Everything Shines

Everything Shines

***-- (Rated by 6 people, viewed by 186 people)

The online journal of a 20-something year old woman. It contains mostly personal information about myself and my life, but I also write valuable articles about saving money and living a frugal lifestyle in this tough economic time.

Added by ohmyerica in Personal

Everything Shines has 6 Reviews

Below are the reviews left by other members on Everything Shines. Jump to review form?

  1. [img: avatar]
    Ang gave it ***-- on 22nd Nov 2008 and said:

    Oh, I'm so bummed! I was going to say I really love the design, but it's not yours. =[ Poo!

    Great [i]choice [/i]of a design anyway! It's very peaceful. I love the shades of grey and blue together. Ad-free blog, represent!

    Another frugal-minded person! I loved the Frugal Lifestyle article, some great tips for me to think about. Just to add to your warning at the bottom about email, it might also be wise to warn people to look at the fine print for anything they sign up for free stuff. No business gives away anything for FREE - there's always a catch. Besides spamming their email, advertisers might also send junk mail to their home address, or sell their phone number to telemarketing lists. I'm glad you warned about email spam, but more warning might be good.

    I'm noticing that the first line in bulleted lists look like the line height is a hair taller than the rest of the paragraphs. Barely noticeable, but just enough that my trained eye sees it. Specifying the bullet image in the background of the list item might clean that up, in lieu of using the image for the bullet itself. (Resource to check out.) I also saw in older posts with images that are aligned left into the paragraph, they could use some padding between the image and the text. Pretty easy to fix. I love seeing images within blogs, they add fantastic visual interest, really draw the reader in.

    There's a setting in wordpress to make your "page" links actual words instead of "?page_id=" links. The words are better for search engines and/or making it clear to users what that page is based on the URL.

    I see you share my love of movies. Does your local library have DVDs to check out? I used to buy DVDs all the time, and had a membership for rentals at home and stuff, but the cost of all that was catching up with me. To save money but still watch movies, I borrow from the library (limited selection, but there are gems to be found!) or borrow my friends' DVDs - for FREE!

    I really like your site, I wish I could offer more critique. I'll be bookmarking some of your frugal website links!

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  2. adreams gave it ***-- on 14th Nov 2008 and said:

    I suck at reviewing so here goes

    The layout works well and i love the colour scheme but I am not feeling that background with that layout, maybe just white would look better. I don't like the way you used the double line border under each news title, i don't know why it looks odd to me. I think it would look better if you added floral brushes coming out of the left and right sides of the layout also for something different but really nice layout.

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    ohmyerica's Response:

    Could you review my site instead of just the layout? I didn't even make the layout and that's the only thing you mentioned...

  3. [img: avatar]
    Clem gave it ***-- on 11th Nov 2008 and said:

    Okay, so, I won't be reviewing your design since Nellie's pointed out that it's not your own. I agree with her that it's important to link back to the original designer, since someone *did* take the time to create such a nice theme! Even though this isn't your own theme, I would definitely go into your theme editor in Wordpress and make the text a little bit bigger. It's not unreadable, but it would be a lot easier on my eyes if you increased the size even slightly. I don't love Trebuchet as a body text, actually, but I can deal with it - especially when it's bigger!

    Another thing I'm noticing is that you haven't set up your WP permalinks to be "pretty". This is really easy to do - just go to Options (or Settings, I can never remember which) and then Permalinks. Voila, you're done, that was easy, etc. etc.

    You have 27 errors on your index page according to the W3C Validator; most of these errors indicate that you need to learn a bit about XHTML. There's a good tutorial over at tutorialtastic.co.uk if you'd like to learn; among other things, border="0" is defunct, and I see you use that quite a bit.

    Your CSS is valid, on the other hand, so props to you for that! (Although I suppose you didn't write it yourself; you just modified it a bit here and there, right?)

    ABOUT ERICA
    (Zomg, another Torontonian!) Yep, that is about the extent of my commentary on this page. You've given all the basics, but I want to know more. What are your interests? How would you describe your personality? What makes you YOU? You have the foundation of a good About page here - it's nicely-written and you seem like you're an intelligent, thoughtful person, so I would be interested to learn more about you. I know about your family and the fact that you didn't go to college, but I'm left with lots of questions. Are you talkative or shy? What do you like to do in your spare time? Do you make friends easily? Do you like reading or do you prefer watching TV? I'm not saying you have to answer *all* of these questions; they are, after all, merely suggestions, but answering even a few of them in a few sentences would flesh out your About page and make it much more interesting to read. This is your personal site, and I want to get an idea of you as a person. Right now I feel like I barely know anything about you, except the basics - and let's face it, the facts you've put here aren't too exciting, and they don't really define your personality or who you are.

