Monday, August 6, 2012

The lady builds a website...

You might have noticed a little bit of blogging silence the last 2 weeks. I jumped head first into building a website for Mrs. Depew Vintage and didn't resurface for a breath until just now.
I have to say that for my first website building attempt since a high school class project in 1999, I think it turned out pretty great.

Mrsdepew.com

Luckily HTML hasn't changed that much since 1999, though the internet is a very much different place now.

I found a great secure download service that allows me to post digital patterns for sale on the website, and everything is seamlessly and safely handled by Paypal so that there's no waiting for me to stumble out of bed and email patterns each morning.

I would love to know what you all think. I get the most wonderful feedback and advice from you all and I find that I'm becoming quite dependent on hearing from you.
It pretty much makes my day :)


9 comments:

  1. I love the illustrations!!! It look FABULOUS. I am so happy for you, moving on! Very cool Anna, LOTS of luck and tell us how you did all that. You are a frickin genius! Pardon my french :)
    http://thehomeblues.blogspot.co.il/

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  2. I love the new site! It's much easier to find the pattern you want than on the Etsy site. Wonderful site map on the right side! Although it's fun to wait for you to email them - kind of like waiting for an old-fashioned letter in the mailbox! :)

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  3. Anna, it's lovely! I really like the layout and easy navigation. My only piece of constructive criticism is that the drop-down titles partially cover up the first item in the list. However when the mouse hovers over that item, it comes to the foreground and is no longer covered (so it is not a big deal).

    I also love so many of the new patterns that you have been adding. Oh how I wish I had a sewing space again - I would have an entire closet made from your patterns.

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  4. Wow! What a fantastic website. I love it and am planning on ordering a couple of patterns at least -once my sewcation starts!!

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  5. Very nice! I, too, would love to hear more about how you developed the site. I am in the middle of developing my own site and I can use all of the advice I can get! I must be a couple of years older than you, however, because they weren't yet teaching HTML when I was in high school;-)

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  6. Hi Ana, your website looks fantastic!! I like the color/style/fonts you've put together. It really looks lovely. When I open the actual website however, the fonts don't match what is pictured above. Perhaps this has something to do with my pc or browser settings... I don't know. But I thought I'd tell you just in case. The fonts in the freeze frame above are so lovely. When I open the webpage though, the header and everything seems to default to a very bland font--not at all what's pictured here. Regardless, the website looks really clean and easy to navigate, and I love the vintage artwork.

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  7. Good for you! Building a website is a lot of work! ^_^ I haven't had a chance to look in depth at it, cause I'm on my iPhone lol, but as a graphic designer with a bit of web knowledge I can tell you why the commenter above isn't seeing your fonts:

    If you are using a font on your system that another user doesn't have on theirs, it will default to a basic web safe font. If you wish to have headers and such in a custom font and keep the look intact, you need to save them as images.

    Hope this helps, and congrats again! So happy for you! ^__^

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  8. Congratulations! That's a big and very important step!

    Little feedback. I just tried to simulate a purchase: it seems that you can only pay for one item at a time. When I clicked BUY NOW the site redirected me to the PayPal page. Would be great to have a Cart and collect all the items you want to buy. Most of the retail sites you have a visible cart on every page and also can display all of the purchased items on one page (and possibly modify the cart as well).

    Also, as a customer who knows you from Etsy, I would love to see the discount promotions: 4 patterns for $25 etc :)

    Good luck with the new website!

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  9. With all due appreciation for your taste in fonts, and all due respect for Symon's knowledge: Replacing text with font images is not great for people with dial-up connections. Granted that I have the World's Slowest Dial-Up Connection (tm) (26.4 Kbps = 12 minutes to load the pics in your post about the Worth knitting book), still, images take quite a bit longer to load than text. Ease of navigation means a lot more to me than interesting graphics; if I'm going to spend that long waiting for images, I want them to be images of your patterns!

    Sandy in Texas

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