Nice Wee Sites

The website for the Uist-wide Art on the Map studio trail and directory of Uist artists and makers is now live at www.uistarts.org.

Two recent additions to the Nice Wee Sites portfolio:

A website for Renfrewshire-based poet Mary Thomson, who creates little handmade books containing individual poems:

And a blog for a North Uist journalist, with news, stories and anecdotes:

A new version of the Nice Wee Theme is now available for download. No huge changes, but it’s been tested in Wordpress 2.9, posts with more than one page (using the “more” tag) are now handled better on the main blog page and in the archives, and I finally got round to fixing the copyright date in the footer so that it will update automatically.

Coming soon – the Nice Wee Theme in a new colour…

TheRowanTree is a newly built bed and breakfast in Sollas, North Uist, offering quality accommodation within easy reach of stunning beaches. Its two double rooms and one twin/king size are beautifully decorated and have en-suite facilities, and free wireless broadband is offered to guests. Check out the website for further details.

Uist Archaeology, comprising Kate MacDonald and Becky Rennell, now have a website at www.uistarchaeology.com where you can find out about Kate and Becky and the services they offer across Barra and the Uists, view a gallery of archaeological sites and be kept up to date with news and events.

Struan House on the west side of North Uist comprises two self-catering houses and one bed & breakfast, all offering comfortable accommodation with spectacular views of the shallow waters and white sands between Malaglate and the uninhabited island of Vallay. See the new website for more information and to book your stay.

The Nice Wee Theme has passed 2000 downloads! To mark the occasion, here are ten implementations I’m aware of that I like, in no particular order. Some I like because of what they’ve done with the theme, others because of their contents.

1. I am ckTan, a Singaporean teacher with a cool logo and avatar:

2. The Sensitive Gourmet, “a blog about learning about and living with food allergies, reflux and asthma and the pursuit of safe and tasty eats”:

3. Annelise Johnsen, “73% geek, the rest is girly-bits” – a personal blog with recipes and book reviews:

4. Liberty Hall Writers, “where you can spit on the mat and call the cat a bastard” – a space for writers to take part in challenges and learn from each other:

5. ZimKnits, a blog about knitting and books. Sara is studying library science, like I did x years ago:

6. Time to Craft, a Spanish crafting blog. I have no idea what it says but it looks nice:

7. Silversprite, “the revolution will be catalogued. And knitted.” Another librarian:

8. Pinguinmafia. Again, no idea but looks nice and it’s black rather than the default brown:

9. Fat Woman With A Band, “one woman’s trials, tribulations, and triumphs living with a laparoscopic band” – a fairly standard installation of the theme but interesting topic:

10. And finally, CristinaBadea.ro which takes the theme and transforms it into something completely different:

This is something I’ll include in future versions of the Nice Wee Theme, but in the meantime, to update the copyright year in the footer to 2009 – and to ensure that it updates automatically in future years, so you never have to touch it again – here’s what to do:

1. Dowload and open the theme’s footer.php file.
2. Replace this line:

<p>&copy; 2008 <?php bloginfo('name'); ?><br />

With this line:

<p>&copy; <?php echo date('Y'); ?> <?php bloginfo('name'); ?><br />

3. Save and upload.

The code

<?php echo date('Y'); ?>

will dynamically change the date at the start of each new year.

I was recently asked how to increase the width of the Nice Wee Theme. By default the main (text) column is 450 pixels wide; this user wanted the main column to be 500 pixels so he could add wider images to his posts. This can be done by making six alterations to the theme’s style.css, including increasing the overall width of the theme from 730 to 780 pixels.

In case anyone else is in the same boat, here are the bits you need to alter (line numbers are indications only – yours may differ):

line 22
#navmenu
width: 500px;

line 303
#page
width: 780px;

line 311
#header
width: 500px;

line 331
.narrowcolumn
width: 500px;

line 338
.widecolumn
width: 500px;

line 643
#sidebar
margin-left: 565px;

On Saturday I went on a box-making workshop, run by local bookbinder Corinna Krause. It was an excellent day – I learned a lot, met some new people and came away with a beautiful handmade box that I’ll keep forever.

Corinna has a website, Sollas Bookbinding, where you can find out about her craft, the bookbinding and box-making workshops she runs, and how to buy her products.

I’m hoping to attend one of the bookbinding courses next time; subscribe to the website’s RSS feed to be kept informed of upcoming events.