Getting Creative » distractions

The List: March 16

Elise Spontarelli — Fri, 16 Mar 2012 18:57:23 +0000

Welcome to the newest edition of The List, a collection of random things that have caught my eye in the past few weeks. The List always includes an update on what some GetCreative clients are up to, some goodies from ‘the internets’, and anything that seems worth mentioning. If it provokes a smile, makes my life easier or is generally awesome- I will share it here.

The List: March 16th Edition

From clients…

Plastic Surgery Associates will be at the Lynchburg Women’s Show at the Holiday Inn Downtown Lynchburg tomorrow, March 17th.

Amber Grove has had a last minute postponement of the wedding scheduled for June 23, 2012. If any of you know of someone looking for a beautiful spot to get married, that is one of the prime weekends of the year at this lovely venue.

The Vintage Junkie will be at The Spring Bizarre Bazaar in Richmond, March 30- April 1. Great show with tons of wonderful vendors, click here for more info.

From the internets…

This is such a fabulous article by This American Life’s Ira Glass about the awesomeness that is RadioLab. A must read.

I was reminded this week of how much I love Paperless Post for online invitations. Old-fashioned formality with the convenience of the internet!

Check out our new Facebook Cover Photo. Need help with your own custom banner? Give us a call.

Random favorites…

I’m just letting the world know now, I want this to be my 30th birthday party.

Are you a knitter? I recently discovered Pickles and I can’t get enough of their great patterns and gorgeous designs.

I’m wearing this pretty dress in not one but two weddings this summer. It’s a crowd-pleaser!

Have a suggestion for The List? Let me know via email: ESpontarelli@GetCreativeWebDesign.com

Friday Finds: Tagxedo

Elise Spontarelli — Fri, 07 Oct 2011 17:04:48 +0000

Last year we featured Wordle in a post, and today we take it one step further. Welcome to Tagxedo, ‘word clouds with style’! This is a quick and fun distraction, with a lot of room for customization. The font type, color, shape, orientation and layout can all be tweaked for each word cloud. There are preset color themes and shapes for you to choose from, or create a Pro account and make your own! You can input the words you’d like used, or submit a website URL and Tagxedo will generate the words for you. Keep reading to see my own unique word art below.

I put together the above word cloud using Tagxedo in honor of National Breast Cancer Awareness Month, using the text from the NBCAM website and a simple pink font. Have fun, enjoy this fun little tool, and remember and honor those affected by breast cancer this month. Happy Friday!

Friday Finds: Geeky Fashion

Elise Spontarelli — Fri, 27 May 2011 15:12:35 +0000

Today’s Find is a roundup of great t-shirts for web designers with a sense of humor. There’s nothing like an extremely nerdy t-shirt for a good laugh (Big Bang Theory, anyone?*). I just recently discovered nerdy t-shirts made specifically for designers, and I knew I had to share. Below are some of my favorites, with links to where you can buy them. Enjoy!

Which are your favorites? ‘oh, crop’ and the CSS Ninja are my top picks, too funny. Hope you enjoyed these, have a great weekend!

Visit the following sites for even more great t-shirts:
Web Designer Depot -25 Funny T-Shirts for Designers and Developers
SpeckyBoy-30 Cool Web Designer T-Shirts, for your every mood
Design Shack-55 T-Shirts Made Just for Designers

*Bonus material for you Big Bang fans…if you haven’t already, check out sheldonshirts.com for more awesome nerd apparel.

Friday Finds: Font Game

Elise Spontarelli — Fri, 25 Feb 2011 12:07:47 +0000

Today’s find is a fun font game for the graphic design nerd in all of us: The Font Game. The concept reminds me of freerice.com, the online vocabulary game for a good cause. With ‘The Rather Difficult Font Game’ at ilovetypography.com, though, you are challenged to identify various fonts on sight.

There are four multiple choice answers to choose from and 34 questions per game. Some fonts are more obscure than others, and sometimes the answers are somewhat obvious (in the case of italic fonts, for example). It is a fun way to test your font knowledge and even learn something new in the process. There is also an iPhone app for you on-the-go font fanatics. Check it out, and be sure to browse the beautiful I Love Typography website for even more font finds.

Giveaway- Winner!

