Over the weekend, we made a few updates and improvements on our little corner of the blogosphere. And in case, you haven’t noticed, or have any questions, I wanted to walk you through it.

First, we changed up the background from yellow chevron to this gray pattern Wyatt made. It’s a lot simpler and less distracting. Although the chevron was cute, right? Here’s what it looked like before, if you need a refresher.

We also added a new header, which I assume you all noticed. It’s just a little fun update we think goes well with the gray background.

The sidebar has seen a big update, too. With a new little bio, although it’s similar to the old one, and a sleeker design.

Have you noticed the tabs over there (Hi, Subscribe, Be Social, Thanks)? Click around and explore if you’d like!

Then, you’ll also notice a few ads in the sidebar now. It’s important to note that we do not necessarily endorse these ads, nor choose them. We signed up with Google ad words and now you’ll see several ads in our sidebar.

Since we’re new to the program, we haven’t had time to fully sort out the details, but basically, we know we can “thumbs down” certain ads (things that are offensive or crazy) so please, please send us a note or leave a comment if you ever see anything that’s bothersome and we’ll see if we can take care of it. We are excited about the opportunity to earn a very, very modest amount of money from this blog, but we of course want to stay classy and relevant.

And hopefully, you’ll see a few ads that are interesting and relevant.

Plus, in the hopes of always being so honest with you guys, I thought it would be fun to share our very first penny earned on the blog! Fun, plus a little lame since it takes like an entire day to earn a single penny.

There are also sponsorships available. You’ll see a few place holders there now but there are spaces available. If you have a product or a store or a blog you’d like to promote, feel free to email us for rates and opportunities!

You’ll be able to tell the difference between sponsor ads (like the one on the right for Kidmia), and Google ads by the little blue diamond in the upper right corner.

There are also a few affiliates in the sidebar, Ebates, and Groupon, because we like both of those sites and think you all might as well. (In case you’re curious, affiliate links mean that we receive a bonus credit for anyone that signs up and purchases a product through our invitation link. It’s basically a way for websites to reward people for referring someone else to the site, like the way you might get a referral discount for inviting someone to use the same dry cleaner or mechanic that you do. And we’ll always disclose when an affiliate link is used.)

Of course, the sidebar has more than just ads. You can also find links to some of our most popular posts, our Twitter feeds, Instagram feeds, and even a cloud of our most used tags (key words found in our posts). So, feel free to click around and explore the sidebar. And hopefully the ads won’t distract at all from the content. If you ever feel it does, don’t hesitate to contact us at melissa (at) lovinghere.com.

Also, stay tuned for a few more updates as we move forward and try to make this little blog as fun and functional as possible!

And now, tell us, what’s your favorite part of the remodel? I personally think Wyatt did the best job ever with his background revamp. He also rewrote and edited a bunch of code as we switched some colors and other functions around. But maybe the ads are a bit more exciting.

Also, we announced and emailed our blogiversary winners. Go check to see who the lucky winners were! And if it isn’t you, don’t worry, we’re already planning another giveaway for Christmas!