Monday, October 08, 2018

Peacock Cards New Website

It's been up for a couple of weeks now but I just haven't taken the time, or maybe haven't had the time, to share my new website with you! Well here it is, and I love it!

Peacock Cards Website 
If you read my last post, you know that I basically lost my entire website. What a nightmare for someone who is running a business and has little website building experience to have happen. I had no idea where to turn, my money limited, and then I happened upon a listing on Etsy.

WEEKEND SALE! Website Design / Custom Website / Website Design / Small Business Custom Wordpress Website / Etsy Business Website Design, listing #196884388

And so I sent the person a message, letting them know why I needed a website, that I pretty much was clueless, would they be able to upload the files for me to my host, etc. I received a reply almost immediately from a very kind, talented person named Rissa who answered all of my questions, and also offered to make me a logo. A logo. Something every business should have, but I have never had an official logo. And so, I paid for the listing, and the logo, sent her some photos and ideas I had and from there she just took off with it. Rissa sent me about four different logos, and I loved one immediately but asked to change the font to a font she had on a different sample logo. She was happy to do that and I loved it! And I also love the site she built for me. She was fast, efficient, easy to work with, and extremely talented. And as for the price, I sure can't complain. As I said, my money to do such things is extremely limited and she made it possible for me to have a website again. I can't say enough good about her. And so, if anyone reading this needs a website built or a logo, or both, I'd really recommend her!  Here's Rissa's Etsy store.

RissDesign Etsy Store

 I hope you will also visit Peacock Cards for all your T-shirts, mugs, bags, cards, invitations, and gifts!

 

 

Sunday, September 02, 2018

My Website Horror of Horrors!

Some of you may have noticed that my main website, peacockcards.com, has disappeared. I can't even tell you how upsetting it is to me! I had used a private party host (big mistake!) for the past several years without problems. Oh, once in a great while the site would go down, but I'd contact him and he'd have it up and running soon afterward. No complaints. He had uploaded everything for me from my prior host and so I had no backup of all my html files, my ecards, my graphics, etc.
Well, one day he simply disappeared. My site was down, my email gone, couldn't get into the CPanel, everything just...gone. I tried to contact him many times, I could see he's on Messenger, but he just totally ignored my reaching out to him. I'm not sure why, but I have my ideas which I will not get into for his personal privacy.  But the fact is, my website and everything I had worked at for years was wiped out in an instant. I take some blame for trusting this one person hosting site, also for not having a good backup plan. Most I will never recover.
The e-cards are gone forever. That one alone makes me sad as Peacock Cards was founded on e-cards. I had spent a lot of time... hours, days, weeks, months even perhaps years making the e-cards, and was rather proud that I had self taught myself to use Flash animation, Poser, and Bryce as well as Paint Shop Pro to create them. I had a Flash animation introduction on many of the Flash e-cards that I was especially proud of...peacock related of course! I had wallpapers, recipes, all kinds of fun things on my site, and of course, a lot of pages with my products from  Zazzle and Cafe Press. But it's all gone, and I can only move on.
I am happy to say my email at sales @peacockcards.com is working once again. I have lost all my previous emails and folders of emails which is disturbing as I had some really important emails saved there! But at least customers can now email me using my business email address again and I can respond to their inquiries. So that's a step in the right direction.
Other than that, I am happy to say I have also hired someone from Etsy to build me a new website and logo! I have never had an official logo before, so that's really exciting to me. She's a great designer and I love the logos she showed me, one in particular caught my attention and I'm happy to say I now have a logo, which will be debuted on my website once it's up! Hint..it has to do with peacocks!
I look forward to seeing what she comes up with for the website itself. It will be quite simple and streamlined in comparison to my original site, but I'm sure also more aesthetically pleasing to the eye. I had built my original site with a purchased template and very basic knowledge of html, so it was cluttered and not very professional looking ,but it did the job. This new site I believe will be everything I need and not cluttered looking. I hope it will be mobile device friendly which I admit my previous website was not. She has been a joy to work with thus far, helpful and professional, and in looking at her profile of websites she has built, I have every confidence it will look spectacular!
Please bear with me as I go through this transition. I have lost a lot of time, money, and also something that was dear to my heart. I have lost emails, graphics, wallpapers, e-cards, and hopefully not too many sales from customers who could not reach me or who thought my business had entirely folded up (due to no website).  Many of my stores, especially on Cafe Press, are a mess. They were beautiful stores that I had a very talented designer make for me, but again, because I lost everything hosted on that server, I lost those beautiful storefronts as well, and right now I admit they don't look very nice. The stores are there,but they are bare bones and missing graphics and just not the prettiest to look at!
So in a nutshell, Peacock Cards is a mess right now yes. Some stores are not pretty, my website gone, my email now back again thankfully, and my website should be up and running soon. But I'm open, my products were never affected as they are on the Zazzle, Cafe Press, and RedBubble server. My blog has been there all along, my Facebook page, twitter pages, Instagram, Pinterest, etc. still there.
I will keep you posted as to when my new website is up and running!
Here's a graphic I did find in my files from my Peacock Cards Cafe Press storefront that someone had built for me. I absolutely LOVED this storefront. I will miss this beauty!


