so cool

i am so in the zone today. one week ago today marc & i each splurged on an ipod touch... we decided we both wanted one for christmas, and hey - we are adults - so who says we have to wait until christmas to get one? it is so absolutely amazing! now, it's not like i've been living in a technological time warp. i have last years ipod nano which has video and all of that stuff and after all, this is my third ipod. but this new ipod touch has wifi! this means i can check my e-mail, catch up on my google reader of blog postings, and surf the internet anywhere i have access to wifi. since i got the apple time capsule to use for wifi and to back up my imac at home, this means i can access the internet anywhere in and near my home. so many places i visit such as restaurants, coffee shops & bookstores have free wifi that i can use it there too. this new toy will be with me at all times as with the calendar and other applications i can utilize it for work too. i downloaded a free application through itunes called "smartime organize" and through this i can track outstanding projects for both home & work. i also downloaded a guided meditation the other night and i find it very helpful. 

i can only imagine how my life would be different if i had access to such technology way back when...i was a teenager. music was always such a big part of my life and i used to drag around my albums with me to school and friends houses. if i had five albums with me at a time, that was a lot! nowadays you can have thousands of songs on a tiny ipod. oh, gosh - and with the bigger screen on this new ipod i can watch my favorite music videos, tv shows and video podcasts. i just love the music videos and podcasts.  plus, the photos of my artwork including my digital scrapbook layouts look wonderful and they are always with me!

today has been a gesso kind of day. i am starting so many new projects at one time that i just decided to gesso all the base materials at one time which is the only way to do it. 

i am optimistic about the world right now and very thankful for all the richness in my world, for my marc, my critters and my health. i do not take any of this for granted. i am hopeful that our country will be on the right track very soon with all of the up coming changes and i hope that we all can work together to get along with one another in this world. it just may get worse before it gets better, but better times are ahead for all of us. i can feel it. 

couldn't resist

ok, i've been contemplating how to revise my blog banner since i've been learning more about photoshop elements. as i turn my interests more and more to vintage art elements, i could not resist utilizing an element so in tune to my daytime job, an antique mortgage. i talk here in my blog how my career affords me the ability to pursue my artistic inclination. i may as well acknowledge that in my blog. makes sense? besides, i love the art of the written word. it is so powerful. i don't think we give the written word the respect it deserves. just ask someone who does not know how to read how important the written word is - they know all too well as it impacts them so greatly with their lack of ability. learning to read and write is a gift we should all be grateful to have. there was a time, not all that long ago that many were not afforded this luxury. writing is beautiful also. there are those of us who are afflicted (or endowed, i'm not sure which) of the love of all things font. i read about this in digital scrapbooking magazine. i have found a kin in this group of digital scrapbookers. just like my love for paint, glue, paper, thread and fabric. colors call out to me. patterns scream at me. it is a wonderful day spent in my studio surrounded by my passions. 

scanner fun

i set about today to start scanning all of my old family photos into the mac. it is a tedious process, not totally difficult, just time consuming. i completed a number of them, but i have a lot more to do. i have a number of slides from the 50's to scan. my dad was a camera buff. had a dark room and everything. i also have movies. as i was the baby in the family, 95% of the photos i have do not include me. lots and lots of photos/slides of my sister. all the firsts. it is difficult to go through all of these photos/slides. my sister and i were never close (an understatement). as so many people, i come from a dysfunctional family. no one needs that. no one asks for that. it just happens. if i can use these photos/slides in my art, it cannot help but to be a healing experience, right? 

gotta love it

today was finally pretty nice outside. a bit wet because of the melting snow, but spring is definitely in the air. 

