current projects
Calpe is My Home
Calpe is My Home is a project of mine that is keeping me incredibly busy. Essentially Calpe is My Home is a website full of information for people living in the town of Calpe on the Costa Blanca of Spain. Yes, there are many websites created for locals, but what makes Calpe is My Home different is that it looks good and works well!
I write most of the articles but the website contains a few pieces by local people and is very much a place where I can promote local clubs and charities as well as businesses. The website contains restaurant and bar reviews, business reviews and business articles. There are articles by local clubs, churches and charities and all manner of information from those that live there.
Mostly Close-Up
Mostly Close-Up began under unusual circumstances when my Mum was in hospital having a series of operations. I went out with my camera, took a few photographs and created a ‘get well soon’ card for her. This card sat beside her bed in the hospital whilst she was recovering and it received many positive comments. One of the interpreters in the hospital liked it so much that she asked if I could make a greater variety of cards for her to buy.
My parents thought that there might be a need for high quality, attractive cards in the local area so I set about taking some more photographs and creating some new designs to sell to local businesses and at gift fairs. The business has taken off and now many people enjoy my cards.
Fridge Magnet Madness
I started making and selling fridge magnets a few years ago. I have always liked movie posters and I thought that they might look good in a smaller form, so I made a few movie poster fridge magnets and placed them in my kitchen. I was really pleased with the outcome so I began making and selling them on eBay. This really took off and I sold hundreds of predominantly movie poster fridge magnets, although I did make some other types also.
Unfortunately eBay’s fees skyrocketed and it became too expensive to sell on that auction site so I set up the online shop Fridge Magnet Madness to show off my wares. I don’t sell as many fridge magnets as I once did but my range is wider now and include movie star portraits, flags of the world and automobiles all of which have been greatly received by my purchasers.
cannedSunlight
cannedSunlight is the web design and development company on the Costa Blanca that I am involved with alongside my partner, Nicola Hastings.
Nicola has a BA(Hons) degree in Interactive Media Production, and an MA in Interactive Media which she gained in 2005 shortly before starting cannedSunlight web design. We have both spent time working in the printing industry as reprographic artists and as such we have always been surrounded by design of all forms. I spent many years in printing and learned to use an Apple Mac concentrating on such programs as Adobe Photoshop, Illustrator and InDesign. This taught me many skills and has been invaluable as I have made the move from printing to web design.
Blog & Article Writing
Many businesses know that in today’s market social networking, Facebooking, Tweeting and blog writing is very important for their website to get noticed and visited. Unfortunately it takes a lot of time out of a working day to write tweets, promote on Facebook, share content and write blogs. cannedSunlight understand this and have created a package for clients that wish to have some of this burden taken off their shoulders.
I am actively involved in the blog writing part of this package and I enjoy the challenge of researching and writing articles for customers of cannedSunlight. One of our regular customers is Coolashade Shade Sails and the majority of the articles in the blog on the Coolashade website were written by me.
Recent Websites
A website for a Mind Coach specialising in Sports on the Costa Blanca, Spain.
A website for an NGO operating in Cambodia that brings hope and aid to a group of villages.
what keeps me busy
Calpe is My Home
A fair amount of my time is spent on Calpe is My Home, a website dedicated to the town of Calpe in Spain where I live. The work is involved, varied and plentiful as the website has regular news and event articles. The website also has local restaurant reviews which keep me busy and fat! I am also very much involved in the promotion of some local organisations, including a local dramatics group by the name of Footlights Calpe and the fantastic organisation Ilusión-Arte that bring many cultural activities and world-renowned musicians to Calpe. It’s a fun and interesting project and I have a great amount of enthusiasm for it.
cannedSunlight Web Design
As you may have read further up this page I work with my partner, Nicola Hastings, in her web design business known as cannedSunlight. When we moved to Spain our principal aim was to get cannedSunlight web design established and well known in Calpe and on the Costa Blanca. Due to the state of the economy growth began slow for the business but as we are now well into 21012 the company is seen as being a professional and dependable web design studio, and we have a strong client base which continues to grow. The rest of 2012 looks even stronger for cannedSunlight as more and more local businesses put their web design, web development and SEO work in the hands of our trusted company.
Other Projects
There always seems to be something else that I am working on when I am not writing articles for Calpe is My Home, creating websites for cannedSunlight, or blog writing for Coolashade Shade Sails Spain. In the spare time that I do have I can be found selling fridge magnets under the Fridge Magnet Madness banner or taking photographs to be printed for my Mostly Close-Up range of cards. Time is always needed to maintain the websites that I have been involved with and this too takes up a fair bit of time each month, but it makes me happy to know that my websites, and those of my customers, are backed up and secure.
