Spring cleaning

What it is about spring that makes me so antsy? Gotta gotta clean up the yard, gotta loose some weight, gotta reinvent blog...

Okay, maybe not reinvent blog, but I've been thinking about making some changes. When I started blog, I wanted a simple style that was fairly minimalist. This template from Blogger was good enough to get me started, but after surfing around and seeing some other great designs, I think something more colourful might suit me better. Colourful, but not in-your-face colourful, and not too girlie-girl either.

I know just enough HTML to be able to tweak the colours and fonts on the templates, if I decide to do it myself. (This is a motif in my life: every time something needs to be done, whether it be shingling the roof or cleaning the toilets or buying pre-made Christmas ornaments, a voice in my head says, "You could do that yourself and save a tonne of cash. Plus, it will be FUN!" Then another voice in my head, which sounds remarkably like my mother, says, "Are you kidding me? For the love of god, just pay someone to do it and be done with it.")

I stumbled across this blog design site, and I really think some of their stuff is fabulous. But, I honestly can't justify $89US (I think that's more than my annual salary) on blog wallpaper. Blogger has a new template called Jellyfish, which I might try. It's free, after all.

And speaking of things that are free and not free, I am also toying with changing blog platforms. I am pleading here for some guidance from those of you who have some expertise in this matter. I have two itches that are not scratched by Blogger. First, I would like to archive by category. Second, I would like to be able to incorporate photos and other graphics into both the overall design and individual posts. Even something as simple as a personalized banner would be lovely. I think the second itch would be scratched if I hosted blog on my own server, which provides me with some-odd number of megs of space as part of my cable internet account. But that would cause me two further points of grief: I would lose my current blogspot URL, and I think I would be further complicating my already complicated life. (Narrator's voiceover: Here, the specimen clearly demonstrates her deeply ingrained fear of change.)

So, faithful reader, do you have any advice? Thoughts? Tips and pointers? Since by virtue of being here you have a vested interest in blog, what are your thoughts on design and the things that blog lacks? (Isn't it so nice of me to be considerate of you and not foist change on you while you weren't looking?)

While you discuss, I'll be off stalking Ann D.... tune in tomorrow for an update!