[Kilikina]

................. after a long time away. Some of you may remember me from before. I joined when I found out I was pregnant with my first son (dob July 14 2005) but lost the password and they couldn't reset it so I rejoined in sept 2005. My second son was born Feb 28 2007 and last year I got so busy I had to leave JM for awhile. But I am bck so here is a little bit about me.

I own and run 2 design businesses from home. They are small - it's just me designing. My passion is invitations and greeting cards and so I have a business just for that - Designs By Kristina. But I still enjoy designing websites and some print design so I set up a business for that Q1 Media. I am including the links to these sites so please let me know what you think. Any opinions or comments or suggestions - I am open to all. I am just finishing off a redesign on the Q1 Media site so some content still needs to be updated and I need to add my designs still - will hopefully be finishing that this week. I have 2 client sites that I am working on right now too so... So other than that let me know what you think.

www.designsbykristina.ca
www.q1media.net
I am happy to be back and will be here as often as I can. Glad to meet you all. How many on this board anyway??

Ceicei - Nice to see you still here. I believe we were both on this board and the Christian parenting board. I have to go check in there too.

Just a quick question for you all: Does anyone know much about SEO? I am just learning it and using it but would love some more info. Thanks.

[Evenblindly]

hi! Im jessica, mommy to Caidance (4) and Ember (1). Im still very new to creating and designing sites, and also to this board. So I cant say I know anything about SEO... or even what that is lol. I have created my first "business" and with it a new site. I will check out your sites right now!

oh and welcome back!!

ETA: I really enjoyed looking at your designs by Kristina site! it looks great and you word everything so well! I really like that in your about me, not only are you not afraid to announce your faith but you proudly do so... I really like it! and your designs are beautiful too!

[~InHisHands~]

Hello & welcome back! I'm pretty new to this board too... I'm Amanda, wife to Mike & mom to Austin (13). I just recently became a SAHM & by the grace of God a fellow church member asked if I would do some contract work in web development for him. I agreed so here I am... trying to learn as much as possible! Oh, I'm not COMPLETELY foreign to web development... I've done software development (in C++) for 7 years, just never web development so this is at least in my field.

I agree with Jess... LOVE your Deisgns by Kristina work!!! They are absolutely beautiful!!! BTW, I'm the co-host of Christian Parenting & do agree... you should check in there as well!

Last but not least, your children are beautiful!!! Where's your husband from? I don't recognize the flag. I see you are Canadian. You know, my neice is mixed.

Here is Ms. Zahrea...


And here's her parents, my sister & her DH...


And here's me, DH, & Austin (though these pics are older & Austin is MUCH bigger now but I don't really have any recent pics of the 3 of us together)...



And here's some Christmas pics (that are a little more recent anyway) that you can check out if you would like... http://www.justmommies.com/forums/f4...tmas-pics.html (More Christmas Pics!). Sorry if this is picture overload but once I got started, I couldn't stop! I LOVE pictures... I love looking at them & sharing them!

[Kilikina]

Thank you guys. I really love design. I sort of accidentally got into graphic and web design before my first son was born. Dh suggested it since he knew I liked art and such and thought it would help bring in money while I was on mat leave. But I never really turned it into a business until the beginning of last year.

One thing that I have learned that I definately should have done in the beginning was put SAMPLE or DESIGNS BY KRISTINA on any proof that I send to a customer. I have lost some time and income due to not putting on the design. Some one just takes off with it, not paying the minimun design fee, and just pays whatever it would cost to print it themselves (or nothing at all if they email them). I actually had it happen recently again, from someone I trusted and who I thought was a friend. She is the worship leader at my church. Mixed family. her son actually look identical to my oldest. We used to make a joke about us having twins, but God put one in her womb and one in mine. Anyway, about a month back I designed baby shower invites for a lady at church. I didn't water mark it at all. I made all the necessary changes and sent her a qoute that i got from a print company that I use and included my design fee (50% off though - but I decided to charge her that because she still owed me for the printing cost of her christmas cards). Anyway I have yet to hear back from her. Won't return my calls or emails, and only since I sent that email with the costs. Anyway I am not posting this to complain but to make sure you always watermark your print designs. ALWAYS - even if you trust someone b/c that is not always the case.

