Bendigedig and a Website

I don't know if you knew this, but I'm horrible with technology.  Like, really bad.  It's why I have Macs as my brothers would tell you.  

So just bear with me as I gush and say that I figured out how to set up this blog under my personal domain!  I feel so cool right now, guys.

So, now if you go to www.sarasilkwood.com, it redirects you here - Ha!  How awesome is that?
And yes, Marcus, I can hear you and your super-computer laughing at me.


So if you're curious, here's how you do it:

First you have to have a domain name (mine's with GoDaddy.com), obviously.  After you have one, you go here, which is kind of a step by step outline of what you need to do.  Blogger has something set up with GoDaddy which is supposed to make it really easy (but don't believe them, IT'S NOT).  You go through, tick a few boxes and if you have a domain through GoDaddy, you're supposedly done!  But then you still have to go and do everything that people without GoDaddy have to do, so, I'm not quite sure what the point of all that was.  

First you have to got to your DNS Manager.  It took me a couple days to figure out how to do that.  

Don't judge me.

On GoDaddy, open up your account manager and under the products tab, click the launch button next to the domain option.  Click on the domain you want to link to your blog (if you have more than one) and that's gonna open a page with a whole bunch of text and cyber jargon.  You're looking for the DNS Manager (which on mine was located close to the middle/bottom of the page between "Nameservers" and "TLD Specific" and no, I have no idea what those are).  Under DNS Manager, there's going to be more cyber jargon and "@" and stuff, but at the very bottom there's going to be another "launch" link.  Click that.  

Now you should be in some kind of zone file editor or something.  No I do not know what that is.  Go down to the "CNAME (Alias)" box/table and you'll see three columns "Host", "Points To" and "TTL".  Find the host "www" that points to "ghs.google.com" and tick that box. Then, you're gonna have to click that quick add button at the bottom and paste what ever mumbo-jumbo Blogger spit up when it told you there was a problem with linking your blog to the domain name.  Then save it.  Make sure those two boxes are ticked and log out.  Supposedly it takes a while, but I was able to open everything up right away, which is how I figure out it worked!  

Don't judge me.  

So now www.sarasilkwood.com links here!  I decided to do this because the holding site I had up with GoDaddy while I try and put my real one together was an embarrassment.  So I found Dan dos Santo's blog article from Muddy Colors and threw together my new gallery page (it really only took like, 10 minutes, for real).  Let me know what you think.  The great thing about it is that I can really easily add or delete pieces and by changing the post date I can decide where on the list the pieces fall.  Easy. Neat. Bendigedig.  

Hutchmoot Countdown

Ugh.  The craziness hasn't ended.  Washington was just the beginning.  September starts a whole new gauntlet of personal deadlines - and some "real" ones, too.  I have a post I am still working on about the Washington trip and workshop - but it's not finished.  And this one is.

First off, I am taking an online class with illustrator Eric Fortune, part of the lovely Rebecca Guay's program SmArt School  which is kind of an extension of her Illustration Master Class.  Anyway, I am in it for the long haul - at least until the end of the year.  I am now in a constant state of being super excited and super nervous and also super stressed.  Which one is currently at the level of "super-SUPER" is entirely dependent on whether or not I am caffeinated.

Secondly is Hutchmoot.  I cannot express the level of excitement that is building in me for this conference.  It's an extension of the Rabbit Room, an online site for creative community.  It's awesome.  Just go check it out.  Anyway, Hutchmoot is their yearly meeting; this year it sold out in SEVEN minutes - I was sitting at my computer half an hour before-hand with my mouse hovering over the refresh button, waiting for the tickets to go on sale.  Justin Gerard is going to be there (super-Super-SUPER excited), as well as Phil Vischer, N.D. Wilson, S.D. Smith, Lanier Ivestor, singer/songwriters galore, and oh-my-gosh, have I told you yet that I am really excited?

Now, because of all the awesomeness that is to come, I have a lot to do.  I have made a list:

1. New Website
2. Promotional Pieces and Hand-outs
3. Business Cards
4. UPDATE PORTFOLIO

Website

Ugh. SO overdue.  I still have the domain name (thank you, God), but the actual process of getting it up is an entirely different matter.  Hopefully, my amazingly brilliant designer sister can help me with that . . .

I want the site to be memorable - not as far as complexity of design goes, but the way the work is portrayed and the design itself.  I want it to be story-centered.  Anyway, the idea is there, I'm not quite sure how to express it or if it will even work, but we'll see.  

Promo Pieces/Business Cards

Kind of self explanatory - I have lots of (old) post cards, but there's something about specially designed or handmade promo pieces that's just . . . cool.  But of course ALL of this is dependent upon the . . . . 

UPDATED PORTFOLIO

I'm starting to sound like a broken record (to myself at least).  I'm thinking about it consciously about 20-40% of the time, and subconsciously about 378% of the time (Yes, that is physically possible, you and your logic and your maths can just . . . leave).  And that's just my hours of consciousness.  I'm not even going to start on what my mind has been doing while I'm asleep.  Not that that's been happening a lot.

Temporary Website

I'm in the process of redoing my website and blog. In the meantime, here's a link to the temp.

web.me.com/umbarthule/Sara_Silkwood_Illustration/Home.html

The New Website

I now have a "real" website up, www.sarasilkwood.com, go check it out if you want.  You can look at my portfolio, order prints, or go check out my links page, I have a link to all of the SU senior illustration students there.  There's some pretty great stuff.