Been Mia ... sorry!

Had a nasty cold that kicked my fanny, lasted over 2 months long. Started as a flu like thing then progressed into a chest cold. Little better now so I will be posting again! :)

Fly Me To The Moon

Well, Sunday was the last night of the Super Moon, it was the closest to the earth it will have been all year. I took a few pictures on Friday night and a few tonight. I almost slept through it, thank goodness Charlee woke me up. He sits on the coffee table and says Mama over and over till I wake up. lol That can be annoying at 4:30 in the morning when he wants to eat his breakfast. Anyway back to the Moon. It was very pretty! I like seeing the crators and things on it. Here is a small pic of the wall I made from Friday's view. We had cloud coverage, so it looked awesome, like out of a movie!

And here is a shot from tonight close up in creator vision lol! Pretty huh? Not too bad with a 80x zoom Cannon Power Shot SX20is 12.1mp, not a Rebel but it'll do!

I know it looks freaky with the frame and all the funky stuff around it, but it looks better than the black surrounding it. I am just weird I guess in my artistic views, a little out of the box...dangling from the lid! :} Watch the bouncing ball!!

 



Powerful Voices

I found this on YouTube and thought these kids were awesome...oh my goodness there is so much talent here, these will be future stars! Iron Maiden Cover "The Longest Day"

and this one too! From the movie Legend "Loved By The Sun"

Wow! They sound amazing, don't they?

Yesterday, A Sad Day

I am so glad today is a little better than yesterday. I woke up to find my Pretty Girl (Yellow Pied-Cockatiel) at the bottom of her cage. I had her for 20 yrs. and she was the sweetest bird. She could talk a little, she would say Purty Girl, Purty-Purty-Purty, do the wolf call, and whistle like calling the dog into the room, and whistle the doot doot song (can't remember the name right now) and would give you kisses and loved to snuggle under your chin as if to give you hugs. Nibble on your ear. And play with anything shiny on your neck and run up and down your arm. lol And loved toys. My father and his girlfriend gave them to us in 93 (don't remember where they got them, but they were too messy for them to deal with! So I took them in and loved them till they have passed.) along with a male (Gray), who I called Mr. Meanie, because he was not very friendly like she was. He would just tolerate you, lol! I had to wear a glove to handle him, not with her though. He passed two years ago in the spring. So either it was her age or maybe she was missing him a bit. (I think the life expectancy for them is 25 years or less.) They do get attached to each other like humans. Although she was a little chipper when he was gone. lol I was expecting something to happen as I thought they were both hatched around the same time in 92. He may have been older, don't know. Her band on her leg let me know when she was hatched and that it was between Jan-June and she was egg number 30. She was happy and doing fine, no illness or anything, no stressful posture at all, just was gone when I got up yesterday morning. Here is a picture of her! She was a sweet girl! I will miss her silliness!!!

Sitting here enjoying the sun and the spring breeze (notice how she looks like a fat girl lol) on the back porch while I was cleaning the bottom of her cage out.



We had a house full of kids and a house full of animals...and now it's just Hub the Cat and myself! Sad how life passes by so quickly. You do not realize the years are catching up with you, with kids at home. Then when they leave and have a life of their own, it can be so empty here. Although I do love my kitty, like a child. Spoiled rotten to the core though lol.

My little boo-boo kitty. Hub found him in the trash outside of a fix-it shop. He was starving and had ear mites so bad he couldn't hear a thing. He ran up to my Hub and almost jumped into his arms. Next thing I knew, I was an owner of a new, what we thought was a kitten. I need to hunt through my files to find his story! :) Happy baby now, Spoiled! He rules the house! I wouldn't have it any other way either!

 

Freaky Weather Monday

Yesterday was freaky we had tornado warning and some crazy weather. The air was thick with humidity and rain was so hard at times I couldn't see past my porch. We got 3" total. We were like on lock down till 8pm. But what was really strange is we never lost power the whole time. Even with all the lightening strikes. I kept air off most of the day because lightening has fried my AC wire 4 times now (So it gets cut as soon as I hear the thunder coming). Such a tiny wire causes the AC to loose it's cooling power. We're not like the Midwest, where they can see it coming. Ours are usually rain wrapped, so you can't run from what you don't see! You have to duck and cover when they say GO! We've never had too many here on the East Coast that I can remember, but now we are braced for anything and everything as far as weather is concerned. I was prepared, my meds and purse I threw into the ds bathroom and I had pillows and blankets on top of the washer across from it just in case I heard that train a comin' :) The Lord kept us safe yesterday and for this I'm very grateful.

