RedBarn Studios

I have been working feverishly to figure out the glitch that occured when I tried to upload the new files and get my website back up. It was a frustrating few days but I am so very pleased to say that….

….I DID IT! Whooppee doo!!!!

So once again you can find me, my art and my patterns, including the latest one on my newly revamped website at http://redbarn-studios.com.

Yet again I am doing a happy dance. I should just call this the year of happy dances. Amazing what little things make us happy with life.

I had to reflect a lot these past few days on my words I chose for this year….intention and self discipline.  Intention to make what I want happen for my career and self-discipline to make sure I stay on track. Remembering them have helped me a lot this year.

Because I’m not a computer techno person and knowing I wanted to solve this crazy dilemma myself, I knew that more focus and less drama would get me what I needed and it worked. Now if only I could get my teenage kids to do the same…NOT!

So in order to celebrate my stunning achievement (lol) I am having a give away. I usually make  journals filled with 4 signatures, covered in beautiful batiks and/or ultra suede (check out my etsy shop for examples of fabrics).

For that one lucky person I will make a 1 signature notebook containing 36 pages of writing paper, from batik fabric, my handyed fabric  or silk dupioni in the colour of your choice.

I invite you all to leave a comment on this post so that each of you will be in the running for this “THE WEBSITE IS LIVE AGAIN” give away. On Sunday I will reveal the winner, by random number generator of course so keep the comments coming.

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See ya next time “In the Hayloft

Tags: journals, paper art, patterns, website by k grace howes
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Tried to upload my new pattern to my website but there’s a small, teeny, tiny glitch happening now. No website loads. Bummer indeed! I’ve let the tech people know and hopefully will have it back up sooner rather that later.

For now if you would like to order any of my patterns (see below), including the new “PadfOliO Notebook“, please send me an email. In order to avoid spam please copy and paste my address in your email….grace@redbarn-studios.com

Bloom Where You Are Planted (24 x 31)

ColourBlocks (63 x 63)

The Orange Escaped (67 x 78)

Coffee Blues (44 x 56)

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See ya next time “In the Hayloft”,

Tags: life etc., patterns, website by k grace howes
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Yes….I am  now a proud Mac girl….finally!

It only took 3 1/2 yrs for me to get one but it was at least 7 yrs of pining away for one while looking longingly at others’ Macs.

Things are going good……so far. I’ve only had to buy 2 different softwares (Mac Office & Photshop El  for Mac) because as I was a PC user Mac needed these to be able to read all my old files (patterns, pics, etc.).

It’s been a whirlwind ride since I got my new Dell a few years ago. Vista (read inept OS here) has been a thorn in my backside since the beginning . Then in January I made the HUGE mess of things when I deleted ALL my files (by mistake)…..and had no backup to replace them!  Yeh…dummy move on my part. I finally got over that hump and then almost immediately,at the end of February, weird things started happening.

Come to find out the hard drive was wigging out on me and it then it finally went……KERPLUNK!.

Got a new (read refurbished here) hard drive from Dell and took forever to load all the old software and all my old files……bet you don’t really realize all the “junk” we accumulate on our computers over the years…… Hubby was aware of situation all along and finally suggested that I just go ahead and order the Mac…..HUH??

….what did he say…….order a NEW MAC!!!!!!! Let me tell you he did not have to tell me twice. It just so happens (as she whistles a bit) that Apple was having a no-interest thingy on their website at the time…..how did I know that you wonder….mmmmh?

So right now I am typing this post on my new Mac. Can you see the big smile on my face? ))

My daughter has gotten in on this deal as well, She has wanted a computer of her very own ever since she entered high school (she was sharing the family desktop with her brothers). She turned 17 last week (no, I am not that old to have a 17 yr old am I?) and it seems like everything fell into place. She got my old Dell laptop..a beautiful 15″ screen that has a new (somewhat) hard drive and more memory as well so she’s happy and I got…..

…my NEW MAC!

Happy Mac dance…yeh yeh

Happy Mac dance…

Happy Mac dance…

See ya next time “In the Hayloft”,

Tags: monday posts, website by k grace howes
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I took a hiatus off from website duties this summer (I know, I know naughty girl…remember your marketing right?) but you all know, when the kids are home during the summer it’s really hard to keep to any schedule. To write code (or pretend to with a WYSIWYG editor) would take too much time……lots and lots of free umpteen-hours long time.

So I was a good artist and scheduled it for this month….today in fact. Ready to take on the goobly gook of web speak and get right down to it I opened the program.

You know that a keg in the wheel is coming don’t you? Let me catch you up.

Earlier this year I didn’t have 800 or so dollars to buy DreamWeaver so I chose instead to be a guinea pig and go with a free trial version of Microsoft’s Expression Web.  Ooooh…..I liked it…..a lot. Now, remember please that I do not claim to be a web designer but I don’t think I did too bad with what I came up with for my website (www.redbarn-studios.com)….and yes, it still needs work……but in due time people!
So back to today….

