After a slight delay - well a long delay really - I'd like to introduce the Lacuna Joomla template. The Lacuna Joomla template is a fun Joomla theme with a rich array of bold colours, mixed with smooth gradients and subtle textures that combine to create a beautiful and elegant design for your Joomla website. Lacuna comes with a slick new K2 template as well as the usual flexibility of the Zen Grid Framework.

For a full run down of the features you can check out the Lacuna features page, or go straight to the Lacuna demo, or read the documentationdownload the template.

Please note that as per our usual policy when templates are released late, that if your subscription expired in between the first of the month and the release dat we will be honour the terms of the subscription and supply you with the files for the template you are entitled to. All you need to do is contact us via the contact form and we will set you up with the necessary links to the template, quickstart and extensions required for Lacuna.

A small update to the Zen Grid Framework

I have also just released a minor update to the Zen Grid Framework - v1.1.12. This fixes a few minor issues with some of the core framework logic. You can read the changes from the changelog or club members can download the latest files from the Zen Grid Framework download page.

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Even though the Zen Grid Framework comes with a plethora of module positions you may at times want to add your own module position to your customised layout. The process for doing this is relatively straight forward and for the most part doing so follows the standard Joomla 1.5 conventions.

To do this you need to take advantage of the Zen Grid Framework override system. For this example lets assume that the module position you want to add sits above the top row of modules ie above top1, top2, top3 and top4. The best place to put your new code in this case would be in a top.php override file.

To read the rest of this tutorial please visit the Joomlabamboo knowledgebase.

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Our february Joomla template is a colourful and lighthearted design that uses some bold colours, subtle textures and a few carefully crafted edge highlights. The screenshot should give you a good idea of where we are headed this month and while the demo content is geared towards mediation or church website, the final template will be flexible enough to be the perfect addition to personal or creative business websites alike ... ok enough of the spin - see the design for yourself.

Lacuna should be available early next week.

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I've just rolled out a minor update to the Zen Grid Framework which fixes a few things but adds some of the lovely new fonts available via the Google Font directory. I was a little bit skeptical about the range of fonts available when the directory was first rolled out but these new additions certainly provide for quite a range of options that should cover most needs for font replacement.

You can see a full list of the fonts now available with all Zen Grid compatible Joomla templates here or go directly to the web font directory here to see what's on offer. Not all fonts have made it to the list but I think we have grabbed the essential fonts and provided a good spread across the various serif, san serif and more creative typographical styles to cover all of your bases.

In future versions of the framework I'll be changing the way that we implement font choices and I plan to open up the selectors available for font replacement so that the process is a little more flexible. But for now I hope you enjoy the addition of these new and very worthy fonts.

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Once again Im happy to announce the availability of our latest Joomla template. Cultivate is the perfect blend of relaxed professionalism for a slightly left of center Joomla business. The demo content on the live preview is geared towards yoga but it's suitable for all sorts of eco inspired, natural medicine based or relaxed business type websites.

It features five base colours that are combined in to 20 different theme variations, as well as another elegant template for K2. For a full demonstration please visit the demo, or view an overview of the features or read the documentation.

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Earlier this week the latest edition of the Joomla community magazine was published and along with it Kyle Ledbetter's and my personal favourite joomla templates for 2010. It was a hard task choosing 5 Joomla templates each from the last year but when I look over the list I think I would stick to the five I chose.

What I love about the Joomla template community is that the level of competition between the various template makers is always very high. The templates on the list are really great examples of design in the first place but they also represent a push in functionality that helps to keep expanding the reach of Joomla. I think this creative edge is a key factor in confirming Joomla's position as one of the best options for online content management and creating web based applications.

So if you haven't already check out the article and let us know which is your favourite joomla template released form the last 12 months.

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Last year I posted a few items about my Joomla template toolkit and other development tools I use to get things done. A few things have changed in the last six months in terms of how I go about creating and deploying templates and so I thought a few days in to the new year it might be a good time to revisit my must have apps for template development.

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This post has been a long time in the making and as such I'm very happy to announce that we have released v1.1+ of the Zen Grid Framework. All previous Zen Grid Framework templates,except for Zen Simple Shop which will be available tomorrow, are now shipping with the new version of the framework. This update is a significant update with a slew of new features and some bug fixes so its worth checking the full changelog on the forum for a run down on what's new.

A while ago I published the roadmap for the Zen Grid Framework and while we pushed some of the potential features back I'm pleased with what we have added to the framework. My main aim is to keep the user interface intuitive and to avoid unnecessary bloat. I think there is a fine line between making a tool feature rich and keeping it stream lined to enhance a users workflow and so while we have added some great new features working with Zen Grid compatible templates is effectively the same.

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In the spirit of Elevate, Elevate2, Ecolift and perhaps Avanti the first Joomla template for 2011 is going to be an earthy, serene and clean template release. I'm pretty fond of merging slightly textured patterns with other cleaner elements and so this David Vuu design fits the bill perfectly. While the demo content for Cultivate will be focussed on Yoga and natural or wholistic medicine this Joomla template could really be used for any manner of businesses that are targeted at tapping into the eco friendly and environmental conscious market place.

I hope you like this - check the full screenshot after the jump.

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One of the side projects I've been working on for the last six weeks or so is a little redesign of the Joomlabamboo site as well as a new documentation or knowledge base for our Joomla templates and Joomla extensions. I've just taken another swing through the knowledgebase and although there is still a little way to go, it's progressing quite nicely. I'm hoping that we may launch early in the new year even if it's just a soft launch while we iron out the kinks and take feedback on usability etc.

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A few days ago I rolled out a simple Last FM joomla module that uses this neat Last FM jQuery script created by Jeroen Smeets. The module is showcased on the recent Journal Joomla template and as you can see from the demo the module very stylishly showcases a selection of albums or tracks from your Last FM music profile. For a full run down of the features and settings be sure to check out the jLastFM documentation page where you can also download the module for free.

Please note that you also need to use our free JB LIbrary plugin with this module.

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Im very happy (and relieved) to be able to tell you that the Journal Joomla Template is now available for download. The last week has seen the theme develop somewhat beyond the early screenshots so I hope you like the final outcome. It comes with some unique styling for our twitter, flickr and last fm modules as well as two different styles for the K2 Joomla template using a class suffix to trigger the different theme.

You can check out the Journal demo, the documentation, the feature overview or just go ahead and download it if you are already a member

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