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Previous Layouts

Shameless Addiction: This layout lasted something like a year. I never really considered it a layout. It was simply purple against a black background.

There was a frame along the top which stayed blank until Sav finally convinced me to put an image there – which was just a cheap banner I made. There were 3 vertical frames below that. The middle showed updates upon entering. The left was navigation, each link opened a subnav in the right frame. Those links then opened in the middle. I still had the colour problem. I did eventually fix them with this. At some point during these three layouts, I changed the index page to be a drop down menu to all of my sites.

Version 4
I suddenly decided I needed a layout. A real layout! So I found my favorite picture of Kurt Cobain and basically pasted on some text, the lyrics to “Heart Shaped Box.” This one used three frames, the image, the content, and the navigation. The content frame had a blue background, with a white table where my blog was features, it was neat. The navigation was the letters spelling out his name. There were each an image. On mouseover a little bevel asterisk appeared. I really liked what I did with CSS and such, but it probably didn’t work on many browsers. Many people thought this was too bright. It was only up about a month.

Version 5
Ah, the musically-inspired layouts continue. This was deep in my goth phase. Can you tell from the colors? LOL I basically took one image of Peter and Pasted on a bunch of others. I made the space for text, and used absolute positioning. It was nice, but organization got a little squished caused I didn’t make the text areas big enough. I had this one on fateback, and kept it when I moved into my domain. I liked looking at it, but it was a horror to update because was still coding manually and had just started using div layers. I started using SSI because I hadn’t yet come to know PHP includes. This made it much easier to handle, and it indicates the beginning of scripting on the site.

Version 6
I wanted a site similar to a php nuke site, even though that script was intended for communities and not personal sites. This is what I came up with. You can definitely see the influence. It was simple and nice with sidebars surrounding the blog and content area. I made it a pop up for larger browsers because it used absolute positioning and centering. I later thought of a way around this. I felt I did not customize enough of the site however. That was likely because the layout didn’t really work for this type of site.
Version 7
This layout used two anime pictures. One from Fushigi Ugi (is that right?) and the other of IVY and some guy from some PS game. -lol* I love the image in the top lefthand corner. This used frames and chromeless windows. I found out that chromless opens full window in ie 6.0. I didn’t mind, but some people did. I really liked this layout! But I was so excited to get a new one up!

Version 8
This layout was different for me for a couple reasons. It feature Kiss, not because I’m a huge fan, but because I like the song “God Gave Rock and Roll to You.” If you can’t tell, I love my music! The actual Kiss image was some vector fanart that I found some place. Yes, I am a thief. The background was from sotight.org. I did credit them. I used a link javascript, which was pretty cool, but horrible in terms of standards and usability.

A lot of people didn’t like the pink, but I loved it. It was the first time I really contrasted such a bright color with black, and I’ve done that in layouts since then. The fonts used for Scriptina, Redensek, and DieNasty.

Version 9: Savage Garden
I loved this layout! I searched forever and a day to find the right picture of Savage Garden — I still love this one! — and then I tried about 3 other layouts before I decided on this one. It was a pop up, and made up up some very soothing blue colors. People commented on how soothing it was frequently. The background images came from Ghetty Images, and I edited them slightly. I never quite felt that the layers worked perfectly, however.

The navigation used a “folding menu” javascript. Unfortunately, not everyone could use it, and I didn’t find that one out until later. The fonts used were Redensek and Vivaldi. This was deep in the “pixel font face” craze that was sweeping personal sites.

Version 10
This layout was a picture scanned from the CD book of Metallica’s “St Anger.” The CD wasn’t that great but I love the picture, and I think this marked the move to more sophisticated layouts on Her Realm. However, there was very little room for content.

It used image maps and tables along with colored scrollbars. I was definitely going with the trends, here.  I didn’t get as much positive feedback about this one as I would have liked, but I really liked it. I used Edwardian and Demon Night fonts for the layout, and some beveled Celtic trinities that I felt went with the overall theme.

