Last Year: a nutshell
Tina Fey once said that the first year of your child’s life feels like you’re being constantly hit in the head with a hammer every day. I can agree with this, but with the caveat that you don’t mind it quite so much when you get to hang out with such cute people:
My son Arthur had his first birthday this past Friday and I am literally flabbergasted. A whole year? Really?
Given the times and how they are flying, it seemed to be a good time to recap the two bigger work projects I’ve done in the last year:
Southborough Public Library
I worked with Director Jane Cain and her lovely staff last winter to come up with a brand new web presence for their library. They needed to do some blogging, be able to make their own changes to text and images on static pages, incorporate a third-party application for an event calendar, various reference databases, their email newsletter, and their library catalog. I also set up staff email for their domain, and I manage their web hosting in addition to WP software upgrades, backups and any other ongoing site maintenance that may come up.
John Lewis Lights
Independent artisan John Lewis crafts the most exquisite blown glass I have ever encountered. When he came to me needing help with a new site it was obvious that his organic shapes and vivid colors should be the visual focus. I used the Thesis framework to create a customized WordPress site with an understated color palette, image galleries of work for sale, and an integrated feed of his work for sale on Etsy. I also helped him out with an audiovisual version of an “artist’s statement” set to original music provided by his son.
When I decided to leave full-time work in public libraries to be a technology consultant, I didn’t do it with an eye to becoming a WordPress developer. I have used WordPress in my personal life for years and as over time I feel it has really grown into becoming more than just a blogging platform: as an overall CMS for designing general-interest websites I think it’s hard to top in terms of its flexibility and usability. Thesis has been an amazing resource for client-based work: I can easily respond to client requests for layout changes and tweaks with shortcuts that would have otherwise taken me hours to bash together with PHP.
There have been a few smaller things here and there, too, in between playing peekaboo and sweeping up Cheerios off the floor: I helped my local public library get set up with a Facebook page. I still help Nancy Hunter Denney with updating her website. I’ve designed and distributed the email newsletter for UAC Ukraine and I helped John at Frank Lamparelli Oil with YouTube.
The weather in New England is finally starting to warm up and I’m itching to get out and enjoy it! Have a great spring, everyone!
