After more than a week of tweaking, testing, and probably breaking things more times than I’d like to admit, my blog has officially been revamped! What started as a simple layout refresh turned into a full-scale redesign—complete with a sleeker sidebar, a fresh category structure, a new Featured Petz section, and… oh yeah, a brand new theme, built from scratch.

That’s right—I nuked Divi.

Goodbye, Divi. Hello, Pawprints Theme!

This blog used to run on Divi, a page builder that, while powerful, came with a lot of bloat. I finally hit my breaking point and decided to do what any sane, reasonable person would do:  Start completely over and build my own theme from scratch.

I went back to basics — hand-coding everything to make sure my site was fast, lightweight, and exactly how I wanted it. No unnecessary fluff, no excess code, just clean, efficient WordPress goodness.

The Journey:  A Tale of Tweaks, Treats, and Total Site Destruction

Let’s be honest—this wasn’t just a light dusting of CSS and a couple of font swaps. This was a deep-dive into WordPress, database cleanups, ACF restructuring, and oh, the great permalinks incident of 2025 (we don’t talk about that one).

From nuking my entire WordPress installation (twice!) to hunting down rogue settings that refused to behave, this project was part revamp, part detective work, and entirely an adventure.

But in the end? So worth it. Now, everything feels cleaner, more polished, and way more me!

New & Improved! What’s Changed?

A Fully Custom Theme! – No more Divi! My new Pawprints Theme is completely hand-coded, lightweight, and designed exactly how I want it. It’s clean, it’s fast, and best of all — it’s mine.

New Sidebar Setup – Featuring recent posts, a cute tag cloud (with matching gradients!), and some fun extras like my random pet-related facts & quotes box.

Featured Petz Revamp – This was a big one! I expanded on my featured petz cards and changed how I showcase my favorite petz, complete with a spotlight section and proper formatting that makes each pet feel extra special. (Silly Spots is still the star, of course!)

Tweaked Categories – Instead of the usual “Personal” and “Miscellaneous” type labels, I wanted something more playful. My posts now fit into fun new categories like Tidbits & Tails, Tweaks & Treats, and Pawprints & Ramblings—because why not have a little fun with it?

A Layout That Feels Right – From subtle typography refinements to a more balanced two-column layout, everything now looks and feels more cohesive.

Final Thoughts (And Probably More Tweaks Later…)

Even though this blog is not even a month old, it has been through a lot—from its original form to now, it’s been a reflection of my love for Petz, web design, and just having a space that makes me happy.

I’m so thrilled with how it turned out! Of course, I’ll probably find something to tweak next week (because I can’t help myself), but for now? I’m just going to sit back and enjoy the new look.

Thanks for following along on this little chaotic journey—I hope you love the new look as much as I do!

Now tell me: What do you think of the redesign?