Happy 2014, friends! Here we are... The Clueless Girl's Guide! That feels so good to say... I've been itching for a change for quite some time. I've hinted to feeling frustrated and stagnant with my blog. Stuck, even. I knew I wanted to rebrand, I just didn't know how or where to start. Several months ago I finally decided on a name that felt right. It was a keeper. Still, I was stuck on the design. Designing for yourself is by far the hardest thing ever. Seriously. I was so close to hiring out on several occasions, but I knew if I wanted to to be "me" then I needed to stick it out. Mike and I have been working on the design for a couple of months now, and I thought New Years would be the perfect time to launch. Well, that was until December showed up and decided to be super weird. I literally didn't touch the design for 5 or 6 weeks... Yesterday I was wallowing in my own self-pity because I didn't hold up my end of the deal when I decided to put on my "Get it done" britches and do just that... Get it done. Yesterday I spent several hours finishing the design, coding it out and installing it. It was like a sudden burst of adrenaline hit me and before I knew it, it was done. Now here it is. I hope you're as excited as I am!
Some people say a major rebrand is the beginning of the end for blogs... and maybe it is. I don't know! What I do know is that in the few short hours that this design has been live, I've felt more motivated and in touch with my blog than I did for all of 2013. While TCGG will stay pretty similar to LCH in terms of content, I hope to add several new features over the coming weeks and expand my content to really focus in on small business ownership, creative and personal growth, and venturing outside of my own comfort zone. I'm taking the first step out of that comfort zone by launching this new "brand"... I've been so terrified to do this. I've been scared to lose readers (I'll lose them anyway) and I was scared that I'd find myself with another name/look that I didn't love. But what kind of way is that to live? We're throwing caution to the wind and just going for it! Hopefully this attitude will continue through the new year and life in general.
The name (and reason behind it) is just cheesy enough to be perfect for me, I think. I am a clueless girl. 90% of the time I have no clue what I'm doing in life. I'm figuring it out as I go. I want to try new things (and inevitably fail at a lot of them... but hopefully sprinkle 'em with success, too), and I want to push myself to be the kind of girl I can be proud of. I want to live with confidence and make every day a little bit brighter.
LCH served it's purpose for almost 5 years. It saw me grow into a better person, wife, mother, business owner, etc. But not unlike anything else in life, I simply outgrew it. I outgrew the name, the look, the feel. Rather than be sad about what's come to pass, I'm going to embrace 2014 and The Clueless Girl's Guide. I'm going to reach out to folks and showcase all of the cool things they do. And I want you to be part of that! Up top under the "Contact" tab you'll notice a Submissions page... This is for all of those cool links you find or cool posts you write... if you think they'd be a good fit for Things I Love Thursday or even a dedicated guest post, get in touch! This blog will always be partially personal... I'll always share bits and pieces of my family's day and our adventures. But I also realize I have the opportunity to make it into so much more. The chance to share the spotlight with really cool people doing really cool things. And that's just what I plan on doing!
I'm so glad I worked on this like I did yesterday, because I think it's a great way to bring in the new year. I was so frustrated feeling like I was accomplishing "nothing" and rather than wallow for another day, I made it happen. That's what I want 2014 to be about... making it happen!
Don't worry, the former addresses (honeybeeinthecity.blogspot.com and kaelahbee.com) will still continue to function. They simply forward to thecluelessgirl.com. If you've linked to me in the past, your links should still continue to work as they did. There may be a broken link here or there, and if you stumble across one please feel free to let me know! I'm going to do my best to do right by you as a reader, I just may need a little help along the way!
It'll take some time to roll out all of the features I want to try, and some of them may end up being a bust (We'll just nix them and try something else!), but please stick around and see what I plan to bring to the table! Several of the pages will be blank for a bit... I'm working out the kinks and layouts of each and everything page I've added, and I only have 2 hands. I just couldn't wait to share this next chapter with y'all. You are the reason this blog is what it is, so thank you. You are awesome and I wish we could hang out in real life!
Thanks for being part of the LCH TCGG journey! Happy New Year!
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