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1.13.2014

My New Blog Design + A Giveway!

Guys, I am SOOOOO excited about my new blog layout. 

I have had my blog for over 5 years and I have always used the same person to design it. 
It had been 2 years since I re-did my blog design, so I was WAY overdue for a re-vamp.

I have been wanting to change my blog layout for over a year. 

I had a vision that I wanted, I just didn't have the time or skills to design it or implement it.

I tried re-doing some things last week and I almost broke my blog.

I contacted the person who I usually use for my blog and the waitlist for a blog design was over 2 months!!!! I panicked. That was not going to work, I needed it sooner than that!

So, I decided to look around Etsy to see if there were any blog desingers on there that I liked.
Then, I saw Bella Lulu Ink's templates and fell in love!
Her prices were incredible and her turnaround time was 2 days! 
Sold!

Chelsea was so awesome to work with.
She is a stay at home mom with 3 young kids and she was so patient with all my emails I sent her and changes that I wanted to make. 
I realized I am totally high maintenance ! Ha! And, she didn't even bat an eye and my crazy :)

Since a bunch of things have changed on my layout, I thought I would point them out to you!
First up, the header & navigation bar!
I wanted a simple, clean, organized look.
On the pink navigation bar, you will find the following categories with quick links to them.
We have Home (which is just the home page for my blog), About Me, a link to my Etsy Shop, a link to all the Free Printables I have posted. When you click that, it will take you this page:
I spent all weekend creating this page and organizing it to make it more user friendly.
I organized all my printables into categories for you!
 The next link is Parties. Again, I spent time this weekend organizing this page into categories of parties that I have thrown. Again, this will make it more user friendly for you!

The next quick link on the navigation bar is probably my FAVORITE part of the new design.
It is my Recipe Box! This took forever, but I LOVE it. I organized every single recipe on my blog into categories. So, if you click on the icons on that page, it will take you to another page with a list of all those recipes in alphabetical order.
The final link on the Navigation bar is to my Rodan + Fields Website!
 Also on my blog, all the picture are pinnable now, so you can click on it to pin it to your Pinterest board. Again...making it user friendly!
 And, instead of photos in the header,  I wanted a cleaner look, with just words.
I have my new profile photo with our family and below it are social media icons:

  Ahhhhh.....it felt so good to organize all this!!!
I am telling you....the New Year makes me want to organize and clean stuff up (including my blog!)

THANK YOU, THANK YOU, THANK YOU to Chelsea for the beautiful blog design. 
I am SO incredibly happy with it. 
You are a gem.

Chelsea is so awesome, she is giving away a blog design to one of you! 
She has tons of pre-made instant download blog templates that are gorgeous!

Chelsea's Etsy shop is Bella Lulu Ink:

 Shop {here} Facebook {here

Check out all the beautiful blog designs HERE!
One lucky winner will get a new blog design from her!

To enter, just use the Rafflecopter below!

Chelsea gets an A+++ with customer service, she sends you a You Tube video showing you how to install your new design and she responds to emails so quickly. It was the easiest process ever!
I am SO excited one of you will get a new blog design!

Speaking of giveaways, my friend Sheaffer is also having a giveaway on her blog today! 
A $100 shop credit to Goodnight Macaroon. Check it out {here}
 
Thanks again, Chelsea for your beautiful work and for a blog design that I absolutely love.
 My goal was to create a more user friendly & organized design and I think we nailed it.

Thank you to all of you for your patience last week when it was Under Construction....I think it was worth it :)
So, sit back, click around & get to know the new layout.
Hope you guys love it also!!


45 comments:

  1. I'm at a training off campus today, so got to take a peek! I love it! Clean and fresh! I'm going to enter for sure later (to annoying on my phone!) and check out her site! :)

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  2. Love the new blog format and the organization is amazing!

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  3. I love it! Plus the categories are nice too as I often look back on your blog for your gorgeous party themes!

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  4. Love your new design and desperately need one myself!

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  5. Looks amazing. Love it. I gave up trying to figure out how to fix my blog a long time ago. Definitely could use some help.

    Hugs,
    Trisha

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  6. This is such a clean and beautiful design. I am new to blogging but it would be great to get a new and fresh blog design

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  7. Love the new link! I've been on a blogging hiatus, and need some motivation to get me back into it.

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  8. I love the new layout! It achieved the clean and streamlined look you wanted and the colors are great!

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  9. Love the new look! She did an excellent job!

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  10. I love your new design. ...especially the colors you used!

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  11. As much as I love the new design, might I make a suggestion? I know it is time consuming so it would be a long-term project, but it would be SO NICE to have a link to a printable version of your recipes! When printing from the blog it usually takes 4+ pages for the average recipe to print out.

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  12. Love the new design! It's clean and the colors are perfect!

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  13. Thanks for the shout out Mel! And I love the new design! Very fresh! :)

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  14. Great new design and I love the organization! I love your blog for so many reasons and this will make it much easier to surf around and find all the great things you blog about!

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  15. It looks great, and her designs are beautiful!

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  16. Love the new look. I too recently went streamlined in my blog design. Less clutter!!

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  17. I love your new layout! Totally makes me want to change my blog layout!

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  18. This is perfect timing as I've been looking to revamp my blog!!!

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  19. Yay Mel! New layout is fresh and super easy to navigate!

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  20. The new design looks great! I'm so glad you didn't go "private" ( :

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  21. Love your new look! We enjoyed your lasagna last night for dinner.

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  22. Love, love, love the new look! Thanks for the giveaway :)

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  23. Wow, she did a fantastic job with your blog design. It's so clean and organized, yet stylish at the same time. You chose well!

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  24. I love the new layout! I'd also love to get one of my own!

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  25. Love it! I love how simply and clean and fresh it is, plus the colors are great!! A new, fresh blog layout is on my goals for this year!

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  26. Everything looks great! Thanks for offering the giveaway!!

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  27. Love the new look - I'll have to go check out her shop - thanks for the info on her

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  28. I love the new layout! And, as someone who references your blog all. the. time., I LOVE the navigation bar!!!

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  29. Her prices are awesome!! Thanks for sharing about her!!

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  30. I would love to have a new look, mine is over 3 years old!

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  31. Excellent web site you’ve got here.. It’s difficult to find excellent writing like yours these days. I truly appreciate individuals like you!
    website design

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  32. Fantastic layout and would love to have it on my site!

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