Look Out World, Here Comes The New Framed Cooks!

Hurray!!!  The day I've been waiting for, planning for, feverishly working toward and having little tiny panic attacks about is almost here!  As some of you know, I've been working with an absolutely fabulous team to take all the things I love and adore about my little blog and make them better...and to take all the things that drive me crazy about my little blog and fix them up.  Over the next few days we are going to flip the switch and you'll be seeing the new and improved Framed Cooks.  Here are some of the things that you'll notice:

1. The design of it is pretty much the same...the same header with the teenager jumping gloriously into the water, the same basic design of recipe with pictures on the left and other stuff on the right, and so on.  But...

2. There is now a nifty search feature in the bar on the top that will let you search for recipes by meal category, and once you get to the category you can search by the type of meal (pasta, chicken, seafood, etc).  There's also a search feature on the right side.  Search and ye shall find!

3. Up on the top right are all sorts of ways you and I can hang out together on all the social media sites...the buttons connect you to my Facebook page, my Twitter page, my Pinterest page (is anyone else as ADDICTED to Pinterest as I am?  Jeesh!), and my Punchfork page (you gotta check out Punchfork.  Also addictive.)  That's where you can also sign up to get my posts by email or RSS feed, and also email me.  (And those of you already signed up for email and RSS feed, don't worry...you should still be signed up.)

4. Comments are now a lot more spiffy, and I'll be able to reply directly to your specific comment.  We can all also choose groovy avatars for our comments if we want.  Send me comments!  I love comments!!

5. Recipe cards!!!  This is maybe my favorite new feature.  Recipes will now be an a nifty card format lets you either print it out OR save it to an online recipe box.  How cool is THAT?  Try it out and see what you think.

6. There are two sets of special recipe groupings over on the right side.  One are my favorite recipes, and one is just for bacon.  You knew that one was coming, right?

There are other cool things around the site, but those are the biggies.  Now a few things I need from YOU.  Here goes.

1. Be patient with the site over the first few days.  Like any toddler, it's bound to trip and fall a few times as it is learning to walk.  It might bounce back and forth in between the old look and the new look, but after the first week it should be steady on its feet.

2. After the first few days if you see anything really wonky looking, can you email me and let me know?  Use the Contact link up at the top.  Hug and kiss.

3. Everyone who has signed up for email and RSS feed should still be getting it that way.  If not, let me know, or just re-sign up with that button that looks like an envelope on the upper right side.

Last but definitely not least, I have to thank three important groups of people.

First, my amazing, amazing team at Desperately Seeking Wordpress, especially the incredibly wonderful, patient, calm and soothing Cathy.  This whole new look is due to them, and if you are a blogger looking to either spiff up or start a blog, look no further...just click here.  They rock!

Second, my romantic, encouraging, amazing Southern husband.  He pushed me to do this when I was being a wimp about it, held my hand through the whole thing, and didn't complain one single time during these past weeks when I have been just a little bit more wrapped up in my blog then I usually am.  Just a little.  :)

And third, YOU.  You guys have been my cheerleaders, my inspiration, the reason I keep this thing going.  I love every single comment, email, tweet, Facebook comment and everything else you do to keep me keeping on.  I love you guys, I really do.  Thank you, thank you, thank you.

And with that, I'll see you on the other side...the next post (which will be a recipe and not just a lot of me yakking) will be in my new, shiny format.  Can't wait to hear what you guys think!