Scarlett Pannebaker

For those of you that rarely come out of Feedly/Bloglovin', today is the day you must click through that wall. Because the old bloggity blog received a FANCY facelift and I'm abnormally excited about this re-design.

I knew I'd eventually hire Stephanie at How Sweet Designs again since she did an amazing job with my previous design two years ago. I mean, it was a must for me since Porter was not in the old header or profile and I'm in a major 'must update everything in the house/life to reflect Porter's addition to the family' phase.

Plus, I really wanted my site to look cleaner, sleeker, and run a little faster. Heaven forbid I stop using hundreds of photos per post! I was ready for a change to add Porter and subtract some of the busyness, and began scouring other blogs and Pinterest for inspiration.

So I created a long list of 'must haves' on my phone and became a really annoying client for Stephanie YET AGAIN, because I had so many (very specific) ideas. It all came together beautifully and I'm truly in love with the new design.

I think the new header is my favorite part. It's simple, I love the font/style, and wanted to have all of those navigation tabs on top and bottom to make everything easy to find. It's a little embarrassing to admit how happy two little bars of blog tabs make me right now. Take a look around and you might find a few brand new tabs, like 'birth stories', 'popular DIY posts', 'advertise' and 'reviews.' I also spent a ridiculous amount of time updating the other tabs--especially 'kids gear', but most of the others should all be up-to-date, also.

You'll find a new tag line that took me a solid few weeks to create;)

A new profile picture and description.

A super fancy 'Pin It' hover option over my images, along with the ability to follow me or share a post through social media. About time, huh?

I hope the new design makes the site load a little quicker, makes it easier to navigate (oh, I have a 'search this blog' option, too!), and that commenting is easy as well. Because I always love to hear from you, dear readers.

In celebration of the new design and as a way to say 'thank you' for taking the time to read my blog, I wanted to do a little giveaway. I *had* planned to do something special when I published my 1000th post on this blog but apparently that was 42 posts ago. Oops. So consider this a 'yay, new blog design' and 'yay, blog has been around for 1000+ posts) celebration. And a 'thank you for reading' type of thing, too.

Up for grabs: A $50 Target Gift Card. You'd have to use it on something fun for yourself though, alright?

Enter the Rafflecopter giveaway below and tell me a little about yourself. How long have you been reading my blog? Are you a mom? Do you dig the new design? Play around a little bit and let me know if anything needs to be fixed, or updated. You gain additional entries by following me on IG @mrsjuliagoolia and FB at My Life in Transition Blog.

Also, if you have a blog and are interested in treating it to a little nip and tuck like mine, Stephanie is giving $10 off her base package to my readers until October 1st. Just mention that I referred you and have fun!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

And the winner is comment #22, RasinKanes!


Congrats!! I will email you shortly!

And the winner is...

comment #85 by TJ and Amy



Congrats, Amy! I will have Shabby Apple email you at the address you provided. Enjoy your gift card!

When a representative from Just Pretend Kids emailed me and asked if I wanted to do a review and a giveaway, I had to check out the site first since I hadn't heard of it before. But then I saw that they have a ton of costumes and dress up dresses, and I was in---even though I already had the kids' Halloween costumes. Because princess CC doesn't yet have a dress up dress, and I saw this pink one and immediately knew she'd rock it.

I can't get over her in this! Such a princess!

Now the Just Pretend Kids clothing is all high-end, made of soft and durable fabrics, without itchy and stiff seams. I figured that ordering a size 4 dress would mean my petite girl would probably swim in it right now but we could get a lot of use over the years. But it's really not TOO big for her now and so I think we'll get even more wears out of it as Princess C grows. Because seriously? The layered, glittery skirt and the rosettes and the sheen? Too much. This is one amazing dress up outfit, no?




Cecelia loves twirling in it and started doing that without being prompted---so maybe it's some sort of intuitive thing about a puffy dress on a little girl;) The smile on her face when she wears this dress pretty much says it all---miss hard-to-please is a big fan.

Every night I tell the kids one story that involves 'CC Princess and Prince Truman'----I've done this for many months. But now I specify that CC Princess wears her beautiful pink dress in this story. She eats it up, of course.


And the details are pretty incredible.



Cecelia loves this dress and it does seem quite soft and comfortable, not too heavy or stiff. It's poofy but not difficult for her to walk in, and she loves the sash and rosettes the most. I really can't get over how *pretty* she looks in this dress and when I texted Nate a picture of her in it, his first response was 'she looks so big!'. Because she does! And it has to be said: little girls are so much fun for things like this. She isn't the most 'girlie girl' but she plays the part in this dress!

Cecelia was all about going outside with me for this photoshoot, posing away and showing off her smiles. Until the end when she was just ready to go back inside and I demanded one more picture...


That's my girl with her classic 'displeased' face I'll never forget!

When Just Pretend Kids emailed and asked if I would do this review, I said that I really prefer to do a giveaway for my readers along with posts like these. They were kind enough to offer a discount code for $20 off the item of your choice, to one winner. I'm thinking lots of little girls would love a dress like this as a Christmas gift, but there are really adorable costumes (for boys and girls and BABIES) and fairy wings and tutus, too. And if you don't win the $20 giveaway, you can still get 25% off your order by signing up for their mailing list.

But to enter the drawing for the $20 off, hit the Rafflecopter below. I will email the winner next week and will update this post then, too. Good luck!
a Rafflecopter giveaway