A Lesson in Blog Design

Unlocking Kiki finally got a make over!

Its not quite my dream blog design but after spending my weekend attempting to create this design I quickly learned that it will be a work in progress. All I can say is HTML, blog design, coding whatever you want to call it, that shit is confusing!

H so kindly reminded me of this after probably the hundredth time I said I don’t work well with computers. Damn you technology!

Creating a new look for my blog was a trying process and after several failed attempts I realized I lack the skills to do this on my own. Hours where then spent looking at beautifully made blog designs, but then I remembered oh ya I am a broke expat waiting for a work visa to be approved.

Before I threw a fit and hurt someone, aka my computer, I sweetly asked H to be my hero and work some HTML magic.

To his credit H spent hours working on my blog design while also giving me a lesson in HTML 101. Never mind the fact that most of the lesson consisted of conversations like this.

Okay maybe I was the only one quoting Pitch Perfect but I had to make learning HTML a bit more fun. So after a weekend of meltdowns and feeling like this

I can safely say that learning how to amp up my blog design is on the road to success. Everyone can rejoice now.

During this educational weekend a few intelligent thoughts crossed my mind

*Designing a blog is time consuming and requires a patience level I have yet to acquire

*I really should have paid more attention in the HTML class I took in high school

*A Hogwarts education would be more than useful, I wished many times that I could wave a wand and have the perfect blog design appear

*All those bloggers I have enjoyed reading for years, you just reached a new level of kick ass in my book for having such well made blog designs.

*Every time I see a blog get a beautiful new look I will think

I know how much time went behind that design and I also know how much longer it would take me to figure out how to make my blog look half as awesome.

I hope you guys enjoy the new look, but in the wise words of Jess from New Girl

And just in case you were wondering

Taking inspiration from a post by one of my favorite bloggers Helene I figured explaining my struggles with HTML would be much more enjoyable told with some of my favorite movie quotes :)

Happy Monday everybody!

Question of the Day?
Anyone else out there struggle with blog design and coding?

January 6, 2014 by Kiki

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http://www.chicadeedee.com danniellek

You’ve done well! I’ve found the hardest part for me is choosing colours, which is ridiculous. You find amazing coulour swatches that look great together but then try to put them into your blog design and they don’t match and look like crap. This was my whole weekend, and if you’ll notice my blog hasn’t changed haha. My boyfriend is a web designer/developer so thankfully he is a huge help with moving things around (he fixed my search function) but half the time I just end up googling things and finding answers. It’s a definite learning curve!
- http://unlockingkiki.com/ Kiki
  
  Thank you! I agree figuring out what colors to use can be really tricky, I am glad I just want a clean look with lots of white space otherwise it would take me forever to decide on colors! My boyfriend is a graphic designer so he is way better with design stuff than me as well, good thing we have them around! It is amazing how much time fixing little things on the blog can take! At least we are in the learning group with all the bloggers out there!
http://www.herandnicole.com/ Rekita

lol at your gifs, as a designer myself it can get so frustrating and tedious, all those codes. But it looks great and clean!
- http://unlockingkiki.com/ Kiki
  
  Thanks so much! Those gifs better explained my tantrum that was thrown while trying to figure out all the codes, it is amazing how long it can take to fix simple things on the blog! Must mean all us bloggers out there are quite passionate about our blogs!
http://www.notbeforemytea.com Nicole @ not before my tea

hahaha love this. it’s amazing how long something as simple as getting a black line under the damn post header can be. seriously, sometimes when I’m trying to design something I’m surprised that I have the self control not to smash my head through the screen. hopefully we’re learning something along the way though!
- http://unlockingkiki.com/ Kiki
  
  Haha I totally agree! At one point I wanted to give up and never use a computer again, technology can drive me mad sometimes. At least we all know how much time and work goes behind all the blogs we love to read! I try and remind myself how much I am learning as well, only to keep me from throwing my computer lol.
http://gravatar.com/blushandbarbells Wendy@BlushandBarbells

I tried changing my blog design for about 2.8 minutes, then I paid someone to do it for me. It wasn’t cheap and it’s not perfect, but I had to suck it up. Great job on trying to learn how to do it!
- http://unlockingkiki.com/ Kiki
  
  Sounds about like me! It is so overwhelming to figure out all the things on your own if my boyfriend was a graphic designer with some background in this stuff I would have just thrown in the towel. Hopefully one day I will have it figured out and it won’t take me hours to fix a simple line color!
http://focusonthegood.io Britney McSweeney

Picking a design is hard, but building one is even harder! Did you check out any of the templates for sale? A lot of them are under $20 USD! Way easier than creating your own.. of course, I actually love this one. Your black text on white, simple and reminds me of my own taste, ha! If you like it, stick with this for a while and when your visa is processed and your a LESS broke expat then maybe commit to a fancy expensive design, but for now I think you should be proud of what you two created together. It looks great!

-Britney
- http://unlockingkiki.com/ Kiki
  
  Thanks! Most of the templates for a wordpress blog are like double that of the bloggers! We used a template for some ideas of coding that a friend of ours had so that was a bonus and its great to have something to build on and play around with and not have to worry about starting it all over from scratch! This is totally my style though, clean black and white with a little splash of color works for me! Looking forward to following along with your newly designed blog as well!
http://independenttravelcats.com Jessica | Independent Travel Cats

Good for you in figuring it out! I have so much trouble editing the coding and doing design-related stuff. I did my initial current design (except my logo image), but I am hiring someone to do the next revision! I was investing hours in making really simple coding changes and figured it was not worth it right now.
- http://unlockingkiki.com/ Kiki
  
  I totally agree it is amazing how many hours can fly by spending time with coding! I spent way to much time last night trying to make my author pictures smaller it was ridiculous. Even though its nice learning how to do the coding and design stuff I probably will be recruiting help next time as well!
http://tothedayslikethis.blogspot.co.uk/ Sammy Dorn

I love your new design! HTML is such a bitch
- http://unlockingkiki.com/ Kaelene Spence
  
  Totally agree, I am still working on making HTML “my bitch” lol. Glad you like it:)

A Lesson in Blog Design

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