Hello lovelies, It’s throwback Thursday!
I heard about this amazing site that shows you screen captures of any website over time. It’s called the Wayback Machine, and it’s so much fun! It got me reminiscing over how my own site has changed over the years, and naturally, I wanted to see if they were able to keep it in their archives.
They did! From the very first website I put up in 2011 (in Blogspot!), to this current site that I started in 2012, but which has undergone so many makeovers, I’m glad that each one has been archived.
This was my very first site (fancygirldesigns.com), the domain name that I lost because someone else bought the name when I was late in renewing it by a couple of hours. (It still pains me to think about it).
Don’t laugh! Oh, the textures and the shadows and the overall messiness! The awful tagline! (I want to hide.) If you’re just starting out and feel that you have a long way to go, well, just take a look at my very first site. You should already start feeling good about yourself!
A year later, I finally mustered the courage to move to a self-hosted site. The theme I designed for the initial launch was very similar, with the same colour palette and overall look. And yes, the fancy girl mascot is very much present. I was already working on Genesis themes even then, and I built this using the Scribble theme, one of the prettiest original themes from Studiopress. Look at how elaborate my logo used to be!
Every year I get the compulsion to redesign my site, so in 2013, I refreshed it with a mobile-responsive theme, a new logo, and even more color. hahaha! I was already using flat design though, so I think that makes up for it at least. This is the same as the current layout, which I haven’t changed.
There was one time I tried to dull the colours a bit by removing the teal and replacing it with gray. I’m so glad the Wayback Machine saved it because I don’t have a screenshot of this one. As you can see, the mascot is finally gone. It was time to retire her.
Last year, I did another set of tweaks to the design, giving it a fresh look with mostly corals and gold. I’m still happy with the layout, so I didn’t change it. I just updated my logo, the colour palette, and changed some fonts. Truth be told, I would have wanted a total makeover, but I just couldn’t make up my mind on how I would actually change it. I discovered that it’s hard to choose when your choices are infinite!
One of these days, I will find time to give my site a long overdue and complete makeover. Maybe I should include myself in my project queue.
How do you think I can improve my homepage layout so that it’s easier for you to get the information you need? Let me know in the comments!
