see things madeover

{just a random photo that has nothing to do with my post directly}

so i'm thinking of doing a small {or possibly big} makeover on the look of my blog {and perhaps even makeover how or what i post, but that will come later... after i put some thought into it}.

anyway, i thought about getting rid of all the gallery buttons to the right in my side bar. one reason for that is because i feel like maybe they make the blog feel too cluttered {what do you think?}. another reason is that i don't know that i want anyone going back to old posts. i don't mind so much for posts i like... or any that my readers like{d}. but there are some posts in the archives that i would rather not see again... they were either too personal, or too boring, or too silly... or even just really poorly written {not to say my writing now is phenomenal}.

the galleries are related to the visual parts {photos} of the posts, and not meant to reference any writing... at least for most of them. but i don't know if anyone even looks at each of those sets of posts via the buttons {which are really just links to sets of posts with a particular label}. maybe new readers do look from time to time. i don't know...

anyway, the final reason i think i want to make over this space and get rid of some things {visually} is to put a tangible face onto a new theme of life i want to embrace... a theme of "letting go". in just over a week, i'll be writing a lot about letting go {on the five-year anniversary of my father's passing}. but my father's presence is not the only thing i am learning to let go of... it's a very prevalent theme in my life right now in several areas... relationships, material things, security, patterns, ideas and beliefs, control, the past, physical traits, abilities... i could go on and on.

well, all that to say, i need your input. what do you think? should i clean up the side bar? i tend to over-do things... i've always wanted to master the art of "less is more", but never seem to be able to. but i'm thinking of forcing myself to do so on this blog. and then i would hope that it would trickle into all other areas of my cyber world... flickr {which is a mess right now}, facebook, etc.

anyway, please, won't you let me know your thoughts? should i "icksnay" {did i spell that right?} the buttons and all that "stuff" in my side bar?

when you first visited here, did you even look at any of the galleries? also, are you more likely to keep on surfin' if you see a really long post on my blog? or do you read it? i tend to be way too wordy, and have a difficult time keeping my posts short. so that might be something i overhaul, as well. {though, i don't think i could ever be a photos-only blogger... i just can't do it!}

okay... thoughts and ideas are appreciated. THANKS!

{p.s. my last banner was short-lived...

but i wanted a simpler one. so for my new banner, i chose the bird mobile photo from a recent post to represent my family of three... which is really the crux of my world and life... where most of my photos and words stem from. you will also notice, i changed the subtitle. it was sort of corny the way it was before. i like this better.}