Spent this afternoon shopping with the boy. We were mostly well behaved and didn’t spend too much money. Well, until we decided going to the pet shop was a good idea.

We came out with cat food, cat toys, cat nip, a new fish tank (the old one was leaking water everywhere) & most importantly a new fish! They wouldn’t stop moving long enough for me to take a decent picture. The orange & white fish is Fat Belly, he was a 4 year anniversary present from Adam earlier this year. The black guy is our new fishy! He has MASSIVE pop-out eyes so we named him Google.

The boy thinks we should call our next fish Ask Jeeves. Or possibly Yahoo. :P

So shortly after my post on print based portfolios I go to it and started designing my new folio in InDesign. Early this week I sent it off to Blurb to get it printed and bound into an actual (very shiny & glossy) 36 page book.

It was due to arrive Monday but much to my surprise the FedEx delivery man dropped it off this morning! Blurb did a great job for a very reasonable price ($36.95AUD + shipping). I actually went with Blurb because I could upload a PDF rather than use the “photo books” software that most of these book printing places have as their only option.

I am SO happy with the results. Here’s a few random (dodgy iPhone taken) photos of the finished product! :)

Recently I moved from full time to part time employment (mainly so I can focus on getting my degree completed as quickly as possible). Because of this decision I really need to get serious about watching what I spend my cash on! It only just hit me today that I’m going to be earning about half of what I have been for the last 3 years…

After much deliberation these are the first 5 things I’m going to do to reduce my spending.

• At the moment I’m spending at least $75 (approx $15 a day) a week on lunches. I’ll most likely still eat convenience food on Uni days but I’m going to start taking a packed lunch with me when I work. Simple yummy salads three days a week should save me at least $40.
• I’m going to buy my train tickets in bulk. I use them constantly and buying daily tickets is just wasting money. If I buy my daily tickets in lots of five I’ll save a couple of bucks each week. I know it doesn’t really sound like much but it adds up over the course of a year or two.
• Get serious about paying off my credit card. The interest I’m paying is RIDICULOUS right now. I’ve pinned my credit card to the pin board above my desk to stop impulse spending. Now I’m going to pay off as much as I can each month to lower my repayments and the interest I’m paying.
• Subscribe to the magazines I buy each month. There are 3 or 4 certain design/web development magazines I buy most months. A few weeks ago I bought a 6 month subscription to Web Designer from MagShop (they were running a special) for $45. The magazine’s monthly cover price is $14.95, which means I’ve saved myself $45. I’m going to look and see what subscriptions are available for the other magazines I read.
• Sell stuff on eBay or Gumtree. And by stuff I mean things that have been lying around for months that I have absolutely no use for. Example? I have an almost new Blackberry Bold that was given to me when I worked in telecommunications. It’s been sitting at home for almost a year now. I’m in love with my iPhone. I’m not going to switch phones any time soon! EBay time!

I know I’m going to have to do much more to compensate for my reduced income… but I’m feeling a little happier than I was earlier today. I now have a starting point. :)

There is not a doubt in my mind… I’m totally going to grow old and become one of those crazy cat lady types.

For the last fortnight I’ve been ridiculously uni /work orientated. I’ve barely had time to think about anything else. Earlier today (well, I should actually say yesterday considering it’s 3:20AM) I decided I needed to take a little time out from all the uni work consuming my life.

The result? Nadinerine has a pretty new purple layout. I must admit though, I was kind of lazy. I didn’t code this one from scratch! It’s based on BigBrands, an awesome theme I found over on themeforest. I’ve spent quite a few hours customising it and turning it into a WordPress theme! I really, really, really like this one. It’s simple, clean and very easy to read.

I’m far too tired to extensively check cross browser compliancy right now! Please let me know if you spot any problems or if you have any suggestions! I’m off to bed! :)

Edit (25/10/09 6.30PM): Just because a few of you have commented on its awesomeness, the fantastic font I’ve used for the logo is Noir-et-Blanc.