The customizer provides a live preview as you play with Appearance settings, and can be used to customize a live preview of a new theme before you activate it, or to make changes to your existing theme. It allows you to edit the site title and tagline, custom headers and backgrounds, navigation placement, front page selection, and other options that vary by theme. It works with both free themes and premium themes. Shall we take a test drive?

Imagine you want to change themes. As you are browsing on the Themes screen, notice the new “Live Preview” link and click it.

You’re taken to the customizer. As you make changes, the preview in the right-hand part of the screen updates live so you can get things just right.

When things look the way you want them, click the Save & Activate button in the lower left (or Save & Purchase if it is a premium theme) and boom, your new theme and custom settings are live!

You can also use the live preview feature to customize your existing theme. On the themes screen in your dashboard, you’ll now see a “Customize” button that launches the previewer.

And don’t worry, you still have access to the regular screens for adjusting these and other features. Just use the navigation for the Appearance section like you always have.

So, please try it out, and let us know what you think in the comments! I hope you like  it as much as we do. If you hit any snags, let us know in the forums so that we can help.

But wait, there’s more!

Yes, more! Here are a couple of smaller additions also aimed at making it easier to customize your site and make it look just the way you want it.

• When choosing a custom header image, you can now choose from your Media Library. I looove this, because I have uploaded the same header image at least a dozen times to re-use it when I changed themes.
• For themes that support it, custom headers now have a recommended size rather than a fixed required size, so you can be flexible with the height and width of your header images. I love this too, because sometimes I really like a theme but the header image I want to use is taller or shorter than the theme design allows. Now, the power is in your hands to decide! The goal is for as many themes as possible on WordPress.com to support this feature, but you can see if we’ve added it to yours yet by checking the list of supported themes.

And one last thing…
If you know HTML, you can now add links and a little bit of formatting to your image captions. This is great for people who want to link a photo credit to the photographer’s blog or to a Creative Commons license, or want to make some text bold or italicized. At some point in the future we may add a WYSIWYG option, but for now you’ll just need to learn some basic HTML tags if you want to use this one. Just type the HTML right into the caption field in the image uploader, and your links will appear like magic. So this:

becomes this:

You can adopt adorable kittens at your local Humane Society.
Make a new friend and save a life today!
Photo by Jane Wells, saver of kittens

I’ve been wanting this feature for four years now, so I’m really excited.

Have fun with these new features!

*Fun Fact: While this feature was in development, it was originally conceived as a wizard, or guided walkthrough. We codenamed it Gandalf.

It would be pretty swell if I could spend my days cooking and baking, and writing and sharing it all here on this blog. Alas, food blogger is not my full time profession. And sometimes life gets in the way of me doing the things I really want to do. This week I’ve been so inspired to be in the kitchen, but life is getting in the way. This week is particularly nutso, and this weekend will be the second weekend in a row that we’re heading out of town (and away from my kitchen).

All this is to offer apologies for my absence, and sincere promises for some sweet treats and savory wonders coming next week. I might also have some great pictures to share of one of my favorite places on earth, as we’re heading to Santa Cruz this weekend for a little getaway/business trip.

To tide you over, here are a few things that have been inspiring the crap out of me this week:

Now that I’ve successfully produced my first souffle, I can’t wait to try another. Eggs on Sunday’s cheese, leek, and herb souffle is on the list.

I have been obsessing on New Orleans lately. Joy the Baker’s pictorial travelogue just took that up a notch.

These beautiful photos from The Yellow House, and the Marge Piercy poem selected to accompany them, are a great reminder for me to slow down and focus on the small, beautiful, and productive moments of my life.

Love & Lemon’s Green Enchiladas with Cashew Cream have to happen. I am counting down the days until I have time to make this happen.

Also, Joy the Baker’s chamomile cupcakes have inspired me to create a cookie in their image. I cannot stop daydreaming about these cookies that haven’t even been baked yet. The thought of them is keeping me going.

