A new beginning

Hello everyone!  Over the weekend here I quietly launched my updated blog.  I think the changes I've made will much more closely align with what I set out to change about my blog this year when I talked about simplifying things at the beginning of January.
First of all - I've simplified the name.  I wanted something short and simple and reflective of me. I kept trying to think of something cutesy - which is what I went for when I changed the name at the beginning of the year - but the more I thought about it the more I just wanted something short and easy.  I've really built my brand of "Bethie the Boo" and wanted that to still be part of it.  I also wanted it to be something that opened me up more to a multitude of blog topics.  My webmaster (the hubby) said why don't you just call it "Life with Bethie the Boo?"  Huh, it's so basic it just might work!  I think we're on to something here!
My awesome webmaster hubby also helped me clean up the look and layout of the entire blog - it's fresh, simple and easier to look at I think.  I'm working at improving pictures - whether for outfit posts or pictures of Oliver or other things I come across as well.
The header with my new name has a few items that represent myself and my family - the cat for the cats, the music note for me, the baby is for Ollie and the monkey is for my hubby - and in a bit of a jump the shark move, I am ready to stop calling him the Pants Monkey and instead reveal his actual name.  I asked his approval and he said it was fine - and given that he's done so much work to help me on the blog I think it's just time, not to mention, many of you already know it if you're friends with me in real life or on Facebook (or if you saw our giveaway video a couple of years ago when he spilled the beans there).  So ladies and gentlemen - my hubby's name is Nate.  I hope to more properly introduce you at some point here.  It is going to be much easier to no longer type out all of the words "The Pants Monkey" or even "Mr. Monkey."  And if I just totally rocked your world, I apologize!
So now you're wondering, what else does this mean for my blog?  Again, when I set out to simplify and streamline my blog at the beginning of the year, I intended to do more than just outfit of the day posts.  While I was still home on maternity leave with Oliver, that was easy to do.  Once I went back to work I found myself back into the habit of daily outfit posts - and that's not to say that it was a bad thing to do that - but I am finding as of late sometimes I stress out a great deal about what I'm going to wear each day because it has to be "blog worthy."  I also find that since Ollie has been born, I don't always have as much time to take nice quality outfit photos - most days they're pretty much rushed pictures I take as soon as I get to work.  That's not what I want this blog to be.  I do want to still share some outfit posts, but that is not going to be the main content of my blog anymore.  I started doing outfit of the day posts to learn to remix my closet and become more creative in my work outfits - I think I've succeeded at that and I don't need to record it every day.  That's not to say I won't still share some outfits though!  I'm going to shoot for a couple of outfit posts each week - I'll still be doing Thrift Style Thursday and other challenges I find fun.  
So what else am I going to blog about?  A little bit of everything really - I'll be continuing my new weekly Coffee Chat and adding a link up in case anyone wants to join me for those.  I'll be sharing about my life as Oliver's mama and Nate's wife.  I'll be talking about our adventures in our hometown.  It will be a lot of the things I had been writing about - just not always interspersed in an outfit post.
I know I met a lot of you because of this being more of a fashion/outfit of the day blog.  I hope we can continue to be friends, I will definitely still be reading your blogs because you all inspire me and give me ideas and have helped me become more fashionable and even if I'm not always blogging an outfit it doesn't mean I don't still enjoy all things fashion and beauty related!
Overall I'm excited about these changes - I feel like I'm finally moving in the direction I was trying to get into at the beginning of the year.  I'm back on track with my goal for the year of simply to "Simplify."  On we go.