Two years ago today, I started this blog.

I’m not sure what to feel about that number.  Two.  In a way, it feels as though it’s been so much longer.  Over the past two years this blog has seen an engagement and a wedding, a job change, it’s seen death, and flowers, and a baby shower for the mommy of a little guy that I now watch grow bigger and bigger nearly every week.  It feels like two years can’t possibly contain all of those things.

And yet, it feels like I’m only just starting here.  Not as in, “it feels like May 9, 2009 was yesterday.”  No, the above paragraph still holds true.  But more like, this space is finally becoming what I never/always knew it would.  Which is why, as of today, things are looking different.

I’ve known for a while that a change was in order, so I started working on a redesign for this site at the beginning of the year.  I cannot tell you exactly how many iterations it went through.  Three general designs, maybe, with five or so variations on each, plus a lot bit of cursing and a bazillion few tears along the way.  It is immensely difficult to take something in your head, something with no shape or color, and turn it into a visual, intelligible product.  It’s even further difficult to make it into something that looks polished and cohesive—and I’m not at all claiming to have done that.  What I have done, though, is turned this space into something that I love, and I am hoping that you like it as well.

Also, for all the hair-pulling and teeth-gnashing that I did to get to this point, I have to say: Designers, you are awesome.  I have a whole new respect for what you do.  Thank you for making things nicer to look at and better to use, and props for making it look easy—because it’s totally, totally not.

So.  Let me tell you a bit about what’s new.

This space is now designed for the way you use it.  You don’t spend a whole lot of time on the homepage, so now it’s just a stopping point, a place to point you in the direction of where you really want to go.  You asked me for a list of places to eat out safely.  Well, I’ve (hopefully) done you one better and made you a map.  Very soon, recipes will be printable and the index will be more thoroughly sorted.  Looking for dairy free?  You got it.  Dessert?  Done.

The sections of this site remain basically the same, though I’ve added an “In the Garden” area for those of you interested in all things green.  If you want to know more about each section, head on over to the About page.

In the interest of full disclosure, I also want to let you know that I am planning to run ads here—quite literally to help pay for groceries.  Recipe testing is no small task and I want to bring you as many solid recipes as I possibly can.  I will put forth every effort to make the ads unobtrusive, tasteful, and relevant.

There may be some hiccups over the next week or two, but please stick with me.  We’ve essentially moved into the new house, and we’re still waiting for some of the furnishings to arrive…you know how moving goes.  We’re trying very hard to get everything in place as quickly and smoothly as we can.

And speaking of getting things into place, my husband—my talented, patient, supportive husband!—deserves all the credit for taking the static sheets that I put together in Photoshop over the past few months and making them the clickable reality that you see in front of you right now.  He didn’t just modify an existing template.  He took what was essentially a glorified drawing and built it from the ground up.  I am so deeply impressed—not to mention how incredibly lucky and moved I feel that he was willing to dedicate entire days to this implementation (and we’re still not done!).  It may be my voice on these pages, but this site is ours now.

And it’s yours too.

As I said, this new design was informed almost entirely by how you’ve spent your time here and by what you told me you wanted to see.  Thank you for your feedback.  You guys are the reason I’ve kept this up for two whole years and the reason I see this place becoming an even bigger part of my life in the years to come.  It’s you, stopping by to tell me how thrilled you are to have your biscuits back, sharing your own misadventures in gardening, and expressing the most genuine excitement over being able to quell your pregnancy cravings with a batch of gluten-free cheese crackers.  For all the reasons I started, you’re the reason I’m still here now.  It hardly even matters that these recipes came from my kitchen—it’s more important that they’ve found a way into yours.

Two years.  Thank you.

Here’s hoping for many more.