Having not been to a Pecha Kucha since the first one in February, we went to the fourth volume (and last one of the year) last weekend at the IMA. The Indianapolis Pecha Kucha site describes the night as “Business presentation, meet rock show. Bullet points, meet fight club.”

The presentations always seem to cover a wide range of topics, from “Intersection of Ornamental & Utilitarian Gardens” to “Consumer Culture in Contemporary Photography”. I really enjoyed Gautam Rao’s presentation called “Everyday Oddness” which included paintings of things he purchased from Target, and other everyday items — such as his computer monitor, the firefox logo, captcha codes and this self-portrait he painted using his web cam. (I’d love to see him do the same thing, spoofing this famous Rockwell painting.)

Overall, a great event to go to if you are in the mood for something unique and light-hearted. The next one is on February 20, 2009.

I’ll admit that as ugly as they are, I typically just use the free plastic checkbook covers provided by the bank. But when I am in a hurry, I have trouble distinguishing my business checkbook from my personal one (not to mention my husbands that is usually nearby) so I decided it was long overdue that I invest in a checkbook cover.

I made my way over to Etsy (the best site for buying handmade items) and picked up a great cover from this shop, with items made by Carissa Black. (I love that she uses Amy Butler fabrics!)

My cover arrived in the mail soon after and I am so pleased with the quality and craftsmanship. I will definitely come back to this etsy shop in the future!

A sucker for trendy posters, I have had my eye on this one for a while. People seem to have a “love it or hate it” approach to this reproduction of a WWII propaganda poster but the chocolate brown one from sfgirlbybay is a perfect piece for our guest bathroom.

Any designer and developer knows the headaches that IE6 can bring, but thanks to Jason Wendel (friend and former co-worker) checking for those phantom margins just got easier. Introducing the BrowserPack.

I’ve been using BrowserPack for a while, and of all the solutions I could find online, this one was by far the easiest to install and use. If you are a designer or developer who considers cross-browser compatibility an important part of any web site, I recommend that you download the BrowserPack today.

You may have heard of and/or donated to Kiva before, but now is your chance to help them earn $1.5 million. The have currently made it to the Final Five of the American Express Members Project and need your vote.

Kiva is an organization that matches lenders giving as small as $25 to entrepreneurs in countries working to pull themselves out of poverty. It’s a great organization and your vote can help them win the $1.5M prize. If you aren’t a cardmember, encourage those to who are to cast a vote.

Whether or not Kiva wins the grand prize, consider giving the gift of Kiva for birthdays and holidays, because it really is the gift that keeps on giving.

For the second year in a row, Liz and I are “Going Local.” For one week, we are challenging ourselves to only eat foods harvested within a 100 mile radius of our homes and tracking our progress on Green-Lemonade.com. Check it out!

On Saturday we attended the 2nd Annual Dog Olympics, an event put on by Paws & Think (the wonderful organization I first mentioned here). Despite the hot and humid day, dogs enjoyed participating in such events as the Tennis Ball Race and Bobbing for Hot Dogs.

Skyler is pretty timid at high-energy events like these, with dogs running around off leash, but she behaved pretty well overall, and was perfectly content cheering on her furry friends from the sidelines. She also was happy that Three Dog Bakery was one of the vendors, and we got her a new bag of her favorite treats.

August 8th was my last day at Pulse Creative Partners. After two and a half great years, I have decided to step out on my own as a sole proprietor and launch my own web design and development business — specializing in web sites, e-newsletters and professional blogs.

I am currently taking new clients, so contact me if you are interested in working together. Otherwise, stay tuned for changes to this web site and other news on the business front.

Another day, another site launched. A Recipe for Wellness is a holistic health and nutrition company owned by the lovely Maya Bradstreet. The informational site lists not only her services, but also features a calendar of events and a blog. So check out the site (and don’t be surprised if the logo looks familiar).

As I mentioned earlier this week, I have been wrapping up and launching a lot of sites at work. The most recent one, The Coffeehouse Investor, was just launched yesterday. This site is based on a book by Bill Schultheis and his recommended steps and strategies for successful investing. I developed the site with WordPress integrated so that the page content, blog and “buzz” links can all be easily updated by the client. Stop on by the Coffeehouse and check it out.