i finally went out and got myself a bamboo fun pen tablet today. if you are thinking about getting one, run out right now and get yourself one! don't wait. i just installed the software and set it up and oh my god! its fabulous. fun. i may never use my mouse again. it comes with a pen/tablet and mouse. i can't wait to try it out with my digital endeavors. speaking of which, i had my first photoshop/photoshop elements class on monday. it was informative. a bit tedious, but i'll definitely learn what i need to know. i'm not sure why they say its for photoshop, we are using elements. i know they aren't that much different, but we are using basic aspects of the program. i am toying with the idea of getting photoshop cs3. i can get it at a discount with my bamboo fun tablet. cool. i've just got to stay home all weekend and hole myself up in the office with the mac, scanner, bamboo fun tablet & printer. i can't wait. 

speaking of cool technology, i went and got my time capsule yesterday. i've finally joined the network world. wireless. cool again. lovely little time capsule works with time keeper in osx leopard to keep my information backed up. thank you, apple. i just love everything apple. i always wonder what they will come up with next. i just wish i could use a mac at work instead of my old pc. hopefully i'll get a bigger monitor at work, at least. the one i have is so small. i can't hardly see it, especially in comparison to the beautiful mac i have at home. :)

i found the most wonderful magazine at the bookstore: digital studio. it is just full of ideas similar to what i want to be able to do with all of this digital equipment. beautiful things. creative things. just fabulous. now i just have to get busy and just do it!

blue monday

it is raining...very yucky outside today. supposed to turn to snow & sleet. i am so ready for spring. couldn't sleep well last night. i did get a little bit of studio time yesterday and saturday. its never as long as i wish it was. i am so happy working in my studio. problem is that i get sidetracked. all the pretty things to play around with in there. i go from one project to the next. need to focus...get some things done. i signed up with etsy this weekend. very cool website. lots of pretty things out there. 

i played some more with my digital projects. i have a school photo showing a one room school house with the students and teacher outside along with report cards from 1927 in kentucky. they made a nice digital piece. 

must remain focused...

got my font library today. installed fonts. seems like there's not as many as it boasted. not sure why. i could see myself becoming a font junkie. i love fonts. they are each so cool. of course, some are boring. i like the unique ones. i love serifs. not everyone has an appreciation for fonts and writing. there is a beauty in writing. that's why i've dabeled in calligraphy. i am ok at it, but find i do not have enough patience. you have to have great patience to do calligraphy. my friend linda does beautiful calligraphy (see her website under "links for artistic inspiration"). she tells me i need to practice. 

i don't like to practice - i like to experiment. i like being on the edge, not following the rules. i don't follow recipes...not to the letter anyway. i take a recipe and make it my own by adding an ingredient i think i'd like better or leaving something i don't care for out... or just to be different. my art is that way too. my life is that way. except maybe for driving. i try to obey the rules then! its difficult to improvise when you're driving. 

maybe what you drive is improvising. i used to love really cool sports cars (ok, i still do) but now i opt for something more practical. because i need to haul my dogs around, i love a hatchback. i've got my subaru outback sport and its been a great car for the past 9 years. i've never had a car that long. ever. even new cars i've tired of them and got a new one to replace it. the only car that's come close was my mazda rx7 - before my son totaled it. oh well. that was a very long time ago. i'm sure my next car will be a subaru, but the one i've got now has a lot of life left in it - and no rust. 

Digi Scrapbook

i had my last digital scrapbooking class last night. i made this page. i think it turned out really, especially for a first try. there is so much you can do with adobe photoshop elements & photoshop. they are both such cool programs. i am finally get the hang of it. i can't wait to get a pen tablet to use with this. i also can't wait for adobe photoshop elements 6 to come out for mac. it's about time.

iMac Latest

well, i must say that i was worried when i had to take the imac in again today to the apple store. they really ended up ironing out all problems i had with the set up of the computer. plus i learned a couple of neat things about how to set it up for multiple users. they got my .mac account fixed too. it all worked out. i am now a happy camper. :)

the day after tomorrow i leave for my adventure in florida for software training for our new system at work. i just checked the weather, highs in the low 80's & lows in the 60's. here it is warm for a change - it was in the low 30's today. we got a dusting of snow and they are calling for more tomorrow night into monday. as long as my flight isn't cancelled, i'll be fine. 

