New Theme!
I change my theme like once every 70 years but here’s a new one… finally!
There are still a gazillion bugs and other things that I’ll be fixing over the next couple of days and I still have to validate my code and clean up my stylesheet because it’s a total mess right now. I just got impatient and wanted to release the theme because I’ve been slaving away at it for the past week when I could’ve been reading The Heritage of Shannara. 
Also, I know it’s totally not IE-compatible at the moment but I’m too tired to fix it tonight. I hate IE and wonder why people still use it. :@ If anyone wants to help me, that’ll be lovely because I think all my coding knowledge just died after seeing my website in Internet Explorer.
This time I decided to go with a big font because it’s easier to read. I wanted to go up to 18pt too just for that extra drama but I left it at a measly 11pt. What do you guys think? Should I go even bigger? 
I left my footer at 9pt thought because I like it being nice and compact. I was also going to do a three-columned theme but the huge font size made everything look too cluttered.
Stuff I still need to do:
- Make the menu text bigger and stand out more
- Change the text color of my Twitter feed which I’m having a hard time doing because my stylesheet won’t listen to me.
- Fix the library.
- Reposition a bunch of stuff.
- IE compatible. *shudder
- etc. etc. etc.
The story behind the header image: I know the images seems like it’s out of nowhere but I have a collection of beautiful Dior Haute Couture runway pictures that I’ve been wanting to use for my layouts. So far this is only my third one.
Now let me go sulk over that painful cankersore in my mouth that definitely won’t heal by tonight (Halloween). 
KATY:
chanel (1)
jen (1)
Kathy (1)
magalaya (1)
neyugn (1)
Hee, I think you should make the font in the sidebar smaller than the main content
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Looks awesome!
I think 11pt is just fine. Anything bigger might actually be too big, but that’s just me. ^^
And boo to IE for making compatiblityness a pain!
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im likin the new layout.. my kinda color =)
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oOoOoO i like your new theme! i have been reading your site for quite some time now, just never left a message. interesting stuff to read i tell ya! =)
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Great job. Looking good in Safari. Have no idea (and don’t really care) how it looks in IE. Love the idea of the Flickr thumbnails below the masthead. If you want to use all those lovely images in your masthead you could do something like this:
http://www.woothemes.com/demo/?t=14
Anyway, love the new look.
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i love the colors too! so hot.and i really want to press the rss button.. isss so bigggg!
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Katy
November 3rd, 2008 |
Yay that was the point.
Thanks!
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I love the new theme! So artsy! Oh hey, did you know (probably not) that I used to work for your competitor out in Vancouver? Well, I think we were a competing shop… it was Riptown Media, and the office was at Seymour & Hastings.
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Katy
November 3rd, 2008 |
Oh that’s so cool… where do you work now?
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prettycupcake
November 3rd, 2008 |
I work for a financial company in Toronto now. I forgot to mention that I was working for Riptown Toronto – but flew out to the Seymour office a handful of times while I worked there. I remember that we were always trying to recruit EA people! lol
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Katy
November 3rd, 2008 |
What was your position there and how long did you work there for? I use to walk by there all the time because my school was a block away!
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prettycupcake
November 3rd, 2008 |
I was a Software Developer, and then a Project Manager. I was there for just over 2 years.
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Love the new theme! I don’t understand why people still use IE either. NOTHING works in it!
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Love the new theme
the colors are pretty!
and I shudder at the thought of people still using IE
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I love your new theme, and I think that the font is good at this size. I feel like I change my theme once every 70 years too.
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Woo love the new theme! The colours are so fall/wintery, it’s great
And I think the font looks good as is. heehee
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Wow nice new theme you have over there! Gentle and muted hues of purple works so well with a theme with such minimalistic appeal
awesome work you have over here!
Anyway, speaking of the need to fix the Now Reading library, I’ve tried installing it in my blog but gave up soon after because of the effort needed to make it compatible with my theme and the version of WP I’m using. You must have spent a lot of time fixing it yourself! Kudos!
Regarding the IE compatibility, which version of IE you’re making your layout compatible with? If you don’t mind, try serving a blank stylesheet for IE6 users and below – it seems to be a trend among many websites nowadays because IE6 is just so 1990s. In addition, serving a blank or simple stylesheet makes your content visible to visitors without screwing up presentation
heh!
Just my 2 cents though!
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Katy
November 3rd, 2008 |
What do you mean a blank stylesheet? I think the IE on my computer is still 5.5 but I should probably upgrade it to a more common version and then make my blog compatible with that.
Did you write the theme [on your blog] yourself? I’m so lazy and I always use premade themes (and customize them) and they were always compatible with my library. If not, I just have to change the DIV container id/class names that was in there originally to match the ones on my page.php and it works fine. It’s one of the best WP plugins out there so good luck if you try to install it again!
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teddY
November 3rd, 2008 |
Hey Katy, thanks for the reply!
