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60 Ultimate Cookie Exchange Recipes {and When It's Time to End It}

If you're looking for a winning recipe for your holiday cookie swaps, then scroll through this round-up  of 60 Ultimate Cookie Exchange Recipes on Taste As You Go!   Do you ever get That Feeling in your gut when you realize that what once brought you happiness now fills you with dread? You know the one... It's That Same Feeling that causes you to ask yourself repeatedly " Why am I doing this again?" I've been trying to battle that super persistent feeling for the past few weeks by giving myself little pep talks: "Don't give up now. You DO want to do this!"  "Don't you remember how much you used to love doing this? Just keep going!" " Do it one more time and you'll see -- everything will be fine. You'll feel much better once you get it over with." But no matter how many times I tried to get excited about it, I found a reason to avoid doing it. (Thank you, Caroline.) That's when I knew it was time to e...

New Website Design and an Award

Adopt a Blogger Button

Being able to participate in the Adopt a Blogger program and having Sara of Ms. Adventures of Italy as my mentor has already done me a world of good. She keeps giving me wonderful things to think about as I continue to blog and as I continue to carve out a niche for myself. While I'm still figuring out a satisfactory answer to Sara's first question ("What do you spend time discovering, finding, tasting, sharing?"), I decided to tackle her second question head-on: "What's one area where you'd like to improve?"

My answer was actually two-fold: to improve upon the originality of my recipes and to improve upon Taste As You Go's website design. Obviously, the first part of my answer is going to take time. But I knew I could work on the second part of my answer if I allowed myself enough time to focus on the task. It turns out that being stuck at home on a Saturday with some random stomach bug gave me all the time I needed to revamp the website.

Honestly, I've been wanting to give the blog a facelift after only a few months of writing. I wanted something simple and clean that avoided too much clutter in the sidebar. I wanted something that would allow my pictures to pop and to attract the eyes of my readers. And, damn it, I wanted a header image that would reinforce the fact that Taste As You Go is, indeed, a food blog. After fiddling around for a couple of hours, here's what I came up with:

Taste As You Go Header Image

Oh, but I didn't stop there! For those who read Taste As You Go in a feed aggregator or for those who receive updates via email, be sure you click through to see the updates I've made to the blog design!

Sisterhood Award

The unveiling of the site's new design seems like the perfect time to discuss the Sisterhood Award that was given to me by Sue of Food Network Musings. I met Sue at the very first Foodbuzz Featured Publishers event I attended, which also happened to be the event where I won a gift certificate for dinner at The River Cafe! She was, in my opinion, the three Fs -- friendly, funny, and forward. Sue was an immediate new friend and I knew I could count on her to get up to the front and to get the perfect pictures of all of the food and to get Chef Steelman to answer all of her answers (and then some). Seriously, I should be the one passing on this award to Sue because she so openly welcomed a new food blogger into the fold and started offering advice and tips without blinking an eye. Thank you, Sue!

The Sisterhood Award is for our blogging sisters who show great attitude and gratitude. And with the Award comes the rules:
  1. Put the logo on your blog or post.
  2. Nominate up to ten blogs which show great attitude and/or gratitude.
  3. Be sure to link to your nominees within your post.
  4. Let the nominees know they have received this award by commenting on their blog or sending them an email.
  5. Remember to link to the person from whom you received the award.

I'd like to pass the Sisterhood Award to the following:
  1. Joan from FOODALOGUE
  2. Gail from The Pink Peppercorn
  3. Jo from The Adventures of Kitchen Girl
  4. Shelby from The Life and Loves of Grumpy's Honeybunch

Thank you, ladies, for being such an inspiration!

What do you think of Taste As You Go's new design? Who do you find inspirational? Leave a comment and let me know!

If you liked this post, consider subscribing to Taste As You Go’s RSS feed or subscribing via email so you don’t miss a thing!

Comments

  1. Thanks for the award! I will pass it on as soon as I can. I very much like your new design (though of course now I can't remember the old!) The photo mosaic of you eating says it all and is perfect for Taste As You Go. I also like the all the white background, and your writing style.

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  2. awww thank you sweetie :) *hugs* I love the new look for your blog... clean and simple... which is really a good thing, I think. Easy to navigate and not cluttered! Wonderful!

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  3. Joan - You're very welcome for the award! The old design was made up of more muted colors (think light olive green and tan) with green flourishes in the corners. I'm thinking now that I should have taken a "before" screenshot to go along with the "after"!

    Thanks for your comments about the new design and my writing. I'm pretty proud of that photo header image, though I'm embarrassed by how long it took me to get it "just right"! :)

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  4. Doggybloggy - Thanks! Much like you, I decided I preferred a simple, clean white background.

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  5. Jo - You're welcome, Jo! And I'm glad you like the changes I made to the design of the blog. Now that the design has been "fixed," I can start working on beefing up the content! ;-)

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  6. Thanks Michelle! Looks good! I'd like a new look myself but just haven't had time or knowledge to do so! Have been thinking about getting my son to help me, computer whiz that he is!

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  7. HoneyB - Thanks, Shelby! I actually added a new comment feature after posting the announcement about the new design (I knew I should have waited to make that announcement!), so there are still improvements to be made. So far, I'm loving the new look. :)

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  8. WOW!!! Thank you so much! Your blog rocks - and so do you!! Thank you, thank you, thank you!!

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  9. Gail - You deserve it, Gail! I love your blog, as well, and am always happy to see a new post from you sitting in my Google Reader. :)

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  10. AnonymousMay 17, 2009

    michelle, i love your new design. and those photos are perfect. i'm esp excited to see the giant spoon one made the cut!

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  11. talesofexpansion - Thanks, Sarah! I think the picture of the giant spoon looks better when it's reduced in size by 25%. ;-)!

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  12. Michelle - Much better! The green colors never looked right on my browser for some reason, now i can read it.

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  13. Karen - Thank you! I'm mortified to hear that the color scheme of the previous design looked funny to you. Glad you can read it now! :)

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  14. Congrats for the award! and very nice & clean new design!
    I like the new header with your photos also, a very personal touch :)

    Cheers!

    Gera

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  15. Gera @ SweetsFoods - Thanks, Gera! I really love the clean look of the blog now, too. And the photos just work! :)

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  16. Love you, Michelle!!! You deserve that award. Ditto about how fun you are...especially at a food event.

    Love from one of your BBB's*,
    Sue

    * Best Blogging Buddies

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  17. Sue - You are a darling! I swear, I'll write about the Foodbuzz event soon... Life is getting in the way of this blogging business. ;-)

    We should plan a non-Foodbuzz food event. Just for fun!

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  18. Web Design India - Thanks!

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  19. Nice....thanks for sharing this post.

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  20. Website Redesign New York - Thanks for visiting and for the comment!

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