i just love the new imac. it is just beautiful. i downloaded two rental movies from itunes. cool. i figure i can watch them on my trip. i rented "singles" a movie made in 1992 starring matt dylan and the movie "waitress" starring kerri russell. i can't wait to watch them.  i will try to post on my blog via the cell phone. you've just gotta love technology! i so wish we would've had imacs, cell phones & ipods when i was younger... wow. it would've been wonderful. i remember lugging around my lps at high school. yes, i did that! my age is showing. i don't exactly remember just how many i could carry in my army backpack (which i still have). absolutely NOTHING compared to an ipod, with photos, music, movies, videos. it is amazing. 

i didn't get any time in the art studio today. :( i had too much running around to do getting ready for my trip on monday. i even had to go to work for two hours to get some things done. i update the department intranet manuals. i just love doing that. i'd love to work with technology. design things like websites. write manuals - i even like that as long as the people who need to understand give me some direction on what they want included. i hardly ever get any feedback on the department website. the people i work with are for the most part computer illiterate. there are exceptions, of course. this is where i do get some feedback. as for the rest, i can't even get them to look at the website. it is most frustrating. i know this will change as new people come into the workforce that are used to computers.  it is just sad that some people just don't want to deal with them. they don't want to learn. i know i'll never adapt quite as well as someone who began using a computer as a toddler - but i will learn all i can until the day i die! that i what life is all about. the minute you shut out the world and refuse to interact with it is the day you start getting old... and then you die. i want death to catch me off guard. i won't sit around and wait for it. i pined away enough of my life waiting for happiness to find me. finally i realized i had to go out and find happiness on my own - so i did! you can't be happy if you're not open to it. ready for it. life is full of pleasant surprises. you can't dwell on the bad things or you won't see the good things in life. that's my story and i'm sticking to it. my life now is wonderful. that's all i could think about today was how happy i am. marc makes me so happy. my dogs & cat make me happy. for all i complain about my job, the income i am able to receive makes my life a little easier, so yes, i guess it makes me happy too. i've made a lot of friends at my work. i've been there for over 11 years. that's nothing to sneeze at. i never thought i'd be at a job that long. i've been lucky enough to travel through my job at this employer and my previous employer. i seem to go to florida an awful lot! too many times to count. miami/ft. lauderdale is my favorite. i almost moved there back in 1994 i liked it so much. good thing i didn't because otherwise i wouldn't have met marc. i've also been to philadelphia, arkansas, las vegas, washington d.c. & chicago for work. not bad. i haven't been to europe for work, but i did go there in 1993 with my class for a college course. barcelona spain. i so loved it there. i just felt like i belonged there. like it was home. very strange since i can't speak the language and i didn't particularly like the food. i would go back there in a heartbeat though given the chance. i want to go there with my sweetheart. i know he'd love it too. i want to go to france & england. i so love those countries. that would explain the papillon (france) and cavalier king charles spaniel (england) dogs now, wouldn't it. i also love canada. i went there with marc in 2006. we just loved it there and want to go back again sometime soon. i love the wine there. me, a wine drinker? who would've guessed, but now i love it. i still don't like beer at all. 

in the meantime, we are on the south beach diet. it is going well. i've lost 4 pounds in one week. i hope i can loose another 4 pounds, but most importantly, i feel much better. i don't feel bloated and stuffed after i eat. i hope i can stay on the diet while on my business trip. i will do my best. as long as i can get by with breakfast at the hotel consisting of something eatable, i will do all right. the fun continues. it is getting late, so i'd better go to bed. good night.  PS - you can bet i will get more cloud/sky photos on this trip. stay posted.