Elise Spontarelli — Tue, 09 Nov 2010 17:38:07 +0000

The winner of the $15 iTunes gift card has been randomly selected! Congratulations to Fleming Kennedy Fuller, who commented on our Facebook page. Fleming, email me the mailing address where you would like your gift card sent to ESpontarelli@GetCreativeWebDesign.com and it will be on its way! Fleming is also celebrating her birthday this week, and now she can do so with some new ‘tunes! Congrats and thanks for reading!

Giveaway!

Elise Spontarelli — Thu, 04 Nov 2010 15:41:12 +0000

Tomorrow is my birthday and to celebrate I’m giving one of you lucky readers a gift! I’m giving away a $15 iTunes gift card this weekend. Enjoy $15 worth of the latest music, movies, TV shows and more on iTunes. To enter, leave a comment on this post or our Facebook page, or Tweet about it. One winner will be selected at random on Monday, November 8th at 12 noon. Have a great weekend!

Friday Finds: Comedy

Elise Spontarelli — Fri, 29 Oct 2010 20:57:42 +0000

In the spirit of Halloween I thought I’d share some blogs and websites that are good for a few laughs. It’s important sometimes to step away from your work and enjoy a few stress-relieving chuckles. Some of these sites may be NSFW, so enjoy these over the weekend.

Someecards.com is a collection of ecards with witty remarks and old-fashioned animation. Users can create their own cards or browse existing cards on the site. There are cards for every occasion for those with a sense of humor.

xkcd is a comic for the nerd in all of us. The creator went to my husband’s high school and has a degree in physics. His simple stick-figure characters bring a bit of nerdy humor to everything from love to pop culture to history and more.

The Oatmeal is an animated blog by a fellow web designer exploring his biggest pet peeves and favorite topics in the form of comics, quizzes and stories. From grammatical clarifications to random facts about cats, The Oatmeal is immensely entertaining.

Hyperbole and a Half is another web comic, by the hilarious Allie Brosh. It is really just a collection of freakish real life stories told in the author’s weird and crazy manner of storytelling with words and pictures created in MS Paint.

Cracked, PhotoshopFail and Cake Wrecks are a few more worth visiting in your spare time. Happy Halloween, everyone!

Friday Finds: Xtranormal

Elise Spontarelli — Fri, 23 Jul 2010 16:00:47 +0000

Today’s find is a website called xtranormal.com that makes movie making easy. Their tag line says it all: “If you can type, you can make movies.” With at least 16 ‘showpaks’, or themes, to choose from, you can select one or two characters, change your background, and add audio music and sounds with just a few simple clicks. Then you simply type up a script for your characters to read (in a voice of your choosing), and animate them as you see fit. A number of these videos can be created for free, but for advanced options there is a fee.

In the Watch Movies section you can view featured videos by xtranormal, as well as the most recent and most popular user created videos. There is also a Desktop option to avoid the sometimes overwhelmed server issues. Xtranormal is a quick and fun distraction that could also be used as a business tool. Want to join the YouTube craze but are a little camera shy? This site is a great way to do so for cheap. Plus, you can avoid novice camera shaking and other less-than-desirable traits customary of new video producers. If you find yourself escaping the heat indoors this weekend, head over to xtranormal and try your hand at creating videos. Happy Friday!

Photo Essay: Early Spring

Elise Spontarelli — Wed, 28 Apr 2010 14:49:42 +0000

This year I am starting out on my first ever vegetable garden…which is also my first ever garden, period. I have been taking photos to document this delicate process, and it is quite exciting. I have very few expectations for the outcome of my veggies, but if I get a few good herbs or vegetables of any variety I will be happy. Here are the fragile beginnings of my seedlings (as well as some early spring flowers) in all their photographic glory. Enjoy!

(From top: Paper whites, unsure?, Italian Dark Green Parsley, Sweet Canary Bell Peppers, Rosemary, Genovese Italian Basil, Bush Italian Roma Tomatoes, Daffodils, Sweet Canary Bell Peppers)

Distractions

Elise Spontarelli — Wed, 27 Jan 2010 13:18:29 +0000

During my experience working from home, I have found there are numerous advantages and disadvantages to a home office. One of the biggest pros and cons is the hours: the flexibility is great, but the fact that you never really “leave” work can lead to too many late nights. When I’m feeling overworked, especially if I’ve been focusing on one large project, I welcome a certain amount of distraction to clear my head before I revisit a design.

