Tea Demonstration at the BBG Oct. 1

Follow Me On Dribbble!

One of my lovely coworkers "drafted" me on Dribbble. I had heard about it before, but because membership is by invitation only, I hadn't really looked into it. I wish I had! IT IS AMAZING! So many talented people are putting up "shots" on a daily basis. It is very inspiring!

I cover my major projects in detail on this blog (usually when they are complete), but I plan to do detail shots while projects are WIPs on Dribbble.

Please follow me if you'd like to see what I'm working on. :)

Using jQuery to fade in your webpage progressively

Okay, so something I want to do, now that I'm able to really focus on expanding my web knowledge, is post some things I learn along the way. Hopefully they'll be helpful to someone.

So, I was trying to find a way to fade in the sections of my website, one after the other. A simple query fade of the background took everything from white to visible, which I didn't like. Fading in body items one by one made the page expand while they were loading - also not a great effect.

This is what I came up with. The page holds the background and will progressively fade in any element you wish, one by one.

Demo Page - See the effect

<script>
$(document).ready(function() {
function fadePage() {
// Target the tag(s) you want to effect with the fade
var fadingTag = "div";
 
var delay = 0;  // Initialize delay - Should start at 0
var delayStagger = 600;  // Delay stagger - Time between elements fading in

// Find out how many elements you need to hide   
var fadingNum = document.getElementsByTagName(fadingTag).length;
    
// Get and fix the overall document height before it disappears (which will happen when elements are hidden)
var pageHeight = $(document).height() + "px";
$("body").css("height", pageHeight);
    
// Hide all targeted tag(s)
$(fadingTag).css("display", "none");
    
// Fade each targeted tag in, one by one
for (var i = 0; i < fadingNum; i++){   
$($(fadingTag).get(i)).delay(delay).fadeIn(delayStagger);   
delay += 350; 
}
}

fadePage();

});
</script> 

All you have to do is add the name of your tag to the "fadingTag" variable. In this demo, I have all divs fading in, one by one. Targeting classes/ids/etc is also VERY EASY with jQuery. Some examples:

// Target divs with class of "test"
var fadingTag = "div.test";

// Target all elements with a class of "test"
var fadingTag = ".test";

// Target all images
var fadingTag = "img";

// Target all images inside a paragraph
var fadingTag = "p img";

jQuery is just endlessly flexible.

If you want to adjust the timing, just change the delayStagger variable.

Did you find this useful? Please add your comments. :)

Now Launching: Kani Web

Well, I took it upon myself this weekend to work like a madwoman and create a new site and brand. I dub thee: KaniWeb!


I mean, what else am I going to do with my weekend? RELAX? Pfft.

This is my first HTML5 site with some CSS3 goodies thrown in. I still have a lot of things I need/want to do with it, but at least the bare bones site is now live -- after 1.5 days' work! I feel like I am getting pretty quick. :)

I chose the name "Kani" after much deliberation. My name is LONG [see: current name of this blog], so it's hard to make a brand of it. My name by itself doesn't really convey a theme to build a site around. So I started taking two letters from my first and last name, seeing what I could get; "Kani" ("crab" in Japanese) seemed like it had potential for some cuteness. So now I have a cute little mascot, woohoo! Also important - I don't see any other web designers with this name. So yay!

Next steps:

• IE7 debugging - looks like 100% crap in this browser. sigh.
• IE6 debugging... maybe? Is it still worth supporting this browser...? I mean, when Microsoft itself makes a "Death to IE6" page... I'll probably just have a script that tells people to get with the program and d/l a new browser
• favicon - the cherry on top
• Possible CSS3 parallax background animation - maybe some moving seaweed at the bottom?
• Install a lightbox for portfolio items
• Do a hard launch of the Facebook page
• Maybe make a KaniWeb linked in profile?
• Do something cool with my boring footer
• Style this blog to match the new site :)
• Get a more descriptive domain
  

Japan: Day One, Part One - A Fourteen-Hour Flight

The night before, I couldn't sleep. Running on pure adrenaline, I was busy making sure everything was packed and ready to go and just so. Our pets had already been boarded, and the apartment felt awfully quiet.

