I don’t think a designer can ever have enough images in their repertoire. Enjoy these links.
Texture Palace:  Premium free textures.   Grunge, concrete, metal, ink, stone, textile, and others.
Bgrepeat:  Free repeating backgrounds.
Squidfingers:  Free repeating backgrounds.
Dinpattern:  A great variety of repeating backgrounds.  Be sure and read their usage policy.

After much time and effort I’ve finally converted my personal collection of vintage computer games to a new format and purchase option.  The most time consuming part comes next and that is taking pictures of the actual game images and describing their condition  so that you can see what they look like prior to purchase.   In the meantime, if anyone is interested in a particular game give me a shout and I’ll make the effort to provide you the image.   Most of the games are in really good condition and are in their original game box with all content intact unless otherwise mentioned.  Some of them are still in their plastic wrap.   Please check back for more additions as I take on the next three shelves of games that aren’t even listed yet.

Here’s the link to the games.

Ha ha, jokes on me for not posting more often. Seems that when I stopped posting I really got sidetracked with things happening on the home front and the seemingly never ending stream of family that have been coming and going for the last 2-3 months. Husband’s large family reunion held here in October, huge family gathering for Thanksgiving, and more family coming next week. My New Years resolution for 2010 will not be hosting any large family gatherings. Someone else can do it. I’m weary.

Weather also has not been cooperating. Last week daytime highs were 10 F and -14 in the evenings. Of course, timing is everything because in the midst of the “big freeze” our 4-year-old heat pump decided to bite the dust (it should last much longer than 4 years) and then power to our house and 3000 other homes and businesses went out at 3 a.m. We didn’t have power for over 6 hours and some people longer than that. I don’t know how we were able to avoid broken pipes but we made it through thanks to our fireplace insert going full blast and faucets dripping. There are so many other things that have been happening, but really, who wants to hear about them when you know others are having a much worse time of it.

Want a website but can’t afford the cost of a premium design?   Since the web is used by millions of people and is the most likely place for them to find you, it is a great way to promote your skills or services, attract new customers, and better serve the ones you already have.   If you hesitate at the cost of a premium design there is an option available where you can have the look and feel of a premium website but on a much smaller scale.  The following affordable web design package has been so popular lately that I am  now including it along with my premium web services.  If  you want a unique one-of-a-kind website with one year of hosting plus free private domain name please take a look at what I have to offer.   It is  perfect for a small business website, informational website, or personal website:

Includes a 1-year web hosting plan and a 1-year free private domain registration

• A high quality one-of-a-kind website
• CSS standard compliant code
• Up to 3 pages
• Flexible website design allowing for future additional pages or blog
• Basic logo/header design
• Stock photos provided, if needed
• Text content up to 1500 words provided by you
• Up to 6 photos provided by you
• Up to 10 hyperlinks
• Contact email
• Encrypted email for spam prevention
• User-friendly navigation
• Search engine optimization
• Submission to major search engines
• 1-year web hosting plan (a $120.00 value)
• 1-year free private domain registration
• Unlimited email accounts
• Web statistics
• Site backup
• Minor updates for 30 days
• Long-term support

Note: This package will be available to new clients in September 2009.

Please use the Contact form if you are interested in this package.

Backgrounds, textures, patterns, and seamless tiled images can really make a website come alive and compliment your site content.  Many sites offer royalty free images and have a tremendous variety to choose from but I also like to scout out images on freebie sites as well. Below you’ll find links to just a few of these sites:

Texture Vault – You want royalty free paper, paint, dirt, mud, glass, concrete textures? They have it, plus some.
BG Patterns – Create your own tiled background – fun and free!
The University of Texas at Austin – Historical maps, maps of the world, countries, cities, states and more in the Perry-Castañeda Library Map Collection. Most of them are for use in the public domain.
Texture King – Grunge, dirt, plaster and more – free!
Bit Box – Lots of textures,  the site owner  calls himself a “Freebie Maker” and he likes to give away only the best quality stuff to help designers – free!
Outlaw Design Blog – Vectors, wallpapers, grunge, icons, fonts, and more – free!
Pattern Wall – Seamless patterns – free!
Wallpaper.net – Wallpapers and stock images – free!
Veer – A large selection of royalty free images, illustrations, typefaces and motion images.
Punchstock – Over 2 million royalty-free photos and illustrations from Jupiterimages, Getty Images, Corbis and over 50 other brands, all in one convenient search.
Urban Dirty – Textures and stock photography – free!
Morgue File – Large public image archive for your creative work – free!
Dreamstime – Royalty free and free stock photography
Tartan Maker – Generate seamless tartan patterns – free!
iStockphoto – One of the largest royalty free stock photo, audio, photography and motion image repositories on the web.
The Inspiration Gallery Many lovely textures including some outstanding damask images – free!
Stripe Generator – Generate seamless striped background images – free!
Stock.XCHNG – Large selection of stock photos – free!
Fotosearch – Search 5.3 Million Stock Photos, Stock Footage Video Clips, Royalty Free Images, and Illustrations
GraphicRiver – Royalty free graphics and illustrations. Launched in February 2009, the site focuses on premium design components like Layered Photoshop Graphics, Vector Illustrations, Icons, and Adobe Add-ons like Brushes, Patterns and Textures.

As a web designer I’m always looking for the right color scheme combinations to incorporate into site design. I’ve seen some beautiful color palettes that look great at first glance but when applied into a site can have a completely adverse effect. Having an “on the fly” visualization of what those colors would look like on a sample test page would be handy and save a lot of time. I happened to be reading through Mashable and while sifting through their ‘Web Design Toolbox” I came across a vast array of web design tools for graphics and color management. One particular link caught my eye and it took me to an online color creator tool called Color Scheme Designer. After playing around with it I found it relatively easy to use. Just plug in a hex code and it displays some wonderful color combinations in mono, triad, complement, tetrad, analogic, and accented analogic variations. But what I was looking for, they delivered, by incorporating “on the fly” tabbed previews of what the colors would look like on a sample site in either a light or dark variation including text.

No sooner did I post that our handhelds were for sale when someone inquired and purchased four them for a Father’s Day gift. It’s nice to know that they are going to a good home. We do have a few nice ones left if anyone is interested: Nintendo Multi-Screen Game & Watch Oil Panic!, Mattel Dungeons and Dragons, and Game & Watch Epoch-Man by Epoch (Coleco Licensed). Here’s the link for more information.

This item was sold to a happy new home -   You can see what was sold here.