New Year...New Me...New Blog?

There comes a time in every bloggers blogging life where they begin to feel a bit restless and the urge to spread their wings becomes almost unbearable....almost. Don't worry I'm not abandoning my blogs. Although I'm sure it seems that way with my posting habits...or lack there of. I'm just tired of my blogs. I'm not moving out or on, just up or possibly sideways. I need something new. I've looked into other free blogging services but nothing is really speaking to me. Maybe I should just change the template. But that opens a whole other can of worms. I downloaded Movable Type but for the life of me I have no idea how to use it....and I'm embarrassed to say that I don't fully understand exactly what it is either AND I can't even figure out how to open the damn file (yes I have winzip so that's not it). I've got all the time in the world to do my research, but when this feeling comes over me I need change and I need it now! I've also toyed with the idea of combining Holding Down The Fort and Yarn Junkie's Fix into just one blog, but I kind of like the two worlds separated, too. In my travels across the net I found an interesting place called Vox. I signed up to see what it was all about but haven't received my confirmation email yet despite several attempts. I guess it just wasn't meant to be.

Here's what I'd like to have for my blogging experience...

* Free reign over blog design/layout (I'd like to be able to change things here and there....not design the whole thing I'm not Wonder Woman!)
* A section in the side bar that shows different labels/categories for posts
* A 3 column blog...like this one for example, except I'd want both columns to be equal size
* Easy to use blog publishing
* Free blog hosting....I'm not a frequent enough blogger to pay for one just yet...plus I don't really have all that much to offer

I really like some of the layouts I've seen on Typepad blogs but as far as I can tell those require a monthly payment. I'm sure there is a free trial, but I don't want to lose everything after the trial period is up. Anyhoo, if you see things change around here don't worry, I'm just doing a little pre-Spring cleaning I guess.