Mrs. Mecomber’s Scrapbook

Thanks to Entrecards, I’m becoming very familiar with the multitudes of bloggers out there! I’ve visited A Hand Me Down Life several times dropping Entrecards, and have become familiar with it before I even considered reviewing it.

The very first thing that I notice is the dark colors of the blog. I have to wonder if this theme reflects Sue’s  blogger personality. The theme is a little drab, although it has a FANTASTIC Javascript capability with the Archive page. I wish all themes had that! But the theme is dry and uninteresting. Also, some of the sidebar content spills out into the background, and it looks sloppy.

The Twitters are at the top, then the search bar, categories, and the recent posts. Then there is some colorful content (the MyBlogLog widget, blogroll, Entrecard widget, etc). The Energy PopMeter splays out beyond the sidebar. The button and badges are unevenly spaced. I use Firefox browser, so perhaps this is a browser issue…. but the blog gives the immediate impression of a poorly-designed theme and not much effort. It looks unprofessional.

However, Sue, don’t lose heart! These things are very easily remedied. It is the CONTENT of a blog that really matters. The posts are thoughtful, and some are downright fun. I LOVED seeing the rubber claws for the cats, lol! (Wouldn’t the cats eat them off?!) and I loved the Nippy Deviled Eggs recipe, mmm. Plus, a week ago I’d read the post I’ve Always Wanted to Start My Own Militia, and thought it was a wonderfully creative way to write that opp. So there’s a ton of creativity just bursting to come out, but unless a reader is very persistent, it’s hard to get past that boring theme and delve deeper. The theme functions well; I suppose Sue could even keep the basic theme and tweak it. A lot. If she knows coding. A new header, a wider sidebar or small widgets, a different background, better title fonts… it can be done, if ya know how and have the time. But then again, there are loads of themes out there that would require less work…

Another few things– there’s no little button for an RSS Feed. That’s a very important feature on a blog now. And it needs more personality, like Flickr photos, or ??? or something. This is a personal blog, so it needs more things that make it personal. Consider adding some content that will let the reader know more about you and your likes and dislikes. I’d sure like to know more!

I look forward to seeing this blog develop. It’s still relatively young, so there’s a lot of growing space. And I’ll be back tomorrow, to drop my Entrecard and read the latest post!