The latest posts from this Eleventy boilerplate. 2026-08-07T11:59:51Z https://stuffandnonsense.co.uk/blog/feed Stuff & Nonsense wunderbar@stuffandnonsense.co.uk 2026-08-04T00:00:00Z https://stuffandnonsense.co.uk/blog/last-week-in-the-studio-cw31-26/

Last week I found myself with time to tackle the second phase of my Stuff & Nonsense website upgrade.

2026-07-28T00:00:00Z https://stuffandnonsense.co.uk/blog/four-things-that-made-my-eleventy-website-faster/

My website wasn’t slow. At least, it didn’t feel slow. But after moving it to Netlify and taking a closer look at the numbers, I realised I was asking browsers to do more work than they needed to, and I was serving far more data than I thought.

2026-07-27T00:00:00Z https://stuffandnonsense.co.uk/blog/last-week-in-the-studio-cw30-26/

One more week until we break for August, so last week was all about tying up loose ends with Lockrose and Portico Investments

2026-07-26T00:00:00Z https://stuffandnonsense.co.uk/blog/swapping-a-lightweight-image-for-an-animated-svg/

I’ve been on a mission to improve performance since [I migrated this site to Eleventy](/blog/migrating-from-statamic-to-eleventy/), especially after I realised I was burning through bandwidth once I moved to Netlify. Some of the biggest offenders were the animated illustrations I use across the site. They look great, but they ain’t cheap.

2026-07-26T00:00:00Z https://stuffandnonsense.co.uk/blog/unfinished-business-143/

Oh, deary me. It has been a while, I've got to say. Sorry about that. In this episode of Unfinished Business, Rich and I catch up after far too long and fill each other in on what’s been happening in their worlds.

2026-07-19T00:00:00Z https://stuffandnonsense.co.uk/blog/last-week-in-the-studio-cw29-26/

It’s a couple more weeks until we break for our August break, so I’m trying to finish off my work on Lockrose and Portico Investments.

2026-07-14T00:00:00Z https://stuffandnonsense.co.uk/blog/last-week-in-the-studio-cw28-26/

I have a couple of smaller projects to work on before we close the studio for the August break. I started one of them, for property investment consultants Portico Investments, last week.

2026-07-13T00:00:00Z https://stuffandnonsense.co.uk/blog/webp-to-avif-gotcha/

I mentioned earlier that I’ve been replacing the WebP images on my website with AVIF to reduce file sizes and decrease bandwidth usage. But when I started converting my portfolio images, I noticed something odd. Some weren’t smaller—they were bigger. Sometimes much bigger.

2026-07-12T00:00:00Z https://stuffandnonsense.co.uk/blog/switching-my-website-images-from-webp-to-avif/

The images on my website have changed formats several times over the decades. JPEG, PNG, and GIF were designed in a very different era of computing, and their compression methods reflect the technology available at the time. Formats such as AVIF, HEIC, and WebP use newer techniques which can preserve more apparent detail while storing less information.

2026-07-05T00:00:00Z https://stuffandnonsense.co.uk/blog/the-camera-that-took-me-places/

For years, I said that one day, when I could, I’d buy the camera that played such a big part in my early career. After 35 years or so, this Sinar P2 5x4” camera is finally mine.

2026-07-01T00:00:00Z https://stuffandnonsense.co.uk/blog/project-companion-changemakers/

Designing a bilingual website for the Open University by making politics feel welcoming, approachable, and relevant to a new generation.

2026-07-01T00:00:00Z https://stuffandnonsense.co.uk/blog/project-companion-lockrose/

Lockrose wanted to reach new markets without losing the credibility they’d built in the energy sector. Here’s how I designed a website that helped them tell a bigger story.

2026-07-01T00:00:00Z https://stuffandnonsense.co.uk/blog/project-companion-verkehrsteiner/

How I helped a Swiss transport planning consultancy communicate specialist knowledge more clearly through editorial design, illustration, and thoughtful typography.

2026-06-29T00:12:00Z https://stuffandnonsense.co.uk/blog/last-week-in-the-studio-cw27-26/

Every Monday, I write about what I worked on during the previous week. I’m back in the studio for a few weeks and pushing to get a few client projects over the line before we head off to Germany again in August.

2026-06-29T00:00:00Z https://stuffandnonsense.co.uk/blog/last-week-in-the-studio-cw26-26/

In this series of weekly posts, I write about what I worked on during the previous week. Now, I’m back from mainland Europe after a long drive back from northern Italy over the weekend. We’d decided to extend our trip by an extra week, taking in stops in Switzerland and France along the way, which meant fitting in work where I could.

2026-06-26T00:00:00Z https://stuffandnonsense.co.uk/blog/tracking-down-a-nasty-netlify-bandwidth-burner/

Most days, my website sits there quietly, publishing writing, showing off my work, selling a few products, and generally behaving itself. But today, I got an email from Netlify telling me that, although my migrated website was only days old, I had already burned through 50% of my allocated monthly bandwidth.

2026-06-21T00:00:00Z https://stuffandnonsense.co.uk/blog/last-week-in-the-studio-cw25-26/

In this regular series, I write about what I worked on during the previous week. I’m still in Germany, away from the studio, and I’m missing my space a lot. There’s a big part of me that loves travelling, but an equal part that craves the familiarity of my home workspace.

2026-06-19T00:00:00Z https://stuffandnonsense.co.uk/blog/eleventy-in-a-box-a-premium-eleventy-starter-kit/

For the past few years, unless a client insists otherwise, Eleventy has been my go-to for building websites. Now, I’ve put all my experience using Eleventy into Eleventy in a Box. It’s a premium Eleventy starter kit for designers and developers who want to spend less time setting up the same project structure and more time designing distinctive websites.

2026-06-14T10:00:00Z https://stuffandnonsense.co.uk/blog/migrating-from-statamic-to-eleventy/

If you’re reading this, the patient survived the surgery, and I successfully migrated this website and all its many parts from its old Statamic CMS to a brand new Eleventy installation.

2026-06-14T00:00:00Z https://stuffandnonsense.co.uk/blog/last-week-in-the-studio-cw24-26/

In this regular series, I write about what I worked on during the previous week. I’ve missed a couple of weeks of reporting because a) I haven’t been in the studio, and b) this site has had major surgery.

2026-06-01T00:00:00Z https://stuffandnonsense.co.uk/blog/project-companion-portico-investment/

People invest in confidence before they invest in property. That simple idea shaped the decisions I made while designing Portico Investment’s website, from its illustrations and typography to its content and an interactive prototype.

2026-05-23T23:00:00Z https://stuffandnonsense.co.uk/blog/last-week-in-the-studio-cw21-26/

In this regular “Last week in the studio” series, I write about what I worked on during the previous week. Last week was one without a solid piece of work to tackle. Instead, I spent it on some updates to a client’s design and on making a little website for myself.

2026-05-15T23:00:00Z https://stuffandnonsense.co.uk/blog/last-week-in-the-studio-cw20-26/

In this regular “Last week in the studio” series, I write about what I worked on during the previous week. Last week was spent on a more business-focused but no less creative project

2026-05-09T23:00:00Z https://stuffandnonsense.co.uk/blog/last-week-in-the-studio-cw19-26/

In this regular “Last week in the studio” series, I write about what I worked on during the previous week. Last week was partly time away from the studio, so it felt a little disjointed.

2026-05-09T23:00:00Z https://stuffandnonsense.co.uk/blog/websites-shouldnt-need-maintenance-they-need-momentum/

I’ve never understood website “maintenance” plans. Websites don’t need oiling. They do need attention, though.