workin' my way back to y'all ...

>> Wednesday, March 31, 2010

LLW_ShimmerinShamrocks_Garland_JeweledShamrocksnDiamonds

Just a quick fly-by to let you know that I am on my way back with *Shimmerin Shamrocks* embellishments and alpha!

I have spent the past week in search of two important items I had used in the creation of the embellishments and in so doing, I have finally taken some MUCH needed time to sort through and organize my CU goodies!  PHEW!  No wonder I struggle in moving from one project to the next!  I think to myself, yeah, I’ve got just the thing for that and then, it never fails, I draw a blank and forget which designer I purchased the item from!  Unfortunately, my designer beginnings were before I thought myself ready and I seemed to float from one project to the next and would be lucky enough to get files unzipped and put away, let alone organized by category!  Up until now, I had everything filed by designer only – NOT practical whatsoever!

For those that get even a tad bit sidetracked in your day-to-day doings, organization surely is the “key”!  Of course, I’ve known this for a very long time as my brain shuts down in clutter and that extends to my computer files as well!  ROFL!  I’ve just never had the opportunity to go through my EHD and/or CD/DVDs to clean house and to transfer items I wish to use to a more functional area on my C drive.  I’ve spent some late nights the past several days as it is quite time-consuming going through each file and deciding what to move over and what to leave alone!  LOL!  However, I am feeling better and better about my new CU filing system with each passing day and NOW I can finish my goodies for y’all!  WOOT, WOOT!

I do apologize for, what seems to be, my lollygagging (when is the last time you heard or read that word?) in getting back to you and I hope that you understand that this will ultimately make me MUCH more productive than I have been! I seriously believe my inability to find what I need has stopped me dead in my tracks on many occasions.  ARGH!  No more … I hope!

Happy mid-week everyone and I shall try my best to help y’all get over the “hump” with some goodies before the clock strikes midnight!  HA, HA!  Now, I did not say in which time zone, but then y’all know where I live, right? :D 

Until we meet again … *wink*

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update to the update ...

>> Tuesday, March 23, 2010

 Y’all just know that something is not right when I am but of a few words and have been MIA for a spell … sorry.

I hope to be back on track in the next few days, so please stay-tuned for the rest of *Shimmerin’ Shamrocks*.  I did get my FTP working, but have not been at the computer since Saturday when I was trying to work on my designs and just could not focus, nor sit here for any length of time.

I knew something was really out of whack last night when speaking with my daughter, Joan, on the phone.  She called to update me on Baby Girl and to let me hear her heartbeat!  How AWESOME was that from 700 miles away!  I was not quite myself and felt like a bit of a space cadet. 

Anyhoo, I’ve not had the energy to sit at the computer and despite going to sleep at an early hour every night, I am not getting out of bed until 9:30 or 10:30 in the morning!  I am normally up with Robert and on the go throughout the day.  Not so the past week.

Conclusion:  My having to go back onto Levothyroxin  (Levoxyl) from Nature-Throid has put me back to square one with my hypothyroidism.  It did not happen over night, so I thought I was good-to-go while focusing on my healing from the gall bladder surgery.  

I started back on Levothyroxin a week after my surgery.  I have been recovering nicely from the surgery and did not put two-and-two together until this past weekend.  I found myself lacking energy, along with a few other symptoms that had disappeared for the first time in over a decade after finally getting a prescription for Nature-throid.  I TRULY felt like a new person and it was SO nice to know what energy was again after living without it for so long!

Those of you who have been taking Armour Thyroid, Nature-Throid, or any other natural form of desiccated thyroid, are aware of the shortage.  My pharmacist at WalMart had been kind enough to supply me with whatever dosage he has had until there simply was NO more.

Last I checked, he still had not received any.  I hope to call tomorrow and check again.  I have great faith that I shall find a remedy to this in the near future but for now, I have to listen to my body and not push myself.
For those of you searching for answers or just wishing to be in the company of others struggling to find a source of natural desiccated thyroid, the link below is a group I follow on Facebook.  


