As I have mentioned, as a participant in NaBloPoMo, I won a blog makeover from Jessica at Kerflop. We’re done, this is it! I have gotten a couple inquiries as to how the process went, who did what, etc. So here you go. Part two of two.

The banner

I created the banner (as well as designed the overall blog look, which Jessica made happen with her skilled fingers.) I wanted the banner to look like one of the pages of the visual journal I have been keeping for the past few years. All of the images are scans of ephemera in my collection, and collaged using Photoshop. Some of the elements:

1. A wayang kulit (Indonesian shadow puppet) of Srikandi, a character from the Mahabharata. Some of the many adjectives used to describe her: beautiful, strong-willed, couragous, competitive, loyal. I love Indonesia. I went a couple times in my younger days and have never ever forgotten it.
2. Roadrunner from a piece of old stationery from the land of my youth, Arizona. Roadrunner: AZ state bird.
3. The faces are from a larger piece of Chinese fortune paper. I love those expressions.
4. Image from a medical journal depicting the bones of the hand. Lots of hand imagery here.
5. From some kind of a flash card that I found in the street. The card had this line drawing and the number 44. This is a significant number for me this year. Ahem.
6. From a vintage book of hand shadows. The hands are forming a bull. I am a Taurus.
7. An unhappy electrical appliance from a particularly well-illustrated user’s manual (for what? I don’t remember). I like anthropomorphism.
8. The internet. The world. Whatever. I like that the rays from the globe seem to be distressing the appliance.
9. Me, age three. Watching. Brooding. Not a lot has changed.

There are other images of hands and observing faces — significant aspects to my life! There are also a couple details of photos that my mother took, and some other secret objects.