Rose City Gardens » web design

Web Design Makeover, Part 1

Web Wench — Tue, 31 Mar 2009 06:13:18 +0000

Ideally, I would have all my content written and organized before I coded a site, but I wanted to finish the BK2K Web Design theme so I can finish the Scrumptious theme. I’ll work on that and the content for BK2K over the next couple of weeks, giving myself a little variety. I love coding – but I really don’t like writing. It’s hard to get inspired! So I’m going “back to school” and treating it like a homework assignment. I’m starting by creating an outline.

Home
About
1. About BK2K
2. About Me
3. About this Site
Learn
1. Online Schools
2. Video Tutorials
3. Tutorials
Tools
1. Hardware
2. Software
Jobs

That was easy enough! Tomorrow, I’ll decide what the title and meta description tags for the pages will be, keeping SEO, and which keywords I want to target in mind.

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New WordPress theme sidetracked

Web Wench — Tue, 24 Mar 2009 07:15:03 +0000

I’ve been putting it off forever, but have decided to reopen my old business site, BK2K Web Design, as an online web jobs, web development, technology news sort of blog. Right now it’s kind of just sitting there with a little index page, and I miss it! So the Scrumptious theme has been temporarily sidetracked while I finish up the loose ends (including writing a slew of static pages, ugh.)

Here’s a screenshot of the new theme for BK2K (click for full sized):

I’ll do my best to finish this up soon, and get back on track with Scrumptious, which will be coming by the end of the month. Stay tuned…

WordPress Theme Upgrades

Web Wench — Sun, 04 Jan 2009 20:19:27 +0000

I haven’t been visible around the Garden lately, but I’ve busy behind the scenes, readying and upgrading all my WordPress themes for 2.7, and working on a new, magazine style theme.

Daisy Gray has been released and can be downloaded at WordPress.org. This was submitted right before the 2.7 release, but will work with 2.7 if you don’t use threaded comments. If you do, wait for the 2.7 version (coming tonight or tomorrow).

I’ll also be releasing a very nice magazine-style theme very soon, with a dramatic black and white theme and plenty of ad real estate in the wide, tabbed sidebar. I’m working out the kinks now, and should be ready to release by the end of the week!

We had our fill of winter these past weeks! Cold, nasty weather makes me cold and unproductive – so I’ve fallen behind in updates. But it’s warming (and drying) up in the next couple of weeks here in Oregon, so keep an eye out, I’ll be catching up very soon!

Last but certainly not least – the long-awaited release of version 4 of SimplePress, an extraordinary forum plugin for WordPress, is here! I’ve not yet upgraded, but will be doing that soon, and whipping out a few base forum templates to match with my existing WordPress themes. Go ahead and download SimplePress, install it and start playing around with it. You will love the way it seamlessly integrates with WordPress, with no hacking required on your part, beyond a few style declarations if you should like.

And how could I forget? I wish all of you a joyous and prosperous New Year!

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Pre-launch Special! Web Hosting & Wordpress™ Love!

Web Wench — Fri, 10 Oct 2008 20:17:11 +0000

In addition to free WordPress themes and advice, Rose City Gardens is now offering web design and hosting.

Pay for one year’s hosting in advance, and get a website customized to your business or specifications, FREE!

Your site will include:

One year of hosting on a lightning fast Dual Xeon server, with the space and bandwidth you need to run your site.
Email and cPanel control panel
WordPress or other CMS installed on your webspace
Extra care taken to secure your WordPress install, and keep it secure against spammers and hackers
Your choice of theme, customized to your specifications
Your theme, no matter if it’s one of mine or another open source theme, will be optimized for best search engine results.
Your installation will be customized with essential plugins to be search engine friendly and a pleasure to use!
Daily virus scans and backups of files and database
24/7 customer support
On site help with link building, networking and miscellaneous issues

For a limited time, I’m offering all this for $75.00. On Monday, the price goes up to the normal $150/year.

Custom themes are also available. I can take any design and convert it to WordPress; the price will vary depending on the complexity of the design.

Contact me via the contact form, or if I’m online, you can use the live chat feature (look in the left sidebar) to speak with me about your online presence.

Why choose me to build and host your website? Because I love coding, and I love design – and will care for your website like it was my very own. I am looking forward to hearing from you!

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Changes Coming!

Web Wench — Tue, 01 Jul 2008 19:00:27 +0000

Changes to the Garden’s WordPress theme

When I first registered this domain, it was only a placeholder for other sites, and a place where I tested various software. I offered hosting services, but through my other site, BK2K Web Design.

When I decided to use WordPress exclusively for content management, I installed it on this domain, and used a standard fixed with, 2-column skin. I decided that I wanted more space, so I coded the template you see today – ultra simple, 2 columns, and not much else.

I’m about to release the Tickled Pink skin, then go on a 2 week break while I revamp the Gardens. I’m thinking I’ll use the same graphics as I did on the first theme (which are kind of nice if I do say so myself) but keep the 100% width, and go to three columns. Damn, this is going to be a fun July!

Stay tuned for Tickled Pink! Today or tomorrow…there, I’ve committed myself!

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New theme coming!

Web Wench — Sat, 17 May 2008 08:47:52 +0000

I am very excited – I’m almost done with the first Rose City Gardens WordPress theme! It is finished, just a couple more tweaks and a few checks to make sure that it follows the WordPress guidelines, then it will be available for download! I’ll be making a matching Simple:Press skin of course!

View Tickled Pink theme.

For the new theme viewer, I used a fresh install of WordPress along with the plugin “Theme Switcher Reloaded” and it does the job very nicely!

Ch-Ch-Ch-Ch-Changes!

Mon, 07 Apr 2008 13:38:04 +0000

I’ve upgraded the Gardens to the new versions of WordPress and bbPress. While WP 2.5 rocks my world, bbPress does not. I want a much tighter integration, so I’m pitching the hours I spent making this theme for bbPress, and retiring those forums. For now. I may change my mind later.

Onward and upward! I used SimplePress from Stuff at Yellow Swordfish. I’ve already installed it at BK2K Web Design and it’s quite nifty!

Soon to come – a new theme release, and tutorial movies! Stay tuned…

Greetings to all

Fri, 14 Mar 2008 01:55:00 +0000

Out with the old; in with the new. RoseCityGardens has a new look and feel!

Please be patient while I add tweaks and content – lots and lots of content!