Now Accepting Clients!

Noelle O'Reilly Web and Graphic Design Company is now open and ready for business! As you may remember, I decided to take web design classes and last week I finished up with my final project - my portfolio website. 

I'm really happy with the way it turned out... I think the design reflects my personality and I finally have a home on the internet.  When I get a chance, I'll probably switch the blog to wordpress and host it on my site as well.  Now that I am finished with my class, I'm looking for clients who would like to work with me to design their websites.  Since I'm just starting out I'm running a special for my first five clients: $1000 for a five-page custom site!  Email me if you'd like to talk about your website.  

 Other services I am offering include SEO, graphic design including ads and blog headers, and pretty much anything else you can think of.  I can also give your existing websites a makeover.  At this time I'm not creating e-commerce websites, but look for that in the future!  I also offer any of my graphic design services on a freelance basis, including identity and branding (logo design), brochures, flyers, mailers, etc.

In other news, I'm trying to move away from the "Priss" part of my company name, and I'm trying to rebrand everything.  My etsy shop name is now NoelleOReilly.  My twitter name is now @noelleoreilly.  When my friend Rachel and I initially thought up the idea for "Priss This", the idea was to make cute prissy things and make prissy comments about the world in general on the blog.... that lasted for a couple weeks then I kept using the name to add my artwork to etsy, and then I started to veer into more nature-centric subject matter and the "Priss" part just never fit.  Instead of trying to come up with another name and have it try to encompass all the different work I do and hope that it always does, I'm going to stick with my name right now and hope that it doesn't confuse people too much.  

Once I host my blog on my own site I can change the name of it from "prissthis", but the one thing that is not easy to change is facebook.  Once you have 100 "fans" they won't let you change the name of your page.  I see the point of it, but it's making like difficult for me right now.  Because I have 145 fans.  I wonder if at least 45 of them are people I know and I can ask them all to unlike me so I can change my name then ask them to like me again... haha that would be so funny.

Anyway, so tell your friends if they're looking for graphic or web design services to come see me!

exciting news!

when it comes to marketing myself, i'm not very good at putting myself out there.  i've known forever that if i want to grow my business, i need to put together a press kit and send to blogs and magazines, and get featured to get more exposure.  the problem is, i just never do it.  well, in a twist of fate, one of the biggest magazines to be featured in contacted me last week and wanted to feature one of my prints in their magazine.  This print, called Shades of Blue, is a twist on the chevron pattern you see everywhere these days.

Shades of Blue, chevron diamond pattern by Priss Designs

So, this summer, you'll see "Shades of Blue" as part of a feature in MARTHA STEWART WEDDINGS!   As far as I know, they'll be making different things using patterns and numbers (table numbers and other wedding-y things), then they'll offer a download of all the patterns on their website along with different numbers, so you can make fun printed table number stands! The feature will be in the summer issue... not sure which one yet.  It's kind of crazy that now I just basically have to wait 4-6 months for the issue to come out.  Considering I have no idea what I'll be doing at that point, it's kind of crazy to think I might get some good exposure and who knows what will happen as a result.  Regardless, I'll have something super exciting to put in my bio: Featured in Martha Stewart Weddings!

fill in the blank friday

It's Friday! I don't know why but I have been absolutely exhausted this week.  My husband rolled his ankle last weekend so I've had more house-ly duties since he can only hobble around on crutches with his fat purple foot.  But NO he won't go to the doctor! Stubborn! (like i'm one to talk haha, i'm the most stubborn person ever.)  I've got some web design class homework time to look forward to this weekend, and "the big game" on sunday that I'm sure we'll go somewhere to watch but that I couldn't care less about.  Have you seen the ridiculous restrictions the NFL has put on media/advertisements/anyone who's not the NFL? You're not allowed to say "Super Bowl" or even "New England Patriots" - how dumb is that? It is promoting your product, dummies! Anyway, obviously I'm rambling... Time to fill in the blanks!  And be sure to link up at the little things we do.

