If you go to buy my ebook, you may notice something’s different. I spent today re-branding the book because I was notified ‘nerd school’ is trademarked. Oh yay… I suppose I should have stuck with Nerd Party in the first place – lesson learned!

Anyway…same book, still awesome, still available to help you kick your blog in the pants! Get it here >>>

* If you’ve already bought and read the ebook I’d love for you to write a review – there’s a tab at the bottom of the product page for you to leave your thoughts. Thanks!! *

MELINDA’S MUSINGS: blog / Twitter

I’m a designer, dreamer, and adventure-seeker. I design children’s clothing by day, blog at night, and travel on the weekends! On Melinda’s Musings I share my inspirations, travel stories, and love of yoga and books. I’m constantly inspired by fellow bloggers and designers, so if you stop by my blog please share a link to your site, I’d love to check it out!

JUST LOVELY: blog / Twitter / shop

I am an accessories designer and owner of JustLovelyThings, co-founder of a pretty shop called Fawn & Flora and I work for Passionfruit (you know that rad blog ad company!). I am extremely passionate about supporting independent, small business & the handmade community. I live in Oregon and am married to my bestest friend Brandon and our huge dog. I hope you have fun visiting while I share all the things I find, love and am passionate about!

Also stop by and say Hi to Marilyn at Pulp Sushi and Shell over at Kitty And Buck

If you’d like to sponsor Silly Grrl you’re welcome to grab a spot anytime during the month. Spaces start at just $5 and you’ll be pleased to know my traffic went from 29,000 page views in April to whats looking like 35,000 this month. Pretty awesome if I do say so myself :)

Ashley said, “I want to quit my day job and support my family entirely with my freelancing. We have a TON of savings…I am currently earning about half of what we need from my freelancing…but I’m also only freelancing part-time. I want to take the leap, but I’m also thinking I should re-price my website and blog designs accordingly before I do so, which means I could lose clients. I track my time and know my hourly rate…but sometimes a website takes 6 hours and sometimes it’s 26! I want to offer package pricing, but that makes it hard, you know?”

Thanks for your question Ashley! First, you should definitely raise your prices to your post-escape rate before leaving your job. You’re right, you may lose some clients, so you want to have an idea of how many will stick around once you’re freelancing full-time. The ones looking for a quick, cheap design will probably fade out and you’ll be left with less clients, but higher-paying projects.

As far as pricing goes, I know my hourly rate and I know how long it takes to build different parts of a site. So I charge base-rate, which covers the site mock-up and revisions (to which there is a limit) and then I add on for pages, dropdown menus, galleries, ecommerce. If you look at my portfolio you’ll see I don’t list any rates. This is because every site ends up taking a different amount of time depending on the size and how picky the client is.

Here’s an example: Say the hourly rate is $50. It takes me about 6 hours to do a mock-up with three rounds of revisions, 1 hour to style a drop-down menu, and the site has 4 pages (1 hour each). That comes out to 11 hours, which would be $550.

Don’t be afraid to charge what you’re worth. There’s nothing more annoying then getting to the end of the project and realizing you paid yourself $30/hour intsead of $50 because you dropped your price and the client wanted a bunch of extras.

Samantha said, “First, how did you learn your mad web skills? Have you found that it’s fairly easy to find work as a freelancer (do most people just find you via your website)? Do you think your location matters at all when it comes to freelance work? How do you keep your freelance projects organized? I think your blog is great, and it’s really inspiring to see how you’ve gone freelance and made it work.”

Thanks for your questions Samantha (I know there were a couple more, I’m holding those for next time :)

I learned my mad web skills by making a really ugly sites on gURL pages and Angelfire when I was about 13. I would see sites with different features and look at their page source and research how to recreated what they’d done. Now I hone my skills by looking up information Stack Overflow, w3Schools and CSS-Tricks.

I’ve been working as a freelancer for about two years and my blog has been online for over five, so when I started offering design services the audience was already there. Now I don’t have to do any marketing at all – clients come to me. Because of this, most of my clients are online, so I can work from anywhere and location isn’t a factor. Though even my local clients communicate via email the majority of the time.

