That Time My Blog Demanded Plastic Surgery {Plus Six Great Resources for Customizing Basic Blogs}

My blog hasn’t had a midlife crisis in a while, so it was no surprise to me when over the weekend it tried to sneak out to get hair implants and then began demanding a Porsche. I firmly said no while doing more important things, like creating that raindrop decal accent wall in K’s nursery. But when it began whining about its liver spots and then threatened to look up its old beaus on Facebook, I said whatever, enough is enough and offered a simple facelift as collateral. It appears to have been appeased with its new header and fonts and colors, but I’ve hidden the steroids just in case.

Speaking of blog facelifts, I’ve done various simple things over the years—obviously nothing major; I’m just using Blogger as a platform, after all—and have spent a lot of time googling all around for clear tutorials containing certain information about how to customize a Blogger blog. I thought I’d save some of you the googling around and compile helpful resources all in one tiny little post; unless you like the googling around, of course, in which case please don’t let me interfere. But might I recommend instead searching for something more exciting like hair implant fails? And then report back to me with your findings.

Visit the following links to learn how to…

1. Create a custom blog header. Say your blog was called That Time I Got a Chin Job and Other Midlife Musings. You could make a totally customized header that featured a close-up of your…chin job. 
2. Create a custom navigation bar OR create custom side tabs. Tabs like Nostalgia and Waxing would look great in a hip new font.
3. Center your navigation tabs. In case you don’t want Nostalgia and Waxing cuddling up in left alignment.
4. Create custom social media icons. You know, so your blog can connect with its old beaus.
5. Create a custom blog background. This could feature repeated images of your favorite bands from the 70s.
6. Create a thumbnail image gallery. This way you can give sneak peeks of all your before and afters. Refer to #1.

Ooooookay. I’ve officially poked way too much fun in the direction of midlife crisis. This will probably come back to haunt me in 35 years when I am trying to buy cheetah-print shorts at Aeropostale and some super hilarious 27-year old cashier is rolling her eyes at me. Signing off now.

P.S. If you’ve made a tutorial about blog customization OR know of another good one, please feel free to add it in the comments! :)