Imagine my Surprise

April 10, 2016 | Category: CSS, WordPress | Leave a Comment

From my early days at Forge and Smith, I have used and worked on the Gravity Forms plugin for WordPress. I’ve yet to come across a better plugin for online forms in WordPress, or one that offers as much integration (seriously, the sheer options they offer is staggering). However, I have talked many times over the … Read more

Custom WP Design: A Developer’s Perspective

May 30, 2015 | Category: CSS, WordPress | Leave a Comment

In August 2014, I spoke about WordPress plugin CSS for the Vancouver WordPress Meetup group. A great deal of the talk was to do with work I’ve done at Forge and Smith, and this week I was asked to write a blog post about much the same content. This was a little more challenging than I perhaps expected; my … Read more

Pet Hedgehog: reflections after a year

March 27, 2015 | Category: Personal Musings | Leave a Comment

After a year of living with my pet african pygmy hedgehog, Oreo, I thought I’d share some reflections on our time together. They’re fairly low maintenance pets, and you can’t leave them alone for more than a day, two at the max. I clean out Oreo’s poop and running wheel once per day. I have her … Read more

Panorama: Bow Lake

October 17, 2014 | Category: Panoramas | Leave a Comment

Bow Lake Panorama

Two close friends recently visited from the UK, and I wanted them to see some of the best of what Canada has to offer. That meant it was time for a road trip. Our route was as follows: Vancouver -> Sun Peaks -> Valemount -> Jasper -> Banff -> Vernon -> Vancouver. It was considerable driving … Read more

Gymnast: a flexible SCSS grid

October 9, 2014 | Category: CSS | Leave a Comment

I’ve tried out various grid systems and frameworks over the past couple of years, and whilst there are many solid options out there, I never settled on one that I really liked. The solution? To make my own! I use Gymnast on personal and freelance projects, and it’s integrated into the Forge and Smith starter them. Gymnast is inspired by … Read more

Talk: Dealing with WordPress Plugin CSS

August 23, 2014 | Category: WordPress | Leave a Comment

Earlier this week I gave a talk at the general group of the Vancouver WordPress Meetup Group on dealing with WordPress plugin CSS. Plugins are great feature of WordPress; they can add a huge range of functionality to your website, from spam filters to eCommerce stores. However, when you’re doing custom builds and designs, their CSS … Read more

Panorama: Corfe Castle Ward

July 19, 2014 | Category: Panoramas | Leave a Comment

Corfe Castle Ward Panorama

My last panorama post was about the first one I’d taken; this one is the most recent, from 19th May 2014. This is the Ward at Corfe Castle, a Dorset castle dating back to the 11th Century and now a National Trust property. I’d visited it once before when I was much younger, and it … Read more

Contributing to WordPress

July 10, 2014 | Category: WordPress | Leave a Comment

I attended WordCamp Seattle last week, and the day after the conference I went to my first contributor day. First off; it was lots of fun. Everyone was super friendly and willing to explain how things work. No judgement for not knowing how some things work, or the process to go through to do a … Read more

My Holiday Laptop

June 17, 2014 | Category: Personal Musings | Leave a Comment

I recently spent two weeks vacationing in the UK. No work was to be done, and while my laptop isn’t as heavy as a metal clad Macbook, its bulk and weight were more than I wanted to lug around.   So I finally bought my first tablet. And deciding which one did not take long; … Read more

Brackets and PSD Lens

June 1, 2014 | Category: Tools | Leave a Comment

What causes you to abandon an old tool and pick up a new one? Discovery of cleaner, or better functionality? More bells and whistles? Or perhaps if it has something quite potentially revolutionary? Currently my code editor of choice is Sublime Text 2 or 3. Easy to use, some excellent extensions, wonderful shortcuts (I really … Read more