I have looked to the expertise and writings of Mary Shomon on the subject of the thyroid for over ten years.  For any of you who may be thinking you might have a thyroid issue and might just be in need of some GOOD information, Mary has been providing us with a wealth of information since 1997.  Naturally, her expertise and published books have come from her own struggle with her thyroid.  


I look forward to seeing you in a few days and I thank you, again, for your patience.
Have a GORGEOUS first week of spring!

XOXO,

Linda :D

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update!

>> Thursday, March 18, 2010

Hi y’all!

Just a quick note to let you know that I won’t be posting the embellishments for *Shimmerin Shamrocks* today and I do apologize.

I am making some changes as I have a few of my working files that I am not finding AND I am going to start storing my freebies on my personal FTP, which had quit working and I just never had the opportunity to get in and see what the problem was.

I should be good-to-go by late afternoon, early evening my time (PST) and will see you then!

Thanks for your patience and understanding as I hope this will make things easier for all of us in not having to deal with the limitations and/or issues with 4-shared from time-to-time!

Love and hugs,

Linda :D

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the luck of the irish and some "shimmerin' shamrocks" for y'all!

>> Wednesday, March 17, 2010

Happy St. Patrick’s Day everyone! 

I read a cute quote for the first time earlier today on Twitter.  “Everyone is Irish on March 17th”!  LOL!  I am thinking there is a lot of truth to this as I have seen people from all over the world shouting out “Happy St. Patrick’s Day”!  And just what is there NOT to like about St. Patrick’s Day?  Great history about St. Patrick himself, the luck of the Irish, kissing the blarney stone, a huge celebration, corned beef and cabbage and, of course, River Dance just to name a few!  I took tap dancing as a wee tot, but my head would have been swirling trying to keep up with the Irish step dancing that I’ve grown accustomed to over the years!  PHEW!  AMAZING talent and stamina!

So, you just KNOW that I have to share a little bit of Irish step dancing with you, now don’t ye? *smile*  I have disabled my mp3 player so as not to interfere with the viewing of the video below.  I’ve been listening to my selection of Irish music ALL day and if you can keep still while listening, you are a saint!  LOL!  My legs cannot be still for a moment!  In fact, I managed to find myself up and dancing about my office several times today!  Yah, a good workout mixed with a little fun!  If you wish to listen to the Irish music after the video, feel free to press play on the player located on the sidebar!  Warning:  some part of your body WILL move!  ROFL!


Is not that simply AMAZING?  I could watch this over-and-over again and I most likely shall until it is no longer visible on my home page! He, he …
I have had a rather distracting day today (will catch you up tomorrow as it is really is very interesting) and did not finish up revamping the embellishments for *Shimmerin’ Shamrocks*, so I shall leave you with two links to download the background papers and I shall be back tomorrow with the embellies, followed by an alpha on Friday!

“Versatility abounds in this lush palette of greens and rich earth tones complimented with antiqued-metal embellishments, shimmerin’ jewels and sparklin’ glitters that shall be fitting for any outdoor adventures as well as your St. Patrick's Day festivities, visits to the local Celtic Fairs, vacations to beautiful Ireland or documenting your Irish heritage”!

Well, you will actually see the shimmerin’ jewels, antiqued- metal embellies and most of the sparklin’ glitters tomorrow! *wink*

Bon scrapatit!

Linda :D
LLW_ShimmerinShamrocks_BGPapers_Preview

Sorry, links are no longer available

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i've seen a dragonfly, I've seen a housefly ...

>> Tuesday, March 16, 2010

I’ve even seen a horsefly!!!  BUT …  I’ve not been the same person since I’ve REALLY seen Shutterfly!  ROFL!  I kid y’all not!

ScreenHunter_03 Mar. 16 14.46 
A small glimpse of the share site I have created for my daughter, Joan, in which she and DH will share with
family and friends their journey from a couple, through Joan’s pregnancy and into parenthood.

I have known about Shutterfly for many years now.  However, since  I’ve done all of my own printing for my digital and/or hybrid projects to date, I’ve never had an interest to frequent their site or any other printing site for that matter.  Well, that all changed several months back when I decided the only way I was ever going to be able to put a dent into my 30-40 years worth of photos and to “actually” create albums for all six of my children, let alone work on heritage photos and now grandchildren, without going broke and putting my passion for designing to a halt, was in the creating of digital photo books!

