Welcome to Our New Look

We've been celebrating our 5th blogoversary the past few weeks.  We've experienced so many wonderful things the five years we've been blogging and still have a few more giveaways the next couple of weeks to share with you.  One of our goals as we move forward is to change the design and "feel"  of our blog.  We went to a larger width to make it easier to read and better fit the larger monitors on computers (less background and more room for photos and words).  We've increased the size of our images on our blog posts and sidebar.  With the help our our wonderful friend, Ann, from Zoolatry, we have a new header, blog design, and logo.  You wouldn't believe how many times Mom Paula and Ann have gone back and forth over the past three months with various designs, adjustments, and deletes!

Brulee and Truffle have some heavy discussions about the new design of the blog

We thought we'd share the story behind our new look.  As many of you  know, we are Southern Ladies.  Mom Paula was born and raised in the South.  We were born in Mt. Pleasant, South Carolina, which is across from the Cooper River Bridge in Charleston, SC.  As Mom Paula was trying to figure our a theme for our new look, she wanted to integrate photos of us with something that was uniquely Southern.  We thought about the Palmetto Tree, which is the state tree of South Carolina, but Mom Paula didn't think that was feminine enough.  Then, she thought about a conversation with Mom Peggy from Cat-A-Holic (with Laila and Minchie).  Mom Paula was visiting Mom Peggy in Chicago a few years ago and they were talking about Mom Paula being from the South.  If you've ever heard Mom Paula talk, you know she has that distinctive Southern dialect.  Mom Paula said something about being a Southern Belle and Mom Peggy said she didn't see Mom Paula that way.  At first, Mom Paula was a little hurt because she always prided herself on being that sweet Southern lady.  Then Mom Peggy said, "I don't see you as a Southern Belle, I see you as a Steel Magnolia."  Mom Paula was immediately honored and said she saw this as a compliment.  If your humans have never seen the movie, you need to get them to watch it.  Steel Magnolias are sweet, charming, funny, and sassy, but will defend their family and friends to the end.  We decided to stick with shades of pink for our blog because it's a soft shade that reminds us of the South (pink magnolia blossoms and peaches) and it goes well with our silvery white fur.  In fact, Shelby (Julia Roberts' character in the movie) said, "Pink in my signature color."  The Magnolia tree with its large glossy leaves and huge white and fragrant flowers is synonymous with the South and is found throughout the Lowcountry of South Carolina around the old plantations. Connect the movie, the flower, our soft fur and sweet personalities, and our slogan of "Southern Sweet and Sassy" and you have the reason for our theme of magnolias and shades of pink.  You can see from the graphic below (designed by Ann) why we had such a hard time narrowing our first choice for the new header.  We still love both of them and will change them around, depending on the seasons.

Another header for the future

We're proud to present our new logo for Sweet Purrfections (our first!).  There were probably 50+ designs Ann worked on for us.  We originally started with pictures of us integrated into fancy lettering. Even though the designs were beautiful, Mom Paula rethought this idea because she didn't want the blog to be limited.  Mom Paula began a new blog after Sweet Praline went to the bridge because she didn't want a blog to have the same name as one (or more) or her cats.  This was the same idea behind switching to a caricature of us for the logo.  This was the really fun part!  We're not so sure Ann and Mom Paula agree on the "fun" part though.  We're ecstatic with our new design and logo and hope the blogging community begins to relate it to our blog when they see it.

Our new logo

We hope you enjoy our new look and continue to visit us.  Mom Paula is scheduled to retire within the next 7-24 months.  We have plans to send her back to school (even though she already has a Ph.D.) to learn how to use her new camera, take some basic graphic design classes, and photo editing workshops.  Thank you for being our furriends!

Giveaway

1. Today is the last day to enter our giveaway for the ecoFLEX™ Litter Loo (choice of size and color) and Scoopy the Cat litter scoop holder (choice of color).
2. We have 2-3 more giveaways scheduled for the next two weeks to complete our month of celebrating our 5th blogoversary.