My boss was kind enough to pick us up before the sun rose in order to take us to the Birmingham airport for our 6:35 flight. I remember thinking, "I can just sleep on the plane..."

Total time it took us to get through the security at BHM and to our terminal at 5:30 on a Friday morning? 15 minutes. Pretty cool.

We had a layover in Houston, and while flying over I recognized the area where I used to live, with a little nostalgia. The nostalgia ended inside the airport. IAH sucks completely. Crowded and terrible, TERRIBLE food. Like they want to make everyone as miserable as possible. But here is where we boarded the giant Sky Cow that would fly over the Pacific and to Japan! I had been nervous that I would somehow collapse in a pile of exhaustion from the lack of sleep, but I was still wired with adrenaline.

So, what is a flight from Houston to Narita like? 100% pure hell. Sleep? Not possible. It seemed like the air carried some kind of death fog, and sound just isn't the same inside that cabin. Even with headphones on, everything seems a little distorted and uncomfortable. And seat space? Well obviously the coach sections of airplanes do not have a great reputation for their roominess, but I was wedged in the middle seat with my arms tucked in the whole time. How long were we on this plane? OVER FOURTEEN HOURS. Long enough to be served 3 lackluster meals.

And dehydration? It's a stark reality in that environment. Even though they brought water by quite often, my mouth was continually dry. It's like a desert in the sky. Basically, between the terrible feeling of the cabin, the lack of space, the dehydration and the unpalatable food, the whole affair seems designed to make a person feel like complete crap.

The one consolation is the very small TV screen in the back of each headrest. I got to watch FOUR movies during that flight: Iron-Jawed Angels, CJ7, Recount, and Yatteman. Well, most of Yatteman anyway. The last half hour was EXTREME turbulence. That whole thirty minutes, I really thought I might vomit (but didn't! go me!), and any motion at all (including the movie playing on the screen) heightened my feeling of absolute barfitude. So I had to cut Yatteman short.

After this formative experience in international travel (a first for me), we stepped off the plane and were in JAPAN. I capitalize it because, being on the other side of the world and all, it sometimes sort of feels like this unattainable, golden fantasy place. I was EXCITED. But no one else around me seemed to be skipping down the halls or anything, so I tried to contain it.

The airport was very easy to get around. There are lots of friendly, large, multi-lingual signs to direct people. The security check did not make us feel like dirty criminals - I didn't even get patted down. It only took us 30 minutes to make our way through, taking out cash, exchanging cash, and buying Narita Express passes along the way. We also got the Suica card, which I highly recommend.

The Narita Express is the most lovely, comfortable train ever. It seemed like a frickin mansion compared to the airplane. We could spread out and watch all the cute little houses zoom by outside as we were whisked towards Tokyo. The sun was heavy and large, an orange ball of flame that I just couldn't quite capture on camera. Granted, I had brought a crappy little point-and-shoot camera for convenience, so it had some limitations. Next time we go - DSLR all the way. A cool thing about the Narita Express - all the seats flip around. So once they've arrived at Tokyo Station, attendants come and turn all the seats to face the other direction, and they're ready to head back to the airport!

Let me just pause and say that when you fly in to "Tokyo," you don't really fly in to Tokyo. It's not like Kill Bill. You fly in to Narita, which is 30-45 minutes by train to the NE. It's not dramatic. It's rather quaint, actually. And so you must take a train like the Narita Express to actually get to that most amazing city that is Tokyo.

The N'EX drops you off at Tokyo Station, which has many levels of tracks. If pulling up to Tokyo Station in the N'EX was actually a scene in Final Fantasy, it would be like arriving in Lindblum in FFIX.

