Doodle Love

I got a new GoldenDoodle puppy a couple days ago and he’s adorable. I had been researching them online and I searched through ever doodle site there is online.. looking for the perfect puppy at the perfect price. Which was not even close to easy. Most Doodles whether they be Labradoodles (Half Lab/Half Poodle) or GoldenDoodle (half Golden Retriever/Half Poodle) cost anywhere between 1,200 to 2,500 depending on the breeder and the location.

I found a breeder in Oregon (www.thegoldendoodles.net) which is an hour away and they had three Goldendoodle puppies 10 weeks old. The price for these 3 had gone down from $875 to $500! So, I jumped on it.

IconFinder.net - A Web Designers Helpful little friend..

Here’s a handy little site that I think is useful to add to your bookmarks if you are a web designer, it is called Iconfinder. It does exactly what it says…. finds the icon of your choice.

So, if you like icons I’d recommend a visit!

The site is simply designed and straight to the point, add your search query, click and wait for the results. I think it’s very useful. All icons are licensed with either Creative Commons, GPL, or LGPL. Below is a screenshot for “home” icons.

Cool Wallpapers - Cool Links

Cool Wallpapers

Most wallpapers were found on deviantart.com

READ THE REST OF THE POST FOR MORE WALLPAPERS

11 Open Source (FREE) Photoshop Alternatives

I’ve been doing some research online tonight for a FREE alternative for Photoshop - my Photoshop installation recently became corrupt (no clue how but it might have something to do with the fact it was cracked..um yeh) Call me evil, I just call me poor.

Anyway, I can’t seem to completly uninstall Photoshop and so it won’t allow me to re-install it… and since Photoshop cost about USD $649 per copy... I’ll most likely be using an alternative until I can format my hard drive.

Anyway, I can not work with out some type of imaging software. Period. I’ll let you know which one I decide on.

Read on for 11 Open Source (FREE) Photoshop Alternatives

Hatched! Twitter Eggs - Free Twitter icon set

These are so damn cute! Which came first the Twitter bird or the egg? Enhance your blog or site with these fun Twitter eggs. Available in PNG format in two sizes: 256 x 256 px and 128 x 128 px.

• Cool Link of the Day: Web 2.0 free buttons maker

Another Great Affiliate that actually pays! $$ WPWebHost

Another Great Affiliate that actually pays! WPWebHost.com I just signed up with them as an affiliate and added a banner to the bottom of my posts using the Shantz WordPress Prefix/Suffix Plugin which I also love by the way.

I earned 70.00 bucks with only 2 referrals and in no time at all. If your like me when you first found out about affiliate marketing you thought “great I can just add links to my website and I’ll make money”. Well it’s really not that easy.

Read on…

10 New Social Networking Icon Sets

I’m constantly looking for new social networking icon sets to post but they are few and far between. Good ones at least.

Here are 10 social networking icon sets. A few of them are new to me and a few are not.But all of them are cool.

Make sure to do a search for social networking icons on my website to find more social icons. I’ve posted a ton of them. Also if you know of any new sets that have not been posted here.. pleeze let me know!
Leave a comment, subscribe to my RSS Feed! Follow me on Twitter!

Read the rest of this post for the Free Icons!

My Freelance Suitcase - Useful tools for Freelancers

I’ve recently started taking on some freelance jobs and really just learning more about what is involved in being a freelance designer. It’s been interesting to say the least. I’ve found some really useful tools online that I wanted to share with my readers. I know a lot of designers visit this site looking for themes and social networking icons so hopefully these tools will be useful to some of you.
Read on for a List of my Fav Freelancing tools!

ADELE - Cold Shoulder (Live)

ADELE

Absolutely breathtaking. What an amazing talent. Her voice gives me goose bumps! This HD video with scrolling lyrics.
Adele Live and unplugged! Personally I like the unplugged version best because you can see just how fab she truly is!

Watch and Enjoy!

Web design build questions to ask (yourself) or new clients

If your a webmaster or web designer I highly recommend you read the rest of this post at www.simonday.com

This is a great resource for anyone who does freelance design or builds websites.

Web design build questions to ask (yourself) or new clients

What do you want the web site to do for your company?
(is it to just promote brand awareness and for people who hear about them and then go to their site, will people be finding them through search engines, is it existing clients looking for support or news, are you selling online, are you offering downloads, company reports etc)

Who is your target audience (age / level of internet experience etc)?
(Do they require a modern, fast paced, highly graphical site to target the younger generation or a more user friendly site for the less experienced or older internet users. )

What image do you want to portray (Professional / Casual / cutting edge etc)?
(Some sites use white space and limited text to give a relaxed feel while others use lots of images and text to give the site a busy feel. Define the feel of the site)

If you have branding what colours, fonts, styles do you use?
(See business cards, letterheads etc). More often that not the sole trader will have no graphics, no logo and no identity so in these cases you need to ask the client for colour schemes they think fit with the ideas but also do market research on the competition because the client may not be right.

