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{Weather}

The weather here in the Seattle area has been just absolutely gorgeous lately! I’m really enjoying it. It’s still cold in the morning and at night – about 30-36?- and warms up to the mid 50’s by noon or so. Quite nice! Things that don’t normally bloom until Spring are starting to blossom already and there are a lot of birds as well.

{Shoulder}

I think I must have inadvertently slept on my shoulder last night because it and my arm are incredibly sore this morning. Not just sore, actually, but downright painful. I hope the referral for my MRI comes very soon. Kinda getting tired of waiting. I want to know what can be done about this pain before it gets any worse.

{Weight}

Now that it’s been almost a whole month since my doctor changed my blood pressure medication, I’m absolutely sure it was what causing the weight gain. Since I began taking the new medication, I’ve lost 10 pounds and I haven’t changed anything else – foods, exercise, etc – so I know for sure that’s what it is. This is very good news! I am so glad it was the answer.

Let me tell you – being “in touch” with your body and what’s going on with it is very important. If I hadn’t been, I’d still be taking the other medication and my weight would still be climbing. Many people don’t understand those subtle things about their bodies and aren’t really in tune with what’s going on. You owe it yourself – and your family – to understand your body and your health. Taking care of yourself is paramount.

{Cane}

My cane arrived last Thursday and I went grocery shopping with my mom Friday. Using the cane was so nice. I was able to take the pressure off my leg a lot and that really helped my endurance. My back didn’t start really complaining until we were nearly finished with our shopping. And I didn’t have that odd grinding feeling in my back every time I took step. I think this is going to turn out to be very helpful indeed! Glad I decided to go with it.

{Projects}

I’ve got two major projects going on right now. Both are for my cousin’s hair and nail salon. The first is designing a website for her home salon and make up line. It’s been fun and challenging! The second is a web-based application I’m building with Ruby on Rails for her to keep track of her client information. I’m having a good time learning RoR as I go along and I think the application is going to turn out well.

{Snow Leopard}

I finally took the plunge and upgraded my MacBook Pro to the latest OS X operating system – Snow Leopard. It’s running great and I like the updates. Lots of new features that I didn’t have in the Tiger edition of the OS. Some of the improvements are just little changes but those are good too. My system is now running faster (although it was never really all that slow) and I gained a few GB of space on my hard drive. That’s pretty cool! Before SL, I had 24gb of hdd space and now I’ve got 30gb, so that’s a bonus.

{The Husband}

My husband has been in college since last Spring, taking the AA degree program in welding. He’s almost finished! Yay! He gets to take a certification test next week and then he’ll actually be qualified to work in the industry in Washington State. Then, he has Spring quarter plus a couple more classes over Summer quarter to complete the full degree. Being that he’s never really finished anything in his entire life, this is a huge milestone for him. Now, hopefully, he will find a good job in the industry and stick with it.

{Miscellaneous}

I think I’ll do an “Around the Web” update this week and maybe even a few other things. Haven’t done those in a while and I know everybody always enjoys those. So look out for that, probably Wednesday or Thursday.

And have a great week!

Until next time -

Be blessed,

Even though I’m not one of those uber organized people, I would like to be exceptionally more organized than I am. And I used to be – way back before I had a house full of kids running around. Not so much anymore. I still try, though.

One of the things I do, is make forms for myself. It helps me keep things on track and pretty much eliminates missed or forgotten things. Plus, I like to write (who knew?). Anyway, I have 3 forms to share with you today that I use regularly and I thought you’d like them as well.

The Menu Planner. It’s fairly colorful, easy to use and simply designed. But anyone from a small child to an adult can follow along and see what food is planned for what meal any day of the week. Even my youngest has learned to tell which color block is which.

Student Assignment Sheet. Even though I no longer homeschool my kids, I kept this form for myself and it’s been nice to have on hand for my college courses. It’s a plain form – no color embellishments or anything here, but it’s still simple and easy to use for most grade levels if you need to keep track of assignments. It’s 2 pages long and has lots of room for all the details you’ll need to know what assignment is due and when.

