The Brand New M^2

Welcome to the new and improved M Squared!  (If you are in a reader, now is the time to click over.)

Okay, wait, let me start over.  Does something look different to you?   That’s because my blog got an extreme makeover!!!  Do you love it or do you love it?  Obviously you know I do! THANKS to my wonderful and talented boyfriend Ryan Cannon Ray, I now have the coolest blog on the block!  Just take a look around and you’ll see what I mean!

First off, I switched from Blogger to WordPress and can now be found at www.mindymerenghi.com. Yes, my own little place on the internet!  Thankfully I bought the domain name before someone else did (ha, that was a joke).  My old blog will direct you here (as you found out) but go ahead and change your links on sidebars or what have you.

You see, this all came up when Ryan started telling me I needed to switch to WordPress.  I just brushed it off at first and said Blogger was fine, but he still wouldn’t stop nagging me.  Sooo to shut him up, I said “fine, go ahead and do it!”  And well, I decided it might be cool afterall, but I’m certainly not a blog designer.  He agreed to give my blog an overhaul.  And now?  I’m really glad!!!

I decided on a theme (from woothemes.com) and he took it from there.  He modified it and did all the things that good (and nerdy) designers do.  Of course, I gave him a few of my opinions along the way and welll…. this is how it ended up!  It’s lovely if I do say so myself.  (If you are curious what the original, untouched theme looks like compared to what he did with it, look here.)

So, what are some highlights of this new look?

Well….

A nice and pretty homepage displaying recent posts.

An official “about” page (oh how I don’t enjoy writing those).

My first ever blog button…choose the size and just copy the code below and paste it on your sidebar if you like to “button up!”

<a href=”http://www.mindymerenghi.com/” target=””><img alt=”M^2″ src=”http://mindymerenghi.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/05/M2-Button.png” title=”About” /></a>

<a href=”http://www.mindymerenghi.com/” mce_href=”http://www.mindymerenghi.com/” target=””><img alt=”M^2″ src=”http://mindymerenghi.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/05/M2-Button-125.png” mce_src=”http://mindymerenghi.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/05/M2-Button-125.png” /></a>

A new commenting system… Disqus!  (Still working on getting all of my old comments to transfer over you may notice.)

Custom sidebars, displaying lots of goodies like my social icons and my blogroll (that displays 10 random blogs every time you refresh)… and now advertising for your business or blog!  More on that soon.

And a neat little feature where if you click on a picture in a post, it will bring it up in a “fancy box.”  Try it!

I wanted my blog simple and easy to navigate, yet eye catching, fun and some-what professional. Ryan knew what I wanted and helped me form my ideas into a real live blog!  He gave me as much guidance as I wanted (which is a lot considering the artsy part of brain doesn’t work well) and worked quickly on making it happen.  Things may be changed/added as time goes on, who knows!  That’s the perk of having a boyfriend as my own personal blog designer.  ;o)  Oh wait, does he know that?

One thing I know I want to change is the “tag line” in the header.  Right now it’s just a verse, but I’d like something that goes along with my blog.  I’m not coming up with anything… anyone out there have any ideas??

Oh and did I mention this fun little fact?… If you are really liking my new blog and are needing a new look for your blog, I have good news!  Ryan is going to start offering custom blog designs to other bloggers! Yes, an official blog designing “business” where he will help you move from Blogger to WordPress or if you want to stick with Blogger, he may became familiar with that too!  As he starts developing this idea, I’ll let you know more.  But if you can’t WAIT to contact him and want to be one of his first customers, here’s some contact info:

Twitter: @ryanr14

Website: ryancannonray.com

Email: hello@ryancannonray.com

Anyway, thanks for checking out my new blog!  I hope you stick around with me a while.  :o)  Maybe this new design will motivate me to blog more often!  This awesome-looking blog deserves some good posts… so I hope I can do it justice!

And THANKS A MILLION to my sweet boyfriend Ryan for making this whole thing happen!!  If I had any talents, I would offer them to you too.  Ha.