Relaunch!!!!

The Purple Monkey Designs website has been going through a MAJOR makeover and it is finally time to go public with it! I still have a ton of work to do on many of the pages but it is up and ready for some feedback. Please leave a comment and let me know what you think of it!

In Memory...

This was a bittersweet project I did awhile back and there is an event coming up that needs some promotion. So here goes :)




Greg Walker, otherwise known as "Bam-Bam", died Friday morning, September 11, 2009.

Please come out and join "Team BamBam" in our efforts to help find a cure and raise awareness for diabetes.

The National Capital Tour de Cure
Sunday June 20, 2010
Reston Town Center
Registration Opens: 6:00am - 10:30
(depending on the route you're registering for)
Event Starts: 7:30 - 11:30am
Distance: 6 different route lengths, 100, 63, 33, 20, 17, 1-12 miles
Event Details

Please visit his site: Remembering Greg Walker

Thanks Ya'll!!!

My Blog Idol

This blog was originally created for two reasons...one was to share my designs and photos with the masses and the other was because my dear friend Miss Katy is a fantastic blogger and she definitely inspired me to become a fellow blogger. With that said, you can only imagine how honored I felt when she asked me to design the header for not one, but two of her amazing blogs.

First, I designed a header for her personal blog, documenting her adventures in moving from the Blue Ridge Mountains of Virginia to great big New York City. She is totally the bravest chick I know --> Katy Was Here



The next header I had the privilege to design was a very special blog. One of Katy's absolute favorite things in life is the Olympics. Every two years, for those couple weeks, she's the happiest girl on the planet. She came up with a great idea to share with her friends, her choice of the "Hot Olympian Of The Day". This turned from an e-mail mailing list in to an amazing blog that she started at the beginning of the Olympics in Vancouver. You'll have to read the blog to get a better explanation than that --> Katy's Hot Olympian of the Day



Thanks for the blogging motivation Miss Katy :)

A Special Day

I have been meaning to post on here and what better day to start than today.

6 years ago a dear friend of mine left us with no explanation why. It feels like it was yesterday. This poem was given to me by its author who told me that one day it would mean a lot to me. And now it does.

WORDS AND FLOWERS
by Lawrence D. Sauvage

Flowers after,
Like words
When not said,
Are not flowers
And, are not words.

Give flowers, and
Your best words,
Before they become
No flowers,
And not words

Your friend
Should have been
Given them both
When they
Would have appreciated
Their worth
And the value
You gave
To that friendship.

My friend,
Forgive me,
For the flowers
Not sent,
And the words
Not given.

2010....What A Start (Written 01.06.10)

I was planning on writing an entry about my New Years Resolution but 2010 started off with an interesting twist that has made me come up with an additional resolution…No more crashing cars…thats my #1 NYR.

That’s right…on Jan. 3rd I wrecked my boyfriends car. I had to be taken out of the car by EMTs and strapped to the board with the neck brace and the whole dramatic scene. But after xrays, nothing is broken, just a couple scratches and a whooole lot of soreness. Here are a few pics of the damage I caused by taking my eyes off the road for 2 seconds…

What a way to start the year…I INTENDED for my first entry of the year to be more like this:

YAY! It’s finally 2010! Time for a fresh start and a fresh outlook on life! Normally, I would come up with some smartass statement like “I don’t need any silly New Years Resolutions because I’m pretty much perfect”…but obviously (especially now), that is not the case.

Of course I want to find a steadier supply of work and income….but for my mental health, my main NYR is to travel more and take more pictures. Photography is what makes me happy and I never go out just to take pictures anymore. That needs to change. I want to go on little day trips, maybe weekend trips, to pretty places and just take a whole mess of pictures.

Shortly before the start of the new year, I got to take some pictures of some family and friends ice skating at a nearby ice rink. Here are some of the highlights:

It felt so great to be out taking pictures. I’ve started making lists of places I want to go to in the area to just wander around and snap some shots. This will be where I report back with my pictures :) Stay tuned to see where 2010 will take me!

Inspiration (Written 12.03.09)

Nooo, I haven’t forgotten about my blog…yet. I have a short term memory problem so if I don’t write down “update blog”…it probably won’t happen. I had it written down twice and I’m just now remembering to do it.

ANYWAY, moving on…Every time someone hears the name “Purple Monkey Designs”, I get that funny look like people don’t have a clue how I came up with a name like that. So I’m going to take the time to explain how it all went down.

It all started about a year ago, when I decided to start my own design business. I’m good with images, photos, anything visual….TERRIBLE with words. So, of course, I turn to my friends to help brainstorming ideas for business names. For anyone that knows me well, I’m very difficult, very indecisive, and very picky. Pretty much all my friends told me they wouldn’t help me because I would shoot down every idea they came up with…I’m sooo sorry that I had a list of criteria that the business name needed to meet. Here’s an idea of what I put them through:

• Nothing with my name or initials in it
• Nothing too silly, somewhat professional…..but NOT boring and bland
• Easy to spell
• Easy to remember
• Unique and hip without using any whacky letters like “Dezignz” (refer back to easy to spell)
• Something that represents me, as a person, but no inside jokes

I know there were more rules….but that’s all I can come up with right now. So a year goes by and only ONE friend stuck by me and continued to try to come up with new ideas…huge, crazy, mack daddy props go to Bussells for putting up with all my crap.

We figured that purple needed to be involved, because anyone who knows me, knows that I live and breathe purple. If it’s purple, I’ll buy it. If it’s purple…I have to have it. If everything in life was purple, I’d be a happy girl. So “Purple” had to be part of it, but PurpleDesigns….bleh. So we needed another word to go along with it. We originally went with “DeepPurple”….me being a youngin’ didn’t think about the band…nor did I know the band existed. So every time I tell someone older than myself about DeepPurpleDesigns, they’re immediate reaction was “…like the band?”. So that idea got scratched. Back to just Purple….

Now, ever since I was about 15, my nickname was Monkey. My son, ever since he was about 3, has been known as MonkeyBoy (Monkey B, for short). So needless to say, we love monkeys. Any time there’s a monkey on TV, my son goes “THERE’S ME!!!!” Yea…we’re not normal. Anyway….COMBINING two of my favorite things in life…Bussells suggests, “How about PurpleMonkeyDesigns?” Genious on so many levels, I loved it. It still confuses people, but I don’t care. That name is totally ME!

But the story doesn’t end here. My son, Chance/Boogie/MonkeyB didn’t know about all this business stuff going on because he would have zero interest in it. He had no idea about the whole Purple Monkey debacle, so I was ESPECIALLY amused when he came home from school one day, all excited, saying he got to pick out of the prize box that day and that he picked something for me…

My mind was blown….It was a sign! So it was decided and I got to work designing my site. So I hope that clears up all the questions people have about “PurpleMonkeyDesigns”!

So ever since the little purple monkey came in to my life, this is where he lives…

And I’m sure he’ll turn up in some of my future photographic adventures!

I Have Arrived!!

I started a blog using Tumblr but, sadly, was not satisfied with the way things were set up over there...so I'm moving here!! I'll start off by copying my two big blog entries over to here and then keep things rolling (I must, must, MUST learn to keep my blog up to date!) :)