I have a new LJ layout. I was tired of the old one, and wanted something new in autumn colors. When looking for potential backgrounds, I found PatternCooler (at least, I think so—I closed the tab, and now that I'm trying to find it again the website is down) which, although buggy, allows you to recolor and modify preexisting backgrounds. I love irregular stripes, so I used them—in all the reds, oranges, gold, and greens I wanted. The layout is based on Smooth Sailing as always (I like the way it handles icons), but this time I broke down and edited the entire CSS sheet. It's been a while since I played with CSS, but it was a joy to come back to. It allowed me to arrange posts with plenty of padding so that the stripes aren't overpowering, and I was able to tweak almost all of the things about the style which bugged me—like the lines above the posts, the lack of padding around mood icons, the gaps between header and columns, and soforth.

So all in all, I am incredibly pleased with this new layout. ^___^ It's brighter than I expected I'd end up with, but I like it that way. I love the link color, the negative space, and how images, icons, and my mood theme look. Seriously, I'm quite pleased and proud. I'm pretty lazy about changing my layout—I think I've had this one for nearly a year—so it's important that the final product is one that I'm willing to keep for a long while.

It's official: I can write a veritable essay on any subject, even one as mundane as an LJ layout.