Leanne Wildermuth : Artist by Nature

Dell Dude Gets a Little Squirrely

June

2007

Some of you may have ordered your very own Climby Squirrel t-shirt, many of you have not. Ahem.

Back in March, I had a dilemma (or should I say Dellimma?). I had a few hundred squirrely photos, and not enough room on my hard drive for them all. I decided to back up my photos to CD, but didn’t have a DVD write drive. Enter Dell Dude, who suggested I make apparel with my squirrels. He also really really wanted a free shirt. So because I’m really super awesome (I am too), I procrastinated forever (because honestly, I paid for that DVD write drive, is it too much to hope to get a little lovin’ with the greenbacks in return?). A girl can only pretend to be aloof and forget all about it for so long, you know.

I finally got the shirt sent off. One for him, and one for me. Mine arrived last weekend, so I knew it wouldn’t be long before Dell Dude opened up a strange little package from CafePress and found a squirrel ready to leap off of 100% cotton in hopes of a peanut, or maybe even a free DVD write drive.

I love my Climby Squirrel shirt, by the way. It is so wicked that my kids were pouty that they didn’t get one. My photograph/design is printed direct, which means there’s no wierd transfer paper outline – it looks unbelievably cool. In fact, I wore it to the grocery store and people were looking at me funny. Okay so that in itself isn’t entirely unusual, but I am going to attribute that particular days worth of strange glances to the shirt. It works for me.

In an effort to get all of you slackers fabulous people into one of these cool shirts for the summer, I’m going to give you a little incentive. Click the little button below and send over $25 for the cost of the shirt and the shipping. I’ll do the ordering and have it shipped to me, then I’ll personally sign it with my big fancy relatively famous “L” autograph and forward it on to you for your wearing pleasure.

I’ll just need you to tell me which one and what size. Sound fun? I thought so.

:end shameless begging for cash:

Oh and hey? If you want one of my other photos on a shirt instead? Just pick one.

I’ll hook you up.

Special thanks to Dell Dude for sharing himself with the internet. He’s way better than that guy they have doing the PC dude on the Mac commercials, isn’t he? I think so. (BTW, that’s my favoritest commercial ever, in the whole wide world.)

I’ll share myself getting squirrely just as soon as I get my shirt through the wash again.

Oh and one more thing. I broke down and bought a Maxtor 300Gig external Hard Drive. (Sorry Dell Dude, I had like 1000 new squirrel photos and not nearly enough DVD’s or cases to put ’em in.)

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Filed under: A Little Squirrely, Available for Purchase, Hahaha! That's Funny., The Photog in Me

Celebrity Dog Watcher Blog Design

June

2007

I finished up the week with this super sweet celebrity dog blog design, Celebrity Dog Watcher. This is an EWebscapes client project, so it will go into the EW Portfolio. (Speaking of which, I really need to get my latest stuff added to my own portfolio, huh?)

The CDW logo is super cool, I just love the artwork done by Pop Arf artist Nathan Janes. I used his brilliant color scheme to create additional graphics for the design and get everything flowing together. This is my first 4 column theme, and it really turned out cool, I think!

If you’re into the celeb scene (I try to be. I must admit.), Kym does a really great job dishing some totally informative celebrity doggy gossip. Definitely a great feed to add to the celebrity blog collection! Go have a visit!

:woof:

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Filed under: Custom Illustrations, Graphics, Blog Designs, E.Webscapes

An Island Life Blog Design

May

2007

I finished up another custom WordPress design today, this one for Kailani over at An Island Life. I have a little tweaking to do but overall it’s complete and so cute I just couldn’t wait to send you over to have a peek.

She basically requested a facelift on the design she had previously – separating posts, getting cute and creative in the comments, organizing and displaying her menu better. I threw my artistic touch into some custom graphics as well as a few stock images, updated her existing header, and the end result is a really fun summery beach theme. It was such a creatively inspired project, I had a lot of fun with it! Head over and toss her a beach ball!

Update: After I unbreak the search form. D’oh.

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Filed under: Custom Illustrations, Graphics, Blog Designs

525600 Photoblog Design

May

2007

I just finished up this design for Nancy, this is her photoblog, 525600 Minutes. I did a whole bunch of stuff on this project, starting with getting her upgraded to the latest version of WordPress. Then I did a quick and easy installation of Johannes amazing wordpress photoblog plugin, YAPB, and created a custom design for it. Similar to my own photoblog, it’s got the date archives and navigation making it really easy to browse either by date or category.

I added some custom templates and other fun plugins to make things really much more functional – these are really nice ones, if you’re looking to do something similar I highly recommend them:

Custom posts per page
Exec php
Headline images (I gave her a special font from my own collection.)
Imp Links for that really cool links page formatting.
Live calendar
Preview Frame (a must have for WordPress 2.2)
WP-slimstat, like shortstat, only cleaner and takes up less room in your database.

A few custom graphics, and one purchased from iStock, and she’s ready to start photoblogging!

I love YAPB.

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Filed under: Custom Illustrations, Graphics, Blog Designs

Smileys Are Cool

May

2007

They are too cool to go bad, in my own humble bloggy opinion. I had a formatting problem with the More Smilies plugin that just went totally south when I upgraded to a newer version of the plugin code. It hates the new version of WordPress (2.2) and will. not. play. nice.

The support in the forum – well, they tried. I know people like this plugin. This post is for you, in all honesty. If you have the more smilies plugin, it will not work in 2.2, and so far, no one is supporting it (not even the plugin author).

