Careers in Beauty

Looking for cosmetology school in Illinois? I would like to recommend the Regency Beauty Institute. I've came across their site while helping a friend from Chicago find a school where she can learn more about hair cosmetology. We love what their program has to say - about showcasing your skills while learning, how to be exceptional and being rewarded in the end by acquiring a professional career in beauty.

Don't have the budget? They have financial aid so that the only thing you'll have to worry is how to make everyone beautiful around you. All you need to do is fill out a form so they can calculate and see how much you can receive through grants and loans. Financial aid, top of the line facilities, career networking - it's like the universe is conspiring to help you achieve your dreams! What more can you ask for?

Just Cant Wait

Was there anything in this past week that you couldn’t wait to be done with?
+ Yes.

If so, what?
+ Design tasks, credit card bills, household chores and financial matters that need to be settled.

Did you clear it out of the way or will it face you once the new week resumes?
+ I'm a great procastinator.

Do you now know how to prevent such a thing from occurring in the future?
+ Do everything once it arrives.

Work work work

Let's see what's on my plate today:

1. Design two new web site mockups for a client.
2. Convert a chosen design for another client.
3. Post new xhtml/css to-dos on our internal community.
4. Create a flash slideshow for an actor's website.
5. Study how to create a spray paint can effect in flash.

Whew. I hope I can finish one of them at least.

Everything Zen

That's what I've been trying to do for the last couple of weeks. However, I don't think my mind is made up that way because I just couldn't seem to take it easy. I worry about the smallest things and on my downtime, I list things that I need to do on my head. I'm either holding my phone to jot down things or compute expenses or read a book. Maybe I should let go of all electronic devices so I'd have no choice but to meditate. And when I say meditate, I really meant sleeping.

I hope tomorrow is a different day.

Another Day

Family obligations first before personal plans. My mother got hospitalized two days ago but she's okay now. Still, I want to make sure that she's getting the best medical attention so I'm going to take her to a specialist tomorrow. It might help if she hears directly from the doctor that her work is too stressful and how she needs to take it easy. I know she gets bored at home so I'm willing to give her my old laptop to keep her busy.

Me and my twitter friends are having an online exchange gifts. I haven't bought my "baby" her gift yet so that's another agenda for tomorrow. I'm prettyexcited because I know she'd be really happy when she finds out what I'm going to do with her gift. Nope, I won't spill it here. Soon, I promise.

It's Friday now but the night is still long. I'm off to research on snowmobile parts for a client but hopefully, I can turn off my laptop earlier than 9PM.

Good Morning Monday

To start this week, I want to make sure that I finish all my tasks by posting a to-do list. All of this should be scratched off by Friday. If not, then I'll consider this another failed week.

1. Learn how to create email newsletter using the new software.
2. Ask Michael about the incoming email stats. Prepare a marketing plan on how to improve number of reads and clicks.
3. Make a quote for a new website that's similar to Ripoffreport.com
4. Two website mockups for an online trading site
5. Call new call agents for initial interview. Make sure to ask Operations for Skype username.

A Very Busy Week

It has been four days since The Husband got back from the hospital. I should've been back in the groove of working and blogging but unfortunately, I'm now down with colds and cough. Sandy has cough due to her colds too but I'm really thankful that it wasn't her who got the dengue fever. My bosses and clients are very sympathetic too that they are giving me enough free days to take care of The Husband. My boss even sent me a long email on how he researched about dengue fever. For sure he got the worst case scenario so he's giving me all the time I need. Anyway, I hope I'll feel better enough to start designing and coding again. Although my clients are very understanding, there's something about unfinished tasks that stresses me out even if I was given time not to work on it. Right now, blogging is the only thing that I can do because I'd never get tired talking about myself LOL. I haven't been taking pictures lately but hopefully, I can start again this week.

Trouble at work

All our client sites are down. Yaiiks! This means we all need to be on our toes as we pacify and answer client inquiries about their f@ckd up websites. I hope there's something that I can do to help our company but my hands are tied. The tech guys will have to do their magic this time.

I can't sleep, I'm worried. We're talking about hundreds of websites that are down for more than 36 hrs here. What if they all decide to move to a new host / ecommerce platform? Crazy, crazy day.

Something work related

Since we're launching a new campaign next month, my boss wanted me to design a fun logo especially for that campaign. He's planning to give out imprinted promotional products to our existing clients with hopes of getting more sign ups. The thing is I hate designing vector artworks. I'm very good with Photoshop and it's too bad that it can only do bitmaps. Illustrator and Fireworks still scare me but I have no choice. I need to improve my skills so I won't ever have to face this hurdle in the future again.

Site Seeing

I really like the design of this real estate website selling Branson lots. I was just browsing for inspiration when I came across their site. The color scheme is just so right for the properties that they are selling - earthy, nature, calm. How I wish we can have a getaway there and stay in one of their comfortable cabins. I love staying in cabins because you're much closer to nature as opposed to being cooped up in a hotel. Anyway, enough blabbing. I need to take notes from this site so I can come up with a mockup for this new website that I'm working on.

iMAC?

