Moving domains

This morning, I linked my domain, www.oonamartinstudio.com, which is purchased and managed by squarespace, to this free blogger platform. 

For me, this is huge.  As my squarespace renewal date approached, I knew I wanted out of that relationship, and yet... I felt so defeated by the maze I was in. 

I HAVE BEEN WANTING TO DO THIS FOR MORE THAN A YEAR.

It was not easy, but it was also not that difficult.  It just took time and patience.

Here is the information I used to make this happen:

First, I googled 'squarespace domain to blogger site', or something like that and found...

https://forum.squarespace.com/topic/253306-blogger-website-and-squarespace-domain/

In that thread, I found that the solution offered by pesachsteinberg worked... for the most part.  I got hung up on the SSL because I am not a webmaster. 

So, then scrolling further, I found the suggestion from derricksrandomviews to look at this thread... 

https://support.google.com/blogger/thread/181402554/how-can-i-add-ssl-certificates-from-blogger?hl=en

There, WebLove.PL provides a more detailed timeline about how to do it step by step, with more explanation about the security certificate creation delay.  They also infer that there are a series of A records - google IP addresses which need to be added to the squarespace domain records.    (As of right now, I did not update those on my squarespace backend and so far, things seems to be working.  I should give it a couple of days first before I claim victory.   I also never cleared my browser cache...  will do that later and if it changes anything, I'll note it here. )

I should also mention that in addition to this, I first canceled my google workspace subscription thru squarespace.   I never set it up and while it's nice that I could use my custom domain email address someday, I do not need it right now.  Therefore, the billing and payment on it can lapse (I think) because there is no information stored in the workspace.  

I also downgraded my squarespace website to basic, however, I intend for this space to be my main website so I will let the squarespace one lapse and not renew.  

WHY WHY WHY?  The long version. 

A LONG TIME AGO - In 2018 I started a squarespace website.  

I intended it to be a garden design service space. At the time, I was excited and motivated to apply all that I had learned from my love of gardening, landscape architecture, and recent work with my delightful and inspiring friend Kate at FWLA.  I thought I bring it to Anchorage with a twist that I could focus on permaculture, to support homeowners who wanted DIY their install, or offer garden whispering where I could coach plant selection and planting design.  

Except... life happened and I became a highly involved parent at my kids school amongst other things.  I let the dream go, and that is a story for another day.    (For the record, I am really glad I did not really go thru with starting that business.) 

So my website sat UNPUBLISHED for years.  I would open it, be overwhelmed, and give up.  

By 2023, I rebuilt it because squarespace changed the way the template worked with their operating system and I was forced into a higher-paying tier.  I took this as a sign to sort this whole thing out.    I thought to myself ... I WILL MAKE IT WORK THIS TIME FOR REAL.    

However, by then the page, the dream, the reasons for having a website changed from a service-based business to a... um... I don't know, to an... artist studio?  writing practice space?  a public profile? I still don't even know which is why I had to stop putting so much pressure on it. 

And I tried and tried to figure it out.  I joined a writing group and started crossposting on my website and on Medium.  I made elaborate mind-maps of my studies and tried to bring in my messy process.   But the desire for polish, a so-called finished product, coupled with my perfectionism and concern for details stopped me from posting. 

And the drafting, the actual writing,  I didn't feel comfortable composing posts in the squarespace  It was too busy, too concerned with the finished product and I felt like there was too much friction pulling images from my collection.  Plus the squeeze of SEO and now-constant offers to use AI.

TLDR: FOR TOO MANY YEARS I wanted to return to this simple blogging space, a place where I feel comfortable and have a body of work, whatever that means, and bring my domain over from my squarespace site.   

And today I did it!  Back to blogger but with my own domain name.