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Married..Woman in Architecture?!: Blogger Updates – Part 2 and Lunch

Please welcome my Mondesday post.  I'm posting on a Wednesday, with a Monday feel.

I guess you can see Botanical Reflections 2.0 got a face lift.  After I finished the minor updates on Thursday, I didn’t feel comfortable.  Just looking at my original site design, I felt like BR 2.0 wasn’t being marketed the way I wanted it to.  The text on the banner and clicking on the “About me” tab made it obvious, but I wanted the site design to speak for itself when the website was opened.  I wanted something simple but personalized by me, so I decided to redesign the banner and make additional changes to the blog.  When it was time for a presentation in Architectural school, my professors always said “the drawings need to speak for themselves.”  The design and the line weight of the drawing needed to pop out on the wall, so that’s the first place you look.  I finally understood it after working for a firm and having a blog.  And that's how I tied this post to Architecture, go me!

Change One - Banner
I used images that were close to my heart and described Botanical Reflections 2.0.  I had a tough decision to make with the photo to describe the “Mr. and Mrs.” portion of the banner.  But after using the Polaroids, all I could think about was our photo booth from our wedding and our Nintendo Wii Miis we used. 

I’ve updated my Mii since the wedding, so I incorporated that in the new banner and wah-lah!  I've also included a matching welcome picture and signature. 

Change Two - Pinterest

Next, I’ve been dying to get a Pinterest pin in each of my posts.  All the codes I have used did not work with my template,  On Saturday I found a code!  All you have to do is hover over my image and click on the red Pinterest symbol to link a post to Pinterest.  Test it out:

Change Three - New Tab
Finally, I noticed my 5 top posts either had to do with Pinterest, DIY, Recipes or Natural Hair.  Each section has its own individual Tab except for natural hair.  Because of this, decided to create one!  The new tab contains my Natural hair journey, tips and a photo gallery.  Check out the new Natural Hair Tab!

Here is an awesome website that helped me over the weekend and it's completely free:

Pixlr - Since PicMonkey had started charging for some of their features, I have been trying to find a website that edits like Photoshop, but is totally free.  After Googling a couple of sites, I found Pixlr!  Their Advanced Editor is exactly like Photoshop and it even opens PSD files.  I think I found my new best friend when I'm home editing photos.  The only downside are the basic fonts.

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Outside of the updates being done over the weekend, Brian and I went to lunch at a restaurant called Giovanna’s Italian Restaurant.  My co-worker recommended it a couple of weeks ago, and I fell in love. 

Source: http://www.giovannasitaliankitchen.com/

Giovanna’s has the taste of Olive Garden and Carrabba’s, without the high prices and the crowded spaces.  It wasn’t too crowded on an early Saturday afternoon and the service was amazing:

Brian fell in love and now Giovanna’s is a part of our restaurant rotation.

(Isn't my new signature pretty?)

Blogger Updates

For the New Year, I have updated a few features to my blog:

1.  Remember the square ask.fm icon? I have now made it uniform to the rest of the icons.

2.  Speaking of icons, I have now created one for my viewers to contact me.  You have three ways to contact me: two through social media and one by filling out a form that goes straight to my email.  I'm on my email throughout the day, so I will respond within 24 hours.

3.  Finally, I added more information to my tabs.  I added text to the tabs so my viewers can understand the subjects a little better.  I also organized the links.  I'm still making improvements, and will eventually add a drop down menu.  The menu consists of a lot of coding, so you will see the changes in the next couple of weeks.

Do you have any extra suggestions?  Let me know!

Happy Anniversary to Botanical Reflections 2.0!

Source: Google Images

I would have loved to post this yesterday but I had a submittal!

Happy Anniversary to my little blog.  In a year, not only has my blog grown, but so has my experience as a wife, a pet owner and an Architectural Designer.  When I first started, I started with a group of ladies that shared the same wedding month as me on a wedding website.  I didn't expect to write as much as I did, but I just wanted to jot down a couple of interesting things in my life.  The more entries I wrote, the more I realized the important things in my life and who I wanted to share it with:

Married Life:
October 2011, I was 5 months into my marriage.  My husband and I were still understanding our marriage, and as the months went on, we learned a lot of new recipes and how to stay on a budget with just the two of us and a pet.  We celebrated our first Anniversary a couple of months ago and we haven't looked back since.

