I’ve been feeling the urge to freshen up my Sweetbeets website and so I’ve started keeping a file of design ideas. I feel that my website is definitely a work in progress and there’s always something that can be done to make it better.

I also know that first impressions are so important online. I was recently looking for a specific product for a gift for my niece at Canadian online children’s boutiques and I just did not have the patience to browse sites that were not pretty to look at. Sorry, maybe it’s just me being picky but somehow I doubt I’m alone. It is so easy to click away and look elsewhere!

Anyways, I’ve stumbled upon a few online children’s boutiques with attractive, clean designs (e.g., Purl Mama&Baby and Cheeky Little Soles) and they all have used Australian-based My Graphic Garden. I figured it was worth passing along a link to their portfolio as it almost seems like they specialize in this niche. Lots of inspiration there, for sure!

Also, I think the PictoBrowser is pretty neat. This free web application looks like an easy way to add a slide show of your Flickr images to your website or blog.

This PayPal Widget looks interesting too. I’ve been intrigued by the idea of using a blog application as a storefront, perhaps for my Sweetbeets wholesale catalogue, and especially since I just received a notice that PayPal’s all-in-one payment processing solution is now available to Canadians. I hope this doesn’t seem too off-topic! I just thought it might be of some interest to retailers who might be exploring options for an online storefront.

(image via mygraphicgarden.com.au)

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