This week’s question comes from HAYLEY @ ON THIS I PONDER, who wonders—
How much time do you spend on making your blog look nice? Is it more about making it functional? Did it take a long time to set it up? Are you still changing it around? Do you ever feel like your blog design is not properly appreciated (for example, are most people reading your posts via the Reader and not actually visiting your blog)? What are the best tools you use to customize the look of your blog?
I like the way my blog looks. It only took a couple days to put together, and while there are some things that I would change if I could, the template that I settled on is a little restrictive on some things, so I have had to get…creative.
One of the things that I have been doing is creating TopTenLists in Zinnia. I make one item per slide, and drop them into the blog as images once I am done with them. It’s ridiculously time-consuming, but I love the way they look, and since I find the whole thing fun, the three hours or so that it takes to do it every week usually seems worth it.
I also use Zinnia to make the Review Overview panels that I put at the beginning of each review. Those were a blast to design, and I love them.
As for the tools I use, Zinnia is probably what I use the most, although I do bang some things out in Canva occasionally. I paid for some artwork early on, and I am pretty pleased with how all of that came together.
Mostly, I wanted the blog to be fun and functional, not too cluttered or busy, but visually appealing enough that *I* found it interesting. With a couple issues here and there, I think that it hits the mark for me. I like it here. 🙂
If you have a tool that you use that makes your heart sing, please include it in the comments. I love this stuff!
The Let’s Talk Bookish meme is hosted by Rukky @ Eternity Books & Dani @ Literary Lion.
fifty-two 
Now hold on, let me get this straight. Aesthetics can be a thing? You mean my drab not quite any color you can identify and pictures of cats down the right, some cereal fella’s and a classic 70’s Bucco’s logo at my blog might not be aesthetically pleasing? Son of a bitch. This Zinnia and her friend Canva sound nice, though I’m not sure I’m ready to invest that time … it’s been a while since I’ve dated.
I like the way your blog looks by the way, it does hit the mark, it’s comfortable and warm as a place about reading books should be. You got that aesthetic goin’ on.
LikeLiked by 1 person
I think you have a great blog aesthetic and I love all the graphics that you make for your reviews and TTT posts! Very fun and eye-catching 😍
LikeLiked by 2 people
Your blog is very pretty and easy to read. When I visit blogs, I look for content first, and then readability.
LikeLiked by 2 people
I’m never completely satisfied with how my blog looks or functions, and for that I blame WordPress. On one hand, it does most of the stuff I want/need it to do. On the other hand, it often does that in the klunkiest, least intuitive/transparent ways possible. On the other other hand, I also have yet to find a WordPress theme (even premium ones) that have all the features where/how I want them. I miss Blogger.
LikeLiked by 1 person
I love the combination of design and readability on your blog. When you’re writing paragraphs it’s on a nice clean readable background; but when you go for graphics, such as in your “here’s what I’ve read this month” or “here are micro reviews and/or quotes from my books for this question” they look great and spice those posts up — yet the text, while often fancier, is still easy to read.
(Now using script fonts and colorful backgrounds for an entire long blog post would, I think, become annoying — but for short highlights or blurbs it works really well)
LikeLiked by 1 person
I like your Review Overviews 😍. I just use Canva for my aesthetics.
LikeLiked by 1 person