Birthday Holiday

Im now back in work after being off for 6 days for my Brithday. Im now 31!

Today I went along to the Everyman for lunch, which is where I usually go for a treat. I got a Wild Rice and Chickory Salad to take out and I walked along and sat on the steps at the top of Mount Pleasant opposite Blackbure House.
The sun was shining and the two different salads were fantastic! It was a nice peaceful lunch.

On the way to the steps I walked past a lamb Banana which you can see to the left..

Getting Motivated

http://www.alistapart.com/articles/stayingmotivated

Found this great little article that I found very useful and will probably go back and look at a few more times in the future.

Weight Loss

Well, I made it.
I started a meal replacement program at the end of March 2007 with the intention of loosing 4 stone in 4 months. The meal replacement program was 3 shakes a day along with 4 litres of water, this includes no "real food" what so ever! No milk, chewing gum, mints, absolutely NOTHING and I will say it was the second hardest thing I have done in my life. The first hardest being giving up smoking.

The reason why I undertook this challenge is because Andy and I are getting married next year (August 2008) and I didn't want to walk down the isle feeling uncomfortable and not looking my best. I now weigh the same as I did when Andy and I got together and I must say I'm very pleased with my achievement!

I have now been on the maintenance plan for a week where I have been introducing "real food" back into my life and I will be on it for another 2 weeks. After the two weeks I will be full time eating food.

I received 12 sessions with a personal trainer of my birthday which will help me tone up and get into shape.

I would just like to say thank you to Pat (www.higginpharmacy.co.uk) for pointing me in the direction of Lipotrim and recommend it to anyone who wants to loose that extra weight they dont want.

Staying Creative

http://www.graphicdefine.org/issue2/stayingcreative#comment-326

I found this article from the boagworld site and found it very interesting. As I am currently in a role where creativity and design is no longer required I had to do something about it.
I am a designer not a programmer and need to be creative.. THis article has just helped me realise what steps I need to make to staying creative and recommend that you read it if you having blocks of creatvity..

What have I been doing?

Well, I have been rather busy lately!
With starting up Koogar (www.koogar.co.uk) and decorating the house and just general life I haven't really stopped!

Koogar seems to be kicking off quiet well. I have been doing a lot of work for my sisters businesses Wicked Wicker (www.wicked-wicker.co.uk) and Wicked Way (www.wicked-way.co.uk - TO BE LAUNCHED SOON), part of her Wicked Empire or (www.wicked-group.co.uk). Bless her she is working hard and putting me to the test with the work she wants me to complete. But this is what I wanted! to do more design work.
You can see some of the work I have been doing for her at: http://www.koogar.co.uk/portfolio.php. Let me know what you think..

Since being at CDL the design work has dwindled away and I have become more of a developer, which isn't a problem as I now have a new way of thinking, but what I really miss is the design process and coming up with new ideas.

I have recently bought some "ZIG KURECOLOR" markers that should help me get back into drawing and sketching. I haven't yet used them but I'm excited about getting back into the swing of things.

Soon I will be launching a proper "Amanda Daniels" (www.amandadaniels.co.uk) web site. I haven't ever really had one and have decided that as a designer I really need one, not only to challenge me to create something original but to show off who I am by trying out new code and design techniques. So keep your eye out for the new site.

www.koogar.co.uk

I have been so busy lately its un-true.
Setting up a company is a lot harder than I thought it would be. I knew it was going to be hard but you have to be committed to work probably every night of the week to stay on top of the everyday things like reading emails and replying to them.
It might not sound like much but even just reading emails takes a lot of your time up. Once you have replied to them, then that's when you can start the work which usually takes me to midnight or even one o'clock in the morning.

Last weekend I attened the Business Startup Fair in Birmigham N.E.C. I went by myself which was a little daunting but I did it and Im really glad I went. I sat in on a lot of seminars and talked to some good companies.

What I will say is that its really exciting doing it, wondering if its going to work what else can I do to get noticed....
If you would like to take a look at my site its www.koogar.co.uk. Let me know what you think. I appreciate any feedback as long as its constructive.. ;)

Christmas/New Year and Broadband

Well.. We have had a problem with our broadband provider in terms of they stopped supplying their users with broadband in November without any warning. We were with V21/Biscuit and one morning we had a message pop up through Internet Explorer explaining that we would not be receiving broadband from V21 any more as they had not been conducting business correctly. But you can read the full story here..

http://news.zdnet.co.uk/communications/0,1000000085,39285135,00.htm

Anyway, how are you supposed to run a web design company when you haven't got access to the Internet? That's right!, you cant. So we have been offline for a total of 1 month. We saw a great offer by Sky who we are now with which have been OK so far.

Christmas and New Year 2006/207 has been a good one and quiet one this year. Andy and I painted our new kitchen and put down the floor while we were off and it looks fantastic!
In the New Year we will be looking into getting a kitchen to put into our new area, which I'm quiet excited about. But before we do that we have decided to re-decorate the dining room so it has the same type of look as the kitchen as the rooms run into each other. The steaming of the dining room started on New Years Eve. According to Andy there's no time like the present..

So I am very sorry for not writing any blogs, but I'm now back on the Internet and have no excuse any more.

On Hold

I'm sorry, but lately I haven't had time to update my blog. Everything somehow has gone on hold. Things have happened recently in work where lots of things changed at once and it made me take a step back and think who am I and what is it that I want.

I came across a great article a while ago that helped me a little and gave me a laugh when I needed one, so I recommend this for Designer/Developers of the web. Everything you wanted to know about designers

I am at the stage now where I'm still not too sure of what I want and in which direction I should go in, but what I do know is that I need to have a good hard think about how I want to progress as a designer/developer. So I promise from now on at least once a week I shall let you guys know what I have been up to, whether its about re-designing my kitchen, stripping the garden ready for winter or that I have done a good design for my portfolio..

Podcasting

Well, I have discovered the greatness of podcasting!
Recently I found a site called boagworld.com which I have found quite useful, so while I was there I decided to try downloading some podcasts to my ipod mini as I haven't done this before and wanted to experience a podcast.

As it takes me an hour or so to get to work, listening while driving seems like a good idea as we are not allowed headphones in work any more, (yes I know, ridiculous!) . Any way Tuesday morning was the first time I listened to a podcast and it was surprisingly good. Its a great way of finding out opinions, what people think of certain programs and having your fears/thoughts confirmed.
I now know that I'm not the only one who feels that way about certain issues and now I wonder why I haven't done this before.. I am the only designer in my team at work which means I haven't got anyone to bounce ideas or thoughts off which is sometimes difficult.

So now, instead of wasting my precious time listening to Radio1 for a little over 12 hours a week, I can now learn something new. I'm actually looking for a good Photoshop podcast so if anyone has any suggestions or knows of any other podcasts that would interest me, please feel free to let me know which ones you are listening to..

1st LIVE website : www.perfectstudios.co.uk

Just so you know, I have put my first website I have done in a while LIVE. You can view it at http://www.perfectstudios.co.uk. It was a long slog to get this web site done as it was a re-design, which I now realise take longer than creating a brand new website.
Please let me know what you think..