Website Updates and introducing Playing cards

Eggs in one Basket …

I’m sure that most of you have heard the saying about not putting all your eggs in one basket?… or the one proclaiming that it is ‘Better to be safe than sorry’ …? I find the worst time to remember any of these sayings is in hind-sight, when you are in middle of a face palming ‘oh NOooooo!’ crisis … Knowing full well what you should have done (but forgot to or were too impatient to do) seems less helpful compared to the magic fix you’re hoping (pleading) will materialise out of thin air.

Problem Solving …

Bugs, glitches and unexpected events are part and parcel of working with websites; many are easy to deal with, whereas others can cause temporary havoc and frantic activity to fix the unexpected mayhem on the screen. The good thing is that most (almost all) things can be fixed, and more often than not, the road to finding the problem leads to solutions and discoveries that can be put to good use in other places as well…

While I am known to be impatient, having two ‘blogging’ baskets does help when impatience or unexpected events come back to haunt me :)

The hiding blog Post

The latest post on Nine Lives Tarot news introduces the playing card deck I’m working on (inspired by Nine Lives Tarot). However, a temporary connection issue is preventing posts from being viewed as easily as they should *sigh* (why do database connections have to be so fickle?)… Having spent the last hours scouring the internet for answers, opened support tickets, and done my best to contain hair-pulling, I am forced to be patient and wait to hear back from my hosting provider.

While waiting for the magic solution to brilliantly smooth database connection, I have included a preview about the playing cards below… If you visit my Tarot blog and see a white screen talking about databases… just refresh the screen repeatedly, and the content should show.
— Edit: the connection problem appears to be fixed (at least for now :))

From Tarot to Playing cards …

… is not such a big leap, when you consider how much shared history both card types have along their colourful and jumbled path, from then to now. Playing cards to this day are used by some to do Tarot readings, and there are games, that don’t involve divination, which you can play with a deck of Tarot cards. Being intrinsically visual, cards in all shapes and forms have always appealed to me; and to rework the Royal Suits from Nine Lives Tarot to create a deck of playing cards is simply too much of an exciting project to miss :)

Drawing and designing (and painting) these playing cards is a bit like working out a jig saw puzzle; weaving invisible lines to create mirrored versions of each character. Time consuming, but most enjoyable :) Once complete, I am hoping this card deck will provide hours of fun and games, while subtly connecting the symbolism of Tarot with the suits and symbolism of playing cards.

Website Updates

In the last few weeks I have been working on a number of style changes on abolinaart.com.au and also ninelivestarot.com.au – diving deeper into the world of responsive design and styling for mobile devices. Ideally, both sites should scale fairly seamlessly between different screen sizes – though as I am limited to ‘real-life-testing’ on available (and borrowed) devices, there may still be a few inconsistencies floating around – especially when using IE; which granted is a lot more consistent compared to a few years back, though still likes to dish up the occasional surprise… So, if you do come across something strange, I’d love to hear about it :)

Thank you for visiting!
Annette :)