it looks so fresh and gorgeous with the green here
March 25, 2010 at 9:14 pm
You got to admit, we did try the country landscape and the seagull bit, didn’t we? Still, love the new look and so happy our collaboration was so fruitful. That’s what friends are for.
March 25, 2010 at 10:36 pm
Lovely look and feel – lovely new beginning.
How exciting!
Ben
March 26, 2010 at 4:49 am
Like the new look. The bench looks so inviting. Since I can’t sit down on a bench and have a chat & a cup of tea with you, I’ll continue to visit virutally. Thanks for including my tired old blaaahg on your blog roll. Maybe that old lady will be inspired by your makeover, or better yet, your writing. I must get out of the simply thinking about things to write, but never writing, mode.
March 26, 2010 at 4:51 am
Yes, I want to dance too. What a gorgeous dreamy header. Yum Yum cafe did a superb job!
March 26, 2010 at 5:51 am
I love your ‘new look’ blog! The colours are fresh and inviting!
March 26, 2010 at 6:57 am
very “springy” new look.
you could write about farm tools, and i would still want to read 🙂
March 26, 2010 at 8:38 am
It looks wonderful, Charlotte, and such a good idea. I laughed out loud at the thought that 4 years of blogging equalled 80 blogging years – so true! I really, really need to revamp my blogroll. I am soooo bad at blog housekeeping.
March 26, 2010 at 9:28 am
I love the new look and feel and I checked out Kim’s site and wow, it is simply one of the best sites I have seen and being a stay at home mum, I see a lot of sites and spend a lot of time online.
Totally cool and I love that you favourite colour is white, so refreshing in a world of over bright colours and noise, Jxx
March 26, 2010 at 10:50 am
Lovely! White works for you. Your business writing blog sounds very promising but I got errors on all the tabs.
March 26, 2010 at 1:00 pm
It’s so neat! Do you plan to have a 4 season variations on the bench and plant theme?? On the content, I do so love the “living in Germany” bits, so please please do not censor yourself!
March 27, 2010 at 7:25 pm
I love the new look, it’s so fresh! And I love your writing site, too. Now I really want a personalised design.
March 28, 2010 at 1:44 pm
Hi Charlotte,
Love your new look!!! It is very professional. I enjoyed having tea with you yesterday afternoon! I hope we can all do it again soon. 🙂
~Liz
March 30, 2010 at 4:48 am
This is my first visit here so I didn’t see the Old Lady before her revamp… but I really love the header. I’ll be back to sit on the bench again, for sure.
March 30, 2010 at 8:42 am
Love your new look. It’s even more inviting than the old one. Greetings from Cape Town
March 30, 2010 at 11:37 am
I love the new look! We’ve been blogging around the same amount of time and I still love it so much – but my content has definitely been undergoing a transition of sorts. It’s definitely a challenge to keep a blog fresh but I love the staying power our community has when we put our minds and efforts to it – it always breaks my heart a little bit when one of my favorite blogs just disappears without saying goodbye!
March 31, 2010 at 12:28 am
Oooo, I love, love, love the new look! Boy, it is so hard to believe that we are all turning four, isn’t it? You can tell what an old lady I’ve become, keeping my mouth shut when I visit others and only managing to get out about once a week. I need to have a girls’ night out with you, I think, and get back into the swing of things!
March 31, 2010 at 9:41 pm
I like the new look. And I also like the image of the seagull, the hill, and the road going nowhere you gave me to put into my head.
Two for one, I like that. ;o)
April 3, 2010 at 4:56 am
yay for blog revamps! (and got me out of the google reader too, so I could see the banner, which was def worth the trip. I do most of my blog reading through the reader these days…but I should get out more, it’s much lovelier reading blogs en blog than it is through the reader, isn’t it?)
April 4, 2010 at 9:46 pm
Everything looks great! I like the new clean look.
April 6, 2010 at 12:31 am
Love the new look, love even more that you are blogging about writing, which we both love! but *sob* you left me off your blogroll (not to be pushy or anything, but I’ve known you for two years now, don’t want to wait for the next revamp!!!)! I am really happy you want to continue blogging. Welcome back, Charlotte! and love the new header. I like that bench. Green is my favourite colour 😀
April 6, 2010 at 5:39 am
Susan, you’re there now! Sorry for the oversight and glad you like the new look.
April 22, 2010 at 1:21 pm
I love the new look! Very pared-down and calm 🙂 My sixth (eeek!) blog birthday is coming up next month, making me officially a dinosaur.
April 22, 2010 at 1:26 pm
Congrats on the professional site too!