As you probably noticed, this blog has gotten a huge facelift. It’s brighter, less saggy, and more professional looking. I was getting sick of looking at the old theme, and there were so many issues with it (like not being able to see threaded comments or have threaded comments), the code on the pages became visible after I upgraded the wordpress editions, and the sidebars were too narrow and things often got cut off. It was just frustrating, sometimes I would spend HOURS (and days) trying to fix something and studying the CSS or whatnot to try and adjust things a bit. Now I learned my lesson and I won’t touch anything lol or else it might screw up the theme/ appearance of the blog.
It was about time I invested in this blog, and I’m loving the design and the look of it so far. It was great working with The Dividend Ninja who was basically the mastermind behind this entire design. He even got me to give up the old yellow-green apples on my header and replaced them with juicier, less stale looking apples. 
It was great to be able to meet up with him and describe what I wanted to see.
So my dear readers, thanks for putting up with the wonkiness of my website the past few weeks (the right sidebar completely disappeared one day- it was good timing because I was already starting to work on the new site with The Dividend Ninja!).
What do you think of the new look?
PF Blog Love
This week’s link love has a lot of girl power! (With the exception of the boys, TDN, PIE, and RB40, of course). Have a great weekend!
- Gotta give a shoutout to the designer of this new facelift The Dividend Ninja lists part 2 of the 2012 Canadian Stock Picks
- The Passive Income Earner updates us with his first 2012 dividend income update. His goal is to get $7000 income in dividend stocks for 2012.
- Also gotta give a shoutout to Give Me Back My Five Bucks who will be leaving for Germany very soon!
- Retire By 40 asks if you are falling down the frugality rabbit hole. Is minimalism the new black?
- Thirty Six Months shares some great tips on how to use tools to help you pay your bills online and save money
- Yes I am Cheap also got a facelift and looks almost as good as me (just kidding Sandy!) She’s also celebrating her 3 year blogiversary!
- Aloysa from the Broken Coin gives us a few things you really should be cheap about
- Prairie Eco Thrifter shares the Top 20 Foods that increase your brain power. I think I’ll need all 20, please.
- Little House explains why she’s not stepping on the gas pedal to buy a home yet
- Lindy Mint has a great guest post on how you can work from home.. and make money!
Have a great weekend guys!
Love the new look! The apples are very dynamic and eye catching. Much better than the old apples.
Thanks for the mention and have a great weekend!
@retirebyforty- Thank you- hope you and the fam have a great weekend too.
I think it looks great!
@Michelle- Thanks for your feedback!
The new blog design looks BEAUTIFUL, congrats!!
The tweets section at the bottom seems to not be working though.
Are you guys going to have another Vancouver PF blog meet-up before Krystal leaves for Germany?
@Leigh- I just checked and it looks okay to me
Oh, actually Krystal and I went on a dinner date the other day! I managed to catch her before she became too busy with packing lol.
Hmmm. I can’t see it in Chrome, but it looks fine in Firefox and IE. Maybe my ad blocker plugin is blocking it?
OMG You now have threaded comments!!! Bee-utiful!!
@Leigh- I know, it’s like a weight has been lifted off my shoulders! Real threaded comments! This is better than Christmas, I swear.
Y&T It was a real pleasure to work with you!
And even though I designed it (so my opinion may be biased) I think it looks great! You have a huge readership and a well established blog, so the new design will help take it to the next level. Can’t wait to see how it all unfolds…
I noticed the bulleted list items and comments are a tad small in font size, I’ll increase those up a bit
Cheers and enjoy!
Dividend Ninja
@The Dividend Ninja- THANK YOU! hahaha it was like a mini-marriage. So much compromise lol!! Thanks for putting up with me and my indecisiveness!
So let me get this straight
We were married for 2 weeks, you compromised, and we put up with each other – and then you paid me. No honeymoon and no co-hab agreement. Is that kinda like how it happened?
Seriously Y&T it was my pleasure, and I really enjoyed designing and working on the site for you. It’s all about the apples LOL!
@TDN- Hahaha… yeah. that’s how it happened. lol
I love the new facelift. The new apples look great. I think I might have to give him a call.
Thanks for the inclusion this week. I really appreciate it.
@Miss T- Yes you totally should. He is a machine. Worked on it so quickly!
I like the new design. The granny smith apple really stands out although I am partial to Fuji apples!
I agree, Fuji taste the best, but are a lot less pretty
@Lindy Mint- I love Fuji apples
They’re my favourite too.
@Steve- lol, but Fuji apples are red! So then my whole marketing “brand” would just be obsolete.
The site looks great!
Thanks the the link love!
Marissa- Yay! Glad u like it.
Daaaaaaahling, I loooove what you’ve doooone with the place!
Seriously thought, nice facelift. Your site looks great
@Cassie- Thanks girlll!! I feel like this is a housewarming/ blogwarming party lol.
