Mothlight Candles started as a fictional business, but the inspiration behind it is very real. I first got into candle-making while planning a baby shower for my sister. I made little succulent candles as favors, and people really seemed to love them. What began as a fun one-time project quickly turned into a creative outlet I could return to when I needed to unwind.

When it came time to choose a final project for my web development class, I wanted to build something that felt personal. The idea of a nature-inspired candle shop just made sense. I imagined a brand that was cozy, inviting, and encouraging for others to try creative hobbies too. The name Mothlight intends to reflect a soft glow that feels warm and handmade.

I decided to build a six-page website to represent the business, with pages for the home, shop, about, contact, blog, and reviews. From the beginning, I knew I wanted the site to reflect the same mood as the candles themselves: gentle, calming, and magical.

Since this was a final project for my web development class, I needed to build the entire site using HTML and CSS. Since I was permitted, I used Adobe Dreamweaver to write the code, although I didn’t end up using any templates. I planned out a six-page structure:

I started by sketching out a rough wireframe on paper to figure out where key elements would go. From there, I built out the pages and the external CSS, keeping responsive design in mind. I played around with soft colors, curved edges, and organic shapes to give the site a handmade, natural feel that matched the Mothlight brand.

I also included hover effects and styled buttons to make the site more interactive, while still keeping everything simple and accessible.

Because I was working with fictional content, I created placeholder products for the shop page using Photoshop and wrote sample blog entries and reviews to help tell the story of the brand. Even though none of it was real inventory, I wanted everything to look polished so it could easily be expanded into a real site down the road.

One of the biggest challenges I ran into was staying organized across six different pages. It was easy to lose track of what was linked where, especially as I started tweaking the navigation and testing different layouts. I found it helpful to keep notes of certain things like file structure, name changes, and purposes of each page.

Styling everything to look consistent was another learning curve. I wanted the site to feel cohesive, but I also wanted each page to have its own personality. Finding that balance took trial and error. Sometimes I’d change one part of the CSS and accidentally throw off something on a different page. It taught me to work more methodically and to keep checking the site on multiple screen sizes as I built it.

The biggest lesson was just how much I’ve learned since starting this class. A few months ago, the idea of building a full website like this would’ve felt completely out of reach. But page by page, I figured it out. It reminded me that growth doesn’t always feel big in the moment, but it adds up.