Blog Envy

I have a big-time-bad-ass case of blog envy going on. I can't help it. I've gone green... and NOT in the environmentally friendly way.

As I have mentioned, (or you may have just seen the ad down at the bottom of the page here) I have another site that I've been working on, cussing at, revamping, and finally, finally come to terms with; the what and how and why it's going to look and operate...

OK. So, in the process of all that happy horseshit, I went round and round with several different free template sites to get WHAT I WANTED, and more importantly, get said "Chosen One" template to download properly and WORK. Hey, finding one that Blogger will save and not give me an error message about is a Novel Concept I know, but I'm picky. It took me three different templates from three different sites to find a template that could fulfill both of those needs. I got it handled, but...

But... this fantastic template that I really like (and works!) is pretty advanced for a site that is just being built. Crayzie Aria is in it's newbie stages (because, truthfully, I prefer to work on this site) since I wasn't happy with the original site, and now am reworking the entire concept to undo the pathetic disaster that it was. The layout gives me tons of room to build it, but in the newbie phase, it looks a little naked and not fully 'done'. I haven't even marketed it yet and won't really till it's right-enough for me to give it a proper coming-out party of networking and marketing.

However here, on the Aria'z Ink site, (my baby so-to-speak), which has been marketed and put out-there all over the net, I'm working with the same template I started with. I need all that room that I have on the other site for this one. My sidebar and footer are simply getting longer and longer, and I'm constantly moving things around to keep from having my sidebar extend 18 inches past my posts... and while adding another post to the main page would seem to be the easy thing to do, it still wouldn't help the footer at all. The only thing holding me up was that I was afraid of loosing everything I've put into and onto this site because of a template change over.

Then the blog envy took over in earnest this past week, because in my quest to be Oprah's favorite blog, I've been all over the place networking, marketing and surfing like a mad-woman. I've come across a whole lot of new sites that have great layouts and I'm just getting itchier and itchier every time I come back to my good-OLD-BORING-UNINSPIRED-Blogger-standard-layout. It no longer fits the amazingness that is Aria'z Ink! (yeah, I know presumptuous-cockiness, but, if you can't market yourself like the next best thing since sliced bread, who will?)

I'm on a mission this weekend to make the change that I so desperately need and want to make. This morning I have done all the prep work to swap templates without loosing all my goodies. Also, I'm sick and doing computer work is about all I'm going to be able to do today, and when you've got an itch all you can do is scratch-it OR suck-it-up... I tend to be more of the scratch-it variety person.

I'm on such a tear that, I could have it all done today, but hubby is doing some work outside, and for some reason turns into a semi-helpless-where-is-my-this'n'that-come-help-me-wah-pain-in-my-ass whenever I try to get on the computer during the weekend (which is exactly what I just told him so I don't fear this coming back on me at all!) Therefore, the swap might take until tomorrow. And, now the Advil + aspirin combo I take to kick the butt of this throat-ear-thing I'm trying to not-fully-get is also going to have to knock out my hubby-induced-headache...

It'd be so much easier at this point to just crawl back into bed and feign being on the brink of death, but I am WAY too stubborn for that... and I have to scratch my blog-envy itch even if I have to do it with barbed wire...