In between projects and life in general, I had spent three-to-four months searching and researching my best option given the size of the families between Robert and I.  Between the two of us, we have eleven children, six grandchildren (two more on the way this year) and countless aunts, uncles, cousins and so on!  LOL!  I am still meeting family relatives for the first time in my life and or reconnecting with some I’ve not had contact with since I was a young girl.

It never fails.  At every family event, I am asked when it is that everyone is going to have the opportunity to see all of the photos I’ve been taking over the years.  I would love to print photos or even burn DVDs for everyone, however, I simply cannot afford to, nor do I have the time as the events are ongoing!  I have been in turmoil over this fact for some time, because my heart wishes to do for everyone and there is just not enough of me to keep up with all that “I” would love to be able to accomplish. 

After making the decision that photo books are going to be my preferred method of preserving memories, it was then a question of which site would best suit my needs with quality of product being at the forefront of my final decision.  Shutterfly won my heart, hands down!  Why you might be asking? Here are just a few of my reasons:
  • Shutterfly is the first site of it’s kind on the web making it well-established and is a one-stop shopping place for photos (they are celebrating their 10th year this month!)
  • Unlimited photo storage
  • Photos are never deleted unless you do so yourself (In their 10-year history, Shutterfly has NEVER deleted a photo!)
  • Photo editing on board for those without a photo editing program with lots of options, such as cropping, red-eye removal (love this one, simple and very effective!), black and white, sepia, speech bubbles, frames and borders and the list goes on 
  • Photos are stored in the resolution in which they are uploaded for optimum print quality (just make sure to upload images at full resolution as you would at Flickr
  • Shutterfly will let you know the largest print size recommended for each photo uploaded, which will ensure a good quality print
  • Organize your photos into albums and then albums into folders if you wish by date, event, etc.
  • You have the ability to share your photos right from Shutterfly to Facebook, MySpace, Twitter, your blog or get the code to embed a widget on another site
  • Order prints (wallet size to several poster sizes), numerous other photo gifts and photo books right from your Shutterfly account and/or share site(s)
  • Create unlimited share sites (public or completely private to only those you invite to become members)
  • Link share sites
  • Post links to your favorite sites from within your share sites
  • Add widgets to your share site (I have created custom skinned mp3 players for all four share sites thus far)
  • Add photos, albums and photo books from your Shutterfly account to any of your personal share sites or share sites that you are a member of where the owner has given you permission to contribute
  • Shutterfly photo book bindings are stitched not glued and are of top quality
  • Shutterfly offers free PSD templates with guides for trimming, bleed issues, etc.
  • Those you wish to share your photos with via your Shutterfly albums or share sites have the option of downloading the photos of their choice in FULL resolution to print on their home printers or they can order prints via Shutterfly (this option alone won me over because most photo sites want you to order prints through them and the photo images are stored in less than print-worthy sizes and resolution
  • Shutterfly has a wonderful community area and gallery where you can share or learn from others
  • Lots of valuable information being shared on Shutterfly’s blog, Picture More, which includes some great tutorials
I could go on-and-on, however, I encourage you to check it out for yourself if you’ve never dug deeply into the Shutterfly site! 
              ScreenHunter_05 Mar. 16 14.53
The custom mp3 player that I
created at Playlist.com for Joan’s baby site!

The last bullet, but too lengthy, would have been about my main purpose in registering with Shutterfly in the first place!  For example, the share site that I am currently working on for Robert’s side of the family will enable us to invite Robert’s seven siblings, their children and grandchildren to become members of our family share site.  Everyone will have the ability to contribute to the site and while I have written up a set of guidelines so as to keep things organized, each member will have their own Shutterfly account where they can create albums.  At the end of the year, I will have everyone start selecting a few of their favorite photos from each family event to add to the family yearbook album on the family share site. 
 
From the share site there will, hopefully, be a team of us working on page layouts and begin creating our family yearbook to have printed into whatever size book or books we decide on via Shutterfly.  This simply cannot be done from a blog, Facebook or anywhere else I’ve been thus far.  If you have found another site equal to what I am sharing in regard to Shutterfly, please enlighten me so that I might check it out! 

