Backyard Family Photo Shoot

In honor of their seventh wedding anniversary, Carrie asked me to come photograph their family in their backyard. It was a lovely, fun afternoon, and with only a little bit of bribing with marshmellows I did manage to get a shot of all them looking at the camera.

Traveling Red Scarf

Jenny Lawson aka The Bloggess started a trend of kindness with a red ball gown. She purchased it on a whim, wore it for a photoshoot, and so enjoyed the experience that she sent it on to a friend. And bought more dresses and sent them on to other friends who were in need of the whimsical pick-me-up that a red ball gown could provide. I read about all this on twitter (I’m @qatey). And then the user @nwhepcat tweeted that she was giving out traveling red scarves instead of dresses and jumped at the opportunity. She sent me a lovely handmade red silk scarf. And when a friend of mine told me, with tears in her eyes, that she knew she wasn’t smart or pretty well… It was a good chance to prove her wrong. I took her to Nuuanu Park, and while a mutual friend watched the kiddos I took photos and… Wow. My model was Fabulous. I learned that she has taken many types of dance classes and has a theater background, which meant I had to do very little directing as she posed with grace and creativity. We both had a great time and I’m excited to share the photos with you.

And yes, I know most of the photos don’t feature the red scarf, but it was a fabulous reason to get out and do the shoot. I don’t know that I would have thought of it without it or felt confident enough that I could pull it off. I still have a lot to learn about photography but what a joy it is to learn.

Working From Home Update

I’m back to work! Well, I’m back at my desk at least, with regular babysitting so I can focus on art and design part time during the week. Since having my baby girl 10 months ago, most of this work has been simply doing website maintenance and updating forms here and there for regular clients. I’m not complaining; staying home with my daughter has been plenty of work! And I’ve used this “downtime” to get back to drawing with a pencil and paper. Working on paper instead of just on screen has been very rewarding and enjoyable, and I think will ultimately help my design practice overall. But I’m ready to get back to doing some new, exciting design work!

Now, when I found out I was pregnant, I discussed with those close to me whether I should say anything about my upcoming motherhood in my professional life. My brother looked surprised I’d even consider it, because being seen as a “mother” rather than purely a “designer” would be a negative thing. Who would take me seriously? A new mom with a young infant crawling over to chew on the computer cord? But here’s the thing… it’s a part of who I am. I’m a mom, yes, and if my daughter gets sick, yes, that might delay a project a bit. However, it doesn’t make me any less professional, any less creative, any less likely to be serious about my projects. On the contrary, I’ve become that much more dedicated to my work. Partly because I enjoy my work that much more. For me, it’s a break from thinking about baby food and diapers and sleep schedules! Trust me, I’m not going to skip out on doing my work. And I want you trust me. And I feel like being honest with you, a visitor to my website, is part of that building trust. This is me: a mother, but I was a designer first.

Also, I’m hardly the only one! Many freelance designers are stay at home moms and dads precisely because it gives us the perfect mix of freedom to be with our children while still earning money for our family doing something we love. Check out the Freelance Freedom Comic to see a funny take on the life!

So if you have a project you’d need help with, send me an email at info@nieledesigns.com.

Switching from Yahoo to Bluehost

Wow. That was difficult, but I managed to make the switch from using Yahoo as my domain and webhost to Bluehost. (Crossing my fingers in hope that I didn’t break anything!) I could get into the reasons I made the switch, but instead I’m going to explain how I did it, to help anyone else out there attempting the same thing.

1. Schedule yourself a full work day to do this. Maybe you’re smarter/quicker than me (not likely! I’m pretty smart! Hahaha just kidding…) but it took me a good 6 hours to figure this all out.

2. Backup your site. You should be doing this regularly anyway!

•  I use WordPress Database Backup, (search for WP-DB-Backup under plugins) and save it to my website folder.
•  You also need to backup your wp-content folder. You login via FTP to do this. It’s a big file, full of your themes, plugins, and most importantly, all the images/music/video that you uploaded. Save it somewhere you can find it, because you’ll have to replace your new host’s wp-content folder with this.

 

3. Sign up for Bluehost (or whoever you choose), typing in your current domain name as part of the setup.

4. Go back to Yahoo, unlock your DNS, and change your DNS/Nameserver to your new host’s config. Also make your WHOIS public, if it’s not already.

•    Make SURE you write down your EPP code in order to complete your domain transfer.

5. Hopefully your host has a script to install WordPress. Use it. Install WordPress in the same directory as your old host. If you want to change directories, don’t look at me, that’s way more complicated. (For example, I saved my site on Yahoo to nieledesigns/hi, so I did the same with my new host)

6. Hopefully your host also has something like PHPmyadmin. Open up this little program, and navigate to the database that you just created. Mine was called  _wrd1.

7. Import into this database program your backup database that you made with the WordPress Backup plugin.

8. Wait for your DNS to propagate (does that sound dirty to anyone else or am I just really tired?) This only took a few hours for me, but it might take longer for you… like between 24 – 72 hours. So maybe block out a whole week to do this project. AND ONLY THIS. Kidding. Sorta.

9. When you type in your domain and it goes to the new site (which will probably be broken, woohoo!) but don’t worry!

10. Log in via FTP and replace the wp-content folder with the one you backed up. Now it should work!

11. TA-DA. Same ol’ website, new home. Last thing is to transfer your domain. Look up the help instructions on your new host to do this. I didn’t write down this part in my notes, sorry!

Or if this is all sounding like a foreign language and you don’t have the time to devote to this project, you could always hire me to do it for you.

Perry the Bullfrog (Illustrated by ME!)

I illustrated a children’s book, and it’s available for purchase on Amazon:

Perry the Great Leaping Bullfrog of Orleans Parish

It’s the story of a bullfrog who is looking for an adventure, and finds it by traveling from his swamp in Orleans Parish to… Hawaii! In Hawaii, he learns to surf and makes new friends along the way.

I learned a lot about art and illustration while working on this book for the past two years, and I’m excited about the way it turned out.