Current layout


Home is where the heart is. Upon finding myself finally living in Ireland, I set about a new design. This layout is mainly comprised of my painting, along with a photograph taken from my window here in Limerick. I like the mish-mash of media, a collage effect. It's autumn now and the colours inspired the use of reds, browns and greens here.


past layouts


v10 » Le meas

This design featured me (on pipes) and Maireád Ní Mhaonaigh (on fiddle) in An Chúirt, Gaoth Dobhair, Dún na nGall...and a whole load of rose photographs by yours truly. This version feels different to me, I can't really tell whether it's as good as the last couple of versions or not but it has lots of personal meaning so I like it. Also the animated sparkles, set to sparkle at 'random' intervals, and the blue-and-white 'deckchair chic' of the background added to the summery feel. v9 » Carraige Baine


This design featured Maireád Ní Mhaonaigh and lyrics from the traditional Irish song 'An Bruach Na Carraige Baine'. It was online for over a year and thus the longest out of any design so far. However I tinkered with it several times, resulting in the addition of a snazzy mouse-over menu system which I dreamt up and decided it must be possible to impliment it. It was based on a series of ellipted circles which contained imagery from each of my projects. Each circle had a triscele design printed over it and the name of the project written next to it, which became visible gradually the longer the mouse was hovered over it. They faded in and out, creating a lovely ripple effect. This idea needs to be developed further and will hopefully be used in the next layout. I set myself an ultimatum - If I was sent images of myself and Maireád in Donegal they would be used to create a new design. If not, I would leave this one up until I was well and truly sick of it!!...


v8 » Gaoth Dobhair : Corraigh Do Chroí


This layout was online for longer than any other so far - at least 9 months!
Featuring photographs of Altan and with abstract use of the artwork of Anne Stahl, the colour scheme was browns, reds, sandy colours and black. I was particularly pleased with my splash image, which I got some extremely positive feedback about! I also used semi-transparent scrollbars for the first time.
I think that this was a 'landmark', so to speak, because it was my first layout where I thought, yes, this is serious, and I didn't want to take it down! In fact I had to force myself to make a new one because of a MAJOR layout block. However, unable to ween myself off the Altan theme (not a bad thing!) my new layout features Maireád Ní Mhaonaigh. I have undergone a period of change in my life and I wanted to make a fresh start. So....