Endings & Beginnings

Over the winter holidays and month of January, I played around on a demo site for Instinct & Intuition. I’d been wanting to change the aesthetic of my website for a while, as well as add more functional and informational pages and resources within my site. I finally sat down and made all of this happen during my time of hibernation, contemplation, and creation. It was so much fun!

These changes took me a lot of time, effort, and learning, but with the much-needed and -appreciated help of my stepdad, as well as valued feedback from my mom and boyfriend on my edits, my site came together well. I enjoyed the satisfying ending of my old look and the kindling of something new, fresh, and more personal. And I learned even more about the details of creating and customizing a website, including integrating CSS and coding.

Without further ado, here are the important changes to my site that I’d like you to know about:

• I’ve created a new page, Photography & Art Cards, that has all of the details, updated stock, and photos for my photo and art greeting cards. An image on my homepage links to this page as well.
• On my Blog page I’ve added a search bar and collection of post categories, which can both be used to filter through my posts and easily find what you’re looking for.
• There is a new gallery in my anthology collection titled Water Droplets, which features photos I personally love that show all of the miniscule beauty in rain- and water drops; I’ve also freshened most of the galleries in my anthology with unique new photos.
• For easier access to the galleries in my anthology, I created a display with photos that link to each collection. This can be found on my homepage and the Anthology page itself.
• This isn’t an entirely new feature, but on the Anthology page I’ve included a writeup on why I use the term “super, natural photography”. I believe it’s important for people to know that both my photography and art are unfiltered and altered as little as possible.
• Under the Projects section of my Art & Projects page, I’ve added two new items: a photoshoot I did for local musician Carl Les, and my photo and art cards. I’ll continue to update this page as I try new things and explore the wild world.
• Lastly, under my About page, I’ve added a note of why my website is titled Instinct & Intuition. In case you’re new to my site or just curious about the name, here’s my explanation :)

In the next few months, I’m planning to expand my work to new venues such as Etsy and Substack to see how things go from there. Creating my own business and site has given me a place for creative expression in a new way – and now I’m beginning to see that I can indeed make what I love to do into a worthwhile hobby or even career. My passion for learning, exploring, and sharing my writing, photography, art, and adventures has made me more intrigued to pursue my own interests as I finish high school. I look forward to seeing where this journey takes me.

To the people who have been supportive of me and my endeavors and continue to be, thank you so much. With this support I’m able to continue creating, adventuring, and doing what I love. Whether you’ve purchased cards from me, helped me edit my website or provided feedback on it, reached out to comment your thoughts on a post, or just read and explored my work, I appreciate you. If you enjoy my site, consider subscribing to my once-every-two-weeks post newsletter (at the bottom of each page) or stay tuned by checking back every so often.

Cheers!

– hazelraine

ps – the image for this post is an old photograph of me and my now-seventeen-year-old cat Luna. We still pose together to this day.