OCEANSIDE - For a stay-at-home mom with two young children and a business that has gone international, Web site designer Staci Brillhart is the portrait of calm.

Although having a husband whose position as a night restaurant manager keeps him home during the day, and a 4-year-old who attends school in the mornings can be disrupting, Brillhart said she would find a way to get the job done no matter what the circumstances or the distractions might be. Her clients, she said, who are mostly entrepreneurial stay-at-home commerce moms, seem to understand the challenges.

From her "office," a kitchen table in her Oceanside home, Brillhart, 27, recently explained how commonality plays out in her business.

"What I really love about my job is the connection to my clients," she said.

"They become like good friends, and since most of them are moms themselves, we are all sympathetic to the occasional child-related issue."

Sometimes, she added, conference calls are scheduled after the kids are in bed.

"Of course that's a little trickier with my international clients, but we make it work through e-mails and online chats," she said. "It's great that we all understand how a sick child can be more important than work."

As a business Web designer, Brillhart said her designs appeal to more than just the moms.

An Internet search for "hip web design" lists her site, http://quirky-bird.com, fourth on a list of approximately 1.3 million potential hits. This, of course, is no accident. With the knowledge of Internet Search Optimization, she knows how to get a Web site to appear near the top of a search engine - which is part of a Web design and marketing package she offers to clients as well as providing information on how to run an online store.

When asked how she chose the name quirky bird, she said she went online to Dictionary.com, and searched for a word that best described her business approach.

"I came across the word quirky, and one of the definitions was 'strikingly unconventional' -- I thought to myself that's it!"

The definition also became her tagline, which she tries to infuse into all of her projects.

"Through running my own online store, I learned a great deal about the best way to do pretty much everything, including how to set up a merchant account and even information on the cheapest and most efficient way to package and ship merchandise."

What took Brillhart from a merchant to a marketer was frustration, perseverance and a lot of time teaching herself all about Web design and functionality.

"It was really hard. I wanted to have a great Web site for my store, and there was no single place I could go for all the answers; there was a little information here and a little there. So, I just decided to teach myself how it all worked, and that evolved into the one-stop business I have now."

Brillhart attributes much of her success to having a right-brain, left-brain balance. "I'm really creative, but I love the entrepreneurial side of it, too, and I have a lot of good ideas for how clients can grow their businesses.

Although Brillhart's business is in a niche market, she has clients from all over the world, including Canada, the United Kingdom, Australia and Israel.

" I know it's hard to believe," said Brillhart, "but I really don't do this for the money. I get so much satisfaction from helping my clients fulfill their dreams; they really inspire me, and I try to inspire them right back."