Hey, everybody. If you’re here right now, you’ve probably noticed that things look a little different than they used to! I am SO excited to unveil my new design. The header artwork was done by Tabitha over at Not Yet Read. She has a feature on her blog called Art it Up, and I have long been drooling over her adorable designs. When I got the idea of redesigning the site, she was the first person I thought of!!
If you’ve never checked out Tabitha’s artwork, go do it now! You should follow her on Instagram and then you won’t miss out on any of her new work. She also sells some of her artwork on Etsy (she’s planning on putting even more up there after her next craft fair), so go and follow her shop!
Some fun facts about my new design:
- Hopefully you noticed that the FYFA fox girl has been eating her books. She’s feeding her fiction addiction, of course!
- You’ll also notice the little birdie up in the tree – I couldn’t give up birds completely!!
- This is actually the second design concept that Tabitha came up with. I loved the first one as well, but Tabitha wanted to surprise me with one that she thought was even better. And, of course, I adored it.
- But I couldn’t give up on the original little fox girl, and my son had the brilliant idea of using that picture on my other site (which isn’t updated very often unfortunately, but it’s still there) – Best Kids’ Reads.
- Head over to Best Kids’ Reads and you can see that original concept, but the design is still REALLY wonky right now. I don’t have the header ratios right yet and I it’s WAY too busy now, but I didn’t have time to fix it yet. It’s coming …
- I kind of love that the two sites are similar, but not the same – it almost looks like the Best Kids’ Reads one could be fox girl when she was younger (or maybe her daughter!).
- I created the header itself from the actual watercolor pictures that Tabitha sent to me – which is why the picture looks so beautifully watercolory (I know that’s not a word, but …).
- Luckily, I still have some Photoshop skills from back when I used to do digital scrapbooking, so I was able to make some tweaks to digitize it and create the header itself. I love how it turned out!
- Unfortunately, my Photoshop skills are a bit rusty, so it pretty much took me all day yesterday to do it. Oh well – it was worth it!!
- Due to my subpar computer skills, it took me FOREVER to figure out how to change the background paper (the old one just didn’t match anymore). Actually, I never did figure it out – I had to get Ashley from Nose Graze to help me, even though it was SO simple. Sigh. Good thing I use her for my hosting!!
- Let me know what you think of the cream background. I like it but I’m still not COMPLETELY sold. Should I make it even a little paler? I already lightened it a bit from the original. Or should I go with something completely different?
- You’ll probably be seeing the FYFA fox girl around in some other graphics as well – we shall see!!
That’s about it. Make sure you grab my new button from the bottom of my page!
So, how do you like the new design? Are you still missing my birdie? (It’s okay if you are – I understand. I was attached to her too!) Any advice on anything else I should change to go with the new design? I want to know!
I love your new look, very nice! She did a wonderful job!
Thanks so much!! I really love it and I’m so glad that Tabitha was able to do it for me!
Aw, I love the new header. How adorable – and it’s so cute that the fox girl is eating her books. 🙂
I think the back color looks fine!
I’m so glad you love her. I am thrilled with how it all turned out!
Very, very cute! How nice to have a fresh look. I like how the circles in the background “wallpaper” echo the sun in the painting, but I wonder if it should be toned a bit warmer (very, very pale peach perhaps) rather than beige. Just a thought — I think it looks great!
Ah, that’s a good idea – maybe that’s what it needs! I felt like it needed something, but I’m so horrible at knowing what. I made it paler to try and match the girl’s skin tone, but I think you’re right that a little tint of pale peach might do the trick! I’ll have to try it this evening when I’m home.
You can see that though the outside rim of the sun is yellow, the inside is sort of peach colored. I think that color would also go well with the green background.
Thanks!! I made it a little peachier. I’m wondering if I should make the green a bit paler too. Still thinking about it… 🙂
Oh I love the new header and button!!! So cute and glad there is still a bird in there!!
Thanks, Grace! I’m really excited about it. And I had to keep the bird!! 🙂
Congrats on your new design. I liked your old one, but this one is more clean less busy… This is very different from your other one!
I liked the old one too, but I feel like this one is more me. I still wanted something distinctive and different, and I love what Tabitha did. Thanks so much!
I was a big fan of your old design but I LOVE the new one too! I love the fox girl in the header. So cute! Congrats!
Thank you!! It’s a big change, but I love it!
I’m so glad that you love it and that it worked out so well. Thanks for the awesome shout out!
You’re welcome! You know I’m a huge fan!!!
Cute! Awesome job, Tabitha!
She did such an amazing job – I love it!!
That new header is gorgeous! I don’t think the cream background needs to be paler – it works with the green and the blue of the header. Well done!
Thanks so much, Cilla. Lory gave me the good idea to make the background a little warmer, and I think that helped a lot. 🙂
I love your new header! Looks great!
Thanks, Cynthia!! I’m really excited about it!
