I realize we’re past the first week of March, but I wanted to give you a quick update on the site redesign progress, plus a few other things. Also, while going through my old posts, I remembered how I used to do monthly recaps. This helped me stay on top of things, as well as have a great way to look at my past progress. So I’m reinstating that practice, but doing so in the Mental Orts blog.

P.S. How do you like my selfie in my thumbnail? I don’t normally take selfies, but that sheepskin coat that I inherited from my mother and goes past my knees makes me feel like a cozy snow queen. It almost makes going out in winter feel tolerable. Also, I am wearing one of the few masks I managed to sew last year - it is pretty comfy.

General Re-design update

If you read my last Mental Orts post, you’ll see that I’ve outlined a number of changes I’ll be making to this site, and the redesign is already well underway. This is all done in the background mostly without affecting the current site, hence why to the outside observer, it might seem like nothing’s going on.

Initially I was planning on simply moving things around on the existing pages, but I realized it might make the pages look a bit funky. So I’m just recreating certain pages, and once I switch over, the old pages will be deleted. Will it screw up some of my SEO? Probably. But I can just tell the googlebots recrawl my site once I’m done (that sounds so much like The Matrix, but that’s just how it works). Not to mention, I’m seeing a lot of gaps in the SEO that I should probably fix and be a bit more thorough. I’m not recreating everything - I guess that’s the nice thing about blog posts is those tend to be moved around as a group.

I have already decided on a new template, layout and default color scheme for the site. I will be adding support for dark mode functionality eventually, but I will wait to add that after I’ve made the new design live, since that’s one thing I can’t properly test until that happens.

I am unpublishing certain posts - don’t worry, it won’t be any of the important ones (which I deem important by comments and analytics). I’m considering unpublishing the “inspiration” posts for now - and if I decide to do inspiration-type stuff again I’ll add it to Mental Orts. Some will be “reposted” under the new blogs where they fit a bit better (same site, but separate blog means new link and separate feed), but they’ll be posted with the original post date since I can change dates. The monthly recaps I want to keep posted I’ll eventually move over here just to keep everything organized. That may make the site feel a bit sparse for a bit as I move some things around. If there’s any good content in the unpublished posts, I may revisit those and post again at some point, but with a fresh approach. For now, my main goal will be to refine the Fiber Arts blog and clean up any “clutter.” Generally though, this blog reorganization isn’t just for the readers - it helps me a lot as well, because now it feels like I’m maintaining three (plus my daughter’s) blogs under the same umbrella rather than trying to make things fit under one.

Considering the pace at which this is moving, it’s possible I may have the new site design by the end of March. I am really trying to withhold the temptation to just switch over now, because it’s so much prettier! But it’s still a bit too broken to do that. Oh but I can’t wait… I haven’t felt this excited about a redesign since, well, the last time I redesigned it several years ago. Hopefully I’m happy with this one for a while, because unless they come up with any more templates for the 7.0 Squarespace version, I don’t think I’ll be able to top this. I also have been making lots of notes of new blog posts to write as I work on this, seeing things I missed or just didn’t consider before. Sometimes it’s just a good idea to freshen things up a bit.

OKAY FINE, here’s a sneak peek of what I am looking at behind the scenes. Note that some things may still change (like what’s on the menu), but for the most part the design itself is hashed out. FYI the menu pops out, it doesn’t stay out like that the entire time. The blog posts also have a new look to them, and… you know what? I’ll save the rest for when it goes live.

social media changes

I am still not really active on social media, though I probably will jump back in at some point. I’m trying to focus on one thing at a time. I do plan on cleaning up the posts on there as well - especially on Instagram. I know it’s a bit challenging to convey this in words, but it’s fairly major overhaul, and I think my social media accounts should reflect that as well.

I did, however, re-activate my reddit account for this site. I’d created it a few years ago, but never used it, hence the low “karma” (reddit’s reward point system for engagement - the more you post and create, and the better your content, the more karma you earn). I’d recently fallen in love with reddit since their new site design is less visually confusing to me. Somewhere on this page you’ll find all the little icons for all my social media accounts - the little robot-looking dude is my reddit profile. If you have a reddit account and/or decide to sign up for one, there’s another way you can follow me online. At the moment, reddit and Instagram are probably my top two favorite platforms.

new Shop Items

Another thing I’ve been looking at is merch. I’ve long been on the fence when it comes to merch, especially since I personally shop 95% thrift for my own clothes, and really do not wish to support fast-fashion (or forced labor for that matter). That being said, I did connect a print-on-demand service and have added two things to my shop so far while working on some fun t-shirt designs. When selecting the products to carry the designs, I’m paying close attention to reviews, fiber content, and location of production, and opt for ethical and eco-friendly choices (as well as quality) over profit margins. Merch is not my primary focus, there are other ways you can support me as well if that’s what you’d like to do - I just wanted to make some fun (and hopefully unique) fiber-art related stuff to show off that we’re fiber artists.

What else I’ve been working on

Outside of the site re-design, I worked on a commission for a Domowik, which I wrote about here. It’s just photos of the final completed piece, but I did share some WIP photos over on reddit.

At the end of February, I was invited to do a zoom presentation for a preschool class on fiber art! The kids seemed to be really fascinated with the process, especially once I showed them some of the “toys” I’d needle felted (things I’d made for my kids, and the Slimey commissions, things they would be more likely to recognize), and got a lot of amazing questions. My favorite was probably “do you make cotton balls?” Most asked me how do I wash the wool, as well as how do I dye the wool. I also did a little demonstration on how I use hand carders.

All in all, it’s been a fairly busy (and productive) month, and it feels good to be jumping back in! See you in the next update!