Sunday 3 May 2015

Goodbye April - Hello May | The One With A Redesign

 photo MONTLY RECAP_zps8ziymg9n.png
Well well well, what a month it's been! We've been through a blogging rut and creativity mumbo jumbo, a temporary hiatus, a redesign and put into place new minor changes and format alterations and started up new features since we reopened. Even though we've been reopened for a short while, we're still really excited to be showing off some of our upcoming features and changes to ones you all know and love, and we've also decided that embark on Monthly Recaps (at least, for the time being), so you'll be getting a more detailed overview of both the blog goings on and our goings on both blog and life related on a less frequent basis, but it means you'll be getting less 'it's been a quiet week' and more of the interesting and exciting things instead. You'll also get to see more of the books we've read and some our favourites, something we haven't really showed off or talked about previously, which we really miss doing. We hope you like the new set-up just as we do.

Beautiful Bookish Butterflies In-Review

Reviews

Popular Reviews This Month

The Raven Boys by Maggie Stiefvater:
Burn Bright by Bethany Frenette:
We Are All Made of Molecules by Susin Neilson:
Crown of Midnight by Sarah J. Maas:
Red Queen by Victoria Aveyard: |
Flesh and Blood by Simon Cheshire:
Sweet Reckoning by Wendy Higgins:
Perfectly Ella by Candy Harper:
Armageddon by Christina Bauer:
The Last Summer of Us by Maggie Harcourt:

Features and Discussions


Blogging News

First and foremost, for those who may either be new, or have not yet noticed (how please?), the biggest news is that we redesigned. Amanda talked more about this when unveiling BBB version 2.0, but generally, we could not be happier at the response the new design has gotten over the last week or so. Amanda was terrified, and we do mean absolutely bricking it when it came to unveiling, especially considering just how different the new look is, but we're really pleased to be owning this new style, and we can't wait to show off more features within it.

We also opened our UK Trade/Giveaway feature this month, which involves us sharing the books we don't really want or need to keep hold of, and you can either pay postage, or trade with us! This is an exciting adventure for us, and with time, more books will be added and made available to those who might be interested, so if you think you might want to take a look at what's there and possible acquire these books for yourself, check out our Trade/Giveaway option in the sidebar.

Stacie's April In-Review

Books Read

Books of the Month

Steelheart by Brandon Sanderson:
Day Four by Sarah Lotz:
Remix by Non Pratt:
Wait For You by J.Lynn:
Half-Blood by Jennifer L. Armentrout:
Pure by Jennifer L. Armentrout:
Deity by Jennifer L. Armentrout:
Sweet Reckoning by Wendy Higgins:
Biggest Flirts by Jennifer Echols:
Falling Into Place by Amy Zhang:

Away from the Blog

This month a lot has happened, and nothing has happened, does that make sense? I've had a few things in my personal life to deal with, while trying to keep my head above water with the blog and reading. So as you can imagine when Amanda suggested we take a break, I jumped at it. I spent a lot of time trying to schedule posts in the time off, and I didn't really get to do as many as I would have liked because I had discovered the XBox and the joys of laying in bed watching TV (Caitlyn had just come off two weeks Easter holiday, one where I had no time to myself so don't judge the sloth in me haha).

As far as reading goes this month, I've read enough that I'm happy but not enough of the ones I wanted, you know?. I had this plan to completely breeze through all my eARCS, even ones that weren't needed until June/July, but I ended up just breezing through books that I bought or got out of the library and now I'm in deep with books I NEED to read. But I'm not letting it bother me, I know I should but if I get stressed about it then I'll stop enjoying blogging and I don't want it to feel like a chore. So I'm not panicked too much because in March I pretty much only read review books so I'm happy I wasn't so strict with myself.

I'm looking forward to May, not only is it my nephew's 10th birthday (which makes me feel old because I was just finishing high school when he was born) and Saint Anything by Sarah Dessen comes out on the 5th, seriously guys you can expect me to be talking about the book CONSTANTLY!. She is without a doubt my favourite contemporary author, one of my top 5 actually and I'm super excited, I plan on taking Caitlyn to school and catching the first bus into town to buy it, park my big butt in Starbucks and drink copious amount of hot chocolate/ice coffee while reading the book. (I might even have to set an alarm on my phone so I know when to make my way home for Caitlyn's school pick up haha) Other than that I think I'm just going to be going to the park a lot after school now the weathers nice and trying not to melt, I hate heat :(.

Amanda's April In-Review

Books Read

Books of the Month

Perfectly Ella by Candy Harper:
World After by Susan Ee:
Armageddon by Christina Bauer:
Bruja by Aileen Erin: Reading..

