Sitting at Starbucks – New Designs, Divergent: The Movie, and Coding!

Hellooo everyone! Apparently, as of yesterday, Nose Graze has been running for two years! I knew my two year blogoversary was coming up, but for some reason I totally didn’t register that it was yesterday. I had my sight set on like.. April 14th for some random reason. Anyway, here’s to two more years! 😀

I have a few new designs to share with you guys this week, plus a few other goodies to chat about. So grab your hot chocolate/coffee/Frappuccino and let’s dig in!

New Designs

Gone With the Words (client work)

Gone With the Words

Last week I finished a new blog design for Gone With the Words. Jess was so great to work with and I had a lot of fun doing this whimsical design!

Visit Gone With the Words

Rachel Harris Writes (client work)

Rachel Harris Writes Website

I had the extreme pleasure of working with the amazing Rachel Harris to do her author website! She’s so much fun to work with, and that’s actually what finally got me to read her books (which rock super hard). I also recently learned that she’ll be at BEA and I CAN’T WAIT TO MEET HER FOR REAL!!! #fangirl

Visit Rachel Harris Writes

Love Birds (unique pre-made)

Love Birds theme

Love Birds is a unique pre-made theme available for sale on Creative Whim. This one was sooo fun to do! I think it’s totally adorable and I almost want to keep it for myself LOL.

Buy Now

Nose Graze on BookLikes

I don’t use BookLikes. I think it’s more geared towards blogging and since I already have a blog, I’m not really interested. The book cataloging is okay, but I think Goodreads is better for it.

That being said, I do have a BookLikes account. In a stroke of boredom on Wednesday, I decided to pimp my profile a bit to match my blog design.

Nose Graze on BookLikes

Check out Nose Graze on BookLikes

Want your own custom BookLikes design?

If you want your own custom BookLikes design, whether it’s something completely new or just a design to match your current blog design, I can help you out! Just contact me for a quote and we’ll chat about it. 🙂

Coding Project: Custom Accounting

I’ve been looking into setting up a more organized accounting system for my web design work. I tried out QuickBooks, KashFlow, and GoDaddy BookKeeping, but none of them were the perfect fit for me. Mostly, they’re all over complicated for my needs. They include invoicing systems, the ability to accept credit card payments, and things like that.. but I don’t need any of those features, so it would annoy me to pay £7 – £15 per month for a ton of features I don’t need.

So.. I’m coding my own!

The awesome part about coding my own invoicing system is that most of it is going to be automatic. I take payments from two different platforms (the Creative Whim shop and my client area for Book Host/design). My system is going to automatically add transactions from those sites into the “sales” part of my accounting area. Then I’ll add any expenses manually to a different section. Then I’ll use some epic Google Charts to show my sales, expenses, and profits for each month/year.

I’m excited!! (Coding God thinks I’m a bit crazy for doing this though.)

Divergent: The Movie

Divergent movie poster, featuring Four

Coding God and I saw Divergent last weekend. I thought it was pretty good, but had a few gripes.

Did anyone else feel like Theo James (Four) looked way too old for Shailene Woodley (Tris)? When we were going in, I complained to Coding God:

“Tris looks like she could be about 16.. but Four looks like he’s 28. Talk about an age gap!”

Turns out, in real life Shailene is 23 and Theo is 30. That’s not quite as bad as 16 and 28, but still a big age difference. 😛 I just thought it felt awkward.. instead of looking like an instructor who’s “just a few years older”, Four looked like he was double Tris’s age!! Eeks.

Also, I wasn’t pleased with the casting of Peter, Will, and one of the other initiates View Spoiler » . I felt like all three actors looked the same!!! It took me half the movie just to figure out who was who. (Coding God felt the same way.)

But afterwards, Coding God and I had a lot of fun poking at the plot holes. I basically recapped the rest of the entire series for him.

All that being said, I do think Divergent was one of the better book-to-movie adaptations. I just like to nit-pick (especially because I don’t like the rest of the series).

Taking a trip to the US

I’m going back to the United States for a few weeks to visit my family. I’m spending some time in California with my family, then we’re heading to Boston to watch my sister run the marathon!

And this is the first time I’ll be away from Coding God since we got married. O_O

What happened in your life this week?

Have you seen Divergent the movie? What did you think?

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I'm a 30-something California girl living in England (I fell in love with a Brit!). My three great passions are: books, coding, and fitness. more »

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31 comments

  1. Love those blog designs! They make me want to knock my head against the wall because I’m broke and I want a design by you so bad! Sigh, I’ll just have to save up for it.

    How’s it going with that upcoming Review Request Add-on? 🙂

    Bieke @ Istyria book blog recently posted: Stacking the Shelves #38
  2. Congrats on two years! Four did look way too old but then he looked alot hotter in the movies than he did in the photos. So that’s a plus! I agree with what you said about the casting though. My friends and I got confused as well haha. It’s hard watching the movie because I know what’s gonna happen at the end and I’m totally not ready for that.

  3. Those designs are beautiful, Ashley! I especially love the first one 🙂

    Also, I’m so glad someone else didn’t really feel the romance b/w Tris and Four. He look sooo old… Overall I was kinda unhappy with how the movie turned out. I found myself laughing at how bad some parts were, which made for an enjoyable experience but not a very good book to movie adaption IMO. Oh well, you can’t love em all I guess!

    Chloe @ YA Booklover Blog recently posted: Waiting on Wednesday: I’ll Give You the Sun
    1. Thank you! 🙂

      I did think that Dauntless was made out to be really ridiculous in the beginning of the movie. Oddly enough, I didn’t pick this up when I read the book, but in the movie it felt ridiculous. Tris starts narrating about how Dauntless was “brave” and “the protectors”.. then the Dauntless come running out all in black leather outfits, and they just sprint ALL THE TIME. It made them look so stupid. Being brave protectors doesn’t mean you wear black leather and sprint everywhere when traveling lol.

