It's Our 10th Anniversary!

2013 is our 10th anniversary year in business... and we couldn't be more thrilled. What started as a couple friends (who had never met) making some blog designs on the side quickly turned into a popular and thriving business, which resulted in hundreds of fabulous blogs and websites, a book about blogging and a lot of amazing opportunities over the last decade. I am so proud of what we've accomplished and am looking forward to dazzling you fine folks well into the next decade.

What's New!

Oh, gosh, lots is new. I'm afraid I've been lax in updating our portfolio -- busy, busy, busy, but here's some of the awesomeness that you may have missed:

Cheesetique.com

Cheesetique, our client since 2004, received her 3rd redesign this past Fall... we kept her same "vibe", but created a more modern layout, incorporating both of her shop/restaurant locations. We also moved her from Expression Engine to Wordpress.

OldTownBoutiqueDistrict.com

Another wonderful client in the same area of Alexandria, VA, as well as a directory of a lot of amazing boutiques and shops in the area, OldTownBoutiqueDistrict.com, also got an entirely new look. in addition to moving from Joomla to Wordpress.

Laughing Sheep Yarns

Laughing Sheep Yarns is a delightful, whimsical yarn shop nearby in Charlottesville, VA. Clearly, we like Virginia. ;-)

What's Coming Up?

We've got a new site in the works for long-time client, FashionJunkie.com (launching very (very!) soon) as well as a full re-branding and redesign of another stylish yarn shop in New Jersey and the branding and website for an incredible new advice community. We're also redesigning the website of a very popular 60's (and beyond!) musical group that has us working "happy together", if that gives you a hint.

Also on deck for early 2013, a redesign of long-time client, Rita McGrath's website, and some additions to The Mortal Instruments author, Cassandra Clare's new site, which we launched last Spring. (The Mortal Instruments: City of Bones, the film, is coming out in 2013!) There's some other stuff in there, too, but you'll just have to wait and see!

Availability

With all that, I am accepting new clients and projects for March 2013. During tax-return season, my schedule tends to fill up pretty quickly, so I encourage you to submit your Requests for Proposal as soon as possible, if you're interested in working together in the first quarter of 2013.

Kathy is no longer accepting large projects -- she's taking on only smaller projects and maintenance, focusing on her existing clients and continuing to be a stellar mom and super athlete. (Did you know she's training for an Ironman? She's amazing!)  Given her limited availability, if you have anything you'd like to work with Kathy on, please drop her a line!  I'm sure she'd love to hear from you.  (If you don't know, Kathy also runs the original one-stop eco-friendly shop for parents, Safemama.com.)

Let's see... any other news?  Nope, I think that's it for now!  Here's wishing you and yours a wonderful New Year. We look forward to working with you in 2013!

This is not a new thing and she isn't alone -- we've had several clients over the years abandon their blogs and websites thinking they could just return to them whenever they were able to afford it/had the time/felt like it/the planets aligned.  Unfortunately, the internet doesn't work that way -- the companies that manage your website are businesses that need to make money, so they won't hold onto your files or your domain name indefinitely. That would be totally awesome if they did, though!  

I thought I'd offer some tips that help explain where your files live, how long they're there and how to prevent the beautiful sites you paid money for from disappearing forever.  First, some basics:

Hosting

Hosting is where your website lives, where the files are kept that make your website a tangible thing. A host runs both shared server space and dedicated server space, but most bloggers and small businesses utilize shared server space. Think of the shared server space like an apartment building. You're renting an apartment in a building and all the furniture in the apartment are your files, graphics, blog posts, etc.

Domain Names

Most of you know this one. A domain name is how people get to your website.  So, using the apartment analogy, a domain name is the number on the door of your apartment. There are other domains in that apartment building, but http://www.yourdomainname.com is the one that goes JUST to your apartment.  If you live in apartment #3, http://www.apartment3.com is your domain name. You register your domain name through a registrar.

