I’ve totally found myself doing this “making inferences” about what my wonderful audience may be thinking after reading my blog post titles. So, let me try it out, again, in this blog post.

Hmm . . . I think I know what you might be thinking. Right about now, you’re anticipating a discussion on the topic of dressing for success LITERALLY with the perfect wardrobe for your future ideal career. Oh, and let’s not forget the matching accessories, to boot. Am I right or am I wrong?

Maybe I’m wrong. And just maybe you read today’s blog post title and went directly to the idea of dressing yourself figuratively  — like dressing your inner being with the suitable knowledge, skills, and abilities to carry out the part (whatever that part is) to near perfection. Am I right or did I miss the mark again?

Either way, I guess I’ll stop guessing and move on to tell you that . . .

None of the above are true. And so, here’s the real deal: I’m giving you an update today on the appearance of the Degrees of Maternity blog. Yes, I made some changes but no drastic overhauls by any means.

As a matter of fact, if you haven’t been a close observer of my “Home” page, you might not even recognize that any changes were made. But for those with an eagle eye, I wanted to let you know what’s up.

Now, you may or may not have remembered me mentioning my intention to give Degrees of Maternity somewhat of a facelift. So, to make sure everyone’s on the same page, I’m going to pull out a snippet from my blog post entitled Blogging Truths Be Told: You Can’t Always Judge a Book By Its . . . (published on February 5, 2021). It states:

But what really irks me about this human tendency to pass judgment calls is that, while these blog critiques that form opinions based on the “surface stuff” seem more insignificant to me than when the focus is actually on the content itself, I have to pay attention to ALL the things that matter to a reading audience and eventually make some changes based on them. 

“Why do I have to pay attention to these things?” you might ask. 

Well, they are those first impressionable expectations that people gravitate toward. That’s the truth and nothing but.

I’m aware that, if you want to make a favorable first impression with someone, then you have to go with what positively captures his or her attention. Unfortunately, some of the things that I don’t personally think are the most important aspects of a blog are what initially get peoples’ attention. And, I have to pay attention to that. You know what I mean? 

It’s like that surface stuff is the draw that causes someone to delve a little deeper into what a blogger’s site is all about.

Furthermore, I went on to discuss, in the companion post entitled Blogging Truths Be Told: You Can’t Always Judge a Book By Its . . . – (Part 2), what I planned on doing about this “surface stuff” (blog site appearance attributes) I intended to work on. And so, I followed up by stating:

And here’s a brief but probable list of some of the blog site “housekeeping” and revamping items I will, more than likely, give some attention to:

1. clean-up efforts to make sure my posts are catalogued in the appropriate categories (already started on this one and will work on continuously)
2. the switching of my domain name to degreesofmaternity.com
3. an upgrade to the next plan as a WordPress.com user to the “Business Plan”
4. a change to the header and theme of my blog site
5. If you thought there was a fifth item, what were you thinking? All of the above “surface stuff” items are waaaaayyy more than enough new shiny objects to chase this summer. MORE THAN ENOUGH!

If you’ll direct your attention to item #5, I mentioned that I was looking to get going on this project in the summer — that would be the summer of 2021 in fact. And it was February 2021 at the time that I wrote the words, highlighted above. Oh, and what summer are we getting ready to approach at this point in our timelines? (It’s not a trick question.) And furthermore, have you noticed any of the first four items being completed right about now?

Well . . .

I have done something, so there! Hee. Hee. Yes, I have managed to finally get item #1 on the list completed. Woo hoo! That’s one step in the right direction with three more to go. And, I’ve decided to take my time on the next three, because they’re going to require a financial investment that I’m not prepared to cough up at the moment.

But, getting back to item #1. Let’s just take a look, shall we? On the “Home” page, I updated a few things.

• I decreased the number of categories overall.
• I made the titles of the categories more succinct.
• I combined some of the old categories to make a new one.
• I renamed some of the categories to make them more representative of their content.
• I moved blog posts into the new categories, where appropriate.
• I deleted out the old categories, once the posts (within them) were moved into their new residences.
• I proceeded to fix some wording choices in some of the posts as I was moving them along.

The last item wasn’t mentioned as one of the initial four in the list, but I will be working on updating blog posts from time to time, doing a quick edit job and freshening them up a bit.

Also, I can’t leave out the fact that I deleted one of the pages in the top menu: “Shop Products (on WordPress).” I added this menu option during the “Creative Movement” 30-Day Challenge. But quite frankly, it has resulted into unnecessary fluff that wasn’t providing any added value and really wasn’t needed in the first place, since the “Shop Products (on Etsy and TpT)” page performs the same function. So, I nixed that menu item.

Overall, the “Home” page looks cleaner and more user-friendly than it’s been for some time. I like it. Now, for the rest of the surface stuff.

Honestly, the rest of the items will have to wait until I can shell out the funds to have the site professionally revamped. WordPress has a crew that does just that, and I’m thinking about hiring their services to give Degrees of Maternity a simple overhaul. And no, the overhaul is not simple enough for ME to do. I ain’t DIYing this one. (Leave it to me to delete half of my 500+ blog posts, trying to update and switch things over.) No, sir. No, ma’am. This job is going to the professionals.

Completion date for Project Simple Overhaul is yet to be determined.