This is where you meet the designer behind Raging Pistachio Designs. My name's Nicola, and I'm 20 years old. I started using HTML when I joined Diaryland, as you don't need to know HTML, due to generic templates available to use. However, I was getting fed up of having the same boring look as everyone else new on Diaryland, so I started to fiddle around with the weird looking stuff called HTML code, with the help of Lissa Explains, a HTML guide for kids, but also good for beginners of any age. Before long I had tranformed my boring page into one that was still kinda boring, but definitely unique!

Over the years, doing different things to the look of various web pages I owned, I gained confidence and knowledge on various things: tables, fonts, linking images, etc etc.

Then I got my own domain, Raging Pistachio, which I designed with the help of my other half, and now I like to think I can do most things without his help!

I got thinking how I liked doing different designs so much that I should have a go, and make a site where people could use my new-found hobby to brighten up their pages! Thus MyDesign was created, and people flocked from afar to use the brilliant designs.

Since I created MyDesign, I have increased in expertese, so to speak, and I can very much see the progression from the early designs to the latter designs, which I do prefer. :-)

I have done custom designs for people who have no idea what they want, and also for people who know exactly what they want. As for which I prefer doing... well it's probably creating a design from scratch, because although it takes longer, there's more work involved and so on, there is the feeling that the design is MINE, and it was all my work, whereas the one that was designed by someone else that didn't have the HTML knowledge wasn't as fulfilling, although I am willing to do both, because the latter is very quick and easy to do, generally taking at most a week, but often not that long, but the other taking between 2-4 weeks, depending on how many other things I am working on.

Designing is a hobby for me, I have a fulltime job in a nursery which isn't very good pay (as most childcare workers would agree), and what free time I do have is precious, as those three year olds are hard work! However, sometimes it can be a way for me to relax, and I do enjoy doing it, but for now it is just a hobby for me, and not a job. Part of me wants to work in the web design business, but I get the feeling that if I do, I'll get sick of it pretty quickly...