A New Look (But Now What?)
A few months ago, I decided to manually copy and paste everything from my old TS website to this shiny, new one. “It will be fun!” I told myself. “It won’t take that long!” Clearly, I was blinded by optimism — it was painfully tedious and halfway through, I was ready to throw in the towel. But I finished it, and now there’s a fresh, better functioning, easy to navigate website for you to peruse.
When I launched Taylor-Sterling.com back in 2018, I wanted a site where I could share my projects with you, but ultimately, I wanted a place to explore the creative process. This was before we decided to change directions for Glitter Guide, essentially creating the same content that I was working on here. Once we did that, I wasn’t sure what was left; it felt redundant to create similar content on both platforms. I’d also decided to take a break from creating new products. I had a handful come out in succession, and while that was exciting, it was a ton of work, and I wanted the next thing I made to be really special.
Then the pandemic hit and threw a huge wrench into my work routine. I had to share my home workspace with my husband and two young children. It was complete chaos for an entire year. My husband needed a quiet room to teach high school math on Zoom, my daughter needed a quiet space to attend first grade on Zoom, and my son, who was only in preschool, needed someone to entertain him and watch him (and essentially keep him quiet!). This meant that I’d not only lost my office, but I’d become a teacher’s assistant and a stay-at-home mom overnight. I squeezed work into any spare hours I could. To say it affected my business would be an understatement.
Now we’re slowly emerging out of the pandemic and things are returning to “normal” — but I feel disjointed and unmotivated. Besides writing for Glitter Guide and my newsletter over the past year, I haven’t had time to work on much else. Do I have enough interesting things to share to justify another website? I don’t know. I’m not comfortable making content for content’s sake, but when it’s a business, that’s part of the deal.
This is a long-winded way to express that I don’t have the answers. I know I’m “supposed” to share what you can expect and why you should take the time to read and engage with my work, but I’m at a place in my life and career where I can’t make definitive statements. Each day feels like its own mini success. I hope by having a new site that actually works, I’ll be motivated to create more, and as a result, I will get a clearer picture of what I want to share consistently. Something I do know is that many of you have been on this journey with me for over twelve years! You’ve seen me go through many iterations of myself and have stuck with me. That’s what inspires me to push through this murky phase — so thank you!
