Harpentree
About this site:
I play the harp, and I enjoy nature, so "Harpentree" seemed like the logical choice of business name to me. The environment of the page you are viewing changes (using javascript) each time you visit or refresh the page, to give the impression of standing outside a castle wall. This page is a portal to various sites I have created or worked on.
The Barony of Highland Foorde is a chapter of a non-profit living history organization that I have been involved with since 1995. I took over the administration of the site in May 2005, and have brought it through several major revisions in that time period. The site was originally built using HTML, CSS, and PHP, which stretched beyond my novice skills at the time. I used Drupal to manage the site for about six months in 2009, and found Drupal's features to be too complex for a primarily static site. I rebuilt it from the ground up in late 2009, and strive to maintain W3C compliance at all times, as well as providing access to information that my local group needs.
My husband has been making chainmail armor, jewelry, and other crafts for over 20 years. We created a simple content management system in class that uses PHP and MySQL. I decided to jazz it up and make it something useful for his business, Chainmail by Fergus. He primarily uses the site to display the items that he makes.
This site was designed to practice our skills in CSS and use of Dreamweaver templates. I particularly like the way I made the frame around the picture function - it expands or contracts to match the size of the picture. I was originally going for a nautical "porthole" look with this gallery. One of the things I learned from this particular project was the importance of paying close attention to the direction of shadows.
Michael Kelly is a musician whom I met through my involvement in the Society for Creative Anachronism. He happened to be my favorite musician at the stage of my classes when we were asked to create a website for a musician or movie star. I created a Dreamweaver template as per the requirements of the assignment to control the layout and design of the site. I personally prefer to have more control over the function and appearance of a site, and would probably not choose to use templates again.
WIMHE was a class project in WEB 205 - Server Administration. Our group of five worked together to create a website for an organization called "Women in Maryland Higher Education." After meeting with the client's representative to gather resources and determine their needs, we put together a site scope, gathered resources, and made a mock-up of the projected site's navigation. We decided to use WordPress for the site, to make it easier to use and maintain for the client. After submitting several logos and designs, we were able to create a sharp-looking, dynamic site; through use of CSS, HTML, Photoshop and Illustrator we established a consistent look and feel through the entire site.
Wordpress is a content management system, or CMS. It's frequently used for people to blog, or journal their ideas. It takes a little while to set it up, but once set up, it's easy to maintain. I use my blog primarily to keep track of graphics I create, tutorials I find, or ideas that capture my interest.
