Renovating the cubicle.

This little blog has been around for 9 months now and in the theme of that timeframe, I am starting to think of it more and more like a baby. I have to take care of it, interact with it, and put work into it for it to grow.


I have big plans for Cubicle Throwdown, however we all know first impressions are the most important, so on my to-do list first was a little cubicle redecorating.

Being on a tight budget meant that a custom blog redesign was unfortunately out of the question at the moment (until I start making millions from this blog…that happens…right?), but thanks to a suggestion from my fellow prairie expat blogger Jay at From There To Here (thanks lady!!) I made my way over to Blog Milk to see what Ana could help me out with in terms of a new theme. She creates some gorgeous stuff, and I chose the beautiful one you are looking at right now. It’s called Anse Lazio, and is named after a beach on the island of Praslin, in the Seychelles…I thought it was fitting given my life in Roatan has a lot to do with islands and beaches!


The good: 

• it was super-easy to install, and I am no tech wizard. A couple glitches came up but I was able to resolve them myself. 
• it was much cheaper than a custom design.
• they only sell 15 of each theme, and I got the last one. So only 14 other blogs in the world should have the same theme as me (and most people customize them anyway).
• I now have awesome links for you to share my post on Facebook, Twitter, and Pinterest at the end of every post…cool!
• I think it looks so pretty! I am a huge fan of a minimalist aesthetic, and I haven’t even changed any of the colors from the theme – they are some of my favorites and I think the overall look better reflects who I am, and what I do with this blog.

The bad:

• some of the glitches I can’t figure out. If you look at the preview you can see that the pages bar is underneath the header…mine is not there and I have no idea why. Blogosphere? Can any of you guys help with this? I emailed BlogMilk support but haven’t heard back yet. Wow, is she ever quick! Ana from BlogMilk already personally emailed me back to tell me how to fix this. Change this one over to the good category for great customer service!
• I don’t want to have to go back and edit each post individually, but I don’t like the font color and style of previous posts with this new theme. There might be a better way to do this, but I don’t know how. It might look a little weird around here for awhile until I figure out what I like best.
• some things look a little weird in IE. If you’re using Chrome like me, or Firefox, it should look the way I want it to. Sorry!

The ugly:

• Blog Milk doesn’t support third-party commenting systems, like Disqus or IntenseDebate (which I use). So to all you guys, it looks like all the comments previously have disappeared. I can still see them, but you can’t. I’m really sorry to all those who have taken the time to comment on my blog – I replied to each and every one of you so that you knew I saw and appreciated it. Until I figure out a way to reintegrate IntenseDebate, we’ll just have to stick with the basic Blogger commenting system. Please still comment on my posts!! I love interacting with all of you through the comments and getting feedback that way.

So there will probably be a few bumps along the road here, but I really appreciate you all sticking with me as I take Cubicle Throwdown from a tiny blog mostly for myself to stay on track as I executed a real-life cubicle throwdown to something big and amazing for everyone.