Ruth Kalinka Designs

The Year of the Rabbit was a year of organizing, prioritizing, starting, completing, connecting, designing, gardening, cooking, sharing, and much more. I chose “Thrive” as my 2011 Themeword, and thrive I did.

Instead of blogging, I engaged in conversations on Twitter, Facebook, and especially face-to-face.

I observed trends, frequent questions, areas of expertise, and passions. I reviewed and recommended dozens of places and products. I attended educational events and shared advice on design, technology, social media, WordPress, getting organized, gardening, cooking, wine, and British entertainment. I resumed photography and collected topics for further exploration. In short, I spent the Year of the Rabbit immersing myself in life.

As the Year of the Dragon rolls in, I look forward to sharing some of those observations here and on official review sites, beyond the fleeting moments of Twitter and the walled garden of Facebook.

A huge thank you to those who have participated in these discussions and welcome to those who will join us this year. May you all enjoy a very healthy, joyful, peaceful, and prosperous Lunar New Year!

新年快樂! 恭喜發財!
Xīn nián kuài lè! Gōng xǐ fā cái!

…to the highly anticipated new incarnation of my web site!

As a designer, I’m always exploring ideas for making my site fun, both to visit and to maintain. It’s easy to get bored with the same design and I look forward to playing a lot more in this new space.

I’ve been dabbling with WordPress for ages, so it’s exciting to finally make the move. Besides loving tools that support web standards, XHTML, and CSS, having the ability to tweak and make changes quickly whenever and wherever I want adds a lot of freedom to the creative process. And, of course, having spent so much time with the folks at Automattic, it was only a matter of time before I launched my own WordPress site!

As a writer, I am thrilled to be upgrading my site to a proper blog-based system. While I blogged a bit on my old site, I am enjoying a clean slate with this redesign.

I hope you have as much fun visiting as I do creating! Thanks for stopping by.