MY FAVOURITE SITES

THE SITE OF THE MONTH!

This site has some of the most stunning E-cards I have ever seen on the web. Just take a look at some of the preview versions available and prepare for your jaw dropping! I can guarantee you will NOT be disappointed!

The Art of Jim Warren.

Anyone who has been keeping an eye on my site recently cannot fail to have noticed my passion for this man's work. Not only have I used his paintings (with his kind permission) to illustrate my Songbook but I also featured him as my first 'Site of the Month'. I have also just received a signed copy of his book from the States and it will be a treasured possession of mine forever. Jim manages to capture all the beautiful things about this world but he does so with a unique eye and staggering feats of imagination. Go visit his site and treat yourself to a few minutes of Heaven.

Frog Creations.

The wonderful world of dolphins and frogs, penguins and sharks, tropical fish, turtles and tigers. Enjoy the unique free screensavers and wallpaper and games. Check out the stunning t-shirts and java magic .. and much more! I just love this site - every kb oozes talent - from the graphics to the web-design..... and THAT frog - cheers you up as soon as you look at him! Check him out at the bottom of the song Andrew in my Songbook or on page 5 of my Awards.

Amazon Books

OK - so you've heard of this one - but have you tried them? The service is stunningly good and the prices are wonderful.... I've had no trouble with security either. VERY highly recommended.

Computer Step.

These are the publishers of the book that I bought from Amazon, from which I learned to build this website. It's called 'HTML In Easy Steps' by Chris Russell and is excellent for beginners. In fact, I was so impressed with the book that I bought the book on PageMaker 6.5, and one on DHTML in the same series. This time I ordered directly from Computer Step, as Amazon had sold out. The service was very quick and, on first glance, the PageMaker book looks as easy to use as the HTML one.

GRAPHICS - Linkware sets, snowglobes, animated gifs etc.

Ann-S-Thesia

There is so much on offer at Ann Stretton's site 'Ann-S-Thesia' (the name alone is terrific!) that it is honestly difficult to know where to start! First of all Ann-S-Thesia is a site which provides commercial design services and graphics - both free for download and for purchase.

Amongst the free downloads are sample linkware web sets, backgrounds, weblog templates, presets for Blade Pro and KPT (including some WONDERFUL Enviromaps - I went into a download frenzy with those!). Also available on the site are a number of tutorials for making a number of graphics from backgrounds to pearls and an on-line Gift Shop selling all manner of goodies from mousepads to t-shirts.

There are also links to Ann's other sites - The Dingbat Cave - an Aladdin's Cave for Dingbat enthusiasts, EyeBalm - which styles itself 'a site for sore eyes' - and boy, is it! - featuring Ann and Stan's digital fine art and Eyeblog - Ann's own weblog site - my favourite bit of which is Search Me.... (No I won't tell you -you have to go read it for yourself - be warned - some of the links featured may cause offence to some people - they made me howl with laughter!

Karen's Sunshine Spot

Karenann has some very classy graphics - and the opening pages should make you smile on the darkest day.... Her initial page has a link to her second site Appeal Design which has snowglobes and page sets that are linkware and for sale... just check out the 'flip book' that leaves through them for you on the first page of the design site - nice touch! But there's a lot more here besides - for instance her gingerbread houses - good job she doesn't live near me - I would ALWAYS be calling in!

...Sealights Gallery

Rose's treasure-trove of wonderful goodies for web-designers, from backgrounds to tubes, brushes, sets.... you name it - it's all there! By the way - I LOVE the opening page of this site - JUST my taste... Best of luck in your partnership Dee and Rose!

Ivys Graphics

It's hard to know where to start here! You can find bordered backgrounds, tiles, fractals, globes, page-sets, calling cards, dreamcatchers, tutorials...... a real treasure chest of goodies!

Pat's Web Graphics

From the minute Pat's first page loads you know you're in for a treat - flowered backgrounds in particular don't come better than this... but there's a LOT more than that!

FEELING CREATIVE?

Dynamic Drive.

If anyone is thinking, as I was just a short while ago, that using DHTML or Java is beyond them - think again. This site has some codes that are kid's play to use as long as you have a reasonable grasp of HTML. I've put up my Discography and Kenya Safari Slide-Show using their codes and they couldn't have been easier or worked better. Go take a look at what they have and give them a try!

Cool Text

If you want to create some stunning 3D text without actually buying a program then try this...... You design the text online then download it onto your computer free of charge. Some of the effects are very classy indeed and the program is easy to use. It also makes great buttons and bullets.... go take a look!

Webmonkey

If you're just grasping the basics of web-authoring, this site is great. The Cheat Sheet from the Kids Section, printed out, is a real blessing. Paul, who is doing the HTML for themulti-media CD, told me about this site - and that's always a good recommendation!

PROGRAMS

My passions on the computer are desktop publishing and (as of the last three weeks!) website design. At the moment the main programs I use are PhotoImpact XL for my graphics, Microsoft Publisher & Printmaster Home De Luxe 8. From this list you wouldn't think I had any of the high-powered programs like Photoshop and Pagemaker - not so - I have - but I believe in making my life as easy as possible when I can!

I'm constantly on the lookout for good programs - so please email me if you have something that you use regularly and rate highly.

NEW!!! MY LINK BUTTONS

If anyone would like to link to my site (thank you kindly!) you can either use a text link - or I now have a new official link button/banner which you can use on your site.





To save the banner or the button right-click on it and then choose 'Save Picture As' to save it to the appropriate directory on your hard drive. PLEASE do not link directly to the graphic on this site. Please use the following URL to link.

http://www.rosiehardman.com/rosie.htm

GAMES

Click on the pic above to play with my puzzle.

Anyone who knows me well will know that I have been hooked on computer games for a long time - I had one of the first 'bouncing dot - bat and ball' games on my t.v. as soon as it hit the shops, went onto the Sinclair Spectrum (through most of its incarnations) and then on to the Game Gear, SNES & Gameboy (I still never go anywhere in the world without it)... I thought, when I got a computer, that that would be what I spent half my time doing - but then I fell in love with desktop publishing...
I haven't completely left my gaming days behind though. I completed all of Microsoft's 'Age of Empires' last year - though I have to confess I got stuck on the first level of the sequel 'The Rise of Rome'..... but playing God is very addictive and you can always kid yourself that you're learning something about history.....
It's also hard to drag me away from Scrabble, Upwords, Boggle, Yahtzee or Mah Jongg once I get going. I sometimes wonder what I'm going to be like when I grow up............