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Wow! 2009 has been a pretty great year, overall. I've gotten to work on some fun projects, meet some interesting new people, reconnect with others and basically have a lot of fun.

Some of the projects I've spent a great deal of time on in the last few years are finally starting to show some real progress: notably the Alabama Scenic Byways Program. The 10 year anniversary of the creation of the program is this spring and we now have 10 scenic byways in our state, including the brand new nationally recognized Coastal Connection, named a National Scenic Byway in October of this year. I'm really proud to have played a small part in seeing that project move forward! (Even got interviewed on the radio about it--not a big fan of hearing my own voice, much to the shock of anyone who has been in a car with me--but it turned out to be less painful than I thought.)

Other projects include the following:

Some fun work on the Lower Cahaba River. We've installed signs in several locations pointing out the many attractions in a four county region (Bibb, Dallas, Hale and Perry Counties). A website  has been developed to highlight the attractions and to bring the many resources together into one location--www.lowercahaba.com.


I continued to work on the Alabamafrontporches.com website and some brochures to go along with it. The most exciting part of this in 2009 has been the great Ghost Stories work done by Linda Vice and some filmmakers. (I did a brochure to go along with the videos.)

And, of course, the fun trips friend Ben Burford and I went on down into the Black Belt to take photos, eat the food and see the area from the eyes of a tourist.

This has been a busy year. Perhaps a look back is in order, but not today. Today, I'm putting the finishing touches on another newsletter, this one for my good friends with the Alabama Sierra Club. After more than three years of doing a newsprint, large format newsletter, we've shifted to a web only format. Cheaper, more environmentally friendly (though we did make the extra effort to find recycled newsprint) and much more flexible in terms of schedule. Take a look: http://alabama.sierraclub.org/chapternews/

I'm heading out to meet with another client, the Alabama Chapter of the American Society of Landscape Architects to talk about their website (considering transitioning it into a wordpress style site). Lots to do, but at least I've gotten our shopping done--oh, wait, I've still got to go to the grocery store.

Spent all day last Friday riding around and going to a variety of locations in Bibb, Hale and Perry Counties to unveil the signs for the Lower Cahaba Heritage and Recreational Corridor. Good day and a great project: www.lowercahaba.com.

Just wrapping up a project for the Moore/Webb/Holmes Plantation near Marion, Alabama: http://www.holmesteadcompany.com. Done entirely in Wordpress using a template and making a few modifications. I like some of Wordpress. I think if I could get a little more time spent, I might have a better understanding of it than Movable Type, but I still have to admit I like this blogging program better--mainly because I've been using it for a good while.

The site is small, but I'm hoping that we'll add to it as time passes!

This week promises to be about as busy as the previous weeks have been. I'm happy to say that, at least for the next week or so, our house is free of workers and renovation dust! The sunroom is completed, the dining room requires only a little paint, the back hall is completed and the living room is still a complete wreck--but is put back together in such a way that we can comfortably function for the next little bit as we wait for windows (which we have yet to decide on).

Ann's been sick today, so I haven't been as productive as I might otherwise be, but have gotten a few good things accomplished. I started work on a great little website for the Moore/Webb/Holmes Plantation and Farm in Folsom, Alabama (near Marion). I'm developing it as a WordPress website and that has been pretty interesting to start to tinker with. Nothing like Movable Type, but pretty slick and simple at the same time. I am liking what I'm seeing so far. Wrapping up an invitation/poster for Alzheimer's of Central Alabama for their spring Garden Art Party. We got some great deals on beautiful art there last year and hope to do so again--and the money made goes to help Alzheimer's of Central Alabama provide services for Alzheimer's patients and those that care for them! I'll post the invite later.

FInished up an initial redeisgn for my friends at Tyler Eaton Court Reporters last week. We haven't quite gone live with the redesign yet (waiting on some additional copy and photos), but I created a Tyler Eaton blog site for them that Laura Nichols is now using to generate more interest. These guys are among the nicest folks I do work for--always friendly, always honest. If I needed a court reporter, I'd sure turn to them. Though it isn't complete yet, here's what the site looks like so far:

But a good one. Paint is going up in two of our rooms! The colors are looking amazing (well, only the lighter color so far, but still looking great. A very light bluish green on the upper portion of our walls and ceiling.

Lots of work done over the weekend--worked most of the weekend on a website for Tyler Eaton and I'm waiting on a response from that.

Finalized a newsletter for Alzheimer's of Central Alabama, sent an email out to 780 friends of Your Town Alabama, made a couple of small changes to the Alabama Front Porches website (mainly adding an entry to the "Off the Porch" blog), wrapped up a newsletter for American Mining Insurance Company and several other projects. Good, solid start to the week.

Our house is under siege--or at least that's how it feels. Renovations are progressing nicely, though. Acoustic Tile ceilings are out, smooth ceilings are in--or almost. Windows are about to be ordered, hopefully. Lots to do....

Much to clean up this weekend, of course.

Working furiously on several projects at once. Just wrapped up a newsletter for Alzheimer's of Central Alabama. Working on the website for Tyler Eaton Court Reporters--this time I think we've got a winner! Finishing up an invitation for Alzheimer's and another for the MS Society.  Making changes to Brombergs and the Birmingham Historical Society websites. Trying to finalize the website for ClasTran here in town. Wrapped up the monthly newsletter for the Alabama Sierra Club early this week and just trying to catch my breath!

