Blog Makeover...Again!

Clearly I have ever-evolving design plans for this here blog, because I gave it another major facelift just two months after the first one! I'm slowly teaching myself some HTML, and this summer I plan to mess around with Photoshop & Illustrator so that I can maybe make cooler buttons and headers. (I use Word & Paint for now. Haha. Old school!) I'm also going to work on my photography skills--I've definitely improved with that over the last few months, but I want to learn more!

Since everyone loves a good before and after, I thought I'd hit the highlights of my new blog makeover. If you're reading this on Google Reader or some other site, go ahead and click over to see the prettiness :)

First up, a new background! I went from the lovely yellow with bunting from Shabby Blogs to a teal quatrefoil background from Sprik Space. It's meant to be an iPhone background, but I just edited it a bit to make it blog-suitable!

I also eliminated the blue post background I used to have so that the main body of the blog is all in white now. Before the blog felt a little cluttered to me, and I realized that some of my favorite blog designs featured an all-white interior, like Melissa's or Jen's. I'm pretty sure my blog is still colorful enough without it :)

I also revamped the Tabs. Gone is the standard yellow bar with a boring font. I created the tabs and made them clickable images to lead you to my five pages: About Me, Our Home, DIYs, Printables, and As Seen On!

Next up, let's visit the sidebar. I combined my photo and blurb into one image. I had a little fun with fonts here, since I'm kind of a font-a-holic. Just as my wedding guests--I used tons of different fonts for my table numbers and our "Pop Quizzes" and "I Spy" printouts at the reception...which I will share with you this summer :) I like this all-in-one look better than the before:

Old:

New:

Moving down, I separated out the subscription options and the ways to connect with me, and created slimmer buttons for each option. I also added a new button: read me on Blog Lovin'!

Speaking of buttons, I also created THREE new options for anyone looking to add a little link back love to their sidebar. I love the look of the mountain in my original button, but I wanted a few more playful options too. We all know I love maps and bunting, so I threw some of both into the mix and made a few different sizes.

And you'll see the same bunting echoed at the top of the blog and in each post footer. I designed both using free backgrounds from Sprik Space. Since I'd lost the cute bunting from my original yellow background, I had to get some back in!

How do you like my new look?