viewing: mimi goodies no longer mine · rev.iew.me

Mimi Goodies NO LONGER MINE has 24 Reviews

Below are the reviews left by other members on Mimi Goodies NO LONGER MINE. Jump to review form?

Nadine gave it on 20th Jan 2009 and said:
Front-page/first impression: Ok, I donâ€™t like pink, but I guess many others do so I wonâ€™t judge on that. :P I like it. Itâ€™s the right size and looks good. The brush gives it just the extra it needs. The navigation is really nice, easy to find.
Site: The network page is nice, but canâ€™t you have a small picture for them all?
Me: A lot about your self. I wouldnâ€™t have dared to write so much about me on the internet, but thatâ€™s your choice. :P And your son is really cute ^^
Content: When I first go on the goodies page, I get really interested in the pixel web icons. Havenâ€™t seen that anywhere. They look really nice! The emoticons are really nice too. The coded layouts are nice, I especially like the third one. For the brushes it would be nice if you had an image pack. The button bases are really nice, the third one, which is blue, is adorable! Bullets are really nice too.
Over-all: You have a lot of good content, I would like to see more layouts and maybe some icons. But everything is really good!

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Mimi's Response:
Heya, thanks for the review! Just to clarify there are image packs in the brush files but I must thank you for bringing this to my attention because I completely forgot to state that they were included! Doh!

I think I will make a small picture for everything on the site page.. I suppose I just got lazy. :)

Thanks again!
Olivia gave it on 6th Jan 2009 and said:
Hello! I'm Olivia. I'm finally getting round to your review request. Phew. Apologies if I repeat anything that's been said below - I didn't have a chance to read through all the previous reviews! I've visited Mimi Goodies loads of times before, and I'll let you know now that it was your blogs that made me return. Your posts are always highly opinionated and that definately draws me in.

So anyway. In terms of design, I'm not a coder/designer in the slightest and even so I really prefer this new design to your old one. I feel like it's more of a reflection of your blog, if that's possible!

Goodies

With everything set out as it is, the whole site appears really very organised, with everything presented pleasingly to the visitor. I've never looked in detailed at pixels before but I must say yours are very cute and might make me have to use them! The zodiac icons are very neat. Wow, you have a fantastic range of emoticons! You know, I looked at your layouts before and I almost downloaded one... My favourite is Vivid Memories. It would be wonderful if you could add more layouts here, or perhaps wordpress themes. I'm sure they'd be very popular.

It's such a shame with each of these pages that you have to blast 'CREDIT ME! NO STEALING!' but since these resources are so original and unique and not re-gurgitated (spelling? Hmm..) from somewhere else I suppose putting those requirements there is a must.

Mimi
So let's find out more about YOUUUUU! First; Quick Run-Down. Ace! What every about-me page needs. BAM! We know the basics in a flash! I would add location or nationality here perhaps. That's actually the first thing I look for in an about-me page now! I feel like if I know where they're based (i.e UK or USA) I have more of a sense of them as a person. I feel like eye-colour isn't so particulary a useful thing to list in such a crucial opening first paragraph. Hair colour is - because that is a reflection of how you like your appearance - but eye colour doesn't affect you or personality in quite the same way living in a certain country or being a mother can!

Picking at your bio with a fine tooth comb here, I apologise! In your first paragraph you explain you're windy :) Nothing wrong with being windy! Yet you say 'please skip this if you want to see likes/dislikes'. For a second I thought from that sentance that you had a list of likes and dislikes beneath this section, and went to have a look! Thank god you don't have one! You could perhaps add; "If you would prefer to see the lists of my favorites, likes, dislikes, etc... you're not going to get one!" HA. :D

I do like your second paragraph as you fantastically slip in some good ol' psychology. Parents' divorces = PFFT. Glancing briefly over the page I see you've used a lot of dates and numbers here and there - I find that they generally get zoned out of a visitor's head and I sometimes find myself skipping places where I see someones written exactly what they weighed at birth! I'm sorry, but it happens.

Your story of your child's birth is a pleasing read - not for your agony of course! I mean, in terms of how you've written it and added your thought on high-school-drop-outs. I had to read this sentance over a few times to get the meaning of it;

I refuse to listen to teenage mothers who drop out of school blame their having a child for their lack of education

So perhaps if you rephrased it to something like;

I refuse to listen to those teenage mothers who drop out of school blaming their child for their lack of education.

Your relationship details are touching. Honestly. I feel you could maybe round off this page better somehow. These are all merely suggestions but perhaps a final paragraph to overall conclude your happiness with your child and boyfriend, or how you generally live your life. Or perhaps how you foresee the future? You state you are currently unemployed. Are you passionate about a job you'd like to have in the future? Etc :P Just something to complete the page, because re-reading it I feel like it cuts short. Oh! I forgot to mention the pictures - fantastic! They give us a small but neat visual glimpse to your life.

Network

I always love going through Ask and Answer forms! I notice that you said here you make custom layouts for a small fee. I'm sure a lot of people would be interested if you placed that information somewhere easily seen on the Goodies section. Another suggestion was to write tutorials - I think that would be another great element to the Goodies section. I'd definately use those!

Blog

Back to the blog. As I mentioned before, I love your blogs. Instead of wiff-waffling about things you've done in the day you present a strong argument concerning different topics. These would be pleasing to read as articles on their own! It's a little fustrating to have to go to the 'Archives' link at the bottom to see your archives of your blogs, when visitors can be so used to seeing the list of categories at the side on a side bar. I would want to spend ages browsing through these but since I can't see them sorted by category I feel blinded as to where I'm going! Of course your Net and Ramblings categories are my favourite ones :P I love a bit o' edrama me!

Final Comments

Basically I think you have a really nice well rounded site here. It's rare that you can see a boasting tagline and see that the tagline is indeed completely true; '100% Original Resources'. On a seperate note, I can see you single-handedly storming out use of celebrity images across the net! Keep going with that! Please! :P Anyway, organised, extremely personal, original, you name it. Y'all got it. *Dances* :P

UPDATED 06 Jan 09:
Oops.. Uh. Just read through that (oh the grammer mistakes) but I've just realised your sentance that I pointed out from the bio page actually does make perfect sense. I'm not with it today!

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RachelL gave it on 28th Dec 2008 and said:
Hey, I'm Rachel, and I'm going to finally fulfill your review request :D

First impression: Wow, pretty much beautiful. There's lots more that I'd like to say, but I'll leave that for the layout section.

Content:
Blog: There's not much to say about this, except that I really like how you talk about things in your blogs that are a little out of the ordinary (your blog about gifting for example). That keeps it interesting to read your blogs, and I'm sure that a lot of visitors come to your site because of this. Good job!

Goodies: I love how on the initial page you have a little preview image of each page and a short description of what visitors will find there. This keeps people from the annoyance of guessing at what they might find, and from possibly being wrong ^.^

Pixel Icons: My first impression was a literal *gasp!* I absolutely adore the little taped papers you have made to display the icons! Such an excellent idea. I was a little surprised to find a sozai section on this page though; maybe you should mention that in the description of the pixel icons section on the main goodies page.

Emoticons: Again, not much to say here, except that I like how you have options to download different colors and such, instead of filling the page with sets of the same emoticons in different colors.

Layouts: It's good to see that you have a preview available of each layout, and that you took the time to validate the XHTML and CSS of each. I also like how you put little instructions on each. Very nice :)

Brushes: Your brushes all look amazing... nothing really to say here.

Button Bases: Nothing to say again... these are just amazing!

Bullets: Very nice bullets; I like the variety within each set, especially how you have one plain, one outlined, and one with an outline and a drop-shadow for each shape. I'm also happy that you link to a tutorial about how to use them, since I think that a lot of people don't know how.

Mimi: Your autobiographical paragraphs are very interesting, and I'm glad that both you and Kenny have been able to find someone to love in the other. One little thing is that at the top of the page you say

If you would prefer to see the basics or lists of my favorites, likes, dislikes, etc... Please skip this long, drawn out story.

but it is unclear whether you meant that you could scroll down past the story to find such basics, or that you could just not read the article and move on with your browsing. Since you don't have any favorites lists or anything of the sort at the end of your story, I assume that you meant the latter, but maybe you could make this a little more clear? I don't think it's very important though really.

Network: Again, I like how you have little blurbs about what each link is before you click on it.

Ask & Answer: This is always a fun section :) One thing I would change though is maybe putting previous/next page links at the bottom too? It is kind of annoying to get to the end of the page and then have to scroll back up to find those links. I think the search bar would be better placed at the top too, because if someone doesn't know that it is there, they might read through a whole page looking for something, only to realize at the end that they could have just done a search for what they wanted to find (and for some reason I thought your ask form was the search thing, sorry about that).

Contact: Nothing really to say here.

Link Me: Again, nothing to say. How boring am I? :P (except for that it's nice that people can request a differently sized button).