If you’ve never heard of Ernest Callenbach, I recommend you pick up a copy of his book,Ecotopia. It might be a little dated, but it was a life-changing book for me when I read it 15 years ago. Callenbach passed away last month, and Mark Bittman’s touching memorial is a reminder to me to focus on what really matters, and to always be hopeful that we can bring about change.

I hope your days are a little less manic than mine right now. Amidst the craziness, there are pockets of joyful things to look forward to: Dinner tonight with my brother, the aforementioned weekend in Santa Cruz, and those cookies. I’ll be back soon, and in the meantime, I’m sure the internet has no shortage of things to keep you occupied and inspired.

Fear not, my fellow blogging friends. We’ve got you all covered today with a theme that will make you want to stop time and write about everything in your lives until you can’t write anymore.

A Simpler Time, designed by Denise Chandler, is a theme that’s beautiful, bold, and memorable—pretty much exactly like the types of stories you’ll be writing alongside it on your WordPress.com blog:

A Simpler Time: Single Post

It’s a traditional blog theme in the sense that it offers everything you’ve come to expect from a WordPress theme—widgets, custom menus, and custom headers, and more—and it also looks incredible. If you’d also like to mix it up with different colors and fonts, try the Custom Design upgrade. You can do all of that and more.

A Simpler Time is a premium upgrade for your blog; read more about its features on the Theme Showcase or dive right into previewing it on your blog from Appearance → Themes.

We made the initial changes last week and after great feedback from you we just launched an update. Here’s how it works:

• By default, posting a comment will now subscribe you to receive follow-up comments via email for that specific post, keeping you updated on the conversation. This is indicated by the checked box in the comment form.
• If you have a WordPress.com account, you now have a global setting to change this so that by default you will not be subscribed. If you don’t have an account, then you can create one over here.
  
• If you don’t want email notifications for a thread, just uncheck the box when you post your comment. If you’ve disabled the feature, you can also subscribe to a specific thread by checking the box in the comment form.
  
• There is also a link at the bottom of every notification email that will allow you to change your subscription options.
  

If you’d like to find out all of the details about how this works, we’ve also updated our support documentation about following comments.

Discover details about what each showcase blog is doing with WordPress.com themes and customizations by clicking a thumbnail to see a colophon-style list of credits on the left.

We’ve also updated footer links so blog owners can show off the types of customizations they’ve made and visitors can learn more by clicking the “Customized” link in WordPress.com footers. A “Customized” link will appear next to the theme name for blogs that are using Custom Design tools like fonts or CSS.

Things we like to see when looking for showcase-worthy customizations are blogs with good traffic, beautiful design, well-written articles or stunning images, recent content updates, and involvement helping out in our CSS Customization forum.

Be inspired, customize your blog and make it that perfect place for your creations.

Sadly, it also means that I missed three days of photos. I stupidly neglected to take any pictures during our trip, which makes me so sad. I am not that great at capturing images for posterity. At least I have a ton of awesome memories. And the week leading up to our mini-break was full and beautiful.

May 6 – I made a cheese souffle! I was so nervous about this one, as I’ve heard that souffles are hard, and I’ve never worked with whipped egg whites before. But it was spectacular, and it turned out perfectly. Of course, I have to thank Dorie Greenspan for an excellent recipe. I’ll post my version here soon, promise.

May 7 – We finally replaced the propane tank for our grill, and I made salmon burgers. I had no idea how they would turn out, but they were a surprise favorite. I’m already plotting new variations, and minor improvements. Of course, I have to thank Mark Bittman for an excellent recipe.

May 8 – I got my May Pairings box from the folks at Turntable Kitchen. This month it held some fragrant chamomile flowers and a packet of buckwheat flour. I immediately started dreaming of some chamomile scented cookies. I’ll be experimenting this week. Keep an eye out.

May 9 – Mornings in our apartment: I make a pot of coffee, and put half in a thermos for Sean. I make breakfast, which has lately frequently consisted of some type of smoothie. I check email, and then pack up my lunch, my gym clothes, and my laptop, and try to remember my wallet and keys and phone, too. I try to get to work by 8, but more often I wander in around 8:15. It’s nice to live so darn close to work: My commute consists of a four-block walk. Not too shabby.