Whenever my boss comes to the Philippines to check out his team, he brings old gadgets and computer paraphernalia to give away to anyone interested. Last year he gave me a used cisco router that I used for my home network. It lasted a year before I had to buy a new one. A couple of months ago, my boss asked me if I want one of his old iMacs. I can't answer him immediately because my heart was pounding really hard LOL. Of course I would love one! I can already imagine the difference it will make to my designs. Not wanting to sound too eager, I said, "Yeah, I could use one". Bad move. He thought I wasn't that interested and just told me to wait for another year and they might buy me a better model. LOL. Like that will ever happen. In their defense, they did pay for my HP laptop. However, that makes it even less possible that they'll purchase another one for me.

Checking Out

I came across the MooseJaw site via my PUB assignment. My first impression is that I love the color scheme of the whole site including the layout. Almost all of our ecommerce clients in my company are into sports products so I make sure to take note the design of each sports site that I visit. I also liked the layout of the product detail pages and the tabs to display more info. I even tried to purchase some volcom clothing just to have a feel of the checkout process.

Just when you don't need them

... tons of designs tasks appear on your inbox. My boss might somehow forgotten the fact that I'm on holiday for two days. He and one of our clients from Las Vegas have been sending me urgent updates to their websites for the last hour. Of course, I can't say no to them. I'm not that type of person who will leave them hanging especially if I'm the only one who can resolve the issue. However, I hope this doesn't happen next next week when we go to Bohol. I won't have Internet access there and I sure hope that I won't be working at all.

The Best Candidate

I've had several bad experiences recruiting employees to our virtual company. We don't have an HR department so all recruitment process is being done by myself. Given the high employee turnover, I can say that I wasn't doing a good job. Which is why I highly advise any business to hire recruiters to ensure that all skill sets, experiences and work ethics requirements are properly met. Our company can use the help of A.E. Feldman Associates because not only they are known for their consistent record of successful placements, but also they believe in building strong relationships between clients and candidates. And this, I believe is the foundation of a successful company.

Sponsored by Blogitive

Just Me

Still finishing all my backlogs at work. Haven't slept properly for two days (see other posts) and I feel like passing out any minute. Good thing there's blogging to keep me awake LOL. Things are just fine on my fulltime job but I hope it gets better. Another team member was let go yesterday so that just means more work for the remaining staff, mainly me. Not complainin'! I love my job very much. How often can you find something that's willing to pay you big bucks doing what you love at the comforts of your home?

My side projects are doing very good at the moment that I can't help but feel that I can save a lot of money before the year ends. I know I talk about money all the time but it's all for the little one's future.

Work and Play

More and more mothers are resigning from the workforce to put up their own home based business. They want to spend more time with the kids yet still have income to pay for the bills. This was rare and almost impossible to accomplish ten years ago but with the advancement of technology, there are businesses that you can do from the comforts of your own home. I know a friend who makes and sells jewelry online and she's earning a lot. There are also tons of reseller packages for almost anything in the Internet, which allows anyone to put up a business without having to know it all. You can have your own hosting company, domain registration, etc just by paying a small fee monthly. And did I mention paid blogging? I can't stress enough how easy it is to earn money through blogs.

Seeing your kids grow up right before your eyes is something that money can't buy. But if you can do both, then I don’t see why not? Just look at me. I design websites for a living and still spend almost every waking hour with the little one.

A Beautiful Life

I've been doing well on my design projects. Just last week, I received two quote requests, one for an agent selling Arizona real estate and another one a brochure for a fitness company. I can't believe I'm receiving lots of projects lately. I guess I have my website to thank for. Ever since I finished my portfolio site, design requests have been coming in regularly. I have the best of both worlds. Doing what I love, and getting paid to do it.

The Graveyard Shift

It's late and I don't know how long I can keep my eyes open anymore. I still have about 5 design task and I'm so far from finishing my paid post about Imperial Palace Las Vegas. The Husband is snoring beside me and I'm trying my best not to throw anything at him. Forget about waking up the little girl, his snoring can rouse the whole village. I believe that the nighttime is the best time for me to work. No Sandy calling her mommy every 10 minutes, no phone calls to take and no TV shows to distract me. Except I need to watch out for my husband’s snoring or else, the little one might wake up and ask for me.

Oh well, back to work. If only my eyes will let me.

D.O.N.E

Okay enough blogging!!! I need to get something done. I've already spent half of my day browsing web sites knowing I haven't started anything on my to-do list. I've been dreading emailing my new client's product liability attorney so I'm trying to postpone it until he forces me to do it. He wants me to get in touch with him so I can fully understand what he wants for his web site and given the state that I'm in - tired, bored and uninspired; I'll probably learn a lot.

The little girl is watching Harry Potter for the nth time and all I want to do is sit with her. It’s so nice to just sit back and enjoy life.

Well, like I said. Enough whining. Time to rock!

Working at home - all hype?

I've been finding it hard to work lately. Sandy's separation anxiety is on its peak so she's always looking for me even if I'm in the other room. Imagine yourself writing or designing something important when all of a sudden, you hear a loud cry with a heart-breaking "Mommmyyy". What do you do? I suppose I can ignore her but my heart just won't. I always find myself checking on her and upon seeing her tear-streaked face, there's really nothing I can do but to hold her in my arms. It's not so bad really. I can use the break from time to time. What's hard is once I stop what I'm doing, I just can't go back to it immediately. Whatever it is that I'm thinking gets wiped out, leaving me with an unfinished article or a half-baked design job.

I probably need to sleep really late or wake up really early so I can get something done.