1.   If money wasn't an issue, the first thing I'd cross of my life list is     traveling the world  .

2.    Syrup on any breakfast food (eggs, bacon, sausage, etc.)     is something I like that other people think is weird.

3.  If my life were a movie right now, the title would be    "Dreaming of the Big-Time" .

4.  Three things I am looking forward to this month are     getting a new computer (hopefully!)    ,    starting my portfolio website   and     maybe planning a trip to see my friend Danielle in Missouri.

5.  My favorite song to sing in the shower is  whichever song happens to be in my head that morning .

6.  If I found out that the production of    Chipotle    was ending this month, I'd go out and buy as much as I could tomorrow.

7.  One thing I'll never grow tired of is    the excitement I get when it first starts to feel like fall.  My favorite time of the year.  .

Freebie: February 2012 Desktop Wallpaper

Hi Everybody! Welcome to February! I've created a desktop wallpaper with or without February calendars.  Hope you enjoy them!  Click on your monitor resolution size to open the picture, then click on "Save file".  Open the file from wherever you saved it, and right click then choose "set as background" (that's for a PC, don't ask me how a mac works!).

I know it's a little cheesy since it's Love for Valentine's month, but it's based off this print from my shop that I love.

And this is my first time doing the whole link-to-download-from-flickr thing, so I'd appreciate if you'd let me know if you find any issues trying to download these, or if you know of a simpler way to do it!

1280x800

1280x800 with calendar

1440x900

1440x900 with calendar

1680x1050

1680x1050 with calendar

1920x1200

1920x1200 with calendar

2560x1440

2560x1440 with calendar

100th post! Fill in the Blank Friday!

At least I've got Lauren's Fill in the Blank Friday's to keep me at least semi-motivated to blog once a week.  Don't know what I'd do without it!

1.   My favorite place i've ever traveled to is    italy.  i was there for a couple weeks in high school then i studied abroad for about 2 months in tuscany in college.  it's just so beautiful.  tuscany has a lot of hills though.  tell your calves to beware.   .

2.    Ireland     is somewhere I'd love to go someday. 

3.  I pass the time on a plane (or bus, or car ride or train) by     singing     .

4.  My three must-haves when I travel are     my pillow    ,    my sound machine (for white noise, otherwise I can't sleep)   and     my phone to play games on (unless I'm in a car, I'll get carsick if I try to do things while in a car)  

5.  My favorite travel companion is    my husband Conor  .

6.  The craziest thing that ever happened to me while traveling is    when I was in Paris for a couple days with my friend Rachel, and her mom had been living there for a couple months, so we were staying with her and she wanted to hang out with my friend alone, and she expected me to just go out in Paris by myself with no idea where I was, not understanding any french, having no idea what was going on.  it was really awkward after that.  i didn't go wandering alone, by the way.    .

7.  The most exotic food I've ever tried while traveling is    crazy smelly french cheese  .

8.  If I could live anywhere else, I'd live in    England.  I know it's pretty dreary there, but I'd just like to live abroad at some point.

9.  I have been to    11  states in the US.

fill in the blank friday

So apparently I only do once a week blogs now, and it's all thanks to Lauren at the little things we do for hosting these link-ups.  And Lauren's going to have a baby, probably this week, so congrats!

1.   The last thing I ate was    I'm actually eating right now, we had our monthly birthday party at work and I'm eating celery sticks and dip, some fruit, and a macadamia nut cookie.  .

2.   The last song I listened to was   I hear my co-worker's radio over there playing rain by bruno mars  .

3.  Using the letters in my name I can spell    {noelle}...LEONE, LONE, NOEL, ENOL, LENO, EON, LEE, EEL, ELL, NEE, ONE, OLE, NO, OE, ON, NE, EL, EN, LO.  totally used scrabble cheat for that   .

4.  If I had to dress in one color for the rest of my life I would pick     blue,because it's my favorite and i love all shades of blue.  although gray would be a close second.  everything i pick up in the store that i'm drawn to tends to be gray.     .

5.  If you were to look in my bag right now you'd find    wallet, coupon holder, a winter hat and gloves (it's cold today!) some lip gloss, keys, receipts and probably more random paper.  .

6.  When I finish filling in the blanks I'm going to    probably go back to reading the 775 posts in my google reader (yall, i'm sooo behind, i'm reading dec 16th posts right now.) even though i'm at work so i need to be reading .

