Less Of The Pink!

Don't be alarmed, you are at the right place. The pink just had to go! I wanted to make my own logo and googled how to put one in the HTML of a template. I used to hate hate HATE the computer because my boys hogged it and were completely lost in whatever game they were playing and wouldn't get off the computer for meals or bedtime without a struggle etc.....well, then in 1998, I went to college and started a course in Interior Design and we were tentatively shown how we could do room design using a computer. I think that this was in 2000 because I did interior design for 3 years. I found it a bit weird and scary but it got me thinking and I started to play a bit on the computer when I could turf my boys off it.

Around this time my Mum bought me my first digital camera and my eldest son helped me to upload my photos and put a programme on my PC called Paintshop Pro. I started to edit my photos a bit using this programme and I got hooked, but didn't really understand what I was doing, there was something addictive about the computer and my boys and I started fighting over its usage! My boys were aged 20 and 16 at this time so you can imagine how difficult it was to get them to move. They soon got their own computers and we were all happily ignoring each other, great fun! How sad though.....

I finished my Interior Design Course in 2002, the next step was University, not for me...I wanted to do something different and my then husband noticed there was a Graphic Design Course starting at our local college. It was to be EEC funded and was for people wanting to get back to work. I went to the interview with some of my artwork from the interior design course and I was in! I couldn't believe my luck.....How exciting!! We were to learn Adobe Photoshop, Illustrator, Image Ready and InDesign, Quark Express for page layout, Macromedia Flash and Dreamweaver. This was classed as a full time course on Mondays and Tuesdays every week for a year. The days were long, 8.45 to 6pm and there was loads of homework.

I loved every minute of that course, I got 5 distinctions and 1 merit and armed with this wonderful BTEC I got a job with Southampton University almost as soon as I finished. I loved producing all the pamphlets and posters promoting Part-Time courses and a twice-yearly newspaper which was distributed all round Southampton. The college where I worked has now closed down and there are no more part-time courses at Southampton University, that's a bit sad really.

Why am I telling you all this? My memory gets the better of me at times...oh yes, editing html.....well I sort of understand a bit of it but we used to make websites using Photoshop and Image Ready and then Dreamweaver, so all the HTML went on behind the scenes....I have made a website promoting our photography but it really needs a revamp, maybe that's something I'll get my teeth into when my life settles down a bit. Right now, I am so enjoying my knitting, following intricate diagrams has always been a delight to me, something to make me think and give me so much pleasure when it turns out as expected and so frustrated when it doesn't, I don't usually give in and get there in the end and then I feel so pleased with myself.

The photo on the poster is an image of me (and someone else from the college)which was taken when I was attending the Graphic Design Course. This photo was taken in 2006, I had forgotten about the college taking the image which was used at the time on the cover of the next year's brochure. Can you imagine it, driving into the small town where I used to live, my face enormous and smiling on a poster? It makes me chuckle just thinking about it for more reasons that I can share with you on here!
Barry took this photo of me looking at myself on the billboard, its hilarious! What made it even funnier was a cyclist went past as I was pointing to myself on the billboard and he nearly fell off his bike laughing when he saw what we were doing! Also, Barry has just pointed out to me that the photo was taken at night so he did really well to get a decent shot! Well done Barry!

What a lot of chatter...hope I've not bored you, all I wanted to do was tell you why I got rid of the pink....lol