Seeing so many blogs over the course of being a reviewer you see a lot of the same layout again and again. It’s always such a pleasant surprise to see something different, something new, something that hasn’t been overused. My first reaction to seeing this blog is almost the equivalent of deja vu, only a pleasant form of it. There’s a beautiful piece of art that the author is using in the title area along with the navigation. The green is a nice change of pace and I can’t wait to head to the archives to see what is brewin’ in the past entries.
The oldest of the entries explains that the author, nicknamed Riri, doesn’t speak (or write) perfect English. You learn that she moved from France to Canada and is making the adjustment while having kids, a husband, injuries and a life. The author writes with much feeling as you can tell from the entry about the many cats she’s had through her lifetime. Be forewarned, reader, that these are pretty heart wrenching stories and may bring a tear to your eye. You read about the movies her children are addicted to in this entry, and I have to say, her kids have some good taste in movies. In more recent entries Riri starts to add a word of the day, which is often fun (and I read them myself anyway). She starts to open up a little more letting us see a more political side to her. You, as a reader, get a chance to see her family, find out what she did with her day, and get a holiday greeting.
The design is pretty and functional. She’s a webmistress out in Canada and has worked on a couple of other projects you can find in her archives. The design is simple by means of graphics, but simplicity can be a good thing. Like I said before, the green can be a nice change from the gamut of colors that are often overused in the blogging world. There aren’t a lot of images to wait for download, which means the reader using dial-up can get straight to the content without having to wait forever for large images to load.
There are a lot of extra links in the sidebar. Webrings, a blogroll and weather pixie are quickly becoming a standard in blogs, so it’s only natural to see them on this blog. There are some new blogs that I haven’t seen as of yet in her blogroll which were kind of nice to peruse and see what interests the author. In the sidebar, as well, are a few snapshots of her and her family. Sometimes it’s nice to get an opportunity to see who you’re reading about. Riri also has a 100 Things in the navigation at the top where you can learn a little bit more about her.
Overall the blog fits into the category of “general” as she writes about so many different things. You’ll see how much she loves her kids and how she seems to enjoy planning for different events. She sometimes writes about the things going on here in the states and what we’ve done recently regarding the war, but she keeps the political references to a minimum (meaning you won’t be inundated with huge diatribes of her take on the whole war situation). Her blog is a relatively interesting read and worth a look.Riri’s Brain Dump