Sweet November

The new look is HERE!

{ If you're reading this though google reader, this would be a great time to click and view the blog as a separate page. }

Also, for those of you who have my old button on your page, please grab my new one to replace it! If you don't have it on your page yet... now would be the perfect time to add it :) But no pressure.

And with the new look comes a brand new name for this little blog.

I loved the old name, (Too Beautiful for Earth, Living after Losing Olivia) but as I was working on choosing the new design, I decided that since I was hoping to go in a new direction with the blog and make it more about my life in general, not just the loss related aspects of it, I felt like it needed a new name.

November is a very special month for me. As most of you know, Kurt and I were married this past November of 2010, and of course it's the month that we welcomed Olivia into our lives, and said goodbye to her in 2009. I felt that using November in some way in the title would still keep the blog very much Olivia related, but not necessarily Olivia specific.

And as for the new design..

I love it. I think it's pretty safe to say that I am IN love with it.

I worked with the wonderful and amazing Danielle, The Design Girl, and I could not be more impressed with her work. She worked with me and took every suggestion into account. I did not have a clear vision in mind at all for what I wanted when we started the process. She gave me some direction after I kind of half described what I was looking for, and once I finally figured it out, she put it together SO perfectly.

Lets talk about my favorite things, shall we?

I originally just planned on having the picture of Kurt and I from our wedding in the banner, and no picture of Olivia. I thought she would be represented well enough by the pink angel wings and pink ribbon. Danielle e-mailed me last night and said that she knew that she knew I hadn't asked for it, but she wanted to show me how she had included Livie in the banner. I hadn't noticed that the kit I chose came with the litting gold frame. How perfect. I started crying as soon as I saw it. Seriously awesome. I was also confused because I didn't even send Danielle that picture of Olivia, she took it upon herself to add it after seeing it on my blog. I think that is so sweet, and I love that she took the time to do that for me. She could have just done what I asked and installed it, but she didn't, and I love her for that. :)

I love the pink angel wings, and the ribbon. The black and white image of Olivia wearing the pink bow was at the center of the old blog banner that I made myself, and I have to admit that as much as I was ready for this change, I was feeling some emotional attachment to it (I took a screen shot of it so that I could include it as part of todays POTD for ProjectLife so that I'll always have it to look at). Olivia wore a pink bow in her hair for almost her entire life, at least for the last 2 days of it. I saved that one and it's in her shadow box, but I made her a new one for her to wear for her funeral, and she was buried with it in her hair. I don't think I'll ever be able to see a pink bow without thinking of her. I love that the ribbon is still front and center at the top of the page. The picture that I was referring to is what Danielle used to make my button, which I love also.

I still have some re-organizing to do of the content in the sidebars, but I'm anxious to get to the gym so I'll have to work on that later.

Okay I'll stop now. Please leave some comments and let me know what you think! I'm so proud of it that I wish I could carry my laptop around all day showing it to people. I hope you like it!