Mini Character Sheet. This is a form I use for writing fiction stories. It’s a simple sheet where I can put all of the details about a character when I’m sketching out a storyline. It lets me get to know the character and help develop a background for them. There are 2 character sheets per page which I usually cut in half but sometimes, it’s nice to leave them together. Depends on how many characters I’m sketching out.

I hope you enjoy them!

And please, let me know if you use any of them and what you think. Also, if there’s a form you’d like to have, whether for business or school or home, let me know. I’ve made so many different forms, it’s likely I have something similar to what you want.

Be blessed,

{ write * design * blog }

Well, I guess I’ve already broken my goal of blogging every day this month. And you know, that’s ok. Just like rules, it seems goals were also meant to be broken.

So there.

Now, let’s move forward . . .

A few weeks ago (ok, hold that thought . . . the moving forward one, I mean).

. . . a few weeks ago, my cousin, who owns her own hair and nail salon, colored and cut my hair in exchange for redesigning the salon’s website. Even though there are still a few tweaks to do and some info to add to the site, it is up and looks good. I think it managed to reflect the salon’s attitude and image without looking too dull or too flashy.

Now, aside from the bio’s of my cousin and her co-workers and a few minor things like that, it’s complete. However, I know there are ways to improve it and I’ll likely keep tweaking things here and there over the coming weeks so that hopefully what we really end up with is something both she and I are proud of.

Doing her website and the conversations we had about the salon business sparked something else – an idea, a thought – and so I’ve started looking for ways to put that into motion. As a result, I’ve spent hours over the past few weeks researching and learning Ruby on Rails.

Since I learned C and C++ back in the day along with a few other now defunct or obsolete programming languages, RoR (or Rails) has proven to be fairly simple for me to get a handle on. I also like the fact that some of my favorite web apps are built on Rails (Basecamp, Twitter, 43things, A List Apart, Blinksale).

And so that now brings me to moving forward . . .

There are 2 things I am planning to build, 2 different web apps I am now in the process of creating. One of those is a revamp of a project my husband I started a couple of years ago for builders and building-related companies in the Seattle area. I’m not entirely sure yet what all I am really going to include in the project and I probably won’t get into it much until after the first of the year. I’ve decided, though, that the best way to implement the components we want to include, is to rebuild the site on Rails.

But the other one, I am diving right into. And that is a project inspired by my cousin’s hair salon. In fact, it’s going to be a web app FOR salon owners and employees. I still need to pick my cousins brain as to exactly what she wants in the app and how she wants it to work but I know it will include things like a calendar for scheduling, charts for hair color mixes, product ordering, product sales and I don’t what else.

Since it will be an online app, they’ll be able to access it from anywhere, from any computer they might be using and it will tentatively be able to be set up on their own server. I am toying with whether or not I should create/provide a hosted version as well. And I think I probably will just to make it easier for people. I’m thinking it’s going to be kinda like a Basecamp for salon owners.

We’ll see how it goes as things get rolling.

Be blessed,

My 5 year old came home singing a rather interesting version of Jingle Bells today – ” . . . dashing through the snow, with stitches in my head . . .” I’m afraid to ask what the rest of the song sounds like!

Annie Anderson is a freelance copywriter and graphic designer specializing in the small business and real estate markets. Her tagline “Making your business, my business” means that she’ll take the utmost care when creating words and images for your business – just as if it were her own.

That is . . . if the snow that is currently falling doesn’t stick around until morning. Supposedly, it’s going to turn to rain soon. One can only hope!

It’s been very fun having the kids home for almost 3 weeks. They got nearly a week extra because of the snow we had mid-December that stuck around for 13-ish days. And though it has been fun, we are all ready for school to start again tomorrow.

We’ve spent today ensuring clothes and backpacks are ready, that kids are all bathed, toys cleaned up and put away and that everybody is ready for bed on time. It’s after dinner now and the kids are relaxing with a movie. Soon they will be heading off for a good nights sleep. (I hope! The Short Dude has been waking up in the middle of the night lately for some unknown reason. Anyway . . .)

