When I began The Hobby Hoarder project, I had intended to hire a website designer to take care of everything–to make my site look fresh, inviting, and professional. But I never hired anyone. Instead, I asked a friend to help me set up a WordPress template–and from there, I taught myself how to upload a post, embed a video, and integrate an image. To me working in the WordPress world felt easy–it paralleled the work I’d lived in on Blogspot, when I was posting over at Libs on the Reel and I’ll Take a Cappuccino. But as The Hobby Hoarder has evolved, it has become very clear that it’s time for the blog too as well–It’s time for The Hobby Hoarder to transform from a blog to a full on website. So I’ve decided to start building.
For months, several of my friends have been raving about Squarespace so I finally bit the bullet and signed up for an account. And then instead of hiring someone to go to town on hashing out the details, I began experimenting myself. And by experimenting, I mean, I began pounding my fist when a template didn’t work the way I wanted to:
After enough fist pounding, I even gave up for a few days. I didn’t know if I was really prepared for the work I would need to do to even build a foundation. All I kept thinking was “I wish there was a magic wand to make this look the way I want it to–INSTANTLY.” But without a genie to grant me my wish, I knew I had to give it a second try.
So I logged back into Squarespace and began messing around with the template I had chosen called FRONTROW (Here’s their example):
The template offered me a base to start with–and a style toolbar to help make all the necessary changes I’d hoped to:
AND the cool thing about Squarespace is that the host doesn’t require users to know coding. Thank goodness for that, because I have no idea how to code anything–including my bike lock properly–This means that I’ve been able to stick with their general template recommendations and make changes through the style editor previewed above. Therefore, through trial and error (and frustration), I began to make progress:
And thus far–this is what I have come up with–at least for a homepage:
Right now, I’m excited about homepage — HOWEVER, if I could change the homepage in any way–it would be to include a video reel as opposed to the big giant (and fantastic 😉 picture of myself.
I also thought I’d share a couple more screenshots of the subpages I am starting to piece together. I think with a few more edits on font colors/sizes, etc–It could really come together nicely:
What are your thoughts? What do you hope to see on the brand new site? How do you think I can make everything a bit more user friendly? And what kind of content will you be looking for? What stands out to you when you are looking at home pages and blogs? What works–what doesn’t work–and what could work?
Leave a comment and share some of your favorite websites or even your web design tips! And also watch out for the new site in the next month or two!
OH and ALSO have no fear, http://www.thehobbyhoarder.com won’t be going down at all for construction! Since I’m working through a completely different host- you can keep enjoying all the content–and more–as is!
And let’s be honest-that kind of, sort of, definitely rocks—Even this guy thinks so:
The Hobby Hoarder 
LOVE THE LAST PICTURE 😉