{Freshly Pressed Designs}

I finished a couple of design works this week and last.You like?

Cerrisse was the joint winner of FTLOB and my Launch giveaway.She was so sweet with everything and I especially love that chevron background and the lacy bit at the top.

I also learned a thing or two while creating her design(I go haywire on experimenting..) and as usual every project is a learning experience for me.It was awesome creating something for you,girl! And,excuse us?HOW adorable is her baby?

Check out Briana's super minimalistic design here!She wanted something simple and clean-I actually grow a pair of wings when anyone mentions "minimalism" in design.She was super co-operative about everything too ^_^ and I'm kind of in love with her design.
So, this was my week-designing,happy clients and a bit of studying thrown in for good measure. +Coffee+Good times with Sam+A surprise trip.
Next Design Projects are: Sarah {Custom Design}and Melissa {Giveaway Winner}

FTLOB Makeover!!

Finally finished working on the FTLOB site.Take a look-it's freshly installed and such.Let me entice you with  some screen shots..

View it here LIVE! And join the fabulous community!

This is SO big for me-like HAA-UGE.2011 has been a year of many firsts for me-some real exciting stuff!Stay tuned to see my end of the year list!

I'm also working on a custom design for Carolyn-hope that one turns out satisfactory as well! This is how my design queue goes right now!
Carolyn(1 week design time)Tasha from Little gray notebook (header design)Purple Moonbeam from Spirited Wanderings (background and header)My giveaway Winners .(Will be declared tomorrow)FTLOB Giveaway winners
Get on the queue!

Meet Miss Resident DJ

Or the new  Design partner du Jour of For the Love of Blogs.Excuse me when I jump until the balls of my feet ache, yelling " I SO EXCITE!!!!SO,SO EXCITE"This past week has been amazing for me-amazingly awesome and productive that is.Vic offered me a design partnership and an opportunity to write for FTLOB-and also give the site a facelift.(that has been a secret desire of mine for a while now.one of my secret desires,that is).I'm currently working on the design and it will be up and running soon!Tell me you don't envy me right now-lie and lose your balls!I'll be posting simple design tutorials on FTLOB so stay tuned!Also, check out my first post here!
P.s:Have you entered my giveaway here and here yet?P.p.s: I SO EXCITE!!!!!!(yes again)P.p.p.s:I refreshed my post on FTLOB and saw that I have received my first ever Spam comment  ever.Ah.

Rather creative weekend

Firstly,a huge welcome to my new followers and a big thanks to the rad FTLOB community for everything.Thank you muchly.

Moving on,my first success this weekend was coming up with a custom twitter background for myself.After a few trials I managed to get the dimensions right so that the elements I wanted to show off was perfectly positioned and not hiding behind twitter's main column.Every since I launched my shop and business[pause]-it's still quite unbelievable to me-I have been looking for various ways of gaining exposure without being obnoxious or too in-your-face.And then it struck me[and 100s before me] that our online presence-consciously or unconsciously builds up a brand and twitter is a valuable tool if utilised properly[not auto-botly-which by the way is disgusting] could bring in some serious groovy traffic.And ofcourse there's something to be said about wearing something custom made-just puts that extra sprint in your e-step.So,if you have a business-just starting out-small or big,old or new-remember to build up your brand from the beginning.

click here to view it live

I just might add this service to my a la carte items.I so excite!
I also added a sunny new premade to my shop at Storenvy.Awesome thing about Storenvy?You pay no listing price!You heard it-none at all!I'm quite new there and  am yet to explore the community,support and transactions and might over time shift to Etsy-but this was a quite a gem of a discovery at the moment,don't you think?Quite useful for small indie businesses like myself.Without further ado,here's the template I finished
Indie at heart

click [here] to view it live I have been meaning to include some flighty,feathery business into my templates for a while and came up with this.You like?It also comes with a Welcome note,functional css text menu,calender date icon and 5 essential social network buttons.It's priced at $25 and can be bought at a 5% discount with the code howfabulous.
For now,I feel strangely contented-like I just received a giant belly rub-g'nnuuh.Other awesome finds this weekend includes this fabulous song-turn-it-up,yo!


How was your weekend?

Don't you totally want this?

FTLOB is celebrating one year of genuine and rock-solid support in helping our blogs grow.Go enter their giveaway and win a blog overhaul by me!Run! **Open to blogger blogs only.

My little design shop!And a giveaway!