Reminder:  working with photos in their original size and resolution is essential for producing quality photo books.

The photo books will remain on the family share site indefinitely so that each family member can order whenever it is convenient for them to do so.  Nothing is ever deleted unless the owner(s) of a share site opt to do so.

Y’all know I am a “frugalista”, so I will wait to order my photo books when Shutterfly puts them on sale for 30-40% off, which is usually the case after the first of the year and will make for the perfect timing for a family yearbook! 

Shutterfly always has something special going on and for every share site I create, they add to my account 30 free 4X6 prints (not including shipping, which is nominal) that I’ve not had time to work with yet and I’d better get a move on it before the the deadline!  LOL!  I even earned free prints for sharing a video on one of my share sites.  These are random offers and if you sign up to receive their specials when registering for an account, you will always be privy to such offers! *wink*

Just for registering at Shutterfly and creating an account, they give you 50 FREE prints with 30 days to place your order.  They are very good about sending reminders in the event they see we’ve not yet taken advantage of our “free” goodies!

I shall keep y’all abreast of my Shutterfly experiences!  I have now created a total of four share sites with more in the planning!  The first was for my daughter, April who was just married, the second for Robert’s family, the third for my daughter, Joan, so we can follow her pregnancy and the fourth for my mother, the Adam’s Matriarch!  Yes, I see even more family yearbooks in my immediate future!  LOL!

Oh, one more mention lest I forget.  You can add pages onto each share site to further customize your personal experience and I shall share a little about one that I have created.  

Robert’s family has a reunion bi-annually and this July we will be having Family Camp!  This is normally planned and executed via emails back-and-forth and I thought, let’s have a page devoted solely to the planning of Family Camp.  Of course, I shall have to wait and get feedback from those that usually head things up but, on the page I have created, I’ve added a forum where each day’s menu can be posted and family members can come in and sign up for the items that they would like to contribute.  There is a map via Google where everyone can get directions if needed and I’ve even added a weather gadget so we can all keep track of what the weather will be like at the campground we will be camping out at!  How cool is this?   And, I was even able to enable an email that will be sent out automatically to all members that will encourage them to upload their photos after Family Camp is over!  I love, love, LOVE my Shutterfly sites!  Everything is all in one convenient place and everyone can participate in some capacity and end of with photos, photo gifts and/or photo books!  WOOT!

A little feedback on photo books versus scrapbook albums from someone’s blog post that I read a while back.  She noted that the family scrapbooks were rarely picked up and viewed by others.  When she created her first photo book, it was constantly picked up by those visiting and looked through!   I, personally, am finding them much more practical in so many ways.  While one may not wish little fingers flying through the pages of a photo book (you cannot simply re-print and replace one torn or fingerprinted page), they can always be kept up high enough to prevent that from happening.  I know that I would not wish to even think about that happening with digital scrapbook albums that I had worked hard on and printed out myself!  SO, there is always a method to our madness, right?  Uh, huh …

Now y’all know where I’ve been and why I’ve not even made a peep here on my blog the past week-and-a-half!  Phew, this girl has taken care of some “family” business!  LOL! *big grin*

I look forward to any and ALL feedback as always.

I shall be back tomorrow, St. Patrick’s Day, to share my new and improved recipe for, *Shimmerin’ Shamrocks* with y’all.  Until then, keep on scrappin’ happy my lovelies!

As always, I thank you SO much for your lovely comments and well-wishes.  I read them all and they touch my heart dearly.  MWAH!

Love and hugs,

Linda :D

P.S.  Shutterfly has not offered me anything for this basic review, in fact, unless they get pinged or something like that, they won’t even know I’ve written this post about them!  Most of you know me well enough to know that I simply love to share a good thing when I find it!

If you might be interested in seeing a wonderful “Layout Printing Review” and have not already viewed it at the The Daily Digi, head on over and check out Stephanie’s fabulous review which, unfortunately does not include Shutterfly, however, she will review them in an upcoming book review.  Stephanie has does an excellent job of covering the most important things we need to know if looking for someone to print out our layouts and/or photos.  I just happened to catch this review while in the midst of writing my blog post last night!  How is that for timing?  Thank you Stephanie!

