Tools & Products I Use & Enjoy

I have been using and designing on the Squarespace platform since 2010 after frustration with other platforms’ tools and customer service, and I’ve never looked back. My signup link will win you a 20% discount off the first year of your annual subscription.

Want to learn something new for work or a hobby or just because? Skillshare likely has exactly what you’re looking for.

Skillshare is a great place to pick up new or deepen existing creative skills. I’ve taken a Procreate class and am going to learn about painting with acrylics soon. You can “learn creative skills to achieve your personal and professional goals, tune in and level up at your own pace, and go from dabbler to master in a matter of hours. Connect with a global community of curious creatives.”

Rakuten is a site that gives you cash back when you shop online. With over 750 stores, including Sport Chek, Canadian Tire, Old Navy, and Sephora, you get paid to shop for things that you’re already buying. Plus, you get a $30 cash bonus when you join today. Happy shopping!

I am a huge fan of MacPaw’s CleanMyMac X, an all-in-one package to awesomize your Mac. Whenever my Mac starts feeling sluggish, I clean it up with CleanMyMac X, which cleans out the junk, frees up RAM and purgeable space, monitors malware, updates apps, and more, and then it runs beautifully again. MacPaw develops apps that make your Mac life simpler. They do complex things in a click.

Working with FreshBooks has been great. It makes invoicing and expensing super easy, which has saved me a ton of time, and as I found out, money. It also offers flexible payment options for you and your clients so that you can get paid the way you prefer, whether it’s by credit card, check, bank transfer, cash… whatever. It’s so much better having all your accounting stuff automated and in one place. Here’s a link to a free trial.

Want email you can feel good about? I’ve been using Fastmail for my email since 2014 because it made migration from Gmail so easy, and I have no regrets. You get ample storage, a calendar you can connect with both your Google Calendar and the iOS native calendar, and the ability to house several didn’t domain emails within your one account (I have five). Save 10% on your first year when you sign up.

Surfshark is a VPN (Virtual Private Network) that helps you protect your identity online, stay safe on public wifi, avoid targeted ads, game with more safety, and more across all of your devices. I have this installed on desktop and both my iPhone and iPad to mask my location and access content that has not been made available in Canada. It’s easy to install!

Affiliate Exclusive Sitewide Discount Link 2023

I’ve been using Logitech gear for over a decade and presently use 3 varieties of their mice, two keyboards, and a video call light and a cam. “Logitech creates experiences so people can create, achieve, and enjoy more. From mice and keyboards to streaming gear, Logitech is focused on designing innovative technology that has an everyday place in people's lives.”

Namecheap is committed to offering the industry's best value and customer service for domains, SSL certificates, hosting and more. It has been my main domain registrar for many years, and it is the one I recommend to my clients for trustworthiness, customer service, and overall pricing.

The TouchRetouch mobile app is designed to remove unwanted objects from images. Many of my clients are remote and/or are working under a time crunch, so it’s often not practical or feasible to ask for new photos if the ones they send aren’t quite clean enough to represent them on their website. That’s where TouchRetouch comes in. It has proved to be such a valuable tool for editing client photos quickly and easily.

I have a fairly strong glasses prescription, and my glasses cost about $1000 in a physical retail store, but at Zenni I can get them for well under $200. I’ve bought about 5 different pairs through Zenni and had no trouble arranging for a replacement when one pair arrived a bit crooked. Affordable glasses and decent customer service wins me over repeatedly.