There's really no point in reviewing the rest of this section (the "also see" part), so that's that :) On to other things!

Coding: Good job on validating your code :D Glad to see it!

Layout: Wow, what can I say? I absolutely love this layout! It's so simple and easy on the eyes, yet rather enticing as well. It's also very neat and organized. I like how the little tabs that the navigation is on extend downwards when you hover. I also love the creative "comments" and "previous" image links that you use rather than the standard text ones. In addition, I pretty much love all the other little icons that you have around the site, from your download icons to your external link icons, and everything in between :D Okay, I'll stop gushing now xP

Overall: As far as I can tell, you have zero errors, which is excellent :) I'm also pleased that you use correct grammar everywhere around your site; it's very refreshing after a lot of the sites that I've seen recently. One other tiny thing that I would change and that I didn't mention before is that your download files are compressed into .rar files. The problem with this is that not everyone has WinRAR or whatever else they could use to extract files from .rar's. It has to be downloaded, so this could be an inconvenience for visitors. If I were you I would consider changing these to .zip files instead, because as far as I know everyone (at least windows users) has a program to extract zipped files installed on their computer from the start.

It has been a pleasure reviewing your site; your content is adorable and the site as a whole is extremely user-friendly. I hope that you continue to have as much success with MG as you seem to be having right now! =D

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flashglam gave it on 27th Dec 2008 and said:
Hey Mimi! I finally got around to doing your review! :)
I tried from my iPhone last night but it was starting to get really hard. Not to mention using up lots of my 2GB for browsing. . ANYWAYS :)

I ran your site to see if the XHTML/CSS is in fact valid and congratulations: it is! :)

// FIRST IMPRESSION //
Very cute layout. I like it. My favourite is the swirly brush on the left.
I checked your site in Firefox (which, by the way, is what I'm reviewing with), Explorer, hell!, I even checked it on my iPhone (my child, really. . .) and it looks the same every time. Congratz.

// GOODIES //
Pixel Web Icons:
Very cute and nice. I like how you offer the "Sozai" ones in all basic colours!

Emoticons:
Wow. I love the star ones a lot! Again, these are very well made and I love how you made them in all colours.

Layouts:
They are all very good and kudos since they're all XHTML/CSS valid! However, when I previewed the "Cherry Blossums" layout, the sidebar was not in the page and I saw a bottom scroll bar. I imagine you have a different screen resolution or something, but I really think this is something you should look into. :)

Brushes:
Very good, yet again. This is going to get old, but it's the truth!

Button Bases:
Amazing. I really like the first one with the three little. . . uh mushrooms. :)

Bullets:
Yayz: again with the goods and again with the all colours. Haha!

// MIMI //
Hmph. For the longest time, I always thought you were Canadian (from Calgary, Alberta). Weird. That must have been someone else. Mason is so cute!
"If you already know me, you know I can be quite windy. If you do not, I am telling you now: I can be quite windy. ;)"
Made me laugh. Lol!

// NETWORK //
These pages are pretty simple, no need for me to say anything about them. :)

// FINALLY //
Awesome site. No spelling/grammar/punctuation errors. Yeah.
Since your site is so amazing, it deserves 5 stars: nothing more, nothing less.
Congratu-freakin'-lations! :)

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Pocci gave it on 25th Dec 2008 and said:
Hey there Mimi :] I received a review request and since I'm bored, I'm going to review your site :D I'm currently using Firefox, with a resolution of 1024x768.

First, your site didn't take too long to load, which I like so I can browse through your site without the hassle of waiting forever. I must say, I love the colours of your site, they go very well together. I like the rollovers, very cool.
In my opinion, I think your the main size of your text is a bit big and the header is a bit small, but thats just me.

I've noticed that every page, in your blockquote, theres the no re distributing stuff, etc. Maybe you should just have the main rules that apply to all your resources on the goodies page, rather than repeating yourself over and over (if you get my drift..xD).
Your web icons are definitely something people would use, they aren't useless resources. The page is very organised and I would definitely come back to check out your site. But I'd like too see the other colours, not just a few.
Your emoticons are very cute :p
Your layouts are great, they show you have obviously put some effort in them. They aren't the boring the 'celeb image with some text'. So good job there :]
Your brushes are pretty good! I really like the grunge ones and texture one. The blinkie brushes is something people don't see everyday, so thats a good set too.
Your pixel button bases are so cute! You must add more button outlines! =D
For you bullets, I like how its in big sets, not in tiny ones that make the page very long. I'd like to see what the other colours look like before downloading them. & its good you've made a reference to another site to tell your visitors how to use the bullets, very helpful.

At first, I didn't know what 'network' was, I thought it was your other sites and stuff but it turned out to be the site section. I was kinda confused, maybe change it to 'site' instead of network? I won't go into that whole section, but I think you should put the 'Joined (cliques, rings, etc)' in the section about you because you joined them, not your site. I'm not sure if that makes sense to you, but I think its more appropiate if you have it in the section about you.

Well anyways, I think your site is great! You know what people would need/want and the layout isn't damaging for the eyes. I would definitely visit in the future! Keep up the great work :]

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MirandaAdria gave it on 24th Dec 2008 and said:
Hey there, Mimi! :D Well, it's funny. I received a request from you wanting me to review your site, and at that exact moment, I was looking at your signature in the Q*Bee BBS linking to this page! LOL. But anyway, on to the review.

Layout
I absolutely love the colors you've chosen. However, I think the title is just WAY too light against that peach backdrop. The lowercase letters are not as bad as the white ones, which are extremely hard to see. I would suggest either making the peach a little bit darker, or perhaps adding a dark "outer glow" to the words Mimi Goodies. That way, they will stand out a little more.

I like your four button navigation. It's simple and easy to figure out. I don't get why you made the buttons from right to left though. *shrug* Not that's it a big deal, but I also noticed that your arrow for page 2 of your blog points to the left, as opposed to the right. Do you read a lot of Japanese, perhaps? ;) hehe.

Network
I love how you have this set up! It's clear, concise, and so easy to navigate. I think your little "sitemap" style links on the top are great, too. It makes it easier for people to go back to a previous page.

I don't really understand the images next to the sections, though. They don't seem to have any real correlation with what the sections contain.

In your Link Me section, I would consider having at least one banner-size image. You never know, there may be someone out there who would rather use a banner than a small button.

The rest of the sections here are pretty self-explanatory, so I shall move on. =)

Mimi
I loved reading about you. =) I am so infinitely proud of you for being such a strong woman.

As for the aesthetics, I think the border around the images is too dark. Color-wise it does match with the tones in the header, but at the same time it's too far. I would choose either the peach or the pink in the header as the border-color for the images. It would help the eye flow better across the page.

Goodies
You have some of the cutest graphics I've seen around. I really habe nothing to complain about, honestly. You have previews for the layouts, you have samples of the other content, and it's very well organized. This section gets an A+.

Final Thoughts
Honestly, I knew it was going to be easy to review your site. It's one of the reasons why I visit your blog often and comment when I can: Your site is one of my current faves. heh. I do think, though, that some things could be changed.

I wish I could give you a 4.75, but alas, since I can't... a 4.5 will have to do.

<3

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indytone gave it on 24th Dec 2008 and said:
Browser: Mozilla Firefox 3

Why hello. I'm going to guess your name is Mimi, but that's kind of a given. And from the looks of your current ratings, your site is fabulous, but right now that's for me to decide and I don't want to be biased or anything... I am just going to say that I am not a crazy jiggawack that's going to base this review on valid CSS and such because you know what? I am the visitor, so what the code looks like doesn't matter to me. How it appears on the website does, though.

Starting with the layout... I like it. A lot. But, (there's always a but, right?) I find that the font on the header is much too heavy. It just doesn't look as smooth. Overall, though, the entire layout is clean, simple and organized. That makes it much easier for me, as a visitor, to navigate my way around.

Read your blog, Associations. and I loved it. Thought I'd add that in and I'll probably comment you after... Because it's so true.

Goodies time! I love looking at content, especially if it's stuff that I can come back and use later for myself. Of course, crediting the rightful owner.
Pixel Icons Definitely coming back to use these. I was looking for new ones the other day and you know what? I think I've found the ones I want today (: Very nice job!
Emoticons Shrooms! Yes! I wish I could pixel... Except that I can't is the problem. XD I really like the emoticons you have. They're wuite adorable and appealing to look at.
Layouts I've got to say that I am a fan of Vivid Memories, the sunflower layout (: Nice job. Some people just slap together really tacky layouts to geterdun, but it looks like you've chosen quality over quantity! Hurray!
Brushes Nice job. Not much to say here (: But, don't worry, that's not a horrible thing! It's good.
Button bases Yay, more shrooms. rotfl. Well, these are quite adorable (:
Bullets Very nice as well.

