Thank you for all your feedback on what to do with my “Design Monday” posts since I’m no longer doing graphic design work for hire.  I’ve decided to just focus on something related to design on Mondays, now.  Today, I wanted to share a pic I found in a google image search.  I haven’t been able to get this photo out of my mind.  I’m completely entranced by the color combos.  Of course, since I’m a food photographer, I find food colors and combos really inspiring to then take into a design palette, whether it be for something graphical or for home decorating.

I’m going to throw something together with this color combo because I simply adore it.  Some of the tones seem a little bolder than what I usually decorate with, but it could be fun to pull the light lemonade color as the primary color and then use the other colors as accents.  Yummy!

Where do you get color inspiration?  What’s your opinion on this color combo (regardless, I will still love it)?  Isn’t God the BEST artist EVER?  Yeah, that’s an understatement… I know.

Good morning!!  It’s a lovely Monday here and I’m hoping for a miracle week, how about you?

I can’t even believe how booked I am with custom wordpress blog design jobs…. oh, my goodness.  It’s overwhelming in a really fabulous way!  My current workload will keep me busy through most of February, honestly.  Today I’ve got TONS to do (as I’m sure you do, too) and it sounds like my kiddos just woke up, so I’ll be quick with this post.

Lots of my custom wordpress blog design jobs are in the finishing up phase, which I swear is the longest phase… so crazy.  I’ve got a few others that are in the very beginning phase.  One of the jobs that I’ve been just barely getting working into is for a new fabulous food blog that will be called, “Nicolas & Cora.”  One of the writers for it is fairly well-known, so I’m not going to reveal who it is until the blog is complete.  But, I thought it would be fun to give you a sneak peek at their design file:

They want the look of the site to be really fresh and healthy.  One of the writer’s drew these adorable sketches of the two writers that we’ll be incorporating into the design.  It’s going to be really fabulous when it’s done and I can hardly wait to show it to you!

Have a lovely Monday!!  xoxo

p.s. Fashion Friday was unable to happen last week due to Angela having been really sick with an awful migraine (had lasted 3 days at that point).  We hope she feels well soon!  xoxo

Man!  I’ve had a rough weekend and have been sick in bed since Friday.  Today I’m going to the doctor to see what is up, but I thought I should quickly post the design Monday post from yesterday since I’m really excited to unveil this design.

First,  here’s her design file (to refresh your memory on the look, feel and style Emily wanted in her design):

And here’s her new, custom wordpress blog design:

I know I say this will all of my design clients, but I really did have so much fun working with Emily on this.  I love the look and style of her blog.  It fits her so well.  We’ll also be designing a Twitter background and business cards to match this design within the next week or so.  We’re also toying with the idea of adding a custom background to her blog, just to give it a more finished, pulled together look.  If you’re looking for a hilarious blog to add to your reader, you must subscribe to Emily’s blog: http://isthisreallymylife.com.

Now, I’m off to get the kiddos out of bed, make breakfast and then lie on the couch until it’s time to go to the doctor.  Much love! xoxo

Good morning!!!  Who’s looking forward to a beautiful day?!

I’ve got lots of design jobs happening right now, as usual, which is a real blessing.  I love designing blogs, especially.  We’re done with the TransformationTrainer.com wordpress custom blog-site design.  I did love the cantelope colors we were working with before, but the end result turned out really well and I like the colors a lot.

I also designed some business cards for her to use that go along with her site design:

Last week I also had the opportunity to make some really fun buttons for Vanessa of INeverGrewUp.net:

And along with all the design work, I’ve been really wanting to work on my TheArtisticMom.com mom-blog.  I’ll be writing recipes every Monday, art projects (to do with your kids) every Tuesday, random thoughts on “Wild Thought Wednesday” and then will write about my food photography endeavors on “Food Photog Fridays.”  For those of you that know me, I’ve had a food photog blog and have decided that I’d just like to have one blog that I can write about all the random miscellany in my life as an “artistic mom.”  I’d love it if you were interested in checking it out!  Should be a lot of fun!  There will be a full week of posts this week – woot!  Today’s is all about my whole wheat german pancake recipe.  The picture is not fabulous (I’ll definitely be the first to admit that since I’m a professional food photog, it turned out rather disappointing, but oh well), but the recipe is DELICIOUS!!

Anywho, lots of random thoughts, but this is where I’m at this week.  Wishing you a lovely Monday!!

It’s Monday again already?!  Wow, time is just racing by!!  I’m quickly updating today as I’m crazy busy again today with lots of custom wordpress blog designs.

Here’s a blog design file for Amy’s that I’m working on this week:

Amy is a photographer and we’re building her a portfolio site with WordPress as the platform.  I just adore working with Amy!  She is such a sweetheart.  Her photography really deserves a beautiful site to show it off on (one of her pictures is the lovely nature pic in the right side of her design file).  I also loved how specific she was with what colors she wanted me to use in her design: celadon and wedgewood blue.  It’s turning out to be a really gorgeous design because of these color choices.

