Learning by coding

I got asked by my boyfriend to HTML and CSS up a site for him to use as his personal site.  I jumped at the opportunity to do more with HTML5 and code up the aesthetics of a site that is not my own.  It gives me a chance to understand what is involved in designing a site from scratch with no idea of what is wanted.  I have asked what the requirements are, but all I got back is 'a site, one that works and looks ok'... CLIENTS!

Whilst I am doing this, he is learning MVC so he can put a simple CMS together, which I hope to one day go through and get an understanding of.  In the meantime, I'm happy to just be doing the front end stuff.  I want to do more designing and I think doing this will help me.  Ok, it won't make me a professional at it and I do need to have a sense of design and creativity before I can be anywhere close to any designer out there, but if I don't do this now, I probably never will!

I do a fair bit of HTML and CSS work at my job, but because it is tagged onto a Drupal template and that we have a number of clients to deal with at the same time, I don't always get the chance to work on my skills so doing this at home will definitely benefit me in the long run.

Oh, and I have also started to use Google Chrome at home now instead of Firefox.  My laptop is not that old to be fair, but it takes an age to load Firefox up, even when it has been being used for a while.  As soon as I click on the button for Chrome in my taskbar, I am presented with the program straight away - it's amazing!  Just need to install the extensions that Firefox runs (such as Fireshot and Firebug) and I will be on something great.