This is a story about making a visit home.
The barn never seems to change. It was falling down when we moved to the farm, and it still stands - peeling, lopsided, uncertain - more than two decades later.
Tow-headed nephews, however, are never the same - this one is growing up so fast it makes my head spin and my heart ache... mainly because I don't get to see him enough.
This is ground I've walked on hundreds of times before, but I glimpse a new vista each time.
How long ago was it that I blogged about needing a new website?
Wait. How long ago was it that I blogged at ALL?
Yeah. So. It's been a while.
But that site I told you about - the one that began with a few ideas tossed out on CrowdSPRING? It finally turned into a brand new website.
Wonderfully talented people were involved. I'm so grateful for their skills + advice + follow-through. Without them: no website.
That's all. Just wanted to let you know.
And although I haven't been blogging, I am still around: Working (a lot). Daydreaming (now and then). Taking photographs (every chance I get).
Hope you're wonderfully, magnificently well.
Happy Summer.
xox
So today seemed like a good day to RANDOMLY post a photo for RANDOM PHOTO FRIDAY.
The best laid plans of mice and freelance writers… have a way of dissolving, like so many words doodled in smoke on the vast, impenetrable sky of Real Life.
I do like a nice metaphor on a Tuesday afternoon, don’t you?
But seriously: things have been in-SANE around here. I got sucked into my website project early in the month, and then worked myself into a frenzy getting ready to attend South by Southwest (SXSW), the massive film-music-interactive festival that happens in Austin every year. Alas – two days after I arrived in Austin, I came down with a terrible case of strep throat.
Dizzy with pain and exhaustion, I holed up in my hotel room until it was time to go home, and if you were on the return flight to SFO with me? Bless you, my child, for I coughed vile germs into your air space the entire time. I am terribly sorry, but it simply could not be helped.
Now I’m back, and on the mend (though still a bit weak, truth be told), and I’m working on a couple of posts about the little bit of SXSW that I DID get to experience, and more besides.
Oh, and I’m getting closer to unveiling my BRAND NEW website. Can’t even express how excited I am to shove the old one off a steep cliff and start fresh.
Hope you are all well + enjoying this lovely spring.
xox
I know you're all waiting with bated breath for my follow-up to the last post, in which I tell you what my life is REALLY like (just this morning, I ate FOUR Hershey's kisses in a row! Try not to be jealous).
But before we get around to that, I desperately need your input on something: my new website.
It's no secret that www.jenniferjeffrey.com is in dire need of an update. It's fusty! It's musty! The color is oddly rusty!
Sorry. Bad rhymes aside, we can all agree: my website reaaaalllly needs a fresh new look.
So a few weeks ago, I discovered an intriguing concept: it's called Crowd Spring, and it's a site where you can submit a graphic design project, and (hopefully) receive multiple submissions from graphic designers around the world.
If you know anything about me at all, you know that I love the myriad of ways the web creates opportunities, and that I'm fascinated by business models that make use of emergent trends and technologies. This is one of those.
Let me say, before I go further, that I do have reservations about designers or other creative types working "on spec" and I certainly don't think that this is a solution for the majority of design projects. HOWEVER, for a small site like mine, I thought this might be a perfect fit.
It's been 6 days since the project began, and I've gotten 24 submissions so far. The quality is wildly divergent - some of the designs are middling, many are awful, but a couple of them are pretty good.
Will you check it out? Tell me which designs you like? I'd love your input.
NOTE: the copy on the comps is purely FPO (for position only) - the designers took some of the copy from my existing site, and some of it from a document that I attached to give them more reference, so pay NO attention to the words. Just the design.
When the process is all through, I'll write in more detail about my thoughts on the experience, but for now - just go. Tell me what you think.
And hey - thanks!
+ + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + +
While you're there, check THIS out: None other than social media guru Jeremiah Owyang is using Crowd Spring to develop a new banner for his blog. Snap!
I realize that my last post probably got you closer to understanding what I do every day, but that it still didn’t get you all the way there. I plan to eventually tell you a bit more about my day-to-day routine, but I thought it would be MUCH more fun to tell you what I used to think life would be like as a writer.
Before I became one.
9:00 am – Wake to the sound of birdsong. Rise and meander to the kitchen; put on the teakettle. Idle on the deck for a while, overlooking the downtown skyline, teacup in hand.
9:30 am– Enjoy a leisurely hot shower; slip on something stylish; apply makeup.
10:15 am – Turn on the computer. Check email; send witty replies.
11:00 am – Write page after page of pithy, insightful… words.
12:30 pm – Meet writer friends for lunch; talk about writer-ly things. Discuss who has what plum international assignments. Say things like: “I’m scheduled to be in Europe that same week! Let’s meet up in Budapest!” Linger over an espresso.
