Free Holiday Facebook Covers from PDS

Do you ever get the "creation" bug? A need to just sit down and make something just for fun? I do. I recently made myself a new Facebook timeline cover and I had so many ideas that I ended up creating a handful to share.

I've posted them over at Priceless Design Studio along with simple instructions for downloading. There's a sneak peek below!

Blog Design Showcase : Summer

In the midst of selling things & packing, I've also been keeping up with working on new blog designs over at Priceless Design Studio. I thought it would be fun to share my designs from the last few months with you guys!

Each image is linked to it's blog, so be sure to go check these ladies out & find all my hidden sprites on the sites :)  {that rhymed!}













Some of these designs are a sneak peak, because I haven't added them to my portfolio yet. If you'd like to get the full scoop on them, you can always subscribe to my design blog here. Plus, I redesigned Priceless Adventure and gave Priceless Design Studio a much needed overhaul. If you haven't seen my new digs over there, definitely go check it out!

So, which design is your favorite?

Artist Sheanna Marie + Giveaway!

It's been a while since I shared a blog makeover with you guys! Last month, I worked collaboratively with Sheanna Marie to digitally incorporate pieces of her artwork into her blog design. It was a blast to use lots of texture and color in this design.

Today, Sheanna and I are swapping posts. I'm over at her blog talking about What's in my Designer's Toolbox and she is here to tell you a little about her artwork.

Hello To All! First, I would like to thank Katie for sponsoring and doing a blog swap with me. Now, to let y’all know a little about myself and my artwork. I am what you consider a self-taught artist. I have no formal or college training in art. I actually went to college for business tech/management and entrepreneurship.

On that note, when painting, I mostly use acrylic mediums. I try to keep the strokes loose so that they can still be seen in the end product and allow the colors to mix themselves during the painting process. As well, I often use mediums that enhance the texture of my paintings. I know that when I connect with a piece of artwork I immediately want to reach out and touch it and grasp a deeper connection with it, I want my viewers to do the same. I find that I primarily use brighter more saturated colors and primary tinted tones. Usually, I have an emotion that I feel is represented by a particular color.

I would say 90% of what I paint is what I call ‘prophetic art.’ Prophetic art is art that is created from a direct connection with God. I often find while praying and or worshiping in song and dance that God gives me visions/pictures that I can see in my “mind’s eye” that have a specific meaning and truth to them. The other 10% of my paintings, basic landscapes and such, I paint just to see if I can as well these are the kinds of paintings I teach to my private students who are often beginners. - Sheanna Marie

blog | twitter | etsy

I am so excited to announce that Sheanna has generously offered to giveaway an 8x10 matted, signed print of the beautiful peacock feather painting that inspired her blog makeover!! {seen above} This beautiful print will be given away to one lucky visitor, through the rafflecopter below! The winner will be announced Friday the 15th.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Thankful Thursday Post

It's been a sad week. My good friend Tarah moved back to the states yesterday and I'm realizing our time here is almost through. I've felt for a while now that Dominica is home, and it's going to be hard to leave. I've often heard that the best way to get through a rough day is by thinking of all the things you are thankful for.

1. Imported Starbucks coffee. By imported I mean C²W bought me 3 pounds of Starbucks in the states & imported it in their suitcases for me.

2. I have awesome friends here on the island, back in California, and across the oceans in Korea. They keep me sane & grounded while reminding me there is life beyond med-school.

3. We are officially in 5th semester of med-school! {Do you like the use of "we"? I may not be the one studying, but it's still my life!}

4. Adam Cat. My little buddy basically sleeps near me all day, wherever I am. Whether it's on my desk, under my feet, or in the window sill behind me. He keeps me company during the day.

5. The Internet & Bloggers. Seriously, without the blogging world I would be much lonelier. I love that even though I live on an island of only 70k people, I have been able to make friends from around the world. You guys make me happy! I have so much fun writing & designing posts {not to mention my awesome job designing blogs.}

What are You thankful for this Thursday?

Linking up with Cami from First Day of My Life on this Thankful Thursday.

Journey Forward ∴ 9 - Quarter Check In

Can you believe we are a quarter through twenty12 already? This weeks Journey Forward was to look back at the progress we have made towards our one word & goals.

• Complete 4 or more blog designs per month.

Holla! I'm not quite up to four every month, but my average is right around four. Blog design can be tricky in that some projects take longer than others & carry over from month to month. Nevertheless, I'm quite proud of myself & these 15 designs!