Mimi, about me
Some about me pages babble on about useless things. Like mine, for instance. Reading yours was actually satisfying, kind of like a story. You don't go on about nothing, but you give little details so it is not boring. Your son, Mason, is very adorable by the way. And, I agree with you on the sympathy for teenage mothers, by the way. They got themselves pregnant, right? You're so strong about that (:

Network
Ask and answer, contact, support buttons, your affiliates. You've laid this out nicely and it's easy to navigate (: But, I clicked this link [ [url=http://mimi-goodies.com/network/hosting] ] from the ask and answer and it's broken? Well, it's probably outdated and that's probably why it's not in the network anymore. Silly me.

In the end, I loved it. You definitely have a place in my bookmarks and I hope to visit again soon! Like, after I submit this I think I might grab some pixels. :D

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Shadow gave it on 24th Dec 2008 and said:
First Impression

*rubs hands together in an attempt to look evil* Who am I fooling? I've always loved this layout of yours. I remember when you had the different fonts for the "Mimi" part. It looks much better the new way. And dare I say that the bird poop is a great addition. Wasn't the "tweet!" from the bird a little darker than that? Or am I going nuts? Anyway, yeah.

Blog and Sidebar

Wic-ked! Your sidebar isn't very cluttered. In fact, the longest piece of it is the rev.iew.me plugwhorage. Okay, and the mini-blog. But it's not that serious. I love how the bottom ends though. Nice vine! The font everywhere is readable, with just the right amount of padding.

Footer

That footer is cute. I'm not really sure of the scrolling link exchanges piece though. I think there's a plugin or something where you can randomize your blogroll, so you can show about 5 links and they'll switch out every time the page loads. Then you can have all of the links on the separate blogroll page.

The other pages

About Mimi: Okay, Mason is adorable! Yes, I had to throw in the non-sequitur. But really, you have a few well-written paragraphs, filled with raw honesty. I'm not surprised by this. I clicked on the other pages, but I was kind of stuck because there wasn't a navigation like the one you had on the first page. Yeah, I could easily click the link on the sidebar, but it'd be easier.

Goodies: I've always loved your pixels (I still have the Link avatar you made me ^_^). This is no different. This area is looking so much better now that you've gotten rid of the celeb stuff. I love the layouts, and the coding brush made me giggle. Don't worry, that's a good thing.

Network Info: I would have said to add more things about your site, but then I looked at your footer, and that's all you really need to know. So everything in here is fine.

Coding

You passed the coding tests. Yay!

All in all...

Another non-sequitur: I did your review while listening to your favorite artist. Totally coincidental, I swear!

Enough of that. You have a great sense of humor, and it shows in this layout (bird poop!) and in your pages. With that being said, there's only one itty bitty gripe--the scrolling blogroll. But that's just me. Great work, Mimi!

UPDATED 24 Dec 08:
Just a re-review of the new layout. Aren't you happy? :D

First Impression

There is a lot of pink. I love pink. At least you even it out with a beige-ish color, unless I would have said that it was way too much pink. You know what would have been cool? A gradient background on top to blend in with the header image. Or it can kill the layout. But try it out anyway.

I must say that while I like this layout, I still enjoy your last one a little better. But this is well made either way.

Blog

What can I say? It's easy to read (even without my glasses, albeit barely; yay bad eyes!), the line height is excellent, and you have plenty of padding. So it's not smushed at all. Great job!

The other pages

Since I did the pages review before, I will say this: holy crap, you were a big baby! I commend you on finishing high school after having Mason (who's such a cutie--watch him when he gets older! ;)). And congrats on the "unofficial engagement". I'm unofficially engaged to myself. :)

Oh, and I've always liked your goodies. Moar Wordpress themes please. Exploit the hell out of it, girl!

Coding

You passed validation and stuff. I forgot to point this out though--at the bottom of your comments, the background isn't somehow connected to the rest of it. I'm not 100% sure how to fix it, nor do I have the time to experiement, but I thought I'd give you the heads up in case no one noticed.

All in all...

I guess I was spoiled with the Mimi sense of humor with that last layout. But this is still a beautiful layout. Try out the gradient background for the body. See if it might work. Thanks for catering to the (almost) blind. :)

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Mimi's Response:
I got rid of that scrolling blogroll last night but I only temporarily fixed it. I shall look into that plugin because I think that's a great idea! Thanks so much Natty-poo! Omg I remember that Link avatar! HAHA
Greykitty gave it on 24th Dec 2008 and said:
First impression is really good. Your layout looks great, I love how it's laid out, very neat and clean. I really like the swirly plant like graphic * yes epic description fail XD * on the side of your layout.

I love your blogs. XD They are long and interesting to read. Two combinations you don't find often. Your about page is really good, I like the sections you put in about your "unofficial" fiance and your son. :)

Your visitor content is really great, you have some lovely downloads. Brushes are great, icons are grand, and... everything else inbetween! All high quality so nothing to really say there.

It would be kind of nice if you had like a section for your opinions and not just all your blog entries. Like your opinion on web design, do's and don't's, or what your opinion is on something that is currently a big news item...just a thought. I did finally find your archive link, maybe add another tab for it? I think it's a bit too out of the way.

I like your network section a lot too. The ask and anwser and ways to contact you are all great. I really don't have any suggestions other than for your archives.

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Mimi's Response:
Heya, thanks for reviewing so fast!! I suppose I could write my opinions down, I AM rather opinionated.. XP

I shall think of a way to better integrate the archives, too! Thanks for the suggestions!
Clem gave it on 9th Dec 2008 and said:
Hi, Mimi! I want to apologise profusely for not writing your review until now. I kept on meaning to, but I never had a big enough chunk of time! However, I'm kind of skipping school today, so I thought I would finally get around to writing this review, among other things.

My first impression of your layout is that it's cute. There's something off with it; I personally wouldn't use it for my own website, but it IS cute and I don't have any huge issues with it. As usual, the following critique will mostly just involve my pickiness.

The first thing that's really off is the font. I HATE THAT FONT. It looks suspiciously like Curlz, which I find to be really tacky. The font that you've used for "goodies" is decent, though.

I don't really like the placement of your sidebar. Firstly, I dislike it on the left. This is because your layout is fairly thin (not weborexic by any means, but not very wide nonetheless), and I feel like the content area is being pushed over too much, and it looks too small. I don't know, I'm probably not making any sense here, but I would prefer it if the sidebar was on the right. I also don't like how it comes up into the header so much. It looks kind of funky. Also, it's not aligned with the header, and there's a gap between it and the main content area. I know you've done this on purpose, but it looks so weird! I also don't like how it abruptly stops. Okay, so maybe abrupt isn't quite the right word, since you've added the leafy flourish (which is nice, by the way), but it would look that much better if the sidebar extended all the way down to the footer.

Onto the header. I really don't like how one corner is rounded and the other isn't. It looks really bizzare, almost as if you just forgot to round the other corner. The actual image is really cute, though. I wish I had such Photoshop skills!

The footer is cute enough. I don't see any point in having a lot of the information there when it could just as easily go on the sidebar, but it's very organised and fits in with the overall design.

I don't really have much more to say about your design; I think it's a very nice idea, but the execution is a bit off in some places.

ALL ABOUT MIMI
I don't like how the first page is just basic info. I don't really care about this; I want to read an in-depth piece about you, and I don't want to have click too many times to do it. It's okay to have this section at the top of a longer page, but for it to be on its own is just a waste, in my opinion.

You can probably skip the introduction; I find that it breaks up the flow, and it's just a lot nicer to read if you sort of launch right into it.

"On January 22, 2004 my son; Mason Andrew Graham; was born." Replace the semi-colons with commas for this sentence to be grammatical.

This was a good biography. At first I was expecting more in the way of your personality, but I realised that it's not just a general "about" page; it's your biography! I think you've done a good job packing in all of the important information here. (And, for the record, Mason is completely adorable!)

FAVORITES
This was kind of boring. Firstly, the formatting is a bit messed up, as I'm sure you can see for yourself. Secondly, this kind of thing is really boring unless you write WHY. WHY is your favourite colour pink? WHY do you prefer pandas over other animals? A few sentences on each would suffice, and would make this page a lot more interesting.

LIKES/DISLIKES
Same as Favorites. Write a bit about why. It could be interesting. Also, the little "don't be offended" message at the top hardly seems necessary. Have you actually had someone lash out at you because of this page?

PERSONALITY
A good page. It wasn't too long, too short, or too boring, and the addition of the picture shows off your sense of humour.

FIND ME IN COMMUNITIES
Fine; it's a list. You could always add rev.iew.me and Snark to this list too.

DOWNLOAD GOODIES
I like the way this page is organised, with the little preview and blurb. Nice.

