One of my BIGGEST peeves with weblogs is when the entry text is not the central focus of the site. Yes, design in important, but a good design with crappy material is nothing. This site goes against my “entry material first belief” by shoving the text to the right as if it’s an afterthought. The orange left column is way too wide and over-powering. Plus, it ends halfway down and then just drops off and disappears. You can see where the side panel SHOULD end, but doesn’t. This area of the design needs to be tweaked just a bit.
The banner is original and eye appealing, but the quote is hard to read and again, pushed to the far right. I like the way the calendar is incorporated into the layout and the colors are great, but that’s where the eye-appeal ends. I’m hoping the writing draws me in more than the design of the site does.
The author is currently doing a “blog challenge” where she asks herself a question and answers it. in the entry. In summary, it bores me. Some of the questions include: “What do you accidentally forget to pack each time you go away? If you were to die today, would you go to heaven? Why do you choose to live in the UK?” Blah, blah, blah. Boring.
Her earlier entries, before the “challenge” are better. She’s slightly humorous and good-natured. She talks about her family and her life and is mildly interesting. Unfortunately, I don’t find anything here that I can’t find in a number of other “mommy blogs” on the net. You can tell she adores her children and her husband and seems to be an upbeat and happy person. There is rarely a negative post or an emotional outburst. I’m not saying this is a GOOD thing, I’m just stating what I found. Even when something “bad” happens, she seems to retell the situation with a smile on her face.
The “About Me” section is well written and informative (not to mention newly updated). This blog has all the bells, whistles, and links that you could think of. The writing is mediocre. This woman is someone we’d all love to be friends with in “real” life, but not an author who’s life you would necessarily care to read about on a daily basis. Again, she has a decent sense of humor, and that comes across in her writing, but this is just another mommy blog.
This site may be interesting for other mommies living in the UK, but I don’t find it altogether all that interesting. It’s not a “bad” blog by any means, it’s just not a good one. There are countless other blogs out there in this same category and that’s what I find so unappealing. There is very little that is original on this site. There is nothing here that I couldn’t find elsewhere on the web.
Give it a try, you might like it. I, however, have more unique and interesting blogs to read.