Do you ever speed through a meal so fast that after you’re done, you can barely remember eating it?
As I uploaded the pictures from my breakfast this morning, I realized I basically inhaled my morning meal and could barely remember even enjoying it!
Breakfast this morning included a toasted wheat bagel topped with a mixture of ricotta cheese and cottage cheese, a sliced nectarine and a sprinkle of pumpkin pie spice.
Served with a cup of Godiva pumpkin spice coffee for some Friday energy.
PBF Flashback
Back in February, my go-to techy blogger guru friend, Katy Widrick, posted about The Wayback Machine.
The Wayback Machine allows you to type in a web address and browse the different looks of a site from the archived dates available.
How fun, right?
Like many bloggers, when I started Peanut Butter Fingers, I used a template through WordPress and tried my best to make it look unique.
Check out PBF three months after I started blogging in December 2009:
My self-made banner clearly needed some work!
Jumping ahead, I kept the same design, but my banner changed to become a little less pixelated:
For some reason The Wayback Machine website isn’t showing my entire site during the time that this banner was up, but at least it captured the banner itself!
Eventually, I decided I wanted a more personalized look and sought out the help of a design professional, The Blog Fairy.
The first banner idea she sent me back was adorable and featured a cartoon peanut butter and jelly sandwich, much like this one:
(Source)
While it was cute, I wanted something a little more professional-looking and requested a banner with a real food photo in it and sent her the image of the apple and peanut butter that you see today!
I’ve actually been thinking about doing a website makeover for a while now, but every time I think about it, I begin to feel attached to the current look of PBF. I wouldn’t mind having a site with an even cleaner appearance (I love a sleek, white website), but don’t know what the future holds, especially since redesigns can be quite expensive. We shall see!
I hope you enjoyed this little trip down memory lane!
Questions of the Morning
- What do you think makes a website appealing?
To me, a great website is clean and easy to navigate. Keep it simple!
- If you’re a blogger, has your blog changed appearances at all from when you first started?
Clearly PBF changed a bunch in the beginning!
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It’s funny to see how far we’ve come in our blogging…
I hate days like that where I inhale food- I think I tend to do that with protein bars and then forget that I’ve eaten! And how fun to look at your blog transformation! I’ve been itching for an updated look but just haven’t had the funds to do it yet! I’m hoping it’s going to happen soon though!
I love your blog design! It always looks so fresh and clean to me. I just started blogging, but feel like I really need to take some time to snazz up my banner and make things more interesting. Hopefully soon!
I love that your blog is easy to navigate (I can easily find recipes, etc) and I do love that peanut butter spoon on the side 🙂 I just started my blog in December (after reading your Blog Talk Tuesday posts like 300 times to make sure I knew at least a little about blogging!) so I haven’t changed the look too much, but I did change the header a few times in the first week until it was something I liked 🙂
I like a clean, fresh look as well. I personally love the current style of your blog, but whenever my favorite blogs have changed I can’t imagine them any other way!
I have been meaning for the longest time to design a banner but have no clue what to do 😕 Thinking a collage of a bunch of things would be fun…
P.S. I thought your nectarine was a cooked apple at first and now I wanna try it! Reminds me of apple pie a la mode 😀
Ohhh this is a fun post. I’ve been reading just under a year so I never saw those older banners. For me, I’m attracted to a blog that is clean and fun looking, with a picture of the blogger. My blog is new so I can’t wait to see how the evolution of it goes!
Julie,
I’m a recently new reader of your site(stumbled upon it over Xmas break of 2011) and I love your site! I use your recipes all the time, but I have noticed I have difficulty relocating them if some time has passed or if they are not in the recipe tabI do try to use the search box at the top but many times it brings up the most recent blogs instead. Any suggestions? I enjoy all your “recipe roundups”, could you possibly put these posts in thier own tab under your Recipes tab? Just an idea!
Thanks!
yes, definitely! love this idea!