InHisHands: My husband is from Haiti. I met him while I was volunteering at an orphange there. My parents had adopted 3 kids from there and so I decided to go volunteer for 3 months - well I stayed for almost 2 years. Not entirely because of my husband (we got married down there), I really loved working with the kids. It has been 6 years since I was last there and I miss it soooooooo much. Dh and I want to eventually start an orphanage of our own down there. We tried just before I found out I was pregnant with my first son, but things did not work out (raising funds) and then I found out I was pg so we put things on hold for awhile. We figured it was God's way of telling us it wasn't the right time. But that is my dream someday.

Cute neice InHisHands. Where is your bil from?

Anyway I think I have rambled on long enough. Thanks again for checking out my sites.

[~InHisHands~]

You know when Austin & I went on our mission trip to Romania last year we met a family that did pretty much the same thing in Romania... they started an orphanage. Oh, the orphanage had the sweetest children! Some of our translator's were the daughters of the family who runs the orphanage... their dad works in the US, in Arizona to make money to bring back home to Romania to keep the orphanage going. This particular orphanage that they started took in the children that no one else wanted (including other orphanages). The children were mostly emotionally traumatized. I could tell you some horror stories... it's really sad. One of the milder cases is one 12/13 year old boy was kicked out of his home & the family even attempted to poison him (I believe) b/c he told them he was Christian & not Orthodox (of course he survived ). Being Christian in Romania can be tough depending on where you live. We even had priests coming out & trying to scare us away in some of the villages... it was pretty insane. If you want to read any more about the mission trip you can click on the links at the bottom on my siggie!

BIL is actually local... he's from right here in AL, USA.

Oh, & I've noticed CeiCei hasn't really responded but I know she has a BIG trip coming up & that preparing for the trip is going to take a lot of time this week (http://www.justmommies.com/forums/f4...-for-week.html (My Prayer Request for this week)) so I'm sure she isn't ignoring you, she's just MIA at the moment.

[CeiCei]

Kilikina!!!! It has been awhile, hun. Glad to see you back! Sorry I didn't give you your proper welcome. I have been extremely busy over the past weekend getting ready for my vacation this Thursday. Plus at work I am pulling a 4x10 week so busy busy.....

I see that everyone is getting along great. It is good to see this board getting back to it's glory days. Slowly, but a lot better than what it was.

Anyhow, I can definately help you with your SEO. In fact, I am putting together several tutorials and tips for SEO. Being that I work in web design everyday I have learned a few tricks of the trade. Hopefully, when I get back from vacation I will have a lot of stuff to help everyone out. What in particular in SEO do you have questions about?

Kilikina!!!! It has been awhile, hun. Glad to see you back! Sorry I didn't give you your proper welcome. I have been extremely busy over the past weekend getting ready for my vacation this Thursday. Plus at work I am pulling a 4x10 week so busy busy.....

I see that everyone is getting along great. It is good to see this board getting back to it's glory days. Slowly, but a lot better than what it was.

Anyhow, I can definately help you with your SEO. In fact, I am putting together several tutorials and tips for SEO. Being that I work in web design everyday I have learned a few tricks of the trade. Hopefully, when I get back from vacation I will have a lot of stuff to help everyone out. What in particular in SEO do you have questions about?

[LadyViola]

Kilikina!! hey girl! I'm so glad to see you've been doing what you love to do! isnt graphic design wonderful??! I cant wait to exchange ideas and see some more of your work! God bless you!

PS. That is just wrong what that woman did to you and a worship leader too? Man....that is just wrong on so many levels. Sorry you had to go through that, but its a learning experience.

[Kilikina]

LadyViola: So good to see you back on here (JM that is). When did you come back? We sort of had stopped communication there for abit - I belive you had just had or were going to have a baby soon. BUT I am so happy to see you back on here. How have you bee? How are your kids?

Send me your email some time. I would love to chat with you off line like before. My email is info@designsbykristina.ca or my home email is ekduverna@shawcable.com. My msn is hershy21@hotmail.com

Talk soon.