Goodbye, charlieyellow.com. Thank You for Everything.
Today, I said goodbye to my very first website—a little corner of the internet built with love, kindness, and a lot of doodles.
Today, I’m feeling heartbroken. I never thought the day would come when I’d have to say goodbye—to my official website, charlieyellow.com.
I loved how the background would shift into rainbow colors, and when you clicked, little characters would pop into existence. Such a fun interactive design!
It might sound silly to be so heartbroken over just a website, but it was one of my absolute favorites: full of playful, colorful, silly characters that really felt like “me.” But more than that, it’s because the site was my very first collaboration with my now-husband, back when we were still dating.
He loved my little illustrations and doodles and told me I needed a place to show them off. So he built me a website. At the time, he was between jobs, preparing for interviews while also building my site on the side. He used to build stylish, creative websites for clients when he worked at a creative agency, so this was right in his wheelhouse. Eventually, he got a job offer (yay!)—but it meant moving away from New York to the West Coast. Before he left, he made sure the site was designed so that I could update it by myself. This website, for me, was filled with his kindness and support.
Today, we’re married and together every day, and I’m beyond happy and excited for everything we’ll build in the future. Still… saying goodbye to this site feels like letting go of a treasure. Maybe it's like the “sentimental items” category in Marie Kondo’s method.
The reason for the goodbye is simple: the site has gotten too old and broken. While I could still add new project pages, I can’t add new features like a blog. Worse, linking to it from here causes server errors. And honestly, the time and energy needed for maintenance just isn’t worth it anymore.
It’s “just a website,” but I didn’t realize until now how many memories were packed into it—or how sad it would be to let it go. Still, what matters most now is protecting my time for creating new work. Holding onto something broken, something I can’t fix, just doesn’t spark joy anymore.
Each page had a bright yellow background, which already made me happy—and even the close button was a blinking eye! How fun is that?
So here it goes, heart steeled and full of love: Thank you for your service, dear charlieyellow.com.
One more thing! Here's the sweet promo video my husband made for the site.