Published August 16, 2010 | 
I’ve been hard at work on my personal Portfolio and moving all of my “techie” updates to the Portfolio blog. If you’re interested in my Facebook, site design, or WordPress updates, be sure to subscribe to the Portfolio site since that’s where any new techie news related updates will be.
I’ve also got a new pet project working on a genealogy site for my family. Here’s a little sneak preview of it: TrekToTexas.com. It’s been quite successful so far. The first week it was up, I was already contacted by the local historical societies interested in learning more about it, and another recent contact was from someone who has photos he thinks might belong to my family. I’ll be meeting with him tomorrow to look through them and I can’t wait to see if they’re pictures of my own ancestors. (No need to hit the panic button – we’re meeting in a public antique mall.)
There are some other updates I’ll be working on in the coming weeks/months here too, so stay tuned – we’re not off the air yet. I guess you could say I’m “niching out.” 
But don’t worry. The blog remains the same. I’ll still be posting my Wishcraft updates here, as well as the business plans, and any random thoughts I might come up with. So, where to next?
Back to the studio in a few weeks. Here’s my latest project:
It’s my second piece of stained glass I’ve made and I’m totally hooked. I can’t wait to make more!
Deciding on the direction of YellowRoseDesigns.net and YellowRoseGallery.com. The Gallery site is blank since the switch to a new host. Do I merge the two sites or make it a real “Gallery”? I’m going to give Etsy a try for some of my jewelry. I’ve been looking into doing some craft shows, but I must admit getting a little discouraged that I wasn’t accepted into the first two that I applied for. Jewelry is the toughest category, after all, but these were smaller, lesser-known shows.
And as it turns out, since I made the decision to move away from web design and more towards arts, crafts and digital designs, more people are interested in my web programming and WordPress skills. It seems to have renewed my own enthusiasm for web design. That’s been my “day job” for the past 9 years. I thought I was burned out (and a little discouraged there too. corporate contracts have been getting fewer and farther between), but coding for WordPress and Facebook have opened up a whole new niche for me, so the excitement is building again.
So, there I am, in a nutshell. Oh, and somewhere in there, “getting a life.” I hear they’re all the rage.
Life is what happens to you while you’re busy making other plans.
~John Lennon
Posted in Blogging, Business, General Rants | 
Blogging, Business, crafts, niche, web site design, websites | 
Leave a commentPublished November 17, 2009 | According to everything I’ve read from the experts, I’m going about pretty much everything all wrong. Niche! Niche! Niche! They all say. And while I do indeed have niche designs, I don’t really have a niche shop, or even a niche web site (yet. that could be changing soon.) Not only that, but my "brand" is broad and I apparently share it with a "gentleman’s club" in Houston.
The question now becomes: Why don’t I change my brand? And why not branch out to smaller niche shops and link them together?
In answer to the second question , I may do that down the road, but I’ve discovered it’s easier to work on my catch-all site first. (Plus keeping all designs at CP and Z in one "shop" is just easier for payment. I don’t earn enough yet to branch out to dozens of smaller shops.)
As for the brand, I’ve gone through countless business names (the one I paid to incorporate was the worst one of all) and none seemed to "fit." This one does – and has the most interesting story behind it of any name I could have.
My brand is me. When someone sees my logo (the drawing of the rose inside a Texas outline), it’s recognizable. When they see my icon (my manga drawing that my sweetheart did of me), or my site background (the rose trellis), they know right away that it’s me. Someone I met recently even said she recognized the icon right away and could tell it was a drawing of me, and old friends can tell it’s me too as soon as they see it. I’m extremely flattered every time I hear that because I happen to think the drawing is quite lovely. Even though there are other icons that are similar to each other, none are quite like mine. It helps distinguish my brand, which I love.
For the first time, I feel that my business name and brand "fit." And nothing feels better than something that fits well.
The Yellow Rose of Texas.
There’s a Yellow Rose in Texas,
That I am going to see.
No other feller knows her,
No other one but me.She cried so when I left her,
It nearly broke my heart.
And if I ever find her,
We nevermore will part.She’s the sweetest little rosebud,
That Texas ever knew
Her eyes are bright as diamonds,
They sparkle like the dew,You may talk about your Clementine
and sing of Rosalee,
But The Yellow Rose of Texas
is the only girl for me!
There really was a "Yellow Rose" of Texas and she helped shape Texas history as much as Sam Houston himself. Emily West Morgan was a lovely mulatto slave girl captured by Santa Anna on his march to San Jacinto. Emily sent word to Sam Houston and kept Santa Anna "occupied" while the Texans surrounded his army and defeated him, literally "catching him with his pants down." Texas owes her freedom to the beautiful slave girl who risked her own life in the Texas battle for independence.
Read more in the historical fiction: Miss Emily, The Yellow Rose of Texas
Posted in Business, POD Companies | Business, marketing, niche, POD companies, Wishcraft | 1 Comment
