itsliz89.com is here!
Feb
13
2009
Finally the site is up! It took a lot of time and effort. In the end, I am so happy with the result. Isn’t the illustration just amazing? The concept was my idea and Claudia did an incredible job of turning my idea into the perfect illustration! 
She’s so sweet too!
I am very proud of this project because everything was catered to me, therefore being unique. No stock images that you see from time to time on websites or adverts! Well… okay there was some stock use going on with the background. The nebula was from salmon83 of istockphoto.
Isn’t Kenji just the cutest? I love how she even added the little white tip of his tail! Too adorable! And you might be wondering, what are those suits? Well, I was looking at traditional astronaut suits and I thought that they were too bulky and boring to create into an illustration. Then I remembered hearing, a year or two ago, that there was a skin tight suit in the process of being developed. I searched for it and found out that it is called the Biosuit, by MIT. Perfect! A real spacesuit of the future! 10 years from now, those old spacesuits will be looking prehistoric.
Like I said, Claudia is amazing. I sent her one long list of details and she pretty much nailed it on the first sketch! There were very minor adjustments, like the waist being too small and my eyes not slanted enough. Actually, I think those were all the adjustments!
Then it came to the designing and coding for the WordPress template. Gisele (LOVE her name) is also a sweetheart. She’s known to design “cute” styled themes for WordPress and Blogger. This process was a bit more tedious for I guess the both of us because I really didn’t have a vision for the template. I had a very definite image when it came to the illustration but I was absolutely clueless with the layout. I did tell her the basics, like what size the sidebar and such should be. One thing that I told her was that I wanted the style of the layout to be sort of like the changedotgov Youtube channel but combined with cute lol 
. Gisele started out working around the image and then we started going back and forth with adjustments. She really helped me with a lot. It was a long yet fun process. We spent a lot of time trying to see if the special commenting plugins and tweaks worked. Mostly it was me trying to figure it out. I do know a little about html and very very little about php you know! 
Now I and others can reply to other “Space Cadets’ transmissions”
Trying to find hosting was a actually the most complicated process out of this whole project. I wanted a safe amount of bandwidth but get a good deal as well. Once upon a time, I purchased hosting from Uzipp, which I had a good experience with. Unfortunately, they went out of business. I thought I had found a company I wanted to purchase hosting from, but after more research, their uptime was very poor. I then thought I had found another company, but it turns out that their systems got hacked big time and the issue has still not been fixed, over half a year later! On top of that, the company would not admit to it. There was also an issue where a lot of the companies provide a really good discount for new costumers, but they then hack up the rates once the hosting term is over. Another problem was that a lot of the hosting review sites are biased and even owned by hosting companies. It was tough to find honest opinions, but not impossible. A lot of the companies outsource their support team it was difficult to communicate with them. It was hard to really get a grasp on who really ran the company. In the end, I went with Dream Host. Their website gives a hospitable atmosphere. There are pictures of the team and biographies which made me feel more at ease. They are also a green company. They cost a bit more than some of the sites offering amazing deals, but I’d rather spend a bit more for the ease of mind of an honest and reliable company.
Do keep in mind that this is a personal blog first and a beauty blog second. None of that “I woke up and brushed my teeth” crap though. I’ll try to post reviews and hauls (if they exist) on this blog.
Okay, now that the intro is out of the way, on to the giveaway! I know it’s not much, but I wanted to do something to celebrate the launch 
To check out the prizes check out my video on Youtube.
Basically, there are two prizes. Each person gets a Stila tinted lip balm and an Eyeshadow. Open to anyone in the world! You know it’s serious when I’m willing to wait in line and deal with the grumpy government workers lol. 
So just leave a comment on this entry and only comments on this entry will be considered in the giveaway. Comments submitted after February 27th 2009 21:00 PST will not be considered towards the giveaway. BE SURE TO USE A VALID EMAIL ADDRESS WHILE ENTERING COMMENTING INFORMATION. It is the email that I will contact you with if you win. One entry per person PLEASE. And of course, no whining
For those wanting their own icon while commenting, go register at Gravatar.com. Everyone’s dewin it I made the new default icons (space cadet)
If you actually took the time to read this entry, then I sincerely thank you.