My New Look is Here!

I was planning on waiting till the end of next week do change everything, but I was too excited and couldn't wait!  Welcome to my new design! While overall the layout and color scheme is the same, the header and all of the graphic elements are new. I spent the last two weeks slaving on my laptop in Photoshop and Fireworks to design everything and I am really happy with the result.

In other big news, you will see that the name of the blog is different as well. While Green Mama's Pad will always hold a special place in my heart, I wanted to expand to a blog name which encompasses everything about me and not just my green side. So I thought what would be a better way to do that than using my name and only my name? Marianna.

I'm like Madonna now.

Well, except for all that money and stuff.

You can still find me at www.greenmamaspad.com, that will never change. I did want to buy Marianna.com to redirect to here but someone is sitting on it and asking $12,000 for it. Yeah, I don't think so.  I mean I like my name and all, but it certainly isn't worth that much.

I would love to hear what you think about the new look and name. Does it suite me better?

Thinking of Getting a Facelift

For my blog, not my actual face. Overall I am happy with the look of my blog. I love the lily pad and I love the colors. However, I have had this same design and layout since the Spring of 2009. So after more than two years of looking at the same thing every day, I sometimes daydream of getting a new fresh look. There are some pretty amazing blog designers out there and it would be awesome to work with someone on a redesign.

In theory I could do it myself. I mean, I did go to school for graphic design and web design. And I have all of the design software I would need to create all the new graphics. However there is one thing I am seriously lacking in and that is time. With four young children to care for, a husband, a household to maintain and of course a blog to run I just cannot squeeze in time to completely redesign my blog. Plus I have been out of school and the workforce for some time now and my knowledge is outdated. CSS? I don’t think so. Those three letters scare me.

So instead I just sit and think about a blog redesign that I will have done some day. I need to start writing down different ideas that I like so that once I can save up for it, I have a good starting point. I also think about changing my blog name from time to time, but that is a different post for a different day.

If I were to redesign my blog, what would you like to see here? Any suggestions for me?

Do You Need a Blog Makeover?

Have you been longing for a blog makeover? Sara Bonds at Subjective Beauty does wonderful work at a very affordable price. Her Blog Design package has a ton of features included and only costs $60! What is also great about Sara is she does a lot of giveaways too. Right now you can enter to win a blog design from Subjective Beauty over at Mama Makes Money and My Kids Might Be Martians. hopefully you will win, but if you don't, all entrants can purchases a blog design at half price for only $30. What a deal. So go check out Sara's portfolio and enter the contests.