Imma take a day off. Ooo, maybe I’ll redo my entire website!

Because why else would you take a day off?

This morning, Tim was like (when I said I was contemplating not dyeing yarn today, but instead, running errands, doing laundry, and getting some things done I haven’t been able to do), “Don’t dye yarn today. Sure, it’s not a day off if you’re doing things for work that you can’t do when you’re dying yarn. But you’re still getting work done, you’re just rearranging your schedule, like any good manager does.” I’m paraphrasing, because I was half asleep when he was talking to me, but that’s the gist of it. Gist? Jist? Whatevs. Fake day off, FTW!

ANYWAY. My point. I need some website design feedback, because I apparently can not think for myself any more. I emailed a friend about this yesterday but like a song stuck in my head, I can’t stop thinking over it. So Imma brain dump on you!

Re: my work related website design.

I’ve been running into some problems the last couple of weeks; Shopify (my host/shopping cart) is making some upgrades to their back end, automagically sucked into supported themes. While Happy Cog, who made my theme, does still have a couple of themes up one theme on the Shopify website, mine is no longer supported (boo!) and they’ve phased it out/no longer offer it… so I’m running into weighing “do I want to not have these upgrades” vs. “do I love this theme.”

And I do love the theme. Brownish-gray! Easy on the eyes! Funky without being blinding! Just a little bit different, and simple without being plain.

But I also really like the idea of better/easier viewing/shopping for customers on mobile units, and being able to assign variant images to my drop-down menus when I offer something in multiple colors (so that when someone chooses, say, “blue”, the default photo automagically becomes the blue one, both on the website and in the cart when they’re reviewing their sale). This would save me a lot of drama when, even though I try to remember to add color names to all the variant pictures, someone gets upset when they think they were buying something oatmeal colored but get something gray instead.

But I love this theme.

But what else is next? What other improvements/offerings will Shopify make? Is the above the start of me being left behind if I stay with this theme?

I was thinking maybe of starting 2015 with a new shop theme. Except that’s four months away, and except that I can’t stop thinking about a new theme… but I’m so brain-fried right now I don’t know if I can’t stop thinking about it because it’s a great idea, or I can’t stop thinking about it because just like a song by Meatloaf, it is stuck in my head and nothing I can do can get rid of it. PARADISE BY THE DAAAAAASSHBOARD LIGHT!

So. The Shopify theme store doesn’t have many me-appropriate themes up there any more, sadly. By “Me-appropriate” I mean easy on the eyes, but a little bit funky, doesn’t look like all the others, and stands out not because it’s garish but because the design is so simple that my product photography does most of the work. There is really only one up in their shop that I would consider… the rest all look like I’m trying to sell computer equipment, or have that fucking white letter on black background shit that I hate. Or otherwise don’t fit the idea in my head of a handmade goods site. This is cute, but I don’t offer sewn items, so I’m afraid buttons and string on every page might be misleading. This one appeals to me (probably because it comes pictured with ceramics) but is soooo painfully plain.

This theme, on the other hand, looks similar enough to my current theme that it wouldn’t be too different for people; the color scheme is close to what I have now, the layout looks pretty similar, but it has a spot to welcome people on the front page (which I don’t have now, and that’s always bugged me), it has a matching – but smaller – mobile design for phones and tablets, and it has a lot of things out of the box that my current theme does not but that I’ve been able to figure workarounds for.

If you’ve clicked the link, could you tell me if you think it’s “me”? Or tell me that I need to wait until the start of the new year? Or tell me that yes, if they’re making changes and the theme I have isn’t supported any more, this is not a crazy idea? My gut says get it now, just do it, but I also don’t trust my brain this week because SQUIRREL. I know “advice is what you ask for when you already know the answer and wish you didn’t” but in this case I really am open to your thoughts.

In case you’re thinking “how much work would this make for you, when you’re already saying you have the brain of a goldfish?” — Changing themes is not that hard with Shopify, thank goodness; that’s one thing they do right – everything they offer is built on the same bone structure, the theme is just like … skin that you take off or put on. So “updating” my theme would take, like, an hour, tops. (In theory). Of course I have been known to take on easy things that go catastrophically pear-shaped, so, there is that.

Blah blah blah words words, blah blah. Thanks!