Hi I'm Nikki, a 24 yr old Freelance Graphic, Logo & Web Designer living in Australia. I run a design portfolio called DesignNerd which has many of my recent designs. You can view my Portfolio and Blog here: http://designnerd.net I ♥ my Macbook Pro, iPhone, Photoshop, Illustrator, Twitter. I'm a code junkie and love fonts & typography.
So it’s been a little over 2 weeks since I came out of hospital and on Thursday I had my 2 week Renal Clinic appointment to see how I am going. I had blood taken and I’m happy to say I passed with flying colours! The dialysis is going well and is removing all the toxins from my body. Even though I am not on the low potassium, low phosphate diets that are normally required for kidney patients, my levels of these elements were all totally normal! My Haemaglobin was quite low but I think that is a combination of EB and kidney failure together. My Doctor is going to try me on a weekly injection of EPO to try and bring the haemaglobin up a little.
I also visited the ward I stayed on for 8 long weeks and all the nurses were amazed at how well I was looking compared to just a few weeks ago!
Anyways everything is going well for the moment and my next appointment is not until early February.
Well last Tuesday, yes Melbourne Cup day, was also my Birthday. I turned 25. I had a lovely day going out in the morning and spending some of my birthday money on a Kimi Doll notebook. I also received a beautiful sterling silver bangle with my name engraved on it from my mum. She actually bought it for me when I was in hospital but I got it engraved for my birthday. In the afternoon my sister came over and we watched movies and then she experimented making Gozleme for dinner! They turned out pretty darn good! We did them with spinach and cheese.
The Sunday before was my birthday party. I had friends from highschool, doctor friends and some relatives over to my house. I got great presents including a Japanese cookbook, a doctor bear from the Dermatology team, KikkiK vouchers, Angry Boys DVD and a silver bunny bracelet! My two favourite things in one present- jewellery and bunnies!!! We had a nice lunch of chicken and some salads and just sat around and talked. It was a great day!
Hey guys, I’m back!
If you have been wondering where I’ve been in the last 8 weeks….well it’s a long story. Basically I was booked into hospital to start dialysis because my kidneys had gotten very bad. All was going ok until one morning I started breathing funny and then had seizures. The nurse pushed the emergency button and they gave me oxygen and Valium and rushed me to ICU. I had a tube inserted down my throat and was on a breathing machine. I spent 2 weeks asleep under heavy sedation with severe kidney failure, pneumonia septicemia and a bowl infection. I was very lucky to survive. I had emergency surgery to put my Peritoneal Dialysis catheter in. It wasnt working at first so they had to give me emergency heamodialysis to get rid of the toxins out of my blood.
After 2 weeks I was well enough to go up on Tyne ward. There I still suffered from a bowl infection and nausea and vomiting. I am home now, came home yesterday. I was looked after greatly by all the doctors and nurses. I am glad to be home, 8 weeks in hospital is a long time.
After many months of playing Artwiculate; a word of the day competition on Twitter, I finally came first and was awarded the Artwiculate crown. Day after day, the Artwiculati battle it out with a concinnity of bad puns, limericks, quotes and so on containing the WOTD.
On this day the word was 'sinecure' which means:
°A position that requires no work but still gives an ample payment; a cushy job.
My winning tweet was: 'The dyslexic's new job as a newsreader made him feel a little sinecure'
Thought I would write a blog about the day my lifelong dream of meeting Dolores O'Riordan from The Cranberries came true...
Ever since the age of 8 years old, I have loved the irish rock The Cranberries. It started out just liking a few of their songs...probably because I used to watch Rage with me older Sister. I distinctly remember my Sister and I driving our parents mad my singing "Zombie" over and over in the back seat of the car. Anyways let's just say this like turned into a bit of an obsession and ever since then have loved anything and everything to do with The Cranberries. I'd always dreamt of meeting them but unfortunately they never come to Australia.
Here is the Final Design for my latest client web design project; The Vitiligo Association of Australia. I wanted this design to have a clean and professional look to it which I think I have achieved by designing a clear, crisp layout with a subtle textured background.
I am also to design the organisation a new Logo in the near future.
Here is a short but powerful video to show you just what EB Kids have to go through on a daily basis. This is what's known as the dreaded Bath & Bandage routine.
Everyday kids with EB must soak all their bandages off in a bath which can be a long process if they get stuck to the wounds. As you can imagine when water enters a small cut on your knee it stings, imagine that feeling all over your body.
Once the bath is over we can't just dry with a towel because it hurts the wounds too much so we air dry. Then it's time to apply all new bandages. This process can take a couple of hours. I can safely say this is the worst time of day for an EB Child. However once it is over it is back to being happy and getting on with things :)
Today I decided to submit 2 of my Logo designs to the wonderful Logo Compeition site http://iheartlogos.com. I Heart Logos is a great website where logo designers can submit their work and maybe even have it published in the coveted iheartlogos book!
As stated on their website, "iheartlogos is a one of a kind design competition. You are the judge here. So is everyone else. When you submit a logo you let the entire design community decide its fate. In return, you get the right to judge everyone else’s work. That means when the ever-so-coveted book of winners is published, the winning logos will have been selected by the entire design world. Not some "famous" judge. The award for winning this logo design competition is paid in the highest form of currency – respect."
The 2 logos I am submitting are:
DesignNerd - My own logo
Kat's Cupcakes - a logo I did for a client recently
I know I will not win this competition as I am still a newbie at logo design but I am hoping that maybe one of my designs might be published in this years book ;)