On a lighter note! Today I took pictures of some flowers around my yard before they get pummeled by the rain we're suppose to be get this week. I'll use them in my LO's this month I think. Some are really pretty! I have this Pink Lily with lacey white edges that is awesome. Maybe I will post a montage later with some of my favs.

Creating Walls Today!

Playing in PSP today making wallpapers, Gibson Girls and some old love expressions I wrote in 2002. I don't know if my comments section on my posts even works so I don't know what sizes anyone would be interested in. All mine I create are 1680 x 1050 and 300ppi. Back in the day they were 800 x 600 72ppi or 300ppi when computers were young and always saved the walls as bmp's and a few jpg's. That's before I knew any better! lol  :) I like the changing times and neat toys! Just no cell phones for me! ;)

Good morning blog!!!Today starts the progressive scrap at DSS. I love playing those games they are so much fun! I can hardly wait for Day1 to be posted!
On a different note...
Wacom Tablets, I use a Bamboo Create CTH670. Was asked about how to change the pressure sensitivity. Windows-Start-All Programs-Bamboo-Bamboo Preference-click Pen tab-Move slider on the Tip Feel to Soft or Hard level settings. Try it out and then set which suits your needs the best. If you have to press too hard to get the marks you want it wears down the pen nib quicker.
Another little trick is to use a piece of paper and a little clear tape to secure it in place or even those uber large post-it notes will work too. Attach it to the active surface. (If it gets dirty change out the paper.) It will slow down the glide of your nib. This helps when you first get started playing with the tablets, to control your movements.
Hope this helps someone...Have an awesome day! :)

A1C test was good... uh huh, oh yeah, uh huh-uh huh (doing the happy dance)-uh huh!! I was a good girl!

Who Am I?

Been up for awhile, was looking at some plastic surgery botches, oh my word! Just be satisfied with what you were given, it was a designed plan. You can not change that age is upon you, it's a fact of life that should be taken with honor and knowing that your have traveled down a long road and you should step aside for the other journey-men/women. There is too much vanity in this world. Beauty fades, but what's inside your heart makes you the person, people should love and respect!

I had that reality check when I became sick with thyroid disease. I went from Hashimoto's Thyroiditis to Graves Disease back to Hashimoto's. It changed my looks completely. My hair turned totally white and my face aged 10 yrs. in a few months and it made me gain a whole person in 6 months. The thyroid governs every aspect your of life, your emotions, your metabolism, your heart rhythm, your blood pressure, the migraines, and memory loss. Every cell in your body reacts to these changes. I referred to it as a Rip Van Winkle effect. You can not stay awake you have to sleep all the time, there is no energy whatsoever. You cry at the drop of a hat, you feel as if you are going crazy! I suffered with it's wrath since 2001 and let me tell you it was something I would not wish upon anyone in this world. I went through a thyroid storm. And it all started after I quit smoking for 27yrs. My habit was masking my symptoms. I am now returning to normal, slowly but surely, my thyroid is dead, they killed it with drugs and radiation and my levels are now governed by medications. With the rapid weight gain, I now have type 2 diabetes. But that will change once I lose the rest of the weight I put on. So far I have lost 56 lbs. It's tough because my metabolism is still not normal, so that is an accomplishment in itself! It's made me hide from the world as people are and can be cruel when they judge you because you do not look like a super model or like a normal people. I am thankful for my computer and some very friendly people I have met along this path that was set before me and in the end I will become me again and return to a normal life (I hope and pray this will come to pass)! I am happy to say I did not return to cigarettes and I celebrated being smoke free for 13yrs in April. I was never sick or on any meds at all until I got this disease. Now I have to take so many I have a big pill box to hold my weeks worth so I can keep up with them all. My day revolves around my pill box. I will be so glad when that changes too!!! Well, now you know a little about me and who I am!

