I have been thinking about a redesign here for some time. I love the theme I have but at the same time, there are some elements about it that make me a pissy bitch. Back many moons ago, when MT was the only acronym that mattered, I used to do a new layout as often as the weather changed. I think part of why I got away from it was that I switched over to WordPress in the great “OMG we must start paying or deal with licensing stuff” fiasco of ummm whenever that was.

It’s fun going in and trying to remember all the things I’ve forgotten about coding and such, and it’s making me realize that as much as I’m just a mom who has a blog, I still have a good idea of what the industry is currently doing, thanks to having a husband in the middle of that mess. As far as design, I’ve always considered myself an average layout creator. Nothing fancy, as a matter of fact I just figured out how to use a pen tool a few weeks ago with help from the kid. I’ve also made a point of pushing myself to learning my way around the Gimp instead of whining that I don’t have the newest Photoshop.

The point of this post is to thow some things out there that I’ve learned in the last few weeks of jumping back into the land of code:

1. Know how the package works before you try and tear it apart. That seems like a no brainer, but there are people out there that have no idea of the basic functionality that’s built into the system, and some templates don’t make use of, or wank things so far out of the norm that it’s not fun to work with it.

2. RTFM. (look it up if you don’t know) WordPress Codex and Google are your friend. Everything you need to know about building templates for the engine is either in the first, or can be found by typing it into the second.

3. Keeping the idea of wanking in play here (gods this is going to make for an interesting search list at the end of the month) If you are going to rip off code from someone because it’s “cool”, have a fecking clue as to what you are doing. There are far too many templates out there that are Frankenstein creations of “borrowed” bits. While it may look pretty, it is usually a vile spew of crap under the hood. Validate your code please!!!! I can not say that enough. If you are going to borrow bits, make sure that they are well written, and if they aren’t, find a way of correcting them before you add them to something else.

4. Document what you are doing. Commenting code can save you a ton of brain ache later on. Commenting CSS is equally important as is grouping like elements together and understanding the whole “Cascade” part of CSS.

In the end, I’m going to go play around and try and finish off this evil pink girlie thing that is taking over my test space and see if I can get it finished in the next week. I’m also contemplating the idea of putting up some base WordPress templates for download, but following my own rules, I have a lot of documenting to do before I hand them over to someone else.

sparkles backgroundAs proof that I am working on something I give you a lovely pink PURPLE sparkling background tile as a reminder that even the most bitchy cynical women can do cute sometimes. I am using that as part of my new design, but I’m open to sharing, because that’s the way the web works. Enjoy :) Oh, I hate that I have to say this but I will. If you hotlink this image instead of downloading it, I will hunt you down in a most unpleasant way by replacing this with a monkey’s ass or some other lovely image. Right click and save is your friend.