Hi, everybody!

Hope your weekend was fantabulous, and that your week is going smoothly and I really hope you’re enjoying some sunshine somewhere in this world.

The sun is coming and going here. At least there’s no snow. We’re supposed to get rain for a few days, though. Spring, I need you to get here already!

If you’re a regular reader, you’ll remember me mentioning that there was a redesign in the midst, and that things might get a little wonky around here for a couple of days.

As you can see, this blog has received a complete makeover. The transition went pretty smoothly. Thanks to the awesome Web Tech, Rebecca Laffar-Smith, you can now focus more on the content of the blog posts and enjoy less clutter. We’re still going to switch the sidebars around a little but hopefully you’re already enjoying that there’s less clutter and it’s more organized.

We’re also working on the page buttons at the top of the page. I’m trying to organize the pages with drop-down tabs so that when you click on Recipes, you’ll see a drop-down menu for Salads, Juices, Smoothies, Desserts, etc. And the same for Reviews… you’ll see Books, DVDs, Food, and so on.

And here’s the before and after comparison….

Before

After

I believe the new theme is much better for y’all. Not only is it beautifully designed, it’s more organized and user-friendly. You’ll see I kept my feed dolly. She’s dear to my heart and she just makes me happy. Silly? Maybe, but it’s how I feel.

Some of My Favorite Features

I thought I’d share some of my favorites of this theme.

One of my top favorite features is that on the home page, you get to see a large excerpt of the most recent post and if you scroll down a little, you can see a variety of extra posts you might want to get caught up on, and you can see a photo and some text from those posts, too!

I also love that:

• it’s more organized
• the header is scooted way up
• the pages will now have a drop-down menu
• the search bar should benefit you much more now
• there are share buttons at the bottom of each post
• there is a plugin that rotates ads in the sidebar so you aren’t bombarded with tons of big ads flashing
• and so much more!

And… I love the fact that you can see so many recent posts in the “Latest Juicy Articles” section:

I’m just really excited about this whole theme – in case you couldn’t tell.

Fantabulous News

This theme is the RLS–Rebecca Theme – it will be available to y’all soon! That’s right, Rebecca created this theme and will be making it available to the public in the near future. I’m SO very honored that we got to test the tech waters out first. Rebecca is very talented and is just a joy to work with. I never feel dumb, or like I’m a bother. Rebecca’s customer service is the best – and so is she. Seriously!

Your Turn

Now that you know I love the fresh, new theme – and Rebecca’s work – how do YOU feel about it? I know many of you had requested the header be moved up. Done. A lot of you wanted better organization. It will take me a little while to get the pages reorganized and separated, but I’ll keep at it ‘till it’s finished. And I know you must be appreciating the cleaner sidebars, and that they’re to the right. Are YOU happy with the new design? Is it what you were hoping for? Better? Is there anything else you’d like to see? Chime in with your thoughts!

Contest Reminder

I hope you haven’t forgotten about the $40 gift certificate I’m giving away. This is a great opportunity, y’all!