I am looking forward to being able to work and think without a bunch of interruptions all the time. I will have some peace and quiet once everyone gets on their buses. The only thing I’m not looking forward to is getting out of bed so blasted early! Being a night owl, mornings are especially difficult. And even though I usually am awake by 5:30, I’d rather not get out of bed until around 8.

My plan for this week is to do some additional baking that I didn’t get to while the kids were home. Partly because of the baking I did for Christmas but also because baking with all the kids wanting to see and taste and look and taste and push and shove each other out of the way so they can look and see and taste – it just isn’t fun. So I’d rather bake while they’re at school. Then I can get it done without extra “help” plus I can put things away and the kids don’t know it’s there until I get something out for snack or after dinner dessert.

This week, I plan to bake

Banana bread

Pumpkin bread

Chocolate chip cookies

Whole wheat dinner rolls

And . . .

Chocolate birthday cake with chocolate frosting

Because The Teenager is turning 15 on Thursday! And that’s what she requested.

Oh my goodness! Am I REALLY old enough to have a 15 year old child? Seriously? Because I don’t think so. Somebody should really check that out. I don’t know why her turning 15 is causing me shortness of breathe and heart palpitations, but it sure is.

Other things I plan to do this week include:

Get a family membership at the Y

Work on the customer service project

Tie up some loose ends with recent client projects

Begin new client projects

Like I mentioned in my 2009: Year of action post, this year is all about taking action. I’m breaking everything down with one intention in mind – to take Action. Every step will lead to the next level and as a result, I see 2009 as a very prosperous year.

Action is a target I can apply to anything I desire. I’ve found in the past that when my goals aren’t in alignment with my motivations, they often don’t get completed. By using a simple, one word goal for the entire year, I can apply it to everything I want to achieve.

If you had one word for your targets in 2009, what would it be?

In the arena,

“Following another’s path leads to who they are, not to who you are.” ~ Henry Palmer

Annie Anderson is a freelance copywriter and graphic designer specializing in the small business and real estate markets. Her tagline “Making your business, my business” means that she’ll take the utmost care when creating words and images for your business – just as if it were her own.

One of the things I’ve always been fairly passionate about is customer service. It’s one of those things, though, that I’ve never really thought about as much more than the back-end of my business, so to speak. Kind of a by-product of the main service of writing and design.

Now, don’t get me wrong – I believe customer service is the most important product of any business. And yes – it IS a product. It should be the foremost product in any business, no matter what industry. Even if you lack in other areas, when you’re customer service is stellar, people will be back.

I first learned about customer service from a business standpoint as a 11-12 year old when I started my first paper route. And my skills were honed in my 20’s by 2 different companies who believed as I do about it’s importance.

So, last night my husband and I were talking and brainstorming about stuff.

Well, not really. It was more of a shared rant about poor customer service we’d received by a VERY large company over the Holidays. (You probably know it – they drive big, brown trucks around delivering packages.)

And as we were ranting about the nonsense, we had an idea. There are a lot of companies out there with absolutely CRAPPY customer service. Businesses that could use some insight and support in getting superior customer service procedures put into place.

I think the tough economy is the perfect timing for this idea. Now more than ever, businesses are in need of ways to pull in customers and increase sales. I believe customer service is one of the key components to doing so.

As a result, I’m putting together some materials to help businesses understand these key concepts and put them into place quickly. In addition to that, I’m going to be discussing customer service here on the blog on a regular basis. And I’m going to incorporate some other things but I’ll discuss those another time.

The bottom line is that customer service is probably the most important aspect of a business. You can have a great product, a fancy store (whether that be brick & mortar or online) and all manner of other awesome things.

But if you’re customer service sucks, you’re only half as good as you could be. Or worse.

I hope your outline for 2009 is coming together as nicely as mine is. The concepts of customer service are going to be a huge part of my 2009 business model.

In the arena,

Shine like the star you are in 2009! Stick around for more on customer service and why it’s so important to you and your business.

Annie Anderson is a freelance copywriter and graphic designer specializing in the small business and real estate markets. Her tagline “Making your business, my business” means that she’ll take the utmost care when creating words and images for your business – just as if it were her own.

What a weekend! My brain is fried, I’m tellin’ you.

