I finished up another WordPress theme today for EW, this one is brown and green and cool and chic and just a smidge preppy.

Melissa is a really great gal and a good read – so stop by and say hello, and be sure you add her to your blogroll.

Icklebug has been launched – you’ve gotta see this one! It’s so ding dang cute, with the watermelon-y color scheme, and the bunnies you can throw around (boing, I mean.) This was an E.Webscapes project (I’m an Associate Designer, so if you want to order a custom blog design, please do order through EW and feel free to request me if you’d like me to be the one to design for you!). Bex had a lot of specific things that she wanted to implement, like those cute little pixel icons (a couple of those are custom to her design), and a bunch of nifty plugins and customizations, including a special plugin written by Becca just for EW.

Becca rocks!I have to make note of what I think is the cutest part of the design – the comment page. She requested the official comments plugin, so I hooked her up with alternating comment bubble background and then the official comments (registered users, authors) have a solid pink bubble. I really love how fun the comments are displayed, so check ’em out, and leave one while you’re there!

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:

 

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.

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.

I am finally starting to catch up with my “to-do” list. Here are some things I’ve crossed off my list, and I still have to get visuals to go along with everything for you.

• Finish up a blog design, MommyHelp.com. That one was an EW project that launched last week, it turned out really neat, new moms will love the tips and information on Breastfeeding and parenting. There’s a forum there, too – lots of nice supportive women there. Check it out!
• Another EW blog design project that I just launched this week is The End User. This is my first fluid blog design for EW, and it’s that black & white one I talked about. It wound up being a really neat layout and project – even though I had to hold myself back from changing just one little hex code to bright red or something. The urge was there, and it persisted – but alas. It’s black, white, and shades of grey, and I shouldn’t even be showing you yet because I still have some tweaking to do. Go on and have a look anyway.
• Live.Love.Read. It just so happy over there. My eyeballs really enjoy it, it’s like therapy. Go. Get happy. I’ll wait.
• One of my blogging buddies enjoyed one of my Ten Little Fishies so much, she wanted a print of it. I’ve got one sitting beside me that I’ll be matting and sending out for her by Monday.
• Sketching Titto for his next portrait – he’s such a ham. His second portrait will be much more colorful as he’s preening and really has a gorgeous spread of tailfeathers. I’ll get his sketch up here later today.
• Two Mother-Daughter banquets. Two nights in a row this week, I’m telling you – it’s been a smidge busy over here this week.
• Balancing the checkbook. Next on my list. Ugh.

I still have some things to add to my list, too! I need to respond to some inquiries and add a photoblog design project, and I also need to find an hour to tell you about the wonderful experience I just had sending off my Great Blue Heron painting to his new home. The whole experience and sequence of events – beginning with meeting Laura – will leave you just as astonished as it did me. Divine intervention indeed.

I also need to tell you about my neighbor. This lovely woman we’ve lived next to for 11 years is not doing so well. I’ve been assisting her whenever she calls for help, and last weekend I waited with her as the ambulance came to take her to the hospice where she is now staying. She’s had trouble breathing for a couple of years, and initially when she was diagnosed they gave her 6 months. She’s well beyond that, but now she’s suffering and the pain she feels just from the effort it takes her to inhale and exhale breaks my heart. I’m going to cut some irises from her garden and take them to her today, and I’ll probably be saying goodbye. It’s very sad, but I’m glad that they are keeping her as comfortable as possible, she shouldn’t have to suffer through her final days. If you’d keep her in your thoughts and prayers, I know she would feel comforted knowing everyone wishes her peace. It seems odd, and I may even sound glib writing about her, but she’s honestly ready to pass on, she has been. She is tired of having to experience the pain of her body failing her before the Lord is ready to take her.

Mother’s Day, aaah Mother’s Day. What do you mom’s want for Mother’s Day? Me, I shared my secret with a friend, and I’m not going to spoil it here but wait patiently to see if my family knows me as well as they think they do.

Nancy has relocated her old blog to a new space – with a new face!

This was a fun design to do, I feel .. hungry when I go there. Yes. Hungry. For a big bowl of rainbow sherbet. There are worse things to feel when you visit a blog, right? heh.

Nancy is a doll, she’s so intuitive and sweet and wonderful. She’s also deep and thoughtful and intelligent – all of that comes out in her blog, and now I think we’ll be seeing even more of that as she finds her comfortable cozy spot among the bright sunshiny happy color scheme, and the sunflowers, too.

Her design was actually a real challenge, if you think about having a bowl of sherbet in front of you, if you stir it up too much it gets brown, eh? That’s not so good. I had to find that perfect balance, and then I had to figure out how to port an entire database from one server to another. WooHoo! All turned out well, and just opening her new spot will make you smile. So go on, just do it.

I finished up a new design for EW last week – you can read more about the project here.

It’s grunge, masculine, industrial – it screams “guy blog”. Head on over to The Clay Show and see it live. 🙂

  

  

  

  

  

I had the most fun opportunity to illustrate a children’s book for a college student – without giving everything away, I’m sure my illustrations are a big hint to the storyline!

I started doodling late one night, refined my doodles into line drawings, then colored them in using colored pencil on a really smooth illustration paper – scanned them in and further enhanced them for print using Paint Shop Pro. I’m so tickled with the results, I just had to share.

Which little fishy is your favorite?