So Tokyo Station is basically a monster. It is the busiest station in Japan in terms of trains per day. Walking between tracks can take a longggg time. It's mostly just endless white and gray corridors, sometimes with walking sidewalks, sometimes with interesting ads. Between the entrances to the tracks are clusters of little shops though, so that's cool right? Well, the constant crowded stream of people means that if you stop to gaze at the shops, you are holding shit up. These people are busy. They have places to go. They are moving at breakneck speed. You are IN THE WAY. So I don't think we really felt comfortable taking a leisurely pace to explore. We were caught up in the herd.

Caught in the flow, we made our way to the Hibiya Line subway. International flight? Check. Train ride? Check? Subway ride? Check. These were all firsts for me. And the subways in Tokyo are the COOLEST. I was pretty intimidated by the tangle of subway lines on the map, which looked like a pile of rainbow spaghetti. But they're actually very easy to get used to, once you're there. And they bring you to anywhere in Tokyo unbelievably quickly. We had JR passes and so could ride the JR loop around the city for free, but we often found ourselves taking the subway because it's just SO convenient.

The Hibiya line took us mere blocks from our hotel, less than a minute of walking and we were there. In Part Two, I'll talk about our excellent stay at the Hotel Sardonyx and our first night in Tokyo, which we spent as any self-respecting nerds would do - in Akihabara.

Big Changes Afoot

Well, I've had a big life-change recently: New job, new position. Instead of all-purpose head of an art department, I am now a web developer (YAY!) at a creative agency. I am EXTREMELY excited to be coding and scripting and also playing ping pong during the day.

But that means these will be my last screen-printing design images (unless I get some t-shirt design work while freelancing).

First up, an update of that "King" shirt. Printed in gold metallic ink, it showed me that halftones can actually be quite excellent, when used in small areas for shading.

I think this is the first time I've seen everyone at the office like, wow, cool halftone! instead of sad groans. Also, look at the great detail our screen-printer was able to hold!

Second-up, my last 2 designs from my old job:

It seemed like there were more creative jobs than usual right at the end (as opposed to just "put my logo on X product").

So third: FREELANCE. I have been up to my ears in freelance work. I have a 3-site project for a legal client going on now and other jobs lined up through to November. The wonderful thing is that now my work and my freelance are complementing each other, and I am learning more about web development than ever before. HTML5, CSS3, WAI-ARAI, etc. And I am DYING to work on that placeholder portfolio site I have right now. Weekend project: Joomla 1.6 from-scratch template.

Fourth, and final: I have resumed my Japanese kanji studies with a passion, and I've finally hit the 1000 mark! Soo... only 1000 more until I know most of the common ones...? ^_^;;

On that note, I thought I would kick off a series of travelogues from our trip to Japan... yeah, the ones I promised a couple YEARS ago... sorry about that.

'It's Good To Be King' Shirt

Sorry for the lack of updates; I've been busy, with many things in progress, but not a lot of complete designs. Here is a quick design I created for a bit of a prank shirt we are printing, in metallic gold ink:

I have one large freelance project in the works, one small freelance project, and a few in the queue. It's really taken off, and I feel quite lucky to have so much work.

I have also updated my main portfolio site at katmcgo.com. You may notice it morphing a bit in the coming weeks. I have installed the Gantry platform to a Joomla 1.6 base (yep, made the leap from 1.5, and it's been excellent so far) and am still playing around with it. I wish I had more time to work on it, but freelance comes first. :)

In spite of it all, the calm of the tea room

I had my first tea ceremony lesson in nearly 2 months yesterday, and was quite excited to be learning the summer temae. On my way there however (and I was almost there!), I was quite abruptly rear-ended while waiting to merge into on-coming traffic. Luckily, the damage was minimal, but the rest of my journey to the tea room was spent shaking and crying.

I had been so mentally ready for this lesson, just to have my composure completely broken right beforehand. It was rather distressing, and I was concerned that things would go very poorly.