To keep my freelance projects organized I use two things – Google Calendar and Weave. I use Google calendar for scheduling – I set the event to show all day and make each project a different color. Then I use Weave to track tasks, hours and income.

If you have a design, blogging, freelance, coding, or aerial-related question, feel free to submit it here and I might just answer it in an upcoming post!

It’s here, it’s here! After a year of kinda working, kinda procrastinating and two months of working my buns off it’s finally time to launch this thing!

This book is for those of you who are looking to wade a little deeper into the coding waters. It includes tips on choosing the right template, instruction on how to use plugins and Google’s Keyword Tool, how to build a better blog design through information from your analytics, and tutorials of course!

There are TEN brand new tutorials – a few easier ones for those of you just getting started, some in the middle and a couple advanced tutorials for those of you looking for a challenge. The tutorials are based in Blogger and self-hosted WordPress, but those of you using other platforms may be able to apply the code to your site as well.

Through this book I hope to help you define your style as a blogger, share your message, your business or passion, and create a design that encourages your readers to stick around and participate.

OK…CLICK HERE TO BUY IT NOW!

My students, kicking so much ass

Our first aerial session is coming to an end and with summer classes starting in a few weeks we’re looking to implement a few new policies…No saying I can’t before even attempting a trick and no saying Sorry for not having the strength, flexibility or guts to be able to do something.

About 90 percent of the time when a student tells me, ‘Oh man, I don’t know if I can do that…” they nail the trick on the first go. I know they can do it right from the start. I have no doubt that they’ll hoist their ass into the air, their hands will be strong enough and their abs will turn them in just the right way, but they never believe me.

They look up at the apparatus, reposition their hands over and over, start to pull up and stall. They’re telling themselves they’re going to fail before they’ve even seen what their body can do.

And if they aren’t able to do a trick it’s completely OK. But over and over when a student isn’t able to hold themselves up or complete a trick, they come down and say sorry. And I tell them – I don’t care if you never ever ever complete the trick, I care that you got up there and did your best and there’s no reason to say sorry.

If you came to our aerial class Irina and I would both tell you the same thing – when we first started training there were things we could not do at all. I couldn’t haul my ass onto the trapeze without assistance for months and she couldn’t climb to save her life. But we still showed up week after grueling week, continued to work at it for those tiny moments of improvement, and didn’t apologize when we were downright awful. We were learning, and if you’re learning something new you’re allowed to be unapologetically terrible at it too.

We need to learn to move with confidence and give things a shot, give OURSELVES a shot, without allowing those discouraging voices to enter out thoughts. Just go for it. Stop apologizing for not being able to do something and be proud of yourself that you showed up and gave it a shot.

Are you a Sorry-er? Do you start with “I don’t think I can do that” or to you try new things with confidence?

Also…my ebook comes out tomorrow!! Holy moly! Anyone else as excited as I am??

The teeny-tiny aquarium was my favorite part of the museum & planetarium

This weekend has been a nice release after a crazy, crazy work week finishing the book. It’s now very apparent that I’m truly insane because I decided to reformat the entire thing at 11PM on Wednesday night. Yes, INSANE. But, I finished it in time, got the new site online and the pre-launch went off without a hitch.

Friday night I celebrated with a lady date to the planetarium and chicken fingers + fries at a diner. Planning to schedule a much needed massage asap too.

If you’re on my mailing list and didn’t receive the email with the shop link Friday morning you might want to check your spam folder :) Thank you to all who have already purchased the book. See the notifications pop up on my phone all day made me super happy.

Also, if you haven’t commented on my ‘getting you know you‘ post, you should! I’ve come to the conclusion that I have the best readers and now I feel like I’m writing to my super cool friends from all over the world. Thanks guys!

