See, back in August I was super stoked to find out that I won a blog makeover…for free! I’ve always wanted a personalized blog look, not just a layout that I adapt myself, as I have here now, with easy changes like headers and link colors.  You see, this blog isn’t just a blog to me, it’s my cyber home.  It’s my personal newspaper, my memory book, my photography portfolio, my digital scrapbooking page, my personal social network to meet other cool people.  And so, this blog deserves more than just a white canvas with outdated pictures of our family (from WAY over a year ago!), it deserves to express who I am as a person and what this blog stands for.

But, alas, the free prize fell through some how. The designer kept pushing back getting things done and eventually just stopped emailing me all together with design ideas and productivity. I’m sad and mad and just totally bummed.  But, I thought, “Hey! I’m good at learning things and good with designing things so let’s stretch myself and try to do what I want myself.”  And, it started out well. I got a beautiful header (thanks to the help of Little Dreamer Designs) and got it in place of the layout I chose.  But…things have ended sourly and I’m stuck.  The background image is HUGE, I can’t get the sidebars to change correctly to show my matching sidebar images, I can’t get the white space to disappear behind the header, etc. The list goes on and I’m done. Frustrated. See my bad work here (thank goodness it’s just my sample blog!).

I would totally pay some one to do it, but it’s just not in our ‘2 college student and a toddler’ budget right now (Most designs run over $60! I’ve even seen into the hundreds! Crazy).  And so, what I need help with is this: Either you (or some one you can refer me to) use your nifty blog skills to help me figure out this mess to make it look good. Or, out of the kindness of your blog designing heart, create my dream layout for me (what I have started is NOT it, just something I could live with).

Please? Help? Referrals? Any kindness in those hearts?