May 10 – Thursday night I went to a Death Cab show with my friend Eunice. It was a-a-a-mazing. I took this photo before the show, when I met Eunice for a drink at a bar near the Fox Theater, where the show was held. The light was so great, and I love Rudy’s, so I was happy to capture this lovely moment in our neighborhood. I love Oakland.

I know that Sean got some great pictures on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday, but I didn’t touch a camera. Not even my iPhone camera.

I’m hoping this week is quiet and relaxing, to make up for how crazy last week felt. So far so good.

Getting started

Photo blogs, sometimes called phlogs, use pictures instead of words. While many photo bloggers choose a type of photo that they want to focus on, such as portraits, others use their photo blog to document their life’s events. Photo blogs come in a variety of styles, including those that focus on vacation photos or even snapshots of friends. With images, we can capture moments in our life in a way that sometimes words cannot.

When starting a photo blog, you’ll want to choose a theme with a wider content area to help to showcase your photos at full size. Similarly, choosing a theme that is minimalistic helps to reduce any noise that may detract from the focus on your photography. Popular photo blogging themes on WordPress.com include Nishita, Duotone, and Modularity Lite. Looking for some inspiration? Be sure to check out the photo blogs below or more of our recommended photo blogging sites for examples of photo-friendly layouts.

The Unknown Project, a WordPress.com photo blog using Anthem.

Tracey Capone Photography, a WordPress.com photo blog using Twenty Eleven.

Tomorrow Never Knows, a WordPress.com photo blog using Comet.

Want to add photo flair to your site without starting a whole new blog? Adding a photo blogging category to an existing blog is a great way to revamp your site. In fact, you may consider doing “Friday Phlogs” or a similar weekly special to help incorporate these tips consistently into your current site.

Tools of the Trade

What do you need to get started? Nothing but a camera and an internet connection. Photo blogging with a smart phone is growing increasingly simple, particularly with the Quick Photo button in the WordPress for iOS and Android apps where you can point, shoot, and publish. If you’re already a pro at the WordPress apps, you may be interested in taking a look at Camera+ and Flickr, which allow you to automatically share your photos to your WordPress.com blog.

On the left, QuickPhoto in WordPress for Android and on the right, QuickPhoto in WordPress for iOS.

If you choose to use a more traditional camera, there are few tips to keep in mind when uploading your photos to ensure they represent the full quality of your original picture.

• Don’t resize your photos after uploading them to WordPress.com. Instead, leave your images at full size so we can see your work in all of it’s glory. WordPress.com will automatically generate the appropriate dimensions for you.
• Make edits to your photos before uploading them.
• Save your photos as JPEGs. JPEGs are the best format for photos online. You can also use PNG if you’re looking to add a transparent image to your site.

Welcome to our series on photo blogging! Stay tuned for more tips and tricks over the next few weeks.

In fact, you can all but negate the metabolic slowdown that happens after 40 by tweaking your diet, exercise, and sleep habits. “Think of your body as an engine—your metabolism is the rate at which your engine runs,” explains Scott Isaacs, MD, an endocrinologist in Atlanta and author of Hormonal Balance: How to Lose Weight By Understanding Your Hormones and Metabolism. “By making adjustments to these three elements, you can actually make your engine rev higher.”

The eating and exercise plans on these pages were designed to keep your metabolism humming to the tune of up to 10 pounds off in 21 days. Read on for the keys to not only losing, but losing for good.

Key 1: Eat early
Your basal metabolic rate—the number of calories your body burns at rest—is based on things like age, height, and body type, so there isn’t much you can do to alter it. But there is a lot you can do to change the number of calories you burn above that, beginning with your diet. Specifically: Eat breakfast.

We already know the reasons you may not want to (you don’t have the time/energy/stomach for it), but leaving for work on an empty stomach is like hitting the pause button on your metabolism. Here’s why: When your brain senses your stomach is empty, it sends a message to your cells to conserve energy in case another meal doesn’t arrive. In other words, your body holds onto the fat stored in your cells instead of helping you burn it off.