Remember that feeling when nothing feels right and you feel the walls close in,sucking away your inspiration?and then you decide to throw in a new rug , fluff a few pillows and re-orient the room and voila-you feel invigorated and the world suddenly seems like a happier place?Similarly,when I feel like my inspirations are seeping away and I feel no urge to update my blog-I get new blog couture and,for the time being my bloggy world is all rainbows and puppies.
Thing is,working on my blog(s) for more than year now tweaking this,changing that ,I've grown quite fond of this designing thing and nothing makes me happier on the interweb than a freshly pressed design.

It has been a dream of mine for quite time to design for others as well and today I bring it!Starting today I will be designing for you ,to meet your design needs and bring back the inspiration and ofcourse have a lot of fun in the process.I have two Packages which pretty much cover most things-

Think I missed out something?Email me and we can draw up a custom plan for you!(Perhaps a logo or an Etsy banner?)

For those looking for a makeover on a budget can checkout my Premades shop!

{little sneakpeek}

And for the whole shabang-I have a giveaway for you awesome readers.Two of you lucky souls get a complete blog overhaul based on my Advanced Package ^_^Entries open to blogger blogs only. To enter the giveaway:

• Follow this blog via GFC
• Tweet about this giveaway with a mention to me (@_theswetakid) or just ctrc/ctrlv this:Shop opening and blog design makeover giveaway by @_theswetakid http://thereddoor-blog.blogspot.com/2011/11/my-little-design-shopand-giveaway.html
• Like my blog on Facebook
• Follow me on twitter
• Leave a comment on this post with your email and/or twitter  stating that you have entered.

Giveaway closes on 20th November after which the winner will be chosen by random.org and will be notified via email and twitter.You will have two days to claim your prize after which I would choose another winner.
Let the designing begin!

I knocked myself out with some buttons for FTLOB

For the Love of blogs is celebrating one year of awesomeness and promoting our blogs-it's a great site actually-has some great link-ups and features.I had some free time this week and had lots of fun making some cute buttons for the site and some of their hops :)

image credit

You can vote for my buttons by clicking here and leaving a comment or like it on their Facebook wall here.Thank you so much!

A massive update was due but knowing me this is just going to turn into a birthday rant and sufficient bitching

I know I have been around on and off with random posts but nothing really communicative.I probably suffered from the God syndrome-the I can reach you but you can't reach me thing which makes brings down the best of us ;)

Truth be told a lot and not a lot has been going on and even at this point I am hesitant as to whether I should share them here.At times I feel anonymity could have been a blessing but I have put myself out there so much and obviously I enjoy writing and should be able to write what I want on my blog,right?Every girl needs a place to write and I'm not big on diaries,so, this is mine.For one,I really admire those who can really put it all out there,really lay it out-but me,often while taking that road find myself taking 5 backward steps to the measly 1 that I took forward.Ever found yourself doing that?Folded and gone back to sulking?I feel you and you feel me then-in a totally non creepy way.
Firstly, college started for a new term;and I'm in a totally unholy place there and the less spoken about it the better.Think unappreciative teachers,a syllabus that reeks of antiquity(but not in a a delicious way) and a sinking and creaky plank with a one-man foot space-which only means one thing-you never never who's going to kick you off it.Moving on..
Secondly, I turned 21 last week.Which means-nothing really for the whole year-but a day of extreme fun ensued.The phone kept buzzing since midnight and I got my first b'day wish from Gnetch because obviously I turned 21 2 hours before where she lives^_^.
A pictographic representation is as follows..

A day out with my favourite people ^_^

I did not spin a wheel and bring him from the stone age..he has seen a camera before

but this is just how he rolls :D

My best friend and Allan <3

Monkeees!!!

Monkee also sang a song and precisely midnight.Best B'day surprise ever!!

A close second would be..

Remember this? *shudders* Dad and I have been having lengthy discussions as to whether I should upgrade my desktop or go mobile and we settled on the latter.We also spat and shook and decided that a purchase be made around September.So I basically  jumped out of my pants when he announced on The Day that we were going to get mine that very second-car key already looped around his pinkie.

Ha!It feels so Sex and the City typing a blog post on this shiny,sexay thang.And BOY is it fast!Love it how I can go Locomotor  with this to the coffee shop.Yes,I'm going to be a bit obnoxious about it for sometime.I was sent late to the party,remember?I'm allowed to preen and pimp out shamelessly.Or so I say!