How to clean your closet and make a little cash >>>

Did you get the app that lets you boycott Koch, Monsanto & more by scanning your shopping cart? >>>

7 things you need to stop telling yourself (via Rock Steady Strategy) >>>

Pruning the bush (a business post) >>>

Charging value based fees >>>

Who wants to go here and makeout? >>>

I definitely need this (attn wine drinkers) >>>

A genius way to organize tights >>>

Love Angie’s BAMF series >>>

Mom takes photos of daughter as real heroes, no Disney allowed >>>

From the archives: A post from 2009 when I was feeling stuck at my job and trying to figure out how to make a change >>>

It’s officially been one year since I walked into my boss’s office to tell him I was quitting my job. It was one of the most challenging and then relieving things I’ve ever done. Now a year later I can’t ever imagine going back.

I was going to write a post about dos and don’ts and tips for leaving your job, but I write about that stuff all the time, so today I just want to say that I’m happy and thankful. All the work to make it happen, the stress of being my own boss and the occasional days of “Crap! My bank account is looking sad,” they’re all worth it.

I stop at least once every single day and just think about how different my life is and how I’m in a much better place emotionally and business-wise than I was a year ago. I actually shed a few happy tears while reading comments one morning this week – sappy, but true! Writing this blog and helping all of you learn to code is one of my favorite parts of the day.

Then I get to take a break and go to job number two, teaching people to fly. Three different students this week have said they weren’t sure if they could do a trick and then climbed up and nailed it on the first try. That’s one of the best feelings and I get to relive it over and over through them.

So thank you again and always for your support and encouragement and cheers to year number two!

(I’m slowly coming out of ebook land and going through emails and comments, so if you’re waiting to hear from me I’ll be in touch soon!)

(love how my comment styles went bananas a few days ago >_<)

Check your inbox because you earned yourself a free copy of Nerd Party: Clever Coding & Design Tips for Busy Bloggers!

And if you’re on my mailing list you might want to check your inbox as well because you now have early access to the shop!

Thank you all for your comments on yesterday’s post. Now that I’m out of ebook crazytown I have some time to lurk on your websites too :)

Now that I’m closing in on 1500 readers and 900 Twitter followers (!!!) I want to know who the heck all you people are! I know some of you from reading your blogs, exchanging comments and tweets, but I definitely don’t know almost 1500 of you!

I’ll tell you a little more about me and then you can tell me about you :)

1. I text Mandy at least once a week to say I’m craving tacos and can we go to Los Galanes for dinner.

2. If you take an aerial class with me & Irina you will hear us yell “Yeah girl!” about 50 times. I don’t know how this started, but we cannot stop.

3. I’m terrified of water where I can’t see the bottom. If you want to see me mega freakout just dump me into the ocean. I loved reading Life of Pi, but that sinking ship scene made me REAL uncomfortable.

4. In high school I was a competitive ballroom dancer. I still have my shoes and sort of have the moves.

5. I sing in the mirror in the bathroom WITH a hair brush at least once a week.

I also received a few questions…

Amy asked about dating tips and single lady advice. Obviously I’m quite single, so maybe I’m not the best person to be handing out advice. I don’t know about finding the right person, but I can tell you how to get lots of dates…make new lady friends. I’ve had two new friends set me up with two very nice dudes in the past month. If you meet new ladies they’re bound to have a nice guy friend who’d be happy to meet you.

And as for being a single lady, I like to think I’m getting pretty good at being on my own. I’m quite busy with work and work and work, so that helps, but when I’m feeling single in a bad way I call up those lady friends and go on a date with one of them.

Mia asked what my family thinks about my running away with the circus…they think I’m a little nuts and a lot brave. I think my parents still worry a bit about the whole mortgage thing, but I’ve been chasing after kooky dreams since I was a kid and they trust I know how to pick myself up when I fall and get out if the ship is sinking.

Now, it’s your turn! Tell me…

1. Where do you live?

I live in a little town just north of Detroit. It’s quiet, I can walk everywhere and going to the bar is like an episode of Cheers on most nights.

