New website layout but no Clay with me on Feb 4th

I intended originally to do just a mild upgrade to my website and leave a major overhaul for summer.
Unfortunately, when attempting (repeatedly) to do the simple upgrade, I was unsuccessful due to the fact that the main frame was too old and not supporting the new extensions I wanted to install.
So I had to go to the extreme overhaul that wasn't planned yet, and just pull the whole website down, and install a new frame from scratch, so I could implement the new extensions.

The con? The website is down, hopefully it will be down only til late afternoon today. Honestly the length of how long it will be down depends only on how much the muscles on my back are acting up on me having to sit for so long in front of the computer.

So, before explaining what the new website will be like, let me briefly touch on the "why no Clay with me" this coming Sunday.

As I have briefly explained before, I am in chronic pain. Severe chronic pain. The pain does not have just one cause, it's a combination of several life-long side effects of the breast cancer treatment I went through 8 years ago. I am not going to go to much in depth on this, suffice to say that the breast reconstruction I had (with a plastic surgeon that hadn't performed this surgery on a former athlete before and didn't think ahead of time of the long-term consequences it would bring) involved removing the Latissimus Dorsi muscles from my back, tunneling them under the arm and bringing them to the front. The problem is, being a former gymnast and swimmer, that muscle was very developed and had a major influence in holding my torso upright. The remaining muscles on my back cannot compensate, so if I sit on stand for more than 15-20 minutes at a time without changing position, my back muscles "catch on fire".  After a "clay with me" session of 1 - 1 1/2 hours, I need several hours of laying down to recover. Normally on Sunday afternoons, that is my weekly "time off" that I spend laying on the couch watching movies. Trust me, I am not trying to put any guilt out there and I love doing the "Clay with me" lives, the problem is that if I do it, I will have practically half of the day wasted and not be able to work on the website because I'd have to recover. And THAT is a priority right now.

That is also the reason that I went back on doing most of the tutorials with subtitles instead of voice-overs. Because with the subtitles I can take breaks, while when I do voice-overs I have to sit and record the whole thing in one shot.

Now, I hope you will understand - and I promise, I will do an extra "Clay with me" live once I'm done with the website.

Now, about the new look and functionality of the website.

I went for the latest version of the platform. That means, that it is optimized for viewing from all types of devices, and it will be very mobile friendly. The layout is more visually appealing and hopefully will make things easier to find.

The sponsorship will be now streamlined. There will be no more need for you to first purchase the sponsorship through the paypal button on the website, then me to first add you to the facebook secret group and then manually activate your account on the website and set your access permissions.
Instead, there will be a streamlined subscription with several types of subscription plans, reminders, discounts, and all that. The sponsors will have free access to the paid tutorials through coupons applicable at checkout and because the system is personalized, they will be able to see exactly all their membership rewards used or not used, perks and all that. The system will automatically release their rewards after so many days of subscriptions.

Not only that, but if you choose to create an account when checking out when purchasing a tutorial, you will be able to see exactly your history. The new system also allows you to purchase "bundles" that offer a discount if you purchase more than one tutorial.

There will be a "message board" type where you can leave your questions or comments. Actually there will be two, one public and one members-only.

And that brings me to the other new feature: anyone will be now able to open an account on the website and have access to free content that is not available to non-members.

The access to my Amazon Influencer Store will be easier to find due to the new layout.

Also, the new layout will allow me to be able to make cameos of artists that I admire and support, or pieces of news, or new products I am testing.

I HOPE to be able to do a monthly newsletter, but I am not promising that, as I don't know if I will be able to do it, time-wise and health-wise.

So considering this, I hope you can understand how horribly busy I am right now trying to get everything up and functional, and why I can't possibly do a live broadcast on Sunday. I will still do the monthly chat on Saturday, as that does not imply me sitting up tense and I can lean back on my chair while talking to you. So if you have any questions, have them ready!