New Look

The blog has a bit of a new look, to complement the current theme of my portfolio site (katmcgo.com). My portfolio site was built in Joomla, and I'm looking forward to creating a custom template for it. Let me know what you think. ^_^

Quick Updates

I think the recent storms have really slowed me down. If this isn't the time for reflection, I'm not sure what would be. Haven't done much freelance lately, but there is a project in the works to help Pratt City recover from the devastation. Just one leveled apartment complex displaced 100 families. ONE COMPLEX. When you think about how widespread the destruction was, how many buildings are gone or uninhabitable... well, it's staggering. Hopefully this project will get underway, and I'll be doing the art and flyers to help get the word out. VERY FORTUNATELY, all my friends in Tuscaloosa and Birmingham proper are safe... but there are so many terrible stories of loss. If you are able to give of your time as a volunteer; of resources like food, water, clothes, etc; of just plain cash; or even of reblogging/sharing ways to help, I'm sure it will be greatly appreciated by the people who are just now beginning the long and arduous journey of rebuilding their lives. A few ways you can help:

• Donate to the American Red Cross (american.redcross.org or text REDCROSS to 90999 to donate $10)... I'd link directly to their donation page, but their non-SEF URLs make my head hurt.
• Sign up with Hands On Birmingham to volunteer your time for disaster relief effors (handsonbirmingham.org)
• Drop off non-perishable items at any of a myriad of locations
• Call 211 (if you are in Alabama) -- it is the volunteer/donations hotline.


Below is the application of my earlier popcorn sketches. This is being imprinted on giveaway popcorn bags, so I think it will be pretty cute. And yes, I used Freeport... it just seemed perfect for this even though I am seeing it everywhere nowadays...

Free Popcorn Vector

Well, I was looking for some free popcorn vectors today for a project. I didn't find any, and so had to draw a few of my own. In doing so, I quickly realized that popcorn is a very tricky thing to draw... and is in fact sort of ugly. I also became very hungry for popcorn.

Anyway, I'm not sure if this will be helpful to anyone whatsoever, but I decided to make my little popcorn sketches free and available to download under a very broad creative commons license. If you use these in your own project, I'd love to see the results!


Download the free .PDF file (262 KB)
Download the free .AI file (1.04 MB)

UI Design

UI Design is more difficult than it looks! It's really a lot of fun though. And it would be rewarding to know that my design is being put to actual use by people -- similar to the satisfaction of a well-trafficked website. This is a sample UI design for a project I can't quite mention at the moment. Just don't ask how long this took. ^_^;


Also! My charity site client is using Intuit for web hosting. Well, I figured I could use this past Sunday to install his site on his domain... but no dice. They won't allow you to upload PHP files! (Or ASP, or CGI, or a whole host of other file types...) I've never heard of this before... and couldn't believe it. And he is paying a premium for this service. Has anyone used Intuit before?

Sorry for the dearth of updates

Well, life has been very busy lately, which I don't mind. But that means that I haven't posted any of the new things I've been working on.

Some t-shirt designs:

Prom shirts for the Linda Nolen Learning Center. We did these on the really nice, soft Comfort Colors shirts.


Seagrove "Beach Goddess" concept designs.


Custom website for an unnamed special occasion recently.

I've also been Diving into HTML 5 - I really enjoy the informal style with which this O'Reilly reference is written. I LOVE seeing all the new specifications. ♥

American Workers' Relief Fund Website

Well, I have the skeleton finished on this, making it my 2nd Joomla site. I did not make this template from scratch (unlike my first site), but rather modified an existing template to fit my needs.


View the work in progress: http://www.katmcgo.com/awrf

This site is in its VERY initial stages right now, with no content to speak of, but I really like that using Joomla, I can create a site like this in less than a day's time.

Business Card for Alabama Nights

Quick post - new business card design for Alabama Nights. I did this in Photoshop -- no stock art used. Was very fun indeed to create. :D

American Workers' Relief Fund Logo

I am just now getting started on a new project for a charity that assists those who are out-of-work and about to lose their homes. It will be a complete branding: logo, website, and anything else they need. Below is the starting point for all of this -- hopefully AWRF will like one of them. :)

First Joomla Site - Urasenke Birmingham

Working on my first Joomla template site for the Urasenke Tea Ceremony group here in Birmingham.

Their current site: http://urasenkebirmingham.org/
My (under construction) Joomla site: http://urasenke.katmcgo.com/

I still have a lot of variables to style and things to do, but the basics are all up at least. And I learned something interesting about cPanel (WISH I HAD KNOWN THIS AGES AGO): It seems it will not just extract any archived file you throw its way; it has to be a tar.gz file. The compression can be preformed in Terminal (on OS X).


I'm finding that I care a bit less about how IE 6 views my pages these days. If I close my eyes and pretend it's not there, will people stop using it? Unfortunately, the answer is NO, but as long as elements break down gracefully, and the page is fully functional (and not terribly ugly), I'm cool with some small variations. That being said, I still need to put this site through its paces with some IE rules, unfortunately. And some lame IE 6 gifs to replace the pngs. Even something this simple...

Update! The IE tweaks went very smoothly, and not much needed to be done. Just some simple fixes (swapping out "outline" for the deprecated "border" tag; swapping out 2 PNGs for GIFs, etc.). Instead of using separate stylesheets for this meager code, as I have done in the past, I am now using the conditional "body" method:

• <!--[if lt IE 7 ]> <body class="ie6"> <![endif]-->


• <!--[if IE 7 ]> <body class="ie7"> <![endif]-->


• <!--[if IE 8 ]> <body class="ie8"> <![endif]-->


• <!--[if IE 9 ]> <body class="ie9"> <![endif]-->


• <!--[if (gt IE 9)|!(IE)]><!--> body <!--<![endif]-->

You can read more about this method here: http://davidbcalhoun.com/tag/ie-hack

Crab Kid's Shirt for Seagrove Beach

I got to make something cute today. Woohoo!

Freelancing! :D

Here are a few projects I've been working on in my free time.

1. Local logo contest for the website AlabamaNights.com.

I'm the first submission so far... hoping I have a good shot. ^_^
It was definitely a nice change of pace to work on this.

2. Creating t-shirt designs for a coworker's offshoot start-up business.

I am hoping to get started on an e-commerce site for him soon using Joomla! as well. Speaking of which...

3. Learning Joomla! and installing it on my domain + porting my portfolio into a Joomla! site.
New portfolio is up at www.katmcgo.com. Joomla! is like my new best friend. <3
Next step is a custom template... which looks a little daunting, since there are LOTS of elements that need to be styled. BUT...

4. Creating a simple Joomla! site for the Birmingham Urasenke group.

I am hoping to be able to do this, as their site (current version here: urasenkebirmingham.org) is pretty lightweight, and would require minimal links, menus and doodads. I think this project would be a great way to learn how to make a Joomla! template.

Anyway, I am happy to have lots of things to work on. And learning Joomla! is SO much fun. ^_^

Mad About Terriers

I love terriers!


I found a scan of this old card and just had to share it. I think Sealyham Terriers are just the cutest! >_<

Problem is that they are also almost extinct. Why such a darling breed would be dying out is beyond me. Alfred Hitchcock owned 3 Sealyhams, so if we ever adopt one, we'll be in good company. :D

We have a Welsh Terrier and a Wire-Coated Fox Terrier (we rescued this little girl last month!), so we have plenty of dogs to keep us company for now. I plan to start doing drawings of their cute little faces for etsy. :)

Cherry Blossom Festival at the Birmingham Botanical Gardens

Hosted by JASA (the Japan-America Society of Alabama), the Sakura Festival will be taking place this Saturday, March 19! It will run from 11am - 4pm and include lots of neat activities like martial arts demonstrations, ikebana, origami, anime/manga and calligraphy.

Download the flyer here! http://members.canpan.info/kikin/products/detail.php?product_id=1080

Of course, the most exciting thing is that the Toshin-an (燈心庵) teahouse will be open for viewing!


