Portfolio of Sarah Valadez » Blog

What I have learned thus far…

Sarah — Wed, 09 Jun 2010 21:42:38 +0000

Being a freelance web designer is a lot tougher than it seemed. One week you are up to your neck in work, the next you have absolutely no work. It’s been hard to manage financials and to know I will have enough money at the end of the month to pay the bills. But as I’ve heard from most small business owners and freelancers, it gets easier, and work more stable. Hell, I’m still making twice as much as I did at any hourly job I’ve had.

Having your own web design business definitely has its perks. I can sleep in, stay as late as I want to finish up a project, take a day off during the week when I want/need to, work on weekends if I want/need to, and not have a manager or boss breathing down my neck. I lucked out on my location for an office too. Parking is easy, the building is secure, it’s only about a 10 minute drive from my house, and my officemate is great! I’ve also learned that if I’m going to continue doing freelance work like this, I definitely need my own office. I will never work from home again! It will slowly drive you insane.

So all in all, life is good… better than it has been in a long time, and I intend to keep it that way

I Heart Javascript

Sarah — Tue, 16 Mar 2010 23:58:38 +0000

Well, sometimes. And sometimes I hate it. Like when stuff doesn’t work. And takes hours to figure out why, and it ends up being something so obvious that it just makes you want to rip your eyeballs out. But then again, I guess this happens with any code problems. Always something simple. Us coders think too hard!

Anyway, I’m currently in love with jQuery, and all of the awesome effects it lets you create. In this portfolio alone I have about 4-5 different jQuery effects going on. (For those of you that don’t know what jQuery is, it is a lightweight cross-browser Javascript library… which basically means it’s code written in Javascript that can be used to create many different applications such as plugins, animation effects, and widgets.) Wordpress alone has hundreds of plugins built with jQuery. This makes it handy, especially for those non-tech folk, to add in a slideshow, gallery, fun rollover effects, or just about anything else you could think of that makes a website look cool. And you should use these things! There are too many boring, ugly websites out there that need help! Oh, and if your site is one of those sites, you should hire me.

WordCamp San Francisco

Sarah — Tue, 16 Mar 2010 23:58:11 +0000

Yeah, I’m going. Yeah, I have no idea what to expect and yeah, it sounds like some sort of grammar summer school. But what it really is, is a conference for Wordpress junkies. WordCamp 2010 will be held at the Mission Bay Conference Center in downtown San Francisco this year, and is expected to have well over 500 in attendance. Last year they had over 700 people from 32 countries attend, so I’m guessing it’s a big deal. It’s also a great excuse for me to get out of dodge and take a little mini vacation.

Since I’m still somewhat new to Wordpress (well, compared to those that have been on the bandwagon since the beginning), I’m expecting to feel somewhat out of the loop. But my main objective in going is to make some good connections with other designers/developers and hopefully learn a thing or two. It should be a great experience either way!

Introduction

Sarah — Mon, 08 Mar 2010 19:35:16 +0000

A little about me and my background.

I’m from Tacoma, WA… lived there since 5th grade, went to Bellarmine Prep High School and then Loyola Marymount University in Los Angeles my freshman year of high school. I couldn’t stand the people in LA (although I loved the weather and beaches) so I decided to transfer to the University of Washington in Seattle. Graduated there with a Communications degree and moved back to Tacoma to go to school at Clover Park Tech for their Web Design & Development certificate program.

Now I am living in Seattle, been living here for about 3 years (after going to UW for 3 years) and am loving it.