“Breakfast triggers a process called thermogenesis, where the body signals the brain to activate the metabolic process of turning food into energy,” says Mark Hyman, MD, author of The Blood Sugar Solution.

Key 2: Eat often
To keep your metabolism humming, Dr. Hyman suggests eating small meals every three or four hours. Aim to make each of those meals at least one-quarter protein—whether it’s animal protein, beans, or dairy, says Marissa Lippert, RD, who designed the eating plan on page 39. A recent study in the journal Neuron suggests that consuming protein stimulates the cells responsible for switching on the body’s calorie-burning mechanism.

Foods high in sugar and processed carbs, on the other hand, can lead to another problem: insulin resistance. “As we get older, it’s crucial to pay attention to how much sugar we’re consuming,” says Diane Kress, RD, author of The Metabolism Miracle. “Too much messes with your metabolism by causing your body to store extra calories as fat.”

Key 3: Sweat off the weight
Even more important? Exercise. “Not only does it affect your metabolism while you’re doing it, but research shows you can keep burning calories up to 24 hours after you finish because your metabolism stays elevated,” Dr. Isaacs says.

That’s especially true if you challenge yourself: A new study in the journal Cell Metabolism suggests that intense bouts of exercise can “turn on” genes responsible for energy metabolism. Researchers found that the activation of these fat- burning genes was higher in cyclists who pedaled at 80 percent of their aerobic capacity versus those who did a more moderate cycling session at 40 percent. So although you can’t permanently change your DNA (if only!), experts say exercise can fire up certain genes that initiate the fat-burning process.

Exercise is particularly helpful once you pass the age of 40, when your metabolism naturally begins to slow down. Experts used to believe it slowed due to an inevitable loss of muscle mass. However, a study in the journal The Physician and Sports Medicine found that fit women ages 41 to 81 who continued to exercise four to five times a week as they got older had little change in body composition. The real reason you lose muscle with age? You stop using it. “We now know that women who keep up a regular vigorous fitness routine don’t experience the metabolic decrease,” Dr. Isaacs says.

Key 4: Sleep away the pounds
No, it’s not your imagination. Too little sleep can cause you to gain—and not just because you’re spending those extra waking hours in front of the TV nursing a bag of chips. Research suggests that people who sleep two-thirds of their usual amount (five hours instead of eight, say) eat an average of 549 extra calories the following day without realizing it. Experts believe this is because too few zzz’s upset the balance of important appetite-regulating hormones.

But that’s not all: A Swedish study found that even one night of disrupted sleep can cause the body to burn up to 20 percent fewer calories the following day. “Sleep deprivation impacts multiple hormones related to metabolism,” Dr. Isaacs says. “Resistance to leptin—a hormone that regulates body weight—increases, while levels of ghrelin, a hormone that signals to your brain that you’re hungry, also increase.”

Aim for seven to eight hours of pillow time a night, advises Dr. Hyman. “Just a small change in your sleep schedule can make a big difference in your health.” Not to mention your ability to burn calories.

First out of the oven is…Just Desserts. Yep, that’s a theme! Designed by Andy Rutledge, Just Desserts is a deliciously stylish premium theme that’s perfect for blogs centered on food.

With its responsive, single-column layout and unique presentation of images and posts on the front page, Just Desserts gives you a delectable canvas on which your mouthwatering photos and text can really shine — even when viewed on smaller mobile devices such as tablets and smartphones.

There’s much more to be said about Just Desserts, and we’ve provided all of the tasty details on the Theme Showcase.

If all of the dessert goodness left you breathless, we can supply you with some…Oxygen. Yep, that’s also a theme. Although, it may also leave you breathless because it’s simply stunning.

Designed by DevPress, Oxygen is a minimal yet beautifully crafted free magazine theme. With the help of your amazing images, the crisp and well-balanced design will transform your blog into an online magazine that looks sharp and professional.

Oxygen contains many features and customization options, including a showcase page template with a featured slider, featured images, seven widget areas, and a carefully tailored responsive layout. To read about these features and more, you know where to head — the Theme Showcase.

Happy blogging! We look forward to seeing what you bake, photograph, and write, armed with these great new themes.