Monthly Archives: April 2011

It’s finally here! Our first email newsletter. Now that we have (over!) 100 people signed up on our Facebook page, we’d like to get 100 people signed up on our e-newsletter too. Once we reach 100 newsletter subscribers, we’re going to have a drawing for some really cool stuff. So head on over to our newsletter sign-up form and sign up to get your name entered into the drawing! Oh, but wait… you just might want to see what you’re signing up for.

Recent & Upcoming Blog Posts

Well, I’ll admit I’ve not been writing on the blogs as much as I should lately. My goal is for this feature of the newsletter to remedy that. I’ll be linking to any recent blog posts from both my Design Blog and my Tech Blog, and also giving a teaser about any upcoming posts I have planned. Nothing makes you write more than people expecting it and having that deadline, right? You, dear readers, get to hold me accountable so thanks in advance!

Featured Artist

With each newsletter, we’ll be featuring a different artist in a wide variety of media. Our featured artist section will introduce you to different artists from around the globe, showcase original designs and one-of-a-kind pieces, as well as show you where you can find more exciting designs and artwork.

Featured Product

We’re looking forward to offering many more products from Yellow Rose Designs, and here you’ll find our Featured Product of the month, with perhaps a little note about why we think it’s so special. If you have a favorite product, we would love for you to let us know on our Feedback Form!

All Wrapped Up

This play on words for one of our favorite jewelry-making styles wraps up our newsletter with events, information and any other little tid-bits we come up with along the way.

And now a word from our sponsors

Brief, small ads featuring some of our affiliate advertisers and/or sponsors that help keep us going. Be sure to check out this section for current special offers!

What else will you find in our newsletters?

In Kat’s Own Words…
At the end of our newsletter, we’ll have a fun little message from Ms. YellowRoseKat herself. She might even have a special surprise linked from the message. ;-)

Featured Partner Sites
We have several partner sites all owned and operated by Yellow Rose Designs. You’ll be able to check these out directly from our newsletter.

Yellow Rose Web Design Yellow Rose Gallery Yellow Rose Wedding Gifts & Stationery Trek to Texas

How often will I get the newsletter and where do I sign up?
Our current plan is a bi-weekly newsletter, so you should receive it twice a month. If we receive feedback that our readers want to receive it more or less often, we may adjust that, but don’t worry we’ll let you know so you can decide how often YOU want to receive it before we change anything. You can sign up right now over on our Newsletter Subscription Form. (There’s also a link there to unsubscribe if you ever change your mind.) So what are you waiting for? Scoot over there and sign up!

Tell us a little about yourself.
I’m Kathy, also known as Kat, also known as Mattie. I’m a 6th generation Texan, living in the small North Texas town founded by my ancestors. At networking meetings, I like to call myself a “multi-preneur” because I have so many business interests! I decided why choose just one!

Wow, so many aliases! Where did all the names come from?
Well, my given name is Kathy (not Katherine or Kathleen, just Kathy). Kat came about partly as a shortened version of that and also while trying to keep my Twitter name shorter. @YellowRoseKat was the shortest name I could come up with that wasn’t already taken. And Mattie is from a Monkees song.

Where did you come up with the name “Yellow Rose Designs”?
Obviously, there’s the song The Yellow Rose of Texas. Through the years, my personal web sites have typically included pages dedicated to Texas and the Rose, starting with my first site in 1993. And I’ve always loved the story of the real Yellow Rose of Texas – a woman named Emily Morgan, who, according to Texas Legend, helped Sam Houston defeat Santa Anna at the Battle of San Jacinto. Her role in the battle changed Texas history forever. I couldn’t think of a more fitting name for a business – you can take the girl out of Texas, but you can never take Texas out of the girl.

And the “Designs” part? What do you mean when you say “Design”?
LOL. I get that question all the time! Yes, I made it generic on purpose, so the business could grow with me. Almost anything involving “design” interests me. Jewelry design, graphics design, web site design, application and computer program design (object oriented programming is a form of design too!), designs from the Arts and Crafts movement, art design, architectural design, engineering design… Wikipedia defines “engineering design” as “a formulation of a plan or scheme to assist an engineer in creating a product.” So the word encompasses several of my passions all at once. Gotta love that!

You have so many interests! How do you do all of them at once?
Ha! I don’t! While setting up my business plan, I kept hearing over and over again that you should have a niche. While I don’t really have one niche interest, I am starting to individualize each of my sites so that everything isn’t all mixed up together on just one web site. Admittedly, that’s how I started out, but I quickly figured out that it can become difficult to manage that way. With the help of Knowledge For Success’ New Quest program, I was able to more concisely outline each branch of Yellow Rose Designs and how it relates to my business model as well as how they relate to each other. That helped me narrow down specific areas. So Yellow Rose Designs focuses primarily on jewelry design, Arts & Crafts design, graphic design, and web site design.

How many web sites do you have?
I own 25 domain names, though not all are active. You can see all of the active sites on the About page for my blog here: http://blog.yellowrosedesigns.net/about/. There are currently about 10 live web sites (including this blog), with 9 more already in the planning stages.

You mentioned having a site in 1993. How did you get started in web design?
Yes, that was when I started. I was working as a secretary for Tarrant County Junior College (now it’s Tarrant County College), and I found myself lucky enough to work in the Media Department. That included the audio/visual department, computer labs, and the graphics and photography departments for the school. So I not only had the opportunity to assist the graphics department when they needed help – more than once, I was solely responsible for the internal campus newsletter layout – our director also tried to keep up with changing technology as well, giving me an opportunity that few people had at that time. When she heard other schools were getting involved in something called “the World Wide Web”, she picked me to attend seminars at nearby universities and even meet directly with Apple to research new server technology. There was no such thing as a degree in web technology then. Luckily one of the universities at the forefront of training other professionals from colleges and universities was Southern Methodist University, right here in the Dallas, Fort Worth metroplex. Their seminars were where I received my initial training and from there found online bulletin board and Usenet chat groups to discuss, share ideas and learn from each other.

If you had only one word to describe your business, what would it be?
Eclectic. :-)

Now it’s your turn! Have a question for Owner/Designer/Multi-preneur, Kathy Bigham from Yellow Rose Designs? Ask it in the comments and she’ll answer your questions too!