Royal Feather 2.0

Friday was such an exhausting but HUGE day for me.  I have been working tirelessly for a few months on overhauling Royal Feather and Friday was finally my big re-launch.  I was battling a migraine all day plus had Nicholas running around the house, all while trying to get the last minute tweaks fixed in order to go live before the weekend.  I was so drained by the end of the day but I felt so accomplished afterwards that I couldn't help but be happy, regardless of the pounding headache.  It has almost been a year since I opened my store and in that time, I have decided to solely focus on children's gifts and accessories.  As much as I love interior decorating, my passion is my son and consequently everything kids-related.  So currently, I am liquidating all the Home Decor merchandise.  With that decision made, I felt the look of the store needed to be freshened up.
First, I was going to need a new logo to be the basis of my new foundation.  I noticed an ad for Blessed Design Studio in the sponsors column of a blog I had been reading.  I clicked on the button and instantly fell in love with all of her {Cindy - she's the owner} work and couldn't wait to contact her.  Working with Cindy was {and still is} fantastic!  She's so patient and eager to help you develop exactly what you envision.  After quite a few emails going back and forth, my logo and banner were created.  Next, I set out on building my new website.  
I wasn't too happy with how my website {the original one} didn't have a homepage, you were instantly thrown into all the products.  I wanted to have a landing page where I had the flexibility to change out photos in order to showcase new merchandise and/or sales.  I found what I was looking for at a different hosting site and made my move.  From there, I created "mock-ups" of how I wanted each page to look and then submitted them to the host for them to use all their fancy code to actually create my new shop.  I pride myself on being a fast learner, but I knew there was no way I was going to be able to teach myself how to actually build a new website from scratch with a 19-month-old at my side.  
After many long Illustrator/Photoshop nights and more email exchanges with my designers, my website was just about ready.  Once the pages were built, I now had the task of adding all the merchandise content - titles, description, images, inventory count, and meta tags.  I tried squeezing in as much "website maintenance time" into my days as possible, but boy was that challenging!  Between Jacob, Nicholas, laundry, meals, groceries, my blog, exercising, building our pergola, and some me-time, my peak computer-work hours became between 11pm and 3am.  Luckily for me, Nicholas sleeps in pretty late so I'm able to stay up late.  But going to bed at that hour multiple times a week sure can take its toll. 
But now, it's all done.  I can breathe a huge sigh of relief and say that I'm pretty proud of myself.  Of course I can't take credit for all of it, but I did do a pretty big chunk of it.  My vision and goal was to create a website that had a clean and inviting look for all my customers.  A website that welcomed shoppers and made them feel that they were going to have a good and satisfying shopping experience.  Especially one where they knew they were going to be making safe monetary transactions.  So to all my existing and new customers, I welcome you to the improved Royal Feather and hope you enjoy the shop.  I planned it all with you in mind and will continue to offer you the most modern and unique merchandise for your little ones.  

And here is a quick look at our current homepage:
1. Yes, that's our son Nicholas perfectly (yet caught by total coincidence) motioning for you to please "enter" the new shop :)  And I just LOVE this Palm Beach shirt on him- thanks Tom & Drew for your fabulous pieces.
2. After a horrible FedEx experience, we finally received our AMAZING shipment of Beatrix lunch boxes & backpacks - just in time for back to school!
3. Don't miss out on the Last Chance Home Sale!! Very little merchandise left...get one of these great pieces while you can!

Thanks for stopping by!