The pixel icons are really cute; I can tell you've put a lot of time and care into making them! The emoticons are also REALLY cute. I love the bubbles, the square rainbow emoticons, and the blocks. Well, they're all cute, but those are my favourites. ;)

The free layouts are decent; I don't really like the third one, and I probably wouldn't use one myself, but that's just due to personal preference. There's nothing REALLY wrong with any of them.

I don't love some of your brushes, the grunge ones especially. These are so overused, and you can get this type of thing anywhere, really. The coding text made me giggle, though. Cute idea!

The button bases are fine. I don't use link back buttons, but I can see someone getting some use out of these. The bullets are also cute. I'd love it if you added some more colours, but that's not a huge concern.

NETWORK INFORMATION
I won't go through this section page-by-page, since I don't have anything to say about any of the pages, really. Not very exciting stuff, but what can be expected from a Domain-type section? Not much! Anyway, everything is fine, which is good, obviously.

SUMMARY
Overall (I feel like I use that word a lot in reviews), your website was very nice to browse through. The concept of the design was cute, but the exection was flawed. I know you can fix it! Your content was decent; I feel like there was quite a bit of filler content in your About section, and it could all be condensed into about 3 main pages. The visitor content (the GOODIES part of Mimi Goodies) was excellent. Your smaller pixelled things were adorable and the quality was great. Your Domain section was also fine; there wasn't much to set it apart from other sections of its type, but then again, who has a fantastic Domain page? Nobody. So, all of this babbling was me building up to this: you have a solid website, but there are some definite areas that could use some improvement. Keep up the good work, but make sure you push yourself a bit too. :)

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Mimi's Response:
OMG Clem I just realized I never responded to this D: Well, since I have a new layout up I will just respond about the other things!

I LOLed a bit because in a review a couple before yours, someone said that I should have the quick information first and the long stuff on a separate page (well, sort of) so I switched it.. So technically I had it the way you like it first, but now with the new layout they are both on the same page so it doesn't matter! I figured this would be a good way to fix things. I also just removed all of that other crap because it WAS written really fast and without much thought and I don't want that lack of quality on my site anyway.

About the brushes, oh man Clem.. I made those when I was about 14? So that was 8 years ago, back when they were not everywhere. Almost all of the brushes were made a long time ago.. D: I just keep them up because there are a lot of people who still use them.. With the revamp I took a few out that were bugging me.

I don't know why everyone hates Curlz MT so much D: HATERS!! lolll! It's ok, it's gone now.. No one must suffer anymore..! Haha

In all seriousness though, thanks for the review. :) I used a lot of it when I was working on my new layout.
Vera gave it on 6th Dec 2008 and said:
Ok... soo before you think up too many ways to curse me six ways to Hell, I thought I should return the favor already :P

= First Impression =
--------------------------
Bits and pieces... would be the first thing that comes to mind when seeing it. You need to integrate the various elements of your layout better. They're all very nice, but somehow I don't really have the feel that this is a layout. It's more like a collage, where you have stuck various pieces on top of each other.

= Presentation =
---------------------
I like the header image, quite fetching, original and cute. It's a pity the sidebar overlaps the left part of the branch completely. I'd have made a similar effect that you have on the right, atop the main content area. Have a bit of the branch overlap the sidebar, and the navigation should start lower.

I like the partial transparency of the layout, but it's not enough. You should let more things peek through. Sure then, the text might be a bit harder to read on the sidebar. My suggestion would be to cut off the portion at the top which is plain wooden background. It's a waste of space really. I don't really see a reason why the top part should get more exposure than the middle and bottom, which actually contain nicer images. For a more appealing use of the transparency (filter) effect I suggest you look at http://www.csszengarden.com/?cssfile=163/163.css . Notice there, how only a small part of the sea shells are overlapped. And there's no text obscuring the image. In other words, put more emphasis on the graphics. They really are lovely and it's a pity to obscure them.

I'm not really sure about the rounded corners. It's an interesting idea, but it looks odd and gives the layout a slight feel of imbalance. The left side has all the "cool stuff", while the right side merely has the bird. Yeah sure, the latter is the focal point of the entire design. Still, upon scrolling down it's lost. For starters, instead of having both rounded corners on the same side put the top one on the right side (above the bird). This way it won't be obscured by the sidebar. The left corner would be better suited on the bottom of the footer. The way you have things set up now it looks as if you're trying really hard to separate the footer from the rest of the content. It already has a different color. No need to try and put further distance between it and the rest of the layout.

The wavy ending to the sidebar is a really nice touch. Nevertheless it creates an unwanted empty space between the sidebar and the footer. I have the urge to stuff something in there. Erm... yeah, that might have come out badly, but um... it looks as if a large chunk is missing from the layout. I see two ways to change this:
1) Have the white background of the content area extend around the sidebar.
2) Have the footer's wooden background complete the sidebar till the actual footer.

The more I look the more it bothers me. It's like someone bit a large chunk out of your layout.

The use of green leaves in your graphics is truly nice. I very much like the shading and gradient. The way it all looks so professionally colored. I wish I had such artistic talent. For this exact reason I don't get the deal with the arrows. They're a good choice, and in tone with the general idea of the layout... but quality-wise they're so... blunt. I'm referring to the back/forward arrows for the blog posts. I'd give them a subtle darker contour and make them a few pixels "slimmer".

The font for the odd (as opposed to even) headers is an extremely bad choice. It's much too light and hard to read. Plus it's impractical, seeing as it is an image. I suggest you just use regular text for them. Aside the site title there's nothing else that makes use of the same font.

Your main navigation needs to be emphasized more. I'd suggest a standard vertical block navigation. perhaps with a bit of semi transparent images to make it more appealing. I'm thinking of something similar to what Brenda of Little Wonder has in the following layouts: http://www.little-wonder.net/portfolio/layouts/lw-ver34.htm , http://www.little-wonder.net/portfolio/layouts/lw-ver37.htm , and http://www.little-wonder.net/portfolio/layouts/lw-ver40.htm

While I love rev.iew.me (contrary to appearances - I'm just lazy), I don't exactly see why you should put more emphasis on it, than the rest of the sidebar, which comes below the description for it. This is your site, where you shine. So don't send possible visitors away before having seen all your site has to offer. In other words, move it to the bottom of the layout.

I guess this probably sounds all harsh and critical, which might dishearten you quite a bit. My main point is that the layout has enormous potential, but you need to put the nice visuals into the spotlight. I'm not going to say I like the current layout, but I could easily see myself liking it, if you put it more into emphasis and "balanced" it better. Erm... did that make sense? Let's hope so... for now. :

= Content =
------------------
- Blog -
I can't believe I've never been here before reviewing you. They're quite interesting. I'll have to make it one of my regular hangouts.
My objections are mainly nit picking here, but then I have to live up to my reputation XP
1) The comment paging is an excellent idea, especially if you have over 10. However, having only 4 comments per page is annoying. Have at least 8. It's annoying having to keeping clicking to the next page every few minutes.
2) You need more than one blog entry per page. Sure they are long and take up enough space (WP has a show excerpt option), but having at least 3-4 different entries on the page can ensure a more varied audience. Some people might not be interested in your current post. So try to see if they might be interested in one of the past ones.

- All About Mimi -
In my view, when you say "see more" it generally means that you have only a brief essential excerpt/story here... and the longer part can be accessed through the links. You on the other hand, have the self description on the main section page, and the others information as sub links. Wouldn't it make more sense to have the "quick stats" as a first glance, and then (if anyone's interested) have the rest as sub-links? Besides, I don't exactly see why you have an entire page dedicated to the quick stats alone. They barely make up a paragraph.
Oh look, the description says "This is for all the lazy people out there that do not want to read all of my ramblings." If they're lazy, doesn't it mean, they're less likely to click on yet another link?

Your self description left me in awe. Just wow. I wish I could be as persevering as you. But if I had been in your situation, I wouldn't have been able to cope with that. Good for you! Incidentally, I still don't get it why Mimi... or is that a usual nickname for Emily?

In your favorites page, the lower half of the list is moved way off toward the right. is this intentional? If you wanted to split the list into two, you'd have probably been better off with specifying two columns. Here's a tutorial for it: http://www.alistapart.com/articles/layeredfudge

Heh, I LOVE your personality page. Though it IS a bit surprising. From the E-drama related post, I had figured you'd be a more peaceful person. But then I like those with a temper... even if I tend to run for cover often enough ;) Excellent picture, by the way.

- Download Goodies -
Why does this page have a different title to the one in the sidebar? Sure, it's obviously more or less the same thing... but you know, for the sake of being consistent...

