So I’m back from my vacation and I’ve got a nice little tan going (despite the sunblock, oh well!) We had tons of fun and I can’t wait to start uploading my pictures to my flickr account to share with my friends :) I’ve still not unpacked and I don’t really want to. I promised myself I would not think about work when I was on my vacation so I didn’t take along the laptop and I didn’t look at my emails till I got back. I may or may not have peeked when I got to the airport back home but that doesn’t count, right? lol Speaking of emails, as expected I’m a little behind in responding to everyone, so I appreciate everyone’s patience while I catch up. I’ll be posting again shortly about a new launch and other site news. Stay tuned…

Hey!
So, my home was invaded by some germs for a bit. I think EVERYONE is feeling better now and we’ve finally ridded ourselves of whatever was ailing. Today was nice and warm albeit a touch gloomier than I’d prefer, but the slight increase in temperature definitely helped me remember that spring IS around the corner, dammit. No matter how long it seems to be taking.

Right now I’m working on a very very cool project for a wonderful artist that I can’t wait to share. I’ve actually shared a peek of it on the animated image above ;) I’m also working on another great project, this one for a fabulous bakery. Definitely a fun one…you’ll see soon! I’m so happy to be back to work, I really truly believe my mind needed that break because I can feel the ol’ creative juices going again.

It’s taken me longer than I’d like to get the contest details up for everyone, but we’re working on it and I promise they will be up soon. We’ve already had quite a buzz generated as I’ve been getting almost daily emails with inquiries! I truly love doing these contests, they’re always so much fun.

Last but not least, you may have noticed some (slight) changes around here…I added a little bit of texture to the background and changed out a few of the graphics. Gotta change things up a bit from time to time ;) Have a great week everyone!

It’s that time of year again, when I get itchy itchy to be outside, plant seeds and just enjoy the warm sun on my face. This year I especially want to get on with the planting because I’ve decided to take the leap to becoming vegetarian (11 days so far!). I’ve been thinking about it for a long time as I have never been a big meat eater. I’ve cut out refined sugars, dairy, and meats from my diet and I gotta say I feel GREAT. So I definitely want to plant many veggies this year and see what happens. I will be starting a personal blog soonish to yap about that stuff because I’d like to document the changes my body is going through during the process, and probably post some recipes too. I’ll link to it as soon as I get that going :) Well enough about that! On to some site updates…

I’m caught up with my queue (phew!) and am now going to start working my way through the waiting list. You may have noticed up top I posted my availability for April 22nd -May 1st. I’ll be on vacation, so I’m going to try and get everyone caught up before I’m gone and then open up the queue again for May. I’d like to also get a contest started before then, but I’m not sure if I’ll be able to iron all the details out by then or if waiting until I come back from vacation would be a better idea. I’ll be sure to post updates on that.

Speaking of waiting list, I’ve had mixed feedback from clients regarding having the list published on the site. A while back, I was publishing the waiting list and queue and while most clients liked being able to check in and see the list status- I also had some clients let me know that they’d rather not have their names or websites posted because they wanted their new looks to be a surprise. I think it might be time to add a client area to the site for a compromise, this way clients would be able to log in and view the list, but not have it be all public. Know what I mean?… Ah well, it sounds like I better get crackin this spring!

It’s been a few days since I checked in with a post and, I want to make an effort to do that more regularly. I usually try to limit my time on the computer to just working, and so it’s becomes too easy for me to put the blog on the back burner if I’ve kept myself busy with work all day.

Recently I wrapped up on the (subtle) re-design for Dragonflies and Ladybugs and I have yet had a chance to really sit down and talk about the changes we made to the site and post screenshots of the changes so I thought I’d do a quick write up now.

Originally, we had Robyn set up with Zen Cart and she wanted to move to a different cart system because as great as Zen Cart is…the backend can be pretty complicated for shop owners. We moved her over to Shopify, and she seems very pleased. Robyn wanted to update the site but still be recognizable to her customers so she chose to stay with her original look and color scheme. Everything has just been freshened up and is way more organized and easy to navigate now.

I really adore Robyn and can’t wait to work with her again on other projects in the future. Please be sure to drop by Dragonflies and Ladybugs and take a look at some of the adorable children’s clothing, shoes and accessories she’s got over there. There are lots of sales going on too! Tell her Maddie sent ya ;)