Tips To Avoid Creative Block

There are some great tips to avoid creative blocks over at Inspired Mag‘s website. The one I have the hardest problem with is #5 self-doubt. Which lead me to remember Leah’s post about Self-Employment: The First Six Months. She mentioned previously feeling guilty when a potential client would say they couldn’t afford her services. I’ve had that feeling many times, and foolishly buckled to bringing down my rate to something where it was no longer respecting my time and services. She summed it up best, “…let go of the guilt that I can’t help everyone.” The other tip in the article that I need to follow more is #3 Take a Walk and #6 Get Away for a Day or Two. Staying home and just not going out is not the same. My home is my office, and it’s filled […]

Project Launch: CathySetterlin.com

Client: Cathy Setterlin Project: Website URL: http://www.cathysetterlin.com Software: Photoshop, Coda, CSS Edit, Web Developer Toolkit, IE Tester Cathy came to me looking to design a website for her business which she was getting ready to launch. I decided to use the project as an opportunity to push myself and code a site by hand again. I never broke out the WYSIWYG editors. I wrote my CSS from scratch with books by my side to help me out. I made sure to test in IE 6 and IE 7. Regarding design. I picked up colors that I have seen Cathy wear frequently and ones I’d seen around her home. I wanted the site to feel like an extension of her. I wanted it to be clean, simple and easy to navigate. The range of possible visitors was quite wide. I’m very […]

Twins

Craig’s cousin Steven and his wife Val had twins back in December. We had a chance to visit them today. They were very tiny and cute. I love watching their eyes take in the world and process everything. Liam and Kathy Catching Autumn crack a smile

Get Our Money Back

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ayAOqX4XWq0[/youtube] “If they can afford to pay for the high payout bonuses, they can afford to back the American people.” Ever since I read an article back in the mid-90’s about the CEO of Aetna I believe, living down in Fairfield County, getting a 7 million dollar bonus, I thought, ok there’s something seriously wrong here. How can someone heading up a company who’s supposed to be helping people, but denying many basic coverage, be walking home with that much money. Really you need a 6,000 sq ft house? Since when, did people need 6,000 sq ft houses and multiple cars. Is it nice to have? sure. But how do you sleep at night? What have you done to improve humanity? In the same thread of thought, banks and their upper management, just for a year be better humans. I’ve […]

Twisted

This picture and those vines feel like a metaphor for my life currently, well the past 9 years or so. We (Craig and I) had such clear dreams and plans for our lives back in 1998-1999. Then starting in 1999 it got chipped away at slowly and sometimes fast, over the next 10 years. Craig literally dealt with having his spine twisted at one point. Our efforts to keep the plan going seemed to get more and more complicated and frustrating. Here we are 10 years later and feeling like we’ve almost broken free from the vines and twists that tried to take over. People reflected on the last 10 years with sadness of the financial crisis, housing crisis, political crisis. I looked back and said, “holy shit I survived it”. I really didn’t think I’d live to see 30. […]

Missing Summer

Well maybe not entirely. I used to love the winter, but that was when I lived in a house that actually stayed warm. Our apartment when the wind kicks up can be very hard to keep warm. Thus I’m kind of missing those days of basking in the sun and feeling warm all the way through. I took this photo over last summer on our only visit to White Memorial that year. I’m determined to get out and enjoy the outdoors in 2010. It seems like so long ago but in 2006, I was biking at least once a week and doing all sorts of other things outdoors. In the spirit of getting in better health This past week I ate vegetarian from Sunday through Thursday. Friday we started running out groceries, time and I caved and picked up Starbucks […]

DailyBooth

It was probably earlier this past year I saw someone post their daily photo with DailyBooth. I didn’t think much of it, but I’ve seen more people posting lately and then today Gary Vaynerchuk’s job posting even mentioned it as a possible requirement. Since my thing is photography, I figured I’d give it a shot. Might also be a good reminder for myself to see the progress of losing weight this year. Friend me up if you’re on there.