Iowa Bed & Breakfast Innkeepers Cookbook draft

emily — Sat, 08 Nov 2008 17:02:13 +0000

Just thought I would share a sneak peek of the newest IBBIA cookbook cover I’ve been working on this week. This is the 2nd edition of the cookbook and the IBBIA members wanted a slightly different look for the cover. Evidently the first cover didn’t properly convey the message they were seeking so they have provided a series of images for me to choose from for the the cover. I was quite pleased with the first edition cover but I think this one will just just as nice…and more importantly the members of the association will be happier with the end result.

The photo I used was taken by IBBIA member, Mary Nichols - owner of The Hannah Marie Country Inn.

I have yet to add the first edition of Discover Iowa: Cooking with Iowa Wines, Meats and Other Iowa Products to my portfolio but the book can be seen and purchased from Amazon.

Katrina Foley.com Blog

emily — Sat, 01 Nov 2008 15:39:30 +0000

A few weeks ago I pulled an all-nighter designing a blog for KatrinaFoley.com. A blog was definately needed for this site as the site is updated on a regular basis with information that is vital to community members. The blog keeps the information in a very organized format and proves to be a much quicker & cleaner way to get the information to the public. Here is a preview of the blog.

This top of the line interactive news blog has the following advanced features: news-magazine style layout, banner advertising, Flickr (photo) display integration, social networking integration. Visit Katrina Foley’s news blog.

Hunting Lodge Draft

emily — Fri, 31 Oct 2008 11:34:41 +0000

One of my latest projects is a small site for a hunting lodge in Mount Ayr, Iowa. This has been more of a challenge than usual simply because I know nothing about hunting and so I’m just not sure which way to go creatively. Hopefully with this clean layout, I’m on the right path. Submitting to the client this morning so we will soon see!

On a side note, I’m not a hunter but I think if I were…this place sounds like a great weekend getaway with your group of fellow hunting buddies. The photos I’ve received of the land are beautiful!

Heying Tax Services is LIVE!

emily — Wed, 01 Oct 2008 21:48:13 +0000

I’m happy to announce that the redesign of Heying Tax & Financial Services is officially complete!

Jake and Alana Heying have been wonderful to work with and it goes without saying that I appreciate the fact that they entrusted their web design needs with me. If you are in need of accounting/financial services, be sure to give them a call!

Katrina Foley Campaign Site

emily — Wed, 17 Sep 2008 21:22:32 +0000

Katrina Foley’s Re-Elect Campaign page is one that I’ve been working on for a few months now. It is updated on a regular basis as it’s campaign time right now. This site features a few dynamic widgets that really make the site interactive and current with online trends while not being too flashy.

Live Site

Princess Theater - Video Tutorial

emily — Tue, 16 Sep 2008 17:20:02 +0000

Another very cool feature on the Princess Theater site is the ability to post videos and have them displayed on the main page! For visual purposes, only one video is displayed at a time but visitors to the site can simply click on any of the numbered tabs to switch between videos to view.

To post a video, you will need to log-in to the backend of the site, otherwise known as the dashboard, and create/write a new post.

Now you are ready to start your video post. It is very similar to creating any other kind of post with the exception of the Key + Value Fields and a little bit of YouTube link editing. It may seem a bit confusing at first but after posting a few videos it will not seem so confusing…hopefully. :) This image should will hit on all the important aspects of the post with the exception of how to grab the YouTube URL/link but I will go over that in a bit.

Okay now if you haven’t gone to YouTube to find the video you want to post, go there now & find the one you want. Be sure you have watched the video before deciding on one because you want to be sure you are grabbing the one with content & quality you are happy with. Once you have found the video clip you would like to use, you are going to find the box that provides you with the URL to copy (see image below). Use your mouse to place your cursor in that box & highlight the entire URL. Once it is highlighted, you will then hold down both the CTRL and C keys on your keyboard to copy the URL.

