This happened a week ago or so, but I just can’t get it out of my mind. Those of you who have been reading my blog faithfully know that I live out in the country away from all the noise and bustle of the cities. We have coyotes, coons, a wild pig or two and stray cattle all around. But, we also have foxes.

Now, I have not seen any foxes but one time, but hubby sees some all the time when he gets up in the night. He puts out bird seed for the birds and other wild animals and once in a while a fox will come by and help himself.

Well, one morning when we got up hubby told me that he had seen the fox during the night. I commiserated with him about not being able to sleep and we did not think more about it. THEN he when it got time for him to go out the door, he came and got me.

There on our front porch, which is about eight feet off the ground and has about eight stair steps up to it was a “gift” from the fox. Yep, you guessed it, he had pooped on our front porch right in the middle of the path to get down off the porch. THE AUDACITY! THE BOLDNESS! HOW DARE HE!

Since then several people have tried to convince me that it might have been a coon that did that, but I know what I know and it WAS the fox!

I just wish that he was not the only animal eating out of the birdseed dish. He would get a good surprise from me for sure.

Moving ON

I have uploaded two new Photoshop Action to my stores. One will create camouflage patterned papers for you using your choice of colors. The other will create a cluster frame using your papers and color choice. Be sure to check them out at:

DigiScrapStation

Groovy Scraps

NDISB

I could not get them up at Divine Digital as the store is down for remodeling. When they are back up, I will come back and leave a link here.

I also created a little freebie for you all using  the cluster frame action. Here is a preview of it - of course you don’t get the photo of my Grandson, the frame cluster is all you get.

I thought to celebrate Mother’s Day by creating a layout about my own mother. She is a great grandmother several times over now and I sought to memorialize the day we took MY grandson to see her.

This mother’s day is also my daughter’s first Mother’s Day as a mother and it was so special to me to be able to send her some flowers. There were delivered on Thursday. I beat the son in law to the punch on that one, though that was not my intention. It was just me being cheap and finding out it was two dollars cheaper to get it delivered early.

Our plans for today include a nice dinner prepared for us by the youngest daughter. She is doing shrimp, crab legs and perhaps lobster. It really sounds good.

Hope you all had a nice Mother’s Day and that you could spend a little of it with your children.

Wow, I don’t know how we did it! My business made some money last year! I’ve been working all day on getting all the numbers crunched for doing our taxes and I could not find enough expenses to outweigh the sales we had! Well, it was not all DigiScrapScrapStation. The sales at Divne Digital helped a lot and Scrappy Cats was a big bread winner this year compared to years in the past.

Of course, I did not take out for the internet connection or the desktop or laptop. These things we would have whether I had a business or not. The county still might want to tax me on them, but that is still up in the air. OH, that could be another deduction, the taxes I paid to the county last year! Think I’ll hold those in reserve in case the IRS comes knocking. That will be my fall back deduction.

I did not make much, in fact, it was just barely over $100 by the time all was said and done. But, it coved all my CU digital supplies I purchased, the host/server/domain expenses, and even the subscriptions to things like Graphics Factory and Atomic Cupcake. I am pumped!

The only drawback is I was kinda counting on a refund this year to help me pay for my Adobe software I am saving up for. Oh well. Sure hope we don’t have to pay again this year.

We have the slowest H&R Block office in the nation I think. I will be able to call Monday, just days before this is due and get in that day. That is how slow they are. Of course, it may be that all the people around here are sensible and get their taxes done ahead of time and we are the only ones who wait so long. I love that we can go in and they will file electronically and let us pay them if we owe the IRS anything.

So I made a layout about the day of work I spent on taxes. The kit used is Double Entry by me, Scrappy Cats. An by the way:

ALL MY PRODUCTS ARE NOW ON SALE FOR 40% OFF AT DIGISCRAPSTATION AND AT GROOVY SCRAPS AND AT NUTHOUSE SCRAPS!

I am now a designer at Groovy Scraps and find they are a great group! I signed on last week and have a whole lot of my products there already. There are some kits that are still missing and some of my older stuff is not up yet, but for the most part all the good stuff is there.

SO! let me tell you about the sale they are having this weekend.

ad

All my products there are on sale with a great discount.

To hold all your purchases I made a basket for you all. It will also serve to hold all those Easter Goodies you are going to be getting on Sunday too. This basket is CU OK. Download link is at the bottom of the post-yep you gotta read the whole post to get the freebie!

But, lets not forget my own store-DigiScrapStation. Today is Friday and you know that means the Friday $2 Express is running. Here is what I have there today for $2.00! Check out what the other designers have in there too!

Yep and I should be back from our little jaunt by now, but just in case I am not, this post is already done. It doesn’t hurt to have a little bit done ahead anyway!

Be sure to check the store blog at http://digiscrapstation.com/blog/ There is a freebie there as well. Its from Aisne-a great designer.

As I was watching the cats fight last night, it came to me how life is an accommodation of sorts. We make adjustments in our life to bear the irritations and to rejoice in the fun. Clio sure did not want this brash, sport jock to move in on her territory, but she made accommodations with the fact that he IS here to stay. So, she makes fun of him, bats him up side the head now and then and makes sure he understands that Mother’s lap is HERS. She can appreciate the fact that he does the begging for them and she no longer has to lower herself to do it when dinner runs too late. Though, she does have to pull the big guns out now and then when I get engrossed in the computer. Though, she really does not like to eat when he is eating. His table manners are non-existent. She will usually wait until he is through before starting to eat.

So too, I have made some accommodations to this life here on the hill. I have learned to not count on being able to run into town when this or that is forgot at the grocery store. Also, that I GOTTA wear shoes at all times when stepping out the door. And at night be sure to use a flashlight cause you never know when the rattlesnakes have decided to come visiting. There is this big one right now that is checking out the lumber pile by the driveway. This is not very near the house and I can live with that. I have made accommodations with the fact that rattlesnakes like it up here.

I still am striving to learn to make accommodations with the fact that my daughters are grown and are adults. Its such a habit to give them advice and to warn them about this or that. Yet, they really don’t need it! I know there have been times when they probably wish they could pop me one!

I also am still striving to make accommodations with the fact that I am getting older. Notice, I did not say OLD, but said older. It is a big shock sometimes to look in the mirror and see those wrinkles. It is a bigger shock to look down and see all those age spots on my hands and to have my kneed lock up on me when I try to stand. I think it is something that I am not going to get used to. I will fight this every step of the way. Sixty is NOT OLD. Though I have more than a year to go to get there it is sneaking up on me.

I HAVE made accommodations with the fact that we will never be rich. Like most we lost a good bit in the recent stock market shenanigans. But, we are still able to pay the bills and perhaps help the daughters out a little here and there. But, we do have to watch where the money goes and we do have to plan for big purchases. But, I am used to that and have made adjustments to that.

Accommodations . . . hmmm. . .. is that just another word for acceptance? or perhaps it is another word for giving in? NO, I don’t think so. I think it is about living with dignity with what life hands you and not looking at it as if it is not enough. Accommodations . . . being happy and adjusted to what and where you are.

Moving on

So if you have made it this far, you need a reward. I have this pattern tile for you all, and to show you what you can do with it, I made four papers with it. This pattern can be used in making styles, it can be used in making brushes and much more. Here is the preview:

Pattern Preview

See the white block in the middle? That is the pattern. If you select it and tell your Photoshop to define a pattern you can pour it onto a page, onto a journal spot, onto letters or more. Once it is defined as a pattern, it will show up in your styles when you add a pattern to a style. Emboss it upon some letters by adding it as texture.