Oh, my friend Ben posted his version of our trip to the Black Belt earlier this year: http://www.davisdenny.com/blackbeltben/. Entertaining reading! I also added a few new photos to my flickr page.

Had a very productive week this week. Lots of work on Brombergs website, most of the way done with the Tyler Eaton website, setup of the Mid-South RC&D website, a trip to Bibb and Perry County to do some work on a couple of tourism websites, the Highway 14 Antique Trail and even got to meet with a couple of potential new clients, including someone that raises all natural, grass-fed beef on their family farm that somehow they've managed to preserve as a family since the early 1800's. It was a really nifty place with a good supply of historic old buildings, a general store (long since closed for business) and a house that they are considering turning into a Bed and Breakfast--something the Black Belt really needs. Did not have as much time as I would have liked to snap photos, but plan to go back to the farm and Highway 14 in the coming weeks for some more photos. Here's one of Judson College, where several of my sisters attended.

Had some great fun on Thursday of this week when my buddy Ben Burford and I took a daylong trip to the Black Belt for a photo tour. Left around 6:30 in the a.m. and back around 7 p.m. Took around 400 photos. We drove down I-59 to Eutaw and left the interstate world behind for almost the rest of the trip. Stopped at several historic homes, dilapidated shacks, downtowns, had a typical lunch of fried, fried, fried fish as Ezells and then bounced over to Marengo County for a quick stop by my homeplace in Octagon, Alabama before heading to the historical beauty of Gaineswood, Bluff Hall and the general granduer that is Demopolis. A quick stop for some of the Bird family road art and on towards home.

Here's a collage of some of the photos. I've uploaded a few more to my flickr account here.

Well, I've officially been overwhelmed this week with work. I try very hard to avoid working after 5 p.m., but sometimes I manage to work a little late--I tend to make up for it by working, as I am this morning, early and on the weekend. I completed a complete redesign for American Mining Insurance Company's online newsletter,  www.americanmining.com/newsletter/, I just completed my 38th (I think) Alabama Sierra Club newsletter, I've just about finished an annual report for the Alabama Association of RC&D Councils, I started working on a new client website, brombergs.com and, well, I guess the list just seems to go on and on.  I'm very pleased with the masthead I created for American Mining's online newsletter, though. We went through several revisions, but the end one really turned out best. Here it is:

Update: just posted some of my favorite photos from the trip to my flickr account.

Haven't really been doing a lot of posting this week. Have been doing a lot of work. Trying to wrap up an annual report for the Alabama Association of RC&D's, picked up a nice new client this week, took a trip to the Black Belt to work on an Antique Trail along Highway 14--a three-day festival in the fall that I'll be developing a website for. To many irons in the fire....

Here's the Greene County Courthouse in downtown, Eutaw, Alabama. I do find the Veterans monuments in each county interesting--I consider the one in my home county of Marengo to be one of the better ones I've seen so far in my travels--but I may be a bit prejudiced. The courthouse is in disrepair and surely needs some love. More photos to come.

Seems as though I haven't had as much time as usual to play with my blog. I think I've gotten a bit caught up playing with flickr, plus I've just overall been really busy working on several projects. Getting finished up with a program manual for the Alabama Communities of Excellence and finished a newsletter for AIA, Birmingham chapter. I've been pounding out ads for Underwoods (sister company to Birmingham-based Bromberg's Jewelers). Oh, and I wrote a reasonble itinerary for the Alabama Front Porches website that I posted on the blog I created for them. Need to scan some more old photos in. Haven't really made anything interesting to eat in over a week--busy and boring.

There are just too many social networking opportunities out there right now. I'm giving all the above a try. I've been on LinkedIn for a long time, thanks in large part to an old college buddy, Dale Kiefling years ago. I've been on Facebook for a lot less time, but still pretty interesting. Twitter is pretty new to me--I'm still getting the hang of exactly why I'm using it, but sort of secretly like it. Plaxo--pretty lame overall, but keep it up for a certain crowd.

And, I just joined Flickr today. Flickr is basically a photo-sharing website that lets you upload and organize your photos. Never been very into that sort of thing as I never saw a need--after all, I can post stuff to my blog anytime. Finally broke down and joined and uploaded some photos, though. It seems pretty cool so far.

And the reason for all this? I want to understand the social media networks in order to use them effectively for my own personal benefit and particularly to benefit my clients. There are many, many opportunities to market to a whole new crowd and in a completely different way. So here goes!

One of the monthly newsletters I work on: The Alabama Sierran. I did the first newsletter for the Alabama Chapter of the Sierra Club in January 2006 and have done one each month since then. This is an 8 page tabloid-size newsletter printed on recycled newsprint. You can download the full newsletter at alabama.sierraclub.org. In addition to working on this newsletter, I just finished an online newsletter for Birmingham, Alabama based CGH Insurance Group (www.cghinsurance.com/newsletter). And, perhaps most fun right now, I'm working on a website on tourism--particularly historical and ecological--in Bibb County, Alabama. I'm developing it almost entirely in Movable Type (using a little Dreamweaver to help me handle the CSS stylesheets). Pretty interesting stuff. Not that far along yet, but I've built the shell: www.bibbtourism.com. Other than that, just the usual blog updates at Your Town Alabama and Alabama's Front Porches.