This is something that I have been wanting to do for awhile now and finally got the chance to sit down and put it all together. I will be offering a seo web workshop for my clients who use Business Catalyst. If you are interested, you can view the details here.

The class will be held on Friday February 25th at 7:00 pm EST and will run for about an hour. It will be a live online event so you will be able to ask questions and see things in real time. I am really excited to be able to offer this to my clients and depending on the turn out, I may add other workshops throughout the year.

I am super excited about the upcoming launch of Piccola Magazine! It is poised to be  the internet’s first online magazine celebrating small business design. When I was invited to participate, I jumped at the chance.  The goal of the magazine is to educate, entertain, and – most importantly – inspire small business owners. Look for the first issue in May! For updates on the debut, follow Piccola on Twitter and Facebook. Oh and there is also a newsletter too!

*Remember, you also get a free PDF “10 ways to moxie up your website” when you sign up.

This little project has been a long time coming. It isn’t quite complete but I wanted to launch it before revealing some of the other things up my sleeve. I have decided to open an Etsy shop for all of my little projects and graphic design leftovers. In a book that I recently read, one thing I really took from it was not to waste any bi-products of your business. Well, one of my bi-products is unused logo designs. You see, with almost every client I provide between 3 and 5 logo proofs. Well, out of that only one is usually used. Over the years, I have collected quite a few unused designs that have just been sitting on my computer. I figured it was time to send them off to good homes so I decided to open a little shop…moxie mercantile! Not everyone can afford a custom logo design right off the bat so this gives people a semi-custom option at a much lower price. Every one is unique but because of the price point, there are no revisions included (hence the semi-custom).

I will also be adding some other handmade goodies to the shop over the next few weeks. Now that I am working from home, I can put things together on the weekend and get back into my crafty groove. Gia has been really excited to help me so I am loving the mommy-daughter bonding. I am also going to be participating in some craft shows for the holiday season but more on that soon…details shortly I promise!

Now, this doesn’t mean that anything has changed with moxie pear. I am and always will be a web designer because it’s my passion! But even a designer needs another creative outlet to keep things fresh. Speaking of which, I have some awesome promo packages photos to post over the next day or two.

As if that wasn’t enough for my week back from vacation, I realized all too late that my lease was up on my office space and I had to make a decision whether I wanted to renew it. After deliberating (even asking the kids what they thought) I came to the conclusion that I would move into my home office. This not only saves money so that hopefully soon I can hire another designer for my team (found one and she is awesome) but I also get to spend a little more time with my kids. The whole point of working for myself was to be around my kids more so that I wouldn’t miss out on their childhood. After being crammed in a hotel room altogether at Disney I really missed them when they weren’t there and I realized that having an office really kept me away and made it seem like I had a “real job”. I like being able to set my own hours so that I can see my kids right when they get out of school and on school breaks and holidays. And as much as The Baconator tends to bug me on his days off, I missed seeing him too. Since the decision was so quick and The Baconator has odd days off we had to move everything on Wednesday and Thursday. Unfortunately, AT&T wasn’t in as big of a hurry as we were and the phone won’t be switched over until October 14th (ridiculous I know!). So I am stuck with email communication for the next few weeks.

Oh yes, and it gets even more crazy. Originally, we had my home office built onto our house so it is a pretty large room (12×19). As I was sitting there trying to figure out where all of my stuff was going to go it dawned on me that I didn’t need all of this space. There was a couch and tv already in there from before and I hate distraction when I am working so I wouldn’t even use those things. In the end, we ended up moving Xander into that room and me into his old bedroom. It is actually the perfect size and I am really comfortable in here with all of my things. I even have enough room for my craft/fabric stuff so I am a happy camper. Yeah, and Xander has a pretty awesome room himself. So that’s my week in a nutshell…I will be back this weekend to post more about the new look and features!

Oh and here is the bento…not really pretty but I used what I had until I can get to Pottery Barn Kids and get the one on sale.

Told you I would probably be changing the design again soon…just think of it as a fun and quirky trait that you love about me.

So what else is new? Oh, we also got a pool put in a few weeks ago. It’s not a huge pool but it works for the 4 of us. That has been an awesome investment so far since the temps haven’t been below 95 in weeks (uughh and it’s not even August yet). We are definitely using it everyday and since it doesn’t cool off here until October we are definitely going to get our money out of it. The backyard looks a bit crazy since they had to grade the hill to put it in. We are looking forward to getting our deck put up and having some Summer pool parties.

And in a completely unrelated post…

Do you need a little photo editing help but you don’t want to make the investment in Photoshop? Picnik.com may be the answer to your prayers. Most of my clients don’t own Photoshop and when it comes to cropping and resizing their photos it is not always the easiest thing for them. That is why I started recommending Picnik for a fast and inexpensive solution. It is super easy to use but I still wanted to put together a little basic tutorial. Hope you enjoy!

I will be updating my website this weekend and adding all these tutorials and resources there as well as on the blog.

So, I have decided to combine some of the aspects that I love onto my personal/business blog (this one) and close Girl Indie. One of my favorite things is to showcase indie businesses and I will definitely continue to do that. If you own an indie business, there are things here for you as well. Please feel free to send in your banner and link so I can add you to the shop page. I will also be posting information to help you start or run your indie business. There is a whole business reference section just for you. I invite you to browse around and stay awhile…it’s nice to have you here!