A few posts back from Stephanie’s review of layout printing, I found a wonderful post from Wendy of Wendyzine Scraps, “How-To Guide: Printing Photo Books and Albums for Digital Scrapbookers”.  I have already purchased some of Wendy’s “toolkits” for Shutterfly at Scrapbookgraphics and look forward to using them in my photo book creations!

Naturally, my choice of Shutterfly has been based on more than print quality (which I already know is excellent) and entirely on my needs to compile photos from many different sources culminating into photo books for everyone to purchase who wishes to do so!  It always pays to read what other’s experiences have been and then do a little more digging on your own until you feel you have found a good fit for your personal and/or family needs.

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spreading a little sunshine, my pc is up and running, a ct call and a thank you gift, woo hoo!

>> Thursday, March 4, 2010

Lohgan's-Second-Birthday

A few photos from our grandson, Lohgan’s second birthday party, September 2009.  He is SO sweet and studied his gifts with such intensity!  VERY hands on!  LOL!  And what boy isn’t?  Lohgan is a natural little musician and can often be found playing guitar and drums and, hopefully, now the cute little keyboard we bought him for Christmas!  All of Robert’s boys have inherited a love of music and instruments from him and his Hawaiian heritage!  Have you ever met a Hawaiian that could not play a mean conga?  ROFL!  Okay, I am sure there are a few out there, but there is no lacking in this family!  I’ve even moved the congas to the living room so that Robert can strike up a beat while awaiting something in the microwave, coffee brewing, etc!  
Credits: *Shine On* by Bon Scrapatit Designs (part of the Mega Blog Train available here on my blog)
Fonts: Pea Jane by Kevin and Amanda and Rage Italic LET
Photos: Courtesy of my Fuji FinePix 3100S (yes, a REAL oldie!) and Virtual Photographer’s FREE “Radiant” filter

Thank you SO very much for all of the SWEET and LOVELY comments y’all!  My heart is overflowing and I DO read each and every one, plus emails!  I only wish I had time to reply to everyone, so I hope that you will know from reading here just how much I appreciate each and EVERY one of you! 

To those of you who gave me feedback on my SOS (sick operating system), a MULTITUDE of thanks!  I disconnected ALL cords from my system, from the surge strip and then from the wall and I held in the power button to release all static!  While I was at it, I did my quarterly blow-out session with canned air.  It did not look bad at all, however, this particular model has three fans and the one attached to the CPU had some pretty big dust bunnies nesting!  LOL!  Got ‘em!

I only connected the monitor, mouse and keyboard to begin with to see if my system would boot up and load Windows.  VOILA, it did indeed!  WOOT!  I connected everything else and here I am!  Thank you, thank you, thank YOU! MWAH!

I did not make it into tackle the job until I had caught up on sleep, however!  I slept about 4 hours Tuesday morning and was awakened by a phone call from the new bride!  She was calling to find out how her mama was coming along and then I got to hear all about their stay on the Mayan Riviera.  Lots of history there.  They both had a FABULOUS time and are already lined up to visit Puntacana in the Dominican Republic, which is where my baby brother and his family go every year now!

You simply cannot beat the all-inclusive deals, which include airfare, hotel accommodations, food and beverages!  Insane prices if you find them at the right time of the year.  The hotels and surrounding vistas are GORGEOUS!  Hey, what’s not GORGEOUS about the Caribbean?  I’m game!  LOL!  Okay, in my dreams and … well, dreams DO come true now and then, eh?

I laid my head down to nap at 6:00 pm and did not awake until 7:00 the next morning!  I was well-rested, refreshed and ready-to-go!  ROFL!

