Linkage - I stopped listing links some time ago, since I frequently refer to other sites in the context of my pages. But  there are still many that are worth listing since I visit these the most. Here's a few groovy places.

NEW - I have to list a couple of new places that I’ve been visiting lately. They’re very helpful and have a bunch of freebies - all different kinds... Photoshop Brushes, WordPress templates, fonts - you name it, chances are you’ll find them at the following, groovy web sites:

• Smashing Magazine
• Web Resource Depot
• Photoshop Support

Photographic Disks - I frequent the following sites very, very often!! I'm about as addicted to buying photoCD's as I am to fonts! I use them frequently in work for my clients. The following sites are the best for me! **The photos that these sites display, are copyrighted and not for your use without purchase**

• Mister Retro - I'm letting you in on a little secret - this site has some WAY cool retro vector images and a "Machine Wash" filter that is too much fun to play around with. And they're very affordable! ** fav
• The Little Guys Network - Yup, the little guys, and not the huge corporate companies (like the next 2 links). Very cool retro clipart collections and more!

Update - I just took a bunch of these stock photography links down simply because the list is endless! They’re all pretty expensive (although everything is relative - sometimes you just need that *special graphic* that you can’t find anywhere else). Personally, one of the only places that I buy from is iStock (see below) which, while not “free” any longer, has super duper inexpensive graphics!!

FREEBIE Photo Downloads - The latest thing, free photos! Exposure for photographers, and goodies for the rest of us! Some are really very good.

• *The Best* iStock
• Inertia Stock.xchange
• Imageafter

ETC... this is a little area for other places that I frequent :)

CoolStop.com - This site is a wUnderful portal which leads to many, many other interesting places to go, see, feel & taste! joe jenett is da man :)

Digital-Web Magazine - Wonderful e-zine for keeping up with the latest gnus. There's interviews, resource links, tutorials, reviews - all sorts of goodies! check it out.

DynamicDrive - Some of you remember those trailing cursors stars I had? Well, you can find scripts for a bunch of cool tricks here, as well as the "no right-click" script that I use on my pages.

CommArts - This 'Zine has mucho cool linkage and info.... great 'inspirational' design links and resources.

HOW Magazine - This is one of my fav magazines - one of the few that I actually subscribe to and read - from cover to cover!

k10k.net - "Designer's Lunchbox" - a little bit of this and that... linkage to other design sites, new main thang every issue/weekly... 

Blogger - In case you haven't heard, there's a web log revolution goin' on! "Diary" "Online Journal" - call it what you like, but get your own and share yourself with the internet world! Since my first entry about this, there are tons of similar tools to write your "blog" with (too many to list).

Zeldman - By some chance you have never visited this man, I will provide you with the opportunity to see the web at it's most intelligent... and witty... and just plain cool-daddy-o! [and such a thweetie]

Independents Day - There are a lot of hard working web people who continue to bring you excellent web content for free. The  independent web lives on!

Powagirrrls - Carole has compiled an area of women designer sites over at NetDiver.

Soapboxgirls - Another most excellent site. Lauren and Emira have also compiled a list of women designers in their August issue.  Lauren & Emira have a new site - The Boss of You, for women who run businesses.

Art Beat Street - In the mood to browse and be inspired by excellent artists? TONS of illustrator links as well as artist interviews (by "yours truly").

BEGINNER'S - I am frequently asked "How do you ___?" There are soooo many tutorials out there, I cannot begin to explain it as well as they have. When I first began,  I read  and read and read EVerything that I could get my hands on, and I practiced. THat is the key. One cannot expect to know how to create a web page overnight. I can tell you one of the most important things that you should never,  ever forget:

 Keep the entrance to your home page SHORT! Make a fairly brief outline of what is within your site, with links to where to go on your site. DON'T put it all on that 1st page. DON'T put up a kazillion graphics.  DON'T put all of your links to other places on that page. If people can't see what your site is all about in a minute, don't think they're going to hang around waiting for your page to load (unless it's your mother)

Where to go for help? Here's a few places to start. As I said, there are oodles of tutorials, do a search when you run out of places. Look at other well done sites and study them. Remember, practice,  practice,  practice! (more newbie info)

Lissa Explains All - This is a great site for beginners! Young and old, although she addresses kids (that's what makes it so great ;)

WebAlley - "Web publishing made easy" - and everything is explained very, very well. Nice resource for building a website!

HTML Goodies - all around good source for beginners +

Website Tips - Excellent resource for everyone! You name it, it's here.

Zip/Unzip Utilities - Now that I'm offering most of my sets all zipped up for you, if you don't have a way to open them -- UNZip (for IBM related PC's) or UNStuff (for MAC's) -- you're out of luck. Here are a few of the best:

• WinZip (they have an excellent explanation of zipping & unzipping!!)
• StuffIt

There are also many freeware or shareware unzipping utilities available via Tucows, or Download.com

VISIBONE - Bob Stein has created the ultimate tools for website creators. I just received my HTML reference cards,  and he has managed to put so much information onto one of these cards, you'll marvel at how he did it. I also use his online color lab when I want to try out different color combos. Very cool. Speaking of color labs, here's a few of the many, many neat color tools on the web right now:

• Color Scheme Generator - V-e-r-y cool tool
• More Crayons
• Online Color Schemer
• Colorstrology - this is a fun site created by Pantone. It analyzes “your” color according to your birthday.

CSS Stuff

Mandarin Design - Tons of helpful bits of info and code that you can copy and paste into your site.

Vector Magic - An online tool where you can convert your bitmap images to vector. Check it out.

Firdamatic - Do you have a blog? and you'd like a cool, CSS design but don't know how to do it? Check out the Firdamatic.  Just fill in the blanks and your template is created! yay!

W3Schools - Speaking of CSS, one of my fav references for help is this site - as well as >>
Bradsoft - I bought this CSS editor because I need to visualize  what I'm doing as I create it. TopSite does that for me. *recommended*
Lissa Explains All - As I mentioned before, Lissa explains CSS pretty simply.