Who is Mazz?

I'm a 32 year old woman from Puerto Rico that has been living in the US for almost 10 years (but hasn't given up on the hope of one day moving back to the island). I've always been drawn to artsy stuff and I like to draw but I had stopped drawing because of  Graduate School and after that I couldn't find my muse again. That was until I joined my first Sims forum and saw all the cute avatars and blinkies everyone had and I decided to make my own. I started "dolling" in late summer 2003 but I don't know the exact date. I'm still in the process of learning and I like making dolls mostly for fun and to share them with my friends.  If you still want to know more about me here's a couple of details:

• Family: husband of almost 10 years (in August 2007), a 6 month old son and two cats
• Likes: The Sims, dolling, books, movies, cats [I have two, a 7 year old male named Kanu (pronounced Canoe) and a 3 year old calico named Lola], Eddie Izzard, Mafalda comics, Strangers in Paradise and all art by Terry Moore
• Favorite Books: Vampire books, mysteries. Some books I like: Isabel Allende's books, The Lord of The Rings trilogy, George RR Martin's Song of Ice and Fire books, Janet Evanovich's Stephanie Plum series, Anne Rice's Vampire Chronicles (only up to book 4), vampire books by Laurell K. Hamilton, all books by Charlaine Harris, Harry Potter, books by Tess Gerritsen and Adriana Trigiani among many others.
• Movies: Too many to list all here but I like the Harry Potter movies, Spiderman 1 and 2 (2 is my favorite), Batman Begines, The Others, The Sixth Sense, King Kong, Serenity, Little Miss Sunshine, As Good as it Gets and many others.
• TV: I love TV shows but since my son was born I only watch TV every now and then. The shows I used to love were: Desperate Housewives, Nip/Tuck, Carnivale, The Sopranos, Alias, Big Love, My name is Earl, Scrubs, The Office, Angel (the re-runs in the morning, my husband says I just don't want to get to work. Right now I wish I could watch The Riches but I would never make it 'till 10 PM.
• Music: Heavy Metal, 80's metal (Guns 'n Roses is my favorite band), 80's rock, musicals (my favorite is Calamity Jane and I LOVE Howard Keel), "Corporate" rock such as Styx, Journey and REO Speedwagon and "boleros" by Luis Miguel
• Why Mazz? I started uploading lots in The Sims site under my husband's screen name: Mazzinger. When I started joining forums I decided to change to Mazz and Mazzy to stop using his screen name. Mazzinger is a Japanese robot cartoon we used to watch growing up. It's actually spelled Mazinger but it was already taken.
• Favorite Colors: Black, red, gold, and orange (I like the colors of the sunset and warmer colors).

The Site

I started this site to have a place to display all of the graphics I've made or collected. Some people may find a site of this sort silly but I think of it as an online photo album or scrap book. The site makes it easier for me to share the graphics with others but the truth is I have the site because it just makes me happy to see everything displayed this way. 

This site was opened on October 18, 2003 to be exact. I then purchased the domain of mazzysdolls.com on December 2004. The site went on  hiatus last year (Spring 2006) and I let the domain expire when my son was born. I have decided to open the site again in a smaller version again now that I have a little bit more of time. The look of the site has changed quite a bit since it opened to reflect my mood and my development as a "doller", graphic artist and the new things I learn about coding layouts everyday. I've actually changed looks 10 times as of this current layout (May 2007).

The Layout

Coded by my sis Nocturnica.

This current look (Hibiscus) came out of my desire to put my site up again but not to spend too much time on the layout. I had made a hibiscus fairy layout that had dark green and bright pink colors that has always been my favorite but it used tables. This new layout uses the hibiscus graphic I had made but it's simpler. I'm using frames this time to help a bit with the images loading faster.

Past Layouts

Go here.

Programs I use

For drawing the dolls Adobe Photoshop 7 and Adobe Image Ready.

I build the site and update it using Notepad and Frontpage2000. I'm sure there is a lot you can do with Frontpage but I find it easier to code all of my layout with Notepad and use Frontpage only for updating the site. I need the spell checking. 

I've learned most of what I do on the site (from coding HTML and CSS to drawing dolls) from tutorials and by using other sites as reference. Here are a few sites I recommend if you are just getting started with dolls and your own website.

Html

Lissa Explains It All
Dynamic Drive
W3 Schools
Kali's Web Shoppe

Layouts and Web Design

Kristyn Dawn's
Magitek Designs
Kali's Web Shoppe

Dolls

Kristyn Dawn's (no longer a doll site)
Xandorra's Place
Guinevere's Dolls