Now that I know all systems are go, I shall work on finishing up the journaling strips I owe y’all for *Heartfully Yours*!  Remember those?  LOL!  I am also going to work on a new kit this weekend and I am also going to be giving away some of my older kits that I’ve sold in the past.  So, keep your eyes open as they will be randomly posted, however, they will remain on my blog as long as I have room on my 4-shared account!
If you celebrate St. Patrick’s Day, I will posting my *Shimmerin’ Shamrocks* scrapkit first, which I have revamped a bit from the original.  I stand corrected in that I’ve actually used four-leaf clovers and I offended someone by calling them Shamrocks, however, everywhere I go I see them referred to as Shamrocks, so I left  the name as I liked the way it flowed and, they DO shimmer!  Please don’t be offended as I am an American-born Irish lassie who has never encountered a TRUE Shamrock here in the US!  :D   I would SO love to visit Ireland one day.  I’ve heard such WONDERFUL things from those I know that have been.  I am sure there are many of you here in Scrapland that have been, eh?  What are your fondest memories of your visit?

*Shimmerin’ Shamrocks* is really a very versatile kit and I LOVE the lush and rustic colors which will work wonderfully with your outdoor photos from camping and hiking trips and out to your backyard!

Here is a little SNEAK-PEEK and VERY small representation (I need to repackage it so could not show the original preview)  for those who have never seen it:

LLW_ShimmerinShamrocks_Closeup
Now for the CT call!  My best girlie, Dawn of Snowsmoon’s Design, is going to be opening up two stores and she is in need of a few die-hard scrappers who would like to work with her designs!  Yup, I’m going to help out when I am able and will be working on a layout for one of her new kits starting tonight!  It’s been a while since I’ve really scrapped, let alone for someone else and I’m looking forward to giving her my best!

CTCall3-10_thumb[4]
Dawn is a REAL sweetheart and easy to work with and you can tell you I sent you if you wish!  Click the image above if you wish to be transported to Dawn’s blog!

Well, if you’ve stayed with me this long, you SURELY deserve a little something in return!  Here is a little sunshine for y’all to use to showcase that SPECIAL someone that brings a good, healthy dose of sunshine into your life!

Word art is included in a separate PNG file.

See you soon!

Much love,

Linda :D

P.S.  I would LOVE to see what y’all create with my designs.  Please consider adding a layout or two to the slide show at the bottom of my blog to feed my visual appetite! *wink*
I am hoping to rework most of my blog come next week, so if you happen to stop by and things looks strange, that is ME playing around!  LOL!

LLW_ShineOn_Scrapatit-1_Preview

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"shine on", march blog train!

>> Tuesday, March 2, 2010


Y’all would NOT believe what has happened to me since posting a plea for help with my PC!  Thank you SO much for your advice! I bought a new surge strip yesterday after visiting the doctor and unplugged everything last night. 

I’ve had to work my portion of the blog train on Robert’s laptop, which does not have enough resources to run Photoshop for a long period of time without problems.  Over the course of the past two days, I’ve had to reboot at least 20 times or so and I’ve pretty much had no sleep in the past 48 hours, which I KNOW is not good, but I could not let everyone down since this blog train is planned for a month in advance and there are a lot of people involved!!

Once I’ve finished posting, I’m getting some sleep and will be tackling my PC tomorrow!  I will let you know what happens … I am VERY rum-dummy at the moment and apologize BIG time for missing this INCREDIBLE blog train’s departure.

Without further ado, below is a FABULOUS slideshow of each designer’s contribution to the *Shine On* Mega Blog Train.  AWESOME, AWESOME stuff everyone and another VERY pleasant color palette!



Here is the preview to my contribution:



Your next stop is on Amy’s blog:


If you’ve not come via the train and/or get lost, here is the link to the Mega Blog Train Blog, where you can find links to all 100+ designer blogs - http://www.blogtrainblog.blogspot.com 

As, always, I will post my preview and links on my sidebar later this week and they will stay until the next train departs May 1st!

Happy scrapping everyone! *wink*

Love and hugs,

Linda :D

P.S.  LOL!  So, I finally get things finished up and now trying to upload to 4-shared.  First file was uploaded lightning fast, but the second one, oh, they just wanted about five hours of my time for 20+ MBs!  I headed over to Media Fire and my files failed twice, so now I am uploading via 4-shared’s desktop and it’s a go – WOO HOO!

Night!

LLW_ShineOnMegaBlogTrain_Preview


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