KChristieH Blog

I’m jealous of Maggie Cleary. She visits Ireland on a regular basis to keep in touch with the Irish dance community and re-connect with her native country. Visiting Ireland with my mother is on my “bucket list” of things to do, and now that I’m paying college tuition for my daughter, the dream is no [...]

Last night my business partner asked me to find two stock photos for a website we’re working on: one for the Technical Support page, and one for the Contact Us page. I haven’t decided which photos to choose yet. The potential pictures quickly started looking the same. Attractive, smiling, well-dressed people in their 20′s or [...]

After years of whining that my church needed a new website, I finally put my hours where my mouth is and redesigned the website for La Cañada Presbyterian Church. I customized a premium WordPress theme, WP-Genius by Solostream. The site has over 133 pages and dozens of posts, which are mostly for events. It also [...]

What’s worse than not having a blog for your business? Having a bad one, or not updating the one you have. I’ve designed blogs for many clients, but very few of them have developed those blogs into high-quality vehicles for conveying information about their organization or industry. That’s why I’ve decided that from now on, [...]

When I studied Industrial Engineering, it seemed like everything was reduced to an acronym. Even simple concepts were reduced to three- or four-letter words. I thought that the silliest was MBWA: Management by Walking Around. Isn’t it obvious that you’ll be a better manager if you get out of your office and find out what’s [...]

Ever since I watched Food, Inc., I’ve been much more picky about the food I buy and eat. I was somewhat careful before, but now my eyes have been opened to food processing practices I had never even imagined. The movie is not for the faint of heart: it shows how various types of meat [...]

I hate chaos. I’m like a deer in the headlights if there’s too much chaos, and as a result my productivity plummets. Thank goodness for Evernote. It allows me to put the random information that formerly resided on Post-its and extra Firefox tabs into one program, thereby letting me juggle more balls without letting them [...]

Over 10 years ago, in a fit of eToys IPO-fueled optimism, my husband quit his big law firm job and formed his own law practice, The Hernandez Law Group. He’s worked very hard over the years to grow the practice, and recently decided to take on two partners: Jack Schaedel & Rob Olson. Don and [...]

Stephanie Michele wants to help you to get connected to other people who share your interests. She’s started a new company called SocialBling that helps you find other people based on your wants, needs and goals. It was great working with Stephanie on this site, and using the logo and graphics that Debra Doty designed [...]

When I sent my kids off to camp and Costa Rica last month, I finally found time to fulfill my 2008 New Year’s resolution and learn to incorporate a database into a website. You can see the results on the La Canada High School 9-12 PTSA website, lchs912.org. Events and news items are easy to [...]

I’m not sure why Facebook thought the ad to the right might be relevant to me, but I love it. Sometimes creative application techniques bomb, but I think this one’s pretty good. I hope it works for him! Maybe he was wise in targeting me, since I’m winding up blogging about it.  :) These are [...]

I love Jack Johnson’s music. But as great as it is, he’s not in the same class as the Beatles, who composed and performed a wide variety of music. The Design Studio is The Beatles of interior designers. As you can see on the new website I designed for them, Judy Van Wyk and John [...]

Every few years a website needs refreshing. Design trends change, technology advances, and businesses and organizations evolve. The YMCA of the Foothills (formerly known as the Crescenta-Canada YMCA) website was long overdue for an overhaul when they hired me and some of my fellow freelancers for help. The colors were old, the design was very [...]

I recently had the privilege of re-designing the website for Discover the World, a Christian organization that does lots of great work in Africa, particularly with children whose parents have died of AIDS. They also provide mosquito nets, leadership training, schools, water filters, emergency relief, and more. They make a huge difference in the lives [...]

When my kids were in their early elementary school years, there was a rash of serious injuries caused by kids falling from their school’s play equipment onto the sand surface beneath. Committees convened, research was conducted, and parents implored the school and district administration to make the playground safer. At one point, the school superintendent [...]

