Site History

In 2002, I had almost 10,000 files devoted to various anime series I was interested in. The collection included images, midi files, wav files, mp3 files, animated gifs, and various other web media. They had been collected from various websites across the internet, most of which are no longer in exsistence. So when a website shut down, the media was gone, but not lost. There it sat on this webmistress's hard drive.

Suddenly, a brilliant idea struck!

I could make a website. Devoted to all the series I loved. Providing images which were once lost to the masses.

At the time, I knew nothing of CSS, HTML, Javascript, CGI or even much about Photoshop 6, which we had loaded on the home PC. I was only allowed a few hours a day on the computer, so I started straight away. I found out about a simple, little website called Geocities - which was the owner of a terrific little program called PageBuilder.

Scoff if you must, but it really got my journey started. I was fourteen for goodness sakes! I didn't know anything about coding and it seemed out of my reach - indefinitely.

As some may know, PageBuilder is a program where you drag images and elements to their respective places on a template and consequently, a badly coded and un-validated web layout is created. I used this method for almost a year, if I remember correctly. I started having a small following - mostly friends and family. They thought, 'Oh, this is cute. She's doing something semi-interesting.' But as the year progressed, I realized the major flaw with my web layouts. They weren't....polished.

I found my next great discovery. Daydreamgraphics.com! A wonderful little website dedicated to providing premade layouts in mass quantities. And from there, I discovered other loves, such as Aethereality.Net.

These premade layouts were just that - HTML and CSS coded wonders! I was looking at code for the first time. Even if I was only filling in my content. And in those days, CSS was still attached to the html document. God, I'm getting old...

So I was learning a little bit about HTML and nothing about CSS because let's be honest, who can make sense of it the first time? But I found a wonderful little book in my local library which started making sense of everything. How to do Everything with HTML by James Pence was a fabulous book for someone who was graphically inclined but still wanted to learn the basics. Of course, my version had the picture of Mr. Pence and not of that goofy girl with glasses. I kid you not! Go look on Amazon if you don't believe me!

I actually borrowed the book from the library so many times, my dad was just like, "Enough! I just buy it for you!"

So after I started learning HTML and CSS, I started to realize I needed a way to use those premade layouts I'd found before. I could replace images now and change the code enough so it wasn't 'technically' stealing. I liked to leave credits anyways, because I did use the barebones structure as a guide.
I needed more space!

And ftp. I needed that too, even though I didn't know what it was at that time. I hadn't gotten to that chapter in Mr. Pence's book yet. So I went out searching for a web host (of sorts) and got a really great recommendation from a fellow webmistress. She suggested Exactpages.Com. They offered space, ftp (whatever that is), and the ability to load whole folders at a time. That was the big problem with Geocities. I couldn't categorize anything, so my premade layouts were pretty much no good there. I had a really great experience with Exactpages for almost two years. Of course, as my site grew, I had to find file hosts for all my new additions. They didn't offer that much space.

Looking back on my web history, I'm pretty ashamed to say -- my content sucked! I mean, I had a lot of cool stuff to look at, but I didn't offer anything creative or unique. I was just like all those other sites which had closed over the years.

So, I started dicking around with Photoshop.

And that's exactly what it was. Here's a great example... *ashamed to say*

That sucker is one of the first I ever made. Pretty sad, eh?

I didn't really make my first layout until almost three years ago -- but at that time, something more important was happening. My father, God love him, had started noticing I was pretty serious about this web business. He bought my first love. My web domain, this web domain - fallensweetheart.com! Since then, of course, I have become financially responsible for the upkeep, but it was something relatively inexpensive which I could never have accomplished without him.

So -- fallensweetheart.com was born and I changed the name from Fallen Sweetheart's Anime to Fallen Sweetheart Designs. I put my anime galleries as reference and later phased them out completely. I still toy with the thought of adding them back again on off days. But I think it would be a big effort for something most people wouldn't even look at.

I like to think I've grown a lot in the last three years. As a person and as a web designer. And today's web layout, Sakura Flowers, was made from scratch by me! I made all the images, did all the coding, found out about liquid layouts, and implemented everything. I owe a lot of thanks to several people though --

Stephan: My best friend and loudest cheering squad. In everything he does, it screams 'You can do it, girl!' Totally hopless with design choices though. :)

Tony: The beloved fiance who is my whole world sometimes. *whispers* He's why I don't update regularly.

The sweet people at Coding Forums, who have tried to make sense of the chaos I create.

Temmy: My spunky friend who helps me realize when I'm being a bitch. And to Odie too, who's both our friend but who doesn't have a url to link to. ^-^

And now, the ending credits! All my previous (documented) web layouts here on fallensweetheart.com.