    I don't see a point in listing your DVD collection; the average reader while neither care nor take the time to read through this! I do appreciate that you've linked all of these DVDs, but it's still not very interesting. It would be better if you picked some of your favourites and wrote mini-reviews; this could even be considered proper visitor content!

    I didn't know people really still had pixel collections. I used to, over a year ago, but I was young and naive then. This page is pointless filler content, and it just seems out of place on your website!

    You could keep the scrapbook pages section; it's not bad at all. But I see that you're not using proper thumbnails. Unless you actually resize the images, loading them all at once can kill people's bandwidth and/or internet connection, depending on how fast their connection is and how much bandwidth they have. I know it's a little tedious to manually resize each photo, but it's actually better for you, too - see how when you use cheat thumbnails they're kind of pixelly? They'll look a lot sharper if you do it the right way!

    SITE COLOPHON
    Bleh, pretty boring. I'm getting tired of Domain pages. They're never at all interesting! Yeah, yeah, I know, I'm a fine one to talk, but I tried to spice mine up just a bit. This page contains very little information - just a few sentences about why you bought the domain, a short list of site credits, and a few buttons to link back to your website. Why not add a few paragraphs about your web history? Surely you have one, because most first websites are not even remotely like yours. Also, surely there's some sort of story behind the name (which I quite like, by the way)? Or, conversely, maybe there isn't. Maybe the phrase just popped into your head at random and you thought it would make a nice domain name; either way, I want to know why you chose it! If there's a story behind it, tell it. If there isn't, then say so. I'm a curious person.

    As for your credits list, I feel like you should separate the Plugins Used page from it; if the visitor isn't paying close attention, it looks like an external link since the others in the list are, and will probably be overlooked. (Regarding that page, I won't be reviewing it since it *is* just a list that a plugin automatically generated!)

    ET CETERA
    "Newspapers", though brief, was a pretty good article, and it was definitely original! I can't say I've ever seen such a thing on a personal website before. "Price Matching" was also good; I've actually never thought to do that before! "Rebates" was also fine, and "A Frugal Lifestyle" was especially helpful! I'll probably be looking to it for some money saving advice myself.

    I'm not going to really comment on the hosting page, except that you should be aware of why subdomain hosting is bad. That article is definitely worth a read; I wouldn't want you to get screwed over by a potential hostee.

    The plugboard page loads a bit of text but no plugboard; personally I don't view this as much of a loss, since I've never liked plugboards myself. Also, the not loading may be due to my slowish computer.

    EXTERNAL LINKS
    Oh. It's a links page. Great. :P

    So, that concludes this review! Overall, I think you have a nice foundation for a website, and that's about it. You're not using your own design, which is fine, although it would be nice to see what you yourself can do. Your About page has the basics but lacks a certain wow factor, and your Domain page is pretty much the same way. Your visitor content was pretty good, although I'd like to see MORE of it, and, since I think you're a decent writer, maybe more in the way of articles that aren't necessarily about money? Anyway, I think you're a person who will be able to work away at this a bit and create a very nice personal website for yourself!

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    ohmyerica's Response:

    Wow thanks for the lengthy review. I appreciate it very much, along with all the suggestions for me. Only regarding all the theme related suggestions with xhtml, font sizes and things like that-- I don't know how to do any of that and that's why I am using a free theme in the first place. : ) But if I did I would be happy to fix it... lol.

    Thanks for the article about why subdomain hosting is bad. I haven't read it yet but I'm going to when I post this response. I will consider changing my opinion based on what I read.

    Thanks again.

  4. [img: avatar]
    Nellie gave it *---- on 11th Nov 2008 and said:

    http://community.livejournal.com/thefulcrum/4369.html

    I suggest you put the credit links back. Not just the ones to GrabATheme (because I can see it's on your Site page) but the one to The Fulcrum.

