Please critique my updated blog! PLEASE! I'll pay you back! :)

[mamanotes]

I have been working hard over the past couple weeks (trying to) learning html... here is what I've got so far. Mama Notes

Eventually, I'd need to add a picture to the header, but I haven't figured that out yet.

What do you think? Is it to plain? Too simple? Does it look semi professional? Easy to read?

I really appreciate your thoughts. Thank you!!!

If you comment- make sure you leave your blog link and/or your critique post so I can help you out with yours! Thanks!

[The Envoy]

It looks good to me. Simplicity is the key to effectiveness: too many extras on a blog just increases loading time and is frankly annoying if not arranged properly.

I guess the only thing I can suggest is to put a "read more" widget on your longer posts. Try googling around for the code. I deleted my bookmark to the site I used :P

[mullenbooger]

Yeah it looks pretty good, I really like your picture/header, it makes it very professional looking. It seems like there needs to be some sort of separation between the title header and your posts. Maybe put in a bar with some links, or some sort of divider just to split the top from your posts. Its not necessary but it may make it look cleaner.

I agree with envoy, either do a read more widget, or put less posts on the front page, since it seems really long

[mamanotes]

good point, thanks guys. I know how 5 post per page instead of 7, so maybe that will help and I'll take a look at that widget.

[Nathan]

I think that your blog looks fairly good. One word of advice, is that you need to add more margin to your post area. As it is the post text runs almost right up to the border.

Make sure that you add some visual whitespace on both sides of the post text. This separates the text from the edge of the screen and from the sidebar itself. Whitespace makes your blog look clean and professional, but a busy, crowded blog is stressful.

The only other major thing that I notice is that your feedburner form is broken. The input box sticks out over the edge of the form, and that looks really bad.

You need to adjust the width of that input box.

Keep up the good work!

[mamanotes]

Nathan- That's a good point. I will work on adding more white around everything. Thanks for the tip!

[bigartblog]

I like this blog.. I think it's very original and will open many mothers eyes. I like the foot prints, very cute! I think the green and pink is an odd contrast... maybe change the green to light baby blue? I think the content frame should be centered to give it a more polished look and there's an odd white space on the right hand side... other than that it's great! Oh and my goodness what a cute baby!!!!

[mamanotes]

Originally Posted by bigartblog

I like this blog.. I think it's very original and will open many mothers eyes. I like the foot prints, very cute! I think the green and pink is an odd contrast... maybe change the green to light baby blue? I think the content frame should be centered to give it a more polished look and there's an odd white space on the right hand side... other than that it's great! Oh and my goodness what a cute baby!!!!

Thanks. I changed the colors to a blue scheme. I think it looks better- what do you think?

I need to add more widgets to the right hand side, then it will look better I hope.

Thanks for the cute baby comment!

[mamanotes]

I changed the color again. I can't decide what colors I like best

[artisan]

I love it. The simplicity and colors are very nice and calming. The header needs to be centered, though. Either that or place another image in the right hand corner, whichever you prefer. Other than that, I like it!