The latest posts from this Eleventy boilerplate. 2026-07-19T19:47:33Z https://stuffandnonsense.co.uk/blog/feed Stuff & Nonsense wunderbar@stuffandnonsense.co.uk 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.

2026-07-15T00:00:00Z https://stuffandnonsense.co.uk/blog/bin-farage-stickers-and-t-shirt/

When I redesigned Count Binface’s website for his 2024 general election campaign, I made custom illustrations of the nation’s favourite intergalactic space warrior. I had no idea what a global phenomenon he’d become.

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.

2026-06-29T00:12:00Z 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.

2026-05-23T23:00:00Z 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.

2026-05-02T23:00:00Z https://stuffandnonsense.co.uk/blog/making-my-view-options-toolbar-more-intuitive/

The view options toolbar at the bottom of my animated banners has irked me for a while. It had grown one button at a time, and the result looked ill-considered rather than designed. With a few minutes to spare at the end of last week, I finally redesigned it.

2026-05-02T23:00:00Z https://stuffandnonsense.co.uk/blog/unfinished-business-142/

In this episode of Unfinished Business, Rich and I talk about the best type of RFP (request for proposal) and how Rich got excited when he recently one which stood out from the rest.

2026-05-01T23:00:00Z https://stuffandnonsense.co.uk/blog/last-week-in-the-studio-cw18-26/

In this regular “Last week in the studio” series, I write about what I worked on during the previous week. Last week was quiet enough for me to take an afternoon off to enjoy the sunny weather, but I still got plenty done.

2026-04-29T23:00:00Z https://stuffandnonsense.co.uk/blog/militant-masthead-logo-revolution/

Militant was a British socialist newspaper associated with the Militant ‘tendency,’ a left-wing political movement whose members were ultimately expelled from the mainstream Labour Party. I looked back at how the Militant masthead logo evolved between 1964 and 1997.

2026-04-26T00:00:00Z https://stuffandnonsense.co.uk/blog/eleventy-in-a-box-just-add-water/

For the past few years, unless a client insists otherwise, Eleventy has been my go-to for building websites. It gives me complete control without the overhead of a traditional CMS. Recently, I’ve pulled everything I’ve learned into my own Eleventy in a Box system for starting projects quickly, and boy-oh-boy, has it saved me a ton of time.

2026-04-24T23:00:00Z https://stuffandnonsense.co.uk/blog/last-week-in-the-studio-cw17-26/

In this regular “Last week in the studio” series, I write about what I worked on during the previous week. Last week was a good one as I could concentrate on just one thing.

2026-04-18T23:00:00Z https://stuffandnonsense.co.uk/blog/i-added-a-spring-mode-to-my-animated-svg-landscape/

I’ve added a “spring mode” to my animated SVG desert. Flowers bloom, colours shift, and the whole scene feels more alive—all without creating a separate version. Instead, I’m layering changes on top of the same SVG and letting CSS and JavaScript do the work.

2026-04-18T23:00:00Z https://stuffandnonsense.co.uk/blog/last-week-in-the-studio-cw16-26/

I thought it might be interesting to document what I work on during the week, so I started a regular “Last week in the studio” series. Last week was a bit productive but bitty.