The Blog Makeover


My blog was having a quarter life crisis and decided she needed a makeover. She got her eyes lifted, her chin enlarged, and her lips done. She’s quite vain. 
What do you think? Can you handle everything moving from the right side to the left?
Take a browse around the new pages and let me know your opinion- but only if it’s a good one. I excitedly called my mom yesterday to tell her to look at my new design and her first response was, “I don’t like it.” Mom’s are the best. 
“Okay thanks, mom. Never mind, I have to go.”
“Well you asked for my opinion.”
“But I didn’t really want your opinion. Just your praise.” And I hung up. My mom and I go way back, doesn’t she know by now when I ask “do you like it?” with excitement in my voice the immediate response should always be “YES!”Ugh. 
Whatever, I happen to love it. I worked with Vanessa for several weeks to get it just right. Although I struggle to say “work with” because we all know designers do all of the work. I can’t compliment Vanessa enough on the way she was able to take my vague vision for my new design and transfer it into something real. 
When I first started blogging I had the same homemade layout for about two years. And it was awful. Like it or not, we live in a world where people judge a book by it’s cover- and a blog by its layout. So if you’re debating whether or not to hire someone to give your site a pretty new look, hire someone. I can’t stress this enough. And when you decide to hire someone, make sure that person is easy to work with and very patient, because there will be a lot of back and forth. Luckily for me, Vanessa was an absolute pleasure to work alongside. I’d give her an idea and she’d run with it, just look at what she did with the pages on the top scrollbar. 
I really wanted a layout that was clean and simple. I also wanted to be able to have bigger and better photos. I’m really setting the bar high with that dark iphone mac/coffee/tulip photo, wouldn’t you agree? And this new layout automatically spell checks everything. So if you happen to notice an error, it’s not me. It’s the layout. Or it’s me being ironic…
What are your thoughts on blog designs? Do you create your own or do you hire someone?


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27 Comments

  1. March 3, 2015 / 10:23 am

    I adore the new look! I think it looks great! Very simplistic but eye catching!

  2. March 3, 2015 / 10:37 am

    totally loving the new look! although google translate came up and said your page was actually in arabic and if i wanted it to be translated into english-ha! it's been in the english the whole time but i was sort of hoping it would turn to arabic so i could send you a screenshot of what it would look like…

  3. March 3, 2015 / 10:49 am

    Totally love this! Clean, simple and easy to navigate – it doesn't get any better. Plus I'm really digging the yellow.

    x Kathryn
    Through the Thicket

  4. March 3, 2015 / 11:14 am

    I love it! My mom does the exact same thing! When I say I want your opinion I really mean lie to me and tell me what I want to hear! Super cute though!

  5. March 3, 2015 / 11:27 am

    I love it! My mom doesn't do the exact same thing. She'll say it's great but I know she's lying. She's a terrible liar lol

  6. March 3, 2015 / 11:29 am

    I am not blog savvy enough to do desgin myself but one day I would like to give it a try. I had Ashley from The Grits Blog give my blog a makeover in January. I love the colors and fonts she used. I thin your site looks great..maybe it was just the whole "change is scary" thing that made your mom feel that way. I don't like change either usually lol

  7. March 3, 2015 / 11:31 am

    oh I love it! I just gave mine a facelift + the first thing my mom said was that she didn't like it either. like, thanks mom, I love it, way to rain on the parade.

  8. March 3, 2015 / 11:32 am

    I think it looks great and I agree that it's fun to switch it up every now and again. I use Erin at Love, Fun, and Football to design my blog because I suck at all of that stuff. I do have a little trouble seeing the yellow within the blog post. Maybe I'm so old I need readers? I'm totally not ruling that out. 🙁

  9. March 3, 2015 / 11:36 am

    Oh I love it! Great job. It's always refreshing to change things up a bit!

  10. March 3, 2015 / 1:01 pm

    It looks great! I love it (is that acceptable?)

  11. March 3, 2015 / 1:30 pm

    Thumbs up, girlfriend. I like the flip. I also like the clean header. Moms are brutally honest. I think it's what happens once you have a kid. That's my guess.

    I created my blog design on a snowy day in 2012 and never completed it. I think I should. I should blog more.

    This comment field box happens to be right next to your GFC widget – 31 more followers til you get 4,000! I'll campaign for ya! I know you werent even counting, right?

  12. March 3, 2015 / 1:47 pm

    Isn't it such a letdown when you go to someone for encouragement and they give you tough love instead? Totally knocks the wind out of your sails. I'm convinced that's one of the keys to a good marriage — knowing how to meaningfully praise each other about stuff you don't understand or care about lol

  13. March 3, 2015 / 1:47 pm

    Love it, it looks so great! I totally agree on hiring someone, especially if you're HTML illiterate like I am! 🙂

  14. March 3, 2015 / 1:59 pm

    It looks beautiful! My mom does the same thing, I'll ask her opinion and she tells me everything that's wrong with it.
    Mothers!

  15. March 3, 2015 / 3:08 pm

    Love it! Clean, fresh & simple.
    Oh Moms….
    Currently working to redesign my own and so excited about it!
    chatclinkrepeat.blogspot.com

  16. March 3, 2015 / 3:18 pm

    Ahh It looks great! I'm trying to fiddle around with my layout. Designers are so cool that they know all the techie things, I'm slowly teaching myself some things every here & there.

  17. March 3, 2015 / 4:09 pm

    I like it! Oh moms….reason number one why I haven't told my mom about my blog.

  18. March 5, 2015 / 12:37 am

    The translucent header is a little distracting to me, but then again, I'm reading this blog through Bloglovin, so that there is an extra header on the top.

  19. March 6, 2015 / 5:51 pm

    Diggin' the new layout! I've been wanting to have someone do it, but I'm so cheap. I don't make money off of my random blog, but I enjoy it and spend so much time on my posts, I feel like it needs to be pretty. Maybe one day I'll make the jump. For now, I'll keep coming to yours and the like for pretty layouts! xoxo, ganeeban

  20. March 7, 2015 / 9:15 pm

    I just got a new design too and Im with you hire someone! I did my very first one and when I look back it was just so gross. I love the design btw. I love the header and that was my number one request for my design too. Yours is Sleek, simple and clean. Mums can be wrong I guess (maybe just about blog designs).

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