Blogging from A-Z Challenge 2026 - Unofficial Badges

I'm sharing the badges I made for the Blogging from A- Z Challenge (which takes place in April) for anyone participating in the challenge as alternatives to the official badges. But I mostly made them for myself because I didn't like the official ones. Below are the official 2026 badges. They are using the same design as the previous year but with different background, colors and images.

A-Z Challenge 2024: Yes? No?

I haven't decided whether I will do the April A-Z challenge this year. I did say last year was my last one but I don't know. I'm fickle-minded so I might just decide to do it at the last minute. I created a logo/badge for it in case I decide to do it. Of course I have two versions because, fickle mind.

Not the official badge - version 1

Some Blogging Musings

'thumbelina 3'

01 - I put back my blogroll (it used to be titled bookmarks) in the links below the header. I had removed it because it just seems like unnecessary sharing and also, I didn't really update it. But now I'm going to keep it up there even if it's more for my use but who knows, maybe you'll find a new blog to read from the list.
    My blogroll is very biased. All the blogs there I have an interest in but even if I had visited your blog and left hundreds of comments and it's not on my list, it doesn't mean anything. Sometimes I get too lazy to update the list but I did recently removed several blogs that had not been updated for several years. It sadden me that those bloggers no longer blogs but I guess that's the way things go. It's definitely easier to remove a link than to add since the list is quite long. It's a table html which is not easy to change.
    I notice lots of bloggers no longer have blogrolls which probably doesn't mean anything. I guess blogrolls are outdated or simply no longer useful as people use others methods to read blogs (ie, feeds or email subscriptions) and perhaps it's better but I don't know. I don't use feeds and I don't follow or subscribe to blogs anymore so my blogroll is my way to visiting blogs. So perhaps I don't always know when someone has updated their blog but I don't mind this. I'm just glad people are still updating their blogs. If you have a blogroll on your blog, let me know. I like to browse them and find new blogs. Update: I've renamed my blogroll back to Bookmarks.

02 - I've changed my blog's header. It's not much different than the previous but slightly changed. Instead of boots, pen, flowers, there is cupcake, typewriter and dandelions.

previous header

new header

I changed the tagline from Books & Ramblings to books, writings, ramblings. I was going to add art but I don't know since I've not posted a lot of art lately. Maybe I'll add that if I change the header again. It's a lot of work to make a new header especially if you're as indecisive as me. If you want to see the previous, previous header, go here to this post.

03 - I have noticed that more blogs are now using text only headers. This isn't a bad thing but I think text headers don't say as much as a header with an image. But I'm more of a visual person so perhaps I'm biased. But I do think a visual header is better and often, more memorable. But of course, it's a preference.

Have you anything you want to share today (blogging or just life in general)? Let us know in the comments.

New Blog Header

I have changed my blog header for the first time (for this blog anyway). Usually I would change the header every month or so because I do look at my blog a lot since I use my bookmarks/blogroll a lot. I really did liked the previous header (see below) but now I like this new one a little more.

Previous header

    The new header has a few elements/objects (see below): a kindle e-reader (which I read most of my books on), a cup of hot chocolate spilling (sort of like spilling tea since I sort of do a lot of chatting here), flowers because I like flowers, an opened book with leaves as a bookmark because I still read paper books, a pen (I write a lot of fiction), pencil (I draw but mostly digital), rain boots with wings because why not, and eyeglasses sort of represents reading and seeing. Perhaps I put too much meaning to a header that I might just change again in the future but I like it for now.

Elements/Objects

    You can see in the Draft example below, I can essentially arrange the elements in different ways. I did have various arrangements but I didn't save those so I can't show you how  they had looked but I can assure you they didn't look good. The elements are not correctly sized in relation to each other but I did used most of the colors from the flowers to make them appeared like they might belong with together. Usually, when you see a lot of elements in one design, they don't always look right together but using colors and placement help to balance them out, at least, that's what I believe.   

Draft

Version 1 - no background pattern

Final version - with the background pattern

   As to why there is a swirly background pattern, it's to add some cohesion/unity. If you look at Version 1 and compare it with the Final version, the one without the pattern has everything floating which it isn't a bad look but it just doesn't look as together as the one with the patterns. The blog title (Postcards from the Bookstore) is also tilted to make it look less stale among the elements. If you look at the Draft version with the title not tilted, it still works but it seems a bit stationary to me so I prefer to tilt it to make it seem like it's floating like the elements.
        The fonts (for Postcards from the Bookstore) is Hallo Oyster by Typhoon Type - Suthi Srisopha, link here. The font below that (Books & Ramblings) is Helvetica Neue 57 Condensed, link here.

What do you think? Do you like my new header or is the previous version better?