If you are looking for a little getaway, but can’t actually take the getaway, why not stop into the Who’s Your Mama blog. Make sure you are using Mozilla Firefox when you check out this blog, as there were some serious issues with Internet Explorer when I first checked out this site. When you get to Who’s Your Mama, you will meet Kuanyin who describes herself as being a 250 year old Virgo in the Communications Industry. Kuanyin is a blogger from Maui, and blogs about Maui and other related personal interests. You can find out more about both Maui and Kuanyin through any of her recent bloggeries: Summer’s Last Hurrah, Thursday Thirteen – Memories of Elvis, Have you ever noticed that…., Hurricane Flossie Watch and Wait, Blog Contest – I’ll Remember You!!, What If?, Back to Life…Back to Reality, and Thursday Thirteen and Deliberations.
The blog is fairly simply laid out, and if you are not straying too far off the main page you will not have too many navigation issues. The blog opens up with a pretty header of a Maui sunset, and posts are right marginalized with a left navigation system. Bloggeries are black text on white background and most bloggeries contain relevant pictures that add to the feelings of the posts. In the left navigation bar, you will find the about information, advertising, subscription information, a clickable link for blogs that link here, archives listed by date, an extensive link roll, an extensive array of blog awards, and a scrolling menu for a blog roll which I thought was a nice feature on the blog. At this point I do not see any recent posts menus or categories menus, though I do notice there are labels attached to each of the bloggeries.
I am going with a 3.2 on this one. There are just a few formatting issues that can be changed to assist with some of the appearance issues. I found the left navigation bar to be extremely distracting with a little bit of everything everywhere. I would suggest moving the blog awards for example to one corner of the blog as it seems to distract from some of the links that are being highlighted. These are fairly hefty images and could benefit from being highlighted on their own elsewhere. I think moving all of the blog directory icons to one central location would have the same effect and neaten up the navigation bar a little bit. Navigation scores need some help as well as with no recent posts or categories menus the site is a little difficult to navigate. The blog has a unique enough niche that it would certainly benefit from the categories addition. I think the content is well written, and the blog is active enough to sustain a healthy readership. I could see this blog growing even more with some of these formatting changes. However, this blog with its beautiful pictures certainly does relate a wonderful appeal of Maui, and if you have interest in going, it is worth at least a peek.
-Chrissie