Creative Miscellany Overload!

This weekend, outside of all the family-filled Easter celebrations and a little bit of work in the garden, I focused on getting all my Creative Miscellany ducks in a row. Why? Because tomorrow is the release date for Regretsy: Where DIY Meets WTF and

Late last year, Helen Killer (a.k.a. April Winchell) put out a call for anyone willing to let their crafts stand up against her mad snark skillz. I put forth my Nightmare Clownbot plush toy because, frankly, that thing creeps me out, but I also told her to have a look through my store for anything else that caught her eye. She selected RockBot and after several emails and contracts and release forms were signed, he was in. I haven't yet received my copy of the book so I don't know exactly what she's said about RockBot. Yet.

Anyway.... In preparation for an increase in traffic and (hopefully) sales, I tidied up the Creative Miscellany website, built my storefront on Zibbet and added some stock (more this week, I promise), and redesigned my Etsy banner and Facebook icon so that everything "matches" -- "Look, Ma, I overhauled my brand identity!" -- and even did some SEO maintenance on the main site. Go me!

Victoria Guide changes

Aside from doing some much needed updates and tweaks to my Unofficial Guide to Victoria, I have also decided to bring in some back-up. Starting this month, expect to see blog posts and reviews from a couple of new contributors.

It was a hard decision for me to make. My guide has been just that, mine, for over a decade and it was really hard for me to hand over a spare key but it was clear I needed help keeping the site fresh and up to date. I'm going to see how it goes for a while and you are welcome (and encouraged!) to watch it grow, too. Fingers crossed...

Antagonistic web design

It's one thing to have an ugly or out of date website but it's quite another to have one that frustrates users with non-standard navigation and lack of information. There's one site which I keep going back to although I don't know why I bother. (I do know, sadly, it's because I have to keep trying.)

I feel like Charlie Brown running toward the football every time I try to find something on that site. Every time, I click or try to search, I land on my digital ass. "Aauugh!" -- they have Lucy van Pelt as their web tech.

The frustrating thing is that the site is one that should be packed with information -- it needs to have digitized publications forms and posters, a proper contact form, a real search box or even a site map that actually lists everything on the site. Unfortunately, they don't use a content management system (if they do, they've broken it) and have lost track of some of what is there. I've tried searching for date-sensitive information (upcoming meetings, conferences, courses) and in the end had to go through an email tree only to receive a document that was scanned from a photocopy, saved as an image, embedded in a Word document and then attached to my email. AAUUGH!

I understand that some companies don't want to manage a web presence -- fine, then just direct me to whom I need to contact to find the information I need; don't frustrate me by pulling the virtual football away after I have started to kick. In fact, don't even pretend you have a football. One of these days, I may send you my chiropractor bill.

Stress relief.

It's been that kind of week, even though it is truncated.

On Tuesday, I made the last-minute decision to apply for another job in the library -- not because I don't like the job I have, but the other position (at much higher payband) has a variety of duties and responsibilities that are a good fit with my skill-set. It was the first time I had to use the new online resume-builder that is built in to uHire (the University's job posting interface) and that proved to be a little bit of a challenge. Now I keep wondering if I proofread everything enough times. No word yet on when interviews will be scheduled.

Tuesday evening, I tried to take my mind off the resume by sorting more stuff for the yard sale this weekend. (If you are in Victoria, drop by! Head for Finlayson and Quadra and follow the signs.) We have a small mountain of boxes but I still feel like it isn't everything that should be going...

Yesterday work was a constant stream of interruptions -- largely Union-related issues -- so I left feeling like I hadn't accomplished much. Still, last night was a treat for us: one of our favourite restaurants, Eugene's recently relocated from downtown to Gordon Head and they quietly opened for business yesterday in the new location.

Then last night I crossed one BIG item off my to-do list. It's been on my list for well over a year and I started working on it earnestly last fall but the Drupal-ized version of my Unofficial Guide to Victoria is now live. It's far from ready for the big leagues; there's lots and lots of work left to do but the basic frame is there and I can stop being embarassed by how out-of-date the old site was. So go ahead, check it out, and let me know what you think. I can tell you that I plan to add more photos, longer reviews, and possibly a blog or similar section where I can add opinion pieces and local history articles but I also want to be more responsive to readers and those who use the site!

Today started out OK but quickly went to hell -- around noon, Kiddo's school phoned; she'd been sent to the office with an "angry looking eye infection" eww. A trip to the clinic and pharmacy preceded an hour long ordeal between the two of us trying to get eyedrops into our child's right eye. Not fun.

