~53~ New Look

In case you haven't noticed, I've updated my look.  Due to the snow, we got out of school a couple of hours early yesterday and I decided to spend my extra time making some changes to my blog.  I've been wanting to do it for a while now, and just haven't had the time to really sit down and figure out how I wanted it to look when I was done.  My main reason for doing so was to give it a cleaner, crisper look.  I felt that it was too "messy" looking, for a lack of a better word.  Mostly, I wanted to redo my banner, giving it some lines and framing.  Using my amateur design skills, what you see now, is what I came up with.  While I know it's not the most glamorous, or pristine looking banner, it is a huge improvement (IMO) from what it was previously.  

With the update to my banner, I knew that I also needed to change the background of my blog body.  I wanted a cute background, and to get rid of the peach color.  I changed my template in blogger, and found the cute cupcake design online.  I am still in search of the perfect background pattern, but for now-that will do. I also added on the "you might also like" posts at the bottom to help readers better navigate my blog and find posts of similar topics.  The final touch, was updating my signature at the bottom of each post.  I was never able to perfectly match the  colors and it stood out-which I hated, but was honestly too lazy at the time to do anything about it.  I knew that for my skills, the only solution was to change the background color of my posts to white. 

So there you have it, a new and improved blog design.  I'm sure that in the coming months or years (if I'm still blogging for that long), there will be more change to come.  Eventually, once I get a better vision for a final design look, I'll probably hire my friend, fellow blogger, and an extremely talented designer, Joy, to help me achieve a more polished, professional look. 

In the mean time, are there any things that you'd like to see on my blog? Any changes you think I should make?

If you're a blogger yourself, in what ways have you updated your blog?

Until next time, 

~50~Another Blog

I wanted to let all of you know that I have decided to start another blog.  Last month, Jake and I decided to do the Advocare 24 Day Challenge starting with the New Year in an effort to become healthier, lose some weight and inches, as well as jump start a nutrition plan-as mentioned in my New Years wishes a couple of posts ago.   

I want Bake Me A Craft to maintain it's focus of crafting and baking, which is the reason for having a separate blog for my Advocare journey.  If you'd like to learn more about Advocare and follow me as I document my progress throughout challenge, please head over to http://bmac-advocare24dc.blogspot.com

Hope to see you there!

~1~ Bake Me A Craft

Why hello there blogging world, let me introduce myself:
My name is Maggie, and I am a 26 year old wife, teacher, and crafter.  I live in Des Moines, IA with my husband Jake, and my almost 11 year old beagle named Buckles.  After an almost 10 year hiatus, I have decided to re-enter the blogging world.  This week, I determined that my 2012 New Years resolution would be to build up enough inventory to open and maintain an Etsy shop, as well as start a blog to go with it to document my various projects.  While I realize that I am writing my first post prior to the start of the new year, I figure it doesn't hurt to start my resolution a little early.

When coming up with a blog title, it took a bit of trial and error.  I wanted something that would be catchy and memorable, but not overly cliched.  I also wanted something that described me.  After wrestling with many different (not so great) names, it finally came to me: Bake Me a Craft, which perfectly marries my two favorite things to do-baking and crafting.  And so, a blog was born.