I am ready to get my head back into head-wringing web design but……….(here it comes)……..

the trial version has expired! $#@$%^$$!….I CANNOT work on my website,

I am doomed! I’m sure that I could have gotten a discounted rate to purchase the program had I remembered the expiration date.

BUMMER!

So now I am having to cough up the big bucks……YIKES!……. to purchase the software outright. I have to do it. It’s about the marketing, getting my name out there and keeping an updated web presence.

So the moral of the story is….in the summer, tell the kids to ‘GO READ A BOOK TODAY”….Mummy is busy!
See ya next time “In the Hayloft”,

Tags: down time, ponderings, website by k grace howes
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Tags: website by k grace howes
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Hubby and 6yr old with my first poinsettas of the season

Hope everyone had a gobbly good Thanksgiving. It was nice just having the family around but it felt strange as well cause we usually have friends over (they also have no other family near them) but this time they chose to have a quiet day themselves. Got a call from one of them and he said he missed being at our house! Ohhhhh. So me thinks we’ll end up together again next year as was our tradition for over 12 yrs. Ya live and ya learn.

Yesterday, because we didn’t have guests I got to do some of my own thing (which I promised myself to work on) and I finished the look of my website…the struggle with that had more to do with being content with what I produced enough to like it for the long run.

I have a few pages to fill out…one being the “about myself” page, aaagrrh (waxing on about my accomplishments is something I’m still not very comfortable doing) and secondly I need to take good pics of my large quilts to post on my gallery page. Have to set it up outside to get good pics cause I don’t have a studio wall big enough.

Wish me luck that it works the first time around so I can finally upload it to a server so that the whole wide world can see me. Yikes! Just the thought of that gives me the heeby geebies but…I WILL NOT GIVE UP, I WILL PERSEVERE!!!! .

I know, I know you’re probably thinking”she got a blog for goodness sake, how’s that for worldwide” but having a website is somehow different in my mind. Here I’m just enjoying “chatting” with friends.

By the way I usually end my nights just before I go to sleep by finding something everyday to be grateful for. But this Thankgiving I am more grateful than you can imagine for having my family, all my children at home to celebrate the day with. We’ve been in upheaval for such a long time it was good to just appreciate them all. Of course my 6yr old kept telling me, “Mummy you’re staring at me again”. What can I say, they make me smile and those tender feeling just rise to the surface.

See ya next time”In the Hayloft”,

Tags: family, thanksgiving, website by k grace howes
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I’m quite estatic this early morning. I finally have my 1st web page done…well… not really…I have set up a, uno, one page and now need to tweak some images so they show up better. Boy am I happy (can’t you just see me doing the happy dance?).

I bought a couple of books (see previous post) and found four more at the library that I thought would help although you know those are really out of date at 3 years old. I considered for a millisecond purchasing DreamWeaver but my budget just ain’t there. I decided to go on the web and see if there could possibly be anything else a teensy tiny bit cheaper (like $200 cheaper) and would you believe I found it.

I FOUND THE ANSWER TO MY FRUSTRATION! Yippee!!!!!!

I came upon a little HTML software editor called CoffeeCup. They have been in existence for a while now, since ’96, but I had never heard of them before. I downloaded the trial software and two days later….did you hear me, I said 2 DAYS LATER…I have a web page, of sorts.

Tomorrow I will purchase the software (now that I know I can use it.) Next step…to get the other 150 pages finished. Oh people, I’m just kidding, I really only have about 10 or 15 more to do to be able to upload it to my server. Half the battle is over. Yippee!!!!!

See ya next time “In the Hayloft”,

Tags: website by k grace howes
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I thought it would be fairly easy to design my own website (most of you really need to stop laughing at me now). So after days…okay so it’s been a month plus but who’s counting…of reading ,writing and lots of frustrated behavior I won’t describe here, I finally have….a half of a page done!!!! Eh! I can see why people get paid good money to do this FOR you. But…

I WILL NOT GIVE UP, I WILL PERSEVERE!!!! yadda, yadda, yadda.

Actually I’m having a bit of fun reading the books I have, “HTML, XHTML & CSS by Elizabeth Castro and “The Principles of Beautiful Web Design” by Jason Beaird. It’s fascinating read believe it or not and I’m learning so much.

Like when I post stuff to this blog and then view it, why the picture of a fruitcake is over there by the description of my husband’s best friend (disclaimer: my husband’s best friend, who’s name shall remain nameless, is not a fruitcake, I’m just using that as an example) or now knowing that the html language that I see on a page is not really some web page designer mouthing off, it really does translate into web text.

Alright, enough goofing off. Hopefully my website, RedBarn Studios with it’s new logo (yippee!) will be up and running soon…suppose that depends on your definition of soon…or you might see more posts that aptly describe my frustrated behavior. I’m off to buy MORE school supplies (whatever happened to just the paper and a pen deal?) but that means they go back to school on Monday and I get my daytime hours back to myself again. I think I prefered year round school afterall.

See ya next time “In the Hayloft”,

p.s. As I write this my 6 yr old is playing “bowling” with my beautifully beaded ball and my 24″ long ruler propped up on a the drill case. So much for it being MY place for play.

Tags: website by k grace howes
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