This site has been around for… oh geez… probably since at least 2019? So it’s definitely been through its fair share of overhauls. Once upon a time this was meant to strictly be a portfolio site to use professionally, and then maybe store a bunch of my art on the side (especially since gallery sites like deviantArt and tumblr were already falling out of fashion). I think a couple years later I started making little blog posts on here, usually still in line with my projects and very scarce, but that was the first step in taking this site away from a strictly professional place.
Since then it’s gone through a few theme changes, each one getting closer but not quite hitting what I wanted. The problem was that WordPress itself was restrictive–a theme could offer you a lot of versatility, but it was still bound by the theme’s parameters (and that itself was most often very corporate looking lol). At least, it was difficult to really customize what you wanted without knowing some HTML/CSS. (Listen, uh, it’s something I do want to learn properly at some point, but I am such a visual do-or-die learner, so trying to do code is like hell to me). Therefore fighting WordPress themes was all I could do for a bit, and it was… adequate. It was fine. But then the new block editor update hit and suddenly everything changed!
This update allows you to basically tweak every single thing on the site, and opens up opportunities I never had before with previous themes. It’s not restrictive anymore! So my eyes opened wide and I thought: maybe… I could finally make the sites I always wanted.
I started with the Windy & Wallflower site, which was in a desperate need to be overhauled at the time. It was old and again, corporate looking. I hated it. Changing it ended up being… not too hard? It’s crazy how easy it can be when you’re not, well, fighting it. I soon jumped on to the W&W Shop website to update it, too, and then it was my turn. (While also helping Winter overhaul their site, which they’re currently still working on!)
I converted my site to the new block editor theme early on just to test it out, using assets for my previous site design, though it wasn’t quite feeling right. But I was busy with other stuff, so left it for a couple months. I returned to it recently and decided I needed to toss out that pink–listen, I love hot pink, but it just wasn’t jiving with this site anymore. I decided on yellow instead, since I associate that colour with my fursona. From there everything clicked into place!
And so here we are! New site baby! Hopefully this one sticks around longer than the others. But this site, for the first time, really feels like mine. I’m very happy with it!
Here’s a couple new pages/features I’ve added, and I’m sure there will be more to come:
- The Lapeo Fakemon Dex has its own full page! It also includes some new guys that I have yet to talk about, but will soon!
- I made a FAQ page, which I’ll add more to once I think of more questions lol
- I made a bunch of specific posts for my tabletop games & characters!
- The Quick Pitches page which has funny elevator pitches for all my stories/projects, and links to them! (Idea taken from Winter for this one hehe)
- I have a whole Portfolio page, so I’m able to much better keep my professional and fun stuff separate!
- I also just put all my projects under one category, and other art into another for easier organizing (before I had my projects separated by ongoing and WIP).
- My dinovembers have their own posts, as well as all of my drawing challenges.
I also hope to make more blog posts like this. I feel like I keep saying that, but this time I mean it, dangit! Look, this is a whole post where I didn’t even include art or images anywhere! Maybe there will be more of those, too!!! The possibilities are endless!!!!
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