Memory Lane
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Last night I was so happy and surprised to receive an email from Etsy telling me that one of my bags had sold. My first sale on Etsy!
I was even more surprised to see who had bought my bag. And because I now use my married name he wouldn’t have known it was me - a total coincidence and a blast from the past: John Lampard from Disassociated, which probably means nothing to all you crafty types but in 1999, John and I were part of a group of Australian designers who set up the huge and amazing Australian INfront - a collaborative project space and launch pad to Australia’s best online designers, artists, companies and other design related web sites. We have both moved on now but hey, we were there in the beginning, making history!
Did you know I had a blog with Blogger when they first opened up shop. I had a forum that kicked serious ass and was so popular that it totally amazed me. I set up my own web design business called Red Rocket Media, but it didn’t last long. I met and got cozy with Aliza Sherman, the founder of Webgrrls and I was a founding member of Webgrrls Sydney. I won real world awards for my personal site, trashed.org. I gave talks and tutorials at the first ever National Young Writers Festival, still going and HUGE - it’s now part of TINA - This Is Not Art. I was part of a group of geeky girls (including Kylie Gusset, now a knitter extraordinaire) who had a radio show on Sydney’s 2SER that was all about the net - it was called Ctrl Alt Delete. Oh I’m sure I could dredge up more history but you have probably had enough now! Thanks for indulging me. 
Here is a few images of my sites from the old days:
I would be really, really stoked if anyone remembered these sites so if you do be sure to leave me a comment to say hi!
ahhhh… memories. To be honest though, while web design was fun it didn’t give me half the pleasure that sewing and being a mum does. I’m glad I found my niche at last.
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Claire Said,
Sunday, February 5, 2006 @ 3:37 am
Congratulations on your first etsy sale! I just started a shop too. And I love your skirt. I would like to try sewing clothes, I haven’t done that yet.
p.s. I haven’t forgotten about bloglines, but no success yet!
Greg Said,
Sunday, February 5, 2006 @ 1:38 pm
Hi Jen,
Greg Chandler from the original INfront, and yes I remember all these sites.
After the INfront split and not because of it I slowly lost interest inthe whole web thing and concentrated on graphic design and illustration.
I moved to Brisbane teaching Graphic design and now find myself (ironically) teaching web design. So I guess I’m back. Actually a grown up web is a little challenging
BTW got your link from John Lampard.
Jen Said,
Sunday, February 5, 2006 @ 1:54 pm
hi Greg
John told me about you and what you’re up to. Thanks for visiting! I know what you mean about how the web has changed and “grown up”, and I don’t even pay much attention to that side of things any more. I am smart now - all my web sites use open source PHP and CSS to do all the work for me. I can’t believe the time and trouble I used to go through, hand coding everything. Mind you I still love to install plugins, addons and hacks to those programs and take hours to fine tune things so I do still enjoy it! It’s been a long time since I’ve dreamt in HTML code!
Great to hear from you - I love a blast from the past!
Jen
Justin Fox Said,
Sunday, February 5, 2006 @ 7:22 pm
Hey peoples! Wow this is like a little reunion!
So glad to hear you’re all still alive (lol) and doing well.
Life’s quick huh?! It’s amazing how the past few years have flown by.
I still remember how I always used to say “go with the flow” and John you were the first to tell me that “only dead fish go with the flow”. Jen I still remember the very early days at Reservoir St. as well as having a great boogie on the dance floor at a Sydney Uni doof!
I’ve been really getting into cars and learning how to race them at Wakefield Park and Eastern Creek. I’ve started a new site: http://www.jdmst.com for Japanese car lovers and it’s going well. I still do some web design too and yes I still work with Caryn (she’s still in Byron Bay).
All the best you guys and gal.
I’m sure we’ll all bump into each other again some time 
Steven Herod Said,
Sunday, February 5, 2006 @ 9:28 pm
Hello Jen
I doubt you remember me, i worked briefly at Spike at a similar time you did.
I was looking for trashed.org last night in a fit of nostalgia for old websites and was stunned to find it in the hands of a cybersquatter - and an hour of googling still didn’t turn up the reason why.
It took the ‘wayback machines’ cache of the site to lead me to ‘RedInstead’ and thence to here!
oh, your comment anti-spam thingy… really sucks!
Anyway, glad to know you haven’t fallen off the end of the world and life looks like its going well!
disassociated.com - promoting the semantically greener Internet since 2006 Said,
Thursday, April 13, 2006 @ 7:25 am
[...] Jen and I were also part of the first working group that set up the Australian INfront back in 1999. I mentioned Jen’s sites to another INfront 1.0 (nah, I’m not trying to start anything here) member, Greg Chandler, who now lives in Brisbane. In the meantime Jen had posted the story on her blog, and Justin Fox had also pitched in. Hey, instant INfront reunion!
[...]