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living my best possible southern life

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A Full Scale Rebrand + Giveaway

I’ve never done a full scale rebrand before. I have gone through and changed things up here and there but never {almost} every little thing. That is just what I did when I set out on this new project. I sat down and went through everything I have done since the first day I started blogging. I already knew that I wanted to focus on four basic things here on Rita Reviews; Product Reviews, Family, Southern Life, and Blogging. That was a great starting point and allowed me to work better with everything. I took a little time and wrote down just what I thought each of those categories would entail. I ended up adding Recipes as a category of its own.

Once I had all of my notes of content ideas, things I wanted to change, things that I thought weren’t working, etc I sat down and created a Trello board adding everything in there I could. This would allow me to work on a section at a time. Then I got irritated at myself and this board that I felt was tying me down more than helping me. I haven’t looked at it in weeks. I wrote out a list of all the things that needed to be fixed and checked them off as I went. 

Then I thought I had a theme I loved but discovered the current “Emma” theme from Lovely Confetti and fell in love. It was soft while making the blog more the focus and not a lot of other things. So I changed it. Then came the color.

COLORS…COLORS…COLORS…

I love different colors and had a logo made up with them but it didn’t look good on a white background. I didn’t want everything to be black so I just went with various shades of pink. That was in part, thanks to The Blog Pixie and her love of pink. She just had plenty of items that I loved, but I did adjust my colors a bit. 

ALL THOSE IMAGES

That left me with deciding what to do with all of the featured images I had before. So I have begun going through each and every single post I have ever written. I am no where near through that is for sure! I created some very basic standard images for some past posts for example you may see these:

  • Wordless Wednesday at Rita Reviews
  • Rita Reviews Faith Talk (1)

Doing those meant many of the posts could be updated quicker. Most of the images that changed were just the Featured Images so that things will all look the same as you scroll through the blog. 

ANOTHER IMAGE ISSUE

The, I realized I had another image issue. The product reviews and hops that I take part in weren’t pink. Many didn’t have any pink in them either. What was I going to do? So I came up with these sort of images, at least as templates for each of the posts.

Those allowed me to keep the pink and my new brand style. Finally I was left with my logo and what to do with all of that. So I went in search and in the end settled on this:

All in all I am loving everything and want to celebrate with y’all. Of course this is just the first of  these giveaways. I am still in the middle of fixing all of the featured images. It will take me another month, maybe two before those are done. I’ve been blogging since 2009 so there are lots of posts. 

Now to celebrate the ton of work I completed lets have a giveaway! I love sharing all of these things with you and decided that I would do something a little different for this giveaway.

GRAND PRIZE: CANON REBEL CAMERA
2 WINNERS: KINDLE FIRE TABLETS
3 WINNERS: $25 AMAZON GIFT CARDS

Rita
Website | + posts

I live in a small Georgia town that you most likely have never heard of and I LOVE it! My house is more than full as I am a single mother of four & caregiver to my aging mother and uncle. Lover of all things Outlander. Goes to the beat of her own drum woman.

Comments

  1. I LOVE the new look—very fresh. One of the things I most love about your blog is your take on Southern Life. Being a southerner outside the south for now, it feels like I know what you’re talking about and can stay connected (okay, St Louis is not that far ouside the south….but it doesn’t feel like the *real* south 🙂 )

    • Thank you so much! I decided to share more Southern stuff and I am so glad that it helps you stay connected. I don’t know what I would do if I lived outside of the south now.

    • That is what I wanted. I wanted to be very girly and to be honest I selected pink because there are so many things out there that go with the pink.

  5. I think it is beautiful. I stop by often and have noticed all the work you have put into it. Nice job! 🙂

  11. I do like the new look. It is very classy yet warm and inviting. That is a lot of work but I think it is worth it, I really like the new images/thumbnails. I especially like the handwritten effect in each one/

    • Thank you, I’m thrilled you are liking the new images. That hand written font is called Stay Classy and it just jumped out at me on Creative Market. I knew I had to have it. It is a lot of work but I feel as though it is so worth it. Finally everything will look more put together for me.

