The Creation of Sew What's Up

[boblinnegan]

Although this isn't a typical craft project, I decided to take some pictures (with the miracle that is a digital camera, tripod, and timer) of the creation of the Sew What's Up website (and write a little bit about it).

Kaitlinnegan (AKA my dear wife) had gone to Iowa with her mom and sister to visit relatives, leaving me at home for three days--including her birthday! Well, I needed to come up with a good present for her--and what would be better than setting up Sew What's Up?

So, staying up until 3AM every morning, and getting up around 7 gave me just enough time to get everything working before she came home Sunday evening!

Friday

First, I had to build the actual computer (server) that would run the website. I had secretly ordered parts earlier in the week for Friday delivery--and luckily everything came on time!

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Then I had to assemble everything...

Putting in the motherboard:

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And the power supply:

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At that point, I got kind of tired of taking photos at each little step, and realized they didn't really look all that different from each other. So, skip six hours of installing other parts and configuring the system ... and ... success! Everything starts up!

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Saturday

Next I needed to work on the website itself. I had secretly started a lot of basic design on it earlier in the week, to work out some of the kinks. But there were still some major things left. I knew the site needed a logo ... and thought about it for a while ... and realized: What's better for a sewing website than a spool of thread? I drew one by hand using Adobe Illustrator. And then I added a speech bubble, since it's a discussion forum, and it turned out like this:

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Then I had to tweak the logo for the Internet, and did that with Adobe Photoshop:

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I then started configuring the forums to match the logo. I installed the forum software, and then had to replace the default color scheme with something with purples and greens--that meant lots of changing of colors and images. But by the time I went to bed, it looked great!

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Sunday

I wanted to make it easier for people to register who already have Sew What's New accounts. So I spent all day Sunday writing a program that contacts the Sew What's New website, retrieves your profile, and creates a user on Sew What's Up with your information. Here I am working on the software ...

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Kaitlin was coming home soon! She called me and said she'd be home in a few hours. I had just enough time to finish the stuff up and do some testing--and then it was time to put everything on the Internet! Here I am plugging it in ...

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And success! Sew What's Up is accessible to the world!

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I've got a few more pictures I can post later ... including all the ways our dog Nellie helped out!

[Mom of Six]

This is great! Thank you for creating our new home!!!

[PaulineG]

Thank you so much for all your hard work Bob. I know you did it as a birthday present for Kaitlin but it is also something very special to a lot of ladies (and gents) out there who you'll probably never meet but who are very appreciative all the same.

[Shrew1]

Awe! You are one great hubby, and we appreciate all of your hard work!

[FranW]

WOW I am so impressed with both your thoughtfulness and your computer knowledge. Thank YOU!

[bridesmom]

Totally amazing Bob!! I'm curious, how did you take the pictures of yourself??? Or is that how Nellie helped out???

[Brenisback]

[b]I'm so Impressed Bob!!! Thanks ...you are a good Husband...maybe I should say great Husband!!![/b]

[Debby215]

Wow Bob, that was amazing, we will have to give you Special shortcut initials...WDH...wonderful dear hubby,
Thanks so much for building us our home!!

[boblinnegan]

Totally amazing Bob!! I'm curious, how did you take the pictures of yourself??? Or is that how Nellie helped out???

LOL I set up our tripod and used the timer feature on the digital camera. So that's why a bunch of them are taken from exactly the same angle.

Nellie mostly helped by being good. Here she is napping on the futon upstairs and helping to keep dog hair away from the computer parts!

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[lendube]

What a wdh you are! Kaitlin is a very special girl and now we can see that you're pretty special too. What a wonderful thoughtful thing you did for her and for all of us. We truly appreciate it and hope this board sticks around a very long time.

This is my first post here. (Of many thousands I assume. I am quite prolific in that respect. Just ask anyone here.)

Lennie