Surprise!

Well, first of all, do not worry…you’re in the right place! As you can see, York Avenue has gotten a whole new look, and I could NOT be more excited about it! This redesign has been a long, long time coming, and I’m absolutely amazed and over the moon for how it’s turned out. I worked with Victoria of Victoria McGinley Studio and Lisa of Elembee, and I literally cannot say enough about how amazing they both were throughout the whole process. These are two incredibly talented, professional individuals who have an incredible amount of blogging and graphic design experience between them, and together, they made the whole process fun, exciting, and easy. Let me start at the beginning so you can get the full picture of how this came about!

Would you believe that the seed for this redesign was planted back in SEPTEMBER? It all started when Victoria and I met up for coffee and a blog consultation, and I came to the realization that it was time for a new look. After experiencing how incredibly smart and professional Victoria was with the consultation, I simply couldn’t imagine working on the redesign with anyone but her (by the way, a timeline of September to March isn’t the norm, but Victoria and Lisa had other projects ahead of me, and then a break for the holidays, so once we really got started it actually only took a few weeks). First I worked with Victoria on all of the design elements – color scheme, fonts, organization, the overall look, the functionality, and more. It was an extremely smooth process. She and Lisa use an online project management system that keeps all communication, inspiration images, revisions, etc, all in one place, which made everything so easy. After all of the design details were hammered out, everything was sent to Lisa, who migrated my blog from Blogger to WordPress and did all of the development (I can’t even begin to imagine what goes into all of that!). There you have it…a new website is born!

Let me just gush for a minute. I can hardly express how grateful I am to both Victoria and Lisa for their creativity, their professionalism, and above all, their patience in answering my millions of probably inane questions along the way. Transitioning to a new blog platform involves a lot of changes and things to figure out/get used to, and every time I had another question Victoria and Lisa answered promptly, clearly, and kindly. I can’t really explain how important that is when you’re making a big investment and a big change like this.

I’m seriously so thrilled with how the site looks now. I feel like it’s so much more ME! My taste has evolved and changed since I first started blogging, and I really felt like my site was no longer an accurate reflection of my style or the breadth of content that I cover. Those were the main things that I conveyed to Victoria, and she took these points into consideration (along with a host of other factors), to create a site that I feel perfectly encapsulates my style and taste. It’s also much more well-organized and functional than it was before. Using the black navigation bar you can get to all of the main categories by just clicking on “Categories,”, and you can also get to my home tours and the thing that I’m most excited about: my new NYC Guide!

The NYC Guide is just so cool. It gathers up all of my NYC posts into one place, which is very exciting to me as they are some of my favorite posts to photograph and write, and some of the posts that I’m most proud of. You can search the NYC posts using filters under the categories of “Neighborhood,” “Attraction” and “Jackie’s Take.” So say you’re planning a trip to NYC and you’re staying in a hotel on the Upper East Side. You can go to my guide, check off “Upper East Side” under “Neighborhoods,” and you’ll get all of my NYC posts that feature places on the UES! Or, say you’re planning a trip and you want to hit up some amazing sweet shops. Just go to my guide and click on “Sweet Spots” under “Attraction,” and all of my posts on my favorite sweet shops will pop up. How cool is that? I know if I were planning a trip to a new city this is something that I would love to have, so I’m very, very excited to have it here.

There are so many little details that I love on the site, from the little “On My Nightstand” box which shows what I’m currently reading, to the pink “Browse the Avenue” menu in the sidebar, all the way down to the littlest details like the adorable favicon (the little graphic in the address bar). These were things that Victoria came up with based on just knowing what I like and what I wanted to highlight – she’s so great at creating the charming little details that set a site apart. Victoria communicated with me so much to ensure that the end product would be one that I love, and Lisa has been amazing at providing support, clarification, and ongoing instruction about how to use WordPress (if you follow her blog, you know she’s a WordPress genius!). I can’t thank them both enough for being so wonderful to work with.