Now, this is where it can get a little confusing, especially for those new to the wonders of the internet: A host can also be a registrar that offers domain names, so you may have a host that is a one-stop shop: hosting and domain in one. You pay to one place, the end. But many people register their domain name with a separate registrar and then assign that domain name through the registrar to the host, where your website files live.  So that means you need to maintain two accounts: your domain name through the registrar (renewals, etc.) and your website through the host (where your website files live).

If one or both of these things lapse, either in non-renewal or lack of payment, your website will be unreachable. If left offline long enough, one or both will be deleted (website files) or released into the wild for someone else to purchase (domain names).

With me so far?

Maintenance & Backups

Our usual policy is that it's up to the client to maintain backups on their websites and encourage you to do weekly or, at the very least, monthly backups of your website files and database.  We do often, especially for Wordpress clients, install a plugin that automatically sends us weekly updates of a client's database just in case and we do keep a backup of the client's themes and files post initial site-launch, but if the client has added any content/photos/plugins since we launched the site, we would not have a backup of that unless the client hired us specifically to do maintenance on their site regularly.  Most clients do not choose to do this, though we really recommend it if the're not comfortable backing up their own files.

So, that's all great, but how do I keep my stuff from disappearing?

1. Regular Backups

As mentioned above, do regular backups. REGULAR BACKUPS.  Let me say it again -- regular. backups. This means once a week or once a month, you access your files via FTP and download everything to a secure location on your computer or an external hard drive. Also, running a back-up of your database is recommended.  This can be scary for clients because the database is usually where all the content lives, so if you delete that, the sky will fall and the earth will shake and you'll probably tinkle and cry a little.

You think I'm kidding.

But most hosts offer weekly backups of databases and files that are simple for you to download in a tidy zipped file. No muss, no fuss. If you have any questions or concerns about this, contact your host and ask how do I download weekly backups of my files and database? They can usually point the way. If they can't, please feel free to drop us an email and we'll be happy to help direct you.  Of course, you're always welcome to hire us to do maintenance.

2. Keep Contact Info and Credit Card Info Current

Stay on top of your renewables and make sure your credit cards and contact info on file with your host and registrar are always current.  Many times, a registar or host will email you or even snail-mail you -- in fact, they'll usually do it a lot -- reminding you that your credit card is about to expire or your domain name is up for renewal.  If you don't have automatic renewal on your domain name and you forget or move and the reminders get lost in the mail or sent to spam, your domain name will lapse and within 72 days, your domain name goes back into the open market for someone else to purchase.  You might think that someone won't want http://mamagoatssuperfantastichoofsoftner.com but, once a domain name has been purchased and used, it becomes valuable to someone, even if that someone is just a squatter looking to make a buck off your forgetfulness.  So check your domains regularly, check your hosting regularly, and note addresses, expiration dates and credit card info.

3. Tell Someone.

This is a biggie. If you decide to stop blogging for a while or not renew your hosting or you're just not feeling it right now, just drop us an email and let us know (preferably before you let your hosting expire or your domain name lapse).  We will go in and backup all your files and your database for you for a nominal fee and keep them on file for your triumphant return. Or we can email them to you for your own safekeeping.  This way, should you decide to get back on the horse, we'll have all your beautiful files, graphics and posts ready to fire back up again.

We can't do much about your domain name -- that's yours to maintain, but we highly recommend that should you even consider bringing your website back, keep renewing the domain name. It's roughly $10 a year and worth it, unless you want to see some squatter selling your domain name for an ungodly amount of money or an adult website in place of your perfectly innocent blog about pickling vegetables.

Again, that's all fine and good, but what do I do if my site is already gone?

This is where it gets a bit more complicated.

My Domain Name Has Lapsed...

If your domain name lapsed,  and it's within 30 days, you can usually contact the registrar and renew it without issue.  If it's beyond 30 days, it may be more difficult, but you'll need to contact the registrar for the details.  Beyond 72 days, it's released into the open market. Should someone else have a backorder on your domain, they will have first dibs, but  otherwise, you may be able to repurchase your domain name if someone else hasn't already snatched it up.

