ok, its been a while. been so busy it hurts, and trying to learn so much it feels like I'm trying to fit too much into my head at once. anyway... at some point will be migrating the site & blog over to wordpress 2.5.1. figured that I've got zero time at the moment to continue to develop and support my own cms / blog when someting as great as WP is so damn simple to impliment and use!

spark will return as a future development, but just now I'll concentrate on learning php5, jquery, codeIgniter etc etc etc

At last, Lou's e-commerce section of the shop's website is live.. and what a job it was! Lou designed it, I built it using a bought in Shopping Cart software.. pretty chuffed with the results.

Its been live for just over 24 hours, and it already makin money... job done!

Go visit, buy something, make Lou happy!

I've added a new comments system to the site - not for my own vanity, but to test it out for a couple clients' sites. Seems to work really well - its a brand new system by a lot called Disqus - go register and comment away, chapps & chappetts! 

I've been a very busy man, of late I have... its not even a month into the year and it feels like xmas was an age ago.

Went to Barcelona for a few days last week - Lou was there for work and I tagged along for fun. Actually turned into A Really Big Stress, what with lost luggage, Heathrow airport madness and a VERY scary flight back into Aberdeen Airport. I hate turblulence at 30'000 feet let alone 300. Did have officially the largest beer I've ever drank. Cheeky spanish waiter tricked us into ordering monster 2litre jugs. I finished mine, Lou did not...

Work's been busy too... lots of website goodness to be had! Still trying to find time to finish up my CMS and wire up some new good stuff here. Ah well.. a designers own site seems never to be finished.

And lou's site is live. lots of extra work to the backend but www.cocoviolet.com is live. go have a look, go visit the shop, go buy something for xmas...

also, its been a week of music. have finally gotten round to getting my hands on the collected recordings of Blind Melon. happy happy! one of my favorite bands ever... collection includes some very early demos and a couple live bootlegs. nice!

also got Foo's Skin and Bone album. will be on rotation with the BM stuff at work for the next couple weeks.

tonight, I discovered my New Favorite Drink: Jack Daniel's Single Barrel Vintage Reserve. Very nice, very drinkable. Its quite like a good single malt, but Jack. all good.

S

so... as I'm told by tv ads, online marketing, emails, friends, family and strangers the iPhone arrives on friday. And I want. Simple. OK its not the smallest of phones, OK its not 3G and OK its got less space for tunes than my 6 year old 2nd gen ipod does, but I dont care. its awesome.

Its only a pity that I have to wait another few months till my contract with my current mobile company runs out.

So, I've been working on a few things recently, so I've not really had much time to think let alone write. I have been dabbling a bit with the branding / look of the back end of the site, which I may one day release as a CMS & Blogging engine. I've got as far as the logo so far, which I'm liking alot...

So, I thought it was just about time to switch to the new site... a few backend features not finished but they can come later.

Its been a busy three weeks of new job (www.fifthring.co.uk), but the work is fun, the people are great and I'm right in the middle of town. Take away Sushi within walking distance: nice.

Lou's shop is coming along nicely. A few setup issues, but nothing she can't deal with. Opens to the public in less than a week now! Visit the shop next week and see whats its all about. www.cocoviolet.com

ta!