Do you love the new look? Because I LOVE the new look.
And if you’re reading this in your feedreader then you need to make the extra effort to click over here and see the new design. (You don’t really have to. I don’t want to be pushy.) Of course if you always read from your feedreader then you may not even know what the old design looked like. But pretend you’re excited anyway.
I have known for a long time, deep in my heart, that I was ready for a new design for the blog, but didn’t know exactly what I wanted. I had some vague ideas, but no real concrete plan. Which is basically how I go through life.
Sometime around mid-December, I emailed Cathy at Desperately Seeking WordPress and asked if she’d be interested in helping me work on a new blog design. What I failed to mention were all my obsessive tendencies and complete inability to use helpful adjectives in describing what I wanted it to look like.
So, bless her heart, she said she’d love to help me and put me on her design calendar for mid-January.
You don’t even want to know how many emails we’ve exchanged since then, but I have a feeling that Cathy feels significantly older than she did when she started this process because these are some real live excerpts from my emails to her:
“I found this painting that I love. Can we make it look like this, but without the British flag?”
(It looks nothing like the painting in question. And that’s a good thing.)
“I think I want the letters to be a peacock blue, but not too bright. Like maybe a soft peacock blue?”
(Soft peacock blue? I hope she rolled her eyes when she read that.)
What’s the thing that shows up in your browser bar? You know? That thing that looks like something?
(The answer is a favicon. I’m going to have one.)
“I don’t know. I can’t decide. Will you decide for me? I have issues about making decisions.”
(Yes, will you please code and design everything and make all my decisions?)
Ultimately, Cathy used a graphic that I sent her way back in December and we worked together on all the other aspects until it was something that we both loved. She was so great about making suggestions that I wouldn’t have thought about or even known that I should think about, but added so much to the final design and feel. I wanted something that was simple and clean, but still pretty. I wanted something that felt like me. And this is it.
Seriously, I can’t thank Cathy enough for her endless patience and design sensibilities. She is a peach.
(However, peach wasn’t a color I wanted on my blog. Just some soft peacock blue.)
In other news, we received our new receiver from Dish Network yesterday and I had to spend an hour of my life that I’ll never get back trying to program the new receiver with our remote control. Then, to add insult to technological injury, I still had to call Dish Network customer service so they could verify our new receiver and help me figure out why the T.V. in our bedroom wasn’t working.
Honestly, they don’t make a bottle of Valium large enough to help me through that kind of situation. At one point the girl asked, “Can you find your RS0009 code?” and I said, “Is that even a real thing or are you just messing with me? And, while you have me on the phone, can I help you with any free tax advice?”
Fortunately we got it all working because I would have had to crack some skulls, or at least talked to someone in a not very nice voice, if the DVR wasn’t up and running in time for a T.V. lineup that I like to refer to as Majestic Monday.
And. lastly, look who still has all their teeth.
Her loose tooth is bothering her so much that she couldn’t even eat her broccoli last night. Although, miraculously, she managed to eat all the Doritos I sent in her lunch.
Note to self: Call and schedule a haircut appointment for your child.
Skip to Comment Form
It’s perfectly lovely! (I also went and read your about page. Is it new? Like it!)
Wow I love the new look!!! It’s so modern!
i love the new layout!!! and am glad you got a last pic before that toofer falls out- her smile is going to change. bittersweet!!!
-erika
theurthmama.com
This is so gorgeous! Love it! It’s unique and pretty.
Seriously loving the peacock blue. And now I want a cool thing that goes into the top of all my posts to make the first words prettier. But, quite frankly, I’m just not sure I’m cool enough to pull it off
Your new look is terrific! I just updated mine this week as well. Keep up the writing.
Love it!
Also have to share a completely unrelated story. On Sunday, we were in a very (VERY!) small airport in Vietnam, and I kept hearing some familiar music coming from the tiny waiting room TV. Couldn’t figure out at all where I knew the music from, but it was driving me crazy. Finally, I realized that it was the music from the Big Boo Cast! Thought you would be glad to know that you and Boo Mama share theme music with the Vietnamese headline news channel.
Have a great week!
