Here it is! The official unveiling of my new website. Isn’t it gorgeous?

I wish I could say it’s all my design, but I do not know enough about web yet to make something this great. But parts of it are close to what I had sketched out for my original design.

So why the new website? Well, there are two reasons, really. The first had to do with the CMS. I was using Squarespace previously. It’s a great program, and I’m sad to no longer be using it, but it’s a lot more than what my little site needs. I barely used it even near its full potential. And, for what I was using it for, the price was high. I would definitely recommend it though. Especially if you don’t have a lot of web knowledge. It’s really easy to use and setup with not really knowing HTML. And they have support, so there is someone to fall back on and ask questions if you get stuck.

This new site is on WordPress using the theme Source. I chose WordPress because it has so much flexibility. Right now I’m using a purchased theme, but in the future, I can learn to create my own themes. And it seems to be in that middle ground. There is support, but I’m on my own for a lot of it. It’s like jumping in the deep end, but with a life jacket. Since I would like to learn more about web design, this seemed to be a good choice. Oh, and the price is good as well!

The second reason for the switch was that my site was looking a little dated. Lately, I’ve been seeing all these amazing websites that use a full image in the background or parallax scrolling and have great typography. I was super excited to try one of these for my own site, while modernizing it a bit.

So I should warn you. Now that I’ve “jumped in the deep end,” there may be some technical difficulties from time to time. (If you have been trying to get to my site lately, you’ve already noticed this.) Please be patient with me! I’m learning, and there will probably be some hiccups from time to time. I hope that this turns out to be a better site than what I had before, and that I learn a lot. Thanks!

 

This past weekend was full of stories, as I played two storytelling games, Gloom (pictured above) and Once Upon a Time.

Gloom is a card game that is a bit backwards from most games. Rather than winning the game by getting the highest score, you are trying to get the lowest. You start the game with a “family” of 5 members, represented by cards. On your turn, you play cards on your family members that have themes at the top, such as “Perturbed by the Pudding.” The idea is that you make up a story about how a member in your family was “Perturbed by the Pudding.” After a successful story, you can play that card on your family member to gain them a negative score. Other players can make up stories about your family members as well, and give them a positive score. After a family member has a negative score that you are pleased with, you can kill them off. When all of one players family members are dead, the game is won by whomever has the lowest total family score. (For a more official game description, see this link)

This game is so much fun! It’s quirky and the titles of each card give you enough to get you started with a story, and not enough so that each game play can go in a completely different direction.

Once Upon a Time is a card game that facilitates fairy-tale storytelling. You are given two cards with different fairy-tale endings. Those are kept secret from other players. You are also given a stack of cards with different items, ideas, people, etc. on them, such as wicked, princess, castle… The object of the game is that you use the cards in your hand to create a complete story that uses every single card you have and ends with one of your story ending cards. The difficult part is that if you mention something in your story, and another player has a card for that item, they can steal your story and twist it to go towards their ending. So you may be about to wrap up your story and win, and suddenly someone else takes it. By the time you have a card to get it back, the story may be so far away from one of your endings that you are unable to finish it with the cards you have. (For a more official game description, see this link)

I really enjoyed this game as well. It was a lot harder than Gloom because sometimes your cards were all so different, that it was really difficult to weave them all together. Plus, with people constantly taking over your stories, it was hard to get them back to where you needed them to end. But still, a good game. I recommend either one, if you are a lover of creative story telling. Or if just want to challenge yourself in a different creative medium.

This weekend was our annual baking weekend. My husband and I bake about 9 different treats for some of our friends. We package them up in reusable bags and deliver them. If our friends want to receive treats again next year, they have to return the bags to us by December 1st. If not, they lose their spot for that year, and we choose someone new to take their place. They can always return the bag at a later date to be included in the next year.

In the past, we had put the treats in baggies or plastic wrap and included a sheet explaining what everything was. Last year, we had made a compound butter and wrapped it in wax paper that was twisted at the ends. We heard from a few people that they didn’t notice the explanation sheet and ended up chowing down on the butter by itself. To remedy this, I made tags to put on every thing this year, in addition to the explanation sheet. (Although I did find the butter-eating stories funny because it sounds like something I would do!)

In my last pet portrait class, we had picked the figurine that we liked drawing best and sketched it out on some nicer paper. This week, we painted them with Gouache. Why a KangaPoo (you might ask)? Well, I liked the kangaroo, but her pouch looked so empty since her joey was missing. Since there was a poodle nearby that fit into the pouch nicely, it seemed like a good fit. Oh, and why not? In case you are wondering about the holes in the kangaroo’s head, she is actually a salt shaker. I could have removed the holes in my painting, but I think they made it more fun!

This was my first time painting with Gouache. I like that it can be transparent, like watercolors, but also has the ability to be opaque. Although this ability is awesome, at times it was also frustrating. The paint that I laid down was sometimes much darker than I had expected it to be. After a lot of reworking and adding water, I finally got the colors to where I wanted them. I’m guessing that, like anything, the more I do it, the easier it will get.

Wow! It’s been awhile since I have posted. I have since graduated and, I won’t lie, have been doing a lot of nothing and enjoying it! It’s nice to have my non-work world not be full of deadlines. But one can only spend so much time doing nothing until they are considered lazy!

Actually, I really can’t say that I have been doing nothing. Since my last post, I have tiled my bathroom, knitted a baby sweater, and sewed (sewn?) a skirt. In addition, I have been working on learning some new things. Right now, I am learning how to create ebooks with InDesign. I’m really enjoying it, and I hope to get good at it. At work, I’ve also been learning a lot about social media and trying to figure out how to make it work for my company.

Below are pictures of my completed projects.