New Design + Blogiversary + GIVEAWAY!

You may have noticed a few new things around here like my fab new blog design that I am so excited to talk about.  I feel like it's a more accurate reflection of who I am rather than my previous design.  It happens to be my blogs 1 year anniversary.  One year ago in April I decided to come up with The Rococo Roamer, which I hope is a catchy title, but what does it mean?  Well, my goals for the blog were to document my travels (Roamer) and living in Germany and even previous to that I loved the look of Rococo architecture and interiors (Rococo).  I thought it was the most extravagant/gaudy/grandiose thing I'd ever seen so I loved the idea of merging the two ideas together and voila, my blog baby was born. 

Now if you've been a long time reader or if you simply peruse the contents of my archive you will actually see that my blog is technically 2 years old.  My first post was posted in May of 2012.  But, I don't consider this the beginning of The Rococo Roamer.  Why?  Well, because it wasn't called that, it was just my name.  I had the most basic blogger template design.  I only posted once in a while and really just for my mom I think (And you should really go back and check out some of those travel posts on Prague, Amsterdam, Poland, Brussels, and Cologne!).  And lastly, I knew nothing about social media, so I'm pretty sure no one knew my blog existed and I didn't know there was a huge community of bloggers out there.  April of last year was when I decided to come up with a real blog name, pay for a custom header (the designer of the header, I actually found through Reddit), and actually customize the original template myself.

While the design that I created served it's purpose for a year, I felt it was time to actually pay someone who knew what they were doing.  Cue Rekita Nicole.  I'm pretty sure I'd been a follower of her blog HerandNicole.com since I began blogging and absolutely loved her designs.  She had such a fun, clean look in designing that I loved.  Plus you can tell that she genuinely loves designing and creating.  She has come up with tons of great blog designs and ready to buy templates.  So I decided to contact her about her design services and I can honestly say that she turned it out!  She took the ideas in my head and made them better. Also she was so patient with how picky I tend to be. I'd definitely recommend her blog designing services!

You may have also noticed that I revamped my About Me page and Contact page.  I also made the switch from www.therococoroamer.blogspot.com to www.therococoroamer.com.  I was worried about the switch, but I was able to figure out how to do it in 15 minutes so if you are thinking about getting a custom domain name (.com) and want someone else to do it for you, you can send me an email. 

I've been pondering if I should get Disqus for my commenting system but the verdict is still out on that. 

I'm thankful to all the readers I've had over the year that have been loyal commenters and followers.  And also thanks for all the new readers.  My vision for the blog is growing. I'll be graduating from my graduate program this summer so that will free up a lot more time to work on other projects.  Right now I'm pretty swamped with reading textbooks and writing papers, but I can't wait to see what other endeavors I may begin after I graduate.  Plus if you have any suggestions on what your favorite types of posts are that I write about let me know in the comments.  Are your favorite posts of mine when I write about travel, antiques, occasional DIY projects, or the very rare occasions when I reveal a bit about myself?

And now on to my little giveaway I have going on for my blogiversary. I decided that I'd give away some of my favorite German treats.  I am a chocoholic and German chocolate is on point.  You'll win everything in the picture so you can eat it all yourself or share it with a friend. (If we are getting technical here, some of them like the Chupa Chups and Forrero Rocher aren't actually German but they are delicious).

How to Enter

1) Follow The Rococo Roamer by bloglovin' or GFC

2) Leave a comment telling me which way you followed and what treat you are most excited about trying

Bonus Entry: You can also follow my new Instagram account, but leave a separate comment for that one too.

That's it!

*The giveaway ends on April 29 by 11:59 pm CET.   A winner will be chosen at random and announced the following day in a post and also contacted via email.  If you don't have a blog make sure you leave an email. You will have 72 hours to respond or the next winner will be chosen.  The contest is open internationally.  All entries will be verified.

Good Luck!

           

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