We recently resent our email blast from yesterday (the one about Femmeplates™), so we apologize if you received two versions.  That’s not normally our M.O., but we were told last night that our emails haven’t been arriving with any content for those who view them text-only, so we wanted to try to remedy that. If you happen to get a funky email or one that is missing content or anything, please drop us a note and let us know.  We’d appreciate it!

A final reminder that we will be out of the office Wednesday, August 20 through Tuesday, August 26th. We’ll be back in the office Wednesday, August 27th to respond to any emails we may have received. This is the one time of year that we give ourselves a much-needed break, so we won’t be responding to any email until we get back.  However, if it is an emergency (like the Internet is being taken over by an army of Lolcats or Melrose Place returns to prime time), we will do our best to get back to you as soon as possible.  If it’s truly urgent (like your site is inaccessible or you’re getting a database error) please contact your host directly for a more timely and effective response.

And, finally… it’s time for cocktails!  Don’t forget to join us on Saturday, August 23rd from 5pm - 7pm for some casual cocktails at the Lei Lounge. It’s nothing blown-out, just us girls having some tropical $4 signature cocktails, like Chinese Cosmopolitans and Hawaiian Mojitos on a beautiful Saturday evening in a cabana with some delicious snacks and attractive people serving us. What’s not to like?  If you’re in the area, please consider swinging by to join us for a drink — we’d love to meet you!

Ok, he’s not our uncle. That would be weird.  But he is our hero!  Bob of Scratching the Itch not only helped us build our fancy little Femmeplates™ shopping cart, but he figured out that wacky Internet Explorer error that was happening for some people. Woo woo!  *jig*

We’ve relied on Bob, or Deltus as some may know him, to come to our rescue with various scripting hang-ups over the last five years. He’s a real peach.  Thanks for all you do, Bob!

If you have tried to purchase one of our new Femmeplates™ blog design templates, but have received an error like this:

The recipient of this shopping cart link is not an approved shopping cart user. Please review your selection and try again.

... please drop us an email!  We’re not sure what’s causing this issue, but it only happens sometimes in Internet Explorer only.  Our research shows that we’re not alone in this issue and we’re doing whatever we can to fix it as a soon as possible. In the meantime, if you get any crankiness from IE, try using Firefox or just shoot us an email and we’ll send you payment link directly.

We’ll hopefully have these kinks worked out soon.  Thanks!

Ok ladies… no pushing, no shoving, no line cutting and no hair pulling.  Femmeplates™ are finally available for purchase!  We know, we promised these on August 11th but an unfortunate run in with some stubborn code set us back some.  Not to mention, I was out of town while Joelle hammered away at the set-up so that didn’t help move things along any faster.  How helpful of me!  However now, we have it all pulled together and working smoother than Kenny G covered in cream cheese.  Now, don’t go throwing darts at us if you run into anything hinky on checkout.  We’ll get any kinks ironed out I’m sure.

Femmeplates™ came from our desire to do some less restrictive creative work without the usual rules and regulations set forth with bigger projects.  We love designing pretty much anything but sometimes it’s fun just to do whatever hits our artsy fartsy button.  So we’ve unleashed a handful of premium cute stylish templates to choose from with a variety of price and license options to fit your needs.  We’ll be adding more new designs as the year goes on so the stash will get larger but for our premier Femmeplates™, we though this grouping would strike some of your girly chords. 

So go ahead and head over to our new Femmeplates™ selection and browse around. Viva la Femmeplates™!

This made me laugh so hard… because I would totally go to a Font Conference.

Thanks for the link, Kymberlie!

August is finally upon us and we wanted to remind you that Kathy and I will be out of the office August 20-26.  If you have anything that requires a response before then, please let us know as soon as possible.

If you have submitted a Request for Proposal, we are currently skipping and frolicking through the flood of forms we received over last six weeks.  We are reviewing every single one in preparation for our schedule reopening on September 2nd.  Please note: this does not mean your project will begin September 2nd.  This means we will contact you starting on September 2nd in the order in which your request was received. Kathy and I appreciate your patience very much and look forward to discussing your project with you soon.

If you have not submitted your Request for Proposal yet and you are interested in working with us this Fall, you better step on it!  We fill up quickly and can only take a limited number of projects each season.  We’d love to hear from you!

