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2010: Design Oddessy

maryfran — Mon, 04 Jan 2010 04:34:44 +0000

2010 is going to be a great year. I am participating in Design Informer’s daily design challenge (follow it on twitter via #design365). You can see my posts at design365.maryfranwiley.com.

I wrote a design manifesto that I plan on following as well.

I am starting up a knitting design & inspiration blog (not a full on knitting mag, because that will take waaaaay too much time). It will be at http://knitdea.com.

Each week I will post a round-up of all of my designs from the week, both my challenge pieces and client work. Mainly, I just want to show off.

I can be found on twitter via @maryfran, @purpleurbia (my web design blog), @purplecrayonweb (my web design company) and @knitdea (my new knitting site).

Knitdea and Purpleurbia will soon have Etsy stores – Knitdea’s selling knitted hats (go figure!) and Purpleurbia’s selling some print work…I am getting a little letterpress to see how well the tactile graphic arts like me

This site will be getting an overhaul in March/April in preparation for graduate school applications.

It is going to be a ridiculous couple of months, but I can’t wait!

This blog needs a focus

maryfran — Thu, 22 Oct 2009 17:43:25 +0000

Beacause apparently blogging is essential for a good career. And Google likes updated websites (it is good for SEO, and I tell my clients all the time).

Besides, I have this domain, so I might as well use it. I need to make sure that when you search for me, I come up as the entire first page of search results (currently there is an obituary for someone in Texas with the same name with me appearing after my site, resume, Biznik, LinkedIn and Purple Crayon Web Studio profiles.

The focus of this blog will be Design (of course), building a business, and of course some of the stuff that I do in real life (make things and have city adventures).

Basically, I am going to be claiming ownership of my name. (And hopefully being interesting.)

Giving Thanks

maryfran — Fri, 28 Nov 2008 01:56:33 +0000

This year I have more to be thankful for than usual. This year it was a possibility not only that I wouldn’t be here, but also that one of my cousins wouldn’t be here. There was a possibility that I wouldn’t be able to walk. But, I am here. She is here. I can walk. Thanksgiving is going to be a much better holiday than Easter, which was spent in a hospital at the side of my cousin’s bed with a brought-in holiday meal. I was still using a walker to get around.

I have so many people to thank for the fact that I made it through this spring mentally in tact.

Paul, who came over several times a week and took me to the movies on the weekends when he could have been at the bars with everyone else.
Andy, who is protective of me and always made sure that I felt included even if I couldn’t join in the fun.
All the boys who agreed to move poker to my house so that I could play and see my friends even before I could walk very far.
Sharokina who kept me motivated and gave me hope that there was a possibility of employment even for a bum who couldn’t leave her house. Her constant support is a lot of what got me through the months when I was starting to recover faster mentally than physically.
Chris for not changing how he treated me just because I was broken.
Sid for calling me to make sure i was ok on a regular basis, even though he had a recovery of his own to work on.
I know there are many, many more people who visited me, talked to me while I was drugged out and who have given me more than I could ever thank them for (Stacy, Susan, Dan, Bryan, Ayush, Adam, Amy, the rest of my family)

So, in conclusion, I am thankful. For all the people who have made the recovery worth it and who continue to support me through all of my doubts, my neurosis (if you have seen me in a car on I57, I apologize), and my general odd ball self, thank you. I love you all.