My partner and I are fortunate enough to be members of the wonderful Birmingham Urasenke Chadou Study Group, and will be participating in tea ceremony demonstrations planned for 1pm and 2pm. I'm the 正客/principal guest, gah! I am going to try my best. We will also be assisting in the preparation and dissemination of free tea.

It should prove to be a very fun day. The gardens are magnificent right now, with so many plants in bloom. Come out and get a taste of the immense wealth of culture that Japan has to offer.

I think I would be remiss to not mention the terrible disaster that Japan is facing right now. It will be a lovely day, but all who attend would do well to participate with a spirit of remembrance, support and camaraderie. I cannot help but have thoughts of those who are suffering in the back of my mind each day... Keep Japan in your thoughts (and your prayers as well, if you pray). Below are just a few ways to donate & support the relief efforts:
• Google Donate: http://www.google.com/crisisresponse/japanquake2011.html#donation
• Send a text to the American Red Cross: Text REDCROSS to 90999 to Give $10.
• Buy a Gaga wristband: http://ladygaga.shop.bravadousa.com/Product.aspx?cp=14781_42444&pc=BGAMLG88
• Donate directly to the Japan Foundation: http://members.canpan.info/kikin/products/detail.php?product_id=1080

一期一会 - cherish each moment...

New Sakura Graphite Drawing on etsy

http://www.etsy.com/listing/69819767/

I love drawing stuff like this. :D

Sumi-E Painting on Etsy (w/Kokinshuu verse)

Check it out here: http://www.etsy.com/listing/69746348/sakuracherry-blossom-sumi-e-ink-painting

I'm starting to work on my painting and calligraphy, and this is a cherry blossom study I did to that end. The more I practice, the more I'll improve. :D

New Print on etsy!

I'm now selling another art print on etsy: http://www.etsy.com/listing/69676013/


Listing is for 8.5" x 11", but I can print it at any custom size one could wish for.

Next listings in the pipeline: Sumi-e/watercolor as well as graphite Cherry Blossom studies and notecards with Japanese paper and calligraphy. ^^

Identity Work - Christian Shirts

More logo work I thought I would share:



Sorry for all the brief posts lately, but life has been busy!

JDA Sponsorship Ad Design

Created this recently and thought I'd share:

Launching my new etsy site: Katherine's Cabin of Kitsch

It was a Jewelry Jamboree. Now I'm expanding my offerings under the encompassing title of "Cabin of Kitsch" (have to keep up the alliteration :D).

Check it out! I'm going to be adding new products this week and weekend!

Among the new wares will be jewelry (with some jewelry I made a while ago on sale), notecards, on-demand prints of art, drawings, sewing projects, cool stuff I find at the thriftstore, etc. <3

New Logo + Website Woes

Add this to the bin of logos I enjoyed creating which will never see the light of day:









Oh well, can't win 'em all. I'm still working on developing their logo, but I wanted to share this early iteration because I liked it so much. The leaves are "recycled" from my old Shelby Church of God logo pitch (they ended up going in a different direction for their logo). These little leaves just can't catch a break. ;_;

You may or may not have noticed that my old portfolio website (katherinemcgonigle.com) is down. Whoops, paid to renew the domain through Made2Own, and Made2Own let it lapse. Apparently they have dropped off the face of the earth, but will sure continue to take your money. It wasn't worth it to recover the domain through eNom (although they are FANTASTIC!), so I just registered the new domain, www.katmcgo.com. Easier to type out for people. :)

The ol' portfolio got a little face lift recently too, so let me know what you think.

Anyway, let me reiterate -- Made2Own will not respond to emails, phone calls or trouble tickets. They will take your money and render no service in return. Made2Own is now SCAMMING people out of their money, instead of just returning it and acknowledging that they are no longer providing web services. Their website is still up and fully functional. Steer clear of them and spread the word!

In other news, I will be reopening my Etsy shop soon (kmcgo.etsy.com) with prints, drawings, greeting cards, kitschy stuff from our local amazing thrift store, jewelry and jewelry supplies. We need to scrape together some dough, as we have fallen on lean times. So please give it a look. :)