I love the header! The colours all look great and I especially like that the girl is a fox 🙂
Zareena @ The Slanted Bookshelf
Thanks – I love that she’s a fox too. Tabitha does a lot of art in this style – with girls in animal costumes – and I love them all!
I love the new header! I think it’s pretty perfect. 🙂 And you know I love foxes, so that makes it a double win for me too. I do like the fact that the two websites you have match each other. It’s a nice nod to the dual nature of your blogging world.
How can you go wrong with foxes, right? 🙂
Fox girl! Such a cute redesign:)
Thanks, Julie – I love her!
I KNEW I recognized Tabitha’s style there^^ I ADORE her work so clearly, I am LOVING this new design!! Good work on turning her art into a banner – everything looks wonderful 🙂
She has a distinctive style, right? I have always adored her work, so I was really excited when she said she’d be willing to do a picture for my header!
Cute…to be so talented. Nice work.
Thanks! I agree that Tabitha is VERY talented!
OOoh very nice! I like it!
Thanks, Jessica!!
Very exciting! It’s fun to change things up and go for a new look!
I agree – this change has been a long time coming.
Your old header was my favorite of all the blogs I read, but this one is adorable as well.
Thanks, Wendy. I DID have a hard time giving up my old header, but I think it was time. Now that I have my little fox girl up, I think it was the right decision!
I like your new design! I did LOVED the bird, so yea, I will miss it. I like that you still incorporated it in the new design. I love the fox eating her books, although it is more obvious on your other site. So now when I think of FYFA, I will picture foxgirl. That’s fitting.
I do agree that the girl eating the books was more obvious in the other picture – I actually had a really hard time choosing which to use because of that. But I loved this fox girl so much that I decided to go with this one.
I love it!! Omg, the little fox girl is so cute! And very clever to have bite marks in the books. <3 <3
Thanks, Danielle! I knew I wanted a girl eating books and I knew I wanted to incorporate a bird to match my old site – I was so happy with the way Tabitha made my vision come to life!
I’m loving the new design! It’s so cute!
Thanks so much, Laura!!
I absolutely love it! The header picture is beyond adorable and I love the way your name stands out too!
Thanks, Jen! This header was a long time coming and we had some snags along the way, but it was all DEFINITELY worth it!
Awww, I love it!!! It’s so adorable!! I love Tabitha’s work – she’s so talented!! 🙂
We just got a new look too. Must be something in the air. 😉
LOVE everything that Tabitha does, so I’m not surprised that I love this too!! 🙂
Girl… I love it! The blog looks awesome. You did such a great job with the header!!
Thanks so much! Most of the credit, of course, goes to Tabitha. But I had fun making it all work together!
aww so super cute! I recently love changing my layouts, mixing it up, gives readers something more appealing to stare at ha!
Beautiful artwork. Ashley is amazing.
Thanks, Lily! Tabitha is an amazing artist, and I’m so lucky I got to work with her!
I love the new artwork! It is fantastic! I think the green should be a tad lighter, but I think it looks so great!
Thanks so much!! I’m still thinking about lightening the green. Right now I’m leaving it because a couple people said it helped them recognize that the site’s mine, but I think in a month or so, I’ll try out a lighter shade.
I love it!! Now, I don’t know which changes you have made since I missed this post somehow. I don’t even understand, I am subscribed to your emails! But I am also woefully behind on those so… yeah 😉 Anyway, I like it so much! Yes, I loved the bird, but change can be good, and I think this fits your name so well, and I LOVE the fox girl. LOVE. And the one on BKR is so perfect too! These are really great, I am so happy for you!
I have that problem every once in awhile too where I KNOW that I should have seen certain posts but somehow I’ve missed them. I think our brains can only take in so much and then they just sputter out on us! 🙂
I love the new header! Tabs did an amazing job as usual!
Yes!! She’s so fantastic – I’m incredibly happy that she agreed to work with me!!
I love your new logo. 🙂
Terri M., the Director
Second Run Reviews
Thanks so much, Terri!!
Your new design is adorable and I love that it matches your other blog! At first glance I didn’t actually notice that fox girl has been chewing on her books, but it such a cool detail! Your old design was also pretty, but this one definitely suits your blog better. And I love it!!
Yes, the original picture made it a little more obvious that the girl was eating her books, which made it harder for me to decide which one to use for this blog, but I eventually decided to go with Tabitha’s instincts, since it’s her artwork! 🙂
Hope NaNoWriMo is going well for you, by the way!
I think this one definitely is a good choice! The design over at Best Kid’s reads is really cute, but the design here fits the maturity of your blog better! I am still drooling over the watercolors…
Thanks! NaNoWriMo is going pretty well, but also doesn’t leave me much time to catch up on blogging and reading other peoples’ posts! But I’m almost there… 🙂
Yeah, I definitely agree! That was the other reason I stuck with this one. The other one works really well on Best Kids’ Reads! Good luck with the rest of NaNo!