For a while now I've wanted to change the look of the blog and do something about the mile-long archive list. I was planning to design a new template myself at first, but when I was reserarching options to shorten the archive list I found this layout on Free BlogSpot Templates. I like paper and having a paper look to my virtual journal is oddly appealing.
I modified the template to include the blogrings, knitlinks, photo albums and drop-down menu archive, eliminated the post titles and modified the post footer. All those changes are minor, the look and feel of the design is intact.
One of the options to organise the archive links better, would have been to convert the blog to new Blogger format. Those templates are XML instead of HTML and there is a hierarchical archive menu among other cool widgets. However, that would have meant that I would have had to move the blog back to BlogSpot because those features are not available if I publish via FTP.
I decided not to move because this is supposed to be the permanent address of the blog and I'd hate to redirect you yet again. I also decided not to convert the blog to TypePad or WordPress right now due to lack of time. Lack of time is also one of the reasons I chose to use a free template instead of building my own.
I hope you like the new duds.