7.  My all time favorite song to dance to is   Still Fly by Big Tymers - me and my best friend Lindsey have dance moves for all the lyrics, it's so fun (and cheesy, but that's beside the point)

fill in the blank friday!

1.   One of my favorite things to do when I have free time is     watch tv.  i'm sort of a tv junkie.  and my husband makes fun of me because basically all the shows i watch are about high schoolers.  anything on the cw or abc family.

2.   When I have free time I tend to    be lazy.  i tell myself i'm going to take care of all these things for my etsy shop or around the house, and i end up just doing nothing    .

3.  If I had an entire day completely to myself I would    get a vanilla latte and a bagel from einstein bros., peruse crate and barrel and z gallerie and west elm, and maybe catch a movie - yes, i'm perfectly fine with going to the movies alone, some people think that's weird but whatever   .

4.  I would prefer to spend my free time (alone or with others...)    i'm more of a loner.  i like hanging out with my hubby, but we have different views when it comes to relaxing - i love to go walk around shops, and he would be miserable - but we both love just sitting on the couch watching a movie on a Friday night - we don't go out much, but we do meet up with friends for dinner or trivia once a week   .

5.  Most of my free time happens    on the weekend.  i'm usually printing and packaging orders after work, or cooking or grocery shopping .

6.  The best thing about free time is    being able to relax  .

7.  The next time I have free time I should probably    clean up my office   but instead, I'll probably     watch my dvr'ed episode of revenge  .

2012!

Well, here we are again.  The beginning of another year, the motivation to set new goals and change yourself for the better.  I've never been good at new years resolutions...  It's so hard to really change yourself, I just get so complacent and go with the flow.  I turned 27 last month, and I really feel like this is the year I've got to get it together.  This is the year when I've really got to decide what I want to do and get out there and (as my husband said this morning) "attack the day, don't let it come to you."  So, with that in mind, here are my 2012 resolutions!

1. Advance my career.  I will finish my web design certificate program in April, and I'm really hoping to start a web design business, or at least get a super awesome new job in a new field.  I am a graphic designer right now, but when looking for jobs it's really rare to find a graphic design job that doesn't also require you to know about web design.  So I feel like I am moving in the right direction- I have this fantasy of being a big hot shot designer, and I think I have the skills, but not the confidence.  So really my resolution is to work on my confidence in my abilities, and to know that I deserve to be a super awesome hot shot web/graphic designer.
2. Finish my office redesign and get more organized.  I am the most unorganized person ever.  Actually, I take that back - I am just messy.  I know where everything is, but it's all over the place.  A couple months ago I started redesigning my office (which is actually my basement), and I painted the birch tree wall I've been wanting forever.  I also got shelves and a million storage cubes and magazine holders, and I've been slowly putting together the storage boxes (damn you IKEA, you make putting together a storage cube an hour-long job!) and I'm going to paint them.  I also bought a countertop, with the intention of making cabinets/shelves for the countertop to sit on for my desk, but I haven't actually started making the desk, so everything is just spread out all over the place.  I think if I can get everything organized and have a place for everything, it will be a lot easier to be more productive.

3.  Take some trips! I got a credit card last year that gave me a lot of free airline miles, so now i have about 110,000 miles - they're British Airways miles, and I had the intention of taking a trip to London or Ireland, but apparently a trip to another country costs just as much in fees as non-miles airfare (ok, maybe not as much, but still like $500 for a round trip ticket, plus 50,000 miles each).  Staying in the U.S., on the other hand, is super cheap.  For example, I can go to Miami for 9,000 miles plus $5.  Yes, $5.  I can go to New York for something like 15,000 miles plus $5.  Considering I've never been to New York or California and have always wanted to go, I'm deeming this the year that I'm going to do some traveling.  
 

  And sure, I've got the stock resolutions that I have every year - exercise, diet, be better with my money...  But after a million years of never really keeping those resolutions, they're not even worth mentioning now.  I am eating healthier, thanks in part to the fact that my husband has resolved to get leaner, so it's easier to diet when he's not complaining about the dishes.  

So, how about yall? What are you resolving in 2012?