Made the new back and header this afternoon...I like it, suits my personality. Had some stuff going on this weekend that didn't make me a very happy camper. So I prayed a lot and God heard me and eased my mind and my situation. Things do happen when you believe! And I am very thankful for his favor! :) Someone does listen, even if I am in the room alone, he is always there!!

June Challenges at DSS

More to come as I do them! :D

Color Challenge hosted by Anita, ADB Designs we used her Grandmother's Garden Mini Kit. I went with Lacy background because of the flower edges are curled. I'm not really a pink fan but this flower is a knockout when it comes to colors blended so softly together! 

Wow, do you sense a theme here? lol June, flowers, pretty :) Any-who, on to the next...

 

Let's Scrap, special scrap fun for those of us with a creative block with The Urban Fairy. We were to use her stuff ( I used her Refresh Fan Add On Mini )and make 2 LOs. I decided to make two pages that are opposite each other. The First LO I used a Steampunk Bust I drew and placed it in a jar, lol. Kind of where my mind is lately, hence the title! 

 The Second One is of an experiment with some of my Day Lilies Pics and some Mums faded into the background.

 



  I just love pressing buttons! :) Vignette is nice and with layers you can change the Opacity and Blend modes. I think they came out quite nice maybe a little Eerie but isn't that what Steampunk is about sometimes?

 

 

   

 

 

 

 







They're Baaack!

I worked out in the yard, cut the grass, well most of it. I usually cut it every week. I have my wheels set on 7, but bad weather made that impossible. I mulch it in the summer. I have to finish it up in the morning early I guess or hope too anyway. It was very warm today and I had to wait till it cooled off a bit so I started a little after 5pm, did the front and sides and took first break at 630. I did a lot (had to cut front twice because the grass was tall from the rain we had) then came in for a few minutes to fix Hub something to eat for dinner, then went back out and did most of the back. After I put the lawn mower away, I had to empty the bird food into the container. If I didn't in the morning I would have had a mess on the back porch from some critter a Raccoon or Possum (saw a female a few weeks ago huge, she was PG I think) or the Squirrels. Tonight I saw in the dark my first deer, eating my apple tree, I chased it off. Now I know where my bushes went between the houses. They were coming back from where they ate them down to bare nothings last year, poor things will never get to grow I guess. Here are a few pics of my backyard visitors.

These were taken about the middle of June 2012 around the yard and tree line. And here are the apple tree bandits and leaf and branch strippers!

Instead of cutting the rest of the grass today (90') I made some noise makers out of tin cans and garden twine to hang in the tree limbs to make noise to scare them away. My poor peach trees I just planted last year were stripped bare, this year they have branches coming back again. I hope this works!

Bet you're wondering what the heck is wrong with that tree on the left, it is a Granny Smith dwarf tree.When it was planted we had a hurricane that made it slant some. We tried to correct it as much as we could. We had boring beetles and they played havoc with the trunk so it grows like (The base was like a giant root) that, but it's ok the rabbits and squirrels like the low branches to reach the apples. Which is why I planted it in the first place and the other one on the right is a Jonathan dwarf apple tree so they get plenty to eat around here in the backyard. the birds love them too! I have seen a squirrel take an apple in it's mouth and drag it up a tree backwards, it was so funny to watch! In the front I have a wild bird Crab Apple tree. It has little berries that get mushy in the fall and they come and eat them during their migration south for the winter. Got that as a free tree through the Arbor Day Society. All kinds of birds visit, the fall it's mostly hoards of Black birds and Robins in the tree tops. Stripping all the berries off in a few days they will be gone! I have pics somewhere of them I will try to find!!

 

Forgot to post this little story...on Thanksgiving last year while I was still asleep, Hub got up to get the paper just at the crack of dawn and had a surprise waiting for him. He waited to tell me as soon as I opened my eyes. He ask me how many deer do you think I saw in the front yard off the porch??? Then like a little kid he held up his fingers in my face. Nine, I saw Nine, 4 large Doe and 5 young fawns (none had any spots but were still small.) He looked at them and they looked at him and they both just stood there and poof they were gone in a thunder bolt! He said he didn't know if any were in the back at the time, (I bet that is where the Buck was because the way he described it to me it sounded like it was a harem and I know he had to be close somewhere with all those young females). I was thinking maybe I should make him take my camera with him at all times, then I thought nope, I'd have to teach him how to use it! lol :D

Revamped My Header

Made the pic behind my header last night out of the header at my site. I lost my original layered file when my other computer's HD failed so I was pretty upset back then. It doesn't look as pretty, but it will do for now until I figure out something else to replace it with.