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    ohmyerica's Response:

    I'm adding that to my credits page right now. Thanks for the rating! :)

  5. [img: avatar]
    dandycup gave it ***-- on 10th Nov 2008 and said:

    Im a real visual person so great design means a lot to me n_n your site has is elegant and reflects a lot of sophistication.

    The css is great and i love the blue!
    I kind of want to see what it looks like with a blue date instead of the color (grey) that matches the background. But it feels good with it being grey.

    Im slightly irritated by the fact that i cant see the top of that beautiful image, it is sort of "cut off" at the top. My first reaction when the page loaded was to scroll up so i could see it. Kinda want to see what's going on up there.

    The blog, it is very amusing how you like to post about great purchases. I liked reading about them.

    Those extra tips on saving are also a great read! And the fact that you have written down lots of them is great. You have really put an effort into providing them for your readers.

    I like how you have linked all your dvd collection to an http://imdb.com page. It might be nice to read a little bit on what you thought about the film though. You have a huge collection! I don't own a single dvd... lol thats how i save money ^__-

    The external links are a bit tame, maybe if there was a bit more variation. I enjoy reading blogs but maybe some different sites you like would be nice to add. You say you like cute things, maybe add a few "cute" sites you enjoy?

    Overall everything is set out nice and tidy, easy to read, no annoying adds. And the image thing doesn't bother me too much now that i've seen the one at the bottom of the page- it matches ^_____^

    I know it is just a blog but i like seeing sites that have some stuff (maybe graphics) to offer to the visitor, but thats just me. Or just a little bit more content, to keep people on your site longer or to get them coming back.

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    ohmyerica's Response:

    DVDs is what I spend my saved money on! :P Thank you for all the suggestions. I won't be adding anything like free graphics, etc., to my site because that's not what I'm about. I appreciate you taking the time to review my website, it means a lot to me!

  6. [img: avatar]
    Aisling gave it ***-- on 10th Nov 2008 and said:

    Ooh, yay! This is a site I've never ever seen before! So, you will be getting my actual first impression. :)

    Firstly, I think the design is very pretty. I would, however, make your site title bigger. It is very small, and my eyes go to the sidebar first, which makes it easy to overlook. Even after I noticed it, I browsed to another page, and forgot about it when I was looking for a "home," link.

    You're using a serif font for a body text, which makes large groups of words (like your blog entries) look cramped, and very difficult to read. Serifs often blend into each other, making letters look less defined, which means more effort on your brain's part of separate them and identify them. As a general rule, you can use serifs for headings, but try to avoid them for body text. As for the rest of your entries' layout, it is very nice, I like how everything (header, body, meta) is well defined in its own space.

    I'm not sure if any of this matters to you, since I believe this is a premade from Grab A Theme? In any case, they are things you SHOULD be able to fix on your own. Nothing here is really rocket science. :)

    The navigation looks easy to use, the Tweets look fine, I think the tags stand out just a BIT too much, and I would colour them a shade darker. The Ad Free owl is adorable. I'm not a fan of having a log-in link on a website unless you are encouraging your visitors to register.

    Your About Erica page is well-written and you come off as thoughtful and articulate. I'm not really a fan of DVD collection lists, if you're going to list them, PLEASE include a review or something. I don't really care about a list! The pixels are cute, and your scrapbook pages are cuter, not to mention very original. Good job. :)

    Onto the Site Colophon, it's a pretty typical site section. Information is short and sweet, credits seem to be in order, and you provide link banners. Good. :)

    Your Et Cetera page is a nice change, it is rare to find money saving articles on a personal site. You're bound to get a few extra hits with these under the current economic climate!

    Your links page is a links page. ;)

    Overall, it is a very nice, organized site. Just tweak the theme a bit and you're good to go! :D

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    ohmyerica's Response:

    Thank you so much for your review. I appreciate everything you had to say and all the suggestions you left to help me make things better. I'm going to work on trying to edit the layout but to be honest, I'm not really sure if I know how to get in there and change these things. If you have a suggestion for a different font to use I would really appreciate that as well.

    The login link is something that comes up automatically with WordPress' meta widget, but I will remove the widget and type in my own meta to make it a little easier to understand. (That's something that has bugged me too but I wasn't sure if it is something else someone else would notice.)

    & the tags-- I'm working on getting tags on a page of all their own like another site I saw today through rev.iew.me, I just have to figure out how the webmaster pulled that off.

    Once again thank you for everything. I'm going to work hard on the suggestions you gave me.

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