Hi friends. This journal post brings some bitter-sweet news regarding Easton Place. I'll try to keep from getting too sentimental. It's not going to be easy.

2010 was the year my little design studio opened it's online doors. I had been making "Fine Paper Lovelies" as well as other fun goodies since 2004, but in 2010 I got the courage to offer my goods to the world wide web. I started with a handful of designs clumsily drawn in Microsoft Word, if you can believe it?! I look back at those first web illustrations and can't image the patience I had to create images with a mouse, in Word! I used basic shapes, and manipulated fonts to create my designs. Not to brag, but my level of creative vision was firing on all cylinders! LOL My next design steps included purchasing a beginners pen tablet, my first design program called "Lineform", and switching to a MacBook. Lineform (which I believe no longer exists) was like a very basic version of Adobe Illustrator. To be honest, I LOVED that simple little program. It was easy to learn, and really helped prepare me for my eventual purchase and use of Illustrator.

2012: Ah, Adobe Illustrator... It's my comfort zone now, but when I initially was forced to learn it because Mac no longer made nice-nice with Lineform, I thought my business might come to a halt. Keep in mind, I have a degree in education, not design, nor computer-anything. Luckily, I believed I could learn just about anything I set my mind to, so I bought a few books, found a helpful YouTube channels teaching basic Illustrator skills, and jumped in feet first, no looking back. That six month learning curve was a doozy! There were plenty of days (or weeks) that I thought I'd never learn how to draw via Illustrator. Fortunately, the competitor in me always managed to squash those thoughts of doubt, and muster on with learning.

Between the years of 2004 and 2018, I have had five website on five different platforms. I started with a blog on blogger, as well as a small presence on Yahoo. I then opened a "proper" shopping cart site designed on a WAHM (work at home mom) platform. Next I took a big step up by having a gorgeous site designed by Aeolidia. To this day, that was my fanciest site, but the design firm had changed platforms and I didn't feel comfortable staying on their previous platform without a coder to help me should there be glitches. I could have paid them to design another site for me, but I looked at this situation as an opportunity to learn web design on Squarespace, which brings us to today's site. It's been somewhat of a rollercoaster ride throughout the years, but mostly a fun ride.

So why am I writing about the history of Easton Place, you may ask? I have decided to take a break from design work. There are personal/life changes happening for me, and I am ready for a career change as well. I don't know what that will be, but I know it's time to consider my options. This August, my husband and I will officially be "empty nesters" (what???). Our younger son will be heading off to university, and we'll no longer be scheduling our holidays and adventures around a school calendar! I've had the fortune of being a work from home mom, and for 14 of the last 20 years I ran this little design shop called Easton Place, putting my heart and soul into it. I still want to do something under the Easton Place awning, I'm just not sure what that is. I know it will include travel, vegan food, photography, and creativity! I hope you continue this journey with me! And if you have any ideas for me... leave them in the comments below or send me a private message. I'd love to hear your thoughts.

Thank you for reading this lengthy post. Keep watching this space for more details. I can tell you the first thing coming up is a 15 day trip to Ireland and Scotland! I leave tomorrow, and I am so excited to take my online friends with me via my travel journal and Instagram. If you're planning to travel, I have a $20 discount for you when you click here and use Booking.Com. You can also click on the image in the sidebar. I use Booking for most of my travel arrangements. (Full disclosure: I receive a $20 kickback as well when someone claims their $20 booking voucher. Win-Win!)

Change can be very exciting! Stay tuned, friends! Next post will be from Ireland.