Update: I have the blog the way I like it now! So I may post a freebie now and then! ;) A wallpaper or a scrapbook goody I made. So make sure you come back to check once in awhile. Also please leave a comment or two to let me know what you think about my blog and If you liked the surprise I left you! Thanks and have a lovely day!!! :D

Updated the update:  Please let me know what sizes you would prefer for your PC Wallpaper. I usually make them 1680 x 1050 x 300ppi and if you would like to have a PNG made from one I posted for your personal pictures to be placed in them.  I can also make FB walls if you prefer. Please leave a comment to let me know!

Ok will need a little feedback here if you want some goodies posted for download. Sizes and what you would like to see! Then I will start posting things for you to have! I will be using 4 shared mostly for my downloads. All goodies will be zipped up when needed and a small pic will be shown so you will know what it looks like! Hope to hear from you all soon! Have a blessed day! :D

A Tasty Day

Good Morning! This morning I decided to have a waffle, but I didn't want to put syrup on it, not in a sweet mood this morning! (I'm a diabetic so syrup would have been Log Cabin SF, which is the best as far as flavor and no after taste) Anyway, I split my waffle (Belgiam) after it was toasted and I had sausage patties in the freezer that were previously cooked and split into, so I threw them in the pan to reheat and then semi-scrambled an egg and topped that with a slice of sharp cheese covered to melt it and then placed between the waffle. Topped it off with a nice a glass of 1% milk and my metformin! That was a tasty way to start the day and something different from the norm. :)

Painted a flora corner this morning and decided to make it into a frame for my Sandy Pic. Turned out nice I think. Much better at it's normal size and at normal opacity levels and no shadows.



May Challenges at The Studio

I'm not a CT for anyone nor am I a designer anywhere, but I do like playing the games in the forums and getting pretty mini's and QPs and playing with my programs and Pics I have taken.

I am going to post my LO's that I did at DSS this month! I had a great time making them!
Here is my finished Progressive Scrap, I used a mini kit from the Beautiful Baby Mega Kit at The Studio

The next LO is from the Less is More Challenge.  Studio4 Design.works cute SpringView Mini Kit freebie. I just love the Mod Girl in this kit reminds me of the Big Eyed Kids Paintings from the 60's! Or the Candy web Dolls that were so popular a few years back. And Love Anima too so that was a plus for me!

The next LO I did was the Color Challenge. with ADB Designs Time In A Bottle Add-On kit. I love the elements and bkgs in this add-on. I do love Victorian Era, Gibson Girls and and the  Steam Punk things! Lace and Grace all over the place. I wish! lol! Ephemera, ephemera, ephemera!!!

My next LO was for the Variety Challenge and that one I used a Stacked Paper News Freebie also by Studio4 Design.works. And I played a bit myself in PSP and added the frame and strip on the right side of the LO! The frog was a tree frog I found and placed in a container, took his pic a few times and then released him back onto my porch where I found him. They make lovely sounds I think.

The next LO was Featured Designers Challenge 2nd half I missed playing the first half :(

The designers are Mad Genius and Julie C Designs, I used the It's All You mini kit.

In the fall of 2011 I started to learn how to play a guitar, I purchased the Gibson Learn and Master Guitar Course with Steve Krenz. This is the first guitar I purchased, not expensive but it does have good tone and stays tuned. I learned how to read music, but I wrote down all the notes above the songs so I could find then quicker. All my song books have marks in them lol. As my memory isn't that great now that I'm older. I also thought it would help with dexterity and memory skills so I was trying keep me on my toes. I can play the melody but I still have to master the chords. Too tell you the truth, I like the melody better than the chords. I know what the song is by that. Chords to me sound funny. My hands will not cooperate with me most of the time, so I'm content with playing songs I've loved so much in the past. And my speed is kind of slow but that will improve as I practice. This is something that comes as time progresses anyway with practice and keeping at it! I get into more of this later with Pics of my guitars (4) and maybe if I'm not chicken I'll post a song or two on here for comments! We'll see! :) 

 

The next LO was done for ATC Challenge (artist trading cards) using Julie C Designs Preview Kit for her Taurus Kit Gotta love that Bull! This mini is very cute and I have fun playing with it. Everything was from the mini except for the four corners I made those in SBP.

