Faith & FamilyA Birthday Present for The White Buffalo September 30, 2015 Last week during the most awesome BSHT ever, The White Buffalo turned two. I was so busy with the tours and working on some changes around here to even mention it. If you’ve visited the blog these last few days, you may have noticed the changes I’m talking about. I’ve mentioned in these last few months that a lot was going on behind the scenes and that there were some brand changes ahead for the Buffalo. This new site design has been in the making for months now and I’m so excited to FINALLY get to roll it out. Since I started this brand two years ago, I’m blown away at all of the opportunities that have come my way. I’ve had some great experiences through this blog and it’s brought so much joy and blessing to our family. When I started this, I felt that God had given me a real vision. I had a lot of dreams for it and it’s amazing to see how many of those have become reality! But, there are still dreams and goals I’m working toward. There’s still parts of this vision I’ve yet to explore and this new site is a part of that. Over the last year, I’ve been evaluating my goals. What is this blog really about to me? What do I want it to become? And it all summed up to one idea that I’ve turned into my new motto: As you know if you’ve been reading awhile, I love style. I love infusing my style into every part of life: my home, my wardrobe, holidays, family traditions, parties… But one thing that I’ve really been processing this past year as I’ve become a mom is that I want to be a woman of intention. I want to live a life of purpose. I want to be purposeful in the moments I create for my growing family. I don’t want to drift along and let life pass us by. I’ve realized that living that kind of life doesn’t just happen. It’s something we have to CHOOSE to CREATE. And going forward, that’s what this blog will be focused on: our journey toward creating a life that is filled with my unique style, but is also purpose-filled. This will encompass everything from our renovations to big family moments to styling a fun Halloween party and I can’t wait to continue on this ride! Let’s tour the new site where all of this adventure will take place, shall we? I got to work with Amanda from The Suitcase Designs and she blew me away making my vision a reality. I had a couple of goals for this redesign. I wanted a cleaner, black and white, classic template with a fun logo where my content really shines and is easy to navigate. My new logo is the perfect example of this. Clean and new, with a little funky side, but not totally different! I’ve still got my beloved buffalo. While there are some changes ahead, for those of you who’ve been reading for awhile, rest assured that the goal of this is bringing you more and more of what you love. The top black bar follows you as you scroll down, so that you always have easy access to some really important pages and features. The “HOME” allows you to jump back to the homepage regardless of where you are on the site. ABOUT and PRESS give you some much-needed info about the site, what we’re about, and where our work has been featured. Anytime you have a question, the CONTACT button is readily available for you to shoot me an e-mail! SERIES gives you easy access to the series that we offer: Tuesday’s Tablescape, Blogger Stylin’ Home Tours, and a few that are on their way soon! I’ll come back to that SHOP button in a minute 🙂 To the right, you’ll see my social icons and links, plus a search tab, so that you can always connect and find what you’re looking for. Now, let’s talk about this header. One of my favorite things about the new design is this content slider up top. There, you’ll find my current featured posts. It won’t always be my most recent post, but it’ll be up to date with our most relevant and best stuff. This is our showcase of sorts and the content you don’t want to miss. The navigation bar up top is your way to explore our content! One of the main issues with the last site was that our content was super hard to explore. We had a few categories with very long drop-down menus. While it did give you a lot of options, I realized it was too complex and too much to really sort through. These headers now reflect the main categories of content you’ll find here. Obviously HOME DECOR is my main bread and butter. There you’ll find all my posts about bringing style into your home. No drop-down menu, it just takes you straight to all of my home decor posts. Under RENOVATIONS, you’ll find two links: The Buffalo Bungalow (the new house we just moved into weeks ago) and The Downtown Cottage (the house we just moved out of). Clicking on each will take you to all of the renovation posts on those homes, so you can go back and see the whole process. ENTERTAINING is where you’ll find all of our parties, tablescapes, and events. HOLIDAYS is a fun tab. Holidays are my absolute favorite thing and now that we have little Rosie, you’ll see more and more fun holiday ideas. They’re sorted by holiday and season, so you can easily filter to just Halloween posts, Christmas posts, etc. STYLE is where you’ll find all personal style related posts: fashion, accessories, kids’ clothes, etc. FAITH & FAMILY is a new tab that just had to be up here. Obviously the new motto is all about our family: creating a life of purpose for them. Faith is a integral part