I'm getting more productive again

For the last week or so I've been busy getting my new website up and running.  It's nothing fancy but I think I finally managed to get all my jewellery on there.  If I ever have time to read up about web site security and Paypal I might eventually manage to use it ot actually sell stuff rather than just have it pointing to my Etsy shop.  Some day....

Needless to say, spending all that time on the web site has had a negative impact on my creative time.  In other words I've had none and I've had itchy fingers. This week I've managed to be more productive again.  Admittedly it's been at the expense of other things, like going to the gym but I feel like I'm back on track :o)

See what I made this week (you can see details in my Etsy shop or on my new web site):

Now I just need to work out how to have a full time job, make jewellery, run a house and still have a life.

I finally broke into web design - or - New beginnings part 4

I've been wanting my own web site for my jewellery for a long time.  The Boy has succeeded in talking me out of it until now.  Someone just made me an offer I couldn't refuse so I am now the proud owner of my own domain name. :D

I did a little 'teach yourself' course on HTML programming at the end of last year, well I did most of it I think.  At least I learned how to do the basics so that should stand me in good stead.  The web hosting company provides an interface for people who don't know how to program web pages. It lets you use a menu to create stuff so in theory you don't need to know programming.

So..... last night I sat down in front of my PC and took the bull by the horns.  Really you should sit down and plan it all out properly but I was too excited for that.  I browsed some web sites to see if any of them had a layout I liked.  Next I tried to create a home page layout that was similar to the ones I liked.  That was when the frustration and hair tearing started.  Things just wouldn't go where I wanted on the page!

After getting half way through the home page layout I ended up starting to create some of the other pages.  Then I decided I didn't really like where the home page was going.  It wasn't really going in the artistic direction I had intended (dahlings).  Artistic what?  So I currently have a skeleton web site that points to my Etsy shop.  It will most definitely evolve, into something better I hope.

Not bad for a first attempt.  What do you think?

My shiny new web site

For now I want to give people the opportunity to view the items for sale in my Etsy shop in different ways, eg show things by colour, show matching sets, etc.  If I ever work out how to do it securely I'd like to be able to sell things through the web site and take payments through Paypal.  That way I can price things in Sterling and stop scaring off people in the UK with prices in dollars.  I suspect I have a steep learning curve before I can achieve that.

Please feel free to go in and try to break it or see if I've done anything stupid.  My next plan is to add a guest book so that people can leave comments, although I've already added the facility to e-mail me from the Contacts page.

Wish me luck.