My Hosting Has Expired...

If it's within 30 days, you can usually contact the host and renew your account or update your credit card to get the site turned back on. Some hosts do have shorter grace periods (like 2 weeks), but most are around 30 days. If it's beyond 30 days, it's quite likely the host has written you off and deleted your account.  And much like dropping your keys in a volcano, don't bother going after it because man... it's gone.  There's always a chance that the host hasn't gotten around to deleting the files yet, so it's always worth it to ask.  When it doubt, ASK.  But don't be shocked if it's gone after 30 days.

If this happens, contact us -- we will likely have a backup of your site files and the database we saved from when we launched your site initially.  But unless we have a maintenance agreement with you or have database back-ups sent to us weekly, it's unlikely we'll have your most current files. If you've let it lapse longer than 30 days, we can only do our best.

My Hosting and Domain Name Have Expired and It's Been X Months/Years...

Well, kiddo... that's a bummer. In that case, it's luck of the draw. You won't be able to get your hosting files back, most likely, but there is a chance of getting your domain name again, should it be unique enough that no one else grabbed it.  And we may have your initial database and files on tap, but they'll likely need some upgrades and reinstall and all that stuff, which we'd do for a nominal fee.  If your domain is gone, though, you'll need to start again or have us modify your existing files for the new name... or just throw in the towel and pour yourself a drink. (Though, I'd have done that when I first noticed my site was down.)

So, the moral of this story is simply this: your files aren't stored online forever in the event you might want them back someday. It's up to you to maintain your website and files, contact info and domain names if you don't wish to hire someone to do that for you. It doesn't have to be time consuming or complicated, just set a monthly or weekly reminder on your calendar to confirm your info is up to date and expiration dates aren't imminent. And should you decide to take a break, let us know so we can back up for your files for posterity. 

You won't regret it!

BlogHer attendees, clients, friends or total strangers: we'll be flitting about the Hilton New York on Thursday, August 2nd, leaving Sunday, August 5th, so if you see us, hollahhhh!  We look like this:

But that's only most of the time. Sometimes, we look like this:

Only with booze. We hope you say hi!

We missed last year in my hometown of San Diego due to my 20 year high school reunion scheduled for the same weekend. But this year, we'll be hitting New York in all our glory, ready to absorb the city, it's sights (people watching is awesome), it's delicious tastes (pizza!) and scary scents (hot garbage in August, anyone?).  We had a blast last time and this year, we're smarter and decided to stay at the Hilton with the rest of you fine people. Last time we stayed at the Empire Hotel (yes, of Gossip Girl fame) and it was like sleeping on a slab of granite while kitten-heeled reindeer danced on our heads to Lisa Lisa and the Cult Jam.  Never again.

We'll also be attendig some of the many parties. We love to be social and let's not kid ourselves, we love drink tickets. These are some of the ones on our list. Will you be here?

If you can't find us there, in a panel or at the buffet, try the hotel bar. ;-)

Hope to see you there! 

While browsing Pinterest yesterday, I realized that I know a lot of people on there, but not that many people actually use it.  I'm not sure if that's because they just don't have time or if they aren't sure what it's for or if they just plain got bored by it.  These things happen.

I, on the other hand, think Pinterest can be a lot of fun when it doesn't suck your day into a vortex of quinoa recipes and thinspirational quotes about your thighs.  There's a lot of other inspiration to be had on Pinterest, be it fashion or colors, food or fitness, art, photography, home decor, whatever blows your dress up. Sadly, like any hot new thing, Pinterest is both under and over-used by it's pinners, so I thought I'd prepare some helpful tips to new Pinterest users and for clients who may be interested in creating a Pinterest account for their brand.

For those who haven't heard, Pinterest is the hottest new social sharing network online. Or maybe it's in a tie with Instagram, either way, it's popular. (Both are popular enough someone made an internet lovechild called Pinstagram so you can pin Instragram photos, so clearly, there's something to it.)  

