Many people go under the knife to take years off of their face. Nips and tucks are made, injections are administered and when the bandages come off and the bruising goes down, years have been taken off of their looks and they appear to have gone back in time.

That’s kind of what has happened with my theme.

Today’s Lesson

As mentioned in the “Inquiring Minds Want To Know” post, when I started blogging, the birth of this blog’s name first appeared in written form, in my notebook.

Over the past three years, I’ve tried to replicate that “feeling” with a theme for this blog, however no theme I found suited me, so I stuck with a more generic look.

When I recently spotted this theme,  I knew this was “it”.

Hence, the process began, and after weeks of tweaking,  it’s time to unveil my new look.

Although many bloggers use premium themes, I’ve stuck with free ones I find online. Granted, links are often required to be left in the footer, but for the work the theme author has put into creating these works of art, I feel it’s a small price for their contribution to blogosphere.

As I was working behind the scenes on my new look, I wondered why bloggers choose the themes they do.

So, now it’s your turn,

Today’s Assigment

Why did you choose the theme you use for your blog?

Is it a free theme? Or did you buy it?

Either way, did you also customize it to fit your needs?

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P.S. I still have a few more tweaks to make to this theme, however in the meantime, if you find any links that aren’t working or spot other problems, please let me know.

Dot over at Deeper Issues and I must be blogging sisters as we both enjoy looking at, experimenting with and/or changing our themes.

In the beginning days of blogging, I changed the theme to this blog quite regularly, but now use my test site to play with new themes so I don’t confuse all of you by making too many changes here.

On my next project, which is STILL under construction, I’m not only getting posts written for the unveiling, but am redesigning the theme. I’ve changed colors, added widgets, created and recreated the header a half dozen times, and played with so many fonts I’ve lost count all in an attempt to get it “just right”.

Today’s Lesson

Just as they say the first impression is a lasting one, the theme we use can say a lot about us and our blog.

Some choose colorful ones with photos, whereas other bloggers are sporting lots of white space.

Some have sidebars filled with ads, photos, badges and widgets. Others prefer things much more simple.

With so many blog themes to choose from, the possibilities are endless. Add to that the fact changing the code can result in an original creation, bloggers can customize their sites and make their theme a representation of who they are.

When I land on blogs, I wonder why the author chose the theme they did. Was it the color that attracted them, or the layout? Did they customize the header or did they choose to only display the name of the blog and its tag line? Does the theme represent what I’ll find in the articles? And is it a true representation of the author?

For me, I chose this theme because I can change the header image with just a few clicks. It has a “custom header” feature which allows me to download a different photo if I so desire.

Because I wanted this blog to showcase those who comment, older posts and interviews, advertisements took a back seat. (I have some in the footer).

What I’ve done may not work for others, but for this blog I feel it fits.

What about you?

Today’s Assignment

Why did you choose the theme you use?

Does it fit your personality or is it time for a change?

Raise you hand and share how your blog theme was born.

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P.S. The photo at the top of the post is a screenshot of this blog prior to April 2009