2. What’s your favorite way to spend a few hours of free time?

I love taking Slayer on super long walks and then sitting on my deck to read or riding bikes & consuming a lot of ice cream.

3. What do you do / what would you like to be when you grow up?

I think you probably figured that one out already: freelance designer, blogger, code-wrangler, writer, teacher, aerialist. When I grow up I want to be a mom and a wise (nutty and covered in glitter) old lady still teaching people to kick ass.

To create a colored box with rounded corners, add the border radius rule to the text box class in your stylesheet.

.lime {
background: #c1d615;
color: #fff;
padding: 5px 10px;
-moz-border-radius: 15px;
border-radius: 15px;
-webkit-border-radius: 15px;
}

Then paste the code below into the text/html view when creating a post or add it to a text/html gadget or widget.

<div class=”lime”><em>Candy canes jujubes gingerbread jelly beans brownie dessert. Sweet soufflé jelly tiramisu jelly beans. Danish faworki tart sweet tootsie roll lollipop chocolate bar. Pie lemon drops jelly gingerbread pie powder dragée wafer.</em></div>

You can also set all four corners separately – top left (35px), top right (2px), bottom right (10px), bottom left (20px). You’ll notice the larger the number, the more rounded the corners.

.lime2 {
background: #c1d615;
color: #fff;
padding: 5px 10px;
-moz-border-radius: 35px 2px 10px 20px;
border-radius: 35px 2px 10px 20px;
-webkit-border-radius: 35px 2px 10px 20px;
}

You can also remove the background and add a rounded border instead…

.lime-border {
background: transparent;
color: #c1d615;
padding: 5px 10px;
border: 2px dashed #c1d615;
-moz-border-radius: 8px;
border-radius: 8px;
-webkit-border-radius: 8px;
}

If you increase the radius you can use this rule to create buttons:

.lime-button {
float: left;
background: #c1d615;
color: #fff;
font-size: 28px;
text-align: center;
width: 55px;
height: 40px;
padding-top: 15px;
margin-right: 10px;
-moz-border-radius: 35px;
border-radius: 35px;
-webkit-border-radius: 35px;
}

#content .latest .lime-background {
float: left;
color: #c1d615;
font-size: 28px;
text-align: center;
width: 55px;
height: 40px;
padding-top: 15px;
margin-right: 10px;
-moz-border-radius: 35px;
border-radius: 35px;
-webkit-border-radius: 35px;
background: url(/tiny-chevron.gif) repeat;
border: 1px solid #ebebeb;
}

Float left causes the buttons to line up next to each other. I’ve also specified the height and width and added 15px of padding to push the text into the center. You’ll notice when you do this it makes the button longer, so I’ve subtracted the padding from the height of the button.

Lastly you can use this to create photos with rounded corners:

<span class=”rounded-corners”><img src=”/beach.jpg” /></span>

.rounded-corners {
display: inline-block;
position: relative;
overflow: hidden;
-moz-border-radius: 50px;
border-radius: 50px;
-webkit-border-radius: 50px;
}

For the completely round photos at the top of this post make the radius high and include the width and height:

.round {
display: inline-block;
position: relative;
overflow: hidden;
width: 300px;
height: 300px;
-moz-border-radius: 300px;
border-radius: 300px;
-webkit-border-radius: 300px;
}

Lastly, you could add the border radius to all of your photos:

img {
display: inline-block;
position: relative;
overflow: hidden;
-moz-border-radius: 50px;
border-radius: 50px;
-webkit-border-radius: 50px;
}

Now, if you’re reading this in an RSS reader you may be thinking, “Hey lady, I don’t see any rounded anything!” The reason for this is many feed readers strip the CSS from your content and use their own styles. You may be able to get around this by using a plugin like Feed Styler or you might just save this technique for your blog design and skip using it for posts.

Don’t forget to enter the giveaway to win a copy of my ebook Nerd School: Clever Coding & Design Tips for Busy Bloggers and sign-up for my mailing list to get your hands on it early!