  15. I totally do love the new look!! It works super well with all of your content, and the colors are great!

  17. Hi Rita! Yes, this looks beautiful and sophisticated! Love the new look! Congrats!
    and thanks for the great giveaway. xo

  18. I can’t believe the outpouring support for this new look. I was so nervous about it all but am thrilled that y’all have taken to it. I can’t wait for next week when I announce the big giveaway for A Lucky Grace. I have been redoing it as well and tying the two blogs together a little bit through the colors. I wanted you to go to either blog and just know from looking at it that it was me. So stay tuned because I will make an announcement here when the giveaway there is ready. Not to mention another big one for here!

  20. I do like the new look it looks very clean and updated. I do wish though that you could
    make all of the words/text on the pages either larger or darker black. It is hard for me to read
    it because it is such a light color.

    • Thank you! I will certainly attempt to do that. I always wonder if it is too light or not. Thank you for the feedback.

  29. I like the new look…the soft pink shades, not too busy & inviting. You should be very proud!

  31. Yes I love the new look. Looks more professional, elegant and refreshing. Love the light colors.

  32. Nice clean look. I don’t understand what the V V stands for when you reply to posts here. I would have expected R R instead.

    • They are RR in the handwritten font. They do look like VV and that is something I am going to have to correct. Maybe switch them to uppercase.

  38. I love the new layout. I notice it is loading faster and it’s pleasing to the eye. I can’t wait to see what new content you have for us.

    • I’m so thrilled it is loading faster for everyone. I have so much content for y’all. I need to share a screenshot of my calendar so y’all can get a hint at how full it is.

  40. https://ritareviews.net/october-2018-forecast/#comment-314857 made a comment here It was interesting and informative.

  41. I do like the colors now. It is very easy on the eyes, and not so busy that it is distracting. I also appreciate how fast the page loads. Much nicer! I am a longtime follower (years!) and your blog has changed a lot for the better.

    • Thank you Ellen! I remember way back when you first starting following me. I would love to take the credit for things loading faster but it is the wonderful designer over at Lovely Confetti. Her themes load so well and she tweaked things for me a bit.

  42. I like the pink touches! Its been cool to see how your blog has evolved in the couple years I’ve read it.

  45. I love the look! I’m so excited for you! I’ve been following for a while and feel the new look totally suits your style. Congratulations!

  47. I absolutely love the new look. It is so much fresher and new looking. It is a lot easier to scroll throughj as well. Great job

  48. I love the new look! It’s very feminine and just plain beautiful and it makes me happy to be here.Keep up the amazing work!

  49. Yes, I like the new look. Easy on the eyes. I also appreciate how it loads quickly and isn’t overly busy!

  51. I do indeed love the new look! My only issue is the new font that appears here in the comment box – I’m older and my eyes are not great. It’s harder for me to read

  55. I think the new look like awesome and fun. It’s always fun and a great idea to change things up. New upgrades.

  58. I do like the new look. It’s very pretty and well-polished. Thanks.
    partymix25(at)hotmail(dot)com

  59. I really do like the new look. It’s fresh, looks like your personality, or what I see of it which is a compliment just to make sure my meaning is stated. I know you have worked hard and it shows. Or if you just threw it all together over night it still looks like you worked hard. And thanks so much for your generosity.

  62. I love the overall look. Pink is not my favorite color but I think the combo of it and the grey tones is very soothing. Like the fonts as well.

  64. Like so many other commenters, I like your new look, too. The pink is nice, partly because it’s kind of a muted pink as opposed to the in-your-face pink you see so much for little girls.

  67. The new look is AMAZING!! I can find things SO much easier.. Very fresh, easy, and makes you want to check out EVERYTHING!!

  71. I do love the look, the colors look great, and it’s not to flashy or loaded up. I love it!

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