Well, I finally bit the bullet and upgraded to WordPress 2.3. I always sort of grit my teeth and cross my fingers when it’s time to upgrade, it went quickly and everything still works! I decided since the site had new insides, it was time for a new header too. One responder to my survey said they were a little tired of the gumdrops- see how I’m responding to your input already? 
Actually, I was a little tired of them too, but I did stick with pink for October in this new look.
Speaking of the survey – I have had 20 respondents so far and I appreciate every one, but I’m sure there are more of you that have a minute to spare to give me some input and tell me something about yourself. I’ll tell you all what I learned in an upcoming post.
Another new addition that I’d like to recommend is the Homepage Excerpts plugin that was recently released by Daniel at Daily Blog Tips. The plugin allows you to display the most recent posts as full posts, and then the older ones that are still on your index page as excerpts. If you scroll down, you’ll see what I mean. This is more search engine friendly and I think more user friendly as well.
Another site that has a new look is one of the many sites of Jooce, the winner of my Pimp My Blog contest. Her celebrity gossip blog, Zero Jooce, has a new header I designed. It’s fun designing for gossip sites, because you can throw “conservative” right out the window and go completely over the top!
Kids these days need to be more tech savvy than previous generations, and getting math help early on can help make sure a child doesn’t fall behind. Playing math games to fortify the basics can really help for the future of a child’s college education.
![[Post to Twitter]](http://randaclay.com/wp-content/plugins/tweet-this/icons/tt-twitter.png){kind=icon}
![[Post to Delicious]](http://randaclay.com/wp-content/plugins/tweet-this/icons/tt-delicious.png){kind=icon}
![[Post to Digg]](http://randaclay.com/wp-content/plugins/tweet-this/icons/tt-digg.png){kind=icon}
![[Post to StumbleUpon]](http://randaclay.com/wp-content/plugins/tweet-this/icons/tt-su.png){kind=icon}
Funny you should mention Daniel’s excerpt plugin – I just installed it a couple of minutes ago, having found it via my feed reader.
It’s something I was going to do manually, with help from the Tech Traction blog, but a plugin makes it much easier.
One thing I’m not sure is working, is the length of excerpts. I want to show more text than it is, but can’t seem to update it. Perhaps Daniel can help.
I finally realized why I have been craving gumdrops lately. It is because of this blog. LOL. I love tulips though so either header is great! I found your blog through Stumble Upon and I absolutely love it!
Congrats on upgrading to 2.3, and without any problems. Did all your plugins/widgets work as well or were there any problems?
I had just visited your site a few days ago, I like the new look! Thanks for the link to that plugin, I think I will use it.
Could you tell me what plugin you are using for the
“You might also like:” part?
@David- I have been thinking about doing this for a while too – glad Daniel gave us some help!
@MyStarbucks – glad my site is having an “effect” on you!
@Robert – that’s the Related Posts plugin. All my plugins and widgets worked with no problems at all- I was surprised actually, as I have skipped the last couple of updates (I know, shame on me).
I really like the change. It’s delicate and feminine without being overly girly, and it fits in nicely with Pink for October of course!
Nice new design Randa! I didn’t know about your survey. I’ll see if I have time later this week to fill it out.
This looks great! Very pretty in pink.
Nice pink color design!
Really liking the header. It’s soft and pretty.
I tried installing the Related Posts plugin, but the auto install didn’t work for some reason and I didn’t find the instructions very clear on exactly where or how to run the necessary command in phpMyAdmin, so I chickened out.
Instead I tried WP 2.3 Related Posts, but I see now it’s including Pages in the output so I’m not that happy with it either.
Thanks Randa for the link!
@Charity – I chickened out the first time I went to install the Related Posts plugin too! It was no big deal as it turned out. The instructions were spot on.
I’ve updated my Blog to WP 2.3 a few days ago and am really loving it. Only had one problem but was able to fix it quite easily.
Looking good, I like the new header. Not too pink just right.
Hey, I love the new header! I will await the results of the survey! A lot of the fun in blogging is in figuring out who’s reading your posts; never ceases to fascinate me.
LOVE your blog. I so wish I could figure out how to use wordpress, I have been doing blogs for a while, and finally decided to download it. Here it sits in my laptop, unused, because I don’t have the technological know how to get it onto my domain. I am with Bravehost, and purchased yet another domain name for my first Wordpress blog, and after that was lost. If anyone can help me, I’d appreciate it! Claudia
Claudia – you need to check with your host about how to set up an SQL database and then follow the instructions at http://codex.wordpress.org/Installing_WordPress or check out this site: http://install4free.wordpress.net/ – looks like they will install it for you for free.
Thank you so much, Randa. I will re-visit the info in your comment when I’m more awake than I am now! It looks very helpful, thanks again and God bless!
I’m not sure I’ve come across your blog before but now that i have, its beautiful and clean – and very informative of course! I got here looking for themes since I want to change mine!
I haven’t upgraded yet and it sort of scares me!!
Thank you so much, Randa. I will re-visit the info in your comment when I’m more awake than I am now! It looks very helpful, thanks again and God bless!
Every time I upgrade WP something must go wrong…a plugin, some pictures. So i just stopped upgrading it..is much better to have an older version rather than lots of “undefined variables” on my home page!