What a crazy week I had last week. I had food poisoning the prior weekend and stayed home from work on Monday. Tuesday morning before work I went to check the stats on my website and discovered that parts of my website weren’t working right. I tried to figure it out before going to work but ran out of time.
You know that moment when it’s pouring rain and you ponder if it could get any heavier? That’s exactly when the heavens unleashed upon my life, sending down waterfalls.
Shortly after arriving at work on Tuesday, the SQF Auditor came unannounced. I was sweating buckets! Audits last for two days and often come with a ton of extra work to fix what she found. Everyone at work was on edge for two days.
When I got home after the first day of the audit I was so stressed that all I could do was sit and stare at the mess on my website. I vowed to get up with a clear head before work the next day and see if I could figure it out.
The next morning I pushed a button and my entire 8-year site was GONE! I contacted tech support and they made some suggestions. I followed the tutorials but still, the site was gone. So I went to work for the second day of audits with that on my mind.
The good news in all this is we passed our audit with a 96% score (excellent rating). After the auditor left I went home and contacted tech support again. The site was indeed gone, not one picture, word, or pattern was left from the past 8 years. I cried.
This is where growth begins. Sometimes the tough stuff gets thrown at us, not because it’s karma, but because we need to grow. I often need tech skills at work and re-building a website are parts of things I can use at work. I also learned a TON from the SQF auditor on how to make my job flow better and get better results. So all that “rain” pouring down on me last week was just an opportunity to learn new skills and become more creative.
This past weekend was dedicated to revamping my website. I realized the flow of the original site wasn’t meeting my standards. Particularly, the pattern display pages were slow to load and felt clunky. I decided it was the perfect moment for an overhaul. Starting this Thursday, you’ll notice a fresh, more streamlined experience with the patterns. I’ll still provide free patterns, but access will be exclusive to subscribers through password-protected PDFs. The necessary password will be sent to subscribers only on Thursday.
From today until Wednesday, I am working on getting everything cohesive and rolling out the next free pattern. I also have a surprise idea I’m working on… you’ll have to stay tuned for that one.
