April & upcoming site changes!

April has turned out to be a very busy, yet seemingly unproductive month.

I am still alive and kicking, so that has to account for something right?

Work and kids with the "sickies" have taken the largest chunk of my time, leaving very little for my sites and blog. I am still however working on the new content for both!

The new T*O*W for MomShots has been finished and sent off for posting. If you like NEON effects you should definitely keep an eye out for that one! It is a lot of fun! The tip for "O" will be sent off sometime this week!

I don't have many people following my blog here (at least not yet), so instead of the Back2Basics run of posts (this will be moved to my main site), I will be dedicating this space to the digi-scraping stuff that I have been working on. I feel this will give my blog more of a substantial purpose, and will get more attention i.e. updated a wee bit more often. I am going to shoot for once a week, and hopefully evolve it into more of a daily offering.

So over the next 2 weeks this blog will be undergoing some major changes! Please check back soon & THANX for stopping by!

Technorati

OK, so following MomShots lead, I have joined the Technorati crew. So if you feel the need please take the time to fav my blog... Let me know you are out there!! Come on you know you wanna show me some love!!

Just click > > >

In other news, Photoshop CS4 is looking impressive! If you are a member of NAPP the discount is quite sweet! I have seen some nice video of the updates to CS4 that the great people at NAPP have been posting to the member website.

Been super busy with work, kids, and more work... ahh the good life!

I will post up more soon! B2B update in the works, sorry about being slow with updates, paying work takes precedence over my personal projects... hopefully, someday, my personal projects WILL BE my paying work... LOL!!

'Til next time!

B2B ~ Welcome!

Welcome to Back2Basics.

I have decided that the first post will be about the things you need to be successful in your endeavors. The principles are basically the same throughout the different avenues of art (and in life). I think the best approach, for me, will be a TOP 5 list, I am sure there are more, but these will be my most important TOP 5. I will touch on these five things continually in the future, because these are the TOP 5 things that I ALWAYS come back to.

1. Foundation ~ The foundation is the basic plan of action from which you will build everything else you do from. This can be reformed over time and added to, but to get you going in the right direction you need a strong platform to start on!
   
2. Organization ~ If you don't know the 5 W's & the H of your plan, then how do you plan on succeeding? These 5 W's & the H are of course just the tip of the iceberg. In the near future I will layout a general outline of "where to go from here" once you know what your 5 W's & H are. :D Just remember that this too is going to be ever changing and continually added to! *Side Note* Incase you are wondering the 5 W's & the H are Who, What, Where, When, Why, and HOW.
3. Skill Set ~ Whether you are a novice or an accomplished professional, you need to know your skill level. We all need to improve, but before we can do that, we need to come to terms with where our skills really sit compared to others in our field, be prepared for a good reality check! I don't know about you, but I rarely feel like my skills are "good enough" even when people around me say they are! I call this "creative insecurity".... Family and friends are great for building self esteem, but it is "the real world" that you will be dealing with, so prepare yourself for "that is CRAP" and a whole lot of "NO's", because those are the opportunities you will need in your life to improve... Don't get upset, be prepared to ask some really great insight questions. (example: From a client standpoint, how can I make this better? What is it that makes this unpleasing to you?... these kinds of questions will show that you are willing to make changes and improve things, and might keep them interested in you for future projects.) I will touch on this more in the future too! The first several hundred "NO's" are the hardest.... then it gets a little easier to handle!
   
4. Drive ~ Self-motivation is a #1 priority! If you cannot motivate yourself to be successful then who are you expecting to count on? The only person who know's you the best and where you want or need to be is YOU! I occassionally have to remind myself that the world can't change my circumstances, but I actively can!
   
5. PRACTICE, PRACTICE, PRACTICE ~ No matter how accomplished you are, you will continually need to learn, improve, and PRACTICE what you do everyday (or as much as humanly possible with our busy day to day lives). Trust me, with 4 kids (from Jr. high down to 1st grade), freelance from home and a part time job, time to practice can be hard to come by, but it can happen if you want it to!
   

I hope this list will help you get started in thinking about what you want to accomplish as a "Creative", and helps get your brain turned on to a basic formula to at least help you get started on a wonderful road to success!

Until next time...

Back2Basics

I am still working up exactly how this topic is going to work for my site, do I blog it or do I give it its' own section on my site... still working on it, but it is coming along nicely! September looks to be full of new and exciting things!

For now though, you really should check out the weekly tip at MomShots, brought to you every week by yours truly!

ThanX for popping in and check back again real soon!

Welcome!

This site will be dedicated to helping me organize my thoughts, tip & tricks, as well as anything else that might revolve around my personal website. Since joining MomShots.com as a contributing member, I have decided that I wanted a blog of my own to throw ideas and tips around on. Hopefully this will work as well as my brain has told me it will!

ThanX for dropping by, and I hope to bring you loads of information that you find helpful or just down right interesting.

If there is something here that you like, PLEASE leave me a comment! It will be your comments that help influence the direction that my blog and personal site will flow. I look forward to this grand creative adventure!