However, once I got into the space of the tea room, my mindset quickly changed. I couldn't even hold my worries in my head. There was so much to soak in, and to learn, I simply didn't have room for those worries and negative thoughts. I think my focus was better than it has ever been. I thought that tea was the last thing I needed, but at that moment, it was the best thing for me.

Dear Epson, Please Step Up Your Game

So we got a new Epson printer recently at my work. It is solely to be used for transparency positives for screen-printing - the Epson Stylus 1400. And really, it is lovely, no complaints there.

Well, now we're apparently on their solicitation list, and we received an advertisement from them today.
Wow, stock background + stock a-rainbow-just-exploded-in-here vector + WOWUGLY font. Sorry about the glare, need another taste? The same font is used on the interior panels!

I guess that font is supposed to be "creative"? It is just so terrible... You can do better, Epson (or design company contracted by Epson)!

And another fail - the impossibly small QR codes on Epson ink cartridges for this printer. Smaller than a fingernail... I spent nearly 10 minutes trying to get my phone to "capture" the code before giving up.

Donation Shirts for Pratt City Tornado Victims

Through my company, we will be donating shirts to those in Pratt City who lost everything. Hopefully some fresh, clean t-shirts will provide a bit of relief to them. I made the below design, which we'll be printing on the shirts.

Birmingham Botanical Gardens Sakura Festival

I realize now that I never posted about the Sakura Festival back in March. It was quite lovely. We got there at 10am, and the morning air was cool and refreshing. We had already spent a day cleaning previously, so there was a manageable amount of preparation to do. I was only able to snap a few photos, as I was extremely busy in the tea house all day (10am - 5pm)!

Something really wonderful is all of the friends I was able to see throughout the day, although I was only able to visit with each of them briefly. We ended up serving about 100 bowls of tea throughout the day and performed 2 demonstrations. There were times when the teahouse was absolutely choked with visitors, and it grew quite hot as the day progressed, but we all worked very diligently. Our sensei had prepared boxes and boxes of sakura mochi and other wagashi (wet sweets). They were beautiful and delicious, but quite unfamiliar to most of the visitors. Some of the children made funny faces when presented with them. It was charming to see the change of expression when they realized that, "Hey, this is good!" Hopefully they learned a good lesson about giving new food a try (one that I myself have only recently learned).


I was quite nervous about the tea demonstrations. I had a particular burning passion to do well, as I had invited a lot of people and wanted to show them the beauty of tea ceremony. WELL, the president of our club was explaining what was happening during each presentation, and she is such an engaging speaker. My mind kept wandering over to what she was saying and away from the task at hand. I forgot one of my lines the first time (O Shimai Kudasai - please end the ceremony -- pretty important!), and poor Josh, who was preparing the tea, was left draining the kensui for a prolonged amount of time. Whoops! >_< The second time I was determined to do better, and did not make any grievous errors. My legs did fall asleep both times though - perhaps because I was so tense? I had to literally position the flats of my feet on the floor with my hands to exit the room the first time, as I had no feeling in them whatsoever. The second time I was a little better prepared. Since I was Shoukyaku/first guest, I had a bit of time after drinking my bowl of tea to relax. I shifted my legs out to my left to let some blood flow back into them, then drew them back underneath me after a few minutes. My sensei noticed this (!) and told me I did it very gracefully and discreetly. It is a compliment I dearly treasure.


In her infinite kindness and thoughtfulness, Tamura-san had brought food and drinks for us, and served us lunch with a spicy tea and late afternoon snacks. This was an absolute highlight of the day. Everything was SO DELICIOUS. The onigiri had some sort of little miniature potatoes in it -- I've never had such good onigiri before. We were all quite exhausted, and it was very nice to sit down with everyone in the mizuya for a break.

This was a very special experience for me. It was only my second time in the Toshin-an, and although I know I made mistakes, I learned a LOT from my day spent serving the guests who came. I can only hope that as a beginner, I did not get in the way too much. ;)

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. :)