Jun 5, 2017

Three cheers for finally having my site up and running. I’d put an exclamation mark on that, but really it was just a long, drawn out, boring process and I’m happy to have it over with. And thankful for tech support people who do all the beep-bop-booping to magically make the internet work. 

As you’ve probably/maybe not noticed, I finally switched things over to my new url “katielewisstudio.com” instead of the old free WordPress domain. It wasn’t for looks or vanity (though I confess I do prefer a good clean site); it’s to make long-term branding less of a mess. In the long run it’s just easier to put my custom website on everything–PDFs I’m selling, printed materials for the kits, and especially the required info I have to include on all the kits to be CPSC compliant–than to use a free website and then update it later and have to update and redesign/reprint everything. 

I also did my best to clean up the rest of the website–the static homepage with the photo/link directly to my shop (which currently has nothing listed, don’t get excited), my about page which has a less-weird bio now than before, and blah blah the other tabs too. 

Other boring-but-important things I finally checked off my long list of business stuff I have to do before I can start actually selling things included finalizing (finally!) the gargantuan PDF which weighs in at a whopping 51 pages (don’t worry only 10 of those pages are patterns that actually need to be printed) and finalizing alllllllll of the printed material for the kits, which includes kit covers and all the patterns and instructions to go inside. I even went over to Staples this evening to submit the files for printing and I’m at least 70% sure the kid in the copy and print center set up the order right. Luckily I’ll get to see it all before I pay for it. (Eeeek.) I also updated my etsy shop with my logo (which you can see at the top of this site now) and activated my business debit card and linked my business bank account to my etsy thing so I’ll actually get paid/charged from the right account. Oh yeah and I finalized the design for and ordered a stamp to mark the inside of the kits with so I can put the date and batch number and business info I have to include to be CPSC compliant. And ordered clear stickers to keep the kit boxes closed and some shipping boxes in case someone wants to order more than one kit at a time. 

Man, I really did do so many boring things today. So many that I feel bad now inflicting them all on my poor innocent readers. (Sorry guys.) But also it was so, so boring that I feel like I need to validate my super boring day with some sense of accomplishment by at least bragging about it. 

My list of things I still need to do before I can share all these goodies in the shop is getting smaller! Yaaaaay. In fact, aside from my initial meeting with an accountant tomorrow and the child product certificates I need to type up, I think everything else on my list is stuff like putting the actual kits together and photographing and listing them in the shop, all of which I’m now waiting to do until I get the printed stuff and stamp. So it’s like I’m making progress or something! It’s like I’m getting close! It’s like–maybe, just MAYBE–I really will get this all done and launched before the baby’s born at the end of the month!

But also I’d still be ok if he came, like, right now because then I could eat whatever I wanted. And also I’d have a baby.