And again, Femmeplates™ are going to be soft launched on August 11th. There will be a select offering of designs to dip our toe in the water before we dive head first in the deep end.  We were busier than we ever anticipated this Summer (I totally skipped my 2-week vacation!) and didn’t get as much spare time we thought, but are enjoying creating designs solely for the purpose of creating them. Now we hope you enjoy them, too!

Don’t forget our little casual cocktail hour at Lei Lounge on August 23rd. If you’re in the San Diego area and wish to join us for a cocktail on a late Saturday afternoon, please swing by the Lei Lounge on Park Blvd. between 5pm and 7pm on Saturday, August 23rd.  We’ll be there getting our tropical drink on, perhaps signing a few books, but most importantly… having a good time!  Look for us in a cabana out back.  Hope to see you there.

Hey everyone… I am going to keep this brief because I literally have to do a backwards swan dive back into my to-do list as if my underpants were on fire. 

• If you haven’t noticed, we’re busy working on clients, past and present like crazy mad-women, and trying to churn out our new Femmeplates™ line so I am completely booked for the rest of summer. I am not currently accepting new projects, reviewing requests or preparing any proposals until Summer is over. If I even entertain the idea my head will spin around demon-style.  But that doesn’t mean your request isn’t important to us.  We’ll be responding to estimate requests in the order in which they are received starting Tuesday, September 2nd, so the early bird gets the worm.  Don’t go throwing your sucker in the dirt if you don’t hear from us post haste after sending in your completed RFP, it just means we have your request, at the ready, for the September rush.  Be sure to check our blog for the latest information in case of any changes.  Thanks for your patience!
• Femmeplates™ are coming FAST and I am scurrying around in my spare time (HAHAHAH) finishing those up… they’re fun to create, and I’ve gotten a chance to spread my design wings a little so it feels good to be doing some creative work that doesn’t have the usual boundaries.  The soft launch for those is August 11th and as Joelle mentioned, they will have some price options that take into account the level of exclusivity and the illustrative license (if applicable). 

That’s it from me for now… enjoy summer, don’t forget the sunscreen (mineral sunscreen please...), the big floppy hats and the frosty beer with lime.

With the amount of requests we’ve received this week, it’s like someone let the Web Design Party Bus off at The Moxie Girls™ Lounge.  You guys are absolutely drunk with ideas for your websites and we are overwhelmed with exciting projects. Thank you for thinking of us!  If you’ve sent an estimate in the last couple weeks, make yourself at home, pour yourself a cocktail and we’ll be with you momentarily.

While we’re working our little fingers like mad to create incredible designs for our current couture design clients, we’ve also been busily creating designs for our labor of love, Femmeplates™.  We decided earlier this year that while we love creating designs for our clients, we also wanted to cut loose and design pretty things just because. We have to design for passion, not paycheck sometimes. It helps us keep things fresh for every client and not get in a rut, which can be easy to do if you’re not mindful.

Now, that’s not to say Femmeplates will be free. Let’s not get crazy!  These will be stylish, mostly female-centric, moderately-priced premium designs for Wordpress, Blogger or straight up HTML/CSS markup.  Femmeplates are not regurgitated freebie layouts with different banners, these are not templates created by others and modified by us, these are luxury designs lovingly created by us in our spare time so you can give your blog The Moxie Girls touch without waiting in the queue until you’re collecting social security.

There will be a few tiers of pricing, depending on the level of exclusivity you choose. We also must consider the licensing for the images used in the design, so that all parties involved get their copyright needs met. We respect stock illustrators (and all artists), their desire to protect their creations and we hope you do, too.

As these are designs of passion, so to speak, it means the looks you’ll find could be anything that strikes our fancy.  It could be seasonal, it could be bridal, it could be mommy-oriented, hobby-oriented, professional or whatever blows our dress up at the time.  We won’t be taking specific requests for Femmeplates — that would require a Request for Proposal for a custom project.  But, we are open to hearing your ideas, so if there’s a type of design you’d like to see in the Femmeplates showcase, drop us a line.  It doesn’t mean we will do it immediately, if at all, so don’t get bent if you don’t see it for a while. It’s nothing personal!  It simply means we’ll tuck it into our hat for the future.

The initial offering on August 11th will be select.  It’s a soft launch for testing the waters, so first come, first served.  No hair-pulling and no biting.  We don’t have that kind of insurance.

Have a great weekend!