Been forever

It's been forever since I updated this blog! I've never been much of a blogger, I'll admit.
However, Cupcake Kawaii is still up and kicking! I'm still working on new characters and the interactive site, but it's taking a while since I've got so many other projects I'm working on. Thank you everyone for your patience!
There will be some changes to the apparel section of the site, as I am looking for alternatives to Cafepress as the maker of these items. Unfortunately, Cafepress changed its policies in a way that is very unfriendly to designers. I have some alternate companies in mind, but it may take a while for all of the designs to be transferred, since none of the companies I've found have an easy way to upload images. I may decide to make the "Other" design section of the site, which previously had not been completed due to Cafepress' incredibly slow uploading process, into a test shop with one of the other companies. I'm particularly interested in offering much bigger prints (full t-shirt) made by one company. Stay tuned!

Yipes!

I just discovered another bug that I had no idea existed. It only existed for lower resolution screens, but nonetheless I am flabbergasted and ashamed for not catching it earlier. Basically, the HTML text I put on the front page of the website was displaying on top of the Flash menu instead of below it in lower resolutions. I apologize to anyone who may have been impeded by this bug. I've converted all text to Flash so now it should display properly (but if it doesn't for you - PLEASE contact me so I can fix it!). The reason I had the text in HTML in the first place was for search engine indexing reasons. Now I've found a new way to get search engines like Google to index text without displaying it.

Optimizing websites for different screen resolutions, connection speeds, browsers, and settings is incredibly difficult. I was feeling really bad for missing this problem for such a long time, but something made me feel a bit better - one of the websites that discusses how to deal with different screen resolutions was itself buggy and ill-displayed in the common 1024x768 resolution!



...just shows how difficult the different standards can be.

If you find any more problems in the Cupcake Kawaii website, please let me know through this blog or by the email listed on the About page. Sometimes it is impossible for me to know if there is a certain compatibility problem with one browser, OS, or screen because I do not have access to it, so your help is absolutely essential! I want to make this site fun for everyone, so pretty please *big puppy eyes* help me out!

Site bug fixed.

I stumbled across a bug in the new Animal Designs page. For some reason, the preloader I placed there was mucking up the display. It's fixed now, but I had to remove the faulty preloader. I'll try another preloader to see if that works.
I'm very sorry if this problem inconvenienced anyone! ;_;

I Love Mew!

♥ ♥ ♥ I made some new kitty designs for Valentine's Day! ♥ ♥ ♥

Please keep in mind the shipping dates.

Button, button, who wants a button?

I've added some cute button pin packs to my Etsy shop! There's a kawaii cupcake, squirrel, squid, robot, and kitty button in each rainbow-themed matching set. I'll be adding more items in the coming days, such as different kinds of stickers, necklaces, and hopefully soon - handmade plushies! ♥

Freebie: Mewki Kitty Paper Toy

The free kitty paper toys are now up on my site to download in pdf format (look under "Gallery")! I hope you like them! There's one with eyes closed and one with eyes open, and both with a surprise at the end...


Now that's sophisticated advertising! XD

Don't let the scary warning in small print put you off - you're free to blog the toys all you want, just make sure you don't hotlink (link directly). Instead, you can point people to the main site:
www.cupcakekawaii.com

Important tip: Print on cardstock! Otherwise, the toy will be really hard to put together and will look "Meh."

I sent a bunch of these to the lovely people at
The Sampler
So some lucky folks may be getting DIY kitty toys as well as a bunch of other neat indie business samples in February!

If you have any trouble with assembling the paper toys, comment here or use my email (in "About"). Blogger has now enabled OpenID commenting, which means you don't need to have a Blogger account to comment. Instead, you can use an account you already have, such as LiveJournal. Details can be found here:
Blogger Buzz: OpenID Commenting

Site Updated! Animal Designs Go!

I hope you all had great holidays! Mine were busy but great! The site update took longer than expected (as usual...), but now the animal designs are up! Whoo!

I apologize to anyone who was waiting for the update. I ran into another unexpected set of hurtles. I had forgotten how incredibly difficult Cafepress makes it for shopkeepers to add items to shops, so I had to sacrifice some items and change the pricing structure (hint: look for lower prices on some items!) in order to maintain a decent time frame. That means that the animal design shops contain mostly t-shirts right now, but don't fret - I'll be adding other items on a regular basis. Plus, you can always send me an email to let me know a particular item you'd like me to add.


I was also busy kitty-sitting over the holidays. This adorable little guy to the right has been dubbed Mr. Kitty (since his real name just doesn't suit him!). He was such an attention monster - I just love him! I wish we didn't have to give him back to his owner, but I was glad to have had him for a short time at least - what a great present to find under the tree!