Latest Katie James Pixelated Web Projects - Food, Jewelry, Bridal

So you know I go disappearing sometimes. Well, sometimes many projects are spinning at once. So, this is where I've been, with the Katie James Pixelated team, building and designing custom designed blogs, special tweaks to websites, and whole redesigns. We're currently working on a couple more, to be unveiled soon...

Alisa Benay's Blog, Couture Corset Wedding Gown Designer



Alisa's couture line of corset wedding gowns is quickly growing in popularity, and she needed her blog to keep the pace and reflect well of the brand. We custom designed her blog, using the WordPress platform.
www.alisabenay.com/blog


The Purcell Sisters

The Purcell Sisters, if you haven't met them, are some of the funniest, well manicured southern belles living in Manhattan. They wrote a book, Cocktail Parties Straight Up! to help everyone throw an amazing party. Thankfully, they have brought their delicious recipes to the Internet. We redesigned their website to be way more user friendly (their former website was all in images) and easy to navigate. If you go to this website, you will leave hungry. Very hungry.
www.purcellsisters.com


Gemma Redux :: Press, Lookbook and Announcement Box
Press page: (updates like adding products)


Announcement Box: (can be turned on or off in seconds)


Rachel Dooley, designer and founder of Gemma Redux, is on fire. She is getting press from major outlets, and her fans are loving it. We worked with the ZenCart platform to make this press easy to update, and connect to the jewelry.
www.gemmaredux.com

For more information on other websites, see www.katie-james.com/classes

Watch Your Inboxes! Daily Candy Spots Some of Best Jewelry - Gemma Redux

You'll notice that the posts on this blog have been slow, well here's why: we're helping whoever wants it with websites. Gemma Redux needed us to convert their cart from a custom constructed shopping cart to ZenCart, and boy oh boy, did we break apart ZenCart and put it back together again to keep her classy design. As we were building the site, mosing along, I got an email from Rachel of Gemma Redux, telling me that there was a good chance that Daily Candy was going to feature them, and can we make the site live asap. As we say at Collectie-E: Yes we can do that! Or as Tim Gun says: Make it work!

So we've been making it work, but how could we not. Gemma Redux designs are like nothing you've ever seen before. Chains, stones, fabric, knots, oh boy. As we were cropping each image to make the detail shot (yes, our handywork is on every single thing you look at there), I have to admit, that I kind of wanted to eat those chains. I know it's weird. But I am so in love with her jewelry. I mean, what makes her tick? What is she thinking as she sits at her desk designing, to create these combinations? And did you know that she was a lawyer in a past life, and just recently quit? Yes! She quit in this economy. And she is a Collective-E member, which means that we pitch members all the time, whether they submit themselves or not (sometimes the pitches are just too quick a turn-around so we run with it), and Rachel was one of the five entrepreneurs and Collective-E members that were included in a Reuters article that was picked up by Forbes.com and Yahoo News right away.

Anyway, so visit Gemma Redux with the rest of the Daily Candy followers. Here's her post! Meanwhile, we'll be typing away on our keyboards and on the phone with servers to make sure that her website sustains the flood of traffic it will hopefully get. Yay!

Katie James Update Amidst Throws of Wedding

Where to start, where to start. This week in Maine has been so busy, and my future husband has been so wonderful letting me balance everything while keeping himself busy and driven. What a guy. Yesterday, I found him way down on the rocks in back of our house, playing with chipped away pieces of rock that he deduced were compacted sand, which is how they broke so easily. He was entertaining himself like a little kid. Here's why:

When you work for yourself, you do so to get more vacation time. Or I did, anyway. However, when your name is your company, and you love your clients, you want to make sure they are all happy and comfortable. So to stop working while two of those clients are launching and need things from you is hard. Not to mention if you yourself are launching a new company, and your new team needs things to do while you are on a honeymoon and you are building the platform for the new website, there is a kaleidescope of things to do.

This week, here's what's been going on with Katie James Pixelated:
WELLalarm released in Beta. We help with the design and SEO and social networking strategy.

Pop Judaica released in ZenCart. We transfered her website from the Yahoo cart to the ZenCart cart, and she is loving it. She is so good at it, I want to bring her onto the Katie James Pixelated team to train others in ZenCart!

Childbirth Connection released their new report, New Mothers Speak Out, which we put together based on the previoius Listening to Mothers II design created by Columbus based design firm Integrate. We had to create the new section on the website and track results.

Mugi Pottery needed some updating and new class schedules and photos. We're going to expand out their navigation because business is booming over there, so their needs have changed. This is happening post-wedding, however!

Collective-E has a design up (behind the scenes - you can't see it), and we're filling it with content and menus. This is the new baby, the new company with Beth Schoenfeldt and Sabina Ptacin, and it has been so much fun creating this new company/website to help women entrepreneurs connect, get inspired, learn from other experienced entrepreneurs, and promote themselves.

I'm going to write some other updates - one for the wedding, and one to officially announce Collective-E. Onward!

Sneak Peak Into Katie James Pixelated Design

Hi Everyone,
I'm writing up letters of agreement for people who will do contract work with me for Katie James Pixelated, you know, the new online specialty division of Katie James. The stages in my brain to get this all done, is really almost overwhelming. But that's ok. I started on the design of the new website while on the train to my favorite hair salon in New Haven, CT to get my striking new look. Then, I had to make some letterhead for a proposal, because once I had a direction of the new website design, I couldn't use my old design that was my band-aid solution until something like this was ready.

