Out of It, Pretty Much!

I apologize for the lack of updates recently. I've been sooooo busy. A trip to southern California to hang with my Mom for a week, back home this week where I've been trying to get caught up on both personal and biz stuff. If you are on subscribe to the Webajeb newsletter you know this already. And tomorrow my hubby and I leave for a week in Florida to visit his folks. Plus, getting ready for a fundraiser on the 21st (I'm a vendor) - whew!

I'm "give out," as my friend, Nona, from Arkansas used to say. Thankfully, I'm pretty much done packing (just a few last-minute things to throw in the suitcase), and then I can relax for the evening and, hopefully, go to bed early. We have a 7:30 a.m. flight to catch at an airport about 45 mins. away so you can do that math, I don't want to think about it!

I WILL be updating this blog with some fun new stuff when I return, and after the fundraiser. So, y'all come back now!

My new Logo -- at Last!

Well, it's been a long haul, trying to figure out what to use for my company logo. I knew I wanted California poppies but I didn't know whether I wanted a drawing, a photograph, or what. After many false starts and frustrations, I finally come up with a design that I love. It is a line drawing with a water-color wash behind it, and I love it. And it only took 11 months to design it!

You may have already noticed this new logo in my "blinkie" which you can now see on this blog (take a peek at the upper right-hand corner). You'll be seeing a lot more of it as I incorporate it into my website, business cards, stationery, address labels, brochures, newsletter, and other advertising materials. Orange and green are my two favorite colors (even my cats are orange) and California poppies are one of my favorite flowers (it's also California's state flower) so I think it's the perfect logo for me.

Catalina Island Layout

A stop on our sailing cruise was at Santa Catalina Island where we spent one night anchored in their gorgeous little harbor, and exploring their little town of "Two Harbors." We were on the east side of the island, not as heavily touristed as Avalon, and we really enjoyed it. Very quaint; excellent hiking along the cliffs and, as the harbor police said, "one of everything;" one building for showers, one laundromat, one grocery store, one restaurant, etc.! We walked by the one-room schoolhouse where the teacher and her half-dozen or so students were having lunch outside.

I hope you are all busily scrapbooking and/or taking lots of photos! Let me know if I can help in anyway with organizing your photos and creating heirloom quality digital photo albums. I will be back home in mid-December at which time I will try to answer all e-mails that I missed while I was gone, and also get all my work lined up for January.

Be sure to sign up for my newsletter (http://www.webajeb.com/) because there is a special offer JUST for newsletter subscribers!! Also, if you want more detail on our trip, see my personal blog: http://www.debztalkin.blogspot.com/.

(*Please note: if you've reached this post via a website search, please go to www.blogwebajeb.blogspot.com to be ensure access to the latest posts!)

Baby Blake, and my Newsletter Goof-up

My niece, Seana, and her boyfriend, Randy, had a baby boy this past June. Seana sent me some digital photos of little Blake and I totally fell in love with one in particular. I enlarged it to almost fill a 12x12 canvas, then I made digital copies of various parts of the photo, like his little fingers and nose, resized them, and placed them at the bottom, in a row. I love how it turned out. And can you believe it? My inspiration for the layout came from an ad in a magazine.

Having a digital scrapbook layout come out just the way I imagine it in my mind, and almost effortlessly, is a great feeling. Starting up and running a small business these days is incredibly rewarding, too, but also incredibly exhausting. Every day I have more to learn and, typical of my personality type which is to just jump into things with great excitement & enthusiasm but without a lot of thought or preparation, I personally learn a LOT from experience (also known as making mistakes)! I was all proud of myself because I had managed to get my newsletter for October out by the 5th of the month (last month I didn't get it out until the 9th) but then yesterday I was talking to my friend, Susan, on the phone, who is on my mailing list, and I asked her if she got it and she said she hadn't. Huh??? I had tested it and everything.....! Well, as it turns out, after I tested it by sending it to myself and checking to make sure the links worked and it looked good, I was ready to send it out "for real" and what did I do? Somehow I sent it -- again -- to my test distribution list, which only has 2 addresses on it -- both mine! ARGH. I hadn't bothered to check to make sure it went to the correct number of addresses......just goes to show....ya gotta double-check everything. As I told Susan, "no wonder big companies have entire ITS departments....!" My dream is that someday I will be able to afford to pay someone else to handle stuff like that and I can concentrate on creating gorgeous layouts.

On the bright side, it was a good thing I found out that the newsletter hadn't gone out so I could quickly re-send it, and to the correct distribution list this time. Yet another mistake that I won't make again. I'm pretty good at not repeating things like that. It's probably the total humiliation that I feel when I do something so stupid!

(*Please note: if you've reached this post via a website search, please go to www.blogwebajeb.blogspot.com to be ensure access to the latest posts!)