January (3): Mrs. Alana's Miscellany, Lattes & Love, Of Our Parents
February (6): The Shelton Family, Reading, Eating & Dreaming, You are the Roots, Post Cards from TG, Creative Bug
March (3): Human Sparkler, Keep Your Sunnyside Up, C Squared W
April (3): Maggiano Takes Austin, Lovely, Flowers, Ribbons and Pearls

• Find an online teaching job at a college or university. 

Fail. I did have one fun job opportunity sent my way, but it didn't work out. I have a feeling this is going to be hard to accomplish before moving back to the states. The good news is that I have my portfolio & resume all ready to go when the time comes! {www.kathrynprice.info}

• Make dates with my husband to have fun together at least twice a month.

At the beginning of the semester Chris and I were going out together almost every Saturday night. In March we had fun at his 4th Semester Banquet. But as the semester has started closing in (tests!) he just hasn't had the time for it. Hopefully in 5th semester there will be more time for these sorts of things without the stress of so many exams.

• Read 12 books. 

Yes! I'm at 4 books: Love Wins, Outlander, Sing You Home, Fifty Shades of Grey. Reading is one of my favorite things to do, so I think I will always find time for it. It helps me to relax.

• Relax

Seriously, I feel like I'm working on this daily. Starting my own little design company has been a lot of hard work and a lot of long hours. That little list of 15 blogs up there represents my heart and soul for the past 4 months.

I feel like the Journey Forward challenge has helped me stay accountable during this time. Knowing that I have to write a post every week about how I am doing with relaxing has really helped me to stay in check. I get so easily lost in my computer & design; two hours can feel like twenty minutes for me. Living with a relaxed attitude is a work in progress for me.

1  ∴  2  ∴  3 ∴  4 ∴  5 ∴ 6 ∴ 7 ∴ 8

What about you? Do you want to join in on the Journey Forward challenge? It's not too late!

Love those Leprechauns! FB Cover Giveaway & Deal

Happy St. Patricks Day to everyone! St. Patty's Day is special to me, mostly because of my Grandpa Mahon. He loved me more than all the tea in China and when I was younger I could always be found trailing him around the yard to feed the horse or water the plants. Grampy was the most generous, gentle, and gentlemanly man. His parents (my great-grandparents) came over from Ireland and St. Patrick's Day was always a family day to have dinner & get together.

I've already come to terms that there will be no corned beef again this year. It's okay though, because tonight is the 4th Semester Banquet (aka the Med Student Prom).

The Lephrechauns are shining favor on you today as well, because I'm teaming up with Jillian from Geek Chic Social Media to giveaway a free Facebook Timeline Cover. Did you know that all business or fan Facebook pages will be switched over to the new timeline on March 30th? That gives you about 2 weeks to get yours in order.

Please don't fall into the trap of cropping your blog header to squeeze into the cover! Use the generous space to showcase some awesome things about your blog. Maybe have a "what's new" area or update pictures of your recent Pinterest projects. Take advantage of the free advertising space that FB is giving you & create something unique to you.

Jillian has you set, with a simple how-to article here. And I have some additional tips for you too:

• The best size to create a cover is 851x315 pixels. If you have a photo-editing program, set your document settings to 300 DPI in CMYK mode. 
• If you don't use a photo, use a colored background, not white. It will help your words stand out more clearly.
• Use an easy to read font & make it large.
• Save the photo at the highest possible quality! Use a .png file name for anything with type on it. 

Check out my PDS fan page and Mrs. Alana's Miscellany's fan page to see good examples.

OR if you aren't a D.I.Y.er, you can enter the giveaway here, and we will work together to create something perfect for you!

And as a special treat for all my bloggy followers out there I'm going to offer you a little (big!) discount. Any orders I receive before March 26th are guaranteed to be done by the 30th.. even if I'm up all night! And I will do my best to make it something that you can edit yourself in the future!

Anyone interested can send an email to katie@pricelessdesignstudio.com & mention this post!

Manic Monday

Well, it's just another manic monday here in Dominica. Chris is off taking his mid-term, which means I got up super early & am on my second cup of coffee already.

The good news is that he will have the rest of the day off and be able to go out tonight! Usually we go to The Tomato for dinner & drinks. The food is way overpriced but it's about as close to an American restaurant as they come here. And they serve real-ish margaritas.. so that's a bonus.

What did I do this weekend?

