Make It Monday - A New Year ... A New Look

Well, I'm a little late on the new blog design... and not quite done, but it's getting there.  I'd had a few helpful comments that my blog was hard to read due to the colors so I decided to give my blog a face lift.  I went back and forth on how I was going to go about vamping up my blog.  At first I was going to do it myself.  Then I realized I didn't have the time (or ability to Photoshop one handed with Linc on my boob) so I was going to hire someone to do it for me.  Then I realized that Brian would probably flip his lid if he knew I was paying someone to vamp up my hobby blog, so I went back to doing it myself (one handed with my boobie muncin' companion).  As with all great tasks I needed a great plan.  Ok, it's not great, but here it is.

1. Research Blog Designs
First thing's first.  I needed to get a general idea of what direction I wanted to go with on my blog design.  I scoured the internet looking at other blogs and finding what style appealed to me.  I found that I was much more drawn to the simple clean looking designs than the bright colorful ones.  Listed below are a few of the blogs that really caught my attention.

Whiskey In My Sippy Cup
Attack Of The Redneck Mommy
I Am Momma Hear Me Roar
I Spy With My Little Eye
Made
A Nut In A Nutshell
Go Graham Go
Little Miss Momma
The Feminist Breeder

2. Re-Work Header Design
Step two was my header design.  I wanted something simple and modern with some pictures thrown in there.  I ended up keeping the original design (can't get anymore simple that that) and working from there.  I tried a few different color combos and ended up with basically the same colors minus the orange.  Gosh, didn't I say I was doing a blog re-design?  Why am I just ending up with what I had before???  Oh well.  Eliminating the orange gave me the perfect spot for pictures of the kids.  Aren't they soooo cute?!?!  Ok, I might be biased.  I like that I can easily change out the pictures now and then with some updated pics of the kids.  Check out how much better the new header looks.  Do you think it looks cluttered with pics of the kids?

The OLD Look

The NEW Look

3. Re-Work Button Design
Ok, this one was easy.  I eliminated the orange and added the taupe border.  Voila!  Done.

OLD Button

NEW Button

4. Re-Work Blog Body
We're not talking my body.  That's a whole different blog post.  I'm still working on my post baby belly.  We're talking about the blog body.  I changed up a few things to fit the new color scheme.  Link color, gadget header size and color, etc.  I had a hard time with the link color because I tend to be drawn to neutral colors, but I ended up with red to stand out.

So anyways, that's the great and awesome story of how I ended up with a blog re-design that looks strangely similar to my old design.  Maybe one day I'll break down and have someone else re-design my blog, but till then I'm liking how the new Adventures In Fluff looks.  I still have a bit to do such as re-design the special day buttons (Super Sunday Giveaway Linky & Silly Saturdays), change my signature, and add an "about me" section on the side, but we're getting there.  Let me know what you think about the new design and if you have any ideas of how to make it better.  Don't worry.  My feelings won't be hurt if you hate it.  It's all just another part of my Adventures In Fluff.