Tag: web design

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Obviously

oh my god what is wrong with me?? It hasn’t even been a full month since I built that new website on Adobe Portfolio and I’ve already scrapped it! There was nothing wrong with it, I just had all my stuff spread over too many separate sites. So I just spent the last 3 days reconfiguring my WordPress Elfini blog site to do it all – portfolio, blog and online store. I even relocated the whole installation from a sub-domain to the root directory. Holy hell why do I do these things to myself?!

And then this morning when I thought all was well except a few more design tweaks, I found that I couldn’t upload images to WordPress! Oh that is not okay! So, I hit the google. And I tried all the things. Nothing worked. And I tried some more things. And then I totally broke the site.

::very external screaming::

So, knowing my poor blood pressure was going to hit unhealthier levels than normal (I’ll tell you about my blood pressure woes later), I reminded myself that I have backups. Lots and lots of backups (this ain’t my first website rodeo). So, I hopped back into the FTP client and deleted the whole shebang and then re-uploaded yesterday’s subdomain folder that I had downloaded before I moved it and ta-da! Everything is working and I can upload images and at some point I might even start breathing again. fuck. Don’t tell my doctor about any of this. Or any English teachers who would be appalled at my infatuation with run on sentences. I save all my punctuation for .php files.

Now, I just need to figure out how to hide the sidebar on the shop pages and make the portfolio page full width – it really shouldn’t be this difficult! And after I give up on that because I spent most of yesterday trying to crack that nut, I need to create a bunch of product pages because Big Cartel doesn’t have an export products function because of course they don’t. So…. yeah. Big fun happening over here.

But my birthday is Friday and we are going to Santa Cruz so cake and cooler weather. I’ll take it.

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Goodnewsapalooza!

Hey did you hear the good news? We won our appeal with the County Board of Education last Thursday night! It was beyond nerve-wracking and a close vote: 4-3. yikes. It took Chris and I over a day to finally come to grips with the reality that the whole interdistrict transfer process was finally over and that Kyle was actually going to be allowed to attend Whitney HS. damn that was stressful. But today I got Kyle enrolled at Whitney and he is all set to start in the fall. So relieved. And probably 3 inches taller without all that stress weighing on me.

And Kyle isn’t the only kid around here with school news. Erin had her “Moving Up” party last Friday at preschool. She’s no longer in the Busy Bee class, but in the Open Court class. Weird name for a classroom isn’t it? Turns out Open Court is the name of the reading program that class uses. Erin was placed in the “advanced” Pre-K class. And today was her first day in her new class with a new teacher. Seems to have gone okay. The big difference for us is that in the new class there is no nap time. No. Nap. Time.
NO.
NAP.

I’ve obviously some serious misgiving about this. Check back at the end of the week and see if any of us survived.

Another good news item is that the blog redesign/migration I have been struggling with for the past week is finally nearing completion! In fact, the new site went live today. And that my friends feels like a miracle after the problems I had migrating the blog content from the original Blogger site to the new WordPress site I set up. Migrations are a bit of a crapshoot. Most of the time they go relatively smoothly. But every now and then, woo boy, things just do not go well. And for no good reason. You do everything right, but nothing works as it should. And this one really had me worried for a couple days. But I got it done and now just have some tweaks to finish up. Check it out – Mom 101. The design was done by the amazing Schmutzie of Ninjamatics. I am so happy to be working with her again.

So, feeling much better about things now. Well, except for maybe that no nap thing. Next up to stress about – Kyle’s 4 day volleyball tournament in Anaheim that starts this Friday. Road tripping in 2 days baby! oh boy.

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Look at what I cooked up!

So, this here blog? elfini? It’s all Julie Tilsner’s fault.  4 years ago she said “Hey Dawn, you should start a blog!” And when Julie says “Jump”, I say “Fine… if you insist. But I’m not going to enjoy it.” And I think we all know how well this turned out.

Anyway, a couple weeks ago, Julie finally said “Hey Dawn, you should redesign my blog!” And I jumped up and down, said yes, and insisted she bail on the evil Typepad and migrate to WordPress.

And a word of advice here – do not get me started on Typepad and the Six Apart world. The seething raging hate!!

Luckily Julie bent to my will and is now happily hosting Bad Home Cooking on a spiffy new WordPress installation. And it looks something like this:

www.julietilsner.com

Now click the pretty picture and bask in the glory of the new and improved Bad Home Cooking! Same old funny wrapped in a shiny new package.

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it’s quiet. too quiet…

Kyle left yesterday for his annual summer trip to Malibu and he’ll be gone for almost 2 weeks.

Strange. I have not done one happy dance since leaving the airport. In fact, I’ve been kind of in a funk since then. What is up with that?! Usually I don’t start missing him until after the 1st week.

Maybe it’s because Kyle no longer travels as an unaccompanied minor. I had moments of panic as I was driving away because there is no airline personal supervision anymore. When the plane lands he is free to walk off whether his aunt is there to pick him up or not. Not pleasant to think about.

Maybe it’s not Kyle’s absence at all, but the problems I’m having migrating a client’s blog from Movable Type to Typepad. It is just not working. And both platforms are run by the same people! How f’ed up is that? gah. So completely frustrating.

Maybe it’s a lack of paint fumes in my life. I think tomorrow I need to paint while Erin is at Jens. Turpentine fixes everything!

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Cold Coding Part Two

This time with less cold.

I’m like the house painter who’s own house never gets painted. My website is a mess. I’ve started more blogs and everything is all over the place. It was finally time to do something about it. So coming off the success (haha) of the photo blog, I’ve been attempting a custom Thesis design for the DB Designs Services site. I’ve been creating multiple feature boxes and mastering WordPress hooks – or at least attempting to.

It’s funny how I work. When downstairs and on the laptop, I have been been working on the thesis design. When I’m upstairs on my computer, I edit photos and work in Photoshop/Dreamweaver. And I just move back and forth between the two machines and the 2 projects. So, while upstairs yesterday I started designing a new home page for my website. A landing page to connect all my various sites. And BEHOLD! the new and improved dawnblanchfield.com~

Pretty spiffy eh? Next on the chopping block – a complete rebuild of my photography portfolio.  This time around there will be no flash. No flash!

Hey that reminds me, I need to make a cape for a certain someone’s <cough>Paul!</cough> upcoming birthday. Who has a bedazzler I can borrow?!