Mrs. Mecomber's Scrapbook Talking technology, computers, and the Internet… for the average computer user

Mummified Times Five.net is not about the contents of an ancient Egyptian sarcophagus. I admit, when I see “mummified” I do think mummy first thing (I’m an American, after all!). I forget that “mummy” is the word for “mommy” in the UK and Australia!

Mummified Times Five.net is a classic mommy blog. It’s even colored with bright pinks and yellows! I actually love the bright colors and the perky design. Reminds me of Johnson’s baby oil bottles, lol. The blog’s author, Tina, lives with her husband and brood in NSW Australia. Fascinating. I love Australia and hope to visit it someday.

Tina’s blog is outstandingly organized. Buttons and badges are minimal, colorful, and aligned neatly in smooth columns. Niiiiice. Her About Me page is short but sweet. Her posts are short and sweet, too. Either she is a master at short posts, or she squeezes in what she can between diaper changes and bottle runs. I had four little ones running around not too long ago (they are older now), and some of the posts brought back sweet memories. I liked the freezing the milk tip, too; didn’t know milk could be frozen. There’s more to the blog than handy household tips, however. Like the post titled, If I Get Sent…

….one more of those stupid emails that have you looking closely on the screen for something, or doing a silly maze, or listening for something and then a scary face pops up on the screen and screams, somebody is going to pay!!! lol. I’m sitting on the lounge with the laptop on my lap (duh! It’s a LAPtop) I received an email from a friend saying ‘listen closely’. I don’t have the speakers up too loud because the baby is sleeping so I put my my face closer to the screen to hear it better and of course, the scary woman pops up screaming. …I nearly dropped my laptop!

LOL! Having a laptop set with low speakers and having received such emails, I could sympathize completely. I get mad, but Tina makes her anger seem so funny!

Mummified Times Five.net has some great things about it, but as always, I have a few suggestions.

Firstly, consider enlarging the font for the posts. And that would include the title for each post. It’s just a suggestion– not a crucial one– but the posts seem short overall, and the blog’s theme has a narrow column for posts. Enlarging the fonts would give a little visual boost to the posts, where the emphasis truly belongs.

I would also love to read longer and more frequent posts! I really enjoyed reading the posts (my daughter always slept with her bum in the air, too! And she loved “dummies” as well!) which were fresh and delightful and very entertaining. Gimme more! I’d love to learn about what life is like in Australia! Photos were sparse– gimme more!

Mummified Times Five.net is very enjoyable. It’s got good content, good design, and a crisp overall look to it. I’ll be checking in to read the latest!

A Cowboy’s Wife, maintained by blogger Lori, is a really cute blog. The blog is fresh just like the author; her About Me page states:

I can change my own tires, cook from scratch, and will voice my opinions on whatever topics I feel like. I am usually a lady but can and will kick your ___ if you tick me off. I hate liars & rudeness so if you have either of these traits, then don’t come to my blog.

Well! Here’s a lady who speaks her mind, kind of like those anti-corsets women of the Wild Wild West of old! Yes, a very entertaining About Me page, lol!

Lori’s blog is very stylish, and everything matches. It must have been so much fun to attribute “comments” to “neighs and snorts,” “blogrolls” as “the posse” and “the watering hole.” Nice touches. These things give a blog a “finished” look and reveal the blogger’s joie de vivre.

As far as blog content, Lori is an adept communicator. Her feelings and opinions jump out like a calf let out of the barn in the springtime. Sometimes trying to rope around her point takes a little effort, at least for this cowpoke. Her writing style is very visual, with the use of ALL CAPS, emoticons, and loooooooong repeated letters. It is entertaining, to be sure. Sometimes the posts deviate from the “mom” narrative, and Lori takes on current events. I loved the post on the rig explosion. Great photos. I’d love to see more interesting content like that– about what happens way our there in the middle of nowhere. This blog could fill a niche like that, if Lori ever felt like expanding the scope of the blog. One thing I noticed is that oftentimes in the posts, a meaningful word is omitted in a sentence. This happens to me when I type too fast and don’t proofread my work carefully. For example:

If happen to be an Internet Marketer…

I just wanted to pop and say hello and give you the warning on the cake. It’s x-rated or anything, in fact, she’s covered up…

It’s a common mistake, but if it happens too frequently, it looks sloppy. A good thorough proofread is what usually cures it.

The design, like I’d stated, is tailored to the “cowboy” theme. It’s adorable. However, the content in the sidebars is a little messy. Blinking ads, differently-sized font at different alignments, and lines of text inconsistently squished too close was a distraction. I recommend cleaning up the sidebars. Lori’s style seems to be ad hoc as a general rule, so a too-tidy clean-up might make the content look too out of place. Just a little. May I be so bold as to recommend setting aside “blocks” of content in the sidebar– perhaps an area of banner/block ads in one area, then a few blogrolls, then another area of ads, etc. The consistency would help the reader concentrate on the blog posts, because right now, the haphazard sidebar organization is distracting.

Overall, A Cowboy’s Wife in an entertaining blog where the author’s personality really shines through– and for a blog, this is everything. Content is king! Messy sidebars and overuse of emoticons is secondary and easily remedied. Happy trails!

The first thing I notice when I look at Life With Kim is the spectacular header picture. Those emerald green colors are stunning with the deep gray blog template. I am not a fan of dark backgrounds and light font, I will admit. They are very difficult to read. Blogs should be generally breezy and easy to read. Kim’s blog is luscious with colors– very sophisticated– but very down-home and easy-going with her writing.

The “Life with Kim” page is terribly sparse. I happened to click the link for “Kim” and was at a totally new page– a semi-profile page. This was purely an accident that I clicked on it, and I doubt most readers would discover it. Perhaps put this page in a more prominent area, rather than as a link accompanying the name.

I would love to see more photos, or longer posts. I would also love to see more about Kim herself, since this blog is about her life. I checked out the “Homemade Crafts for Sale” but was disappointed to find a few quick sentences and a link to another website (although it was a “personal” page there). I’d love to see a few examples of the crafts before I start clicking away from the blog.

I also found an oddity while browsing the archives. When I accessed the archives, the full posts were not available; I had to click “read more” after the first few sentences. (The main page had all the full posts). I don’t know if this is a WordPress theme option, but I highly discourage bloggers from making readers click to “read more.” It is an extra step. I rarely, rarely ever click on “read more.” Honestly, I think I’ve only done it one or two times, ever.

I like the little buttons at the bottom of each post (StumbleUpon, etc). They are organized and look like a million bucks. Good job on the clean, easy design style! There is almost no clutter, which can be a plus and a minus. On the plus side, your blog loads very fast and looks good. However, there can be such a thing as too little clutter.

I feel that on a blog, there should be a variety of interesting things to look at, read, and perhaps do. I appreciated Kim’s post and her sidebar button about Entrecard. I’m going to check it out, so thanks, Kim! But there was little else to catch my eye or my interest. A few photos, more sidebar content, and especially more human interest stories would help to give the blog that personal touch. Kim has the basic structure established to make this a great blog that will attract regular readers, but it needs to be fleshed out a little.

One last thing I noticed, as I took a last look at the blog. In the footer (the very bottom of the home page) are all these little links (Free Signatures, MySpace Friend Adder, etc). I wonder if these are spammy links set there by the WordPress theme creator, or by Kim? They seem out of place on the blog. I checked, and the links are nofollow, which means they are leaking juice to the link’s websites. Might want to fix that unless those links are there by and for Kim.

The blog is new, so it seems Kim is still building it. She’s off to a great start. I look forward to watching this blog develop.