Thursday 8 July 2010

We'll Design A Clever Disguise Or Retreat To The Bottom Of The Sea

I make a mean guacamole. I am good at recommending books and bands. I bake really delicious pies. I make excellent playlists. I am good at some things is what I'm saying.

However.

There are many things that I am not good at and for those things, I have my people. When I need to sound smart, I have Turtle. When I break my computer, I have Turtle's boyfriend. When I need to know what accessories are appropriate for a certain outfit, I have Robin. When I need someone to listen to my crazy without judging, I have Cat. When I have an accounting question, I have my dad. I have no problem finding help when I am unable to do something by myself.

A little while ago, I started to hate my blog. I still loved my bloggy people, I just felt like blogging was becoming a bit of a chore. I decided that I needed a blog redesign. I needed to approach blogging differently and in order to do so, I needed to change the look of my blog. I know absolutely nothing about the technical side of blogging though, so I needed a person.

I'm not sure how it happened (I'm guessing it was a combination of her kind heart and my blatant desperation) but Kyla became my bloggy person. A few emails were exchanged and it became painfully obvious how limited my technical skills are. Yada yada yada, I hired Kyla to redesign my blog.

My fancy new blog, twitter background, and etsy banner are all products of Kyla's brilliance. She did it all. The only thing I did was send bizarre emails with statements like "I like colour. Not like COLOUR colour. But colour. You know?" And she did know. Or at least she pretended to know what I was babbling on about and still managed to wrangle my thoughts into a cohesive design. Working with Kyla was an entirely positive experience - she listened to me, she gave me exactly what I wanted, and she suggested things I didn't even know that I wanted.

I'm excited about blogging again. I have ideas and plans and intentions. I still have a few things to finish (my about page and blogroll are currently sad and empty) but I'm excited to show off my blog. I removed the BlogHer ads - I have nothing bad to say about the program, it just didn't feel like a good fit for me. I dislike Blogger's inability to respond to comments (the "noreply-comment@blogger.com" makes me want to stab my computer) but I didn't feel comfortable learning a new blogging platform so I am going to start responding to comments in my comments section. Blogging is going to be fun again. Mark my words!

22 comments:

  1. I love the redesign! So cute!

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  2. Love it! I don't even know you, but it just seems so...YOU. Kyla is awesome! Glad you're excited about blogging again :-)

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  3. I love it! It's been loading for me fine after the first very slow time. I do miss your blog feed of other bloggers, but that's my own issue since I never have set up my reader (until just this week). I am super in love with your new header!

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  4. Looks fabulous! I think I need to start doing the same thing!

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  5. I'm so glad you love the design, it was so much fun to work with you! And I totally know what you meant. I like colour, but COLOUR colour? Please. ;)

    I'm excited to see where your new direction takes you!

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  6. As I gushed last night, I love the redesign. It suits you nicely. It's pretty and clean and just very YOU.

    And boy is Kyla adorable! Oh my goodness - I just clicked your link and I just want to squeeze her! But in a totally non-creepy non-invasive non-cheese plate kind of way.

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  7. WOW! Looks so fantabulous!! I love it!

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  8. Love Kyla. Love the redesign. Love your new excitement about blogging. Hate Blogger and how it forces you to creatively respond to comments ... I hope you've saved my email address, because I'm notoriously bad for going back to check old posts for feedback from the author.

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  9. I felt the same way, especially after my break up, but I felt comfortable learning a new platform; hence my change to wordpress. FORK, does this new design ever look good! I'm so excited that you're so excited about the new design!
    And see you next Saturday?

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  10. That Kyla! It looks fabulous!

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  11. Ginger: Thank you! I can take no credit, unfortunately. It was all Kyla.

    Stevie: Yes! Exactly. It just feels like ... me.

    Tia: I'm glad it's working better for you now :)

    Moosiegoes: Thank you!

    Kyla: I know, right? COLOUR colour? Eesh!

    Lemon Gloria: Isn't she great?

    Sharoneb: Thank you :)

    Nilsa: Ugh. Me too! It's the thing I hate most about Blogger.

    Lifeisacrapshoot: YES! Definitely.

    Amy: Kyla is great. Fact.

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  12. Love the new look! It's simple and fun! Perfect. You and Kyla did a fantastic job! Love the pics of the pupadoos on the side. I realllllly need to redesign my blog. X a million.

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  14. Glad you feel like blogging is fun again. I already said so, but I love your redesign. :)

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  15. I love the lemons and the line-y wood/paper look. (Oh, and the mustaches. Very sexy.)

    I will say that if you ever felt like leaving the blogspot format, I wouldn't object. It's not particularly reader-friendly.

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  16. Love it! Love it! Love it!! Looks fabulous! Kyla did an awesome job!

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  17. YAY, for blogging fun.

    And the redesign. LOVE.

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  18. Kyla, major props! This is fabulous. The little mustaches in the bowl of lemons kind of make me want to die. In a good way. Love you both!

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  19. I love the redesign, and I am totally with you on the "needing to change things up" mentality. (Though I think mine's going to involve a switch to wordpress!)

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  20. I need a re-design too!

    I love it!

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  21. I can't believe I missed this awesome redesign last week! Damn me and my vacation from the Internet. What a pretty, pretty site.

    Also, last night I had a dream I took a (positive, OMG) pregnancy test in downtown London, then got into a private jet, which belonged to and was piloted by you.

    WTF?

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  22. I agree with others, what a great look!

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