Frantic Fridays

Frantic is about the only word to describe the end of this week. I send out some sincere apologies to lovely ladies who are being so patient with me; I've been out nearly a full week with high fever and flu symptoms. Not the nasty scary stuff - they don't think - but it was bad, at that.

So enough about all that. I've been in a frenzy yesterday and today trying to catch up on my project list, some of which is two weeks behind and the very idea of that is so unacceptable to me that I've been pushing it to the wee hours. It has resulted in some great work that I'm proud of, though, and gotten me one step closer to getting back on track. Here's the latest two I've managed to finish to my co-conspirators' satisfaction:

1. Petal By Petal, a shop that I love working with, got a new Blogger design all spiffied up and matching the rest of her graphics and office materials. The final design uses a white background for all of the blog body, instead of the cream shown in the preview, and it creates such a sharp, clean look that is just perfect. It can be previewed in the Pixel Boutique Preview for the next week or so.
   
2. Little Hailey's Boutique got a pretty new look, filled with pinks and whites and a boutique storefront look that matches the adorable bows and accessories she sells beautifully. With the summer sun in full sway, you totally need to check out her selection of too-too-cute sun visors. I just know you'll have someone perfect in mind when you see them!

This week, I wanted to offer a Friday Freebie that is both spring-time delicious, but fresh and clean. I wanted it to be useful to a wide variety of people ... and I sincerely hope you'll like what I came up with!

These business cards will work with Avery templates 28373, 5881, 8373, and 8869. Even better - the design itself is in 300 d.p.i. (professional quality print) PDF format so you can use the template no matter what kind of computer or software you have. The download of this template, free here, also includes a copy of the freeware font "MA Sexy" which you will need to install before using the template.

Experiment with the papers you print on, and enjoy!

Monday Projects & Buying a Website

When asked, I always say quite honestly that I will never work on more than 2 projects at any given time. I guess what I should also admit is that if I have time between projects, while waiting on return communication for example, I eagerly eat up that time with a new project. It's how my work day is filled, excitedly moving from one design to the next, working to create something that - once completed - will be loved by the person I'm working with.

Today was definitely a day with tons of communication (hours get munched in back-and-forth communications, I've come to realize) and lots of waiting time. The end results are pleasing to me, though, and I hope that they'll get the stamp of approval so I can share them in the next day or two with everyone.

One thing I'm asked about repeatedly is buying a new website. I'm currently in the process of writing a full, detailed article on the topic for the company I write with (I'll link to it as soon as it's up) but thought that this article - while a bit outdated - could help many people begin understanding the basic process: http://www.city-net.com/~ched/help/articles/buywebsite.html

Fabulous Friday & a Freebie

Is it even possible to not love Fridays? Seriously, there's a peace in Fridays that goes beyond the end of the work week. You can look back over 5 days of progress, and feel some pride in the things you've accomplished.

This week has been a hugely fun one for me, despite some home turmoil involving a irrigation pipe that blew up in a spectacular cascade that geysered to the tops of our willow trees. Two of my favorite print projects have been completed and sent through to printing - business cards and jewelry hangtags for Gleep Art using a sketch Grace submitted, and earring cards for LoveThatJewelry using one of the coolest combinations of elements ever:

I had so much fun with both of these projects, and have a few more that are nearing completion that I'm excited to share, too. To answer the question I've been receiving repeatedly over the last week: I'm currently booked about 1 1/2 weeks straight, so any new design orders would be scheduled to begin after the 8th of May. I welcome your contacts, though!

What's the good in a blog offering freebies and sneak peeks without a few really good sneak peeks? This week's Friday Freebie is a serious sneak peek available only on Pixel Boutique until my newest business start-up package debuts: an indie home site template.

Indie home site templates are designed to offer a "home base" from which you can link to your Etsy (or other) shop, your personal blog, and offer up information about your business, products and services. This template, Envy, contains a very simple-to-use HTML template that allows you to just click-and-type in any web editor, separate CSS stylesheets to keep your code clean and tidy (which search engines love), and "blanks" for the buttons and logo so you can easily edit them using any graphic editor you like.

Envy is completely free to use both commercially and non-commercially, as long as you don't distribute/sell/or remove the "designed by" link in the footer. You can download Envy here, and preview it "live" for the next week or two here.

I sincerely hope you enjoy, and have a lovely lovely weekend!