Four score and a hundred years ago (or so it feels), I was a young girl growing up in small town Saskatchewan where days were spend outside, riding bikes, using my imagination, dreaming of growing up to be an actress or a singer. I’m not even kidding.
Fast forward a few years and I’m off to college to do the responsible thing and train to become a Medical Laboratory Technologist – a job in health care – always needed and a perfectly respectable way to make a decent living. I was a mere 20 years old when I began working in hospital labs, enjoying the process and the camaraderie but over the many years I missed the creativity and often thought of returning to school for graphic design or fine art.
Marriage and kids came along before I could make that career change (and honestly, it was a hard thing to leave behind a well paying, stable job ) but the opportunity arose to be at home with my kiddos so I took a course in photography and hence began 10 years of my Sweetlight Photography business. I began with weddings and kids, families and headshots, quickly deciding that the female figure/form was by far my most favourite thing to photograph… so I rebranded to Miss Sassypants Photography and opened a small boudoir studio. This was fantastic and fun, but I found myself really drawn to the post processing in Photoshop afterwards and would spend HOURS playing. I also began to build my own websites and found this to be fascinating. After a few years, I had my son, who ended up being special needs and I was finding it difficult to run the studio with his needs. I packed it in and for a few years focused on the needs of my Benny boy.
It wasn’t long before I missed my creative outlet, but since I did not have the freedom to work outside of the home those days, I took up painting. I have spent the last 9 years selling my art, the last 3 years running a small art studio and all the while building WordPress and Squarespace websites for myself and others.
It seems as though the right side of my brain and the left side of my brain have finally met and decided to become good friends. They’ve worked it out. My right brain is indulging in all things visual and artsy… surface pattern design, painting and website design, while my left brain is oh so happy with the processes and techy part of website design. I chose Squarespace as a platform because I truly believe that as a small creative business owner ( who, btw, are my absolute favourite people to work with) a manageable website that you can feel comfortable with is so important. I also decided to offer WordPress designs as that is where I started all those years ago. I design in Prophoto most of the time and am a loyal fan. Yes, WordPress is robust and perhaps a bit more of a learning curve, but it still remains my favourite platform to work with.
The best thing about this business is that I get to work closely and collaboratively with creatives. This inspires me, teaches me, leaves me feeling fulfilled, and oftentimes leaves me with new friendships.
If you need a new website, a refresh, or even just have a punch list of work needing done for your current site, I would be the happiest gal around to hear from you. I might even sing you a song. 🙂
Joan