My generous sister-in-law Echo and my brilliant brother Scott have frittered away several perfectly useful hours on my behalf and fixed my header. Wahoo. It delights me to have something unique since as I mentioned 13 times before, I strive to be quirky. Needless to say, the generic Blogger template was not so quirky. I kept bumping into other blogs with the same look and wincing with embarrassment as if we’d both worn the same dress to the prom. The dress we all bought at Walmart. The tacky one on clearance.
The original photo of the mosaic came from a student of mine who dutifully returned from a trip to Europe with a disk full of images for me. I tell all of my students to please bring me photos since they get to travel all over the globe, wander through museums, gaze upon ancient ruins, and inhale those intoxicatingly musty cathedral smells while I’m stuck here in a place where “old” is measured by decades rather than centuries. Anyway, sometimes the guilt-trip works and they bring me pictures of tiny stones and grout that prove to be useful.
My favorite part of the mosaic is the single deformed piece (tessera) off to the right. Can you see it? The one that looks a bit like a molar? I like him. He’s my kind of guy – bucking the system and refusing to conform to that whole trapezoid mentality.
In quilting, there’s a superstition that says every quilt should have at least one obvious flaw in order to let the evil spirits escape. It’s a nice tradition. I like being able to look at my highly flawed finished quilt and say “man, that is one righteous quilt.”
So the non-conformist tessera blesses my blog and keeps out the evil spirits. Perhaps he will keep out the evil spammers as well.
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16 comments:
Finally I get to see the mosaic! Sometimes the tacky Walmart dress just looks humble and there's nothing wrong with that.
I need to try what you did and pick a generic template. Maybe I can doctor it up to look just as pretty.
YAAY! Love the new look. I loved your blog even with the generic tacky look--after all, it's the writing that shines--but I hated it when I had the generic look myself, so I totally understand. (Not that my look is so incredible, but I like being able to change my header at will and keep it personal)
Oh,what a beautiful blog! I like it very much! I'm agreeable to your point of view! my name is [insert several incomprehensible pictoglyphs here, hyperlinked to some spam site] I hope to make feiends with you !
I never could see the mosiac either. It looks great!
I can see it! I can see it!
Creative, artsy, imperfect, different, and yes, quirky. I can see why you were sad to see it go, and happy to see it return.
You being a blogger who includes some kind of artwork in nearly every post, I can imagine how difficult it was for you to look up at the generic header and want something else. You wanted something that fits you.
As I was selecting among templates at WordPress, the default header they displayed on my favorite showed a horse race track. I chose it, assuming that I'd have to swap it out with something else because my life has nothing to do with horses, races or gambling, but when it uploaded with my name and info, *books* appeared! Battered old books stacked on their sides.
I'm aware that a high percentage of bloggers are also bibliophiles and would also feel their hearts turn to butter when they saw books appear as the header, but still...it felt like it had been customized for me. I kept the books. So far when I've seen my template at other people's sites, they've changed the header to something else. Makes me happy. But even if I do stumble onto someone else who kept the book header, I think it'll feel like we both happen to haunt the same used bookstore set up in a musty old house covered with vines. We'll nod to each other and return to our blissful browsing, er, blogging.
Congratulations on the upgrade. It fits you.
I am so glad to hear that let the evil out quilting superstition. I made a rag baby blanket. It is a sort of quilt and since it is flawed (hard to watch the superbowl and sew)it's nice to be able to justify the wonkyness with a bonafide superstition!
Welcome back to your full expression!
I love your header, Julie! Sadly, if it was on my blog, the grout would already look filthy and the tiles would be cracking from my kids playing their favorite "Does It Bounce?" game.
Love the new header. I went and voted for you today too, do you get a prize if you win?
Looks great!
Oh, I'm really glad that you have it looking the way you want. There's hardly anything more frustrating than things not working and your being able to picture them in your head...
I like your "molar". And I love that musty cathedral smell too - although I usually get my fill of it with old books instead.
I bet if I ever make a quilt it'll be more righteous than any of yours! *snerk* Now to learn how to sew so I can show you up...
Loooove the new header, in a way that extra o's can't even begin to convey.
glad to see the mosaic back! i am holding back on changing the generic look of my template - sounds like an ordeal; love your writing and would have continued visiting even with the generic template:-)
Welcome back tesserae and a big welcome back to the non-conformist tessera! I am glad we all get to see you now.
Any quilts I would ever attempt to make would simply not exist because they would be translated the instant they were started ... at least according to your evil spirit analogy :) !!
And thanks to Echo and Scott for frittering away their hours ... isn't family wonderful?!?
My version of the quilting theory is every quilt should have at least one ugly fabric. I earned my first and only major quilting award with a quilt full of ugly fabrics. Which I bring up only because I would love to see photos of your quilts.
You are a lucky woman ... can you loan out your SIL & brother? ;) I'm still fiddling around trying to fix my header. Ain't no fun looking the same as everyone else...
Thanks for visitn my blog and for letting me know my e-mail link was down. Should be back up now. In regards to your comment: I'd like to say you have more time for yourself, but I went back to work so the answer for me is no. But I think I get more out of the time I have for myself. Or maybe I get more out of the time I don't have for myself...
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