After 17 years of running my life and business on a PC, I switched to an iMac a few months ago. The verdict: I LOVE IT!! Why I switched: I switched because I needed a more powerful computer, but wasn’t impressed by Vista or by the reviews of the new Windows 7 operating system. I [...]

I hate to waste time. Maybe that’s why I studied Industrial Engineering. Here are some websites, programs and techniques that help me work and manage my life more efficiently. Google Calendar I used Calendar Creator for our family calendar for about 12 years until it crashed last fall. I was crushed. Not only did I [...]

I love my kids, and have had a great time spending lots of time with them this summer, but it’ll be much easier to get work done when they go back to school. I’m busier than ever this year, and my work doesn’t slow down in the summer. I’m a little behind, but I somehow [...]

Have you ever answered a question that was so far-fetched you couldn’t believe it was even being asked? That’s how I felt today when I saw the following poll in the Christianity Today email newsletter: “Should a Christian school fire members of its faculty who divorce?” Here are the results so far: I’ve been happily [...]

One of the best things about being a website designer is that I get to meet lots of great new people and learn about their businesses. One of my clients, Patricia O’Neil, is an artist in Laguna Beach. She makes exquisite porcelain Santas and gorgeous handmade house tiles. She recently needed some updates on her [...]

David Paterson is about to become New York’s first African-American and first blind governor. Today he remarked that 71 percent of blind people and 90 percent of deaf people are unemployed, even though they have a higher level of education than the average American. He noted that this is a waste of potential, and the [...]

The last thing I need is to watch more tv. I have many books and magazines I’d like to read, so I’d prefer not getting hooked on yet another* tv show. Even so, I decided to check out “The Office” since so many people whose taste I trust swore to me that I’d like it. [...]

For over seven years I had roughly the same business website. I’ve been so busy designing websites for other people that I never got around to updating my own. Besides, I was staying busy enough without spiffing it up. I finally got sick of it, and spent all day today redesigning it. I’m embarrassed to [...]

From workforce.com: Companies with more women on their boards perform better than those with very few women, according to a study released on Monday, October 1, by Catalyst, a New York-based consultant. During the four-year span of the reporting for the study, Fortune 500 companies with the highest percentage of women on their boards saw [...]

I’ve launched two new websites for clients in the past few weeks. The first, A&A Boltless Rack & Shelving, was an especially fun site to design. David Gwennap took some great pictures, and Debra Doty designed a great logo. Most of the sites in their industry are pretty boring, but I think we found a [...]

After watching “Flipping Out,” our stunned silence was broken by my daughter, who said, “Well, at least he isn’t mean.” Perhaps, but… She was referring to Jeff Lewis, the self-professed obsessive-compulsive star of this new Bravo reality series. Jeff is a “house flipper”: he buys downtrodden houses, fixes them up, and sells them for a [...]

When I started at Disney in 1990, I made about 1/225th of the $11.25 million that Michael Eisner did. I know I wasn’t qualified to do the job that he did, but I seriously doubt he was 225x better than me. Forbes has a great web page that evaluates how much executives are paid relative [...]

That’s the slogan of Cleary Irish Dance. I can walk and chew gum and talk on a cell phone at the same time, so I bet I’d be an awesome Irish dancer. My mom took Irish dancing classes when she was a girl, but she never passed on her knowledge to me. In fact, I [...]

Pros: Flexible hours Less meetings No commute More time with kids No psycho boss No office politics Google, my main support Can wear what I want Can listen to what I want Can eat lunch when I want Ever-present dog Errands in empty stores Exercise up/down stairs Multi-task work/housework Feel closer to community since I’m [...]

I’m sure there are people out there who think a stay-at-home mom, especially a soccer mom (why does that term demean so much?) must have turned her brain off the minute she put the work suit in the closet. How wrong they are! No matter what age my kids have been, and no matter whether [...]