Simon vs the Homo Sapiens: DNF
The Walls Around Us: DNF

Away from the Blog

April has predominantly been a month of severe change for me. There are certain events that transpired at the end of March that have continue to affect me throughout April, affecting my reading the most obviously and harshly. I've been in a horrible place that's left me really wanting to read, books that when I do read, I really enjoy, but I just haven't been able to bring myself to do so, and that's sucked, a lot. The last time I had a period of time reading so little was somewhere close to Spring-Summer '13, and trust me, I do not want to continue this bad run of reading, so I'm seriously hoping that May will see me making up for this reading.

I've actually spent a lot of time this month doing some work experience which has been really demanding and much more hard work than I had expected. There's a lot more heavy labour involved, but the times haven't been too bad and the people have been nice to work with. At the moment, I have around a week left, and after that, I have no idea what's going to be happening, although I can guess I'll still be applying for jobs unsuccessfully and dealing with this dark patch I'm going through.

One thing that did take up a lot of my time in April was our redesign. On the whole, minus little tweaks, changes and alterations I made during our hiatus, the actual design itself took around two weeks to create and was definitely was the most creative and exciting designs I've made. I've managed to learn a lot more code than I thought was possible, learn how to improvise and create my own and actually know what it is I'm doing without needing to research, and that is an achievement in my book.

May is hopefully going to be a little more exciting and positive. I'll be finishing my work experience, having a weeks break, and then I'll be dog sitting for my Uncle and Aunties most wonderful little devil of a dog for a whole week while they go on holiday in Florida. I've never really been left along for longer than a day or two as it is, and being able to lounge around in their house for a whole week blogging, reading my backed-up review copies and eating the food I really want sounds like the perfect way to wind-down and recover from everything that's happened.

How Was Your April? Let Us Know!

16 comments:

  1. I LOVE your site <33 I mean, I loved it before but it's so cute now! Love the pastels (:

    My month involved a lot of studying and tv watching. Yes, I neglected book/reading but I gotta do everything right? Considering I didn't do my own redesign for this latest one, I totally understand how much time it can take. I actually did another one but I didn't like it and I'm just so happy with what I've got now !

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    1. Thanks Nova! We couldn't be happier that people love the new look! :)
      I think as long as you're happy with what you've got, and how you use your site, then that's what matters!<3

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  2. I think the site looks great, but I'm a newcomer so not sure what it was like before. And yes I know what it's like to be busy and not busy at the same time. Sometimes I think, the fewer commitments I have the less time I seem to have!

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    1. Aw Deborah, we do have a screenshot of the old look in our Version 2.0 post that's good to read, but thank you!

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  3. The blog design looks great! I am in the process of one as well.I have been wanting to read Red Queen but so many ARC's to get through.....
    Have a great week.

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    1. Thanks Cindy! Red Queen was a great read, good luck with all of your ARC's too!

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  4. I totally love the redesign guys, it's so pretty and I'm looking forward to some of your new features!

    Stacie, glad to hear you are learning to enjoy the books you read except for feeling pressured with the review copies, a balance is the best way to go. I hope you enjoy Saint Anything!

    Amanda, sounds like you're going through a tough time but keep your head up, you will get through it hun. Glad to hear you'll be finishing that work experience, even though it was a good experience.

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    1. Thanks Jeann! It has been a tough few weeks, but I'm going to start kicking ass with my reading, got some many to read at the moment, I just need to do it, you know? When this work experience is over, I'll do lots of reading!

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  5. I do love the redesign! You did a great job! Maybe you should learn a little more about coding and make a career out of it :) I did and I had a wonderful 10+ years working in industry as a client-side developer. It was fantastic and I learned a lot.

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    1. Thanks lovely! I really don't know if I'd ever be able to push myself to make a career out of it, my design bug sticks and then leaves me for any amount of time and that's not always the best, but something to consider :)

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  6. Absolutely adore the new design Amanda! You're an absolute genius! April sounds like it was a tough one for you. I'm in a bit of a reading slump as well so I'm hoping things look up for us in May. There's so much coming out this month!

    I love having a lie in with a couple of tv shows too, Stacie! I'm glad you got some time to yourself :D

    Have a good week, you two! <3

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    1. There is indeed! Hopefully these exciting released will encourage us! Good luck to you too!<3

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  7. Loving your new design. It's so cheerful and dazzling. Great job! I keep thinking about changing mine but I know just enough to make a big mess of it. LOL
    My Sunday Post - http://fuonlyknew.com/2015/05/03/whats-new-on-my-bookshelf-107-and-the-sunday-post/

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    1. Thanks Laura! I think if you're comfortable with what you've got right now, stick with it!<3

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