blogging

Need a Custom Design for Your Blog? Check Out Calimera Web!

So it’s been almost eight weeks since my new blog design went up, and I still absolutely love it.  Every time I see it, I have to smile.  Every. Single. Time.

I mean, just look at it! Pretty colors, sweet pictures, and bubbles…what more could you want?  It’s exactly how I feel when I read a good YA romance novel, and how I want my readers to feel when they read mine (ya know, someday.)

Linda Tieu of Calimera Web created this custom design, and I don’t think anyone could have done a better job capturing my tone.  When we started the process, I wasn’t sure what I wanted, but Linda knew the questions to ask to get the information she needed. I sent her my rambling answers, sure the whole exercise was going to be a waste of time. After all, if I didn’t know what I wanted, how could I possibly communicate it to someone else?

My jaw dropped when I saw the first mockups Linda sent me.  A few small revisions later, I had a blog design that truly felt like ME.  I hadn’t told Linda that purple was my favorite color because I didn’t want narrow the options of what she might create,  so it felt like magic when that was one of the colors she’d picked from the very beginning.

It didn’t even matter that Linda lived on the other side of the world because everything was done via e-mail. The entire process was simple and painless, only requiring a bit of thinking on my part.  Although I was primarily interested in her blog design services, Linda is very knowledgeable about WordPress and took the time to answer some questions I had.

I absolutely recommend Calimera Web for anyone looking to build a WordPress blog or just redesign their existing blog.  Linda is professional, easy to work with, and responds quickly. She can help you get set up, even if you’ve never used WordPress before.

 

christiespeich 1 Comment

New School Year Resolutions

Resolutions and goals

Source: creepyed

 

I tend to make resolutions three times a year at transitions in my life: the New Year, the start of summer, and the start of the school year.  They usually revolve around home management with the occasional weight loss goal thrown in if I’m really feeling ambitious.

Today is the first day of school for my son, so I reviewed my list of goals for the summer to see how many I actually accomplished.

On my Things To Do: Around The House list, I completed 1.5 items out of 10. ( The half item was “sell old cloth diapers” — we made the effort to sell them but haven’t sold them all yet.)

My Things To Do: Writing list fared only slightly better: 3 out of 13 items.  Two of those items related to getting this blog started up.

So what are my new goals now that the School Year has started? 

Well, a few weeks ago I did start a new task schedule/management/tracking system that seems to working for me.  It’s all about working on those basic routines.

So my first goal is to continue using this system.

I’m also going to make it a point to take baby steps.  Obviously I still have these Summer Lists to complete. But instead of looking at them as one big list, I’m going to focus on one thing at a time.

My current goals over the next couple weeks:

  • Home: do one item from the Things To Do: Home list each week.
  • Blog: Maintain a regular blogging schedule, at least 3 posts a week
  • Writing: Write out character profiles for the major characters in Brotherly Love

It’s going to be haaard sticking to those goals and not doing more and burning out by the end of September.

Especially the writing one. But it needs to be done. I need to pull my characters out of my head and onto paper so I can  restructure the plot so I can get writing again so I can finish the 2nd draft! YAY!  I’m really itching to jump back into the writing, but I know it will just create more mess to clean up later if I don’t make my plan now.

Am I the only one who makes these kind of goals multiple times a year?

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