So this is a header for the top of stationery, specifically for a Proposal. Each letterhead will have its own kind, meaning, the word in the blue box will change to say what it is. So for a letter of agreement, "Letter of Agreement" will go in that blue box. Makes filing a breeze. To me, the design just makes me happy. It's refreshing, and I love looking at it. I hope you like it and don't think it too boring...

Our Wedding Website

May I present, the wedding website.



It's more of a Blogger tweaked blog website. It was the cheapest way I could do it without going to some template at the Knot or something. It's inspired by Maine's sea lavender which always grows outside of my favorite boutique in Damariscotta, Weatherbird. The lovely font is called Dearest and I found it on MyFonts.com.

Now, I know, I know. There is a shadow on my face. To be honest, I really never noticed it until the very end, and by then, this was the best picture of us together. I guess that means we need to take more pictures!! As for the registry, we haven't started it yet! Eek! My mom is addressing the save the date cards right now, and they direct everyone to the website, so we'd better hop to it and do some shopping.

As for all Mistas coming, we can only have 150 people! So the activity of building the list has been very hard. We may need to have two weddings. I'm already having two bachelorette parties! One in Chicago and one in New York. So fancy, I know. Everyone is from out of town, so it's hard to bring everyone together, let alone get to Maine. But feel free to visit our registry. Kidding. ;) Haha. Although, wouldn't it be fun to have a virtual shower? Hmm... I guess we could have a Comment Fest in the Comments...

New Websites from Katie James Pixelated!

I almost forgot to announce them! Designs have been percolating in the Katie James Pixelated studio, and here are the latest: Mugi Pottery's new website, and the blog of My Beauty Beat.

Mugi Pottery

Mugi wanted a fun and contemporary design for their website. They offer classes in the studio for kids and adults, which are wonderful (I've taken them), so they wanted to give off a fun atmosphere for the kids, as well as a relaxed atmosphere for adults. They also love pictures of their pots, so in addition to bordering the website with pictures of the studio and of the pots, we created a slide show of How to Make a Pot. Once you watch it, you are that much closer to knowing how to "throw" pottery on the wheel! If you live in New York, and want to take some pottery classes, do check out this upper west side pottery studio. And if you stop in, do check out their $5 and $20 bins. I lucked out and found a beautiful tall vase that had cracked on the bottom. I just put dried flowers in it.

My Beauty Beat Blog

My Beauty Beat couldn't say enough about skin care products. Katie James Pixelated designed her website and enewsletter, and now the My Beauty Beat Blog. My Beauty Beat wanted the blog to offer the same environment and experience, while maintaining that "bloggy" look with the side columns, comments, a full page of many blog posts, and an easy way to get back to the website. A streaming list of recent blog posts is available from the website, so it's easy to get from one to the other. My Beauty Beat offers free and trusted advice on skin care, and goes into why each product may or may not be worth your money. The blog goes into to detail on how to care for oily skin, best 10 products under $10, why soap is dirty, and much, much more. The woman behind it all formerly worked in "Wall Street" in the biotechnology sector, and while nurturing her passion for skin care, tested combinations of ingredients in her kitchen to know which were effective and why, in addition to talking to industry experts for her research. So she knows her stuff. Do consult with her before you make your next skin care product purchase! And she does take your questions and suggestions, so contact her to review your favorite product!

Look Who Got Press! ReelInvitations.com

A great press mention in New York Brides for the first company who had a website designed by Katie James Pixelated (my own website for that to come...huffing and puffing)!!

Seriously, if you are planning your wedding, consider getting Judith at Reel Invitations to produce a dvd wedding invitation! She is obsessed with the "how we met" story, and loves them all, from "we were neighbors" to "we met online" or "we met in a bar." She's good at gently tugging the story from you...check out the contents of the invitation. And you can send a paper invitation as well. That's what I would do if, you know, I were planning a wedding. You can get a free demo to listen to and see the experience for yourself.

Just Launched :: ReelInvitations.com, a Katie James Website

Please welcome ReelInvitations.com into the world of websites! ReelInvitations.com was the first bold client of Katie James Websites, and was the inspiration for the latest Twitterpaited and Dogwood Bouquet desktop wallpapers available at Katie-James.com.



ReelInvitations.com is the ingenious idea of founder Judith George, who is consumed with hearing people's "How We Met" stories, so much so, that she sort of built this company around it. ReelInvitations produces DVD wedding invitations - yes, a DVD wedding invitation to send with or instead of your paper invitations. You get to look into the camera, bat those beautiful lashes that will soon become 2x larger on your wedding day, and gush to your guests about how you had love at first site, or how you couldn't have seen it coming if it has knocked you in the head. And your soon-to-be hubby gets to star along side you and tell about his side of the story.

And because Judith herself is a Mista, we'll call her ReelInvitations Mista, she has offered for one lucky Mista reader to get a FREE invitation. Typically, you've got to live in New York, but I don't think there are set boundaries here. To enter, visit her Contact Us page and fill out the form with: "MISTA" and your name and email, or however you would like to be contacted. Good luck! And Happy Weddings!

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