The Tummy Train blog’s new look!

Hello everyone! I apologise for the radio silence these past few days. As you can see, I’ve been tweaking my blog layout because I felt like it was time for a bit of a change. I don’t think I’ve ever tweaked my site this drastically since I moved to self-hosting. I wanted to make it look more “me” and less like a pre-customised theme I happen to have plucked out of WordPress’ theme archives.

At the moment it seems this is the best I can come up with thanks to my very limited web design and coding skills. Let me just briefly walk you through the changes and new additions to the blog:

• As you may have observed, I changed the header for my blog into that of a hand-written font. I think this feels a bit more personal compared to my last header. I wanted to make it cleaner and whiter as well just to give it a more streamlined look. 
• It was an “achievement unlocked!!!” moment for me when I figured out how to place my image slider on my homepage just above my menu bar! (This index is different from the drop-down categories.) But I can’t take all the credit. I have to thank the interwebs and forums for the help. I read through other people’s issues and tried to apply it to my own and for the most part, it worked. I used the plugin called Meta Slider, and I recommend it! I have yet to figure out how to make the slider stick to the homepage only though. (Drop me a line if you know how please!) Obviously the featured posts up there will change every so often. I think a slider simply makes any site look prettier. 

• Next thing I want to show you are the customised social icons. Those food sketches you see on those icons are hand-drawn by yours truly. (I worked on them quite a bit so please DO NOT steal them!) I designed those buttons myself so I’m quite proud of them. I hope you all put them to good use and do LIKE ME and FOLLOW ME! 🙂

• Here’s something you all might find quite useful– you can now check out all the recipes I’ve made and shared so far by clicking on the Baking Index and Cooking Index buttons on the menu bar! I’m still trying to work on the visual layout of the index but so far I’m happy with the fact that the recipes are separated by category and they have thumbnails as well. Makes it so much easier to find what you want!

• Lastly, I wanted to point out this new page I’m working on called ‘Where to buy’. It’s for those pesky hard-to-find ingredients here in Manila. Every time I see a new ingredient in the supermarket, I’ll list it down there.
• I also placed tabs for my recipe tutorials and travel videos on the menu bar, to make is easier for you all to access them. I’m planning on making more recipe tutorials/videos this year using a different approach so that link will hopefully come in handy soon enough! 🙂

So… how do you like this new look? I’m actually quite happy with it! (For now at least.)

It’s interesting how much energy I’ve poured into fixing up the blog at the start of this year. Might this be a sign that the energy and vigour I lacked during 2014 are all coming back to me? 2014 wasn’t a particularly spectacular year for me all around. I mean, I have been self-hosting for nearly two years and I have never felt such a strong desire to make such a big change to the blog layout. I’m glad that I’ve decided to do it now, though. I hope that I can learn more about coding so I can really make the blog as perfect as it can get!

As always, feedback is appreciated for this new layout. 🙂