It is really odd. I got the pingback to my post (THANK YOU!!!) but I cannot see you mentioning it in your actual article??? Is that just my computer?
LOVE the new look!
@Aloysa- Really? I just checked- it’s the 4th from the bottom
Love the new design, Y&T! Although I’m not too sure about the ‘saggy’ description of the old design
@Echo- C’mon Echo you know it was saggy lol. It just sucked the life out of me whenever I looked at it.
Thank you for the mention! I love the new design, including the new juicy apples.
Congrats on the redesign and thanks for featuring my guest post on Retire by 40.
@Forest Parks- Thanks- and you’re welcome.
Loving the new look! Thanks for all the links!
@ff- Hope you have some good weekend reading ahead of you
I’m happy you like the look!
Thanks for mentioning my little homespun redesign. Nothing so fresh and juicy looking as your very moist apples.
@yes I am cheap- haha very moist apples. I like your redesign- it’s more crisp too!
WOW, great new look!!!!!!!!!!!
You and the Ninja make a great design team. Well done and congrats Y&T.
Your old design wasn’t bad – but this one – is WAAY better
Awesome work Ninja!
Have a great weekend,
Mark
@MOA- I think the pivotal moment that made me switch the design was when I was searching for something on google, and I saw the exact same design! hahaah I thought it was my own blog for a moment and then it really wasn’t. Realized I should try and be more unique.
I agree- awesome work Ninja!!!
I give a glowing recommendation- The Dividend Ninja is a coding machine!
Love the new design. That apple looks so good; I want to take a bite. I have one suggestion which is to get custom social media icons (twitter, facebook etc.) that match the design.
@Kay Lynn- Thanks! Are you suggesting a green design? I really like the neon media icons right now- I’m not sure why I like them so much, but I like their colours.
Congrats on the new design YT!
I love it and now I am starting to think I need one too
@BTI- Really? I love your design! I love the logo you have- the bullseye is a great logo.
Love to the new look. Very fresh and clean. Kind of like Apple, not the fruit, but the company!
@Kraig- Thanks for the flattery! Maybe Apple will buy this blog….. lol
Y&T You are now a trend setter! Glad you took the redesign plunge
Wow, I am really liking the new look Y&T! I need to redesign my site, too, but haven’t gotten around to it yet. Coming up with a new theme & design is the hardest part.
@Invest it Wisely- If you have a designer who has a vision, it’s pretty easy! I think it helps that you meet the person in person.
I like the new look! The apples look fantastic (and this is coming from someone who doesn’t eat apples…shocking, isn’t it?)!
@PAM- What? No apples- you’re missing out! Haven’t you heard of Adam and Eve?
I think this design sucks… the old one was quite a bit better… how much did you pay this guy again…
*Insert awkward pause here*
JK obviously. Great job DN. It looks sweet, but you guys both already knew that. I mean, it might look better if the theme were in blue and it had “My University Money” on it, but other than that, top notch (everyone was just gushing around here, so I thought I would bring by peculiar brand of levity to the party).
@MUM- Are you trying to take the place of Financial Uproar and be a contrarian just for the sake of being one?
Your theme is pretty awesome! Did you design it yourself?
F U (is there a better abbreviating where Nelson is concerned) has been rubbing off on me ever since he started writing for us.
I have to give my partner JB 100% of the credit on that theme. He is always tinkering with the speed and doing all of the stuff I hate!
@MUM- Ahh so JB does the tinkering and you do the writing! Dynamic duo!
What a fab new style! Looks great
!
@tinysarah- Thank you!
Site looks great, love the work you have done. It can be an absolute pain to rework your site and get everything right again, but this was definitely worth any pain you suffered!
@Shaun- Thanks! I didn’t suffer any pain to be honest, I think it was mainly dividend ninja who suffered! I’m just glad I have threaded comments now, they look so beautiful.
@young I absolutely love the new look, as I stated in one of your previous posts. It’s fabulous, and I’m sorry the old one was causing you so much frustration. Again, you ended up with a wonderful looking site. Congrats!
Looks great! Definitely much smoother and more user-friendly than the old one.
@MIT- Yay! Glad to hear and thanks for visiting.
Looks great! Looks like you had a productive weekend! Will have to find some time and learn how to revamp our site!
@yvrdad- Dividend Ninja was the one who was productive
I just said “uh huh, uh huh… uhh how do I do that?”
Wow, it looks so sweet YT! Definitely a good move to give the site an overhaul. The old layout felt like home to me but it definitely had some problems. This redesign really keeps well with the old design just better so it still kinda feels like home when I come here
@SavingMentor- Thanks! I like it to feel like home- I’m a creature of habit, as you can probably tell.
I’ve wanted to reply to a reply from you like this for SOOOOOO long. FINALLY!
@SavingMentor- LOLLLL I almost cried when I saw this functionality too! It’s been a long time!