Simply A Musing Blog

One of my clients informed me a couple of days ago that her blog was nominated for "Best Eye Candy Blog" for the 2009 BlogLuxe Awards. I'm really wanting to help her win (by the way, if she wins, I win in a way too, since I designed it) - so I'm asking you, my dear faithful readers (all three of you!) to go here: BloxLuxe and look for the "Best Eye Candy" Category. Then, you'll want to look for "She Takes on The World" - which is currently second! You can vote once a day every day if you like...but seriously, we would just LOVE your vote! Look on the bright side! Subscribe via my RSS feed.

One of my spiritual gifts is mercy. (Don't laugh - it's true, and no one was more surprised that me.) I have a hard time saying "no" to folks...and had taken two orders after my queue closed that I'm now smacking my forehead for taking. Although I need to earn the money, (My friend Kelli recently told me that the majority of designers surveyed, worked over 50 hrs a week and made less than $20K a year - I can testify to that!) I also need to be more available to my kids. My husband might like it if I actually cleaned the house once in a while too. :) I haven't updated my portfolio in ages...will get to that once I'm finished with my queue...only have 7 blogs left - I can't believe I don't have at least 20 in queue. I have to tell you - I have no idea how I'm going to manage it going forward. There has to be a way to keep it down to 1-2 per week, which is really all I can do and do right. I don't want to do basic design anymore. Anyone can do...

Here's a before and after of a complete redesign that I did for Shameeka, of The Broke Socialite . She wanted to use a chandelier as her focal point and really loves sophisticated but unpretentious design. We moved her blog from Wordpress.com to Blogger to achieve some of the styling and widget effects that weren't possible with the free version of Wordpress. I custom coded her twitter box into her template so she'd have her very own unique Twitter box...I even colored the twitter bird to match her template. If you love entertaining and decorating on a budget...she's the gal for you. Seriously, that girl can find the best deals on things - it's a gift. And one I don't have. :) Her before: And the after: Look on the bright side! Subscribe via my RSS feed.

Gina is the blogger behind " Mommy Making Money ", who says that part of her job as a SAHM is to save money as a way of making money to contribute to their family budget. Gotta love that, huh? She shares her strategies, tips for planning and organization, and ways to have FUN on a tight budget. She also does lots of great giveaways! Whether you're a working mom, stay-at-home mom, or anyone else, these strategies can work for you - and I highly suggest you check her out if you've never visited her before. Gina admitted that she was tired of the green on her blog and really desired a change. Since her blog was about saving money and shopping, sprinkled with tidbits of her life with her three children, she also suggested a mom with a shopping cart or some other illustration that represented a mom with children. Here's what her old blog looked like: The challenge was to find an illustration that was connotative of her decision to be frugal and wise with money in order...

Since I moved my design blog, I haven't posted any of the new designs I've done - I've been too busy trying to keep up with orders! Here's a before of a site I recently completed for Ashley of Sassy Gal Glamour . She wanted something fun and bright, with a retro/vintage feel. This is her old blog after she moved from Blogger to Wordpress.com: We kept the cowgirl, but I added some texture and used some paper elements from Farrah's Creations (with her absolute permission, of course) for the background and then brushed and painted until I felt it had enough color and texture. A fellow designer friend helped me find the perfect font (since I couldn't locate her old one) and I put a gradient overlay on the letters to add interest. I think the letters look good enough to eat (they remind me of the Brach's candies...do you remember those? the coconut ones? yum!). Here's the finished product: I even gave her a cute little signature to match her header - you kno...

Okay, so I'm not working eight days a week...I'm actually trying to take weekends off now so I can spend time with my kids (not that I don't see them every day...but there's a definite distinction between mom and teacher). I designed a memorial blog for a friend's daughter (and I must tell you there was no charge - it was for personal use - that's so the bad guys don't come and try to take me away!), and since I won't be showing it in my portfolio (it was a freebie and made with items that are for non-commercial use, plus she's my friend), I wanted to show it here. So Jeanette, this is for you, sister. I know you miss your sweet Lezlee Ann and it brought me great joy to do something for you so you can write her story on its pages. I also finished and installed another design today - for Christy at The Road to Home , and I'll be profiling it over on my design blog in the next day or two, but here's a preview of what her new design looks like: ...