Yes, i did click over from my feed reader
I LOVE the new design! i loved the flowers, too, but the new design is just fabulous!!!
Love it!!! Ooh, cute “Submit” button too.
Very pretty. Soft Peacock Blue is one of my favorite colors. Very nice!
I LOVE LOVE LOVE the new look….and we like to call that Carolina Blue instead of peacock blue….though we are having trouble holding our head high right now in terms of Carolina basketball…but that matters not to you.
And yeah for Dish network surviving your new box installation!
Happy Day!
paige
Love the new look! And I got a little morning ego-boost because I knew what a favicon was.
I love the new look! It’s very sweet and southern!
I like very much! It’s much easier to read actually since the contrast is against a white background. Pure simplicity. My 50+ year old eyes thank you.
Awww, even a cute “submit” button! Details count!!
Like the new look! My oldest had had a loose tooth for what seems like forever. Yesterday he was eating some V-day candy and I (not knowing he had the candy in his mouth) squeezed his cheeks like a grandma. He came running into the kitchen a few minutes later, tooth in hand, and said “Mama you’re magic!” Honestly I felt really bad, but he was fine with it. Not sugessting it, just sharing:o)
Beautiful new look, Melanie! Love it!!! And love the ongoing saga with Dish…we have DirecTV, but same type of scenario when we decided to move to HD over Christmas!!! Don’t even get me started on that…
Great new look!
I love your new look!! You and Cathy did good.
The new design looks wonderful!
It’s beautiful! I love it. It’s clean and fresh and peacock-y. Perfect.
Soooooo pretty! Love, love, love it!
I am a big fan of the new soft peacock blue : )
I LOVE your new blog look. Love it! Happy Tuesday…
You go with the soft peacock! Lookin’ good!
I love the new look Big Mama!
God bless graphic designers. I just went through the same thing at my blog, only during a week of intense PMS. Decisions can be the devil in times like that. Your blog looks soft, stylish, clean, and simple, but not so simple that it doesn’t make a big statement. Beautiful!
And its called a favicon? I just learned a new word today. Thanks.
)
(And I see that even your submit button has it–cool! It’s the little things…)
Loving this new look!
Pretty. I love paisley. A lot.
Love it! So pretty, simple and clean!
Inspires me to go do some scrapbooking!
I LOVE the New design. I actually jumped a little when I saw it
I also love the pretty submit button.
Nice. I love it.
Absolutely love the new look. I’m on the waiting list to have mine updated and I dread the whole conversation. Ha.
Have a great day. Caroline’s tooth is killing me. We have a very famous kindergarten teacher who is known for her teeth pulling. Let me hook y’all up!
Love, love, love the blog…and peacock blue is one of my favorite colors and I didn’t even know it!
Love it, it is so cheery, kind of how I remember the SUN looking when it was around!
You crack me up with Majestic Monday. Oh Ali, you have better guys ahead!
I stopped by yesterday an not everything was working with the new look so I didn’t get the full effect. Now that I’ve seen it in all it’s glory, I love it. So beautiful. Y’all did a great job.
Love the new design!
It’s lovely, but… I didn’t even realize I was reading (skimming) Big Mama until I got to the pic of Caroline at the end! I read (skim) most of the blogs I follow and yours is one of the few that I read (read), so then I had to go back and read (read) everything over again. I’m going to have to pay more attention from now on.
I love it!!!! The paisley-flower-thingamajig is so pretty, with lovely colors, and I love the white with grey. It looks modern and vintage and peaceful and timeless and trendy all at the same time!
LOVE the new look… I have anything to do with trying to contact a satellite server… which is why I have my husband do it.
I really like your new design!
Ashley, with CWDkids
http://www.kidbits.cwdkids.com
You thunder stealer, you.
My blog got a big makeover last night too, and I share your obsessive compulsive tendencies. I’m pretty sure I drove my designer nuts. I bet there are a lot of blog designers out there who have drinking or prescription drug problems due to dealing with people like us. 
I love your new look!!! It’s very clean a fresh. You did a great job, and I totally *get* the peacock blue.
Hope Miss C loses that tooth soon. Is she going to demand a large sum of money for the loss?
