Somewhere over the rainbow, way up high
There’s a land that I heard of once in a lullabySomewhere over the rainbow, skies are blue
And the dreams that you dare to dream, really do come true.Judy Garland
Dear mummy, you made the brave leap to change your blog design last week. After 18 months with the same free theme ‘Pachyderm’ and generic header you thought it was time for a change. Especially when you noticed other mummy bloggers using it!
We went to the bloggers ‘illustrator of choice’ Helen at Ellie Illustrates who is in such high demand that there is a waiting list for her services. We waited 6 weeks to get a slot. We wanted something that was personalised to us and loved her drawing style.
There were a couple of elements we wanted included in our blog design:
Rainbow: After my mummy’s post ‘the colours of my life’ we realised that a rainbow was the perfect backdrop. Songs like ‘over the rainbow’ rung true with my mummy.
This song means to dream big, beyond the rainbow, for all your troubles to be behind you. It’s a longing for happiness with a child like innocence. It describes a perfect world from a child’s point of view using images like rainbows, blue birds, lemon drops, lullaby. It may seem like a fairy tale but to a child everything is possible, dreams really do come true. If we all saw the world as children do, we would be more optimistic and hopeful.
Pot of Gold: Luck of the Irish (we have Irish roots) and striving to reach our goals, we’re always on the hunt for our little pot of gold.
Tagline: From Baby to Little Lady, this sums up our blog perfectly as we track Isabella’s journey from babyhood into adulthood. Jeeze – that’s a really long time!
From day to night: Our blog sometimes feels that it’s 24hrs! Often with us blogging, researching, chatting on social media way into the early hours!
Embellishments: Balloons, camera, teddy bears, shoes, sunglasses are some of my favourite items!
We wanted something that reflected our family journey. My mummy sketched an idea and when our turn finally came we sent it to Helen to work her magic on. After 2 proofs she created something absolutely magical and that we are very proud to call our own.
Helen supplied all our social media banners, avatar and blog header and also gave us tips on the theme and CSS. The perfect blogging design toolkit.
We also got this superb family portrait to capture our little family, based on photos we supplied to Helen, I hope you agree that she did a great job illustrating us!
If you are looking for a blog refresh then we would definitely recommend Helen at Ellie Illustrates, she was super professional and really speedy with her turnarounds, but be quick she is really popular!
Love Bella, her Mummy Dawn and Daddy Alex x
dearmummyblog.com 
Thank you SO much! You gorgeous lady you xx
No, thank you! You did a great job and we are really pleased x
Oh wow! It is so gorgeous and pretty! I have had heard wonderful things about Ellie Illustrates x
Helen at Ellie Illustrates is one talented lady. So in love with all her designs!
Loving the update, t all flows so nicely and looks beautiful! x
Thanks, it’s getting there x baby steps….next big step will be going self hosted at the end of the year so we can get plugins like CommentLuv etc.. Just for now we’re going to see how the blog pans out x
Such a lovely header! xxx
I LOVE the new design – it’s so personal and eye-catching too – love it! Now I want to redo mine tooooo 🙂 Mim x #twinklytuesday
I think Helen is going to get inundated 😉 hehe x thanks for commenting on #TwinklyTuesday x
She’s done a beautiful job – it looks fabulous!
Thank you x
Oh she is absolutely talented! We had our blog design created by Helen too and I get so many compliments. Well done Helen on another cracking design!
Yup one talented lady! We’ve had so many lovely comments! 🙂
I spotted your new logo a few weeks ago and I admired it! it looks absolutely brilliant and I love how colourful it is xx #twinklytuesday
Thank you. We’ve got a thing for rainbows 😉 x
Wow, it looks fab! Such gorgeous illustrations and I love how personal it is. Helen is so talented!
Becky xx
#TwinklyTuesday
Thank you Becky! x
I absolutely adore this! It’s the sort of thing I would have too! Fantastic design xx #twinklytuesday
Thanks Sarah! 🙂
That’s a beautiful design, the picture of all three of yiu is stunning and it’s so you! Marvellous job. Have a lovelynweek
Thanks for stopping by! You too 🙂
Lovely new design! I still remember the old one but this is definitely something better & brighter =) #twinklytuesday
Ah thanks! Hopefully it’s built to last now… xxx
A beautiful new design. I love all the Ellie Illustrates blog designs. She seems to have a real eye for capturing the person behind the blog. Hugs Mrs H xxxx #TwinklyTuesday
I like the new design – clean, clear and distinctive.
Lovely design! It makes the blog so much more special that it has been personalised for you and including some things that mean something to you. Lots of luck as you continue to develop your blog and thank you for linking up to #SundayStars
Lovely! I haven’t heard of wondrous Elle Illustrates but considering a redesign so very happy reading this. Looks fab, well done. #twinklytuesday
Yes that should have read ‘Ellie’!
I love both the vision and the execution. Just perfect!! Thanks for linking with #TwinklyTuesday.