Thirdly..

click image to enlarge

I finally sorted things out with the bank.Red Door Designs would be open for business in a couple of weeks!!FINALLY!I can wreck your blogs and concentrate on writing my own,ha!Lots of Giveaways,Premades and discounts to come.Stay tuned! 
Birthday rant-Check.Bitching-Check.MAN!That feels good.

Mary Mary quite contrary how does your garden grow?

Frankly I have no idea-except this has been stuck in my head for the last ,er a lot of months since I Skyped with a stoned friend of mine.He kept singing it,artfully snipping weed and bobbing his head from side to side and going at it full rhythm.I tried to fix my shitty cam and even shittier internet connection which switches to double bitch-straight-up mode when I'm video calling.Its amusing at first and then gets crazy bad when I'm holding up something for people to see and they actually see it after an interval of 5 minutes.I have no idea why I'm bitching about it seeing that I've had case of bad tech karma lately -and I might as well shut up if I don't want to spend the next few days in a bored straight-jacket of godawful nothingness.

You could say this post is fairly random-I have been anything but random in the past couple of write ups and for an dirtpile  awesomely random gal like me the abstinence stinks.The  good part is-my exams are almost over and since its that time of the year when it's cloudy all day and drizzles and the smell of earth and cut grass wafts like seductive fumes into your nostrils-I might just be able enjoy some of those soon.But for now I need to get to bed and put my feverish ass to sleep.Sympathy please.(At this point I'm beginning to resent the undercurrent of cynic goo that has been lathered over this post so far.Or maybe I'm just far too pissed off.Maybe it's PMS)
I also managed to put the first of many finishing touches on my new template.You like?Also,I was thinking of doing a giveaway for some of the templates I made and in about a months time you'd probably be able to order templates a la carte right from yours truly.I have acquired a decent of HTML and CSS skills playing the field for a while and changing my templates way too often takes away the attention from my writing and tell-all  heart-the main reason why I blog.So I've that I might as well design for you guys.Tell me what you think!
I was also thinking of changing the name of my blog.The search results which led visitors to the Red Door are kinda-not pleasant.I mean its not chlamydiae-but close.Some searched for  kinky Japanese sex which apparently sells behind  red doors and some for sexually transmitted diseases which get cured behind red doors.Frankly,I neither run a dirty video parlor  nor a clinic with horizontal kicks.But these are not the reasons-I'm quite unimaginably nonchalant.Truth is,when I started this blog I was clueless about a name and I randomly came across a picture of a red door-a GORGEOUS red door the kind you would see or read about in fantasy and Gothic novels-and that just fed my fancy.And I like those kind of stories.Everybody searches for a perfect name for their children,their dogs, their crushes and stabby ex-s,their cars(grow up!) and other inanimate objects(razors?panties?mixers?) and we the web-ed people search for the perfect name for our blogs.If I were to come clean,the current name doesn't help me near perfection,not warm,not even close!So change it is!Have you ever changed the name of your blog?Did you have any problems changing the url,loosing readers,etc?Click the little button and tell the Oracle.Chopchop!
silver bells,coccckkle shellss!Maaary,Maary quite contrary,how does your garden grow?And she has officially lost it.

Repapering my walls

My E-walls that is.I finally got around to change things around on this blog and come up with a new design(which you're now seeing LIVE!)I'm not too excited with the menu bar(edit:I added images,but  its still under construction),so I'm looking to change it to something classy/snazzy but nothing over the top.We'll see.

I LOVE playing around with new looks,and though this might change in a few months,I'm satisfied the way it turned out.Once upon a time I wanted to make a part-time career option  out of it-but never got around to setting it up.However,if you need help-feel free to holler.I'm not a pro-most of the time I end up turning a mango into a goose(Whatever you do have a Test blog handy-makes it easier to turn the goose back into a mango)-but it's always exciting to try new things (except cuisine-I have a phobia,but that's for another day!)


Love it?Hate it?


Here's for the grabbing!

<center><a href="http://thereddoor-blog.blogspot.com" target="_blank"><img alt="Manic Mother" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg-nAnLPF6-BbU068DuZSOirulMfK1y8wdVFZ8nEvYqwwlY4usYgtr15d_BiIjmsbLK6q7vwsvSWwY0w7hD1K_PfDIgUfaLuww1awpqBzHLr6l8jDZLC0Tenezl3lnrviwLRt1pU5z0Y3cx/"/></a></center>

Tell me where I can grab yours!
(gee that sounds soo dirrrty) *wink*