✶ The Story Behind the Site ✶

Gateway Haunts & Holly was first created as a portfolio piece to help me with my job search. I thought creating a blog from scratch would be a fun way to sharpen my development skills and showcase what I’ve been learning. As a holiday lover, I decided to design and develop a project around Halloween and Christmas to help keep the momentum going, instead of bouncing from one idea to the next. Becoming a new mom also changed how I thought about my free time. In the evenings, I actually looked forward to building out a new page or component. It never felt like a chore.

When I’m not staring at a computer, I love crafting, baking, decorating, and finding ways to be creative. The holidays are when I feel most inspired to do all of it. The further along this blog got, the more it started to feel like something bigger than a portfolio piece. My goal was to push myself by learning more about web development, but also to build a website that just feels fun. I’m nostalgic for the old days, when "getting on the internet" was an activity in itself (I’m probably showing my age here, and I’ve accepted the fact that I’m getting old). I hope that you stop by here whenever you want to feel inspired, learn something new, or are just feeling bored.