Pinterest, according to their website:

Pinterest lets you organize and share all the beautiful things you find on the web. People use pinboards to plan their weddings, decorate their homes, and organize their favorite recipes. Best of all, you can browse pinboards created by other people. Browsing pinboards is a fun way to discover new things and get inspiration from people who share your interests.

So, what's the point?

You can use it for just about anything you like. Do you collect elephants? Start a pinboard for elephant stuff or if you're into owls, start one of those -- or follow other people's boards about owls.  You have no idea how many owl pinboards I've seen. Owls are the new black.

Are you rennovating your house?  Start a board to save fabric or wallpaper swatches, dog-ear that chic sofa you saw on that style blog, flag your favorite paint colors.

Are you watching your weight? Do you want to be inspired to roll your tuchus off the couch?  There are hundreds of pinboards for delicious healthy cooking and fitness regimens, everything from "you go girl, run the bejeezus out of that race"-type quotes to grain-less cooking to recommended training gear.

Getting hitched?  Then Pinterest is for you -- create boards for the big day, for your favorite dresses, for food, invitationand decor ideas. The possibilties are really limitless.

Pinterest sounds swell! What could go wrong?

As with anything awesome, there's always something that threatens it's cool factor. True Blood -- one of my  favorite shows -- it was so awesome and then...? Werepanthers.  Coca-Cola was doing just fine for 81 years, and then New Coke had to screw it all up.  Love Boat was a Saturday night staple and then Ted McGinley happened.  Someone always has to throw a monkey wrench in the awesome, so here are a few "do's and don'ts" to keep Pinterest on the upswing:

DON'T over-pin.

I follow about 75-100 people on Pinterest, but I only see pins from about 10-20 users because my screen often taken up with 20-30 pins in a row from just a handful of users.  This in itself isn't awful, but when it's all nail art or all paleo recipes or six rows of nothing but gladiator sandals, my instinct is to unfollow that board... if not all the boards from that person.  (Gladiator sandals are grounds for social divorce.)

It's understandable to "get on a kick" when you're surfing online -- you're looking for something specific, so you just start pinning one pair of Ugg Boots after another.  That is totally your prerogative -- we're proponents of "do what you want" (though not so much Ugg Boots) -- but if follows are important to you, then consider mixing it up.  

If you're are on a kick, it's understandable -- we're all human and I get on them, too.  But, perhaps only pin a few "salad in a jar" recipes at a time. Or, if you do post 20 pins in a row, mix it up -- post things from different genres.  One of my favorite things to do is go into the "Everything" section -- I often find a nice mix of things that strike my fancy so my pins aren't a wall of LOL Cats and bunny photos (which, I'll admit, is a slippery slope --  I love bunnies!).

DO re-pin.

People love to be re-pinned.  If you see something you like from a friend or even a stranger, feel free to re-pin it. That's what Pinterest is for!  It also encourages those you pinned to come check out your stuff, as it sends them a notification when you've pinned someting of theirs. Maybe they'll re-pin your stuff or otherwise connect you with someone else that's into what you're into. You just never know and being social is what social networking is all about.

DON'T Over-pimp.

This is specifically for brands, but applies to personal websites, too.  Pinterest has a policy about pinning and sharing your own content on Pinterest, but they really don't enforce it which causes some brands and even owners of personal websites to do a lot of self-promotion.  This means if you're a company that sells Whatzits, don't pin every Whatzit you sell on your boards.  It's not an online store or your own personal portfolio, it's meant to share things that interest you. If all that interests you is yourself, then Pinterest is not the place for you.

I've followed a few brands that I've since had to unfollow because they pinned every promotional item in their own stream. If I wanted to know what they sold, I'd look at their website. I'm following, say, World Market (*cough*), because I like to shop there and I wonder what inspires the people at World Market... what do they like?  I realize that most companies aren't going to want to direct you anywhere but to their own stuff, but again, if that's the case, they shouldn't be using Pinterest.

