I know I just wrote about how we’re “full steam ahead” but we’ve had a small hiccup in a personal issue but it shouldn’t be a big problem. To summarize, we’re in the middle of escrow of our new house! Yay! We’re ecstatic, however over the last month a lot of time was spent looking for the house and doing lots of running around trying to get things in order. Now, this month we’re getting everything ready so that when we close on the house, it will actually be ready to move into which is taking lots more time.

Anyway, long story short, we’ve almost got that all finished up (it’s fun but stressful playing interior decorator!) however at the end of this month and beginning of February we will be taking some time off for moving and getting situated in the new house. Just FYI… I’m really trying to wrap up all existing projects before then and then will proceed with caution as that time approaches so I don’t leave anyone hanging. I’ll post again as it gets closer to that time so I can keep everyone updated.

Thanks everyone!

This past month was a busy one for everyone! In addition to the usual holiday rush, we were shopping for a house as well! We are now in escrow (yay!) so that part is over and I can focus again on work. Well, work plus a bazillion paint and floor samples sitting here on my desk! But really, I’m happy to say that we’re back to work full steam. Aside from a day off for New Years’ we’ll be working hard on our projects that are already in progress and on starting new ones from our waiting list.

I know I’ve mentioned it before, but please check out our new support forum. I recommend that ALL clients, whether you use the shopping cart or not, register an account. I would like to use the forum as the primary tool for communicating important updates and announcements.

Have a safe and happy New Years’!

Our youngest daughter is sick, we even had to take her to urgent care last night as she was having a hard time breathing through all her congestion, so I’ve been unable to spend as much time working as usual. She is doing better now but isn’t sleeping or napping well (and therefore neither am I!) Last week I got caught up on all my emails and a lot of work as well, so this shouldn’t cause major delays but I just wanted to let you know.

Also, half of our family celebrates Hanukkah and last night was the first night and so we were spending time with family as we will be doing again over the weekend.

Thank you!

Well, as you may have noticed, our site (not this blog, yet) had a transformation! I’m actually surprised the last design lasted so long…it’s probably mostly due to the fact that I’ve had no time and also due to the fact that I had so many people say they liked it! I wanted a change though, so I gathered the notes that I’ve been putting together for a while (ideas for the site design) and finally made the change. I’m still going through page by page and making updates to things though.

Also, I added a new Support Forum to the site. (click here) With the recent release of AlohaCart version 4, and without a user manual just yet, I’ve been answering a lot of the same questions, plus there have been updates to the software and some other things that would be best dispatched to the group as a whole. Plus I’m really hoping that existing and future clients can get answers to their questions more quickly and easily through the forum. So go register at the forum and post! The only way for it to be useful is to get lots of information there, so ask away! I am also thinking of holding a contest for post counts (meaningful posts) with the prize being discounted hosting, so stay tuned.

With the release of the support forum, I’ll mostly be using this blog for personal updates and info about time off, etc. I also have the newsletter (that I rarely use) which I will use for specials and promotions. The rest of the announcements will go to the forum. You can subscribe to the Announcements forum and receive updates to your inbox, pretty neat.

I hope everyone had a nice Thanksgiving and a nice long weekend!

I’m getting caught up! In addition to our new designer, I now have two other talented people helping me and so we’re moving right along! Thanks again for your continued patience! In a couple of days I should be able to re-open the store to new orders. And if you would like to be placed on the waiting list, please just contact us.

I just realized that there are a bunch of email messages that are on my old computer that must have been downloaded after I moved everything to the new computer so I did not see them. SO, I’m now going through these messages and responding to people as fast as I can. I apologize for the inconvenience.

I am VERY backed up right now with emails and work, and am trying my hardest to get caught up. If you haven’t seen the News Blog recently, I now have a new designer working with me so that is a HUGE step in getting back on track. Also, my mom is visiting from out of town which makes it harder to get on the computer to work. I’m really working very hard. I pride myself in my customer service so this is definitely not a position I like to be in. I want to REALLY thank everyone for being so patient and understanding!

I am so excited to announce that we have a new designer! Mandy will be helping me work on web and print design projects. She is a very talented designer and fantastic to work with! I am really hoping this will enable me/us to get caught up on projects and STAY caught up…so far, so good! Make sure to check out her bio on our About Us page.

Also, I just had to raise the pricing for banner ad design. Our old price of $25 for an animated banner just wasn’t enough to cover how much time we spend on these. So the new price for animated banners is $40, and $25 for static banners. We are still offering the special where you get additional banners of the same design for just $5 more each, and don’t plan to stop that anytime soon.

Another bit of news I want to share is that we are again looking for talented people to do some freelance work for us. As you can tell, a lot of work we do is on stores that sell products for children - boutiques, cloth diaper stores, etc. If you are experienced in designing this type of store, it’s a big plus! For more details and to submit your information, check out the Opportunities page here.

Thank you for being so patient during this very busy time for me, things are getting better and better!
Danielle

We have added three Custom Web Design Packages to the site. After doing so many quotes in the last couple of months, we saw a trend and so we put together these packages based on that info and to help save us some time. We would be glad to provide you with an individualized quote if your project does not fit one of our packages, just let us know, however now you can at least see what the general pricing structure is ahead of time.

In addition to “going green” we have simplified the hosting packages we offer, giving them all more disk space and bandwidth on fast, reliable servers with more features. What a great combo! So we now have three hosting plans available, with varying amounts of disk space and bandwidth to suit your individual needs. If you need more of something that doesn’t fit our plans, feel free to contact us. We may be able to create a custom plan just for you.

If you are on a plan that has since been discontinued, you will be able to stay at your current plan and rate. If you would like to upgrade or downgrade, simply submit a support ticket and we will take care of it for you.

We have also upgraded our web hosting control panel (cpanel) to version 11 which has some great new features. If you’re an existing client, log in to your hosting control panel and check it out. One of the new features is an upgraded file manager and also the Web Disk. If you are a new client, you can view the demo here. (Username and password are: x3demob)

Check our web hosting page and see how we have upgraded our plans!