OH MY WORD….I love it. It may be my favorite blog design of ALL time. I love the blue, peacock or not….and that little graphic just makes my heart SING, I tell ya. I really, really, really like it bunches and bunches (convinced yet?)
Suzanne
Absolutely beautiful. Don’t you feel like a new woman now?
It looks real nice, Clark, real, real nice.
Seriously -it’s just darling.
Oh my gosh! It’s gorgeous!!!! But now I think we need to take up a collection for you to get an amazing camera so you can start to take some Pioneer Woman type photos! ; )
Love, love, love. In fact, I may be a bit envious. (And I love the detail on the submit button for comments!)
Fancy! I love it! And soft peacock blue is one of my favorite colors! (well, now it is!)
I love this design! very fresh.
Funny about that tooth with the broccoli. My son’s throat hurts too much to drink nice healing chicken soup, but not too much to eat Cheetos. CHEETOS.
Love the pic of your little muffin! My middle daughter (6) has all 4 front teeth gone and it is so funny looking.
The blog’s makeover looks fantastic!
Well *CHANGE* is very, very hard for me, but YES I love it too! YAY! It looks great. LOL at Caroline’s inability to eat her brocolli…she is so funny. Can’t wait to see pics of when it actually comes out~exciting times!
p.s. and now I have Madonna’s “Like a Virigin” song in my head….”All shiny and new…..” lol
Love the new blog look. Love the blog. You are my favorite daily read. (totally not a crazy person here, just love your writing and you make me laugh. a lot.
Wowzers! You’ve gone from “Big Mama” to “Very Hip Mama!”
It’s pretty, but seems kind of plain to me. Is there still other stuff to be done to it? I hope so.
Just sayin’.
I think the thing that really bothers me is the gigantic size of the ad space to the right.
The new look is spectacular! I love the dot on the “i” and how perfectly the color matches everything else. Because you know – life is all about dotting your i’s and crossing your t’s. Perfect new look!!
It’s very confusing when you ‘re used to seeing things the same – change is hard for those of us rapidly approaching forty!! : ) However, I do love the way your new site looks – cute design! You’re one of the few blogs I read regularly – so as long as you keep making us laugh we won’t mind the look changing!! ; )
I absolutely love the new look of the blog, my friend!!!
YAY! Now hopefully you can put the whole Dish Network mess behind you and move on with your life, ha!!
love. it.
Alas, I can never move again as setting up the four TVs in our new house with Dish Network recently took too much time off of my life. And added waaay too many gray hairs to the top of my head. A phone call to Dish makes me yearn for the days of my youth when we had only three channels and the remote was me.
Love the new look!
Crack some skulls… intentional Breakfast Club reference?
very cool … lovely and simple … can’t ask for more than that
GIRL. It’s FAB-U-LOUS! I especially love the “big” letter that starts off the post. It’s the little, er, big, er, yeah, little things.
Very pretty! What I like about it is it comes up right away.
I really like your new setup! One teeny tiny problem though…WHERE did your archives go??? I came across your blog a few weeks ago (through boomama) and was trying to catch up on all your older posts. Sorry, but it is a compulsion! I feel like I am missing out on something if I don’t go back and read every single blog entry! So, for the love of Pete, PLEASE bring them back! I was only getting to July 07! (Why, yes, I do have a TON of spare time to waste in front of the computer…infants are taking care of themselves these days, don’t ya know!) Ok, that is all.
Love the new look!!
Love the new look!
Lookin’ good, girl!
Love the new look. Peacock blue is perfect!!
I love it! It’s so chic.
Love it! When I decided to get a professional blog design, I remember telling her how I wanted it to look…and then realized I had no idea what I was talking about. Thank goodness for people that know better than we do.
Love it!!
looks great!
Very purty! Change is good, I will adapt
On a tooth note, you jinxed me from afar. After a WWE like tumble in the basement between my 2 boys (the 4yo put the SMACKDOWN on the 7yo) the oldest ended up with a loose front tooth. He pushed, pulled and played with the loose tooth until it was sticking STRAIGHT OUT OF HIS MOUTH and he was doing the best unintentional “Bubba” impression I’ve ever seen. Then I threw up in my mouth b/c I CANNOT handle wiggly teeth. I continued to gag ALL NIGHT until he came running down the stairs with tooth in hand screaming “I GOT IT!”.
