Recently in Work Category

I did a quick booklet about Eco-Tourism opportunities in Alabama's Black Belt last weekend. I got to use a good number of photos I've taken over the years, some photos taken by Billy Milstead, the hardest working brother-in-law to date on Black Belt GPS coordinates and photos, and a few from elsewhere. The booklet turned out pretty good. I think I'll be able to use it for some other venues as well.

Here's the cover:

Another monthly newsletter for the Alabama Chapter of the Sierra Club done. We've been doing these for over 3 years now. This year, we started printing every other month and putting the alternate month online as a pdf before sending out an email. Last month, we discovered that the mailing company we'd been using was closing (immediately) due to the economic downturn. We're reevaluating exactly what to do--possibly electronic only every month. If that's the case, I'll be redesigning the newsletter. Have to see.

Working on several projects this week: Bibb County, Alabama's Front Porches, scenic byways, Alabama Communities of Excellence (I foolishly did their program manual in QuarkXpress just before I made the switch to the MUCH BETTER Adobe InDesign) and a couple of other projects, including a little work for my friends at Brombergs. Thought I would add the latest ad for American Mining Insurance Company just to have something new on my blog. Happy Wednesday.

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.

Just wrapped up a poster for the Alabama MS Society. They want to thank me for working on this by talking about us on the back of the invitation. Not so sure about that.

Thought the poster turned out pretty cool, though! Working on the invitation next week.

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.

Well, honestly, I've been a bit lax on updating my blog of late. I've really got to get back into the habit of the thing. I'm working on it. I have been really busy for the last couple of weeks. I've finally finished the annual report I do for the Alabama Association of Resource Conservation and Development Councils (RC&D). I've been updating my Your Town Alabama blog, my Alabama Front Porches Blog and created another blog for others to post to called "Off the Porch," tied to the Alabama Front Porches website project.

I'm in the process of redesigning a website for Tyler Eaton Court Reporters--still a work in progress, but I did the old site as well. I'm getting ready to do some heavy lifting on the AIA Birmingham website: just lots of updates and an upcoming newsletter. I've been pretty busy getting the Bromberg's website situated--an old client that I lost to a big agency several years ago (though I didn't do their website in those days) that has just returned! Lots to do. (Oh, and I'm totally addicted to Facebook and Flickr.)

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.

Well, I don't normally do this sort of thing, but I've been reviewing applications for National Scenic Byway Designation over the past week + and just really wanted to share the itinerary that my friend Colette Boehm at the Gulf Coast Convention and Visitor's Bureau has put together to highlight the great experiences someone can have on a trip to Alabama's Coastal Connection.

There are many ways to enjoy Alabama's Coastal Connection, but none offers more scenic views than our Connecting with Nature itinerary. Take two days and experience the beauty and variety of the natural assets of Alabama's Gulf Coast and the interpretive facilities that help visitors understand their connection. Spring and fall are the best times of year to enjoy this itinerary, and completion times will vary depending upon the degree of interest in hiking and/or biking along the variety of trails.

Start: Dauphin Island Audubon Bird Sanctuary

After beginning your drive along the rural farmlands of Mobile County and by the scenic docks of Bayou La Batre, continue across the Dauphin Island bridge onto the island. Arriving at the Dauphin Island Audubon Bird Sanctuary, you'll find parking and picnic areas and interpretive signage describing the habitats and birds to be found here, and along the Alabama Coastal Birding Trail, on which the sanctuary is a stop. Explore the 1000-foot handicap accessible boardwalk from the parking lot to "Gaillard Lake" or the raised walkway through the Tupelo swamp. The sanctuary encompasses more than a mile of trails through a variety of intact habitats including preserved maritime forest.

This week has been pretty busy, including last weekend. I sat down to work up the January 2009 issue of the Alabama Sierran that I do each month only to discover some unforeseen problems with my new laptop. Really not so much a problem with the laptop as it was a problem with an older version of QuarkXpress I've been using to design the newsletters and much of the other print work I do. It just wouldn't work with the new Mac operating system. After about 2 hours and 20 crashes, I read up on it and discovered that it really wouldn't work. Thus, a forced migration to an admittedly better program, Adobe InDesign. All is better now, but it did force me to recreate the newsletter and start recreating an annual report I do each year. Anyway, I'm off to Centerville, Alabama this morning to talk with the Bibb County folks about tourism and their upcoming website. Here's what the Alabama Sierran turned out like: