Wow! I am SO glad I participated in Thing-A-Day this year. It was a whole new way of challenging myself, and I feel like I have gained a lot out of it!

One thing I’ve definitely learned is that I don’t want to waste another year until I decide to be creative again, so what I’m doing right now, for my final T-A-D is setting up my very own WordPress blog, in which I will document work projects (I’m a website designer), personal projects, or, heck, just use to talk about my day and how I’m feeling.

But I’m gonna keep this one much less personal than what I do on MySpace. I’ve gotten way too personal with MySpace since I started that horrid habit in January of 2006. So personal that I really have no choice but to keep my profile private, either that or go back through each of the hundreds of blogs I’ve posted and set private ones to Friends Only. And I seriously do not have the time to devote to that.

So I’m starting fresh on WordPress. I may not necessarily quit posting MySpace blogs, but I really want to shift my blogging habit to a more mature, more customizable, more blog-focused, less profile-focused format. And I’ve heard many people in my industry sing WordPress’s praises for a while now, and since Thing-A-Day, I’ve gotten to know and love the inner workings.

So here I am, to stay! On WordPress.

Now, the only problem is…. my entire blog audience resides on MySpace. Which means, I’m going to have to finagle some readers over to this direction somehow. And, while I’m at it, I’d love to make some new friends who are already on the WordPress train. So if you blog via WordPress, will you connect with me in whatever way WordPress does that? (So far, I only know how to post blogs.)

Now, I absolutely HATE to complete my Thing-A-Day journey with a post that doesn’t even have a picture!!!! So here’s a screenshot of my blog:

Yes, I know I’m a web designer using a default WordPress theme. I just started, K? I’ll design my own theme soon as I figure out where to go to insert custom CSS. (And soon as I have a few free hours to spend in Photoshop & Dreamweaver.)

So won’t you go read my first post? It’s about a website I’ll be working on this weekend. *Sigh.*

amandathomas.wordpress.com

i know this pic is a little anti-climactic for the last day, but here’s a little something to consider over the upcoming thing-a-day-less weeks and months:

i asked 10 smokers this question:

“when you’re walking with a cup of coffee and you finish it, what do you do with the empty cup?”

10/10 responded “throw it away”.

then i asked them, “how is your cigarette butt different than that empty cup?”

10/10 responded “uuuhhh…”.

litter is litter. butts count. please clean up after yourself.

http://flickr.com/photos/23386160@N08/?saved=1

I LOVE SATIN

http://flickr.com/photos/23386160@N08/?saved=1

more of the logo from wednesday.

still not done but close.

http://flickr.com/photos/23386160@N08/2282532201/

fake estate.

apologies to stanley donwood.

http://flickr.com/photos/23386160@N08/2283235320/

a few logo sketches for jj’s friend’s radio show.

http://flickr.com/photos/23386160@N08/?saved=1

out traversing the streets with leslie and joren all day.

this is what i have to show for it.

why didn’t the chicken cross the road?

http://flickr.com/photos/23386160@N08/?saved=1

cock-a-doodle-danger!

http://flickr.com/photos/23386160@N08/

thought i’d try a typeface.

didn’t finish.

http://flickr.com/photos/23386160@N08/2266506076/

Tonight I created this painting, with which I am very pleased…

And now (this is work, so I’m not sure it counts, but it does require creativity) I’m trying to improve my web design company’s logo.

Current logo:

Sketches:

Illustrator play:

And now that I’ve photographed my sketch, I can actually trace it in Illustrator and get that damn fox tail shape right. (Yeah, I don’t have a scanner. I’ve been begging my boss to get me one for a while now!)

Oh, and for the record, I didn’t slack off yesterday. I did some sketches (they just didn’t turn out post-worthy), one of my cat, one of a high heel - my absolute favorite shape in the world is the silhouette of a stiletto heel, I’m fascinated by the shape, it’s beautiful! Wearing those kinds of shoes make me fabulous, also.

Today I created some certificates and “tickets” for our Shakespeare competition tomorrow. I spent quite some time getting it just right. Of course, graphic design is not my area, and I probably could’ve done it in half the time if I’d known what I was doing. It was still kinda fun, and I’m pleased with how they look.

Valentine’s Day is my favorite holiday after Thanksgiving. I enjoy crafting for it so much and, since I love cards and writing, a handwritten valentine for each of my dear friends is a must! I think a thoughtful little card is what really captures the true spirit of the day. I reworked an older card design (with the blue dots) to go with a project I’ll be working on later this week for my co-workers and I also put together a new design, inspired by the bright color and the shape of Luv Pops, a favorite candy from my childhood. Now I just need to write the actual messages

Not feeling super inspired or energetic today (See my previous post for reason why!) so I just did this quick doodle in Adobe Illustrator… Oh well, I think it’s semi-cute. The colors were semi-inspired by a scheme on Adobe Labs’ “Kuler” application… (Look it up, it’s fun!)

My cat Max on a t-shirt.

I designed some mailing labels for our new address… I used Neo Office (it was all I had available to me) and it took forever!  It was fun, though.  This is a screen capture, but maybe I’ll post a photo of the printed labels later.

Spent some time this morning drawing up more graphics for the ongoing project of a friend’s wedding. I finished the save-the-date cards a few months ago and now I’m spreading the design elements over onto all the other pieces for the wedding: the invitation itself, menus, place cards, programs, etc.

Today I made some more floral and botanical segments in Photoshop that will eventually be printed onto wooden chopsticks. They’ll be giving them away as party favors. The exciting part though is that we’ll be having a ton of them printed up, and maybe some matching ceramics, too. Those will be the first pieces of inventory in a home goods and decor business that a small group of us are starting together.

The pieces will go into production in the next couple of months. Can’t wait to see how they turn out!