Hurl. Thank goodness the tooth fairy had a couple bucks in his wallet, though I was told this morning “the tooth fairy must not have got a paycheck b/c there was only $2 under my pillow…the last time it was $5″. Yet another reason to set the bar LOW.
Good luck with that tooth, save the details okay..I don’t wanna throw up anymore.
Fabulous! Love, love, love it!
It’s completely beauti-mous!! Maybe your calling is really doing taxes! Nah! Have a great day, Melanie. We’ll get on the calendar soon. Cathy did a great job!!
Love, love, LOVE it!!!
-FringeGirl
I love the new look (especially the decorative “submit” button – nice!), but I’m not sure how you survived the change. I HATE change. I am finally recovering from my new flooring adventure.
And let me just say that the haircut thing is probably just because of all of the focus on the changes you were making in other aspects of your life. I think I actually looked at my boys for the first time since I started the remodel, and I no longer know the color of their eyes. I can’t see them through the hair. It might explain why Jared was 2 for 20 in his shots in his basketball game on Saturday. The poor kid couldn’t see the basket. So can you schedule an appt for them too?
Absolutely love the new look! Very Spring-y!
One of the most interesting and different blog designs I’ve seen! Fantabulous!
Ok, I usually do read through Google Reader, but I had to click over to see the changes. Just lovely! Ya’ll did a great job! Congrats!
I, too, LOVE it!!!!! And the new About ME section is awesome!!!
I love it more than I can say. And at the risk of repeating myself that we’re kindred spirits, the color scheme reminds me of (ahem) my own blog. Although my blue is more of a semi-soft peacock.
Oh! And a friend let me borrow Committed. Did you get it yet?
Love the new look!!!!
And I like the cute little picture in the browser bar! (who knew it had a name?!) oh and look! even the submit button is cute! its all about the details!
I like it but change is always hard – so I’ll have to give it some time to grow on me:) Seriously though, it’s very pretty and my hats off to all you computer types – I can barely type an email!
Love your new look. Don’t just love a a make-over?
I love it! I totally feel the “soft peacock blue”. Very good choice!
I DO love it – nice and fresh – looks a bit springy which we all could use.
It is so unique and really, really pretty. I quite enjoy the new look.
I love the new look, it is pretty and artsy. The part about the RS0009 code- so funny! I almost spit my coke out on the screen. Good thing you have the receiver working b/c it’s time to tape ice skating and rewind all the falls…Oh, that was a terrible thing to say wasn’t it?!
Love the new look! Yaye!
So very hip! Love it!
I think it’s more of a bright peacock blue, but what do I know? Either way, it’s GORGEOUS. Welcome to your new home.
Love the new design. Not sure about all the content on the Left. Might have liked it better w/the ads on either side.
I need you to ask Fran to show you a pic of her when she was little. Because she and Caroline = twins.
So if you wanna know what C will look like when she grows up, look at Fran. Or imagine P in women’s clothing.
…I’d stick with Fran.
Oh I love it! I love the paisley design & the colors! Very fun!
Oooh, I love the new look! And I also think I love soft peacock blue…
I love the new theme! It looks great!
I had to get my Directv receiver replaced, too, and they made me do all of this stupid stuff like changing the outlet it was plugged into even after I told the lady 2574658 times that that wouldn’t because my receiver wouldn’t even turn on.
Anyhow. When I finally got the new receiver the next day (they overnighted it, bless their souls), I, too, had to call and spend at least half an hour getting the receiver activated. I think it would’ve been easier and more cost effective all around it they had just sent a technician to do what took me more than an hour total. Gah.
Yes! I love the new look! There’s just nothing like some paisley to make your heart happy.
LOVE the new look! The soft peacock blue is perfect!
I am loving the new site. Beautiful! I want to know how to get a picture on my comments.
I LOVE your new page!! It is beautiful!!!
I do like it! It’ll take a while to really get used to it, but I like it
I love the new look–beautiful!
