I took down this website well over six months ago to undergo a much needed design overhaul. I did the bulk of that redesign in July of last year. Unfortunately, I was not 100% happy with the new look and I became very busy with a move (to Cornwall—it’s gorgeous) and then a return to work. Not just a return to work, but regular commuting, over several hundred miles, from Cornwall to Northampton. So even though the majority of a rebuild was complete, I wanted a perfectly finished and totally revamped website to go back online with. Every single “i” dotted and “t” crossed. Then time continued to pass and I simply allowed my blog to be in hiatus for months. Outrageous behaviour.

Two things have brought me back. Firstly, I had a very successful Free Sacred Geometry Vector Pack that has been downloaded tens of thousands of times, and eventually people traced the dead links out there back to my URL and found my email address on the holding page, so I have been emailing individuals that want my download directly. How quaintly archaic of me. Now, that can all be managed again on the page I built to do so if I get it back online. Secondly, I hadn’t stopped writing, working and announcing major events in my life on social media, and I really dislike how these things get lost into the Social Media Abyss. I even have a couple of blog posts I have written and saved offline, waiting for this rebuild. That’s clearly just silly.

Still though, over the last few days I have been agonising over the fact there is yet more work to do and that the new design could be a lot better. The fact that you are seeing this post now is due to the following reasons, clarified by way of giving myself a good talking to:

  • The design isn’t all that bad. I am a perfectionist. I’ve spent nearly 6 months without a website because of that perfectionism and that is clearly cutting off my online “nose” to spite my perfectionist self-flagellating “face”.
  • I can look to do another complete rebuild in a couple of years if I am not delighted with this one. The web will have moved on, code will have changed, WordPress will have changed. I can’t avoid another rebuild. I can have another go at this then.
  • There really isn’t all that much wrong with the current design. It has a lot going for it. I have to stop being such a perfectionist. (Is anybody catching the theme yet?)
  • It isn’t entirely finished. I have to update lots of old posts with new tagging, add featured images, and, more importantly, I have to sort out my portfolio in an agreeable and easy to navigate; but, it is crazy to wait for months because I need to tie off some loose ends. I can do those changes as the website is live. In fact, maybe having it up here will inspire me to get to it faster.
  • I am in the middle of a PhD, there will never be such a thing as a “good time” to get the site to the perfect state for a relaunch.
  • Just do it.
  • Stop being such a bloody perfectionist.

So here it is. TheMushroom.net 2.0 … It’s basically a re-skinning of the old blog, with a few small changes (primarily the introduction of a responsive design, I actually think the mobile site looks way nicer than the desktop version).

From here on in it will be, what those of us who have owned a number of classic VW cars and campers call, a rolling restoration. If you have any suggestions about what I could do to improve the current build, or any thoughts, comments, queries, conspiracy theories or epically terrible puns—make yourself known.

Be Well & Be Happy.