I'm really not fond of pixels, but yours are rather nice. I might actually use some of them for my own design.
The mushroom emoticons are my favorite, but I like all of them. Hm... now this is unusual for me. I generally have quite a bit to moan and criticize when it comes to resource sites.
Your link-ware layouts are gorgeous. I'd suggest you consider making them into Wordpress themes. They'd be a real hit, you know. As a matter of fact I like them much more than your own layout... though that might be due to the fact that I prefer the more simplistic layouts.
I love the Bird Silhouettes and Gwen Faces brushes. Nice work. Ugh... I'm praising you too much... *ponders* but then I guess I was mean enough in the "Presentation" section, so it evens out.
Oooh button outlines *grins* I'll definitely use from these. Am extremely bad at making mine.
The bullets are not quite to my taste... too small most of them.

- Network Information -
The FAQ page should come before the contact page. After all, you would want to make sure you're not asked something that you already answered on your site.

Oh wait... the FAQ... isn't really frequent. It's an ask and answer page. You should probably rename it then. To avoid confusing, and because yours truly is a professional nitpicker :P The latter being the most important part, of course. Just three sets of questions and answers per page are a bit too little. Have at least 5. You could easily stumble upon some nitpickers like yours truly and then.... well you'd be making their lazy comfy browsing experience more pleasant. Yes, I KNOW you care.

For the Link Me section, you should only have one single page. And use some jQuery to hide/show the links: http://docs.jquery.com/UI/Effects/Slide

= Coding =
------------------
Is this the part where I start laughing like a maniac and don on horns? XP Nah, I somehow doubt that you'd be riddled with errors. Oh and one more thing, I don't validate in the sense that W3C does. I look for indentation and semantic coding.

Instead of using
<img src="http://mimi-goodies.com/wp-content/themes/leaves/images/navigation.png" alt="" /><br />

As a header you should have
HTML: <h2><span class="hide">Navigation<s/span></h2>
CSS: h2 { background: http://mimi-goodies.com/wp-content/themes/leaves/images/navigation.png; width: length of image; height height of image;}
span.hide {display: none;}

The reason you need the text written there still is for text browsers, and search engines to index your site properly. The point of my example is, that decoration details should be specified through CSS as much as possible. That's also part of the "separating style from content" phrase which you might have heard a lot, from coding elitists.

Your main navigation should be a list, seeing as it is one. I'm sure you're familiar with Jem's tutorial on CSS vertical block navigation. You can find other examples at http://css.maxdesign.com.au/listamatic/

You seem to be using h1 and h5 tags... whatever happened to the ones in between? Why jump straight to h5? Also, you should only have one h1 tag per page, for its title.

Instead of:
html,body,div,span,applet,blockquote,ol,ul,li,fieldset,form,label,legend,caption,tbody,tfoot,thead,th,td { margin:0; padding:0; }

you should use

*{ margin:0; padding:0; }

I see you consistently specify line heights throughout your CSS. And they seem to be different. Why is that? Just use one single line height (most common being 1.6) when you define the font for the body. Like so:
font: 1.6/75% Verdana, Arial, sans-serif;

Score: 4/5
I like your site: A LOT. Proof, that I'll be adding your link to my blogroll as soon as I post this. This is probably one of the reviews I most enjoyed writing.

Why 4 stars? Your coding's not semantic and some logic seems to be at times "off" here and there. The second reason being your layout. Its got great material, and I can see that you can create lovely designs, but this one needs work. So... well done! :)

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Mimi's Response:
Disheartened?! Not in the least! I actually really.. really.. enjoyed the presentation section.. Does that make me weird or something?! Haha

Anyway, as per my typical lengthy responses, let me address things in a list manner:

- Thank you x13214 for all the examples. All too often people just say "Oh it doesn't work.. Dunno why it's just not that good" or whatever. I don't see the point of that so much... So examples = Very happy Mimi.

- I can't believe you rated me so high! I was expecting like 2 stars.. haha NOT THAT I AM COMPLAINING!!

- I very much agree about the bits and pieces.. When it was first released, I would have been confused. However, the more reviews I get, the more I open my eyes to different aspects. I am in the process of a new layout (Oh it will be probably a month or two.. *cough*) and I will keep these things in mind.

- I made the whole 'About Me' pages in a huge hurry.. I haven't gone back to make them nice yet. I will be changing those around soon, using your advice. :D

- Umm I maybe sorta mighta got the nickname "Mimi" because when I was younger it was always all about "ME ME ME ME"... hehe!

- A lot of the suggestions you gave will be implemented into the current layout in between making the new one.. I won't comment on every single one, but know that I listen! I always listen!

- Oh yeah, the h1 to h5 headers is a result of me being lazy.. I used to use all of those in between but started simplifying more, just forgot to change those.

Uhh I might edit if I think of more to say or I I might just bother you elsewhere..

THANK YOU VERA! *hearts lub lub*
omgitzvicky gave it on 2nd Dec 2008 and said:
First impression was a mixed one, I kinda just glanced at it and wasn't very complelled to dive deeper, but because I am reviewing it I did...

Good content and all of good quality. The links have obvious names and make it extremely easy to get around, a very good thing. The side bar is nicely organized with the most important things at the top. The name didn't really catch my attention, but the word "goodies" could alure visitors as that's what most people want. I love the bottom part, the one with all your links on. It's a really good idea so as not to clutter up your side bar.

Despite the bland, natural colours they layout works and the way you have placed everything is great. I just don't like the two different headings in the side bar, the "Mimi's Thoughts" and "Navigations" one is amazing, but the "poll" and "Rev.iew.me" one is boring and is nothing compared to the other headings. I like that above each place where the content goes there is links back to the main pages.

Overall it's a good site :) Layout isn't my thing but a lot of people like that.

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starlyts gave it on 26th Nov 2008 and said:
First impression: Awesome photoshop layout (that is what you used, correct?) very professional looking, well organized navigation, (a cute favicon), a nice poll, some stats, a spot to advertise, a small spot telling the users what you like and what you joined, and a spot for users to have the opportunity to do a link exchange with you.

I love how you organized the layout, giving a spot for easy navigation and a spot for the content/ blog. It also shows a "guide" with the bird who you also see on the avatar of the blog. The nice branch was done well, and I love the patterns and textures used for this part! The layout looks as if it was professionally done, and it is very original, it is something visitors will come back to the site just to see the layout again.

The blog's css was done extremely well. The avatar to the left, and the amount of comments to the right in a green quote. They all have appropriate titles, and a way to help visitors know what they are about with the tags, and a date at the bottom to show visitors when it was posted in case another site was talking about a blog of yours. The fact that users can comment and talk to you about the post, and other visitors is a definite plus!

I like how you have "Mimi's thoughts" to help users understand where you are coming from in your blogs, and keep them updated on what you are doing. Very cool idea!

The navigation was easy to find, and well colorized too. It is right up there at the top of the page with the good directional header image saying "Navigation"

I like how you have the poll to help visitors get more of what they want, and to feel that they helped make the site even better.

I also like how you have the site stats, and a spot for visitors to get advertised. The "joined" spot is also very good for anyone who wants to know what you like if they think a lot like you.

Overall: It's a wonderful and amazing website, I would definitely visit again! Good job Mimi!

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rintakase gave it on 26th Nov 2008 and said:
Reviewed with:
Opera 9.6 l Windows XP l Time taken: Approximately 2 hours

My First Impression:
Whoa, your site take quite some time to load for me today. It used to load fast when I visit it previously.. what's wrong? My browser's tabs are all rev.iew.me (2) links and your site. *refresh the second time* Hmm.. header image has not appear yet.. *refreshed the third and fouth time* ... grrr, it's not appearing! Alright, I'll leave it for a few seconds. -after looking at other websites- Er, your header image hasn't appear yet. AH! Finally, it appeared (:

No offense, Mimi. I am writing this review while looking at your site (using Notepad). Perhaps you have added something which has slowed down the site loading?

Coding:
Woot, your site passed for XHTMl Transitional and CSS validation (: Congratulations!

Layout:
Wow, did you pixel every single one of them? I like the header very much but I think the background of the header lacks of something.. clouds maybe? The birds and tree remind me of forest, haha. Your site very unique for me because most of the pixel sites are using Iframes.

The sidebar.. I like the 'Navigation' and the links are well organised. Ah, a little section for rev.iew.me xD. 'Mimi Thoughts' looks ok to me. I've voted for 'Pixels' in the poll but too bad.. It receives the least votes right now! I would like to see more of your works on pixels, honest. (: Owhh, the ending decoration for the sidebar is very nice too. I always liked it whenever I visit your site. Creative design.

The content.. Nice and neat. I like the comment 'speak bubble' (Can I have it? joking). The comments section look ok too. Oh no, I just saw the captcha thing. I wanted to leave a comment for you last time but I can't because I key-ed in the wrong captcha (this is not an example -,-) and I lost the comments! So, I didn't leave one for you. I understand why you have it there but for an old kid like me, (ok maybe not old kid, how about old people) it's quite hard to see because sometimes the alphabets are sticked together. I always hate captcha. Perhaps you can try using Wordpress's Plug-in - Akismet or Spam Poison to block the spams? By the way, the smilies are very cute!

