At the beginning of 2002 I bought my first computer. I had used computers before for things like essays, but never in a creative way. I really didn’t know much about the computer and hated it for destroying some of my essays (O_o). My hubby Metin introduced me to programs like Illustrator and Dreamweaver. At All things Kawaii I learned about all the cute sites out there. So in april 2002 I decided to make my own website which I called Kawaii (the Japanese word for cute). It was hosted on a free server and contained pixel dolls and a collection of kao-ani.

Jenny asked me if she could host my site at clarity-child.net, which she did greatly for a couple of months. In July 2003 I bought the domain kao-ani.com. I chose this name because I like those animated puffs and because it was still available. I’m planning on keeping kao-ani for a long time and hope you’ll enjoy your stay

Credits

WordPress is the great CMS behind kao-ani, the theme I used as a base is called Simplex

This layout is inspired by Twin Peaks, cherry pie, chocolate muffins and Gisele’s website. The illustration of the coffee cup and sugar cube are purchased through Istockphoto.

Icons used for the blog and sidebar are from Pinvoke (diagona icons), Candied and Function.

Widgets/Plugins from WordPress:
Akismet, Contact Form 7, WP Pagenavi, PageMash, Social Sharing Toolkit and Tango Smileys Extended.

FAQ

Can you host my website?
I’m sorry, but I don’t host people since kao-ani.com is eating up all the bandwidth up by itself.

Why don’t you answer my e-mail?
If I’m not responding to your e-mail it’s either because I’m too busy, too lazy or because it’s a question which takes me too much time to answer ^-^;;

Will you make me a layout or pixel graphics?
I’m sorry, but besides my job and personal life I don’t have much time left. Please contact me through my professional website if you’d like a price quote for a layout.

OH MY! The Poo of my country is not listed, the horror (O_o)
Just drop me a mail and I will keep it until I find the time to work on new country poos.

Who or what are those cute dolls pictured on you site?
They are called Pullip dolls and they traveled all the way from Japan. Since the end of 2003 almost each month a new Pullip is released by JunPlanning. They aren’t released in large numbers and some of them are even limited to about 600 or 1200 pieces. That makes them very collectible and let me tell you, these girls are addictive (O_o). Some Pullips are more loved than others and therefore their price can rise and rise. For a newly released Pullip you will pay about $ 85,-. My favourite Pullip shops are Magma Heritage and PullipStyle. You can also join my forum called Pullip Fiction to talk to other Pullip addicts ;)

Others dolls that I like are called Blythe. These gals where originally issued in 1972 by Kenner. But they weren’t very popular at that time because children freaked out by the colur changing eyes. I’ve heard that Kenner Blythes even sold for as little as one dollar by then.

Many years later in 1997 Gina Garan started photographing these dolls and after publishing here photobook Blythe became popular at last. This time around Neo Blythes were issued, there are several new releases each year. You can read more about it and/or shop at This is Blythe.

Can I use your pixels for my layout/avatars/message board etc.?
You can use the adoptions, but only if you put them on your personal website or in your toybox with a link back to kao-ani.com.

Could you teach me how to use WordPress?
Well…no! Not that I don’t want to, but it would take a lot of my time. I (and a lot of other people) was able to install it myself, so I think you can do it too. Here are a few tips:
- Read the manual carefully.
- Try to read up on how to use MySQL, believe me it’s really not that difficult!
- Check the WordPress Forums, you can find a lot of questions answered there, but there are also handy plugins available (see above for the plugins I used).

How do you make your website?
Have you got a couple of hours? ;) It isn’t that simple to explain, but there is routine in how I make my website:
1. I try to come up with an idea, most of the times this happens before I fall asleep.
2. Sometimes I make a sketch on paper of the layout before I get started.
3. First I make the layout in a painting program like Photoshop. Think about the size it has got to be, before you start (a total width of 980 or less pixels should be fine).
4. I always make a stylesheet (CSS) where I link all my pages to. I really advice you to do the same, because it will save you a lot of time when you want to change something in the layout.
5. I code my layout using a program called Dreamweaver.
6. The secret word is practicing! Actually I learned webdesign on my own, hardly asking anyone for help. You’ll get a long way by taking tutorials you can find on the internet and don’t give up too soon, when you’ve got a problem. Good luck!

How did you make your clocks and calendars?
I won’t tell you how I made them, since Angelique and I figured it out ourselves. It’s our little secret ^__^. Same goes for the calendars.

What is direct linking or hotlinking?
Please read the story on Xentrik, it’s explained very well and also shows how you can prevent people from direct linking to your images.

Where did you learn how to make websites?
I got all my HTML knowledge by taking tutorials which I found on the internet. I encourage you to read up on tutorial sites and just start with a simple site, practice makes perfect ^_^.

At the beginning I didn’t know much about it, but by spending lots of time behind my computer I learned more and more about webdesign. I’m making websites for about 6 years now, mainly with a little help of Photoshop and Dreamweaver.