Journal Log is my little personal space where I document what I am currently doing and my future projects. This is where I remind myself what I have done and what needs to be done. This is a place where I will not hold back at expressing my emotions and frustrations.
“To those that have been waiting for me to launch my website, I am sincerely so sorry to have kept you all waiting. I have a bad case of OCD. About 90% of the time I was adjusting the picture sizes and the layout. There were days or weeks I would be working on just one blog post just to get it right! I hope it was worth the wait.”
I am not going to lie. I have been building my website for years! There has been so many attempts at launching it but every time things seem to get in the way. First of all, I was never happy with the first name I came up with. I paid for the name and the yearly subscription to my website provider but I never did anything to it for 4 years. At one stage I was working 5 days week as well as some weekends. Life just got too busy!
Just over 2 years ago we decided to quite our jobs and move to the other side of the world. The move was a bit of a drastic decision to make but it was something we have always wanted to do. The first difference was I had to get used to the space, more like lack of space. In UK I had an office and my very own sewing and craft studio. In Hong Kong, I have a table in the corner of the lounge! Just how am I going to get motivated? Space was the first issue then there was the heat. Just don’t get me started on that. The first 5 months we were getting rid of clutter and decorating the house just to make it comfortable for us.
I started looking at building my website again in August of 2015 after we got the house out of the way. In October I found out I was pregnant so I tried to catch up with learning to build my website. In early 2016 I had my baby. I went in for an emergency operation for something totally different and ended up in labour after 5 days on the drip! So the website had to be put on hold again. Then 70% of my hair fell out after 3 months of giving birth! Problems and stress just never seem to end. Now that I have a little spare time in between my baby feeds I started to look properly into building my website again. Oh my, was I in for a treat! WORDPRESS, I HATE YOU!
Font decisions! In the process of building my website I unintentionally became a hoarder of fonts!
Word of warning. Free website themes are not worth the hassle. I hate using the free theme templates because they just didn’t do what I wanted. I was contemplating building my website from scratch. I was willing to learn coding, I was that cheesed off. I started to learn a bit of HTML, CSS and Javascript. The last time I looked into Dreamweaver was 9 years ago and that was only a 6 week course! Then I had Genesis and Headways thrown at me, then someone mentioned Coda! Aaaargh! How much do I have to learn?
So, while all that was going on I started documenting everything I was cooking and making ready for this website. I would stay up all night to build my website and sleep during the day when the baby napped. Making the icons, logo, header and banners was just the easy bit. Eventually I forked out some money to buy myself a theme template just to get me started because the hubs just hate to see me suffering. I was taking 1 step forward and 10 steps back for months just adjusting the theme and the settings! Yes, it was that bad! The bought themet helped a bit but it meant I have to go back to using WordPress again. WORDPRESS, I HATE YOU!
Here are a few pictures of what goes on behind the scenes in making this website. Here is when I’ve had enough of building my website I take a break and work on my projects. This is an insight of what’s to come.
New Year means new diary! Since I have always been unhappy with what’s available in the shops, I have been designing and making my own diaries for the past 10 years.
I tend to change and adapt my diaries each year spending on my lifestyle or job. I am sure a lot of people out there are just having to make do with what there is available.
I am working on a more generic design to accommodate most people. This will be available for free so you can print and make.
I started crochet again in late 2015 because I wanted to make a few other items for my little dumpling when she arrives. I forgot how fun it was especially when I was making small items that didn’t take too long to make and the the results were well cute. I didn’t even realised how easy it was to read an amigurumi pattern. I can’t even read Japanese but the symbols were easy to follow. So, utilising my Adobe Illustrator skills I took on the task to create my very own library of symbols ready for my crochet patterns.
In between my busy schedule I was contacted through Facebook to teach someone how to use an embroidery software. Just drafting up the worksheets.
Yes, I design digital embroidery designs too. If you follow my Instagram or Facebook feeds you may have had a glimpse of the Chinese embroidery I did for my wedding.
With Chinese/Lunar New Year around the corner I had to start designing and making my Lion Head surprise! First of all I started with a sketch. I brought it into Illustrator to play around with the look and colour scheme. The final designs were merely for playing with the mixing of colours rather than the actual design and proportion. Because I have never made one of these before this is going to be a hit and miss situation. Fingers cross it works out ok.
Those who have followed me will know I have already posted the final outcome. I hope you like it?
WordPress, I hate you! Here’s an example why I hate using WordPress. The left is what I see when I am building my website, boxes misaligned and text all over the place. The right, nicely laid out! So, why can’t it be the same? Then I found out the images resize themselves depending on what computer you are on or when you come back to it later on the day! I hate WordPress!
After weeks of readjusting and aligning all my post images I finally have something decent. Hopefully the layout stays like this. This is not the first time I have to sort of these issues. Almost every day I come back to this, an image or two is out of place. It is so frustrating.
Thinking ahead. One night I couldn’t sleep so I started thinking I need a branding if people want to buy my creations one day. How am I going to incorporate what I love to do?
Blythe, Dolls, Graphics, Pattern Cutting, Digital Embroidery Designs, Craft, Making, Baby Clothing, Accessories, etc.
So I came up with this idea.
Since I love sewing and Blythe, I might as well design clothes patterns for dolls and action figures. Yay, 2 birds with one stone! I am loving it!
I have been teaching Illustrator to my college students for many years. This time I am actually feeling I am doing something for myself for a change.
Back to building my website and writing a blog post.
Website seems to be behaving. Nothing misaligned or moved/changed since I last left it. I bet I will get jinxed!
OMG, I didn’t expect to be writing a 20 page essay that I had to end up splitting the post into 4 parts!
Finally moving onto my recipe blog posts. I can start writing my recipes and planning ahead. Being messed about with WordPress is no fun. Imagine going back to your webpages and noticing something is misaligned even though you have spent weeks just correcting it. I understand why some people just don’t want to touch web building.
Yup, it’s done it again! I’m going to pull my hair out! Images misaligned again. I am starting to question myself whether I have severe OCD issues that needs diagnosing. No matter what I do I can’t seem to get the images to behave. I am really considering bailing out. I have not much hair to pull out since my postpartum hair loss.
While writing up my North American Smocking instructions I had a sudden idea that urged me to create geometric shapes using dots. Hard to explain.
This little project is going to show how a designers/creators brain works. I am going to try and document how one of my random ideas evolve into my creations.
What is wrong with you? Aaaaaargh, I hate WordPress! Somebody from WordPress is either going to be fired or killed. I seriously urge someone at WordPress to do something about their web building tool. I’ve done some research and it seems everyone is having problems with it. Come on guys it’s the 21st Century!
Rant over!
So, there you go peeps. I have a very good reason why I haven’t launch my website or channel yet. I just hate to be unproductive. I am not a person that can sit still. I have to be doing/creating something. Wish me luck!
Shan x