Hi ho!
If you’re a regular around here, you might have noticed that a few things have changed with this blog. Allow me to introduce you to Merrypad 2.0, the same great content in shiny new packaging.
My first-ever major blog overhaul has been in the works for a few months; in fact, Pete (my dedicated web designer and husband) and our developer compadre almost had it live in early November, but the final adjustments fell in my lap and were lower on my to-do list than pulling off our DIY-intensive wedding, so I only just got around to making things happen again. I’m back baby, and here it is, it’s here, the new site is finally here. If you’re on a reader, this would be a good time to click on over to the main site and see it in real-mode.
It’s going to take me awhile to get used to it. She’s so new, I’m afraid I’m gonna break her. And really, there are still a lot of things I need to do to make it perfect, but so far in all of my scouring and testing, it all seems to be presenting in a nice, easy-to-navigate way and I hope you think the same. Let’s drink to that.
Since its inception in November 2010, Pete and I have made only modest changes to the blog, doing things like changing the background image, the headers, the typefaces, but never have we switched WordPress themes, and the old merrypad was sooo Twenty Ten. Just call this our DIY blog overhaul; the re-skinned blog is a custom iteration of a theme we found, liked, and purchased from ThemeForest. At this point, I worked hard to keep the general architecture and site layout similar to what you’ve been seeing in the past (including all of the same brand elements–logo, tagline, and wooden accents), just updated a little bit to fit the ever-evolving me.
Some of my favorite new features include the look of the new navigation (now in the upper right), the size of the images (now much larger, which I love), and the category presentation (just check out how the DIY Network category presents itself). The right hand sidebar is narrower than it was before, making the text area markedly wider than you’re used to, and consequently, all of the posts now look shorter. I also made sure that there was an easy email subscription sign-up (look for it in two places: in the side bar beneath the DIY Network button, and in the footer on this page), and updated my press section with a few new amazing features, one from Charles & Hudson, and another from ProBlogger.
In the meantime, poke around, test it out, and please let me know if anything seems wrong-o. Thanks for all of the support over the years, I wouldn’t be here without you!
14 Comments
very clean. great new look. cheers to a great 2013 Emily & Pete.
Thanks jb!! To you and yours as well.
I like it.. and I can’t imagine why your wedding would take precedence over a theme redesign! We’re working on a redesign as well, although neither my wife nor I are married to a web designer. bummer.
Thanks John! Having Pete’s help is a great thing, but there is so much you can do out there yourself even with very limited experience. Can’t wait to see what you’ve been working on!
Well done Pete and Emily! I also just launched a redesign in WordPress and I’m also loving the move to a larger format. Looks great!
Thanks Timothy! We were checking out your new theme as well, it looks great!
Loving the new look! And blushing to see my little blog among the list of places you’ve been featured!
Thanks Cait! And I’m so complimented to have been featured on your site, you and Robert do such great projects around your home.
*blushing* You’re too sweet! :)
Love the new look but I have an old, itsy-bitsy monitor at work that I’m using to view it and it cuts off the menu on the right. The instagram button is almost not-visible, what I assume is the picture of Emily shows just a hint of a shoulder, and it says “Archive” and “Browse by Categ.” Now, I’m not saying you should size your design to fit every itsy-bitsy monitor, but wanted to pass it along in case it was something you needed to know!
Thanks Julia! The theme I picked was initially favored because it’s responsive (it would scale to your browser), but I really didn’t like how it presented on mobile devices in its smallest responsive format, so I turned the feature off. Good to know how some people will inevitably see it (I’ll ask Pete if there’s anything we can do to accomodate smaller screens, but I’m sure it’s not an easy fix). Feedback appreciated!!
It is probably this terrible old browser (IE7) I have a work, but on your main page the sidebar is on the bottom instead of the side, but when I click one a post it looks great! I just did my first ever wordpress site for my mom’s wedding cake business (www.annboiseweddingcakes.com) so I can understand how hard it is to try and get everything lookin’ good for everyone!
Girl, we don’t support IE7. What’s IT do around that place? (Thank you for the feedback, it’s always good to know what other people see! And, gorgeous cakes. Wish we had known about your mom for our wedding!)
I almost said something about my mom’s cakes! i got the comment all written but then I remembered her Dept of Health licence is only from april to october :( Yea, I feel like I’m in the IE stoneage & of course we can’t use firefox or anything.