This evening we all needed to get out of the house so we checked out the new Lee Valley Tools in Colwood. Just the recipe; I feel much better now.

Shameless promotion and future projects

I am home sick (First cold of the season. Hooray.) so I thought I would blow my own horn in between rounds of blowing my nose:

1. My recycled crayon tutorial has been shortlisted over at The Sunday Best for favourite tutorial; you can vote for me there, though the prize is a bowtie and I am not sure what I would do with one.

2. The other day, I discovered that much of the stuff posted on ThoseDeWolfes was being hidden from anyone not logged in (DOH!) we've fixed that now, so tutorials and everything else should be visible.

3. I've been trying to update FrugalVictoria more regularly -- if anyone out there is interested in contributing please drop me a note.

4. I have also been trying to regularly add listings to my Etsy stores -- Creative Miscellany and ThoseDeWolfes.

4. Stuff I am working on: a redesign of my Unofficial Guide to Victoria (yes, it seems like I have been working on this for ages, but I am close enough to just post the new site and fix it rather than tinker endlessly in development mode); an e-book to accompany virtualstager.com (I'm close to finishing this, too); helping Hubby edit his novel (which you could download now in its "beta" version).

5. Stuff I am considering: a crafting book; a photo-book of My Views of Victoria; getting back into writing movie reviews (I've been offered a regular gig -- same deal as before: swag and free movies in lieu of pay).

OK, I'll take off the barker's hat now; thanks for reading.

Hey! Where'd all the clutter go?

In the spirit of decluttering everything around me, I thought it only fair to declutter this blog, too. So, behold! White space, clean lines, and more room for pretty pictures. It also loads WAAAAY faster, but let me know if you encounter any weirdness.

Blogcleaning

Notice anything different? Well, unless you are reading the feed and not visiting my page, you should. I upgraded to Blogger's newer template today and changed the background image to my button stash (the intersection of craft and clutter seemed appropriate)

I changed a few other things, too, but most amusing to me are the slideshow of my Flickr photos at the top of the left sidebar and the link to some of my and hubby's YouTube videos at the foot of the page. If something is missing that you think needs to be added, let me know!

Oh, one other thing, I added a link to all the places you can buy my creations in the sidebar and I have decided that if you email me and say, "Hey, I just ordered [this product] from [website selling that product] and I read about it on Flotsam and Jetsam," I will send you a free gift!

Virtual Housecleaning...

After ignoring the item on my To Do list for months, I have finally started tidying some of my personal web spaces. I started with my main index page, a.k.a. Victoria Living, and our master "DeWolfe on DeWeb" index.

Then I decided to radically trim down my brain pages since most of the information there has been replaced by this blog and other pages. Eventually, I suppose, I will go in and scrape out the remainders but, for now, they can linger unlinked in the directory.

Of course all of this is really procrastination from the web maintenance at the top of my list: redesigning my Unofficial Guide to Victoria and upgrading my Drupal 4.x sites to Drupal 5.x.

Lipstick comes alive!

In my course today, I was doodling in the sidebars of my course material. A lot. One of the doodles was a pig with big kissy-lips. Of course that made me think of the phrase "like putting lipstick on a pig" and within about three stops on my train of thought, I suddenly had a new blog idea mapped out. I texted Hubby with the idea right away (so I wouldn't forget it) and this evening, I slapped it together. Woo!

Lipstick On A Pig now lives at designshortcuts.blogspot.com and will feature shortcuts and resources for quick and easy web (re)design.

Interesting aside, it's my first opportunity to play with Blogger's layout design options... and I quite like them... so far. So don't be surprised if you see Flotsam and Jetsam in a new shade of lipstick in the coming weeks.

Missions Accomplished!

Woo! Somehow, I managed to check three big things off my to-do list this weekend.

Saturday, I spent most of the day sorting and tidying the office/craft room (it was just the office, then it got cluttered with a bunch of storage overflow, then I wedged in my sewing machine... and well, it was out of control). I wanted to do three things: sort out the overflowing mess of stuff, uncover Hubby's desk so that he could actually use it as an office again, and get the big old filing cabinet out of there. All got done on Saturday, though I may have jumped the gun on the filing cabinet as it is currently sitting outside our front door with nowhere to go. Oops. (If anyone wants it, come get it! Hurrah, 3 freebie posts -- Craigslist, UsedVictoria and Freecycle -- and 72 hours later, the filing cabinet is gone!)

Yesterday, I got my crafty websites re-designed. I finished tweaking CreativeMiscellany (adding a link to the Facebook fan-page and building the "et cetera" page) and I totally redesigned the CuppaJoe Cozy and Wradical Wrap site. We moved it to a new server (thanks Hubby!) and finally purchased WradicalWraps.com to point there, too. I still have to build the media kits for both sites and sort out the custom order PayPal tie-ins for the cozies and wraps, but overall I am quite pleased with the results. Here's a screen-capture of the new cozy front page:

Got feedback? Leave me a comment!

Weekend projects....

Before I get into details, I have to note that it SNOWED here today. (Hubby thinks that God may actually be unimpressed by the false idol under construction on our deck... heh heh.) We didn't get any accumulation in our neighbourhood but parts of the region did -- and Nanaimo got an incredible 24 centimetres (that's close to a foot for those of you south of the border).

But enough about the crazy/stupid/record-breaking weather.

We've been busy this weekend... Hubby with his soft-launch of PrefabSite.Net (wOOO!) and me, crafting, as usual... some new Huggitz critters (made from a reclaimed scarf) and four new CuppaJoe Cozies -- I got an order for four of the same so I made them fresh to make sure they matched.

Friday, I took the van in for some minor service (and I continue to be very happy with the service at Searle's Automotive), went out for breakfast while we waited, then indulged in some consumer therapy -- Mayfair Mall, Michael's, and Value Village -- before returning home to do laundry and cleaning and such.

So far, it's been one of those weekends that feels at once full and also relaxed... the kind that is impossible to create if you are actually trying. And I have another day left. Ahhhh!

Deadlines all around me.

The week started with a deadline -- our current project was looking even more daunting than I had pessimistically anticipated. The full project requires the digitization of 5 maps, 8 photographs, and approximately 1375 pages of text which includes a handwritten diary and several handwritten manuscripts.

In the midst of this I was handed another deadline (basically "We need this yesterday!!") and as I gathered the data, I found that one of the archival scans had been corrupted -- and the backup had been scrubbed from my desktop some time ago -- so I had to re-do the work, putting back my ability to deliver by another day.

Outside of work there were two more deadlines looming: the need to write a review this week for the Brother printer we've had on loan to test for the last two months and the need to submit an application for PlushYou 2008, the deadline for which had been extended to January 20th.

Everything started to come together late Thursday -- by 4:00 I had shipped off the critical data and that evening I wrote my printer review (Hubby wrote his review today).

By Friday afternoon I was feeling pretty good about it all -- I assessed what we had accomplished at work and I think we are at least half done the basic scanning! We have completed one map, two books (over 300 pages together), the diary (600 pages) and one manuscript. In the midst of it all, I have markedly improved my scanning and photography skills and probably tripled my Photoshop™ knowledge.

Today, though, that was the icing on the cake. Before I applied for PlushYou, I had wanted to have a dedicated Creative Miscellany site in place. Luckily, a few weeks ago we picked up some 99 cent .info domain names, including two to be dedicated to my crafting. Last night, Hubby suggested a quick way to do a splash page using Fireworks image slicing, and I was off. I whipped up the front page last night and a bio page today: http://www.creativemiscellany.info.

With the website in place, I selected my favourite photos for the application and sent it along. I hope to hear back in the next month or so!

If I can keep up the level of productivity I've averaged this month all year without losing my mind, 2008 is going to be a Very Good Year.

Background Change...

Since I was already fiddling around, I decided to change the background to one of my own images, "painted fall" which is a Photoshopped image of fall leaves on grass:

Sidebar Tidy-up

If you ever look to the left of what I write here, you'll have noticed various links and widgets which I sometimes rearrange. Today, I added the "autoroll" widget, which promises targeted blog recommendations for readers (we'll see... ) and updated some of the other little buttons and links. I also moved the archives list down to the bottom of the sidebar, so that readers get to see the other stuff in between.

The other thing I have been pondering is a tag cloud... what do you think? Are tag clouds useful? interesting? or just more clutter?

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Cozies Redux!

After many months of procrastination, I finally took the time to refresh the website for my CuppaJoe Cozies and Wradical Wraps. I removed some excess, tidied up some info, and totally reworked the order page. Hooray!

Of course, the trigger was another shout-out by Colin over at his CoffeeCrew blog... and today, I got an email from a local area cafe interested in selling my cozies as "a Christmas impulse item." Woo! I'll let you know how that works out.

