The summer holidays are over. It’s all change for us here as my little boy joins Year One and my baby girl has started morning nursery. It’s been wonderful to enjoy a relaxing summer – it will certainly be one to remember. We loved the London 2012 Olympics and were lucky enough to go along to a couple of events. We also enjoyed some wonderful food (there is lots for me to write about) and the great outdoors in Wales and have had plenty of fun out and about as well as in the garden back home. There have been lots of changes on the blogging front too!
Blog Re-Design
Although I have spent much less time blogging and writing than usual, there has been lots of behind-the-scenes tinkering going on with my blog. Jo at Magenta Sky Solutions is so clever and has been so incredibly patient. The aim was to make some changes to the style of Fabulicious Food! to make the site much easier to navigate and to bring as much content as possible up to the front page. Jo described it as ‘Data Management’ – it ended up being pretty much a complete overhaul with a new magazine theme, new feature sections, better category navigation and a new header designed by Sharnee. I loved the style and colours of my old blog, so didn’t want anything too drastic and I was very lucky that we were able to keep much of the character, but perhaps with a little lift here and there!
I am so pleased with the final outcome and I hope that the new design will help all my readers find lots of the useful posts that all are on here, but that sometimes get hidden away.
Blog Event Housekeeping
I also hosted two blog events over the summer –
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Simple and in Season August – round up to follow
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Sporting Snacks – round up and winner announcement to follow
Thank you to everyone who took part. Both events were incredibly popular and gave us all plenty of inspiration as to what to eat while watching our Summer of Sport or what to do with our seasonal produce.
Simple and in Season September
This month, I’m very pleased to share that Katie Bryson over at Feeding Boys and a Firefighter is our host for Simple and in Season September. Please do pop over to her lovely site (also designed by Jo at Magenta Sky!) – have a read and take part by creating something simple with any of the produce available to you in September.
In the meantime, I’d better get cracking with the round-ups from August…whilst wishing that we were still away on the beach.
How were your summer holidays? Are you pleased or sad that they are over?
Laura@howtocookgoodfood says
I am so impressed by the re-design of your blog. You are so good at providing a visually beautiful blog but it also happens to be easy and inviting to your visitors like me!
The summer has flown by and this has been far more easy to manage now the children are a bit older. My youngest has just started reception this week so I am enjoying the next couple of weeks before he goes full time :)x
Kathryn says
Love the new design, it feels so fresh!
Mel (Sharky Oven Gloves) says
Love the blog mini re-design – the header looks fantastic, but I’m so glad you kept the same overall style and “feel” for your blog as I really like it and think it works really well 🙂
Susan says
Blog looks amazing…but it always does :-))
Ren says
Thank you Susan, that’s very kind too. x
Sally - My Custard Pie says
Love the new look and header Ren – really fabulicious.
Ren says
Thank you Sally, thanks for stopping by! x
Kavey says
Think the layout / navigation looks great! New header pretty but I confess, I loved the old one much more! Sorry! 🙂
For me though, content is key, and that’s what keeps me coming back to FF. x
Ren says
Thanks Kavey. It’s always hard trying to get your ideas across when someone else is doing the designing. I tired to keep to the old style as much as possible and in the end it was a good lesson for me in making sure I have a firm idea before making big changes! Glad you like the rest of it :-))
Homemade by Fleur says
Loving the new look on the site Ren. It’s nice to start a new season with a fresh new look. Logo is great too. Looking forward to reading all that autumn has to bring on your blog. X
Ren says
Thank you Fleur. Yes, ot does feel like a new start. Re-evaluating lots of things, too and feeling fresh and ready to take on the world!
workinglondonmummy says
so many lovely foods for Autumn I should be able to find something xx
Ren says
Thanks Nazima! Yes, looking forward to using figs for the One Ingredient challenge, in fact, making a fig and feta pizza right now!