Wishing you a lovely week!

p.s. Have I told you that I’m the Creative Director for a local business review group called “SassyScoops?”  I want to start linking to what we’re reviewing each week on my posts here, as the reviews are really fun and informative.  This week we’re reviewing Caputo’s Deli’s chocolate and cheese classes (and tasting!).  There’s going to be an awesome giveaway on Friday, which I’ll be sure to also link to here.  Check it out on SassyScoops.com: http://www.sassyscoops.com/food/preview-caputos-cooking-classes/!

Phew!  I’m just riding the tail end of a CRAZY past 24 hours.  All in all things are going well, but I’ll have to write more about the putting-New-Years-resolutions-into-effect-madness tomorrow.  It definitely deserves a full post and just doesn’t fit well for Design Monday.  Also, part of my resolution is having my time MUCH more structured and organized and I only have 5 minutes left of today until I need to be in bed, detoxing and then falling asleep.

To top it all off, because I’m INSANE, I’ve resolved to (amidst my other resolutions) remove all refined sugar from my diet.  This means I’m no longer able to binge on cheap chocolate when I’m stressed.  It’s a good thing for me, but IT’S AN ADJUSTMENT (to say the least).

Anywho – aaaaack!!!!  I’ve only got 2 minutes left!!! – here’s a custom wordpress blog/site design for a fab personal trainer that is in the near-completion phase that I thought would be fun to share now.  We’ll be customizing her site even more this week with photos and such.  So fun!  I just love the color combo:

Aren’t the colors just luscious?  The primary color is cantelope and it’s complimented by a lovely red-orange.. yum!  Since this design is for a personal trainer it needs to look simple and professional, while also fresh and inviting.  We’re still refining and fine tuning, so I’m sure next week I’ll have more to update.  I’m nearly done with two other custom wordpress blog/site designs that hopefully will be ready to unveil next week (or at least one of them).  It’s so exciting to me!  I really, really love making over people’s blogs and websites!

p.s. I’m booked until mid-January at this point.  If you’re anxious to get your blog/site on my schedule soon, email me at quinn{at}createdbychicks{dot}com right away!  I’d LOVE to makeover your blog/site design!!!

p.s.s. the colors we used for this design are a few of the 2010 trend colors.

As you can see, I took a bit of a holiday from updating this blog.  This week my husband is home from work – heaven! – and I’m working on getting back in the swing of things.  We had a lovely, quiet Christmas.  My kids were big enough this year that they really understood what Christmas is all about which made it really fun.

This week I’m primarily working on completing design projects.  Carrie’s WordPress blog design – ThisMamaMakesStuff.com – is close enough to completion that I can show you what we’ve created.

Here’s Carrie’s design profile you saw before:

And here’s what her site looks like, designed by moi – Ooh, La, La Blog Customization Package:

Isn’t it fun?  Carrie has been a blast to work with!  I just adore her and especially love her This is Me Journals that I’ll be featuring on here soon.

Meanwhile this week I’ll be finishing up some other custom wordpress blog design projects, along with organizing my house with DH.  Rock on.  Hope your holidays are merry!  How are you spending this week?

Well, today’s post is super-short because I’m sitting here at home with three sick little kiddos.  I’m dabbling in being sick myself, so we’re all trying to take it easy today.

I thought I’d spread some inspiration I found delightful from Seth Godin’s blog/newsletter today regarding the free ebook, What Matters Now (sidenote: I’m a huge Seth Godin fan!  Have you read Tribes?  So fabulous!  And his blog is a must-subscribe-to blog).  It’s a MUST to download and read.  I don’t know about you, but I’ve been in-and-out of winter funks right now, so this ebook was the perfect pick-me-up!

Here’s one of my favorite tidbits from the What Matters Now ebook:

- Hugh Macleod, author of Ignore Everybody.  Sidenote: I just bought the book on Amazon.  Loved this exerpt: “Ever­yone is born crea­tive; ever­yone is given a box of cra­yons in kindergarten.  Then when you hit puberty they take the cra­yons away and replace them with books on alge­bra etc. Being sud­denly hit years later with the crea­tive bug is just a wee voice telling you, “I’d like my cra­yons back, please.”

Busy, busy, busy here in design-land.  So busy, in fact that I can’t write much for this post because I’ve got to get back to designing.  However, I couldn’t let you down on giving you a sneak peek at a few of the blog design projects I’m working on right now.  Check it out:

As the title of this blog “The Savvy Grandma” would suggest, this grandma has CLASSY taste and we had to make the design show that.  She wanted something very simple, homey and classic-looking.  She loved the idea of using a pic of a white door with a wreath on it, which we have incorporated into the design.  She really wanted to use blue-tones.  I found a lot of these pictures where blue was used for decorating to inspire our color palette, patterns and design.  Expected completion date: Friday, December 11th.