The footer.. The 'Stats' is pretty useless for me. Why? Simply because the hits counted are page loaded hits, not unique hits (well I have no interested in either of them). As for the Online, I can't see or know who is right there with me so I can't really 'use' it. I hope you understand what I mean.

I was confused by 'Hosting' in the first place. Are you offering hosting or ..? After I clicked on it, then only I know that it is a forum. I think you should change the heading from 'Hosting' to 'Forum'. I've visited your site map and there are duplicated page links on top and bottom. For me, I don't think this is necessary. Since the content are not so 'lengthy', why not display the site map on one page instead? The only link that I'm still confused is the blue button beside the feed. 'Thanks' is shown when I moused over it. What is it?

Content - All About Mimi:
Aww, nice picture (: and your introduction.. :l I guess I will not comment about it.. You're a strong lady (: Alright moving on.. In Favourites, the 'Musical' and the others 'run' to the middle part. Perhaps it is a mistake? Interesting Likes and Dislikes. I don't like Sailor Moon, haha. Interesting personality too. (Wow, everything is interesting O.O) Ok lastly, the links in 'Find me in communities' are well organised (:

Content - Download Goodies:
I like the way you organise them - into categories. It's very neat and thanks for the explanations/descriptions.

Again, I don't think duplicating page numbers is necessary. One is enough (: As for the brushes, I think you can center the previews, it will look nicer since the other downloads are centered too.
-No errors found-

Network Information:
Same comment - I like the way you orgnise the links. For the 'extra' links, maybe you can add them into a category too - Misc? Your size for the Q and A in your FAQ section should be increased by a little. It doesn't look 'equal' to me. My last comment in this section is about your link buttons. I understand why you have them in categories but maybe you can list out a few buttons that you like most (:

Overall Comment:
This is the best pixel / blog site which I've seen so far. (I am not patting your back) I don't enjoy Iframes so that's why. I will give you 4 and half stars because I enjoyed myself throughout the review. Sorry if I sound 'harsh'.. Good luck, Mimi.

p/s: Sorry for taking such a long time to return a review. My apology.

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Muse gave it on 23rd Nov 2008 and said:
It's adorable. So adorable. Could anything be more adorable than this? *huggles*

Your site looks friendly and cute and cheery. The footer is gorgeous—carries the overall theme all the way to the bottom—and I love the round, friendly-looking arrow to see previous posts. I honestly have nothing to complain about here, except perhaps the rounded corners. The rounded corner of the header sticking out and the rounded corners of the sidebar = too many rounded corners in one place! And further down, near the footer...the rounded corner where the white content box meets the footer seems a bit off. I would recommend you not have a rounded corner there, and just have the white sort of flow into the footer.

The fonts you've used for the header: I think they're Curlz MT and violation. Curlz MT, being a default system font for Windows PCs, is sadly overused, and it pains me to see it. Same goes for the Lucida Handwriting on your about page. But I'm actually quite fond of the header. (The bird tweeting, however, seems to spoil it somewhat. I'd rather the text be left out.)

How you've formatted your favorites page is cute, though. ^^ I love your bulletpoint icons.

Your resources page is short, but they're all lovely and useful things that don't seem like you've just been churning them out for the sake of having resources. (Finally! At last.) Your pixels are gorgeous, actually, and I may have to snag your emoticons. Once again—more of those icons I'm so fond of, and that you've used all over the place. The 'PLEASE READ' alert at the top is nicely done; I get annoyed if I can't find a place where the creator has clearly specified what you can and can't do with their stuff, but that isn't a problem here. ;D Your layouts aren't half-bad either, although I'm not particularly impressed by the brushes.

One teensy complaint: I'd much prefer being able to click your header and be taken back to the home page of your blog, but that may be just me.

In summary, my general impressions: it's a small site, very cute, a handful of lovely icons to use. There's quite little to complain about, and you'll be happy to know it looks pixel-perfect in Opera as well. Safari, so far as I can tell, seems to be showing the little bubble that pops up when you hover over the sitemap icon halfway up the page. Not a huge issue, though.

This review, I'm afraid, is rather brief.

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Swetlana gave it on 23rd Nov 2008 and said:
Hey Mimi! First off I would like to let you know, that I am not a professional reviewer. I just review from what I see on your site and on what I like/dislike. So please don't expect a super professional review, because I don't think this will be one. Okay, so I will start now.

Layout + first impression

I really like your layout and the picture you used on your header image! The little bird is looking great and brings some color into your layout! I haven't seen a header image like that before and that's great, because it shows that you try not to do anything that has been there before!
Your sidebar is looking good and is also well organized. I like those headers/header images you used at "Navigation" and "Mimis thoughts" they do look really great. And I think it's good that you only used them twice because this way it won't look overdone. Your navigation is really easy to find and it also stands out because of the orange link color.
The only thing I don't like about your layout is the footer. I think you maybe should put the advertisement somewhere in your sidebar and not at the bottom of your page. I don't think that people scroll down to the end just to see who is advertised and also the other links. Maybe you find another solution for that.

All about Mimi

I really enjoyed reading this page! And I totally agree with you about the mothers quiting school only because they have a baby. A friend of mine has a one year old daughter and she is still going to school, and I can tell you she is doing pretty good. Last year she was one of the two best in my class. And this with a baby and a household to handle! So I would say you just need to want to do the things you have done before and then you can do them! Like said before I really enjoyed reading this page and I think it gives the visitor enough informations about you so we can atleast guess who the person behind the site is, which I personally think is really important!

Download Goodies

I think your pixel icons are a very unique goodie, or at least the ones you have up here. I haven't seen a site so far that offers those pixel icons!
Your emoticons are looking great to! I am thinking about using the speechbubbles for my blogs. I definatly will have a look at them again!
The coded layout are looking good, as far as I can judge on that. I personally like the vintage vanity one the most. I think it looks really good. The cherry one is to big for my screen but besides that it looks good to!
I personally don't like the brushes you provide for your visitors, but this is only my opinion and we all know people have different opinions on things and if your visitors like them than just keep doing them =) And the same thing with your button bases. It's totally great to make button bases without using celeb images on them, but maybe you should think about some landscape/building etc. button bases? Just a small tip, you don't have to do that if you don't want to.
Your bullets seem to look good, as far as I can tell this from the distance. But I won't download them just to get a bigger view of them.

Network Information

This section is quite good and I really liked the credits part of it! It's includes alot of sites so I think you really took some time to really credit on everywhere where credit is needed! This is awesome =) I don't think that there is anything really special about the other pages to mention so I will just stop here.

Overall

Overall I really like your site. The only think I would suggest to change would be the footer. Maybe put the advertisement somewhere on your sidebar so it's easier for the visitors to see and also the links. Maybe not putting them in the sidebar but manage them in another way. Not really sure in which way, but another way =)

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RedUmbrella gave it on 20th Nov 2008 and said:
Okay, this is my first review on this site. I just ate, so I'm in a pretty good mood. (Wow, don't I sound official)

First Glance:
Wow, I was very impressed when I first entered your site - the overall look is simple, but not. It has that cute look that just draws people to your site. But I have to say, one of the first things my eyes was drawn to was the button under 'advertisement' since it stands out against your site's general colors. Nothing huge, just thought I'd add that.

Top Image:
I really like the branch - and the bird is just adorable. But the top left-hand corner's rounded edge looks a bit on the sloppy side XD The poop below the bird is a stroke of genius!

Sidebar:
-tsk- It's a lovely header background image, but it's the same one over and over. Maybe make another, the same color, but slightly different?
The mini thoughts are cute, and they give a visitor more of an idea of who you are.
I don't think you should have put Referrals up, and if you must, not there. Sorry, I just don't think it's that important for your visitors to see how many people are coming from where.
Ooh! I love the bottom of the sidebar! -oohs and ahhs some more-

Footer:
Stats, link exchanges, joined, hosting, that's all good. One thing though, below Link Exchanges, the 'Apply?' link seems to be out of place; there's the scroll box in the center, so it looks off for the Apply link to be to the left.
And the brown bar below, that's fine as well. But there's a big blank strip of brown between 'XHTML' and the group of icons to the right. Maybe you could put an image there? Like another simple leafy thing? Whatever you want!

Navigation:
Hm. Well, the navigational links are the same as all the other links on the page. It doesn't really stand out. It's just something I noticed. The pixel arrows beside your navigation links, I don't like. I just don't think they match your layout at all; but once again, it is your site, so if you like arrows, then you use arrows!

About Mimi:
I'm not going to review this part. With a quick scan, it looks quite thorough and organized. I'm not going to review your favorite color and whatnot -.- because that would be silly.

