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slightly astray

an honest look at life on the road

New blog design + a giveaway for you!!

Happy Monday! You may have noticed that things look a bit different here on Slightly Astray. This blog got a little facelift last week all thanks to Kelly from The Lady Errant.

Slightly Astray new blog design

I’ve been feeling bored with my design for a while now and there were many aspects of it that I didn’t like (such as no search function). But I’m also pretty hopeless with WordPress and coding so I just kind of pretended the ugly parts didn’t exist. Occasionally, I’d browse other WordPress themes but always felt frustrated by their lack of certain features, inability for customizations, or general ugliness.

So when I heard that Kelly is opening up a design shop, I was super excited. She’s been sharing WordPress tutorials for a while (check them out!) and now will be using that wealth of knowledge to offer pre-made templates and even complete customized blog redesigns! If you’re not yet familiar with Kelly’s style, she’s all about minimalist, simple yet sophisticated designs, allowing the content to be the main feature instead of distracting colors or loud elements.

(By the way, Kelly is one of my favorite bloggers and I’m pretty sure that we’re the same person.)

I was lucky enough to preview the themes available in her shop and fell so in love with one of them that I bought it. Then I worked with her to customize it to my exact liking.

I gotta give Kelly major props for working with me. I’m pretty sure that I was the most annoying, nit-picky customer ever. I had an image of all the features I wanted and I was determined to see them come to life! But Kelly patiently designed and/or tweaked everything I specified.

I am SO incredibly thrilled with the results! I love the clean, no-distractions design with some pops of colors. I’m obsessed with my new cute share buttons and cool hover effects throughout. It’s like I’m falling back in love with my blog!

And now, here is the good news: to celebrate the opening of Kelly’s new design shop, she is giving away ONE FREE blog design! Is your blog in need of a makeover too? And maybe while you’re at it, you’d like to get a bit more exposure for your beautiful new blog as well? Then all you need to do is enter the giveaway below for a chance to win a free design + customization + more!

I’ll let Kelly do the explaining:

Celebrate the opening of The Lady Errant Design Shop!

tle collage

I’m excited to announce that The Lady Errant Design Shop is now open! Coding, figuring out small business legalities, and taxes have been occupying my waking hours for the past 2.5 months, and now it’s all coming together.

A bunch of my blog friends have been kind enough to support me and help out with a few giveaways to celebrate the opening. We have several prizes for one lucky winner today – and stay tuned for the next giveaway in June!

Interested in a new design for your self-hosted WordPress site? Then check out the design site and the Etsy shop, or explore the demo of the most popular theme.

Don’t forget to sign up for the mailing list to get a 20% off coupon code – the next newsletter goes out in mid-June!

The Prizes

1. 1 free customized theme for self-hosted WP sites from the shop (up to $80 value). Includes favicon, pin it button, custom fonts/colors/formatting, and 1 coding add-on (such as a custom page template).

2. A custom blog button designed by Lix Hewett ($25 value)

3. 1 large ad space on The So-Called Homemaker ($10 value)

4. 1 large ad space on Belle Brita ($10 value)

5. 1 hand-embroidered bag from The Hemborg Wife (priceless!)

TLE Giveaway brought to you by:

The Lady Errant Giveaway

Kelly – The Lady Errant | Amanda – Rhyme & Ribbons |Rachael – The Rachael Way | Christine – The So-Called Homemaker | Daisy – Simplicity Relished | Bailie – The Hemborg Wife | Jaime – Ink + Adventure | Amanda – musicalpoem | Brita – Belle Brita | Kiersten – She Is Fierce | Lix – A Classic Notion | Anna – Slightly Astray

Enter the Giveaway

a Rafflecopter giveaway

And if you didn’t win, don’t fret! There’s another giveaway coming in June. Or you can still get a good deal on a new blog design. Until the end of June, Kelly will be offering completely custom designs for US$200 (a steal!!), while pre-made templates start at only $35.

What do you think of my little makeover? Do you need one too?

Comments

  1. Love the new look! Very clean and crisp! I’ve been thinking about changing up my blog a bit too but not sure what to do… creative block! I bought a new font the other day so maybe a new header logo? I guess these are fun problems to have lol

    • I like your logo over the large picture with the cool scroll effect! I’ve always wanted a fun logo, but I’m rather liking this clean one at the moment. Maybe someday, I’ll splurge to get a logo designed!

  2. Fantastic new design!! Love the update! I love making tweaks and changes to my websites – almost like “spring cleaning” in the digital realm! :)

  3. Aw, thanks so much for writing this, alternate universe me! And you were great to work with! I love when people know exactly what they want.

  7. Ugh I did a makeover a while back and I like it but there are still a few little changes I would love to make, just don’t know how. Like you I always stare at them and admire other peoples blogs, but I’m just no computer wizard! I love the new design though, it looks great!! Entering as many times as I can to try to win the makeover :D Thanks for sharing the opportunity!

  9. Your new-look site is FABULOUS, Anna. Loving it to bits. I too find blog design and customisation a hugely flustersome task! I love that you’ve been able to work with Kelly to get Slightly Astray *exactly* the way you want it. Something I think I will definitely have to look into in future too!