New Site Design + Why I Decided To Rebrand

Hey, have ya noticed? It looks a little different over here than it did a week ago!

I have been wanting to make some changes to my site for a while now, but I was having a hard time pulling the trigger. Blogging has always been a “just a hobby” and something that I do for fun. It started out as an online journal and a way to share party photos on Pinterest. But as time went on and I realized how difficult parenting can be and how much mom shaming there is out there, I wanted it to also be a place of encouragement, bits of parenting advice, and a place where I can share my faith.

What does this have to do with a new site design and re-branding? Sharing my experiences and things that I enjoy through blogging is something I thoroughly enjoy doing. But when it came to growing, I felt like I was treading water. Did I want to give it up all together or did I want to put the effort in and try to grow, so that hopefully I can reach new people? With the help of some new blogging friends, I decided on the latter. And with that, I bit the bullet, hired a highly recommended web designer, and got the ball rolling.

Why the name change?

Several reasons, actually. I first named my blog “Faith, Trust & Pixie Dust” because I wanted something that sounded whimsical with a touch of Disney. Of course at that time, I wasn’t planning on buying a domain or growing my blog. I was simply using it as a journal. So I didn’t do my research as to what domains would be available if I ever did want to buy one. The fact that there wasn’t even a blogspot.com name available at the time should have been a sign to change my name. #smh

Fast forward a couple years. The name just didn’t seem to fit anymore. It seemed juvenile to me. I didn’t want people to automatically think I was associated with Disney. There were zero domains that made sense. And I felt like brands were going to take me seriously I needed a name that didn’t sound so childish and girly.

So, how did I choose Poppy + Grace?

I hemmed and hawed over the name for a good long while. In my head I pictured something feminine, sophisticated, and southern. I pictured the site as having some sort of florals. I love the word “grace.” It’s a word that just speaks to me. When I read about it in the Bible, the concept seems to prick my heart in ways that are hard to put into words. I found myself adding “grace” into every name I thought of. But I could never land on the right one. I’d think of something and say it over and over and over in my head and it just didn’t feel right. (This was seriously harder than picking out baby names.)

One day the word Poppy popped into my head. Where did it come from? Honestly, I don’t know for certain, but it was probably my 2 year old talking about Poppy from Trolls. But whatever it was made me automatically think of the flower.

Poppies. That’s it!

They’ve always been one of my favorite flowers. There’s a field full of them in my favorite movie (Wizard of Oz). Why didn’t I think of it before? 

I put “grace” with it and I kept saying it over and over. I pictured myself telling other people about my blog. I pictured myself emailing brands and telling them I’m Heather from Poppy + Grace. This one sounded “right.” So Poppy + Grace was born.

How did I choose web designer?

It really was no question about who I was going to use. Fran from 259 West came highly recommended from several fellow bloggers. I had seen her work, which was beautiful and well laid out (check out her portfolio page), and they had told me that she’s wonderful to work with. I knew without a doubt I’d be using her, whenever I finally decided to make the investment.

Just as everyone had said, she is incredibly professional, knowledgeable, creative, and organized. I needed someone who I could trust, because I was putting it all in her hands. Not only did she create a new web design, she set up everything with the host and with WordPress, migrated all of my old content from Blogger, and made sure that all of my old links redirected to the new site. This is stuff that’s way over my non-techy brain and I know that it took her a good bit of time to do. To not have to try to figure all of this out myself is 100% worth the investment – not to mention the beautiful design she came up with!

New site design

Since the name is Poppy + Grace, and I was picturing florals in the design anyway, it seemed only natural to incorporate images of pink poppies. Fran had me create a design inspiration board on Pinterest where she was able to get an idea of the color scheme and aesthetic I was looking for.

Honestly, I didn’t have a clear picture in mind when we started this. I just knew I wanted something feminine and pink. The more I pinned things, the clearer this image got, and she was able to pull it off better than I could have imagined. (I think I may have squealed when she sent my mood board! I mean, seriously…look at it!)
I probably drove her nuts, because I nit-picked like crazy! It took me forever to decide on a font that I liked for the logo. I thought all along I wanted some sort of modern calligraphy style font, but the one we ended up going with seemed to fit with the rest of the design so much better.

I hope that you enjoy the new site! I know it’s going to be MUCH easier to navigate. A couple of my favorite things about it, as far as ease of usability goes, are the categories pages (just below the header) and the search bar. The categories pages are easy to scroll through if you wanted to just browse a topic. If you’re looking for a specific post, you can now search for it easily using the search bar on the right (if you’re on mobile it’s toward the bottom.)

In the top bar you’ll find all of my social media links (if you’re not following on these, I’d love to have you along in this journey!) There is a subscribe box in the sidebar if you would like to subscribe to email updates. You’ll get notifications of new posts in your inbox and that’s it. No spam! I actually love keeping up with other blogs this way, because I may not always see their posts on social media.

Feel free to click around as much as you please and let me know how you like it! I know that most people use mobile now, but if you have the time, I encourage you to pull it up on your computer or laptop to get the full effect of the design and layout!

Also if you see something that seems off or isn’t working like it should, shoot me a message and I’ll be sure to get it fixed.

If you are a blogger or business owner and you’re looking to revamp your site, I’m very confident that you will not be disappointed by choosing 259 West. Be sure and check her out!

Thank you for all of your support through this little blogging journey of mine! I appreciate all of you!