Shiny New Blog!

HI!! Just stopping in real fast to say LOOK! Look at my new space! Isn’t it beautiful? And clean? And organized? And faster?

I’m in love with it, and I hope you all like it, too. There are some small changes to be made still, some things I need to add and move around. But, for now, it’s at least functional and looking pretty.

I had not very much to do with that. My friend Brett, who I met online nearly 6 years ago while planning my wedding, designed the header and social icons for me. She came up with the idea for my re-branding, with the hexagonal tiles that represent all the little pieces of this blog that are about “more than a (baby) fever.” Pretty genius, I think. I’d link you up to her, but she’s a very busy woman who doesn’t typically do this kind of thing for bloggers, so I think she’d kill me if I sent “business” her way.

The brains behind the back end of this operation is Karla Archer from Archer Creative. She is definitely in the business of doing this sort of thing for other bloggers, so if you’re in the market for a new blog design, I 1,000% endorse her and think you should get in touch.

So many cool new features, and one of my favorites is the ability to click on a photo in my header and go to it’s corresponding category. That’s not such an easy thing to DIY, but Karla hooked it up without a problem. She was responsive and proactive with all our communications (not such an easy trait to find in the blog designer world, it seems), and she’s made this entire process stress free for me. I can’t say enough amazing things about her.

She also does things like logo design, branding & marketing consulting, and even wedding invitations! Check out her services here.

If you want to learn more about her, her adorable love story of how she met her husband on Twitter (true story!), or her business, here are the links you should check out:

Archer Creative
KarlaArcher.com
Living The Life Fantastic
@karlaarcher 

I wish I could stay and play, but I have so much to do before Wednesday morning. I’ll be working with Karla for a while still to get things perfected around here, so if you see something that’s not working or doesn’t look quite right, could you do me a favor and tell me about it? Either comment or shoot me an email? Thanks so much!

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Just a few FYIs

You may notice some changes to the old bloggy layout as I work out some kinks and try to make this place a little more viewer friendly.  I went ahead and got rid of the whole “Featured” articles area as that just seemed to confuse people, especially new readers.

Also, a lot of you in the past may have tried to subscribe to my RSS feed only to be super annoyed that it was only allowing you to see excerpts and making you click through for the rest of the article.  That hasn’t been the case for quite some time now, but wanted to make you all aware that you can now receive the  full feed.  So sorry for bugging the shit out of you that way.

As far as product reviews and “promoting” on my blog goes, it’s something I’m obviously testing the waters with.  I have made a decision to only do product reviews (at least official ones) in my Memos From Mommy feature on Mondays (which, by the way, will now always be open for entries until the following Monday).  I do this for a few reasons.  I don’t want this to become a product review blog.  It always has and always will be a blog mainly about my personal experiences. That being said, if someone sends something my way that I think you all, my readers, will benefit from, then I will be happy to share it.  I’m not in the product reviews and giveaways for the free stuff (although, I’d be lying if I said that wasn’t a nice perk).  I like it because it gives me something to offer you all in return for reading.  And Memos From Mommy also gives you a chance to participate and share your own stories. If it is a sponsored review (meaning the company is sending me the stuff for free) it will always be obvious.  

I will, of course, still do my own unofficial reviews of sorts as I always have when I run across something good or something bad.  In addition, I will continue to blog about other non-personal things that I think add valuable content.  

Please bear with me as I learn the ropes.  This blog is taking off and it’s wonderful and scary and exciting all at the same time.  The problem is there are no “blog” rules and I have to make my own, which is both awesome and confusing. I do appreciate feedback and have made many current changes only because of it.

Thank you all for reading and for the support and hilarity you share with me every day.  I may not have time to respond to every comment (something else I’m trying to at least improve upon), but do know that I always value what you have to say.

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