CORE QUESTIONS:

What do you absolutely definitely want on the site?
(This list could include blog, shopping cart, members log in, private areas, RSS feeds. Gallery newsletter, contact forms, advertising space, different languages, search facility, etc)

What would you like if possible/within budget?

What absolutely must be on the homepage and what is the order of priority?
(This is a core question and you should allow the client time to ponder and discuss this with you. Their answers here should define the position of the building blocks. The answers could be phone number, email, help icon, downloads, cart total, core product links etc.)

What must be visible at all times?
(Every page has a fold. A fold is below the visual part of the page and requires you to scroll down to see it. I have a height I use but you should decide for yourself where it should be. The client must understand this and agree what can go above and below).

How many links will be needed and how many levels of navigation will there be?
(You need to understand the journey paths and decide how far down the link structure will go (level one, level two, level three etc)

• Read the rest of this post at www.simonday.com

Mini Social Networking Icon Set - komodomedia.com

This icon set consists of 30 (16×16) finely crafted social media icons. They are free to use non-commercially. Put them on your blog or on your website to help users bookmark or share your site socially. I hear its all-the-rage these days.
www.komodomedia.com

5 Social networking icons, brush sets and shapes!

New social networking icon sets & even a few social networking icon brush sets and shapes!

Tweet Tweet Cute Tweet: Another Free Twitter Bird Icon

Free Heart Social Networking Icon Set

Social Media Grungy Watercolor Brushes

Make your own grungy social networking icon set to
match your blog!

Free Social Networking Hand Drawn Photoshop Shapes

Free Set of Social Networking Coffee Stain Icons

PagePeel - A Free Social Media Iconset

How cute is this icon set? I absolutly love it but then again as you can see I love most icon sets. Especially FREE icon sets!

No seriously.. Big Props and Big Thanks to Productivedreams.com for sharing this super cool icon set with the public. Make sure to visit the site and download this Free icon set and while you’re there take a look at the rest of the site for more cool freebies and much more.

This is the same graphic designer who designed two of my favorite Twitter Birds!

Free Vector Icon Set by Productivedreams.com

Free Twitter Bird Icon Set by Productivedreams.com

“WHITE MAGIK” - Free Social Networking Icon Set

“WHITE MAGIK” - Free Social Networking Icon Set

New set of icons “WHITE MAGIK” in .PNG format. But please link us back if you use it to chethstudios.blogspot.com.White Magik is perfect for white minimalistic sites and can be used with image hover for excellent looks!

So cute!

50+ Links for Twitter Backgrounds & Twitter Resources

 A unique Twitter background will help you stand out from the crowd, impress your visitors, and enhance your brand. There are a variety of places that offer free Twitter backgrounds. 
Here are 20+ links for Twitter Backgrounds. 
 

Free Twitter Backgrounds PSD Layered Files - 4 different free twitter backgrounds- PSD zipped files. which can be easily customized with [...]

Make Money with Twitter - or so the story goes..

Magpie
I just found this site called MagPie. They embed their users ads into your Twitter posts. Not every single post .. you can actually approve which ads are posted and how often their posted. I’m not sure how I feel about it yet.. I did sign up so we shall see.
You can sign up with [...]

Gorilla themes - Premium Wordpress Themes

Smooth 

Smooth is a Real Estate WordPress theme, complete with Google Maps Integration, that offers a professional and extremely affordable solution for Realtors and Agents to showcase their properties with ease.
The Smooth Real Estate theme is one of the most affordable and professional solutions for Realtors and agents on the market.

Click here to view more details

Open [...]

OIO Publisher - Let advertisers buy space on your site without lifting a finger - WP Plugin

Put your Advertising Income on Autopilot

OIO Publisher is a very user-friendly and easy to use Wordpress plugin that lets advertisers buy space on your site without you having to lift a finger. All you have to do is set the plugin up by setting the types of spaces you want to sell, for example, banners, text-links, or inline ads in each of your front page posts and setting the price for each.

30 Tutorials On Converting A PSD To XHTML And CSS

30 of the best tutorials on web for converting A PSD to a XHTML & CSS layout. These tutorials you will learn the process on how to create a Photoshop web layout and be able to convert it into a valid XHTML & CSS web page. The tutorials are a step by step process which [...]

Dreamyicons - Free Profile Icons for Live Journal

   
When I started really getting into the whole online social thing it all began with Live Journal and a community I started called Dreamyicons. We held icon contests based on themes. Now the community is just members posting icons that they’ve created..no more contests. So you’ll notice a lot of the icons have themes and you’ll also notice a lot of adult themed icons. I love pin-up art so.. I hope your eyes are not offended by sexy chicks.

• My Live Journal - Ibdreamy
• DreamyIcons Community - Free Profile Icons 100×100 pixels

Today I dragged all those old icons out of the closet and dusted them off. It’s been a couple years now since I made any new icons. Your free to use them for your journals, websites, Myspace, Twitter profile or what have you. Read on to View the Icon Gallery…