to sew

I want to learn how to sew... aside from my "Places : UK" board, my DIY style ideas board is my favorite, but I have yet to make anything on there.

I think part of the reason I like looking for DIY style projects is that I'm trying to figure out exactly what my style is and being "vertically challenged" (haha) makes finding clothes off the rack I actually like very difficult.

To be honest, I will always be a simple girl - I don't like drawing attention to myself and comfort is super important to me, but is it impossible to look cute while achieving those goals? Yet another reason I want to learn how to sew.

Two of my favorites right now are labeled as good beginner projects, but they're both knit, which I've heard is difficult to work with, especially for beginner sewers.

This first one is from the blog Four Square Walls. She took a basic t-shirt pattern and lengthened it into a dress. My overly observant brain really appreciates that the stripes are all aligned. At church a couple of weeks ago I was noticing all these girls in striped skirts and dresses and none of the stripes aligned at the sides... drove me absolutely crazy. ;)

The second one, a tutorial by iCandy Handmade, is also stripes... in a maxi skirt. I know, you're thinking, she liked the first one because the stripes matched up??? BUT, I like this one because the stripes are intentionally off-kilter.

Why do I like these? Part of the reason is that they're comfortable. Part of the reason is that they would make great travel pieces (hello London!) - a lot of the museums/churches require that you wear skirts/dresses when you visit. And, plus it will be summer and I'd be spending a LOT of time on buses and trains. AND, they're work-appropriate for the spring/summer (no shorts allowed).

creating at midnight

It's way past my bedtime, especially if I want to get up at the usual time, but as often happens with my homework, I lose track of time. I was ready to go to bed at 9PM and suddenly it's 1:29AM. I guess I got distracted . . .

I think I've created a logo for my final project. Once I understood how to use it, I discovered that Pixlr is awesome. Pixlr is the open source program that my professor has us use to edit our images for our assignments, but until tonight I hadn't used it to create an image. Oh. my. goodness. Fun stuff.

Speaking of open source, I'm pretty happy with this . . .

I think it's my favorite one so far. {no, it's not supposed to be centered . . . and it really bothers me that it's not.}

Logo to be revealed soon :)

info on final project

Thanks to all who responded to my Facebook post. I thought this might be an easier way to give more specifics on what's expected for my final project in my InfoTech class and see if anyone wants to help me out. My hand-drawn prototype and proposal are due November 14; the final project is due December 20. The professor wants us to have around 2 weeks to work on the proposals, so that means I need have a person lined up by the end of October.

I have to design or redesign a website for a non-profit organization, a small business or an individual. I have to apply the things I've learned during the course - XHTML, CSS, JavaScript, PHP, etc - into the design of the website. I'll be using WordPress as a CMS (content management system) for the website and customizing a WordPress theme, which means that it will be easy to update when it's done, like a blog is. For the assignment to be graded it will be hosted on the university's server. After it's graded it can be transferred to a server under your own URL or it can be hosted on WordPress. 

If you decide that you're willing to be my guinea pig, you aren't under any obligation to use the site after it's done. Hopefully you'll love it and want to use it, but if not that's perfectly OK. I'm obviously not a professional, I just need a person and an idea to build a site for. As to what I'd need from someone, this is what I know is needed so far:

- what the site's for / why you want or need one

- the different pages you want (at least three, examples: an about page, a contact form, a photo gallery, services offered, etc.)

- any images you want on the site, including a logo (or I can design one) - these can be emailed to me or you can give me a memory card w/ images or a link to Flickr, Photobucket, etc. The logo has to be in my proposal, the images and logo need to be in the final site.

- color scheme

After my proposal is approved, I'll need feedback from you on the content for specific pages, i.e. a bio for the about page, etc. I will be in Utah beginning December 6, so if you want to work on it in person, we can do that, but we don't have to. Whatever works best for you.

For my proposal I have to create a PowerPoint presentation explaining what the site is for and how I want to lay it out. I also have to show my hand drawn prototype which will all be critiqued by my professor and classmates, but ultimately what the "customer" wants goes - as far as my skill set will allow. :)

Thanks!

a tale of two webpages

For my first assignment in my InfoTech a.k.a. Information Technologies for Libraries and Information Agencies class (see why they shorten it???), I had to build a series of webpages using tables on any topic I wanted. I also had to pick a creative commons image related to my topic and build the pages around it.

The final result met all of the requirements perfectly, but I can see why they don't use tables very often anymore - it's ugly - but, you have to start somewhere I guess. For the second assignment I had to use the same topic and images, but format the whole thing using CSS . . .

. . . much prettier in my opinion, but still lacking. I can see why CSS is so popular. This one only required simple CSS, but what a difference.

I really like this class. My other class is fun too, but I like not knowing exactly how something works and then getting it to work. I'm excited for the next one which will be on a completely different topic (advantages of open-source software anyone?) and then the final project - a whole website! And no specific requirements to meet (other than applying what I've learned and making the "customer" happy . . . oh, and everything has to load correctly).

I hope they just keep getting prettier.