As I mentioned, the move from Blogger to WordPress is going to take me a little time to get used to, so please excuse any technical difficulties. We’re still working out all of the little kinks and issues that come with a transition like this, and I’m still learning to use WordPress! (but hopefully I’ll get used to it rather quickly). If you notice any problems or issues with using the site, please let me know in the comments or shoot me an e-mail!

As always, thank you so much for reading and have a great weekend!

top photo by me

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  1. Patricia wrote:

    Love the new look! So excited about the addition of the NYC Guide!!

    Published 3.7.15 · Reply
    • York Avenue wrote:

      Thank you so much Patricia! I’m so glad that you like it!

      Published 3.7.15 · Reply
  2. karen wrote:

    Hi jackie

    Well that was a nice springy surprise!! Beautiful.

    Btw , style me pretty, if you arent a follower is all about pink today!

    :))

    Published 3.7.15 · Reply
    • York Avenue wrote:

      Thank you Karen! And thanks for the heads up on SMP, heading over there now to check it out 🙂

      Published 3.7.15 · Reply
  3. Sarah wrote:

    Hi Jackie! Congratulations on the lovely new look of your blog! Your re-done NYC guide could not come out at a better time! I am heading to NYC again tomorrow and just added a few of your recommendations to my itinerary! I can’t wait to try them out!

    Published 3.7.15 · Reply
    • York Avenue wrote:

      I’m so happy to hear that, Sarah! Thank you and I hope you have a wonderful trip!

      Published 3.10.15 · Reply
  4. Naomi wrote:

    Congratulations great job and so fun to see your blog reflect more of you!
    I will use the NYC guide when I am there later this spring;-)

    Published 3.7.15 · Reply
    • York Avenue wrote:

      Thank you so much Naomi! I’m happy to hear that!

      Published 3.10.15 · Reply
  5. Wow, thank you so, SO much for all the kind words about Lisa and me! It was a true pleasure working together and bringing your new site to life. It looks fab, and I’m so happy that you love it! Happy blogging 🙂

    Published 3.7.15 · Reply
    • York Avenue wrote:

      You’re so welcome! xoxo

      Published 3.10.15 · Reply
  6. Your new website looks fabulous! It was really cute before – but now its especially clean and chic. The NYC Guide is such a cool feature!

    Published 3.7.15 · Reply
    • York Avenue wrote:

      Thank you Anna! I’m loving the NYC Guide too, glad you like it!

      Published 3.10.15 · Reply
  7. Nnenna wrote:

    The new site feels very pretty and fresh- congratulations!

    Published 3.8.15 · Reply
    • York Avenue wrote:

      Thank you so much!

      Published 3.10.15 · Reply
  8. Cara wrote:

    The redesign looks wonderful! Congrats girl- your hard work & dedication to this blog is displayed flawlessly ☺️

    Published 3.9.15 · Reply
    • York Avenue wrote:

      That’s so sweet Cara, thank you!!

      Published 3.10.15 · Reply
  9. Delaney wrote:

    This is wonderful!! I absolutely love the design 🙂 Congratulations on the big upgrade!! Super excited about the NYC guide too 😉

    Published 3.9.15 · Reply
    • York Avenue wrote:

      I’m so excited too! Thank you Delaney 🙂

      Published 3.10.15 · Reply
  10. your NYC guide is amazing – such a great way to browse all your posts!! now i just need a trip there….

    Published 3.9.15 · Reply
    • York Avenue wrote:

      Thank you so much Kate!

      Published 3.10.15 · Reply
  11. Thank you so much for your kind words Jackie! It was so fun working with you, and I’m so glad you love your new site.

    Published 3.9.15 · Reply
    • York Avenue wrote:

      Thank you so much Lisa! Awesome working with you!

      Published 3.10.15 · Reply
  12. Maria Fernanda wrote:

    Love the new look and especially the NYC guide. 🙂

    Published 3.10.15 · Reply
    • York Avenue wrote:

      I’m so glad, thank you!

      Published 3.10.15 · Reply
  13. It looks SOOO good!

    Published 3.13.15 · Reply
  14. Holly K wrote:

    This is fantastic! It looks beautiful <3

    Published 3.13.15 · Reply