I would say that the process took me about a week to knock up after work committments - luckily my significant other is really supportive of my endeavour! *Thanks Hayls :)*

During this time, I found the following tools/posts to be a total godsend:

• WAMP Server 2 - This little gem allows you to run Apache, MySQL (PHPMyAdmin included) and PHP on a windows machine, and in developing my main site it has been an essential piece of kit! Even when dealing with static .HTML site dev, it is a great way to increase flexibility in your testing/customization efforts. Currently, I have a copy of Joomla 1.5, Gallery 2, 2xWordpress installations and an install of esyndicat pro 2.2.06 - all easily accessible, no separate test server required. Brilliant stuff.
• Firefox 3.01 + Firebug - Yes, I’m another Firefox fan for site dev reasons. Using Firebug in this template customization made life easy, and I was able to use it in conjunction with the next tool to great effect mostly due to line numbering.
• Topstyle Lite - This little CSS editor is the free version, they also have a full-featured version for HTML and XHTML, however as I have been mostly using pre-packaged scripts, I have only had use of the CSS component. Topstyle Lite has a handy Preview panel that displays at the bottom of page, auto-complete for styles, and a brilliant approach to changing given style properties, getting elements by i.d., just all around presentational goodness.
• Jonathan Wold’s post on How To Create Your Own Wordpress Theme was a massive help in how to tackle a template integration for Wordpress, and his approach to the process was clear and to the point. As I am not a PHP coder, there was also enough in his tutorial that I was able to gain a sense of how the Wordpress hooks are used, and from there it was relatively easy - just trial and error. Thanks Jonathan!
• The doccumentation and brilliant coding efforts of the Wordpress Dudes themselves
• A wordpress logo design used in my blog footer designed by Kate over at nineteenlabs.com - Thanks Kate!

Wordpress is such a great engine to use for many reasons, and I’m grateful to all of the services mentioned for enabling me to perform this integration.

Now for kickass content!! Mwuhahahahahahahaaaaaaaa