Version 11
I decided I wanted to make a layout out of Yoshi because he it cute. ^__^ The background I made using some PSP effects and it really wasn’t that complicated. The picture of Yoshi I basically pasted on and I did some fancy effects with the text, but in the end you really couldn’t tell anyway.

The eggs used a javascript that made them “bounce” when you hovered over them. It was probably annoying, but it kind of fit the theme. In hindsight, this navigation was terrible for usability and SEO purposes. Mostly I got a lot of comments about how cute Yoshi was, and that really got onto my nerves because I’d put so much effort into the effects. Once the cute factor was overlooked the layout itself wasn’t that great. I was sick of it so I made a new one quickly..

Version 12
I really liked this layout because I did so much of it by hand. Out of all my layouts, I recall the feeling of accomplishment the most with this one. I had the idea in my head and drew a rough scribble in a notebook. I browsed Getty and found some images of roses. I also had PSP problems so both the hearts were made with the font Hearts Galore.

Anyway I made the majority of this myself and I got some great comments as well.. It was a fairly “trendy” layout in terms of the sidebar and column size. I recall using a tiny font because it was the “in” thing.Bbut I liked the punk feel of it contrasted with the heart theme. I would have kept it up had I not wanted to put up a Samhain layout. (=

Version 13
I loved this layout because it was completely mine. I took a picture of one of my teddy bears sitting on our pumpkin one day and edited it just slightly. It had a different feel than what my layouts usually do. It was cute, festive, yet dark! There was a general simplicity, but it probably made it difficult to navigate.

I actually used this screenshot when I went in college applications to design schools. That may have been a mistake. The orange text on the black background is terrible harsh on the eyes. However, I was expanding outside of my comfort zone.

Version 14
After Halloween was done with I put up this layout. I had made it before. I found an image at Getty, and did very little editing. I colourized it and added the lyrics from “Lovesong” originally by the Cure. Yes, it was in dedication to my boyfriend. I was in love, and I wanted everyone to know it.

I kept with the simplistic idea with this thanks to the use of drop-down menus. I changed a few things in terms of how the site was laid out, from the way and navigation looked to the way the blog operated. I received a lot of positive feedback, but I think it was only because I started with such a good image.

Version 15
This layout I originally started almost a year before I put it up. I had downloaded the free trial of PSP 8 and was using it became I had problems with PSP 7. The process was interrupted because of computer problems, and every time after that I decided to work with it I was at a loss. What I had, was so awesome that I couldn’t seem to put it all together.

I finally decided on a navigation and used pop ups for the first time for my content because the main layout wasn’t functional for content. I used a few scripts that probably meant some people couldn’t navigate this, but it felt super cool. I was probably inspired by the black and green colors used in The Matrix to be honest.

Version 16
I knew for some time that I wanted to use an image of an angel statue for this layout so I searched until I finally found one which fit. I recall editing this painstakingly in the computer labs at school using my host’s HTML editor. Ugh. Accordingly, I used the lyrics from “Lightning Crashed” by Live for the navigation.

Overall, I felt the layout lacked in creativity and originality. However, I may have just been getting used to a much simpler layout than I typically used. Ever since the red layout, I’ve been painfully aware of the elements in my layout which were common or typical and it was the same with this.

This layout really stands out to me as one where I used a lot of similar colors, and it’s very typical of me in that it uses a lot of purple and blak. While I was able to see many more shades and depths of colours due to my light monitor and for some people/systems, it was nearly impossible to view or read anything.

Version 17: Happy Birthday
This was the first layout after Her Realm moved to 7and1.net and the last layout I would make before moving to WordPress and using a pre-made theme for some time. It featured images of Frank the rabbit as well as Drew Barrymore’s character from the movie Donnie Darko. I used a really unique blue and orange colour scheme which some didn’t like but I thought worked well. I guess I was a few years ahead of the curve because movie posters have used the color schemes for years.

It was entitled “Happy Birthday” after a line in the song “Mad World” by Gary Jules, which was used in the movie. It had nothing to do with my birthday or the birthday of the site and I think that confused people but I was disappointed that more people did not get it.

Children waiting for the day they feel good, happy birthday