Look, I realize brands want to market to us -- and I don't mind if I see one or two items from their latest collection in my stream. But when I see 3-6 rows of nothing but outdoor umbrellas and votive candle holders from India, with little price tags in the corner, I am no longer inspired, I'm being sold to. And I, personally, don't use Pinterest for that.

Whole Foods is another that shills a lot of their own stuff, but the way they are doing it right is that they share recipes. They're actually pinning  things you can make from products in their store, not just "Buy this olive oil, it's squeezed from rare olives picked on the solstice by nubile Mediterraneans".

DO or DON'T share boards.

I have mixed feelings on this.  On one hand, I love the idea of sharing boards  with someone else. Kathy and I share two boards: Moxie Dream House and Cocktail Hour.  She contributes, I contribute, it's a very tra-la-la experience. However, when brands you follow make a board a "group board", a couple things can happen:

1. You end up some stranger in your Pinterest stream and if you're not privvy to the group-ness of the board, you may find yourself saying, "Who is the person? Why are they in my stream? I don't even know them. WHAT IS HAPPENING HERE?" Not that I've said that exact phrase or anything. 
2. Your stream ends up bombarded with strangers. This happened when Sephora opened up some "color wash" board that allowed their followers to add as many pins as they wanted to that board. Cut to my stream, which because I followed Sephora, was awash with photos of gold and tangerine items from people I'd never heard of.  

Like I said, Pinterest is a social network, so I don't mind discovering new people, but if I wanted to see hoards of pins from strangers, I'd go look at that "Everything" stream or go look at that board directly.

DO link the source.

I can't emphasize this one enough. It's positively maddening to click a photo of a great pair of shoes or a lovely dress only to be taken to:

1. A pin-dump  (there are lots of those now, Pinterest aggregators that promise "more re-pins" for you if you pin through them)
2. A Tumblr homepage where you'll be lucky if you can find your soul once you've scrolled through pages upon pages of miscellany.  (If you're pinning something from Tumblr, please, please find the permalink to that direct item before pinning. Please. I beg of you on behalf of the internet.)
3. No link at all -- often found if the person uploads the photo directly to Pinterest. But if it's not your OWN work, if you found the image elsewhere, even if you uploaded it yourself, you really should credit the original link. You are not the creator of that content, you're simply sharing it.

DO read the terms of service.

There are probably always going to be copyright and privacy issues swirling with Pinterest.  They recently changed it due to some outcry from the community, so I encourage you to read the terms of service and to read it again whenever they update it.  If you are concerned at all with things like copyrights or people using your images without your permission (say you're a photographer), do not pin them to Pinterest. 

Finally, Pinterest is really about the people who use it. It's only as good as we make it, for now anyway. So I encourage you to also read Pinterest Etiquette and their Acceptable Use policies.

Happy Pinning!

Source: letsfootlethetimeaway.tumblr.com via Joelle on Pinterest

I don't know that much about champagne, to be honest. It's really Kathy's "thing", but I do love a glass when offered and occasionally will buy a bottle on a whim. I know that Champagne is a region in France and that technically any "champagnes" that come from anywhere else are sparkling wines, not true champagne. Or so I've heard.

I know Dom Perignon is good, but I think Cristal is better? I've had the former and lo, it was good, but I've never had an occasion to "make it rain", so I've never tried that Cristal the rappers love so much.  I know Prosecco is a sparkling wine, but isn't champagne, but I see the terms use interchangeably.

Since I clearly don't know my arse from my Korbel, I thought I'd do some research and put together some links that might help. 

• Champagne 101 by AllRecipes.com
• Champagne 101 by Wilson Creek Winery (incidentally, vintners of my favorite Almond Champagne -- also, I totallly said vintner like I know what I'm talking about.)
• Champagne 101 by Martha Stewart
• Buying Champagne 101 by Wine.com
• Champagne 101 by the Swish Life

I'm certainly glad I didn't name this post Champagne 101... There are roughly 29 million results for that title... so I shall assume these cover enough of the basics.