Sorry for not being clear about the blank stylesheet part. Several designers have suggested that we either serve users of IE6 and below a literally blank stylesheet (to motivate them to change browsers, but I see it as rather barbaric) or a simple stylesheet with nothing fancy (column layouts are still in place, but other possible CSS parameters than may come in conflict with IE are removed).
For my blog theme, it’s actually modified from the Sandbox WordPress Theme. By default it comes with a really simple stylsheet, but I’ve modified it (and applied CSS resets to make sure that everything is in place) to my personal liking.
I’ve never tried creating WP themes myself because the PHP codes are such a turn off! Haha! Although I know how to use certain WP-specific conditional tags, I know nothing more about PHP beyond that.
I hate working on IE compatibility… IE7 is okay for me, since it’s more or less up to current standards, but IE6 is seriously so old-age
and it doesn’t support PNG alpha transparency, doesn’t obey the W3C box model and lots of CSS bugs (sorry for the rant!)…
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teddY
November 3rd, 2008 |
Sorry for spamming comments, I was so into my rant that I left out some important points, whooops!
Speaking of theme modification… let me guess, this theme is modified from Gossip City (I forgot who make it though). The comment field reminds me of the really cute style
correct me if I’m wrong, because it just crossed my mind. And I have really bad memory.
Anyway, if you’re intending to make a new theme, try to wait for a stable, final release of WP2.7 and the compatible WP themes to come out first. Or else you’ll find a lot of time updating your theme! But I guess WP2.7 will take another month or so, and really nice, cool, impressive compatible themes will take up to 2~3 months. Just my 2 cents! I’ve got this bad experience of updating my theme after WP transitioned to version 2… in just 2 weeks after I’ve made my new theme.
Take care!
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Katy
November 3rd, 2008 |
Yeah this theme was modified from Gossip City.. in fact I used it in my last layout but it looked more like the original theme than last. This new one kept some of it’s details like the comments section, the search field and the footer.
I’m definitely excited for Wp 2.7.. except I’m pretty sure it’ll break my Post Levels plugin so I’m not 100% sure I will upgrade to that until there is a fix released.
As for the IE blank stylesheet, thanks for the suggestion! I will definitely look into that in the future, but right now I’m just putting it off until the very end because I HATE IE!!!! Honestly, why does it still exist?! :@ I found some HTC scripts that will make stuff like transparent PNGs, rollovers, etc. work but still gotta try it. I hope it works for anything over IE 5.5!
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teddY
November 4th, 2008 |
Same here. I’ve got my own reservations about upgrading to WP2.7. It introduces a new comment threading function which I have no idea how I’m going to support it with my theme (a lot of the new features requires theme support) and I wonder if all my previously threaded comments will be, well, unthreaded.
The Post Levels plugin sounds very useful!
But it’s tragic that it’s no longer supported after WP2.3… geeez!
When I design my themes, I leave IE compatibility to the last too! I just couldn’t be bothered about it. At most I’ll throw in a IE specific stylesheet or fix some stuff, or just let the page appear as-is. As long as my design works well for Gecko-based browsers like Firefox and Safari, I don’t really care much beyond that
heh!
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As mentioned above I think you should make the font in the sidebar a bit smaller than the content. And the menu should stand out more, yeah. Otherwise, it’s awesome! Good job on it!
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The new theme is wonderful and the header image is stunning, your themes are always clean and pleasing to look at. It all looks great, in my opinion.
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I love the Dior Couture pics! Keep them coming!!! You’re so creative and artistic! I’m liking the bigger font!
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I love your header!
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Honestly, I would make all of the text just a bit smaller. Not like emo blog small, but just a touch smaller. Sidebar too. I actually like the size of the top menu and footer.
Other than that, I LOVE it. I adore the top header.
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Katy
November 3rd, 2008 |
Thanks for the suggestion J. I made the sidebar smaller but decided to keep my blog posts at 11pt just because it’s easier to read… but I think it’s just me and my extremely bad 4 eyes. :S When I visit blogs now, I always do a CTRL + to make the text bigger so I don’t have to strain my eyes since I’m on the computer all day!
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The layout is really beautiful. I love it. As far as your validation, if you’re not already you should try html validator firefox plugin. It really helps!
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i love the color scheme of this one! the header image looks great too. as for the font, 11 pt looks great, it could even be just a tad smaller- overall everything looks amazing! i’m super jealous, i love your design style =)
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Dior s my favorite thing on Earth so of course I am loving the new theme! Totally fabulous! My boyfriend would be totally jealous of your job but he’s on his way into the industry
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Yeahhhhhhhhh I use Internet Explorer (don’t ask) and I have to scroll all the way to the right side of the page to see your posts. It’s cool though… it’s just yet another reason for me to use Firefox more often.
I really like the new theme. I wish I had the patience (and the skills) to make my own theme!
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Katy
November 3rd, 2008 |
What version of IE are you using? I still have IE 5.5 on my computer (LOL) but I don’t have to side scroll, only content in some of the DIVs aren’t aligned properly (eg. the Flickr bar).
