The very first post!

Hi! I couldn’t wait to make this section, because having a website is, of course, exciting. It’s a showcase project, a portfolio, a shop and a lot about me all in one place. But I also wanted to give this space my voice, my own texts and stories about the things that occupy my mind.

And here it is — the first post!

Launching the site turned out to be a very nerve-wracking experience. I keep analyzing it as I go: in recent years, I’ve been doing mostly physical, hands-on work, and I think of myself as a pretty analog person. Sitting at a laptop, building pages, adjusting spacing, editing email campaigns and filling out product cards — at first, all of that felt like a huge challenge I really didn’t want to deal with. And I didn’t want to delegate it either, because explaining to someone else exactly how I envision the site felt harder than doing it myself (if you, like me, aren’t great at delegating — wave at me in the comments!). Basically, for me it all felt like doing my taxes, just... every day.

Last Friday, almost a week ago, I launched the site — and then came views and bug reports, and I spent every free minute this week working on the site or asking my wife to help me. We fixed all the bugs, and over this week, the site has become a real part of my life. Which means: those tasks no longer annoy me! And I remembered that back in high school, I once built a website about my hometown from scratch in HTML. And I do have a journalism education, I’ve worked with texts in online media, and a few years ago I even randomly took a full UX writing course. So now I’m quite literally using parts of my previous experience in this business — and that makes me feel more confident in what I do.

This site also matters to me because I’m leaving Etsy. That decision has been growing for a while. Etsy’s fees are brutal, traffic has slowed down — and now I’m taking a risk, but also creating one more thing with my own hands.

I’m really proud of myself. Proud of the number of skills I keep picking up along the way. I honestly like how everything turned out — especially when I get to fix bugs! Big thanks to everyone who spots them and gently shares feedback with me.

I especially want to thank those who helped and supported me in building this site:

• My dear Nastya karavdina.com, for the love, unconditional daily support, and for always being ready to guide me when I’m stuck — even in the middle of the night;

• Maria Sher sher.com, for the beautiful photo shoot of me embroidering in the port of my favorite city;

• Camila Machado camilamachado.com, for the most precise and absolutely my logo, the design of my post- and business cards

  and also for inspiration on my path;

• and all my loved ones who have supported me through all these years.

  
  

So, yes — this is clearly a new turn in my journey. I’m wishing for it to be a beautiful one!