Hello fashionxfairytale 4.0!

Brand New fashionxfairyttale!

Happy Friday! Welcome to fashionxfairytale 4.0! It has been a long time coming but it is finally here. It’s a very happy Friday now that I can talk to you about my new blog design. As you can see everything is shiny and new again over here and I’m so in love and so motivated to start producing bigger and better content! Behind the scenes I’ve been designing away of what I wanted and started the process. So today I’m going to tell you all about what I did, inspiration and all the design aspects including who coded it, the branding and everything else that went down to get this beautiful blog design.

First off, it was hard to let go of my branding like my logo and my bows but I did bring back a more sophisticated bow and a few pretty doodles here and there to make up the lost. The hardest to let go of was my bow sticky menu bar. I wanted a design with that and when I finally got it made me so happy. My last blog design lasted me over 2 years and I’m so grateful for it but it was time for a change and to move on. This blog is changing with me and adapting to my taste. I was a different person back then and I love that each of our blogs are changing with us. My girly whimsical style is still there but it is more modernized and looks more professional in my opinion. It is responsive so whatever
you are reading this on it should adapt.

Story Behind the Design Process

I woke up one day feeling like I needed a change. Both in my personal life and digital life. Suddenly something just clicked in me. So in my sleepy daze I opened my iPad and went through my normal everyday routine I always do but when I opened Facebook I was scrolling through and saw a few bloggers I follow revamp and had redesigned their blog. I then saw a designer’s page I liked brought out a new pre-made customizable blog layout and it was like it was fate. From that it led me to go on to Etsy and search through blog layouts. I got lost in the hole of all kinds of pretty blog layouts and I discovered branding packages. There is so much helpful stuff on there that I wanted to buy everything blog related that day. I made up my mind and bought a template which I thought was it. I didn’t add on the installation process because I wanted to play with it. I did have fun putting things together and since I had a history with coding and html it wasn’t too bad. It didn’t end up going my way and I was not happy. I then bought another template and same thing happened. After a while I still didn’t feel content with what I did. It didn’t look bad but it didn’t feel like me. I wasn’t getting anywhere so I took a break and went on vacation. I got back and took a second look at everything. I mix and matched, tried to find some inspiration and looked at other blogger’s design and noted what I liked and didn’t like and what I would want. 

I went through so many templates searching high and low for one with everything I wanted. While I was searching I realized that a lot of templates look a like and had the same feel. I soon got tired of that and I knew if I would get something like that I would be over mine quickly. I didn’t want that. I wanted something unique and not have all the same elements like all the ones I saw. I know you can customize them and add your own branding to make it not like someone else but the core was still the same. The same layout and same formatting and that didn’t suite me. I was so tempted to just go all out and get a custom one that had everything I wanted but I had spent so much on 3 templates
that I was somehow going to make it work. After one last look before I gave up I found this in my favorites on Etsy. I remembered I added it to my favorites and when I opened it up again I see why. It was the most unique I looked at and the best part was it had everything I wanted. It ticked all my boxes and that meant it must be it. We must of been meant for each other.

Then I decided I wanted my own branding to represent me and my blog so I bought a set and just had the designer customize it to my preferences. That was one of the things that didn’t work with the first template so I had to scrap the template. I love my branding and didn’t want to waste it so that was the reason I looked for a new template to go with it.

Here is the inspiration I had for my new template. I made this mood board as it was all coming together and I am so in love with it. I wanted pops of various pinks and a metallic rosy gold. The best part of this is that I kept two of my colors from my old template color palette. I still wanted my signature color which is hot pink so I have it in there now. I hand choose these pretty images as they expressed me and my aesthetic. The colors make me happy and the images are all of my loves too.

My inspiration for a lot of my core design came from a lot of places like other blogs, Etsy and lastly Pinterest has thousands of images to go through. I saw so many brand boards like this and when mine was complete I made one. I designed it and put it together on Photoshop. Down below I linked the designers and everything if you are curious and want to see where it all began. Also I listed a few designs and packs I recommend as well in case you are looking to revamp your blog design.

My Design List

Minimalist Watercolor Marigold Responsive Blogger Template

Rose Gold & Blush Branding, Blog & Website Design Kit

Princess Ballet Clip Art – Hand Drawn Ballerina, Flowers, Tiara & Gold Glitter Graphics

Blog Stylist Design Kit

Rosette Responsive Blogger Template 

Minimalist Gallery Grunge Responsive Blogger Template

I’m so in love with my blog design and it is everything I wanted and more. I went through so much trying to get what I wanted and my lovely designer Mina from Underline Designs did a wonderful job. She listened to my countless emails and requests and most importantly made my designs in my head a reality. Honestly, she made my dreams come true. I spent hours and hours and spent a lot of money and didn’t feel happy until I found Mina and her designs. I’m thankful for her and listening and finalizing this design.

That is my new blog design! I am so happy and can’t stop opening up my blog and staring at it. If you see something wrong or we missed something please let me know as it would be nice having new eyes to read and look at it. I can’t wait to start this new blog journey and up my content and everything. You may notice little changes here and there like my pictures and little snippets and just updating my content to keep it interesting. I hope you stay and look forward to my blogging adventure and see where it takes you and me. Let me know your thoughts about it and how you like it as I’d love the feedback. Have an amazing weekend lovelies!

What do you think about the new design and what do you look for in a blog design?