***If you're here via Bloggy Giveaways - please go to item #3 - that's the giveaway!*** Mondays are good days for announcing things, don't you think? It's long been known that I'm a maker of lists and enjoy the pleasure of accomplishing tasks and marking them off of said lists, if for nothing else than just the satisfaction of seeing something was actually completed. 1. My brand-spanking new Design Blog is finished. I am so excited about it - I coded it myself (which explains why some of you who have MSIE6 and FF2.0 will have viewing issues - working on the bugs still). You can visit it if you like, or not. I still have some work to do on it and there are still a few pages that are either buggy or not complete, but honestly? I just wanted to get it out there so I could announce part two of my list. 2. My order pad is open for business. Yay! I already have a wait-list of five people, but I will accept new clients as well - please go to my new Design Blog for the ne...

/excuses. For any of you who aren't familiar with what that means - in CSS and blog coding terms, the "/" symbol means "end"...and because I'm a blog designer and I love geekspeak, I am saying "end excuses" when I use that symbol. The buck stops here. I'm hopping back on my blog bandwagon and not looking back at the deserted plains I've crossed in the last two months. As I said before, our family has seen some mighty exciting changes on both the home and church front. Since I can't just compose one single blog post that encompasses the many changes that have occurred, (it would be of gargantuan proportions, believe me), I shall attempt to update you on one of the items today - Church. One thing about blogging is that you really have to watch what you say, because it's just going to be floating out there in the world wide web for ages and ages to come. It's for that reason, and because I needed to gain some perspective and examin...

Melanie (aka Chilihead - I just LOVE calling her that) and I had a great time yesterday on Behind the Blog - we had Rick Calvert (the founder of Blog World Expo ) on - and I'll be darned if he isn't just the nicest and most personable man. (and I'm not just saying that because I want to score a sponsored trip to the BWE in Vegas, either...although that would be nice!) We also had Kelly Curtis from Pass the Torch on to talk about going from Blog to Book. She recently published her first book and you can find it on her website - she's a very engaging speaker and I thoroughly enjoyed reading her series on her blog about " Becoming an Author ". If you have any interest in writing, she's got a great story. I've updated the player on the sidebar - so you can listen to it. Or, you can download it and listen later. Either way works for me. I just want you to listen to my nasally, tin can voice. That's all. I need to feel the loooove. (I have NO idea w...

Don't forget about Tuesday's " Behind the Blog " Talk Radio Show! We have Stephanie Precourt from Adventures in Babywearing as our special guest. She will be discussing marketing and public relations - in case you hadn't noticed, Stephanie is a PRO at both. :) She had her trip to the BlogHer conference sponsored and earlier this year, she went to a special mixer at Disneyworld for blogger moms. So tune in at 12 pm central and be armed with your best questions for us! Oops. I totally forgot to post the wrap up for Saturday's Mystery Photo Contest! Well, mainly it's because no one won this week, which is so incredibly sad for me, because I had an awesomely "n"eat prize for the winner. So, be on the lookout for it next Saturday. Here's the reveal - it was a tea infuser - I figured with all the Southerners, someone would guess it. Maybe it's only Northerners that drink hot tea? (I grew up drinking my Aunt's tea in Alaska...but that's ...

When Melissa contacted me about doing her blog design, I went to her blog and began to read through it to get a feel for her style and was hooked. I think I might have stayed for an hour reading - she's got a wickedly superb sense of humor and her family has some pretty interesting adventures in the inner city where they live and minister. She wanted something that married who she is and where she lives. When I asked her what she thought would describe her surroundings - she said "graffiti and gunfire". I thought to myself, "oh goodness." But then she added, "skinny white girl and shopping", so we were in business once again and this is what I came up with for Melissa: I've also done some reworks on Wordpress.com templates - making them wider, changing colors and adding backgrounds. Fun! You can see them here on my design blog. I've also finished two more designs that are just waiting to be installed - this has been a busy week and now that ...

When Babs of From My Heart asked for something whimsical and feminine along the lines of Mary Engelbreit, I thought to myself, "now this should be fun." And you know what? I was right - and I think it turned out to be very bright and whimsical at the same time. (I even hand drew the cherries in photoshop - something I didn't know I could do! - love being stretched...) Look on the bright side! Subscribe via RSS.

A few weeks ago, I blogged about a program I discovered quite by accident, called Gimp. It's a free and versatile graphics manipulation package that is quite handy if you want to create your blog banner - and I'll be showing you how to do just that today. I am using the Windows version of GIMP and must admit that this is my first attempt to use it (I normally use Photoshop CS3 for my design business ). But it's so easy to use that I was able to do it without any problem, although I don't know the shortcut commands or the MAC commands. This is a fairly long tutorial, so bear with me, as it has taken some time to put together and you'll find I've tried to be as thorough as I could. Just go slowly and if you miss a step or get confused, back up and read through it again. If you're still unable to get it, try emailing me. Also, please note that you can click on each photo to enlarge it to 700 pixels if you can't read it. Step One: Create a New Document Open ...