Welcome to the New Eating Bender

I feel like I just chopped off about 10 inches of hair, and am dying to hear what you think. 🙂

Last night I announced via Facebook and Twitter that a change was coming. Oh, what a change it is!

If you are viewing this in Google Reader, email or anything besides EatingBender.com right now, please, click on over! Welcome to the brand new site!

Quite the change from the red, huh?

Although I absolutely adore my old header and site design – I’ve had it for more than three years – I couldn’t shake the idea that I wanted something different for 2012. I’ve got a lot of big goals for this year, not the least of which is to really focus on honing my writing and finishing my first novel.

I wanted my blog to reflect this new direction in my life and I also wanted to FINALLY (yes, that deserves all CAPS) move my blog to self-hosting. After four years of keeping my fingers crossed that WordPress.com would not suddenly crash and lose everything I’ve ever written, I wanted the security of back-up files and peace of mind.

Enter Savvy Julie.

Honestly, her nickname could not be more appropriate. Julie is someone I have gotten to know through the blogiverse and was even able to meet back when she lived in Madison. I had known for a while that she had begun implementing Savvy Blog Services, so when the time came to take the leap I sent her an email, and we were off to the races.

I worked with her on both “making the switch” and “blog design,” and could not be more pleased with either. She sent me an incredibly detailed email full of questions I never would have thought of, in order to make sure all our bases were covered and that I was happy with the final result. Thank you, Julie, for handling my stream of consciousness emails with understanding and patience.

I can’t recommend her work enough.

Additionally, I’d like to give a big thank you to Natalie from Moxie Tonic, who provided the lovely social media buttons near the top right corner of my page. Even though she just had a baby (congrats again, he is so handsome), Natalie responded quickly and got everything to me in a very timely manner. Not to mention her blog buttons are just fantastic!

I’m still getting used to all the new widgets and fun things to do. It’s an exciting time, but there are a few things that I need to make sure and let you know about. Here’s the biggest one:

**Wordpress.com users: I love all of my subscribers, but unfortunately WordPress.com does not make the transition to WordPress.org easy for us. If you are currently “following” my blog on WordPress.com or are subscribed to receive email updates on there, please resubscribe via the form to the right of this post once more to be resubscribed. I’m truly sorry for the inconvenience.**

RSS should have transferred smoothly, but if you’re not seeing my posts in Google Reader anymore, you can also resubscribe here. If you could please let me know of any issues you’re having, I would really appreciate it!

I’ve got a new recipe post coming your way soon. Until then…

Let me know what you think of the new site! 🙂

It’s a big change, but I think the new look represents “me.” And isn’t that what a blog is all about?

Abrazos,

 

33 Comments

  1. Jenn,

    OMG! I totally LOVE the new look. The blue and peach go really well together and the new header explains exactly what Eating Bender is all about. I also love the new social media buttons. I didn’t even know instagrid existed. I’ll have to check that out.

    Happy Friday lady!

    • Ahhhhh I’m so glad you like it, Britt! You definitely need to check out Instagrid. It allows people to subscribe even if they don’t have the app themselves. Super cool! Happy Friday to you, too!

    • Woohoo! I’m so glad you like it, lady! I can’t stop using exclamation points when I talk about it!

  2. Looks awesome Jenn! I’m so happy and excited for you and your new adventures 🙂 And I will be one of the first in line to read your novel!!

    • Thank you, Monica! It honestly means the world to me to hear you say that about my novel-to-be, too. My fingers are crossed. 🙂

  3. Absolutely love the new design! It’s beautiful and looks a bit more up-to-date for 2012! Congrats – and hope all is well! We need to make a date for coffee or a meal sometime soon!

    • Thank you so much, Jenn! I hope all is well with you, too. I’d love to schedule a time to meet sometime in the next couple of months. Let me know what days are best for you!

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