Welcome to the New Blog Look

Yay for the new blog look! Yay for finally getting around to redesigning my blog!

Do you like it?

I started feeling pretty shitty about my blog: the logo (that I had done myself) was outdated and lacked personality, the theme was boring, in no way shouting out proudly, and I felt this was all reflected in my bounce rate. Cheers Google Analytics.

I thought about where I wanted my blog to go and what sort of blog I wanted this to be, because have you noticed? Blogs are cropping up everywhere now. From “Top 10 lists” to personal accounts to vlogs, it’s constantly in my Facebook feed which used to just be friends – or, correction, random people who I occasionally nosily stalk. You know how it goes.

Comparing yourself to other bloggers can be an unfortunate consequence of becoming part of this world if you pause too deeply on it. After I compared too much, I sat back and thought only about what I really wanted people to come to this blog for.

Inspiration is number one. Somehow, one way or another, I want to inspire people to see the world, to feel what I feel when I see it: wonder, appreciation, freedom, open-mindedness and the desire to learn. Then I decided I wanted to do this in a way that was clean and simple – no real gimmicks, just easily accessible (and pretty) content. Namely, I wanted the blog to be quite minimalist, so I could really focus the colour and “wow” factor into the destinations.

Underneath it all, and most importantly, this blog is a personal one. I will always tell my personal stories among the travel, because that’s what I love doing. That’s why I asked Vanessa to design my blog logo: her brush script is beautiful, simple and authentic. I found her on via her Instagram @vanessadocumented (seriously, check her out) and she’s as lovely as she is talented. She completely understood what I wanted to get across and she made my logo full of personality and one that stays true to the personal feel of my blog. Thank you, Vanessa!

That’s what it boils down to really. I started this blog when I lived in Australia to study abroad for a stint at the age of 20, where once and for all I fell in love with travel and the world. I felt free. And after a bit of a hiatus, thinking “well, I’m back in England now, so I can’t really continue this blog” (which was originally called Kirsten Does Oz, so fair enough really), I picked it back up again. I travel to learn more and feel free. I write this blog to learn more about writing, blogging and also because it gives me freedom.

So what I really want is someone to visit my humble abode to feel free. Inspired. Like they can do it too. To learn something new. To make them smile. Maybe a little giggle if I’ve managed to be funny enough.

I really hope you like the look and thought behind it. I know I haven’t won an Oscar, but I would quite like to thank James, who put up with my incessant questions taking advantage of his website skills, and Vanessa, the absolutely lovely girl who designed my blog logo.

Let me know what you think of the new look or if there’s anything you’d want to read more about. I’ll be sure to adapt it as I start exploring more and move to Toronto!

K x