I was about to post about one of my logos being featured on a cake for the first time ever. But then I realized that’s not entirely true. Two of my logos have been on cakes! Here’s the one I received a photo of today:

This is an Orthodontist’s logo. Late last year I worked with Dr. Rediger to come up with a logo and create a stationery set. He is expanding his practice and recognized the benefits of having a solid identity. I do think it is kind of funny that an orthodontist is serving up a sugary cake, but dental practitioners certainly have a sweet tooth too!

And here’s the other cake. It doesn’t feature the logo in full, but elements of it are used:

That one was for a party at Little Fishes Swim School. The owner’s friend created this cake - and coincidentally created my wedding cake too! Small world. The baker/cake decorator’s name is Kathy Thomson - she is brilliant! And since this entry is all about cakes, I’ll share my Día de los Muertos (day of the dead) inspired wedding cake that Kathy created:

The cake toppers on my cake were from MexicanSugarSkull.com.

For the past few years I have been active in a St. Louis team called the Squids. We are a softball team, but we use the team name when we participate in Trivia Nights as well. Last Fall I started a St. Louis Kickball team under the name too.

The group is connected randomly, a bunch of us went to Webster University at some point, but it’s mostly friends of friends. Overall a fun and friendly group.

Our softball team captain, RØB, came up with the idea for us to host our own trivia night as a fundraiser for the team. I had purchased squid-ball.com with the intent of making it a portal of Squids events, rosters, photos, etc. That site is still in the making, but in the meantime I created a mini-site to serve as a resource for information about our trivia night as well as a place you can sign-up online.

Our trivia night is this weekend - Saturday, January 12th, 2008. There are still tables available, so if you’re in the area you should come! These are always a ton of fun, and I’m even writing a category of questions :).

As my freelance workload has increased over the past several months, and I found myself more frequently quoting estimates on new projects, it became clear that I was in need a better way to track my time than waiting until the end and guessing how much time it took me. And since I’ve started tracking my time, I’ve realized I was way under quoting myself.

I spent a few hours reviewing some of the best time tracking tools for what I needed to do, and settled on Harvest.

It’s easy to set up Jobs, set your rate for various tasks, and create predefined tasks lists for easy addition to a new project. I also like that you can plug in your estimate for a project and see how you’re measuring up in actual time spent.

If you know me well at all, you know that customer service is HUGE to me - just as important as the product itself in most cases. Harvest sent me an e-mail a few days into my trial to ask me what I thought. I responded favorably, and they responded to that to say thanks and encouraged me to contact them with any questions or comments. I like to know that someone is available if I need them, and genuinely interested in improving their product. I am happy to support them.

You can get a free fully functional trial for 30 days.

2007 has been a significant year in my life. I got married, traveled new places, finally kicked a pigeon (ask me about this one if you don’t know), quit a job, and started a new job. And there’s still change yet to happen before the year is done.

When Peter and I were on our honeymoon in St. Croix in June, we were there during their “low” season (i.e., less tourism). Aside from never having to wait for a table at a restaurant and booking same-day snorkeling trips, a big benefit was that the locals genuinely wanted to talk to us and so we got to have some great conversations. One discussion we had was with a woman originally from Boston, who had quit her desk job and come to St. Croix. She said she wasn’t making a fraction of the money she used to, but she was the happiest she had ever been.

This makes sense, and I’ve heard it all my life, but seeing someone putting it into action - realizing their dream - was inspiring. So on our last day in St. Croix, as I reflected on the trip, I made a goal to realize one of my dreams - to work for myself as a designer.

When I returned home I made a plan on what it would take to get there, and what I needed to do to. I created a more substantial portfolio site, finalized my own branding, applied for a fictitious business name, created separate finances, and invested in a powerful computer. I started browsing Craigslist for freelance work and landed some gigs.

Since then, a combination of word of mouth advertising and web site inquiries has built up to 20-30 hours a week of freelance work - work performed in addition to my 40-hour a week job. Still, I hesitated. Peter has been successfully self-employed as a web developer for a few years now and I’ve watched work ebb and flow - he’s gone a few months without seeing a check before. It’s the nature of the industry.

A few weeks ago a client, whom I had found through Craigslist and been doing a bit of web production for off and on, presented me with an opportunity to work for the business in a larger capacity. Still as freelance, but with a stable retainer (consistent agreed-upon payment in return for my availability to perform a number of hours of work each week). I feel like this is what I have been waiting for to realize my goal.

So beginning on Thursday, November 29th, Janet Lackey Design is my job. I’m excited.