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In other follow-up news, my review for Chuzzle Deluxe is up at Game-Boyz.com

That week flew...

(... and yet it's the coming week that is actually busy -- meaning I have several activities and appointments scheduled that involves leaving the house!)

Ah well. I did get things done this week. Some housework (I figured out how to balance in order to wash dishes; I hopped around the bed to change the linens; I even cooked dinner one night!), some writing (more on Drupal Basic Training, the precursor to the tentative Drupal 101 book, and a game review of PopCap's Chuzzle (I'll let you know when it's published)), did some work on FrugalVictoria.com and the union site, played several games of Scrabble online, watched a lot of Fall TV premieres, and knit! The Dr. Who scarf is now about 25 per cent finished....

Tangents *can* be productive...

I have issues with Mondays... but... I'm trying to ignore them.

This weekend, I puttered away at redesigning my "brain"... my old personal site. It's not ready for prime time just yet (though you are welcome to go look at the old, stale version) because in the midst of it I got distracted and managed to do a bunch of other things:

I cleared out one of our VHS cupboards to use for computer/office storage which had been under the coffee table... and that meant there was room to store the scanner, which I pulled out and used to scan a bunch of "archival" photos. Then I realized that our scanner sucks. Sigh.

Anyway, as a result of that, I also got kiddo to help thin her kids videos and we pulled out a few more titles we have replaced with DVDs, and now they are up for grabs... though I don't know many people who still watch VHS movies.

I also, finally, decided to adjust and release my Views of Victoria calendar on Lulu. Since they have not yet adjusted the Canadian holidays, and I don't like the way they lump Christmas in with religious holidays (yes I know it's a Christian holiday, but I don't want all the other "feast of" days and so on to clutter up the calendar and, yes, they do look like clutter to me), I just left it without any special days noted; people can add whatever they want, up to and including the "Feast of Maximum Occupancy."

Now I have a very full week of work ahead... so off I go...

productive... but not in the way I had intended....

I started the day with full intentions of rediscovering all that I had forgotten about Drupal while working on a website or two... instead I went off on a tangent and photographed some of my keychains from my weekend beading frenzy and listed them in my etsy shop...

So... still crossing stuff off my "to do list"... just not what I planned to cross off.

... now off to do some tidying...

Today's creative "done" list

1. Took over 200 photos of Bucanneer Day festivities; posted a bunch on Flickr.

2. Tweaked the template and added new designs to our CafePress store (hubby added a new design too!)

3. Uploaded two videos from the parade to YouTube.

4. Wrote a pithy poem:

Rain should not fall
on June parades
but perhaps there was a
funeral nearby
in need of sobriety.

FrugalVictoria is Live (again)

My much-neglected FrugalVictoria website is once again shiny and ready for its closeup. (Many thanks to my Hubby for wrangling it on to the server; the initial screw up was my doing, when I moved the dns, I only did half the job. Oops.)

I started FrugalVictoria.com at a time when our finances were much tighter and every dollar added up. We bought factory-second disposable diapers by the carton; we used natural cleaners; we grew our own food; and we tried every brand of coffee on the shelf until we found a suitable replacement for the higher end beans we preferred.

At the time, there were a handful of sites devoted to "tightwads" and "dollar stretchers" but they were all American; there was very little in the way of Canadian -- let alone local -- information or resources. I kept it up for a couple of years, but then got busy with other things (blogging among them) and since finances were better, it didn't seem like I needed to focus on living cheaply.

Of course,Victoria is still one of the least affordable cities in Canada -- there are statistics to prove it -- but it's also one of the most desireable locations to live. And for every "high roller" who moves here, they're going to need a host of people able to survive on low wages in order to serve them coffee, sell them clothes, and care for their children.

On the other hand, there is more to FrugalVictoria than just finances. There's also living with less; simple living and getting back to basics. Some of the things that our grandparents took for granted -- knowing how to darn a sock, tend a garden, pickle cucumbers, or build a chair from scrap lumber -- these things are getting lost in the shuffle. Sure, most of us don't need to know how to do these things, but they are helpful and part of our cultural heritage.


Overall, I hope FrugalVictoria will be a great way for me to highlight free (or cheap) local events, big sales, and issues like finding affordable housing (no I haven't written that article yet....) as well as share tips on living for less and with less in the City of Gardens. Come over for a visit...




[And, yes, I not only get to scratch one more item of the List O' Unfinished Projects, but I also learned a whole lot about Drupal along the way that I can now apply to other projects.... which means another thing I can cross off the List!! Whee!]