I’m SO COMPLETELY with you on the calling-of-tech-support. I literally get nauseaus when that has to happen, be it me or my husband, because he IMMEDiATELY grows horns and fangs with the person on the other end and usually ends up asking them to get him a person who speaks english plain enough for him (DEEPLY SOUTHERN) to understand. Last week, after being on the phone for a full hour and going through 3 different people who couldn’t fix the computer problem, I heard him say “Are you familiar with the word incompetent”? I went to the grocery store.
I do love the new look!
Love the new design!
I love it! It looks really nice!
I love your look! ! ! In fact when I opened it I gasped with a smile so it was a good gasp! ! ! And I thought of how much fun you must have had designing it so thank you for setting me straight!
The new look is gorgeous! Will it still change colors with the seasons? I really enjoyed that about your last design.
Just gorgeous! I love it!
Peacock blue is so chic!
This looks fabulous!!
love love LOVE the new look!!
I told you yesterday that I LOVED your new design. Absolutely love it! And the new theme, too. =)
You had me rolling about the whole “crack some skulls” comment. That’s why I love you Big Mama!
Love the new look! And, yes, I clicked over special to see it because I usually just read you in my feed reader. (It’s hard to believe that a sentence like that would have made no sense at all about 15 years ago!)
About a month ago, we had to get a new receiver from Dish. The lady on the phone said, “Oh, we’ll just send it out and you can hook it up yourselves! It’ll only take 30 minutes to an hour!”
I’m thinking, “Ummmm…yeah, right!” so I told her that I would rather it take up someone ELSE’S 30 minutes to an hour so could they please schedule a technician to come and do it for us? They did, and it took HIM about 2 hours! Plus, there was an issue that we NEVER would have figured out.
FYI, you get 1 free technician visit every year.
Love the new look! The peacock blue is gorgeous with the red….and so is the girl with all her teeth!:)
Love the new look!
I love the new look too!
It is oh-so-chic! I love it.
::Taylor
Really, really love the peacock blue paisley arty thing at the top!!
it looks great! i do read in a feedreader, but this was worth the 1.5 minutes it took to click over and read and comment. the new design is so pretty!
I love the new look too! We make a good team!
Fresh … springlike and easy on the eyes. Love it!
Cute new design! I have GOT to hire someone to do my blog. It’s just so sad right now:(
Love the new look! Especially the soft peacock blue.
I LOVE the new design! The paisley!! The peacock blue !! (It also looks like turquoise, which is a good thing – did you know turquoise is the color of the year? I didn’t even know there was a color of the year until this year!)
I love it! Great colors. The only thing I don’t like is the advertisments take up half of the screen. I was used to having your writing centered. The advertisments are a big distraction now. I will still read daily-Maybe my eyes will soon adjust.
You crack me up!
Yesterday I had to call our Dish people for a problem and while we were waiting for her computer to load, or whatever, she started asking me about the weather and then started talking about how much trouble she had driving this morning. I thought of you and started laughing. Then I asked her if there was a guy who worked there that still needed some tax questions answered. She didn’t get it. Apparently she doesn’t read your blog.
Just found this site and glad I did! I love the design too.
I love the new look, too. And yes! to your Majestic Monday description of TV. I’m not sure what to think of Chuck and Sarah going in other directions romantically. And I may be wrong about this, but the very last part alluding to Shaw….is he not such a good guy????
I love the new look!!
I clicked out of Google Reader to see the new look and it was totally worth it! So pretty.
The new design ROCKS! I love your blog:) Very much! And I’m not just talking about the design/color schemes!
Many times when I’m reading your words, I feel just like I’m “Gulley”–sitting there having a conversation with you. You “speak” to your readers—and that’s a great thing! I mean–here I am a 29 year old gal who lives in the north and doesn’t have any kids—but I read your blog religiously! I love it!!!! Keep writing 
Love it!!
Beautiful. But, these kinda old eyes could use just a smidge darker font.
Beautiful!!
Yes, I do. I love it.. You’ve managed to combine clean, crisp and modern with warm and welcoming. Great job and congrats to all. Keep up the good words.
Love the new design, particularly the colors.