Look on the bright side of life...

i've been waiting for this day for so long now. on saturday we bought a brand spanking new imac from the applestore and today we got to bring it home. because i didn't want to mess around with the set up - i let them sell me the "apple procare" for $99 for the first year. buying this, they do a custom set up of your new imac. at least that's what is supposed to happen. i am really pissed with the tech people at apple right now. very pissed. basically what they did is dump everything from the old imac onto the new one. os 9 and all. even the contents of the trash. i had set up a folder on my desktop as instructed with "transfer to new imac" with all the files i wanted transfered and they just dumped everything over. i cannot believe it. my iphoto won't work. my itunes won't recognize my purchased music and let me authorize it for playing on the new imac. my .mac account isn't set up on the new computer. i am really going to bitch at them tomorrow.

my schedule is so booked right now, i don't know when i'll be able to take the imac back in... tomorrow i have my rubberstamping class in madison. the next day is a doctor appointment. i had said i was going to be optimistic about my outlook on life and then stuff like this happens. on saturday when we went into the apple store to buy the imac, it took 3 hours in the store - two hours of which it took for them to run the transaction. then, while we were waiting for the transaction to be run up, the ceiling started leaking onto my head! unbelievable. these things only happen to me - i swear. i am not making this up. the only thing that kept us from telling them to shove it was the fact that the guy helping us, william, was trying really hard and trying to make the best of a situation going terribly wrong. all of these things were out of his control also.

my imac is awesome - and would be even more awesome if i could use it fully. i guess, to be optimistic - i CAN blog on it! Hey, something positive... lets see, what else - i was able to recieve my earthlink e-mails and with quite a bit of messing around i was able to send an e-mail. good grief.

the weather is so cold today. i am so ready for winter to be over. i'm looking forward to going to florida in less than two weeks, just for a little warmth. it is supposed to be colder tomorrow. i'm not looking forward to that. of course, i'll have to fill up the gas tank tomorrow too - in the cold. yuck.

I haven't spent much time this week in my studio. i've just got to make the time. i did do some stamping the other afternoon. i need to take the time to finish up some cards i'm working on, valentines and the like. jac got his tdi renewal paperwork, so we can start going on hospice visits again. it's too cold right now, but life goes on and we really should get out there regardless of the weather. the patients need us and time is short for them. i do feel really good about our visits. good karma. i need all the good karma i can get. especially now.

i've got to finish cleaning up the office this weekend. we cleaned around where the desk and printers are set up. rearranged it a bit. now the rest needs scouring. purging. feng shui and all of that. i've been reading about how the desk should be arranged too. i need to heed that for my office at work. my desk at work is a terrible mess. right now, i am writing this blog and having a cup of tea (its become my nightly ritual) and trying to relax. i was so wound up from these imac problems. life is too short to get that upset. it will work out. it has too. things will be better in the morning.

i cannot believe how fast time goes for me now. when they say "time flys" i know exactly what they mean. (that's what i need, rubberstamps depicting flying clocks or flying watches). when i was much younger, oh my gosh! time just dragged by. the seconds went "tick, tick, tick" in my ear. now it's like, "is it ___ time already!" even at work. i would wait for it to be 5 p.m. now i'm at work until 7 pm. just trying to catch up on all i do. sure, i make more money now, but more worries come with that. many more. the more creature comforts you can afford, the more worries come with them. i'll have to dream i'm back in walt disney world tonight with my sweetie. m is such a sweetie too. i wish i could spend more time with him. i can hear him snoring in the bedroom next door to the office where i am now. at least i know he's sleeping. sometimes he has trouble sleeping if i'm not in bed next to him. i have the same problem, like when i will travel to florida soon. sometimes i can't sleep at all on the road without him. well, sleep is starting to call me to bed now. the morning comes early, so i'd better get there and catch some z's while i can. 

Check this out

This message was sent using PIX-FLIX Messaging service from Verizon Wireless!
To learn how you can snap pictures with your wireless phone visit

www.verizonwireless.com/getitnow/getpix.

To learn how you can record videos with your wireless phone visit www.verizonwireless.com/getitnow/getflix.

To play video messages sent to email, QuickTime® 6.5 or higher is required. Visit www.apple.com/quicktime/download to download the free player or upgrade your existing QuickTime® Player. Note: During the download
process when asked to choose an installation type (Minimum, Recommended or Custom), select Minimum for faster download.