  4. I saw Divergent with one of my friends last week. We were both pleased that it remained pretty true to the book. The casting wasn’t perfect (they never are), but I’m not usually one to nit-pick about who plays who as long as I enjoyed the movie as a whole. I am very excited to see Shailene and Ansel return to the screen as Hazel and Augustus. My friends are already taking bets on how much I’ll cry.

    D. @ The Nerdy Journalist recently posted: I’m reluctant to join social networking sites
    1. Wow how did I not register that Shailene played both Tris and Hazel LOL. I remember watching the trailer for The Fault in Our Stars and thinking Hazel looked familiar but couldn’t place her. *facepalm*

  5. I don’t have a BooLikes account either, I might break down later and get one. All of your designs are beautiful, what else can I say about that?

    Separating from loved ones is never easy – I’m a military wife, so I know what I’m talking about. I haven’t seen Divergent yet, even though I just read the first book in the series, I really liked it and I’m generally cautious with adaptations.

    Have a great week and an awesome trip back home 🙂

    Liza @ Reading with ABC recently posted: Stacking the Shelves #77
    1. Thank you Liza! 🙂

      Yeah separation is hard. I can’t imagine what it must be like to be a military life, but Coding God and I were in a long distance relationship for a few years, so maybe I have some idea. It sucks!

  6. I was just thinking how much I wish there was a site like booklikes, but less focused on blogging and more about the cataloging. I recently came across http://libib.com, which is almost excatly what I wanted, but they’re a little light on the sharing/recommending aspect… outside of goodreads, is there anything else you like for cataloging?

    1. I think I’m just going to stick with Goodreads. 🙂 It works fine for cataloguing and already has the biggest user base. I don’t need to use multiple cataloguing sites.

    1. Yeah I just don’t think any site can beat Goodreads. It already has a cataloguing system in place, and a big user base. Even if I found another site I liked better for cataloguing, it wouldn’t have all my friends on it, and I like being able to quickly see my friends’ reviews.

      And thanks!!

  7. GAH! Feel the same about Divergent, regarding Four and Tris’ relationship… To me, personally it was a little disturbing, because the huge age gap was really evident! Four’s only supposed to be 2 years older than Tris so… ><
    I'm really interested in the Booklikes design though! 😀 I like the look of Booklikes, except that the themes aren't that… pretty… So I was thinking about looking for a designer to do up a book likes design for me, and here you are! 😀 I'm thinking about it though, and I'll reply your email soon! 😀
    And the Love Birds theme is ADORABLE!! I'm so tempted to buy it, except that I have a lovely design already, so I must put on my self-control boots! :O
    All the best for your Coding Project! 🙂 And I hope you have a great time going back to the US! But if you miss Coding God, just remember that you have the rest of your life to spend with him still! ^^

    Emily recently posted: Captivated! Rise Of The Guardians
    1. Yeah the age gap was so obvious! I couldn’t stop thinking about it LOL!

      Haha I felt the same way about the Love Birds design. I loved it but I had to keep telling myself, “You already have a new design!!” It makes me want to start another blog just so I can use it. 😀

  8. The design looks amazing especially the art you used on Gone with words. I did not watch the movie yet. I’ll wait for the DVD instead. Wow, he’s 30. I look older than him.

    Irish recently posted: Stacking The Shelves
    1. Thank you! And yeah, waiting for the DVD is a good move. I usually do that too. 😛

  9. I definitely found a lot of things that I could pick apart about the movie as ell…but one the whole it was one of the better adaptations I’ve seen as of late! Love the new design and all of the work you’ve been doing. Everything looks so fresh and springing…it makes me feel that by blog is just too hard when I see such lush soft designs!

    Melissa's Eclectic Bookshelf recently posted: Excerpt & Giveaway: The Geography of You and Me by Jennifer E. Smith
  10. Ooooh, I keep going back to the love birds design and seriously considering it. Hmmm…

    I haven’t watched Divergent yet because I wanted to go with a friend who has read the books so I can discuss the film and when she was in town we decided we’ll save it for the dollar movies instead. Based from the clips, yeah Theo does look older than what Four really is. Though, as I read I got the impression that Four was older than Tris until someone explained that no and later in Divergent, I came across his age.

    Jess @ Literary, etc recently posted: Happy Birthday + Giveaway
  11. Have you tried Quicken? It’s very intuitive, easy, and can be used for business. It has great reports & functionality, but isn’t as feature-rich as QuickBooks–which I’m sure has a bunch of things you don’t need.

    Tiffany (About To Read) recently posted: Insurgent
    1. I thought about trying Quicken, but I think I’m happy with my own solution. 🙂 With Quicken I would have to input everything manually, whereas with my system it’s about 95% automated, which makes things a lot easier for me!

  12. I agree, I couldn’t tell apart the actors playing Will and Al for the life of me. My husband, who has not read the books, didn’t realize they were two different characters. Other than that, I agree that this film was quite well done! It was a nice reminder of why I liked this series in the first place, after the bad taste Allegiant left me.

    Melissa @ Bookmark Dragon recently posted: Review: These Broken Stars by Amie Kaufman and Meagan Spooner
  13. LOVE Creative Whim’s new look!! That unique pre-made is adorable and seriously tempting! Haha

    I really enjoyed Divergent. While watching I didn’t notice the age difference so much, but every once in a while it would strike me how old he looked in comparison to Tris. I think it’s Shailene’s big brown eyes – she looks so much younger than early 20s!

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