  ➵  finished up a new blog design for Tess at Human Sparkler. This blog was SO much fun to do!

  ➵ joined in on the #blogbrunch twitter party. I never really "got" twitter until recently. Liking it just sort of crept up on me, and now I check it daily. Well, maybe more like 3 times daily!

  ➵  got hooked on Downton Abbey..  the first season is only 7 episodes, so I'm more than halfway done already. Do it!

  ➵   Thank you to Colette from Caffeinated Conversations for giving me a Sunshine Award! I just started following her recently & am loving her writing style.

  ➵ spent some time away from the computer, reading a book & doing my toes. I really miss pedicures. Have you ever seen Anjelah Johnson's Nail Salon comedy sketch? yeah, miss that too.

 ➵ had some pool time with the girls, Skyped with my mom, and just (sort of) relaxed.

Now it's time to get back to work. I've got 2 new blogs to start on, Leah and Amanda, and several other island adventures coming up this week. I LOVE working from home!

Happy Friday!

Back when I was teaching elementary school, Friday afternoons would be reserved for wrapping up and having some fun. I would have the kids clean out their desks, pass out all the papers that needed to go home, and hold an auction or treasure box time. Every Friday I would also write a letter home to the parents, letting them know the highlights of the week & important dates to come. I sorta miss it.

Friday Wrap-Up:

➳ Remember when I posted about The Dilemma? After a lot of thought and discussion, Chris and I decided that it would make the most sense for us to stay in Dominica for his 5th semester of medical school. It is not a given that we will get to stay, but Chris marked it as our preference on the application. One more hot & sweaty summer, here I come!

➳ I watched my first episode of Downton Abbey, and I am hooked! I love historical fiction and anything with loads of drama. (Confession: Totally thought it was Downtown Abbey until I just googled it for the link.)

➳ Speaking of confessions, Kristen from Confessions of a Graphic Design Student blogged about the amazing results she got with no-heat curls and I thought I'd try it myself. Total success!

➳ Over at PDS ( ...Priceless Design Studio... ) I revealed my 3 most recent blog designs. I'm slowly learning that it's not always about what I want to design, but rather what the client wants to see. I'm new to this whole "customer service" thing because my customers have always been 10 year olds.

➳ Yesterday at PDS, I also updated my Services & Pricing. I added a few new à la carte items, and made some changes to my custom packages. You can read more about the changes & why I made them, here.

➳ Becca at One Girl suggested I turn my Pin Fact or Pin Crap idea into a Link Up. I've never hosted something like that before, but would love to give it a shot. I know that Wednesday is usually Pinterest Day around the blogosphere, maybe on the last Wednesday of the month we can do a little linky party? Start thinking about it!

➳ It was my mom's birthday this week, and I ordered her a beautiful Katie Daisy print. Katie is so sweet and helped me out by writing in the card for me. I'm sure you have seen her art around Pinterest recently. It is very reasonably priced, and comes beautifully packaged. You should go check out her Etsy store!

Happy Birthday Mommy Dearest!!

Sneak Peek: February

What on earth have I been up to recently? Blog Design! And I am in LOVE. It has been a long time since I was excited to go to work each morning. Even if that work means sitting down in the kitchen at my makeshift desk.

I've been learning so much, and challenging myself to take my designs that extra mile. Like adding posting title styling, pretty blockquotes, or a little j-query drop down menu action! Here's a little sneak peak of a few blogs that are in the works right now:

I guess that sign that you are really passionate about something? The clueless look on other people's faces when they just don't quite get why you are so excited. In the words of my husband, I'm too excited "blog-a-flogging" or "pressing your words" to do much else right now!

Do you have something you get lost in?

I won!

I try not to talk too much about design on this blog, but last night something super-exciting happened. I won 2 hours of one-on-one training from theBDN.com, which is one of my favorite designer resources. I am so excited!!

When I started seriously thinking about trying to make money off of web design, I took a 4 week course from the Blog Designers Network which went through things like photoshop for blog design, Blogger & Wordpress installation, and business practices. It was a huge help to me in learning the "right" way to do things.

At this point, I've gotten smart enough to realize what I still need to learn. So these 2 hours of one-on-one training are perfect for me. I still have some questions about Wordpress installation having to do with trickier things like how to install directories, back up your blog, make blog transfers, and security questions.

Since we are on the subject, here are links to the last 2 blogs that I've designed. They are both totally unique and beautiful. Make sure you hover over the social networking icons to see the surprises I installed.

