so the whole recycling of an older layout would have worked except...i can't find the base images for it anywhere. i know i have them or i wouldn't have been able to modify the set for use when i did, but i suspect they are on a cd. i can't access any cd's at the moment because my cd-rom refuses to open. period. it's another one of those things that needs to be replaced that i can't afford to take care of.
and i think we all can agree that it's pretty sad that all i have to talk about of late is whysper's 2009 design.
anyway, the good news is that despite not having the base images for the layout i was going to use, i do have a new layout. sort of. i finished working up the frame last night, but i have some placement problems and a few other things to work out. i plan to try to get the basic page pulled together today, it's just going to take a little creativity on my part. the actual coding will be a bit more complicated than i really wanted, but i think it'll work out. at least i hope it will. all i can say is it's a good thing i've always been a table queen!
pulling the new layout together last night kind of reminded me how much i miss the graphics part of my life. i just love it when a design comes together. i really do. i complain and gripe a lot, especially when i have to fight with the coding, but i love it even when it's being a pain in the butt. i think part of that has to do with the immediate (well, almost immediate) gratification of finishing a creative project.
see, i love writing, but writing isn't an immediate finish. it takes time to get the first draft written and then requires revisions. often when a piece is finished and being sent out, it still doesn't seem finished...but that's probably my perfectionist nature speaking (not to mention the fact that i tend to think most my writing isn't all that spectacular to begin with). but web design? takes me a couple of days and then it's done. i can see it. it's an accomplishment, and it's finished. and while i realize there are web designers out there who are far more talented than i am, i still usually like my web sets. they tend to be clean and simple without a lot of bells and whistles and fancy coding, but that's just the way i like things. i don't think you need java and layers and all that to have a fantastic space on the web. in fact, i think all that fancy stuff is just a little overdone. and for a lot of it, done wrong and it can crash browsers or look completely screwed up. so my sets reflect a liking of the simpler stuff and won't crash anyone's browser. whether or not they look screwed up is often the responsibility of the user. with my linkware, i do include an html guide, but that doesn't mean people use it.
it's sad i don't have the time to put into graphics like i used to. then again, it also used to be something i was hoping to make a little money at and never really did, which explains the amount of time that used to go into it. which is fine. as much as i love doing it, it's definitely more of a hobby for me. still, some days i do wish i had a little more time for it. most days, though, i'm happy enough with my various writing related projects.