And last but not least (I didn't do all of them, bad Beav) was the Make It Big Challenge with LouCee. Photos I took in April and May, all elements made by me. I made the page as I went along in PSP X4 and since I didn't have a photo strip I found a single one in my PSE 9 and made one to use in PSP.

I copied and pasted a motion pic of a cardinal that wasn't a very good shot for the bkg and then adjusted the opacity, instead of overlaying into the back! Made the little locks as my Alpha and clipped them together. I thought they came out quite cute if I should say so myself!







I hope I gave everyone the right credits where credit was due and a lot of publicity too! Thank you All for sharing your designs with me and letting me play along! :) I hope to play again next month also!



 

 

What the huh?

Look what I found inside my frozen squash the other day.........

I didn't know we were suppose to eat the stems too! Automation isn't it a wonderful thing?! :/



Recolored Pic

Recolored my eyes in a pic today! used two Pics and erased the top layer until I liked the look. My pupils are too big I think!

I had already used the red eye remove tool in PSP over my black and white pic but it looked to cartoony so I erased it on the top layer and that made it look more natural...I have blue eyes but I almost went with purple or green! lol



Herbs Drying Rack

Today I made a herb drying rack out of two storm door screen inserts that my neighbor gave me. They looked brand new and if I had to I could replace the screen, So I washed them and dried them really good. Then I cut and washed the herbs and pat dried in a towel in batches and then placed on one screen and took a fresh screen piece I cut from a roll and placed on top of them so I could have at least two layers. Then I placed the screens flush sides together and clipped them with those black paper clips (8) on all sides. Now they can air dry without anything getting on them! Sometimes I can be so very clever when it comes to using things for something else.  I will post a PIC of them later and also keep you updated on how the process went (ie. if they molded or had any boo boos along the way!) bbl :D

Well, some of my Herbs are dried already! Happy to report no mold or yucky stuff growing on them, woot-woot!! Now as soon as the thicker ones get dried I will start a new batch of clippings. I will post some pics in a few of the dried goodies so you can see my results for the screen door insert drying system! lol (insert info music and spoke person here) :D

 

Updated*** Here is a shot of two batches I have done so far. No problems with the mesh rack!

 

This is a good way to dry them without bunching them up on a string and being exposed to the air directly. Worked out great!!! :D I am happy!!! Wow they really squished that pic down huh?

 



OMG I Blog!

Now I've done it! I have a blog!
I don't use a cell phone and I doubt if I will ever own one, lol. I don't even want to go there right now.
I know a lot of people use them, but I just have no need for one myself!

I hope to write about things of interest here, as well as post some things I am trying to work on.
Art and graphics and things like that! Digital Scrapbooking, wallpapers and craft projects. Poetry and little words of wisdom. If you want to read that's ok and if not that's ok too!
So I'll keep you posted when I can get to All those things!...Bye for now! :)

First of all I need to tweak my page this white bkg is the pits! Ouchy!

Ok that's better, I used my Butterfly Blog Bkg. I made this morning in PSP and I tell you, the first butterfly was hard to create with my hand select tool. I started in PSE and used the custom shape tool and used butterfly 2 as a white shape. Then in PSP I played and played till I got the look I liked with SBP for the body and the wing cells. The swirls on the wings were made with a SKS brush. I played so much that I had a crash dump, why you ask, because... I forgot to save often. My auto save in PSP doesn't work in version 14 for some reason. I was so mad I had to walk away for awhile and cool down. Then came back and started over trying to dup what I did. Made some pretty ones but not like the first set I made. :/ Inserting an old gif I made from a old wallpaper many moons ago (2002)

I was going to try and add it to my header but it didn't work...so this will be ok I guess! I was new at animations, very new lol. Wish PSP would do a new version of Animation Shop it was so easy to use!!