Tag Archives: Assignment

New Theme: Asian Style…

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I haven’t had much personal time, hence my absence from blogging but yesterday I felt like taking a break from building websites and have some ‘me-time’. I’ve wanted to change the theme of my blog for a while but never took time to do it. I love theme design and the challenge is to make it work cross platform which most seem to forget about resulting in bad coding and/or design. But then again that’s what makes me stand out *ahem*.

I haven’t written much because I also have to admit that I’m feeling a bit down in the dumps lately. It’s not bad bad but I have lost a bit of zest, mainly because I’m dealing with a few problems. One is a major allergy that has been acting up for two months now causing inflammation. It stops me from running along the canal (workout) and at times even from socialising. I don’t want to go into details but my health is far from good at the moment.

I’m postponing seeing a doctor as usual because I know she will send me to a specialist at the hospital and I’ll end up fighting the symptoms again and not the cause which is typically a scientific and medical approach which I try to avoid if possible. But I have to admit I’m close to being desperate and I want this condition to end asap and the only way to do that is taking the medication they’ll prescribe which is hardcore unfortunately.

It’s a vicious circle; the condition keeps me from sleeping because of the inflammation and because I have no sleep, healing takes forever or the condition aggravates. Okay… enough of that… but it is the main reason for not having the zest to write. So yesterday when I decided to do something for me, I was basically giving myself a gift by taking a break from clients (I have another Flash website lined up from Scotland next week).

So… what do you think? I collect fruit stickers -don’t ask!- and was inspired by the simple design of one so I changed it into my own and that triggered the rest of it… I thought it would be nice to have a green phase for a while. It represents nature, renewal, balance, love, self-control, healing, emotional safety and is soothing… No wonder I chose these colours *wink*. And for the design freaks: all is done in Illustrator…

(ps: don’t forget to clear your browser cache and refresh a few times, it might act pesky on pc *of course* mixing old and new design *hehe*)

Last Minute Chaos

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I’m racing against time lately and it’s not because I don’t have enough time, it’s because I’m managing it in a bad way due to the fact that I have so much to do and I have no list on paper -just in my head- causing it to short-circuit every now and then. I have exactly four weeks from today before I’ll be moving countries so once again I’m packing. I’m so tired of crap, I’m throwing out even more; most went to charity already and half of my books went to a friend here in London, I kept the ones in English (which is still too many *hehe).

I already started a while ago but every time I move I realise I should cut down dramatically. I’ve moved about 12 times since I was eighteen but the problem is that whenever one moves to a bigger place the more crap one collects and my last apartment in Amsterdam was twice the size of a regular one there. So these days I only buy things that I’ll actually use and give away what I don’t need. No useless nick-nacks collecting dust and no more books either unless they’re related to design. If it’s not functional and if I don’t use it it will be binned…

I don’t want clutter to rule my life, it’s causing chaos, is utterly distracting and will only take up space in my home, my studio and my mind. So while I’m packing I’m making a conscious decision to let go and throw out things especially the things that I feel I ‘might need’ one day. Because to be honest, that day never really came so far. In the meantime I’ve been meeting up with friends in the city to say goodbye for now. One friend -a programmer- has some projects coming up and he needs my help design-wise.

Like I mentioned in my previous post, I’m showered with requests lately: all of a sudden people want me to do their design projects. This Wednesday I’ll have to meet up with the accountancy firm, they want a brochure with the same design as the website I did a while ago where people can book online courses. There’s more last-minute things that clients need all of a sudden but I was able to put them off until after the move and when I’ll be back online again. I’m lucky that my line of work could be done from anywhere!

I’m sweeping the rooms of my life and it feels good to get rid of all the dirt, cobwebs and the skeletons that I wasn’t allowed to take out of their cupboard before. It’s May and I’m doing a total spring-clean. Aah, what bliss to embrace the changes and watch them evolve gradually in such a positive way. What a great season to start again…