• mrs. alana's miscellany
• Lattes & Love

If you like my design work, there are still 6 days left to enter a giveaway that Heather is hosting for me on her blog, inspiremeheather.com. 

I've also added some links to my favorite design resources on my Links I Love page. Hopefully you can find something useful there!

Free Blog Makeover

Not only am I having a Grand Opening sale for Priceless Design, but one lucky blogger will also win a FREE Custom Blog Makeover!  There are 5 ways to enter, so go check it out!

It's time to Celebrate!!

I am so excited to announce the Grand Opening of my new design business: Priceless Design Studio. After weeks of hard work, the site is ready to go! It was a tough (but rewarding) adventure to learn how to self-host and code a Wordpress blog. My eyes have been opened to the wonders of Wordpress.

To celebrate the Grand Opening, I am having a sale. Between now and January 5th, visitors who order a new blog will receive $25 dollars off their total bill.

Thank you to everyone who has helped this dream become a reality. I feel blessed to have the opportunity to make money from something I love doing. I couldn't have done it without your encouragement!

p.s. I also get to cross another thing off of my 12 by Twelve list.

Hustlin' & A Plea to Spouses

Can I be excited for one minute and tell you, "I'm doing it!" My first Wordpress site is up and live!! I've still got a lot of design changes and content to create for it, but it's happening. My goal is to have a Grand Opening before Christmas, which is cutting it close with all the traveling I have coming up.

What a week. I've been up at 7am everyday and working on the site in my spare moments between schoolwork and RSO. We had our last Ross Spouses Organization board meeting for the semester yesterday, and I feel like there is huge weight lifted from my shoulders. I am relieved to pass the title of president off to someone else, and so thankful that Olivia has agreed to take it on. 

At the meeting we had a discussion about why there have been less volunteers and less people wanting to help with the board. It really hit home with me that even though it has been a somewhat thankless job, the reason I did it for so long was because of what RSO gave to me my first few months on the island. 

Having a sponsor to answer all my questions before I got to Dominica was huge, and then once I was here there were people who wanted to help me get involved and who cared if I was adjusting ok. I think what most people don't realize is that RSO is a binding force between spouses. Without the organization I don't know if there would be the same sense of community on the island.

What I know is that I'm thankful for what RSO did for me and I feel like I have given back to that community in a tangible way. The rewards have been less tangible, but it has felt good to volunteer my time to raise money for local charities, to welcome people who have just arrived, and to make events and activities happen. I really hope that RSO is able to continue on next semester and that they find the volunteers they need to fulfill the SGA funding requirements. So, if you are on the island and reading this,  think it over. Maybe it's your time to give back.

Typography

After about 15 minutes of staring at these fonts, it dawned on me that any normal person would have just picked one by now. Can you see the differences?

I'm taking my time with the new Priceless Design site. It will be the first (real) Wordpress blog I've done, and I want to get it right.  The typeface will have to compliment my all-time-favorite HoneyScript. Which would you pick?

A better dream..

If getting my masters in educational technology is the dream, then creating my own blog design business is the better one. I'm so close to being finished with this masters; my final classes begin next week. Sadly, I'm just not that excited about it anymore. What I really want to be doing with my time is working on design and learning coding and playing with Photoshop and Illustrator. I had more fun designing my global learning project than I'm having running it.  

This week is a vacation from school for me before the final push. I hope that after a little time away, I'll be ready to get 'er done.  

Right now I'm taking a blog design workshop from The Blog Designer Network, and I'm learning so much about the "right" way to do things. I've always just winged it when it came to blog installation, and now I'm learning how to properly code things. It probably sounds all nerdy, but it is super exciting to me!  

One of my goals for Twelve by 2012 is to get Priceless Design ready for a grand opening and I'm really excited about it. There is a lot of logistical stuff to think about now like paypal accounts, pricing, terms of service, and if I really want to leave Priceless Adventure connected to Priceless Design. I'm thinking of moving Priceless Design over to (shock) a self hosted Wordpress site. It makes more sense for the long haul.  

The best part about opening Priceless Design is that I will be making money by doing something that I really love.  Something that I can get lost in for hours.  Now if only I could find a way to merge that and my masters degree into a job that paid well & had benefits.  Designing for a college website maybe?  Teaching teachers how to design online classes?  Creating pre-made class templates?  Who knows, but at least I'm narrowing down what I'd like to do.