Happy Friday! As many of you know, Friday is my day to fluff the nest and here on my blog, I share the ways I’m doing that around my house. Today, however, we’re going to cover a little housekeeping for my “virtual nest”–my little blog!
I’ve absolutely loved blogging! I started my first blog, “Happy is the House”, in 2015 and was hooked from the very first week of posting. That blog ran through 2018, and for a couple of reasons I closed it and started “The Work of Her Hands” at the beginning of 2019. After almost 5 years with this blog, it became time for some updating. But I needed some help! I’m not naturally techy but I’ve really stretched and pushed myself over the years to learn the technical side of blogging so I can enjoy the creative side of blogging. And I’ve kind of surprised myself, ha!
But I was at my limit with what I could do so for this makeover it was time to get some professional help! My daughter’s friend (who is my friend’s daughter—you got that?) is a talented social media manager and said she’d be glad to help me. I could not have done it without Madelyn from Madelyn Victoria Co. taking care of the deeper technical issues involved with a new theme and template, a new logo, new features, and a new name.
Yes, a new name! Same blog, but slightly new name. I really liked my old blog name but there were several very close versions of it on the internet and Instagram so in order to eliminate confusion for anyone trying to find me, it was necessary to change the name. So now I’m “The Ways of Her Home”!
Ok, so what else is new?
A Recipe Index– In my top menu you’ll find a recipe index with all my recipes divided into categories. Just click on the post!
Printable Recipes! I’m probably most excited about this one! My recipes will be in a format that you can just click and print on your home printer. I don’t know that I’ll ever get all of my old recipes in this format but definitely all of me new ones will be printable.
Instagram- We decided I needed to make an Instagram account just for my blog which you can follow from here by scrolling down to the bottom of this page and clicking “follow on Instagram”. There you can see more of my everyday photos and updates. I’d love to have you join me there!
Pinterest- Ok, bear with me on this one, friends! Ha! I’ve enjoyed ideas from Pinterest for years but never really established my own account and board, so there isn’t much there yet but it’s in the works. Madelyn encouraged me to set up an account for my blog and then gave me a detailed “Pinterest lesson”, walking me through every aspect of keeping an active account. I know I’ll have a lot of fun with this!
Search bar– My previous blog format was pretty basic, so I didn’t even have a search bar. I know for me personally, I like to use other bloggers’ search bars to find particular topic, which is so helpful to me as the reader, so I’m happy to finally have this to offer my readers.
Popular Posts– Since I began blogging it’s been really interesting to see which posts get the most views or even just comments in conversation with local friends and family. Maybe you’ll find something there that is of interest to you!
So, what’s NOT new? A few things haven’t changed.
Content- My focus is still very much the same as it always has been: all things HOME!
Comments- I LOVE to hear from you! It’s not that I’m fishing for compliments at all, but I enjoy meeting and talking with women and it’s just fun to get a conversation going. Your comments do wait in a pending file for approval and the only reason I have to do that is that I have an adopted child, and, in the past, there have been some comments that accidentally included his personal information. Moderating the comments allows me to catch anything I need to remove before posting. Also, I like to be a responder in all areas of my life so here on the blog I want to always let you know that I read and appreciate your comments. Having a comment waiting in moderation actually helps me respond pretty quickly because when I approve your comment, I might as well go ahead and respond back to it with my comment at the same time! I can usually approve it and respond within a couple of hours, if I’m where I can stop for a minute.
About Page- Ok, this one is actually pretty much unchanged, but I have updated it a smidge so click on the drop down to read “About Me” and “Her Hands, Her Home” which further explain my mission here.
Have I left anything out? If you have any questions about anything I didn’t mention, please feel free to ask! And thank you SO MUCH for reading! It really means so much that you would take time from your day to visit with me here. I pray this little spot will be an encouragement to you!
Have a great weekend!
I love your new blog home! Your blog is always encouraging to me. I look forward to future posts. Madelyn is so talented and did a great job.
HI, Cindy! You are always so sweet to me! Thank you for reading and commenting. And, oh my, yes! Madelyn is so talented and helped me so much switching my blog over. She definitely goes above and beyond!
Thanks for the shoutout! I loved getting to work with you and am so very excited for all your upcoming posts!!
You’re so welcome, Madelyn!🥰 I couldn’t have done it without your help and expertise. Thank you so much for the hours you put into it and for dealing with all the different people on the phone!🤪