Maggie Appleton's site is one of those references I keep coming back to — the warmth, the botanical motifs, the way it feels like a living garden instead of a tech blog. This PR was about closing some of that gap.
What changed
Home page. Added a portrait photo in the hero, a big serif heading with a crimson accent bar underneath, and the garden intro now sits inside a tinted callout. Sections have more breathing room between them, and empty sections (like Projects and Garden Journal for now) show a warm placeholder with a little seedling icon instead of just being blank.
Cards. The first essay on the home page now gets a featured treatment — full-width with a left accent border. Notes get a left stripe with a tinted background. Garden posts get a green wash with a leaf watermark. Each section feels distinct now instead of everything being the same card.
Tag filter. On the essays page, tags are now collapsible — shows the top 8 by default with a "+N more" toggle to expand. Less visual clutter when there are a lot of tags.
Decorative touches. Leaf ornament dividers between sections, opening-quote marks on blockquotes, accent bars on section index headers, and a botanical ornament in the footer. Small things that add up.
Newsletter. The "Stay in the loop" section now gracefully falls back to RSS when Beehiiv isn't configured yet. Once I add the Beehiiv API key, it'll switch to an email form automatically.
About page. Updated with the design system's typography tokens, added the portrait, fixed some typos, and uncommented the creative pursuits paragraph.
Why
The functionality was there. This was about making it feel like mine instead of a fork with different colors.