My foray into a custom design

by Jillian @ http://blueshelled.com . August 24, 2009 . 12:28PM

Some of my more observant readers have noticed something different about my page. Those of you that read via the feed may not have seen it yet, but my page has changed, drastically. I have a new look and I couldn’t be more pleased. The look is actually 3.5 months in the making.

A while ago, my friend Jen wrote a series of blog articles on how to market yourself as a blogger and gain readers. One of the items she advised was having your own style of blog that readers could identify as YOU. In other words, a custom design that, when viewers identified it visually, screamed YOU.

I took her words to heart and immediately started the process of looking for a custom design. What I found made my hair fall out. Literally. I was so stressed out that some hair fell out of my head. Everywhere I looked, designers were charging huge bucks to do what I felt like was a small project.

Initially, I was planning on choosing a template that was already out there and having someone do a nice banner and maybe some sidebars. Some of the places that I contacted for quotes wanted over $1,000 to do this for me. With my sponsorship in my sidebar, to date, I’ve made less than $2, which still puts me in the hole for my domain and hosting. To say $1,000 is over my budget is an understatement.

At this point, I almost gave up. I went to my guru, Neil, who has his own consulting and design business. Neil often gives me blog advice for freebies (YES!) and is my sounding board. He giggled when I told him that I had a modest budget. He urged me to remember that I write for free and that a free template should be sufficient.

Neil was right in many ways, especially because I don’t know where I want my blog to go. What I know is that I love writing this blog and I have a feeling that it’s going SOMEWHERE. I don’t know where SOMEWHERE is, but that somewhere is important. And if it’s going somewhere, it needs to be pretty.

This blog flitters from one topic to the next. I wanted my reader to feel like they were on my journey with me.Ok, so I’m a girl. I wanted my blog to be pretty. Sue me.

Neil did the boy thing and said, “Fine, whatever, but it will be difficult to find someone on your budget.”

The man didn’t lie. It took over a month to find someone who did work I LIKED and who could work with my budget. I found that person in Courtney. Courtney has a company called Judith Shakes Designs. I sent her a quote request and I had decided that if I couldn’t find someone whose work I liked and who could do it in my budget that week, that I was going to give up. Unless the blog started making money and I could afford the idiots charging $600-$1000 for a subpar design that was just ok.

I didn’t expect to hear anything back from her. I didn’t just like her work, I loved her work. And I heard back from her within 3 days. She stated that she could absolutely work with my budget and that she mainly caters to mom bloggers in the same situation I’m in–just starting up and with no idea how they will afford the expensive custom designers. Because she is able to work with a modest budget, it would take her a couple of months to get to my design (she’s in high demand!), and would that be ok?

It was more than ok. I was ecstatic.

Immediately, we started going over design topics and what I wanted. I had no idea what I wanted, but I knew what I didn’t want and we started there. All I really knew was that I liked swallows/birds, didn’t want anything too bright, it needed to be soothing and I’m a whimsical person, so I wanted it to be whimsical.

I think Courtney captured that perfectly. When I saw the design I gasped.

Why am I writing this? Because I am a person who believes that I should endorse people that do a good job. It’s part of living in our society. When someone does a good job, we tell it. When people do bad jobs, we tell it. I want people to know about Courtney and Judith Shakes Designs because she did such a great job. She helped make one of my blog goals come true and she did it so nicely.

She’s not giving me a discount for writing this or freebies for saying nice things about her. She’s just really that good and I want you to consider her because I care about my readers and I had such a great experience with her.

Oh, and P.S. check out my twitter background! Thank you, again, Courtney.

Being blueshelled : how to cope

by Jillian @ http://blueshelled.com . July 13, 2009 . 3:43PM

I’m so excited! I’m so excited! I’m so….scared!!! If you know what that’s from, you get 5 pop culture points. For those of us who grew up in the 80s and 90s, you know exactly what I’m talking about and to say that life has been one big ball of Jessie Spano losing her marbles lately is an understatement. This is all to say that life just got really complicated really quickly and here’s why: school. Yep. That’s it. School.

It’s rare that I talk about school-related stuff because the majority of you out there aren’t in school, or, if you are, you have your own problems. Translation: You don’t give a monkey’s Heineken about my problems. And that’s cool. I probably wouldn’t either.

What happened was that I was taking one, full summer course. It met one night a week from 5-9. That’s not a problem. I can handle it. Then, summer term II came around and added a second class. However, since it’s only ONE summer term, it means that the class must meet 2 nights a week. Are you still with me? The gist is that I am now in school from 5-9, 3 nights and week and the overall effect is that A.J. is gone those days because of the problems between my schedule and Leon’s. I’m finding it hard to focus.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m still paying attention and I’m in class. When you get to the level I’m at in my education, you can’t avoid paying attention or you will fail. I just miss him. And it’s not healthy for him to not see me for 3 days straight in a week. He’s gone before I’m up in the morning and in bed before I get home. I hate it.

But it’s only a month. And until then, I’ll be ok. Remember, a blue shell isn’t permanent. It’s temporary. Every now and then I have them and so do you. I know this probably isn’t my most insightful or my best post, but I felt obliged to let you know what was going on and why things had been different lately. Bottom line: I’ve been blueshelled. Now it’s time to pull out the stops and get back on top.

Winners of Giveaway #2!

by Jillian @ http://blueshelled.com . July 3, 2009 . 9:05PM

I know you all have been waiting on pins and needles! Sorry about the delay. We’ve been away from home and computer all day, for many reasons, and are just now getting in. I have the results from GIVEWAY #2!

Randomizer.org chose comments #3 and #12 and taking out the comments that were ineligible, that means our winners are Arie and Kelly! YAY!! One pound of candy is coming to each of you. Please email me your physical address (you can click the little email link under my picture on the homepage or email me at jillian at blueshelled dot com) as well as any candy likes/dislikes/allergies/sugar issues and I will run by the mall this weekend. I believe the mall is closed Saturday for Independence day so these will likely go out on Monday!

Congratulations to the winners and to those that didn’t win, don’t worry. I love doing giveways and already have the next one planned. It’ll be coming soon!

A HUGE thank you to all those who participated. I learned a lot about your wants and needs and, as a blogger, that is invaluable information.