Goodies:
Oooh. I adore your Pixel icons! These look amazing; you should definitely make more of these! I would use them myself, but I have no need at the time :'(
Your emoticons are very nice. I love the Mushroom ones; and I like to see that you don't show the same set over and over in different colors.
Your layouts are beautiful, you should expand in this area. You could do very well with these if you put the effort into it! (Obviously it takes a lot, as you add a layout once or twice a month :P)
Pretty brushes! I may use these, and you have quite a wide variety, which is great!
Your button bases are very cute, maybe get a few more outlines in there?
Bullets. Hm. Maybe you could put how to add them? (Or give a link to a page that explains it?) Just a suggestion, because I've always wanted to know. -laughs-

Network Information:
On your 'contact me' page, I do not like rule 3 of the Link Exchange.

You must put my link up before you apply or I will reject your application without question.

Just what is the point of that? So they know where your site is? I see so many sites with this rule, except I see absolutely no point in it. If I saw a site with this rule, I wouldn't bother applying.
Eek. I went to your FAQ, and I thought that the 'Enter Question' was a thing to search through them 0_0 so if the blank question was mine (Sorry, completely accidental U-U)
Lovely link buttons - animated, and non-animated, and a variety of sizes.

Overall:
All in all, your site is very pleasing. Its neat, clean, high-quality... there are a few things you could expand on (-cough- layouts -cough-), and I hope to see more good things from you and your site!

- Kyra

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Mimi's Response:
Hey Kyra,

Thanks for the review! I am going to reply in little sections so I don't make just one huge block of text. :x

- I agree 200% with that advertisement thing being out of place. I hate it! I planned to get rid of it soon but something keeps stopping me... That would be the fact that I get seriously like, no hits. Haha.

- I looked at the header image and you are absolutely right about that rounded corner looking weird. I will fix that after I get done with all my typin'! The bird poo was just some random idea... the layout had actually been up for like a month or more and a couple of weeks ago I was working on review suggestions and just got this idea to put some poo on it. It makes me laugh every time I go to my site! XD

- I never really thought about the headings all being the same and I see no reason why I could not implement a slight variation. I think that's a grand idea, thank you! I was also struggling with the referrals. To be honest with you it's up for me more than anything. ^^ I was going to move it to a Stats page that I haven't made yet.

- Ahh you are giving me so many awesome suggestions, I think I might literally make a list and tackle it! I'm not going to comment on each and every one but just know that a lot of things you are telling me I think are simply marvelous and will definitely work on!

- About the link exchange thing.. aghh. I didn't have that "rule" until recently but the reason I added it was because I got so many people that apply, right? So I respond and tell them that I'd like to trade. I put up their link and never hear from them again. I would e-mail them to give them a chance to put my link up and they would just ignore me. So I got sick of it! I am getting rid of link exchanges soon anyway so I'm not really too worried about it. I feel like I am kind of out-growing a lot of stuff that's on my site. :)

Anywho, thanks SO MUCH for the review because you really gave me a lot of stuff to work on!
Anna_Kirstin gave it on 19th Nov 2008 and said:
------- First Impression -------
As we both know, we met about two months ago when we exchanged reviews on the site that shall not be mentioned because it doesn't deserve a reference by name at the moment. I enjoyed your site then. I wish I had that review so I could refer back to it, but unfortunately it was deleted, so I will start all over....or well, almost. :)

I've been watching your design change over the last few weeks. It's become much less cluttered, more stream-lined, and over-all more professional looking. This is becoming exactly the type style web-site that a graphic / resource site should have.

I like that the header image has been toned down a bit. The two different grains of wood give it a down-to-earth look and feel to it that is different from what I've seen on most "graphic" sites. The white in comparison to the old text header image was a good change. It doesn't over-power the over-all design while still making it standing out.

The orange bird has always been a favorite of mine. The "tweet" kind of blends in to the wood background a little on my monitor. I would consider making it a shade or two darker so that it's easier to read. A shade or two darker might also help to give a little more balance between the text and the bright orange of the bird.

I like that you've brought out your own sense of humor and style with the layout by adding the bird poo. I laughed when you originally mentioned it and the first thought that came to my mind when I saw it was "Yea...I'll bet my car was under that." :)

------- Text -------
Your text size is easily read and a good size for the layout. It's well spaces with adequate line-height. There is sufficient contrast between the text color and the background color.
No complaints.

------- Navigation --------
It's moved! I'll admit the first time I visited the site after you moved it through me off. I was so used to it being at the top. I think the current location is a good location for it. I would only maybe find a way to make it stand out a little bit more in the side-bar. I can't quite explain it, but it just doesn't seem to stand out quite like a main navigation should for a resource site. It sort of blends in with the over-all side-bar. I think adding a little more padding between the bottom of your navigation and the top of your H1 tag for your "mini-thoughts" might help draw the attention more towards the navigation as a separate entity and less towards the side-bar as a whole. That probably made no sense. T.T

------- Side-bar -------
One of the first things I immediately noticed was how much less cluttered the side-bar was or umm....is. :)

Your mini-thoughts are interesting. The heart on the side of the "thoughts" is a good touch. It's subtle.

Your referrals are interesting, but are the necessary? That may just be the minimalist in me.

-------- Footer -------
I love how you carried the wooden texture down into the footer. It give the overall layout a balanced look. The same thing with the orange in the image. I'm glad to see that you've used adequate padding between your image and your text.

I do have one suggestion. Where it says:

This site is run solely by me, Mimi.

Why not like the "Mimi" to your "About Mimi" page. I tried to click it. I thought it was a link because you use similarly colored and bold text for your links for your Joined and Apply links.

------ Coding -------
CSS and XHTML valid, but that doesn't surprise me in the least. I was expecting it to. :P

------- All About Mimi --------
Your son is soo cute. :)
I would suggest including a last updated date at the bottom so that people can see exactly when it was last updated.

------ Personality -------
Most people don't know what agoraphobia is. I think I only know because I also somewhat have it. I would consider linking a wikipedia article that explains it or explaining it so that those who don't understand it or have never heard of it will know what your talking about.

You might want to consider giving ADHD an acronym title. Some of your visitors, though they probably would have to have been living on the moon, may not have heard the acronym before or know what it stands for.

------- Community Listings -------
No! There is not a 'here' link on your site! That's really bad for SEO purposes. "Download the pixel icons used here in my icon section."

That way a search engine crawling your site goes "Oh hey, there are icons linked here" instead of "Oh hey, 'here' is linked here again...he certainly is popular..." I forget who originally lectured me about that. They explained it so much better. :|

I would like to see how you ended up with the nick-name Mimi included in your about section.

------ Download Goodies -------
I'm not going to go into your downloadable goodies because, let's face it, they're freaking fantastic and totally 100% you.

------ Credits --------
No! No more 'here' links. Here links should die!

Here are some resources that explain it better than I do.
W3C Tips for Webmasters: No click here
Writing a meaningful text link

On a happier note, have you considered finding a way to specify when a link will take someone off-site? A lot of site's use images or symbols. It would be kind of like an "This link takes you off this site, follow at your own risk" warning.

....you really didn't have to credit me for that. :)

---- Overall ------
I think you are quickly becoming a role-model for what original graphic sites should be. Your layout is clean, non-cluttered, celebrity free, and adds your own sense of Mimi-ness.

There are very few changes I could recommend because I like your site so much in general. The ones I do have are all link related. I would possibly consider the use of bread-crumbs on your sub-pages. I also would recommend looking into those resources I listed about your links too. It does a much better job at explaining. :)

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Mimi's Response:
Heya AK, respond time! :D

- I shall make the tweet darker!

- I agree about the navigation. I am really just kind of stuck because I can't come up with a super cool idea and you know how I hate to half-arse things. *sigh* I wish I could just think of SOMETHING cool!

- Referrals shall be moved perhaps sometime this evening after me bath-time. ;D It's always bothered me being there so it is high time I did something about it. :|

- I hate the footer right now. I don't know exactly what I want to put on it and I just made up all of that text garbage down there really fast because I needed a filler! Oh yeah, I admit it! As long as I have it up, though, I agree that a link to my Mimi page would be a good idea.

- HAHAHA about the 'here' links! My dear friend, I will change every single one of those links. I hadn't realized the benefits of it!

Things I will be adding (that I haven't already mentioned) from your review for sure are:

- Wikipedia references
- How I got my nickname
- Last Updated tag
- Bread crumb navigation
- A little icon for external links

So basically like, everything. :D Thanks so much! Love and hugs!!
worldangel gave it on 16th Nov 2008 and said:
My first impression is that your site is definitely a busy site! This means that it has a lot of information, probably lots of goodies for your visitors to browse through and download. I must first commend you on the pixel arts that you have made, I think they are adorable and look delicate and hard to make. You are very talented :)

Now moving on to the layout of the site. I like the texture of your site background. I also the colour of your header and sidebar fit nicely together and has a soothing effect on the visitors. I also like the brush effect you use in your sidebar to title your section. I love the Mini-Thoughts section where they can get to read snippets of your daily events and thoughts. Very ingenious idea indeed. :)

The About Me page is well-written and has just enough pictures to keep readers interested to find out more :) Sidetracking: I admire you for doing a good job with your little boy, I am a few years older than you yet I can't really picture myself giving birth and taking care of a child yet though I might be doing that in a few years down the road haha.

