Why I Finally Built a Real Shop (And Why It Took Me Two Years to Stop Procrastinating)

Let's start with a confession. I've been avoiding this.

Not the art part – I've been drawing nonstop, as always. With a cup of coffee in one hand and my Apple pencil in the other, often sitting outside my bus next to a ridiculously beautiful lake. Not the business part either – I've been building websites and creating graphics for my clients like a fully functional adult.

No, what I've been avoiding is rebuilding my online shop.

I had a shop once. On my WordPress site. With WooCommerce. And let me tell you, it was held together with digital duct tape, wishful thinking and absolutely zero planning. The shipping setup was particularly disastrous – if someone ordered products from different print on demand manufacturers (which in my world was basically every order), the checkout would list multiple shipping costs in separate line items. Confusing for me, confusing for customers. Generally just a big pain in the ass.

So about three years ago I did what any reasonable person would do: I shut the whole damn thing down.

And then I... didn't rebuild it.

Instead I sold individual products here and there – mostly calendars, because those are easy and people love them. I told myself (and all the listeners of the Startist Society podcast) I'd get around to fixing the shop "soon." I added it to my task list approximately 87 times. I started planning it out at least a dozen times. I even signed up for a Shopify account a year ago.

And then I kept not doing it.

Why? Because I live in a freaking school bus!

If that sounds like a weird excuse, let me paint you a picture. I travel full time in a converted school bus with my dog Rocket and my cat Pixel. It's my home, my studio, and often my nemesis when I have to do things like figure out how to deal with a door that falls off in the middle of Seattle at 10:45 at night – but that's a story for another time.

Running an online shop while living on wheels comes with some logistical challenges. Like:

  • I can't carry inventory. There's barely room for art supplies and bourbon, much less boxes of calendars and stacks of prints.
  • Driving to the post office means driving my entire house to the post office. And finding parking. And probably having to back her up because I overestimated the turning radius. Again.
  • I move around a lot. Like, a lot a lot. Which means my "business address" is basically "somewhere in the contiguous United States, possibly in the desert."

So yeah. Print-on-demand used to be a convenience for me, now it's basically a necessity. Someone orders a pillow with the Kentucky state bird on it? It gets made and shipped directly to them. I never touch it. I never have to figure out where to store it. I never have to wedge myself and my 42-foot house into a post office parking lot designed for compact cars.

Enter Shopify.

I'm a brand and web designer (among other things – former Creative Director at IBM, reformed corporate creative, recovering perfectionist, etc.) I've built plenty of websites for clients. But when it came to commerce platforms, I'd been stubbornly sticking to what I knew – WordPress and WooCommerce.

Here's the thing though, Shopify is the gold standard for a reason.

It handles shipping seamlessly. No more confusing multi-line checkout disasters. It organizes products in a way that actually makes sense. It integrates with multiple print-on-demand partners smoothly. It's built specifically for selling things, not retrofitted onto a blogging platform with plugins and prayers.

Plus, learning Shopify means I can offer it to clients, which means it's a business investment and a personal win. If living in a skoolie has taught me anything, it's that everything should serve multiple purposes!

So here we are. Finally. A shop that isn't held together with hope and HTML bandaids.

What You'll Find Here (And What's Coming Soon)

I'm starting with what I'll call a "curated selection" which is a way of saying "I'm not overwhelming myself or you by launching 500 products at once." Also, I could procrastinate for another 42 years creating new products instead of just finally launching the shop already!

Product mockupAvailable right now

  • 2026 Calendars: because duh, it's almost 2026 and you need something beautiful to look at all year
  • Art Prints: bold botanicals, fierce florals and other descriptive alliterations
  • Pillows: for making your couch as vibrant as your personality
  • Stickers: because adults need stickers too
  • Hardcover Journals: for people who still appreciate putting pen to paper
  • T-shirts: wearable art, basically
  • Greeting Cards: for when you want to send something that doesn't look like it came from a drug store

Coming soon

(as in, I'm actively working on adding these and they'll roll out over the next couple of weeks)

  • More apparel options (think hoodies, leggings, more tshirts, etc.)
  • Additional home goods (mugs, shower curtains, blankets and more)
  • Christmas ornaments (just in time!)
  • Wrapping papper
  • Phone cases
  • More stationery and desk accessories (planner pads, more journal and notebook options, notepads)
  • So. Much. More.

This is just the beginning. I'm adding new products regularly; sometimes because I get inspired by a new design, sometimes because someone emails me asking if I make a specific thing, and sometimes because I'm procrastinating on something else and product uploads feel productive.

Perfect Timing for Gift-Giving Season

I'm launching this the weekend before Black Friday and Small Business Saturday for a reason. Okay fine, the main reason is that I finally finished procrastinating. But the other reason is strategic, I swear!

Whether you're shopping for:

  • The plant person who has strong opinions about botanical accuracy (my prints are great for them)
  • The friend who needs their space to feel less beige (pillows for all their couches!)
  • The journal hoarder who totally doesn't have enough journals already (yes they do, but this one is different)
  • The person who's impossible to shop for because they don't need anything (stickers. Everyone needs stickers)
  • Anyone who appreciates bold, bright, nature-inspired art that is anything but boring

I've got you covered.

Want to decorate your walls? Check. Your home? Yep. Your body? I got t-shirts. Your life? Well, that's on you, but I can help with some colorful accessories.

This Shop is Growing With Me

I'm treating this like the art practice itself, it's a living, evolving thing. I'm not trying to launch a perfect shop with everything all at once – because, let's face it, we all know how well that worked last time. Instead, I'm starting with what feels right and building from there. I could easily spend months tweaking descriptions and keywords and product images, but I'm going to launch before that's all done. Progress over perfection, as they say. Done is better than perfect. Etc.

New products will drop regularly. New designs will show up. New categories will appear. This is a marathon, not a sprint, and honestly, I'm really excited to see where it goes.

Want First Dibs? Join the List.

Here's what you get when you sign up for my email list:

  • First look at new products before they're officially announced
  • Freebies like downloadable phone wallpapers, desktop backgrounds and printable coloring pages (because who doesn't want to color in my pretty flower drawings?)
  • Exclusive discount codes that don't show up anywhere else
  • Behind the scenes peeks at life on the road, new artwork and whatever else I'm working on

I promise I won't spam you. I'm too busy driving my house around and drawing flowers to send you daily emails, but when I do email, it'll be worth opening.

BUTTON TEXT

Welcome to the New Shop

So yeah, it took me two years and a lot of procrastination, but we're here. The shop is live. It's running on Shopify like a well-oiled school bus (also, remind me to tell you about the time that all the oil leaked out of my bus in the middle of the desert last winter!). And it's ready for you!

Browse around. See what catches your eye. Find something for yourself or someone you love. Make your space a little bright, a little bolder, a little more you.

Thanks for being here, for supporting an artist who lives on wheels and for giving me a reason to finally stop procrastinating on this whole shop thing.

New if you'll excuse me, I need to go add Christmas ornaments to the product lineup before December sneaks up on me.

Currently parked in a backyard somewhere in Paducah, guzzling coffee from Etcetera Coffeehouse

Back to Nikki's Sketchbook