Love it! And so relieved! I stopped by earlier today and you had vanished. Again. I flashed back to that horrible time a few weeks ago when you had all those technical flux capacitor problems and I just panicked. I almost emailed Boo Mama but managed to regain control before hitting “send.” I promise, I do have friends in the real world and I’m not as pathetic as I must read (I hope) but I am seriously glad you’re not vanished.
Really love the new design!!
LOVE the new blog-doo!
Melanie, Love the new look! I had fun meeting you in Houston at the Siesta SMT celebration. You make me laugh out loud and brighten my day.
Love. It!
I love the new digs. Very pretty. Very classy. That tooth may be the death of you. I left you a little something on my blog. Love your blog.
I love the new blog design, it is absolutely beautiful. I have to work in somewhere the paisley, trumpet flower look! It is delectable. I also love the soft peacock blue. Good choices!
Tammy
I like it better than the previous. Simple and clean. Keep up the great work!
I do, I do, I do LOVE your new blog’s look! Noticed it yesterday but didn’t have time to leave a comment. It suits you I think!
Congratulations on gettin’ it done!
Marilyn….in Mississippi
OH, I LOVE the new design!! So pretty! The colors are so soothing.
I love the new look!!! It is so hip!
Love the new look – very hip and modern and so lovely. Just don’t change the writing – you are great and I enjoy laughing with you every morning! By the way – I believe cable/Dish customer service calls are only exceeded in painfullness by the airlines on a day when they’ve cancelled 2 flights for your boss, and He is driving you crazy with cancellation emails while you are on hold for 47 minutes at a time…oh wait, I digress. Anyway – DON’T love CSR calls.
Have a nice day!
Ooh, I love it! Thank God for working TV. Guess whose Bachelor recording was ruined for the 3rd week in a row. I’m trying not to be bitter.
Congratulations! Do you have a search bar that works for just your site? So I can search for that pork recipe you put up once that makes me salivate to think of it?
I LOVE Cathy – she has the patience of a SAINT! – she created my online jewelery store for me back in November.
It all looks wonderful. Now I need to decide about taking the plunge to the “dark side” of wordpress from blogger.
I’ve been forced *against my will* to read your newly redone, lovely, soft peacock blue blog through Google reader(having just gone through your own technological nightmare I think I have your sympathy)so I was more then willing to take the extra effort to click over now that we’re back on our figurative internet feet.
That’s just a very long way of saying that I love your new look. The colors and the flowery design are fabulous…just like you!!
?
That was supposed to be a heart, not a question mark. It might look like it,but in no way is it questioning the above sentence!
It’s very schnazzy!
So pretty! Love the new look!
It is a pretty look, but until the next time you mention your blog’s look, I’ll probably just keeping reading your posts in my Google reader.
I love the paisley and the soft peacock blue. It’s just oh-so-pretty. Might I lodge a small complaint, though? No one else mentioned this so maybe I’m just technically challanged. But when I bring up your blog only one post shows at a time. I have to click “previous entries” to take me to one past entry and then I have to keep clicking to read anything else further back. I’d rather just read several of your most recent blogs (like your previous design) before I have to click on that pesky “previous” button. Anyway, maybe I’m the only one in the whole world that doesn’t like only one blog per page.
Love it love it love it! Cathy IS amazing. She has saved my hide 100 times over.
The phrase “So fresh and so clean clean” comes to mind. I LOVE IT. I’ve wanted a redesign for a long time but like you I am bad bad bad at deciding that I just haven’t sought out help.
(And the fancy Submit button is a nice touch too!)
I do love the new look, but not a fan of the one post per page.
I love the new look! Very crisp & clean, but with such flair! The colors are perfect!
Yes! I love the new look—especially the blue. It’s the perfect shade of soft peacock.
(and yes, I know I’m way behind in commenting here, but I’ve been reduced to weekend catch ups only, and now I’m finally getting to the ‘B’s in my reader list. And I know that you don’t know me from Eve, so you most likely could care less about all of this, but I love to read your blog and I’ve missed your hijinks. I hope to meet you and BooMama one day. I love both of y’all’s blogs. Y’all are my heros. My blog heros. Or my ‘bleros’, if you will. And now I’ve said too much.)
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