Hey guys thanks again for the help, diddy81 your right i do want to get as familiar with the 4.2 system menu as possible. so ny time you guys can point me at some literature it is appreciated.
@SifJar thnks for that info on thememii i didn't know that was possible untill now, i have been doing all the resizing myself. although the results have turned out great. i'm sure to use the thememii on some of the repetitive images(i was leaving those for last, they seemed a bit "blah".
@diddy81 thanks for the link to hardwii. turns out that the link
http://gbatemp.net/index.php?showtopic=134404 was directing me to the same pages but was never updated to show the 4.0 updates.
i did have to preview my work on the wii last night, i tried loading it on dolphin without success. i figured that since the theme i'm editing is the same one that i've had on my wii for along time any way, there shouldn't be a problem.
this is where i wish i could see a preview as i make the changes, you know. everything worked out great but i did get better ideas after seeing the theme on screen, all put together.
oh well i'm going to keep at it untill my wii looks just the way i want it to. then i'm sure i'll start working on another theme, just in case i get sick of the first one.