Surprise! Plus an Interview and a GIVEAWAY!

Take a look around!  Do you like the design?  If so, what do you like?  Would you change anything? 

I’ve been having a ball working with a great designer named Judi at DoodleBug Designs!  Judi has a surprise for YOU too!  She is giving away a FREE premade template for your own blog!  For those of you who do not have a blog, I have a special giveaway just for you!  Read on!

Today’s Works for Me Wednesday is all about Judi, blog designs, and moms working from home.

I asked Judi, What works for you as a designer?

[Judi] I find that having lots of information works well for me- whether it’s educational information or customer information.  The more I have, the better equipped I am to provide a fabulous design for each client.  I stay organized which helps keep everything going smoothly and quickly.  I have very detailed and ordered folders on my computer.

I asked Judi, What was hard for you to learn in blog design?

[Judi] A lot of people would say the coding would be the most difficult – but not for me! The hardest thing  was learning the graphics program and all you can do with it. I look back at some of the designs I first did and think “man was that plain or what”. I just had to learn all the tricks and fun things you can do with the program to spiff up designs.

Can you teach us some of those tricks?

[Judi] Sure, but I don’t know if I should give away my secrets or I may be out of business! There is a wealth of information on the internet about blog template design. You can Google it and get just about anything you could ever want or need. That is how I got started. I also learned a lot by playing around with my own template code. Once you see how it works it really isn’t extremely difficult, depending on what you want in a design. And, of course, you can always contact me and I will help you as much as possible!

I asked Judi, What works for you as a work at home mom?

[Judi] I try to restrict myself to working when the kids are in bed for the evening.  I also can get some things done during nap time now that my oldest is back at school. I tend to be somewhat of a “work-aholic” so I really have to monitor myself!  I can get my household stuff done, errands run, bills paid, etc. during the day.  I find that the family does better when we stick to a routine.  So everyone pretty much knows that at 9:00 pm I will be upstairs in the office working.  I keep them informed of how many orders I have and the status of each.  It really helps that they are interested in what I am doing. I also try to take a day off on the weekend, usually Sunday.  Recently I have tried to set a cut off time to go to bed because I have been known to be up until 3:00am working on designs. Yikes!

I read on your website that you had a premature baby, can you tell us about that?

My baby boy was born 1-9-06 at 26 weeks gestation (3-1/2 months premature). He is a miracle from God. He was in the NICU for 3 months. We saw him quit breathing too many times but thank God he is a perfect little boy now.

Thank you Judi for your great design, for sharing with us, and for the giveaway!

To enter the giveaway, leave your name and what you like best on this Heart Reflections design.  If you have any tips yourself, please share!

For those of you not needing a blog design, I have a special Bible just for you (which goes along with yesterday’s post).  It is The Message translation of the New Testament in a fun jean designed cover.

The winner will posted on Monday, September 22, 2008.