It wouldn't be Champagne Thursday if we didn't include a recipe, so I bring you this simple, delectable morsel plucked from Pinterest, courtesy of watermelon.org:

Source: watermelon.org via Joelle on Pinterest

Watermelon Mimosa

Ingredients

• 3 cups watermelon juice (puree, strained)
• 1 1/2 cups light champagne (not Brut, but Asti or similar)

Instructions

Divide watermelon juice among 2 to 3 champagne flutes. Fill with champagne and enjoy!

I tripled this recipe because, let's not kid ourselves, 2-3 flutes is not going to be enough, especially if you have guests.  Besides, if you're going to go through all the trouble of buying a watermelon and pureeing it, you might as well do it up!  These would probably be fabulous for a spring or summer brunch and pair well with some eggs benedict or some lighter fruit crepes... mmm....

So, we like email: it leaves a paper trail, allows us to reference your comments verbatim and like most creative or development professionals, it allows us to focus on work and prioritize communications for specific times during the day. Does this mean we'll never talk to you on the phone? Of course not. If a client wants to talk over the phone, we're more than happy to do so, but email is our preferrred method of communication.

That said, some folks aren't Email People™ because, well, they're simply bad at email. Their emails can be lacking in nuance, tone and common courtesy.  We do our best here at Moxie to open emails with a kind greeting, to thank the emailer for their inquiry (should it be their first), to use full sentences and proper punctuation and to show respect for your clients with professional grammar and a writing style that conveys our warm and jovial personalities. We're not dry and we don't expect our clients to be.

But some emails we receive are quite terse, without any pleasantries. It's understood that email is meant to be a "speedy" method of communication, but you don't have to be a jerk about it.  We don't need you to sugarcoat it, but it is possible to get your point across in a professional and cordial manner while still maintaining brevity.

We appreciate respectful communication.  No need to be overly prim, just please remember that we are business owners and skilled professionals, just like you're a professional at whatever you do.  We are not your kid, your neighbor, or, despite some misconceptions, your employee. We are experts in what we do or you wouldn't have hired us.  We will never accept verbal abuse, unrealistic demands or blatant rudeness.

But we also don't love overly familiar interactions, either. If you're emailing us for the first time, please don't call us "honey" or  "sweetums".  That actually happened. SWEETUMS.  We're not on the pole here, sir.

Of course, none of our clients are like that -- our clients are awesome.  Why? Because we will usually ignore emails that are condescending, grossly undervalue our skillset or use netspeak, grammar and punctuation appalling enough to shock a teenager.

What we love in our emails:

• Greetings -- At least for the first one. Say hello,for pete's sake!  We're nice!
• Thank yous -- If you ask us to do something and we do it, especially if we do it tout de suite, please respond.  We don't need you to pen us a sonnet via skywriter, just a simple "Thanks!" will suffice. It can even be on Twitter.  
• Acknowledgement -- To that same end, if we take the time to reply to your inquiry, please hit us back with a "yay" or "nay".  We put aside client work and time with our families to read your request, to do preliminary research on your website and to formulate a thoughtful reply. We understand that we aren't going to be the designers for everyone and that perhaps our timeline/budget/moons don't align, but at the very least acknowledge our reply.  Don't leave us proverbially hangin'. 
• Spellcheck -- We realized typos happen, we make them, too. But when your email is laden with abbreviations, netspeak or misspelled words, we are  less inclined to reply or even try to figure out what you're talking about.
• Hours -- We want things to be convenient for our clients, so we don't really mind if you email us on the weekends or on national holidays. But please know that we're likely not going to reply until the next available business day. We work on the internet, we aren't open 24 hours -- so please don't send email after email after email on a Saturday night expecting a reply.  We have families and lives and need downtime to regenerate our mojo.  You wouldn't like it if someone called your house 6-8 times over the weekend , would you? For us, it's the same kind of thing.