The only problem I have is that while it is good to have so much to offer to your visitors, the various links and information in your main page can be quite overwhelming to a first time visitor. I admit that I did not know where to start when I first landed on your site haha. Plus why are there two big banners of Rev.iew.Me inside your latest post? I think one at the end of it should be more than enough...

The link exchange can be expanded on a page on its own because they are quite a number of websites in there and I find it quite troublesome that I have to scroll on the scrollbar to get to look at all of them plus the font size at the current moment is a bit small. The welcome note should be brought up to a place where it can be viewed first hand by all visitors, instead of being hidden in the footer section.

The FAQ section is a great addition to let your visitors know more about you and your art, but I find that the boxes a bit too squarish for my liking. Maybe make them round-edged?

Overall, it does look like a very nice website with minimum changes needed. Just free up some of the space on the main page and I think it will look better :)

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Mimi's Response:
Hey, I love responding so here goes! XD

- One of my biggest problems in my history of web design has been clutter. You would have DIED if you had seen it not too long ago, just a few months. I will try to de-clutter some more because I couldn't agree more with that assessment.

- To be fair, I totally got the idea for the Mini-Blog from Jem and she actually helped me set it up without using a plugin. *blush* So the idea credit goes to her!

- The two banners of Rev.iew.me was kind of a mistake... teehee! I had one on the bottom and earlier I decided to move it to the top. I did not realize I forgot to delete the bottom one until you just said that. -.-* Thanks for saying that, seriously! Haha

- I agree that the Link Exchanges are a horrid, ugly mess right now. I hadn't quite decided what to do with that yet. I will most likely put a few of my favorite ones in the sidebar and then make a page for the rest, as suggested.

- For the FAQ section, I had never thought about that! I could most definitely give it a try and see how it looks. :D

Thank you bunches! I am kind of in the middle of yours right now, haha! I talk WAY too much so I needed a small break... -.-* I feel bad for people reading my reviews.
Berto gave it on 15th Nov 2008 and said:
Since your latest update on your site, I was amazed by it! It's been a great change!

The background is really good, and the header is lovely! The fonts in the header is much more 'readable' than before!

What I noticed is that your title got REALLY (yes, I mean those caps) short and I love it! Honestly, the title before is way long and I don't like it. :P

The site got cleaner like it was shaved. Though I don't like what the navigation is now. I wish it was more 'lively', ya'know? The post titles are really clean now! Kudos for you. :)

What I love about the posts is the comments image. It's attention getter. Everything seems perfect!

[random] is that a poop underneath the bird on the header? [/random]

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Mimi's Response:
Berto, it is indeed some bird poopie. :P

I agree that the navigation is super boring, it's one of my next projects! I just finished changing the way comments look so navigation is coming up next I believe.

Thanks, love! :D
Aisling gave it on 9th Nov 2008 and said:
Your site is taking a while to load for me, which is weird because 1) I've visited it before, and 2) I have a fairly quick Internet connection. Oh, yay, it's done! Okay.

Whoa, there is so much going on on this page that I have no clue where to look! Personally, I think the tree branch is too dark. Also, I think the header in general is too choppy. Like, I think the bottom of it should fade more into the layout!

It took me a bit to find your navigation, all cramped up there at the top. Your sidebar is so big and important looking that I thought it would be there, for sure! But then, I found it squished in at the top. I think the bar with the navigation and the search should have one background. Like I said, all the other textures are a little bit overwhelming. Having it all as one continuous background could help draw more attention to it, because it would be one BIG element, instead of two small ones.

I can't decide if your layout is trying to be artsy and cute, or Web 2.0 either. Because it's kind of both.

Your post structure is nice, but I think that the box with the meta data looks wrong. The text is tiny, and I can't read it. I think that the box is too dark, and I think that if you're going to do it, you should make it span the entire area, all the way to where the date is.

The footer is also nice, but also doesn't flow. It would be nice if it faded up into the other bits of the layout.

You actually seem to have NICE graphics and resources which is a very nice thing to see! The little icons are super cute.

Network information is adequate. To be honest, though, I was really expecting a section on you. I mean, the site is named after you after all. And I would like to know more about you. But I found nothing. :( I would seriously recommend adding it. Because, I know, for me, I don't really *need* a lot of resources. I know enough to make them myself. But I do enjoy reading your blog, and I think some information about you, to accompany that would be lovely. :)

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Mimi's Response:
Hey Aisling!

I am beginning to wonder if my screen used to be a whole lot lighter than everyone one else's because I recently had problems with my monitor and when it was reset, it made everything look a LOT darker! Plus, a couple of things you said were mentioned by others. I love getting advice! :3

I am definitely going to take your advice when I get up and running tomorrow. Oh and I will add some info about me, which was never added due to laziness on my part. I have thought about it before...!
xtina gave it on 8th Nov 2008 and said:
I pretty much love everything about this site. I love the little tree theme you have going here. However, the tree branch in your header image bothers me a bit -- it might be a little too dark? Also, your site name doesn't stand out as much as it should. The white 'M' is really all you can see. Everything else pretty much blends into the background. It would probably be better to just stick to one font and color for that. The white works great on the background, so you might want to stick with that? Also, I completely passed over the navigation links at first. I love the gray buttons on the pretty orange bar that you have at top, but you might want to make the individual links bigger so they're easier to see. With how they are right now, they blend in a bit too much. I absolutely adore the way you're footer is set up. It's a great way to end the layout. But why the little gray bar after it? Couldn't you just put that information on the sidebar or the wood part of the footer? I think the bottom would look better without it. And while I don't mean to sound like a snow, there are also three XHTML errors.

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Mimi's Response:
Hey Xtina,

Thanks for the review. First I want to say duh to me for the XHTML errors, Louise notified me about them yesterday and I lolligagged around and forgot to fix them, oiy.

It seems to be popular opinion that my header needs to be changed, everyone is agreeing with you so I think it's time to listen! :D I might fiddle with it tonight. A funny thing? The original header image had the site name in all one font, all white letters. I changed it because I asked a friend's opinion and she liked it better the way it is now. I was neutral, but I am going to go ahead and change it to see how much it will improve it.

Anyway, sorry to blab back so much. Part of my windy-trait, I'm afraid. -.-* Thanks!
Tiffany gave it on 7th Nov 2008 and said:
I like the layout, but I don't love the header. Its definitely creative, but I just don't feel that it flows very much with the rest of the layout. One of my issues with it is the font and colors of the site name and that it doesn't stand out.

I also think some areas need a bit of line spacing. The content is useful, but typical. Perhaps something more bold and less standard?

Kudos to you that you make all your graphics. :)

UPDATED 07 Nov 08:
Spacing Needed:
meta data
referrals (maybe?)
want something?
and the footer

Maybe you could set a universal line-spacing?

UPDATED 07 Nov 08:
One more thing that looks a bit funny is how the asides aren't connected to the actual aside.

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Mimi's Response:
Thank you, Tiffany. You know, a lot of people say that exact same thing about the header so just know that you are not alone. I will be 100% honest with you, I rushed it. The gray gradient in the background was just me giving up, I couldn't think of anything else to do. I really should fix it, I mean, who wants a half-butt layout up right? I'm so lazy!

Also if it's not too much trouble for you, could you explain a little more about the line spacing? Maybe in which areas? I am very much into making my font readable, so this would help me bunches! :)

Thanks again, good to get some insight from another opinion.
Louise gave it on 7th Nov 2008 and said:
I'm really quite fond of Mimi Goodies for a number of reasons:

1. The quality of the design: Not only is it gorgeous, but also has good usability. You know, there's so many websites out there that like to use fancy shapes/symbols/illustrations/etc. that may look cool, but also get in the way of navigation and readability. It's a really great design! :)

2. Free resources! And all good quality! Who doesn't like that. :) It's nice to share.

3. The fact that everything is made by you Mimi. That shows great effort. ^_^ I'm so sick of sites sharing resources that are "here are some things I found, please link back".

There is nothing I don't like about MG. The only minor issue I can find is that the HTML does not validate (even though w3 validator says otherwise) although these are insignificant problems, and your CSS validation had a few warnings but no errors. :)

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Mimi's Response:
Hey, thanks Louise! Hmm, if I validate for HTML is it going to still be valid for XHTML? I can go and change that, it's not something I was aware of. Also, I added to my CSS recently so I bet those warnings are new, generally I try to get rid of those. Thanks for the heads up!