Since jaquelle.ca went live the night of Monday, September
23rd, there have been a lot of changes here, perhaps the biggest is the name change from Jaquelle's Rose Garden to jaquelle.ca. There are also a lot of new features here that weren't at the Garden. I have a dual purpose for this post: 1) to explain why I've changed to jaquelle.ca and 2) to help you navigate jaquelle.ca and utilize fully all of the new features it has to offer.
Why I've Changed to jaquelle.ca
Why I've Changed to jaquelle.ca
Jaquelle's Rose Garden was born four and a half years ago in the mind of an almost-twelve year old with a pretty minimal vision. I wanted to try out blogging and though my first faithful readers were only family and friends, I learned a lot about blogging those early years. But slowly, over time, as my writing expanded, so did my readership. More people than family and friends began reading my blog, and different people than my original target audience (twelve to fourteen year old girls). I kept those people in mind as I wrote, and it wasn't long ago that I realized that for the maximum enjoyment of all readers I needed to change the format of Jaquelle's Rose Garden. I wanted to expand it, make it better for you and more accessible to my readership across the board. So I purchased the domain name jaquelle.ca (I am in Canada, eh!) and set about (with much help from my dad and a fantastic couple from my church) to build this little corner of the web for my own. Now you can access my writings easier than ever!
How to Navigate jaquelle.ca
The Slider - The first thing you probably noticed upon arriving at this site were the four colourful pictures swiping across the top of the page. The slides are Featured Post, Growing in Grace: The Latest Links, Modesty and Recommended Reading. For your ease, clicking on these pictures will take you to the pages advertised. Featured Post will take you to ... well, I think you know. Growing in Grace: The Latest Links takes you to my GiG archives, and the Modesty page takes you to my Modesty archives, while Recommended Reading (coming soon!) will take you to my resource page. And keep posted because in the future, those slides just might change ...
The Menu - There's also a new menu at the top of the site where you can easily access all my "About" information (my bio, the site's history and its purpose), my Archives (for other categories not in the drop-down menu, scan down to the right sidebar and you'll find the rest of my archives under Labels), and my Resource pages (coming soon!)
The Search Bar - If you're looking for a way to search jaquelle.ca but weren't able to find a search bar, don't worry! It's there. It's just a little more obscure. If you look at the black menu bar and scan all the way to the right, you'll see a cute little magnifying glass. Scrolling over that will bring up the search bar.
Email Updates - If you signed up to receive email updates through Jaquelle's Rose Garden, there's no need for you to sign up again here. But, of course, if you didn't you can sign up through the safe, user-friendly box at the top of the right sidebar.
Social Media - Coming soon. In the top right corner of the site, you'll see five little icons with the words, Connect with jaquelle.ca, beneath it. Soon you'll be able to connect with me through facebook, Twitter, email, google+ and your RSS feed.
Visitors - And if for some reason you enjoy seeing how many people have stopped by since the birth of my blog on July 11, 2009, there is a visitors counter at the very bottom of the page.
I hope this helps you as you navigate this new website and you enjoy it just as much as I do!