Monday Morning Musings with Madge

No rest for the wicked!  I spent the weekend cleaning house (with a LOT of help from my hubby) and working on my website.  I had a gorgeous website once upon a time, but it was totally static.  Every little change that had to be made meant waiting for someone else to do it.  I loved the way it looked, but I didn't love the lack of dynamics.  Have I mentioned that I'm impatient?  So I decided to ditch that lovely website and forge my own.

This weekend I changed the website banner to match this blog template, reworked the layout of all of the pages, added some fresh content and I'm pretty happy with how it turned out.  I got a quick Photoshop layers lesson from my uber talented mom and played with a couple of pics for the main page and the 411 page, they turned out pretty cute, but I'm just stumbling around in the dark really.  The swirls on the picture above are layers of letters in various opacities in the King and Queen font.  I am dying to learn more about layers, it's  fascinating.  If only there was more time!

We don't have the money to pay someone to build a new website from scratch right now.  I'm using SquareSpace and I like the platform but it has some limitations in terms of layout capability, fonts and colors unless you really understand HTML code.  It would be nice to be able to add a pretty frame for the site pages and I hope I can figure that out soon, but for now it's clean, easy to navigate and dynamic.  I can add new information anytime I like and that's the way I like it!  Check it out and let me know what you think! The banner is from the fine folks from The Cutest Blog on the Block.  Love their templates! 

I had lunch with my dear friend Robin Beam last week.  She crocheted two gorgeous flowers for me and added a bonus felted flower to the bunch!  How sweet was that?  Robin can do anything.  She's like a crafty super hero.  Plus anything she does, she does meticulously.  She is not an impatient crafter at all.  Robin is the director of education for AC Moore stores and I can't think of a better person for the job.  She's endlessly creative and smart and funny.

Speaking of friends, the one and only Andrew Thornton was in town for WireFest and we invited him out for a visit.  We had a delightful evening that was capped off by some divine cheesecake Andrew brought.  Andrew is a fine artist and a jewelry maker, his work is nuanced, subtle and layered.  He's thoughtful and smart and has a wonderful calm nature that is diametrically opposed to my frenetic personality.  Spending time with him forces you to slow down, breathe, dive in a little deeper.  We're going to hang out a little bit this morning and then he's heading home.  It's nice to see my friends 3-D every once and a while.

Avalon came up with the cutest project for tomorrow's teen crafts blog, wait until you see it!  I love that kid!

xoxo
Madge