New functionality for my blog

I've added in a screenshow. It's got about 150 images in it, and they are supposed to be shown randomly. Random, my foot. This is the standard "Blogger Screenshow Widget". I think I'll go looking for another one that *does* show the images randomly, but meanwhile, this will do.

There is a LOT more functionality yet to be added to my blog, including (hopefully, if my blog builder Clyde can programme it - he should be able to) a Table of Contents for all my projects, initially shown with an image for each project. On selecting a particular project, all posts will be listed, with one image per post so you can see what was being done in the post and select that post if you want to.

I'm also completely separating out my Calligraphy and Illumination work from my Embroidery work. There will be radio button at the top of the blog, the user chooses one of the two subjects and then only posts from that subject will be shown. I still get an awful lot of hits on the Calligraphy and Illumination work in my blog - it's important that the work isn't lost  - but it confuses and complicates the blog to have Projects, Sites etc for both subjects showing at the same time.

There are also a lot of cosmetic changes to come. For fun, here's the new header that I've built in Photoshop :

It will go under the ornate gold bar at the top of the blog.
Not all of the buttons are there yet. This header will replace a lot of the sidebar widgets in my blog. The Project List (table of contents) should be there (hey, where did it go?). From the colours in the header you might get an idea of how I'm shifting the colours of the blog appearance from orange and sepia to sepia, green and maroon. Kind of a Victorian/Grunge look.

Here's my Blog Name :

And instead of those orange squares at the beginning of each post :

I've heard complaints that double column blog layouts are too crowded. I intend to use the left column for lists, and the right for graphics (badges etc).

I've added a link to my Pinterest boards on the right hand side. Pinterest is a virtual pinboard, composed of as many pinboards as you like, usually separated by subject.



My boards are :

* Colour Palettes
* Favourite Embroideries
* Inspiration for Embroidery
* Projects I might do
* Favourite Art
* Jacobean Kits to Consider.

It's very simple to pin something - hit the Pin button in your toolbar and all available images from that webpage will appear and be able to be Pinned to a particular board. Most importantly, Pinterest retains the link back to the source - so it's just a matter of clicking on the picture to go back to it's source.

I love it.

I hope that you enjoy these two collections of piccies. (the screenshow and the Pinterest boards).

There's plenty more to come in my 'new blog' - this is just a very initial first step.....I want the 'perfect' blog where information is accessed easily. All those research posts! - the formal long ones will appear under "Some Writings", the Document of the Day posts will appear under "Have a Cuppa", as well as appearing as posts in my blog when I post them. The table of contents takes care of the Projects that I've made. See - nicely compartmented! :-)