Whenever a client orders a design project, I always send them my design questionnaire to get a feel of what style, look and feel they’re looking for.  The typical adjectives I hear clients use to describe what they want is “vintage/retro.”  Carrie of “This Mama Makes Stuff” was a perfect example of how we all tend to think of those terms differently.  Some think vintage means victorian era, while others think vintage means early 1900′s.  Retro is similarly broadly used.  The client behind this design wanted “vintage” and I was thinking vintage as in 1950′s.  My first proof showed this kind of design.  It didn’t appeal to her at all and she was frustrated because she wasn’t sure how to describe what she wanted.  I told her to send me pictures of anything – clothing, room decor, etc. – that had the look and feel of what she wanted in her design.  It worked like a charm.  Carrie used to be a clothing designer so, not surprisingly, she sent me a lot of clothing pics.  From that, I saw that her idea of vintage/retro was mostly rooted in 1970′s design and {ba-da-bing!} we were communicating on the same page and have created a blog design that fits her style.  Expected completion date: Friday, December 18th.

Sidenote: I really believe that good blog design reflects the blogger behind the blog, almost as if an extension of that blogger’s personality.  By getting to know the blogger’s style – fashion, decorating, etc. – I can tell a lot about the direction their design needs to go.

I’ve more projects to unveil soon, so stay tuned next week and I’ll try to showcase some more.  Also, on Friday I have a big ol’ special treat for you!  Woot!  I can hardly wait to tell you!

Blog design availability: I am still accepting blog design clients who need their design completed by the end of the year.  I will only be doing this for a week or so more, depending on my work-load, so if you’re anxious to get your new look going before 2010, send me an email (quinn{at}createdbychicks{dot}com).  xoxo

This weekend I had the TIME of my life. Since it’s “Design Monday” here on CBC, I thought talking about my “mad fashion design” skills would still be appropriate.  Yes, I’m still working on LOTS of blog design projects – woot! – and will unveil those next week.  I only have room in my schedule for one or two more design projects before the end of the year, so hurry and email me if you’re wanting to get your blog redesigned before the New Year (quinn{at}createdbychicks{dot}com).

My brother-in-law, Alan, has been wearing the same, old, worn-out clothes he’s had since high school (5+ years) and decided he wanted to buy a whole new wardrobe.  But, he was slightly intimidated by the entire buying process.  I told him I’d love to help him and told him to go online and find some images of the kind of style he was looking for and then we could take that and find clothing based around that style.  I didn’t really give him any pointers, but from talking to him prior I suggested he Google “irish punk fashion.”  Alan is an artist, so no matter what style he decided on, I knew we’d be wanting to find pieces and accessories that fit his eclectic personality and lifestyle.

Alan’s typical wardrobe “look” before we went shopping looked like this (above).  He wore baggy, wrinkly jeans with torn hems that were generally a few sizes too big for him.  He also wore baggy, thread-bare t-shirts.

Alan cracked me up because the very first place he found in his online search was GQ.  Of all places to start, let’s start at the epitome of men’s fashion.  Rock on.  He emailed me all the images he liked from GQ and we went shopping on Black Friday, primarily at Macy’s, coming home with some screamin’ deals (at Macy’s alone his total savings was $1000!!).  Below I have a few of the GQ images and what we pulled together from our shopping trip (yes, I agree: Alan does have a future in male modeling – wink!).

Both the hat and vest were already natural accessories for Alan.  He’s been wearing those already a lot.  In this picture he’s wearing one of the four vests he bought (apparently, you can never have too many vests).  Although he would love wearing a vibrant, bright tie, he chose a solid staple for his skinny tie purchase so that it could go with everything he bought (sidenote: I’m loving the skinny tie look, now.  I used to think it was goofy, but I think it’s evolved to look really chic and professional).

This was such an interesting combo.  Who would have thought to put a thin hoodie shirt with a sports jacket?  Well, this designer obviously did.  Alan loved this look so we found him a fab deal on a thin hoodie to wear with his new, super-rad jacket (sidenote: although Alan does have a hat to wear over the hoodie, we both thought it looked stupid, even on the model; just our humble opinions).

Our combo doesn’t look exactly like this pic, but the “look” is similar in that Alan is sporting a funky v-neck sweater (not as deep of a v-neck as the GQ pic) with a collared shirt underneath.  While shopping, I kept trying to find new pieces that were stylish, but comfortable.  We replaced his old, sloppy hoodies with this more-tailored version.  And check out his jeans!  They fit!!!

Here’s an example of where we took the “GQ look” and personalized it more towards Alan’s style.  The funky light-washed jeans with the bright shirts and jacket really fit Alan’s creative side while giving him a nice, tailored look.

Of all the fun things we found on our shopping excursion, though, these shoes were my favorite.  They’re a funky, cowboy-style loafer that can go with pretty much any outfit to dress it up a little.  They look just as good with jeans as they do his dress-pants.

I think it’s quite obvious that I had the TIME OF MY LIFE helping find Alan his new wardrobe.  Isn’t that most girls’ dream to give someone a “makeover?”  Alan was a peach, too, about it all.  I really think Alan is fabulous for how easy-going he is, as well as his spontaneity in trying new things.  This is a big change for him, but we both feel like it’s going to help him to continue on his path to success.

More info about Alan: freelance artist/illustrator with a killer sense of humor who enjoys gaming, funny movies, playing football, strumming his guitar and singing random Disney songs at the top of his lungs

Check out Alan’s Portfolio site: alancurtisart.com

And Alan’s blog where you can find details about his sketchbook night group: 365 Days of Art

What do you think of Alan’s new look?