This post was inspired by a great article I read this morning called Professional Communication 101 by Mike at BoyInk!  He breaks it down much more specifically.

In conclusion, we love email. And we probably will love working with you, too.

So be nice, would ya? 

I'm not a huge Sangria fan, as a rule. I like red wine and I like fruit, but I'm not into red wine and fruit. I know it's not very Euro of me, but I'm just, well... not that Euro, I guess. But, I do enjoy a white wine sangria from time to time. I just feel it pairs better with fruit.  I'm definitely giving this one a try -- and soon!

Sangria Blanca from Refinery29

This recipe makes 2 large pitchers.

• 2 white peaches
• 2 white nectarines
• 4 oranges
• 1 pint strawberries
• 2 bottles torrontes (or any non-oaked white wine)
• 1/2 cup rose infused simple syrup

Slice the peaches and nectarines into eigths or tenths, depending on how big the fruit is. The original recipe recommends cutting the oranges into "surpremes". The original author explains it thusly, "For the uninitiated, supremes are when you slice off the skin, and slice between the white membranes segmenting the fruit."  See? Then you can eat them easily when your drink is empty.

Halve the strawberries -- easy enough!  Now, simple syrup is easy to make, but I never feel like making it, to be honest.  But this seems simple enough, hence the name, so I'll probably give it a go, if I can find a rose.

To make the syrup, combine 1/3 cup of sugar and 1/3 cup of water. Add the petals of one small very fragrant rose or a 1/4 teaspoon rosewater (if you happen to have that?). Bring to a boil, and let it sit for 10 minutes to steep. Add the syrup and wine to the fruit, and let the mixture sit in the fridge for a few hours to combine.

DRINK. Refill and repeat. And once more with feeling.  Now you're enjoying your warm weekend!

I never really knew what I wanted to do "when I grew up".  Well, I take that back. I wanted to be a vet, a singer, a ballerina, an artist, a choir director, and back to a singer again. But I never really picked one. Then one fateful day in the late 90's, I started a hokey website on Angelfire.com and lo, the internet bug bit me.  HARD. A few years later, I started a blog, met Kathy with whom I became instant friends and ta da! Blog Moxie was born.

Lucky for me, Kathy knows unabashed raw talent when she sees it.  And, of course, modesty. ;-)

I am so grateful to be doing this job. I'm grateful for Kathy. And I'm grateful for the design and development communities, especially the Expression Engine community, for supporting us and being so awesome over the years. I love my job and our clients. I love how each day brings something new and the ever-evolving technology keeps me on my toes.

We're going a little retro today and re-posting our signature cocktail we developed one night in Palm Beach in 2005.  After several cocktails, I mean attempts, this is what we came up with, photographed here next to Buddha. Because that's totally normal.

The Moxie-tini

• 1 part Raspberry vodka (We used Three Olives)
• 2 parts Vodka (We used Grey Goose)
• 1/2 tsp of Raspberry liqueur (we like Chambord)
• 1/2 tsp of White Creme de Cacao

Fill a big martini glass with ice and water, set aside.  Fill a martini shaker with ice and all your liquors. Shake well, vigorously, but not so much that the ice becomes a crushed mess.  Empty the ice water out of your martini glass and strain your cocktail into the glass. You could rim the glass with pretty pink sugar or cocoa, or drop a fresh raspberry in the bottom of the glass, if you desire.  Drink. Repeat if you've got a snack and a designated driver.

Enjoy!

Who knows what the next nine years will bring... but there's no doubt, we'll be doing it with moxie!

So... apprently, this is a thing. A friend of mine sent me a link this morning for BreadedCats.com -- yet another in a long line of animal-related memes.  My first instinct was to go, "Poor kitties!  They can't possibly like that!" 

But then I saw this one and couldn't help but laugh.  I still can't imagine they enjoy that -- I wouldn't like someone wrapping bread around my head on a whim, but it's soft and, as long as it's done gently, it's not hurting anyone.

But Tortilla Cat is unamused.