Journalgirl.Me

A History…

I started designing websites in 1998. It all started when a teacher gave me a copy of Frontpage. I thought wow now this would be cool to learn. I sat down with it for hours at a time and learned every aspect of the program. The first website I ever made was hosted on a free server. I don’t even remember the name of who I used because it was such a long time ago. When I first started, I had no Photoshop so all the graphics (or lack there of) were done in MS Paint.

I got Photoshop a few years later, and learned how to use all the features of it. The first website that I ever really designed from head to finish was one for an online text gaming group. I learned a lot while making it. I learned how to use frames which at that time, was a foreign concept to me. It was the beginning of no more FrontPage themes as the main focus of the site. I had a lot of fun doing that website and designed a few more for other groups afterwards.

My very first website was NetMarina. When I originally registered Netmarina, it was meant as a digital portfolio, done completely in flash and only showed off my design skills. It was a personal site, but not personal enough. It was later converted to a blog website which I used for about 2 years. When I graduated from college I stopped bloging because I just didn’t have the time. After a while, I missed sitting down and writing about my day so I decided to start brand new.

Here we are today…

I decided I wanted a new name for my journal…something that defines me! The idea behind JournalGirl.me is to have a place on the web where I can express myself…a place where I can go and write about my day/vent about my life. I wanted to put something together quick, so a wordpress template was the best way to go. I have a layout in mind that I will use at a later time, but for now, this template is perfect for me.

The Past…

Below are some layouts I created when I blogged on my old domain, Netmarina.

“Summer”

This was the final layout for NetMarina. It was inspired by summer! Looking at it made me feel like I was at the beach every day .

“Angels”

“Angels”, represents something completely different in terms of designing. I wanted a layout that was visually appealing and easy to organize; this layout was what I came up with. I decided on using these particular quotes because I agree with every single one of them and can relate to them in one way or another. I love soft colors and this combination seemed to work best with the colors I choose. I found the image of the angel on the web and redid it to fit the layout.

“Bookworm”

The second blog layout, titled “bookworm”. I made this layout when I found I didn’t have enough room on my previous layout, flutter. I learned a lot when making this layout. I had to learn how to use iframes as well as various scripts to make this site come together and flow. I wanted a “cute” site and hopefully this qualifies. Everything seen on the site was created by me (except for some graphics that I found around the net). I worked very hard on this layout and enjoyed every minute. I was a little sad to see it go but I just got bored with it.

“Flutter”

My first Blog layout. I titled this layout, “flutter” because of the flow of the navigation and butterflies. I used a flash header to give it “life” The little butterflies flew across the screen and the navigation buttons sort of flowed into place. I had a lot of fun making this layout. It wasn’t hard to put together once I got through the Flash part. Only bad thing about it is it was limited to how much content I can put and when I had to edit something, I had to do it in flash which was a pain.

“Cubes”

This was the first ever design for Netmarina.com. Everything was designed in Flash. This layout took months to complete. This layout was meant to be my digital portfolio and it worked very well until I decided to take it down and create a blog website. You can view the working version of this cube by going to my portfolio section (in the commentary section of the site). I had a lot of fun making this layout. The colorful cube and squares added to the layout. I think I learned how to be a flash “artist” by making this website.