The Short Dude fell Thursday and bonked his head. Just in time for his 4th birthday Friday. You can read about it here.

Friday was spent between ensuring The Short Dude wasn’t going to puke and trying to cool down. Because it was hot. In Seattle, if you can believe that.

Saturday was shopping day. We met Gramma (her spelling) at Staples and got supplies for the kids. Do you know how much it costs to get school supplies for 4 kids? Even when Staples is having sales and things can be had for .09¢? Yeah . . . $78. I don’t even want to think how much it would have been had they been normal prices. And I won’t tell you how much we spent on clothes! 4 kids and clothes? Let’s just say one almost has to take out a line of credit on their home equity to pull it off!

The Teenager spent the night with Auntie Friday night so I took her clothes shopping today. What an experience. Ever shopped with a teenager? Let me rephrase that . . . have you ever shopped with an ultra *picky* teenager? Don’t. It’ll take years off your life.

On a more business-like note – I have some projects coming up in the next few weeks that I’m really excited about. A couple of them are in real estate which is fun. Real estate is one of my favorite topics. I also have a couple of projects in the design department as well as a few others. It’s always fun to work on projects that are in alignment with ones hobbies and joys.

It’s also the 3rd week of The Thirty Day Challenge. I’m way behind again and who knows when I’ll get caught up. I haven’t even looked at any of the stuff for the past 3-4 days and I’ll be too busy for most of this week to do so. I might have some time very late in the evenings but not sure if it’ll be enough to catch up on anything completely. We will see.

This week is also orientation for The Teenager at the high school. She’ll confirm her class list, get pictures taken, get her ASB card and pay for a bajillion dollars worth of stuff – PE clothes, ASB card, yearbook and other necessary teenager stuff.

And the 21st marks the first day of classes for me again too. I took the last 2 quarters off and it’s time to get started again. I still need to order books which I’ll probably do tomorrow and if I order through Amazon like usual, they’ll be here in time.

I’m not really ready for summer to be over, though. We’re finally just now getting to have summer-like weather here and it’s a bit sad to know it’s almost over anyway. Oh well! At least it’ll be quiet around the house for a few hours every day. I actually am looking very forward to that part! 4 noisy kids home all summer has meant a change in my writing schedule and it’ll be nice to get back to a more regular one.

I hope everyone had a great weekend and that your week ahead is wonderful!

In the arena,

Make $10k in a weekend – “Too good to be true.” That’s the first thing I said when
I heard of http://tinyurl.com/5lq2g4. You can’t REALLY make $10K in a weekend. But I quickly bit my tongue once I saw the content. . .

Annie Anderson is a freelance copywriter and graphic designer specializing in the small business and real estate markets. Her tagline “Making your business, my business” means that she’ll take the utmost care when creating words and images for your business – just as if it were her own.

Special Announcement

For the past several years, I’ve been creating blog headers and ebook covers for friends and family but it’s not something I’ve really put out there for my design or writing clients (or on this blog, for that matter).

Until now.

Introducing my blog header and ebook cover design project!

It’s brand new and as a result, I’ve decided to offer a very cheap introductory price of just $55 per graphic. Now, if you’ve looked at my fee schedule for my other services, you will know this is a rock-bottom offer here. And I’m doing it this low for one reason: YOU! To show my appreciation for you – for reading my blog, for following me on Twitter or FriendFeed or wherever. It’s all for you.

So, if you have a blog or an ebook you need a design for, let’s talk! I offer a 72 hour guarantee which means I guarantee you’ll have your design in 72 hours or less. You’ll get the file as your choice of a JPG, PNG, or a GIF in the case of a header and your choice of JPG, PNG, GIF, PDF or Word doc in the case of an ebook cover design.

To find out more, simply follow this link to my contact form, send me a quick description of your blog or ebook cover project and if we decide it makes sense to work together, I’ll get started. (The contact form is broken at the moment so in the meantime, just send me an email to my business email.)

If you don’t need a blog header or an ebook cover, please feel free to send a link to this post to anyone you know who might need one. I’d appreciate it!

Make it a great day!