Mr. Tibbs:
My featherbaby.  At the beginning of this blog, Mr. Tibbs was still lovable as ever, but Brian and Mr. Tibbs could not stand each other.  Brian could not walk past the cage without Mr. Tibbs hissing at him.  With the help of music and Brian's charm, a Christmas miracle happened.  Today, Mr. Tibbs is attached to Brian.  Whistles and kisses are his favorite things to give out.  We are still learning how to give him healthier foods without him plotting revenge on us, but I see great things happening in year two.

Professional Life:
When I first started, I was trying to finish my Internship Development Program.  I had a while to go, and when my classmates came to visit my city for a conference, I found out I was closer to my goal.  I documented my site visits and recapped on one of the biggest things of my life, my license.  I finished the program in April and got approved in August of this year.  My bosses wanted to get me more into Architecture than just drafting, so they pushed me to the management and presentation side.  When this happened, so did my struggle to get accepted as a leader in meetings.  That created "Women in Architecture Wednesday."  Thanks to those posts, I learned the statistics of women in the field of Architecture and I also learned how to overcome it with the help of women experiencing similar things.

I also presented to a client for the first time:

Last Thursday, the design team presented our project to our client.  I was in charge of putting together the powerpoint for the Architect and Engineers.  My co-worker couldn't do the presentation, so my bosses recruited me for the task.  I got a lot of compliments and I will be doing the next presentation in a couple of weeks.

If I would have told myself a year ago that this is where I would be, I wouldn't believe it.  My plan for year two will be to take my exams starting January 2013.

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Thanks to the Blog Guidebook & Good Girl Gone Wife for helping me to spice up BR 2.0 and better my posts with codes, recipes and Pinterest Challenges!

For year two, other than posting the usual, I will aim to get more Guest bloggers, projects and recipes!

I suck at updating

For the past couple of weeks, my wireless Internet at home has been out; resulting me using one computer to connect to the modem.  This is making me suck at updating on the weekends or weekdays when I can't post at work.  To get myself organized for the week, I have come up with a couple of categories so it doesn't seem like I'm all over the place making up for lost time: 

Married Monday - Married life: These may consist of weekend wrap ups or recipes
Tibby TV Tuesday - Tibby and his adventures: Animal celebrity
Walk through Wednesday - Architecture related: Site visits, work rants and Exams
Tibby TV Thursday - Tibby and his adventures: He needs another day because he is that awesome
Funny Friday - Funny Pictures I find online: Pinterest based

To make up for last week, here is a hodge-podge of all the categories:

1. Father's Day was yesterday.  December will be 20 years since I lost my Dad.  Even thought that void in my life is gone, I gained another one last year and it's pretty cool.  I have to say I love my in-laws!
2. Mr. Tibbs has a problem with weekends.  He woke me up at 730am and whistled non-stop.  When will he learn?!
3. School S is moving along!  A lot of the finishes have been installed and we finally chose the brick for the kitchen addition.
4. I learned that if I close the cage door, Mr. Tibbs will stop squawking.  




Source: facebook.com

Guest Blogger Fix

Yesterday, I announced that I would be done my hours by Thursday.  Today, I found out that I will be officially done by the end of today.  My co-worker is taking me to a site visit for his project at a Pump Station.  Later today, we are heading out to School S.  I hope that today's hours add up to 4. 

While I'm stalling for time, I decided to make some more tweeks to the site. 

1. I've added a "you might also like" widget to the bottom of posts.
2. I've added a contact form for the Guest Blogger page.  Originally, I had the rules and links to guest bloggers but I didn't have how to contact me.  This will make it easier to contact me than to comment on a post from last year.

Hopefully, the changes will make navigation a little bit easier on the site.

New Design

Being a future Architect makes me somewhat of a perfectionist.  If a detail is off just a little bit, my OCD senses kick in.  I loved the old layout, but the "date" on the header threw me off...especially being 2012.  I searched for months trying to find something that fit the theme but the layouts always came short.  That's when I decided to just find an awesome header and background and fill in the rest of the details myself.  I got the push from my friend Alex @ Good Girl Gone Wife.  My husband even gave me the idea to make a new button:

Before

After

Soooooo...here is the new layout, enjoy!

Also, here a little cuteness for the day:

Brian went to choir rehearsal last night so I decided to eat dinner upstair with Mr. Tibbs.  As you can see in the back ground, ff he sees you eat, he will eat along with you.  Birds of a feather ;-).

Layout Changes

This week, I've been in the process of changing the layout for BR 2.0.  Please excuse the mess!  Everything should be finalized by the end of the day.

While you wait, please take a look @ my friend's blogs under "My Blog List."  Enjoy :-).