Saturday, August 18, 2018

Summer Birthday Party Invitations

Summer's not over yet! And in many parts of the country, summer extends well into autumn, well at least the warm temperatures and beach like weather do! For me here in Michigan's UP,  summer turns into autumn quite quickly, but if you live in the southern states or even south in Michigan, the warm temperatures can continue for some time.
That said...
I have created a lot of kids birthday invitations that are summer related. Whether your child's birthday party is going to be a backyard barbeque, a pool party at grandma's house, a party in the park, or a weekend camping birthday or overnight slumber party in the backyard, we have the invitation that will suit your celebration!
Colorful, fun, cheery, beautifully printed by Zazzle, these kids birthday party invitations are sure to get a lot of oohs and aahs from all the guests. They are easy to customize with all of your child's birthday party specifics!
Check out the cute pool party birthday invites,  beach birthday party invitations, party in the park invites, summer birthday barbeque invitations, and more!

Here's a link to our summer birthday party invitations collection!
And here's a collection of summer beach and pool party invites!
And if the summer birthday party is a sleepover, or camping in the yard, check out this collection of kids birthday invites!

Friday, August 17, 2018

Baby First Birthday Bibs

What can be something to cherish celebrating more than your baby's very first birthday? It is such a milestone, that first year of so many firsts. First smile. First laugh. First time rolling over. First time crawling. For some, first steps, even first words. It's not only an important day and milestone for baby, but for baby's parents, siblings, grandparents, and other family members and friends. Nothing warms the heart like a baby's smile. Celebrating her first birthday can be a very quiet dinner with just mom and dad, or a big celebration with every family member, lots of balloons, and a huge cake. It can be anything in between. Regardless of which way you decide to celebrate that first birthday for your son or daughter, these first birthday bibs are perfect attire for the day! And of course, there's no reason not to wear them the entire first year!
Many of these first birthday bibs are themed, so if you have a farm theme birthday, an outer space theme, frog theme, circus or clown theme, train theme, monkey theme, or princess theme birthday party we've got you covered. There's bibs you can customize easily with their name, bibs that simply say It's My First Birthday, even bibs for twins!
I hope you will find a first birthday bib here that you feel is worthy of your baby's special day!

Wednesday, August 15, 2018

Children's Farm Theme Birthday

The Upper Peninsula state fair is going on this week and it made me think about some of the things I like best at the fair. There's the food, of course. There's rides, there's entertainment, there's vendors and booths and entries of home grown vegetables, stamp collections, artwork, knitting, sewing, you name it! But one of my favorite things about the fair is seeing the animals. The cows, the pigs, the chickens and rabbits, they are all there, quacking, mooing, grunting, and hopefully enjoying the attention they are getting. Kids seem to love the farm animals, and at a very early age most begin to imitate their sounds, even before uttering real words. Kids who love cows, horses, ducks, pigs, roosters, and sheep will love a farm themed birthday celebration!
At Peacock Cards, we have plenty of farm theme birthday invitations, T-shirts, buttons, paper plates, napkins, stickers, bodysuits, and more with the farm animals they love.
Check out these cute farm theme items that are perfect for the farm theme birthday celebration!
Need another product with a design you see but can't find the product? Let me know by emailing me at darla723 @hotmail.com. I'd be happy to try to create what you need!
Wondering if what you like is on sale? It's easy to see all the current sales at Zazzle by clicking on the Coupon's link on the right side of my blog!

Tuesday, August 14, 2018

Peacock Cards: Milestone Birthdays

Peacock Cards: Milestone Birthdays: It was recently my birthday. I turned 61. I'm not one of those people who tries to hide how old they are.  It made me think about turnin...

Monday, August 13, 2018

Milestone Birthdays

It was recently my birthday. I turned 61. I'm not one of those people who tries to hide how old they are.  It made me think about turning 60 last year, and how we seem in general to consider 21, 30,40, 50, 60, 70, etc. milestone birthdays. In reality they are all milestone birthdays. Birthdays mark another year gone by, another year we survived all the things life has thrown at us whether a financial problem, an illness, a divorce, family worries, accidents, etc. But it also marks a year of the good things...good friends, wonderful family, vacations, fun evenings around a campfire making s'mores, the sound of your children's laughter, your grandsons baseball game. So although every year should be considered a milestone in our life, most of us refer to the milestone birthdays as those ending in a zero. Except for 21!
I have loved designing birthday invitations for kids. It led me to making a lot of birthday invitations for adults as well. At Peacock Cards we not only have birthday invitations but also milestone birthday mugs, T-shirts, bags, buttons, and other items. What fun it is to don a 60th birthday T-shirt the entire day of your birthday. In actuality you can wear it the entire year! Or how about a 40th birthday mug for that special person turning forty this year? Birthdays are a time to reflect, to celebrate, to kick back and have fun, to show that birthday boy or girl of any age you think they are the best!
Check out some of my milestone birthday collections!