Did you wonder where you were when you stopped by my site?
I’m renovating.
Again.
Woofie!
But this is for an exciting reason…drum roll please…I’m finally, finally, finally on my way to becoming “the awkward bird shoppe”!
I’m starting with the online shoppe and I cannot believe that I get to build this. It’s a dream come true! Now, I know that most people wouldn’t unveil their shoppe until they were at least close to the finish line. But, I’m not like most people and I wasn’t quite expecting to be building the online shoppe until a few months from now, so I kinda sorta ended up with an online shoppe in my lap which, gave me no choice but to get building.
So, instead of hiding all of the obviousness that I have no idea what I am doing, y’all can stop by and visit me as I build this thing from the ground up. I want you to be inspired to chase your dreams even though you have no idea what you are doing, so I’ll put my money where my mouth is.
I realized as I was researching, once again, on website design processes, that “renovating” is another theme of life going on right now for me and my family. We moved and are working on getting into our own home, which will take some serious renovating. (Stories on that one to come in the next month or so.) Our own daily life has been in the middle of some big renovations as we try to solve obstacles in our new directions. And I was able to switch to have my website hosted by a local company instead of a global one, which became very important to me.
So…let the renovations begin!
Renovating is exciting! You know you’re headed toward something better because that’s the plan. But it’s rare that the process happens without turmoil. Often, you find yourself standing in the middle of your renovation feeling like you just may have made a mess of things. Secretly wondering if anyone has noticed, if anyone is doubting your sanity. At some point, deep in the adventure of renovating, you find it difficult to see the end result that prompted you to start renovating in the first place.
Too late to turn back, you keep going, and as the dust clears, your spirits rise. You can start to see the end result as it begins to take shape. How about that! You knew what you were doing all along.
I’m always surprised by that bit of information.
But I’m not there yet.
So, my BFF’s, “The Awkward Bird” is finally getting ready for the moment it was created in the first place, many moons ago – to be a country shoppe. I am starting with an online shoppe for a variety of reasons. Fear being a biggie. Actually, it takes the lead. But I also don’t have a place yet for a physical shoppe so I guess that’s kinda big too.
Having my site hosted locally was a very important first step to ensure the security of my BFF’s as you shoppe with me. My site was hacked over a year ago and in losing my content, the global company I was using could not save me. That would never do for having a shoppe. So, I’m finally at the point that having a local hosting company is a dream come true. Also, you may notice above in the web address, that my site no longer says “not secure”. Another priority for me as you shoppe at The Awkward Bird.
My local hosting company suggested I choose a different website theme that was geared toward having a shoppe now that I am moving forward, so with their guidance, I made a selection to get started.
And now I renovate my website.
At the moment, it’s hard for me to see what it will look like when the dust settles. I know what I want it to look like but getting it out of my brain and onto a website is a lot harder than it seems. I’m a bit stuck. Even after all these years of thinking, designing and planning, I have never settled on a logo design or the basic look of my website. It’s time to renovate and update but I’m frozen in indecision. I’m over thinking it. I’ve read too many books on branding and theme cohesion. They have scared me. Being an awkward bird, I’m not a big fan of following the norms and “across the board” traditional branding. My name for my shoppe may not be well suited for the name of my cafe or my garden nursery or my flower farm down the road. And what about the adventures I haven’t come to yet? Maybe they will need a new name. So, I’m looking for a design consistency that appears to be consistent even though the names may change.
And my local hosting company introduced me to a site called Canva and my world will never be the same. Design options like you wouldn’t believe for almost everything. (Not my cookbook though. I already checked. But at least for the cover. I had to order a Dummy book for creating my cookbook.) I love office supplies and marketing materials. But I’ve spent approximately 729.37 hours playing around on the Canva site in one day and have come to realize that there are just too many toys. This past month, throughout the variety of renovations going on in my world, I have had too many decision-making moments and felt completely ill-equipped for them. Like when you’re standing in the cereal aisle trying to pick out healthy cereal that everyone will eat. I can usually be found talking to myself as I go up and down and up and down and up and down the aisle.
After toying with the idea of hiding away in bed, I woke up one day ready to become decisive and just start making decisions on the fly. I’ve had to tap into that characteristic to move on from designing my logo and look. Just pick something and move on. It can be changed. Never mind the marketing books.
I also need to provide a new bio about me for my website. I agonize over those. They need to be short. I don’t like to keep it short, I like to yak. Now I have a shoppe to consider. What angle do I cover? Where am I headed? I’m headed all over the place. Everything in my world right now is under renovation. What if I scare you? What if I bore you? What if I alienate you? What if I lose you?
Are you still there?
See!
Oh, by the way, I had to ditch all of the images I had included in my previous posts as we brought my content over to this new site. And when I say “we” I mean my new local hosting company. I’m tried to stay out of the way while they made the move for me. So, everything I created before is awkward now because there are no pictures to go with the stories. I have to start over with new images. And do you want to know why? Because I used the wrong size for my images so it was the biggest site that they had ever seen and I’m only a blog. Figures. My images would have slowed down everything moving forward. I could have gone in and changed each one individually, but that didn’t seem like the best way to move forward. Cleave and leave. Move on. Rebuild.
Renovate.
But first, I need to learn to add the appropriately sized images so I am not repeating my erroneous ways. More learning.
You’ll notice reference to a shoppe, but you can’t buy anything yet. Save up your pennies though, because I’m going to personally select some fabulous goodies for the Grand Opening.
But first, I need to get this website ship shape. Then I need to get set up as a legal business.
And I need appropriately-sized pictures.
