Chelsea Stephens.com

Site Updated to Version 1.4

J David — Mon, 04 May 2009 16:16:47 +0000

There are several new features now available at Chelsea Stephens.com as well as a few bug fixes. Those changes, along with the other modifications since version 1.0 have allowed us to upgrade the website template to 1.4, which is more stable and feature rich. The major changes include the following:

Newsletter: You can now sign up for the Chelsea Stephens.com newsletter to receive the latest news and special discounts from Chelsea. The sign up form is in the sidebar on the right.
Gallery: We have added a new page that is simply a gallery of images of Chelsea’s work. If you just want to look at her capabilities, check out the gallery.

Other changes included image optimization, code optimization and various other fixes. Again, if you find a problem, please use the Contact Page and select ‘Website Issues’ from the drop down menu. Thanks!

Up and Running

J David — Sun, 03 May 2009 16:23:15 +0000

Well, after the hacking debacle, I have finished restoring Chelsea Stephens.com. I am not sure I can prevent this from happening again, but I will be trying my darndest. And like I said before, I have implemented a new backup system that I can restore daily, so hoefully I will at least minimize the downtime.

At any rate, thank you for supporting the site!

Owls and Flowers…

Chelsea — Sat, 02 May 2009 19:44:14 +0000

Or, as my boyfriend/ web designer wanted to title it “Owls in the Meadow.” This week I have been on a decorating spree, trying to add flower variety to my portfolio and finally making these little owls I saw in a magazine.

I just baked a bunch of chocolate cupcakes and went to town. There are the sunflower cupcakes with oreos, the petite little flower on the green background of frosting, and the notorious owls. The sunflowers and little flower could easily be incorporated into a cupcake bouquet and the owls are perfect for a party… I could also see them mixed in with other designs at Halloween. For sure, they are a hoot!

Hacked!!

J David — Fri, 01 May 2009 17:33:02 +0000

On Thursday, April 30th, Chelsea Stephens.com was hacked. Let me tell you that it sucked real bad. Only two days after launch, and arrogant hacker saw fit to destroy everything we had built. Unfortunately, the hacker got in before the first backup of the database took place, so we lost all of our post information when we cleaned out the system.

Over the next few days, I will be working on putting the website back up and getting things normal again. I still don’t know why the hacker targeted our site; we run a simple portfolio of a young ladies work; we don’t keep any customer information on the server; there was literally nothing of value, except all of our hard work. I just don’t understand why people feel it is necessary to do these types of things. Of course, we have no legal recourse as the suspected hacker is located in another country. Even if they were here, and we could somehow track them, I don’t think there is much people can do about this sort of thing. We will just rebuild everytime this happens.

To that end, we have upgraded our systems, changed appropriate passwords, and have instituted a daily backup system (as opposed to the old weekly one). We will try to keep this from happening again, but if it does, please let us know!

Thanks!

Menu and Contact Pages Added

J David — Wed, 29 Apr 2009 19:04:04 +0000

Good news people! We have added two new features to the website that should really improve usability. There is now a menu page and a contact page, which combine to all us to now take orders. Using the two, we will now be taking custom orders for cupcakes and can provide everything from design to delivery.

Menu: The menu page shows several of Chelsea’s cupcake capabilities. First you can see all of the design variations she does, then there is a list of her favorite recipes, and finally there is a ‘custom order’ option, which lets you pair cake flavors with icing flavors. Of course, if you want something that you don’t see there, you can always ask and Chelsea will do her best to accomodate.
Contact: This is the page where you can fill out your information (including your website if you have one; we love looking at new websites) and get in touch with Chelsea. She will work with you to determine what you want, along with when you need it and any delivery options if necessary.

Welcome To The Site

J David — Mon, 27 Apr 2009 18:40:48 +0000

Let me be the first to welcome you to Chelsea Stephens’ personal website and portfolio! My name is David, and I designed this space for her. I would just like to take a minute to point out the different features of the website, so that you can get the most out of your visit here.

Home Page: Here you can see Chelsea’s most recent featured projects
Portfolio: This is the motherload of all of Chelsea’s work, listed chronologically
News: Find out the latest announcements and events for Chelsea
Menu: A list of what cupcakes Chelsea can bake; although you can always ask if you don’t see something you want
Contact: Here is where you get what you want! Order cupcakes or just say hi; it is up to you

Cupcake Bouquet for Generational Equity

Chelsea — Thu, 16 Apr 2009 19:49:11 +0000

Special delivery! Today I decided to be a good girlfriend and I created this cupcake bouquet for David’s office. Made with red velvet cupcakes and white chocolate peppermint cream cheese frosting, these little “flowers” were a big hit.

There is something about the peppermint and the light texture of this cupcake that carries it from winter into summer…it is quite refreshing. This is undoubtedly my most requested flavor year-round. I’m not sure what you would call this flower- a cross between the carnation that I like to use and something a little more complicated. My boyfriend came home with rave reviews from the office, including my favorite comment “She’s good looking, she can cook…why aren’t you married?”

Bachelorette Party

Chelsea — Tue, 03 Mar 2009 17:40:24 +0000

The bachelorette party! My friend Annie, official maid of honor and queen of the party, asked me to do cupcakes for her friend’s bachelorette party.

The cupcakes needed to be super easy to transport as they were traveling from my apartment, to Annie’s car, to the site of the party, so I kept them simple, but tried to put classic and classy wedding symbols, since these were to be G rated cupcakes. They are edged in edible glitter and pink sprinkles. The party was a success and so were the cupcakes.

Graduation Party

Chelsea — Tue, 20 May 2008 20:01:13 +0000

The guests at this party spanned a large group of people so the cupcakes for it needed to appeal to both the high school graduates and all of the parents. First I made the butterfly cupcakes.

As my sister loves chocolate, the cake was chocolate with buttercream icing. I hand-made the butterflies out of chocolate and topped each cupcake with at least one. This was an adventure for me, since I had never used modeling chocolate before, and as it was summer in Texas, but the cupcakes practically looked alive and held up perfectly all night. The second batch of cupcakes were chocolate mud cupcakes with fresh rasperries in the filling and a couple of fresh rasperries atop each cupcakes. These were elegant and delicicous.

Westies, and fortunes and frosting… Oh My!

Chelsea — Wed, 30 Apr 2008 20:09:48 +0000

The inspiration for the Westie cupcakes was my own dog Dixie. Made out of cookies and cream cupcakes they have classic vanilla icing, bits of candy, and they immortalize my little dog!

Made at the same time are some classic yellow cake cupcakes with chocolate syrup frosting. Deceptively simple looking, I made these for my boyfriend for his grad school graduation. Each cupcake has a hand written fortune inside- hence Fortune Cookie Cupcake! The fortunes were personalized for him, and unfortunately did not have a Chinese word of the day or lottery numbers on them- but if thats what you wanted, I would give it my best!