So, it’s gone. Disabled. That was scary, but I’m okay now. Why? Because I found this other smiley plugin, Custom Smileys. It LOVES WordPress 2.2! Yay! So I took my custom smiley set that I made for the more-smilies plugin and I threw them into the directory with the other custom smileys included with the Custom Smiley plugin, and I spent some time renaming them in the admin panel (yes, you can do it in the admin panel – no more package config file!), and then… you know what I did?

I added a few new smileys. (Look! Here’s a whole bunch! And here’s s’more!)

I’m not one of those anti-smiley bloggers. I pink puffy heart smileys. I’m creatively expressive that way, though.

So those of you looking for the fix for the more-smilies plugin for wordpress 2.2 because it broke your comment formatting, here’s your fix. Dump the More-Smilies plugin and replace it with Custom Smileys. You’ll be happy, and your headache will go away.

This happy smiley post brought to you by my new fantabulous smiley additions.

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Filed under: Technicalities

The Hummies are Here!

May

2007

Our hummingbirds are back! This is a female ruby throated hummingbird. They’ve been around for over a week, but they’re still really skittish around me and my camera. This is the best shot I’ve been able to get so far with my upgraded camera – by the end of the summer I should have at least a dozen great shots of them, I’m a persistent little chickey momma.

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Filed under: Birdwatching, The Great Outdoors

Holy Peonies

May

2007

Do you have peonies in your yard, or have someone living nearby who does? Are they slumped over to the ground? Go. Go grab your clippers, find a vase or a pitcher and cut them. (If they’re your neighbors, ask first, and give them a vase full, too!)

These are the most beautiful spring flowers, and they make such glorious bouquets. I stop by my peony bouquets several times a day and just breathe them in, their scent is so sweet and soothing. The girls do it, too.

There’s your Sunday Challenge. Go find a peony bush and cut yourself a bouquet before they’re done for the season. Don’t leave them on the plant to droop and wither unsmelled and underappreciated. If you find them at a neighbors house, ask them if they mind. Peonies are definitely meant to be cut, meant to be enjoyed. Their foliage is wonderful and full and lasts all season without their flowers, too.

Next years batch ought to yield well over 5 vases full of whites and pinks. I’ll be the neighborhood peony bandit, leaving bouquets on the doorsteps of (almost) all the neighbors. (almost. heh.)

Happy Sunday!

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Filed under: Home n' Hearth, The Great Outdoors

Final Scan : Titto Preening

May

2007

custom sun conure bird portrait oil painting original final scan leanne wildermuth art' class=

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Filed under: Bird Portraits, Completed Paintings, Painting in Oils

A New Dyson!

May

2007

buy a dyson dc07 Bob Barker may as well have shown up on my doorstep the day before yesterday and exclaimed my prize, because this is the coolest toy I have ever played with!

It all started when my hubby was going over his Priority Club points. He has a ton, because he travels a lot and always uses the same hotel chain. He started browsing the cool catalog of goodies you could cash your points in on, and my eyes lit up when I saw this Dyson DC07 for mmmfty hundred thousand points.

See, he didn’t know that late at night, during several of my virtual shoppingcartaholic frenzies, I have added that exact model to my cart only to end my session before sealing the deal. I mean, I wanted it and all, but I have a perfectly wonderful Kirby that has served me well and I’m a little afraid of it, too, because it’s 100 pound engine has smashed my toes on plenty of occasions. Not to mention the mmmfty thousand dollars I spent on it years ago. I couldn’t justify it in my head. I’m justifiable, I am. And sometimes even certifiable, but let’s not go there right now.

I digress.

I pointed and giggled and gasped and then pleaded that he cash in our summer vacation worth of points on this yellow dirt sucker upper, and so he did. And so it was. And here it is, and I pink puffy heart it, and I am also a little embarassed because this photo means one of two things. Or both. You be the judge.

I suck as a housewife and/or
my Kirby has lost it’s ooompf.

Those are pretty sad options. Let me add one more. Yes. I must.

Dyson’s rock.

I called my good friend over to see it and be my witness to it’s awesomeness. I was still assembling the thing when she got here, and it took me a few minutes to figure out the Euro way of building something. Here’s a tip: Read the dang instructions. Don’t think that you can figure it out all by yourself because it’s just a vacuum cleaner – because it’s not. Heh.

Then the fun began.

I vacuumed the living room and woah. That picture? Is the dirt out of my carpet after cleaning approximately 80 square feet. Seriously. And ouch. That hurts. Quit glaring at me with those “don’t you EVER vacuum?!” eyes. I just buy really cool floors that you can’t see dirt on, so it tends to slip my mind until goo sticks to my feet. I might just consider vacuuming more often now, though.

So I flip the little bare floor nobbie and head into the kitchen and dining room. I flip the nobbie back to carpet and get the rug under the dining room table. All is going perfectly well and I am impressed as all get out with this thing. Until.

Yes there is an until.

I’m standing there looking at the thing, trying to figure out (all by myself) how to detach the thing to empty the container. I pull this doohickey and push another, and the front comes off. Great! Cool! Now where’s the thing to take the clear container off to empty it?! Well, just as I said that to my good friend, the bottom opened up – and all of the yucky junk I just picked up? It landed on my feet. I kid you not. That’s when I told her “great! I’m doing an infomercial now! Watch as the incredibly awesome Dyson picks up the dirt not just once, but twice! Woohoo!”

It’s my own dang fault. I should have read the instructions.

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Filed under: Home n' Hearth