As with any creative field, I think that taking your mind off a project for a brief time can make the editing process more effective once you return to the task at hand. I find that editing improves with this method not only for design layouts, but also with photography and especially copy writing. Ideally I like to have multiple clients at varying stages of the design process, so that I do not spend 3 days straight designing logos. But, when business is slow or monotonous I have a collection of sites that I visit to keep me from burning out. So, without further ado here are a few of my favorite distractions. (Bonus: Some of these “distractions” can actually lead to productivity on another level!)

Facebook

Of course, everyone’s #1 office distraction. For the sake of productivity I try to limit my facebook visits to evenings and weekends, however I do sometimes visit my Business Page to update blog posts, new clients and changes to my own website during the work week.

Freelance Switch

Before I started visiting this site I listened to their Podcast: Freelance Radio. Freelance Switch is part of the Envato family of sites, and is a site for, by and about freelancers. It is not exclusive to web designers, but also includes writers, graphic artists, photographers…any creative field with a high percentage of freelancers, really. I have found this site to be both amusing (I think the Freelance Freedom comics are quite funny, but that’s probably just me), as well as a helpful tool for running my small design business. The podcast features a cast of four freelancers plus guests, including a copy writer, web designer/photographer, graphic artist and social media expert.

The Kitchn

While this site is in no way related to anything web design, it is absolutely my favorite distraction. The Kitchn is part of the Apartment Therapy group of blogs, and is loaded with helpful cooking tips, yummy recipes and all sorts of advice for those with addictions to their kitchens. And, even though this blog is no help on a professional level, I do consider it a great source for my “other” job of housewife. We have had many a successful dinner here in the Spontarelli household thanks in part to The Kitchn. Not to mention, I am an even bigger fan lately since they published my photos of a recipe (I was way too excited about this!). Another fun cooking blog I like is Smitten Kitchen.

W3Schools

W3Schools is more of an educational site than a distraction, but if I can distract and educate my self at the same time then even better! W3Schools’ mission is to answer the question ‘What does a Web developer need to know?’ They cover the basics in essentially every aspect of web design, from HTML to JavaScript and beyond. I have used W3Schools as a resource throughout my web design career, especially after discovering that many of the methods of web design I learned in college were already outdated upon graduation. They provide a great foundation of knowledge, which can be followed up by more advanced tutorials at sites like Lynda.com.

Design Blogs

Blogs for designers are great in a number of ways. For one, they’re pretty much always fun to look at, and they can be a great resource for inspiration, tutorials, free downloads and more. Line25 is a blog that showcases a lot of great sites on the web; Function is a good mix of resources and advice; Web Designer Wall is gorgeous just to look at, not to mention its varied reviews and giveaways; and finally Outlaw Design Blog has a cool, functional website with great how-to articles and resources.

Photography Blogs

There are a few photo blogs that I check in with now and then, starting with the company that I work with, dmfoto. I love seeing which photos from recent weddings made the front of the slideshow (especially if they’re my photos!), and the blog is great for getting the whole picture of a wedding day from start to finish. Other photographers that I follow less regularly include The Blue Blog by StoneBlue Productions, a Lynchburg photographer and videographer with great style; Gavin Gough, a famous travel photographer whose work is often seen at Getty Images and Lonely Planet; William Neil, who is another talented photographer that really has a great eye for images and is not afraid to create his own photographic moment.

Silly Sites

There are a few sites I’ve come across that are just plain fun to visit. Wordle is a “word cloud” generator (like the one at the top of this post) that makes your words into art. Animoto is a site that takes your selected photographs and puts them to music in a really well-done way. We’ve used it for fun in the past, but it could easily showcase a portfolio of images as well. XKCD is one of my husband’s favorite time wasters and generally he’ll send me a link to one comic, which leads me to press the Random button a dozen times or so to view more “romance, sarcasm, math, and language” humor.

Based on this extensive list I’d say I am covered in the distractions department. Maybe my next post should be tips on how to stay on task! Do you have sites that are especially helpful or amusing that you visit to pass the time? Feel free to share some of your favorites