My portfolio also won an awesomeness award. Because, well, I am awesome.

Original Moxie has now launched as my portfolio site, and all that will live here is this little blog of mine.

It has been a busy couple of weeks, and I cannot wait to finish up a couple of client sites so that I can focus on finding a full time job.

New York, here comes Mary Fran

I leave for my first vacation in quite a few years tomorrow.  I haven’t been on a plane since an interview with Google in Ann Arbor, MI (yes, I had the poor taste to accept such a ridiculous interveiw).  And, I have to admit that I am a wee bit nervous.  I was going to try to pack in a carry-on sized bag.  Ha!  My camera equipment doesn’t fit in my laptop bag.  And, I swear I am only bringing one lens, one DSLR and one little point & shoot digital. And only one moderately sized laptop so that I can work while on “vacation”. If I do enough work, does the travel become a work expense?  I guess we will see on that one – and I will have to re-think my packing.

I went to a fantastic networking event in Rosemont last night and actually enjoyed it.  Normally I do not like talking to professionals, as I do not usually feel grown up enough or accomplished enough to speak to other professionals as equals.  But, I did it, and it was really great.  I will probably keep going to them because, other than the most expensive diet coke I have purchased, it was great to actually have conversations with people, rather than just e-mail them or twitter them.

I am actually quite excited about getting started (can you tell, this post is a little ramle-y)!  But I also have some other projects on the table…A blog at AndThenIwasLike and the e-commerce at RubberOrGlueTees.com  I will also be building a blog at Ed Wiley & Associates.  Not to mention the super-secret (?) coding I am doing for a firm in the foreign land of Kansas.  Whew.

Alright. Time to go get a twitter for the new venture.

Well, let me tell you I am facing this very dilemma. I want to start my own web design venture, because frankly, it is a tough world out there. Permanent jobs are hard to come by and unless they are with a design firm, the options for creativity are limited. I mean really, how many different ways can you display a park bench when the boss insists on the same style that has been used for the past 15 years? So, I am going out on my own, at least to supplement my income for the time being. I have the skills. I have heard from several people that I can do this, so here goes.

But, I need a name. One that is cool sounding. One that has meaning to me. One that I can create an identity around. Mary Fran Wiley is a Darn Good Web Designer, great for a personal portfolio site, not so great for nabbing the big fish on my own. I want to sound important, because I am going to look important and be important.

I was thinking Purple Crayon Web Studio, because I, like I am sure many other people, was influenced by the book Harold and the Purple Crayon. I want to let the world (or at least my future clients) know that it all starts with a sketchbook.  Is it hokey? Perhaps.

So, I spent some time on domain name generators to come up with a name.  And that was hard work.  Most of the choices were just plain weird, but I came up with a few worth considering: Purpleurbia, Purplique or Bluedeo.

Decisions, decisions.  But this is one I need to get done this week!

I have had training (some better than others) and I take time everyday to make sure that I have learned something new. I follow several web design and development blogs. I read web design books and magazines. And I practice. Everyday.

The web is an ever changing medium and people who refuse to embrace the change and the people who ignore that there has been any sort of changes need a quick bop on the head. (Perhaps with those Sock’em boppers from my childhood).

So please, if you need to have a website created, do not create it your self unless you are a trained professional or are willing to devote the enough time to do it right, or you’re just going to end up hiring me anyways.

So, if any of the following seem shocking to you: Tables are not meant to hold layout elements. All caps in your code is so 1999. And tags that aren’t nested never were correct, please let me build your site for you.

Even worse, all I want to do is go outside and play in the sunshine today!

In keeping with the style of the logo & the current site, I changed it up a little using scraps of yarn as design elements and to create the map of the Chicago neighborhood where the event takes place.

The site was created in Flash and Illustrator CS4, and you can see a demo here.

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.

I know I appear to be knitting bunches lately, I need to keep my hands busy at lunch and between work and class, but I need to figure out how to find some time to be creative for my self.  Gil (from class) told me today that class projects are never going to get me a job.  And I am sure he is right, now to get on the ball and get some creating done.  I have a few things lined up to work on (the Project Linus chapter site, a site for a belly dancing group and using my alphabet project to write a book for the twins) but I can’t seem to find time.  I think my friends who already think I am not out enough are going to have to deal so that I can get some work done.

I started collecting pieces of jewelery to reconstruct as well as beads and findings so that I can make the jewelery for the Baumwolle site this weekend and next.  (Any volunteers to model it?  I might even let you keep the jewelery if you like it…)

I finished the red hat, started the gloves and finally bought the yarn to finish the belated birthday scary (hooray!)

The gloves took four attempts to cast-on (this is what I get for attempting to do something fancy) but are now coming along smootly.  Well, at least the glove that I have started is .

I have been a knitting fool lately.  Partially because the belated birthday scarf (that is no longer going to go to the person it was intended for) is taking forever to knit (the entire thing is a cabled 1×1 rib so that it is reversible) and has cost me an arm and a leg.  Hopefully I will finish it tonight so I can get one of my next two projects started.  Hooray for progress!

I also went yarn shopping Saturday.  I might be addicted.  But I am all set to go to knit my mom’s Christmas hat and a pair of overly intricate gloves for myself.  Hopefully I get some time to knit (and sew, I have a few bags to finish!) this weekend.  I think P might have to indulge me and let me knit during our college football watching marathon on Saturday.

I am also on the hunt for a new job.  The whole lack of creativity in addition to being a temp is starting to wear me out.  I need to exercise my brain a little bit!  So, I am hunting.  The only problem is I need to make sure that my portfolio is online and up to date, so it is taking a wee bit of time to get going on the hunting, but I am trying.  I will be taking votes for everyone’s 10ish favorite pieces to include in a pdf version of my portfolio that I will be e-mailing starting Thursday.