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I love your new theme katy!
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Ah, nice theme! I don’t think the font should be bigger, it’s pretty big already and good to read
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I love, love, love, love this new theme! It’s just so clean and the colours are lovely together! You did such a great job
I like the 11pt font, it’s big enough to read but not big enough to overpower everything else on the layout. Once again great job!
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I absolutely love the new theme, particularly the plum like colour used <3
I like the size of the font in the main column..but maybe a bit smaller in the sidebar?
Also, I actually use IE! I don’t have IE6, and I’m in Firefox atm to view this…it’s surprising how many people use IE6 still though, it’s quite a majority.
Anyway love the layout, awesome job
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Katy
November 6th, 2008 |
Thanks girl.
Last month, 27% of my users used IE… doesn’t seem like a lot but I’m still surprised. IE is soo slow compared to other browsers and the UI just isn’t that nice at all.
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Rachel
November 6th, 2008 |
:O I LOVE the interface!
I hate the way Firefox looks to be honest, and since I now only use it for your site, I’m not really noticing a huge difference 
I also notice the site is KIIINDA working in IE now, that’s good at least, last time I could only see the plum header (though a very nice plum colour it was 
)
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Katy
November 6th, 2008 |
HEHEHE I guess that old IE interface reminds me too much of the days when I use to get spammed with a gazillion pop ups and auto-installed toolbars when I used IE. It’s clean and “shiny” looking but brings back too many bad memories.
I actually like the Chrome UI the best because it’s so simplistic with very little toolbars which means more screen space although I guess it takes some time getting use to by most people. The only thing I hate about Chrome is that there is no auto-fill when I comment on blogs and such. :@
As for the IE compatibility, I’m sadly still working on it since I haven’t had much time to last week. The other non-IE related stuff were higher priority. Sorry! Hehe.
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Rachel
November 6th, 2008 |
It’s fine, I don’t mind! You never know you might turn me into a FF convert
I’ve never used Chrome, but you’re making me more and more tempted to get as times goes by!
I’m also getting tempted to make my own blog, which I just might do as soon as I can think of a good enough name…
Also, where do you find your amazing photos? I’ve been looking for some similar style photos for a while..
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Katy
November 6th, 2008 |
Different browsers are useful for different websites that’s why I use so many. I like Chrome for things like forums and reading news sites because FF has this weird bug that screws up your typing and makes the “find” box pop up if you type for too long. Also, Chrome is SUPER fast.
If you ever want to start a blog of your own and/or need hosting, just ask! I’ll be glad to help you get started.
You mean photos of clothes and stuff? Check out: http://www.polyvore.com
It’s very useful when you’re looking for inspiration or outfit ideas. Good luck!
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Rachel
November 6th, 2008 |
I meant the photos that you use for your headers? But I love that site as well, thanks a lot. And thanks for your offer of help
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Katy
November 10th, 2008 |
Oops sorry… I got them from Elle.com! Other stock photos are ones I’ve collected / purchased over the years from StockXchange and iStock.
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This layout looks awesome. Great work!
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Thanks for the comments everyone.
I did a couple changes over the weekend and fixed the sidebar (also changed the font back to 9pt). There’s still a lot of bugs like the IE stuff but I’ll fix those over the next couple days.
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Your theme is hot shit
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Katy
November 3rd, 2008 |
No Tiff, your hot shit.
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Since I’m too broke to pay my cable bill, I’m looking at your site via PDA/Smartphone and I think it looks great. The colors work well together and clearly, I think the font is perfect.
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Hi there nice theme… great job.. amaze me..
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The theme is really good and the header image is simply stunning. Great Job!
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Amazing design! Awesome awesome awesome! I love the comfortable big font too. I plan to get a massive font for my redesign too. Good luck for IE compatibility!
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I can relate to being impatient with wordpress work. I get so fed up with wordpress sometimes and I’m so eager to post, I often just throw up a layout and editing it as I go along.
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Your layout looks really good! Very stylish and very usable. Big font is always good, it looks good where it is now though. I wouldn’t make it smaller than this.
IE 8 is coming out soon (i think the beta2 is already out) and they’re actually going to comply with standards this time, will be one giant leap for web designers everywhere.
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Katy
November 6th, 2008 |
FINALLY!! But then a lot IE users probably won’t upgrade for a while too… I know I’m not an IE user, but I open it sometimes to see how my website looks in it and I”m still using 5.5 because upgrading is such a hassle. It would be a better world if IE just disappeared don’t you think? LOL.
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OMG.. i love your new theme! I was just looking for the credits.. and then i saw you made it! haha.. i was gonna snach it! lol
Great job girl!
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Katy
November 6th, 2008 |
Thanks girl… it was originally based from the Gossip City theme but I rewrote a lot of the stuff and tweaked it a lot to make it my own.
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nice blog, i love your theme. but give me some wp theme
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Definitely love the new theme though think the font is so huge however that’s just me. I like small fonts. This font has major appeal stylistically & colors.
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