The basics
Project details
- Started
- Aug. 13, 2026
- Current state
- Public website and safe demo system
- Ordering
- Demo only while the farmstead settles in Texas
- Owner tools
- Orders, products, availability, waitlist, expenses, and reports
Goal
What I was trying to do.
Help customers understand the farmstead and eventually place and track orders, while giving the owner one place to handle routine business information. The system also needed to respect where the business is right now. Dark Bloom is still settling into Texas, so there was no reason to force real ordering or a new workflow before the owner was ready.
Planning
The plan.
The project began as a public website. The business tools came later as I recognized jobs the site could take off the owner’s plate. I kept the public ordering path in demo mode and separated test activity so the owner could explore the system without affecting real records, sending customer messages, or charging anyone.
How it grew
From website to working business tool.
The project did not start with every feature mapped out. Each stage came from looking at what customers or the owner would actually need next.
A real home for Dark Bloom
What changedThe first stage established the public site, the Dark Bloom identity, real farmstead photography, and clear information about the move to Texas.
Why it changedThe farmstead needed one dependable place where people could understand the business without piecing everything together from social posts.
Products and breeds became part of the story
What changedThe public site was organized around what Dark Bloom has actually raised and offered, including hatching eggs, chicks, breed information, and availability that can change over time.
Why it changedA farmstead site needed to explain the flock and possible offerings without pretending that current Texas availability was already confirmed.
Ordering became something people could try safely
What changedA demonstration order flow showed how a future customer request could be collected in a consistent format. It stays clearly marked as test-only and does not accept real orders.
Why it changedThe ordering idea needed to be understandable without pushing the owner to reopen the business or changing real operations before she was ready.
Customers could check an order themselves
What changedThe tracking page lets a customer use an order number and email address to see the current status and customer-facing updates.
Why it changedA self-service lookup can answer routine status questions without making the owner reply to every message by hand.
The project became an owner tool
What changedThe order desk brought searches, filters, statuses, payments, fulfillment, and order details into one owner-facing view.
Why it changedThe information behind an order needed a better home than scattered messages, notes, spreadsheets, and memory.
More of the day-to-day work moved into the system
What changedThe admin area expanded beyond orders to cover products and breeds, changing availability, waitlists, payments, expenses, reporting, and manual order entry.
Why it changedThese were connected parts of the same workflow. Keeping them together could reduce duplicate notes and make normal updates easier to find.
A safe demo made the larger system easier to understand
What changedFictional orders, products, payments, availability, waitlist entries, expenses, and reports let the owner explore how everything connects without touching real business data.
Why it changedSeeing a working example is more useful than being asked to commit to an unfamiliar system. The demo makes room to learn without pressure or risk.
From the project
Photos and videos.
The public site keeps the photography and identity at the center on a phone.
The order desk can still be reviewed and filtered from a smaller screen.
Technologies
- Next.js
- React
- TypeScript
- Cloudflare D1
- Drizzle ORM
What was difficult
The main challenge was letting the project grow without adding features just for the sake of it. Each addition needed to solve a real problem, whether that was customers checking their own order, keeping availability organized, or giving the owner control over routine updates.
What changed
The site moved from an informational farmstead website to a public site plus an owner-facing business system. Orders, manual entry, payments, products, breeds, availability, waitlists, expenses, reports, and internal order details were added as the operating needs became clearer.
Final result
The current result.
Dark Bloom now has a distinctive public website and a safe demo of the system that could support the business when ordering resumes. The owner can explore it at her own pace. Routine updates can be handled through the admin area, while larger website or system changes can still come back to me when they are actually needed.
Skills I used
What this one called for.
What I learned
What I took from it.
- A website can do more than present information. Once I understood the repeated work behind the business, parts of the site became useful tools instead of more pages.
- The software has to fit the business. Dark Bloom is still settling into Texas, so the right choice was to let the owner explore the system without expecting an immediate change in how she works.
- Owner independence matters. Routine updates such as products, breeds, availability, orders, and waitlist information should not require paying a developer every time something changes.
- A safe demo has real value. It gives someone enough information to understand a larger system before they have to trust it with real operations.
- Real businesses create better learning problems. Usability, permissions, mobile use, reporting, and separating test data only become clear when the system has to support an actual person and an actual workflow.
- Scope should grow because it removes a real problem. Dark Bloom became much larger than the original website idea, but the useful additions came from jobs the system could genuinely make easier.
Along the way
Updates and lessons.
Started the Dark Bloom Farmstead website
I began the first version of the Dark Bloom site by giving the farmstead a simple home for its story, animals, products, and future ordering ideas.
Built the first Dark Bloom Farmstead website
I started with a public home for the farmstead, real photography, breed information, and clear wording about the move to Texas.
Expanded Dark Bloom into a business system
The website grew into a safe demo for orders, customer tracking, products, availability, waitlists, expenses, reports, and the owner’s day-to-day updates.
Connected work
Other versions and related projects
OngoingCurrently DocumentingWeb & Digital · Aug. 2026
Building the Creative Lex Website
I built the Creative Lex site into a working custom-order system, then kept changing it as the branding, order details, and owner workflow became clearer.
Read the project →