of that and something that I talk about here on the blog. Under this tab, you’ll find everything from spiritual inspiration to family traditions. Underneath the slider, you’ll find a list of our latest posts, so that if you want to come and read our most recent post each day (or every few days – there’s several there so you can catch up), it’s easy to find. Another feature that I love is that once you’re in a post, there are Previous and Next buttons at the bottom, so you can click through that way and read all the posts in order that you’d like! Another favorite part of the new site is this bottom section that will appear on any page you’re on: homepage, post page, category page, shop page, etc. Remember the main goal was easy content navigation, so you’ll see the same categories from the navigation bar down here with these easy explore buttons. The List at the bottom makes it easy to subscribe and get all of our posts delivered straight to you on the day it goes live, so you don’t miss a thing! And the SHOP. Let’s finally talk about the major addition to this beloved site of mine. For as long as I’ve blogged, I’ve gotten the most questions about where I find products. What are my favorite sources for rugs? Where did that table runner come from? When I did a survey back before my first blog anniversary, the biggest feedback I got across the board was that you guys wanted a shop of my picks and finds. I wasn’t sure what that would look like and I’ve really considered a lot of options. I really tossed around the idea of doing a shop with actual products I’ve found and sourced: vintage, yard sale finds, etc. that I find, store, and ship directly to you. And while I’ve almost bitten the bullet on that several times, I know at this point in the life of our brand, that isn’t smart. It would be so time intensive, I know I’d either not do a great job at it (few products, long shipping times) or the blog would majorly suffer, which is my first love. So, I came up with a different solution. This SHOP MY PICKS section is a curated shop where I’ve scoured the web (which I do almost every day anyway) and have collected my favorite finds for you! My main goal with sourcing things is to share items I absolutely love and either own or would 100% buy for myself. I’m looking for statement pieces in my style that are affordable! There are six main categories in the shop. Under HOME, you’ll find my current favorite furniture picks, rugs, art, decor, and lighting. In Entertaining, you’ll find my top tabletop picks. Under Seasonal, you’ll find my favorite fun items to celebrate the current holiday or season. And under Women, Accessories, and Kids, you’ll find the items I’m loving that really display our personal style. This is not a collection of random things I think other people will like. It’s a curated collection of what I love, am using, and often get questions about. These categories will be updated with my new faves several times a week, so that you’ve always got easy access to my favorite products out there! You can find links to this shop in the top bar and in the bottom section on every page. I think for now, that sums up this new site and where we’re headed. There are a lot of kinks we’re still working out and old content is still being categorized, so if it doesn’t seem perfect just yet, or you can’t find something, just give us a day or two and it’ll be better than ever! This one has been a little complex to get up and running, but I couldn’t wait another day to officially “announce” it and explain the major changes you may be seeing! Thanks so much for supporting White Buffalo on the journey we’ve been on these last two years. I’m truly humbled and honored that y’all have seen something in our dream and journey that you want to make a part of your lives. Thanks for sharing in this with us, friends. You all truly make this worthwhile. Here’s to this next year and all of the excitement it has to offer for all of us! Cheers! *** Have y’all seen the tassel necklace giveaway I’m running on Instagram with StillWellStyle? Just another reason to celebrate!
Whitney Shortt says September 30, 2015 at 2:29 pm Congratulations on year 2 and also the new site! It looks great! I’ve also seen God bringing His vision for my business into clearer focus in the last few months. Well, over the last three years really. It’s just much more has become clear to me in the last few months. It’s my goal goal to create a simple, but beautiful life for my family filled with passion and purpose. Thanks so much for sharing your journey and talents and good luck with year 3! Reply
Lindsay says September 30, 2015 at 11:02 pm Thank you so much, Whitney!!! I love seeing how God orchestrates and carries out adventure in our lives! Reply
Corinna - A Designer At Home says September 30, 2015 at 2:30 pm LOVE IT. I’m on mobile and have. No slider following me as I scroll. Just thought I’d mention it. Cheers to many more years of success! Reply
Lindsay says September 30, 2015 at 11:02 pm Mobile is still being finished, but it’ll look totally different 🙂 Thanks though! Reply
Kristin says October 1, 2015 at 9:19 pm the new site looks great! I am still waiting on things to be corrected with mine…I’m considering another redesign in the new year. I’ll have to check out your designer you mentioned 🙂 congrats on 2 years and here’s to many exciting things ahead!! xo Reply