I haz a pretty!

So what do you think?

I know right!?!?

I don’t even know how to begin this post because all I want to do is stare at the goodness that is now ALifeChangingJourney. When I first began blogging I had no idea that I would come to think of this place almost like a sanctuary. That I would find as much comfort as I have each time I place my fingers on the keyboard and begin to let the words come from a place that I had no idea even existed.

I thought this would just be a blog.

It has become so much more.

It has become a place where I’ve learned about myself in ways I never imagined. I have felt the ups and downs of losing weight here. I have felts the experiences of making life changing decisions to take control and move forward here. I’ve forged deep friendships here, both in real life and those only known through words on a page. I’ve moved out of my comfort zone here and into territories never expected. I’ve cried, laughed, complained, moved, ran, raced, started, finished, contemplated, forgave and loved here.

This is home here.

When I changed the name from 263andcounting to ALifeChangingJourney, something clicked. The blog became even more important to me. It became a brand. It took on a whole new meaning: It became me. I began to think about what it would look like to make actual physical changes to the way the website looked. What did ALifeChangingJourney look like? What would my logo look like? Do I get business cards? Do I dare take the jump and begin the path of making ALifeChangingJourney something even bigger?

You Better Fucking Believe It!

So here we are!

I want to take a moment to give some proper thanks to the two people that helped me put this together. In case you didn’t know this: I have no idea how to do things like find logos, make business cards and change layouts. You ask me what kind of font I want or if I want to use a plug in and my eyes sort of glaze over.

So I recruited!

Leaving FatVille

Sweet Ass Business Cards

Anda is the brains behind the logo. When we first started talking about what I wanted, I had no clue. All I knew is I liked the idea of an actual fork in the road. It seemed so profound. Seemed to sum up everything that represented not only my journey but the journey of all of us. I literally said “I don’t know what I want so go forth and create magic”…

And she did.

She said I was an easy client. Not too picky. Not too demanding. But when you have no idea what you want and the first rough draft of a logo is exactly what you had in mind, there isn’t much to do but fall in love with what is now my brand. The process of finalizing everything exactly the way I wanted it to printing the first batch was seamless. During the back and forth discussion of colors and fonts (eye glazing) I happen to mention that I might be looking to change the layout of my blog to match my new (ass kicking) business card. The logo was me. Looking down the highway of life, making changes and the old layout no longer matched my vision for ALifeChangingJourney.

She knew the perfect person.

Fit and Free Emily

Talk about telling someone to create magic. The first time I saw the rough design of what the blog would look like I wanted to wrap my arms around her and say “HOLY CRAP!!! IT’S AWESOME”. Lucky for her we only know each other via computer (until fitbloggin!!!) cause I probably would have scared the bejeebies out of her as I tackled her to the floor in excitement. Nothing here is my idea. I gave her free range and she came through with flying colors. I love that the green on the business card matches the green here. I love the paved background. I love my little buttons down there (I had no idea those things are called plug ins). I love that when you mouse over a link it turns green (squee!). I love my twitter feed. I love that my smiling face is right there looking out at the world saying “That’s right, that’s my face and hot damn I look good!”

Both Anda and Emily took what was in my head as just a fleeting thought and brought to life exactly what I was looking for: A brand and website that represented not only me as a person but also brought a deeper connection to a place I’ve come to love: ALifeChangingJourney.

Thanks girls!

Mad props to the both of you!!!