Now that you have the link to the video itself you are ready to add it to the Value section of your video post. Keep in mind that you will be altering the copied URL slightly otherwise the video will not show up correctly in the post. So go ahead and place your cursor in the Value box next to the Key and hold down the keys CTRL and V to paste the video URL. Now use your cursor to remove watch? from the URL. Next you want to use your cursor to replace the equal sign with “/“.

So the original copied URL goes from

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yzhxHsqQvsI

http://www.youtube.com/v/yzhxHsqQvsI

Now you should be all set to click on your Publish button and share the video with all the visitors to your site! If you have any questions or comments, post a comment here and I will do my best to answer any questions!

Princess Theater of Mount Ayr

emily — Sat, 13 Sep 2008 21:56:27 +0000

I’ve just finished the finishing touches on this blog and I’m so pleased with how it turned out. The client was wanting a blog that would be easy to navigate but at the same time host a few advanced features like multiple videos on the main page, ad management, and community interactivity. This blog is a bit more advanced than I usually do for clients but I had so much fun working on it! Honestly I would love to have more clients that want a blog that has a few of the more intensive features but at the same time I have an appreciation for the simpler style blogs.

If you are ever in the area of Mount Ayr, Iowa…be sure to stop in the Princess Theater for some entertainment. Until then, have a peek at the site and let them know what you think of it!
Live Site

Princess Theater Blog Tutorial

emily — Sat, 13 Sep 2008 00:13:09 +0000

I will try and make this little tutorial as simple & painless as possible. It may be alot to take in at first but I promise all these little details will make your blog attractive & functional. If you have any questions about any of these steps…just leave me a comment and I will respond to your question here so that it will be easy to come back and refer to.

Let’s get started!

Featured Gallery
One of my favorite parts of this blog is the Featured Gallery. The Featured Gallery is basically a large rectangle image, a title & an excerpt of a post…actually it’s a series of these elements, hence the word Gallery!

To create posts that will show up in the Featured Gallery first you will need an image that is exactly 590 pixels x 240 pixels. To create a Featured Gallery post, you will go to Write New Post page.

You will see in the image above that you will need to upload an image for this post. You will do so by clicking on a little box located in the toolbar right above the area that you type your post. Here are images to walk you through the process of uploading your Featured Gallery image.

Once you have located the file on your computer and selected it, it will go through a process called Crunching. Then you will see the following screen.

Keep in mind that you only need to do the things that are highlighted with my notations in blue. For the Featured Gallery image, do not select Insert into Post.

More to come later…

Heying Tax Services

emily — Sat, 02 Aug 2008 14:08:20 +0000

I am currently redesigning the website for Heying Tax Services located in Spencer, Iowa. The site is not yet finished so there is no live website for you to check out unless you want to see the old design which was created by another designer. Jake Heying approached me wanting a more modern looking site in which to represent Heying Tax Services. After meeting with him I knew this was going to be a very pleasant working experience as he knew exactly what he wanted for his site…all I had to do was come up with a color theme and get to work on a layout design. My favorite part of this job is the creative design so when I have clients like Jake, I am basically able to devote a big portion of my time to the process of designing because he had already done (or is doing) the little details like page titles & exact text for each page. Once the site is launched & active, I will be posted the link so be sure to check back.

UPDATE: This site is now live! Check it out: Heying Tax & Financial Services.

Clean Water Alliance

emily — Sat, 02 Aug 2008 13:43:10 +0000

This is a site that I am very proud of and am so pleased to have it here in my portfolio. The Clean Water Alliance website was basically designed around a very specific shade of blue which the client had already picked out and a logo. The header (top portion of the site) was created by basically disassembling the clients logo and then places some of the elements of the logo onto some very attractive & soothing wave designs. I was taking a bit of a chance by taking apart the clients logo but the risk paid off because the client is very pleased with the website.

Note that credit is listed at TotalWebDesigner.com. While credit is not given to my company name, the site was designed and is maintained by myself as I am the Head Designer at TotalWebDesigner.com.

Visit Live Website