Who Am I

Somewhat of an introvert, really.  I spend almost all of my time at home and am a geek at heart.  In addition to web design and PHP application development, I am wildly passionate about computers and almost always in the middle of some personal hardware or system build project.  I have a PC or HTPC in just about every room of my house and spend a lot of time perfecting my home network and central media server.  My husband, who doesn’t share my enthusiasm for such things, jokes that the house will start talking to us soon.  I think he’ll have a heart attack if I ask him to run anymore Ethernet cabling.

I live in a very remote location in northern Wisconsin.  The closest freeway is over an hour away and real sushi would require a two hour drive.   Our winters are quite long and cold, which works well given how rarely I feel compelled to leave the house.  I am an avid Science Fiction/Fantasy reader and have spent countless hours developing my own personal online library for storing and reading ebooks.

Politically, I lean towards the left…though don’t consider myself a true liberal.  I voted for Obama, am a strong advocate for health care reform and don’t think gender should matter when it comes to marriage.  At the same time, I use disposable diapers,  support the death penalty and am married to a man with an obnoxious obsession for guns, hunting and the outdoors.

Family

I have two small children (one boy, one girl) who are both my greatest joy and challenge in life.  My youngest was diagnosed with autism a couple of years ago, so we focus a great deal on her development and our home life can get pretty interesting at times.  My husband, who I have known since puberty,  spoils me rotton and I’m pretty sure he deserves some kind of award for putting up with me.  Although I take great pride and joy in my work through Veda Designs, my family will always be the higher priority in my life. I feel that too many people are forced to adjust their family dynamic around their work schedules and feel very fortunate that this is not the case for me.

Why Veda Designs

Veda Designs was started in 2005 after relocating back to my hometown in Northern Wisconsin to have a baby.  Although I’d been freelancing commercial design work since 2000 from the west coast, I wanted to target a specific design market that would allow me to work from home, at a more relaxed pace, so I could focus on being a new mother.  I decided on companion web design because a) it was a market in high demand for qualified and discreet designers and b) the typical project requirements and time commitment worked very well with my domestic schedule.  As mentioned on my faq page, I also have a deep amount of respect for women who choose to work in this industry and don’t think there are enough safe and trustworthy options for them when it comes to advertising online.

Although there have been challenges along the way typical to any business endeavor,  I can honestly say that Veda Designs has been closest to what I would consider a dream job.  The vast majority of women I design for are intelligent, considerate and a true pleasure to work with.  The job challenges and stimulates my mind, yet the working environment is  flexible and informal enough so I can keep my family the higher priority in life.

My business goals with Veda Designs are still relatively modest and will remain so until both children are older.  I prefer working with more low-key companions whose business goal is to provide a professional yet discreet online presence.  I find nothing wrong with companions who choose to make money online via paid membership systems, streaming multimedia or online shops, but this is not the design market I currently wish to target.  I’ll probably expand my services once the kids are older & less dependent on me, but until that time, I plan to keep my business model simplified so I can focus more on family.