Move Hosting Again

I hate moving, virtually and in real life. The packing and unpacking activity is just too tiring and frustrating. But we can’t run away from it this time. Sigh.

It’s been a good 6 months of hosting our sites (mine and boyfriend’s) at Lunarpages until a month ago or so. There was over-usage and we have been moved to cloud server. Lunarpages has been so kind to give us time to lower down the usage so that we can get back to the normal server (whatever the name is), instead of kicking us out and leaving us homeless.

Although there is a constant messaging between the support center and boyfriend, but the over-usage problem still exists. We have done our best by cleaning up the sites and installing WP Super Cache plugin. Yes, it does lower the usage but not low enough so that we can move back to the normal server. So frustrating, okay? Especially since the support center keeps telling us about the new stat and asks how do we want to proceed from here, without really giving us a solution.

So, we thought probably Lunarpages can’t handle so many Wordpress sites. We have around 10 and are poor enough to upgrade to dedicated server (again, whatever the name is) like what Lunarpages suggests. Hence, we started to hunt for a new affordable ‘house’ (read: hosting) that can afford our need and decided to try WPwebhost, as they claim that they specializes in hosting WordPress-powered websites.

So, there we go. Move to a new hosting. Like in the real life (as in moving house), the packing and unpacking stuffs is done mostly by boyfriend.

Now, I just hope that we can stay longer in the new ‘house’ without the need to move out anytime soon. And, it would be oh so great if this blog is shortlisted under the top 10 modern&elegant category in Best WordPress Design Award by WPwebhost, cause that means I could stand a chance to win free hosting. Hehe..

New look but still in pink

I’ve been wanting to get rid of the Christmas header since last month. But, there is always a reason that hold me from doing so. Let’s not get into the cliche reasons.

Here’s the previous theme with Christmas header.

Here’s the current one, still in pink with slightly purple background color, but more elegant and clean – not just the design but also the code. Thanks to my dearest boyfriend for doing such a great job with the coding.

• Maintain the layout to be in 2 columns only
• Still use the vector illustration of a woman with PC (represents me and also icon for this blog) with small revisions such as: change the skin color, change the eyebrow’s shape, change shirt’s color. Others remain the same as I still use Dell PC and the red office chair.
• Clean up sidebar and throw away unnecessary items such as: mybloglog and blogcatalog readers widget, alexa widget, recent posts
• Add ‘about her’ section at sidebar
• Still thinking whether I should put back Adgitize thing or not

New theme for SimplyWP

Finally, the new theme is up! I’ve finished the design for some time but we just haven’t got the time to code it.

The old look:

The current one:

Still need a few small changes here and there. Will get it done within this few days. I still have Chinese New Year design to be done. Ugh.

Anyway, I am oh-so-excited and can’t wait for Monday to come. Why? Boyfriend will have his convocation on tomorrow (finally! goodbye black hall) and will come to Medan on Monday. His flight is at noon.

Excited! It’s been 3 and a half months since our last meet up. But, I feel sad at the same time, knowing that we will be separated by distance again after that (if thing doesn’t go as what we plan). Sigh.

Happy Friday~!

Custom blog design

I’m getting lazier to blog hence my frequency of posting, 1 post in 2 days. Blame that to the work load. When I have the free time at night, I will feel too tired to click the mouse, type the keyboard and face the monitor. I choose to watch the comedy fantasy Taiwan drama, The X-Family, on DVD.

Anyway, I just finished a blog makeover for Medan Daily. That’s where I post daily pictures and news from my hometown. But it almost turns into Medan Weekly now as I can’t post pictures daily. Aiks.. The theme itself is kept simple with focus on the header.

Next, I’ve just finished this custom theme for winter for a repeat client. Can’t believe that Christmas is just 1 month away. Whew..

Now, let me get back to my design work before the client rushes me. Medanese has no patience, and that includes me.

Free Christmas theme for you

Ho..ho..ho.. *ala Santa Claus’s voice* Christmas is less than 2 months away and I could feel the Christmas spirit now.

The boyfriend and I has just released a free Christmas theme for Wordpress. It’s a 3 columns theme, widget ready, gravatar supported, rounded corner at the footer with this cute snowman as the header.

Live Demo

Head off to SimplyWP for the download link.

The good and the bad news

Okay, I will start with the bad news first.

Lunarpages has announced the winners of WordPress Theme Contest Series 3. Too bad our theme (Floral Day) didn’t win the first place.

Now, the good news is…

Floral Day won the second place~! Wohoo~!! I am more than happy although we don’t win the first place, as this is our first attempt in joining Wordpress theme contest and we just started to create Wordpress theme few months ago. A newbie, we are.

What makes me happier and almost cannot believe it, is because most of the techies staffs from Lunarpages loved this scrapbook type of theme.

What a happy Friday~!

New layout for Medan Daily

I decided to change the theme for Medan Daily, where I blog about my hometown – Medan. The old theme is great but almost EVERYONE is using it, and I dislike having the same thing with others. So lansi. Okay, actually because the old theme doesn’t suite my taste anymore. Maybe I’ll use the old theme again if I ever create a blog about used tape drives and computer related topic.

The old theme:

The new (current) theme:

Blue is my favorite color aside from pink. While yellow, it spices up the blog and adds more energy.

Besides changing theme, I have made another commitment with the blog. I decided to post daily pictures of Medan AGAIN. That’s the reason of why I created Medan Daily at the first place. But it gets too commercialized as time goes by. Oh well, you know..