Category Archives: country living

COLD! a freebie and other stuff

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So we can say winter is really here. When it got so cold early in December we just shook our heads and said WOW such a cold snap, and so early too! But, now it is no longer cold snaps, but winter itself. I truly believe this winter is colder and has less warm days than the past five winters. If only it would bring rain and the wet stuff as well. At least the prickly pear cactus is being pruned back by the freezes. That has not happened in several winters and they were beginning to take over the pastures.

It did not help that our water was out just before Christmas–that was a joy believe me. NO hot water until the end of Christmas day. Hubby spent all of Christmas day getting it back on line. Then, earlier this week we lost electricity. There had been ice on the trees and it was not melting off when the sun came up and it was more than the power lines could handle. Of course, a little rain is more than the power lines around here can handle. Just another joy of living out in the country.

Moving ON

DigiScrapStation is looking for CT members, here is an ad about it.

Moving ON

Challenge Gift–Get this challenge gift at Divine Digital–it is an add on to my Whispers of the Forest kit. Purchase the kit for $2, create a layout and get this add on for participating in my challenge. The challenge is at: http://www.divinedigital.com/forums/showthread.php?t=9083

And Finally!! THE FREEBIE

I made some frames while trying to figure out a new Photoshop Action. The action is not made yet, but I thought you all would like some of the samples I made in deciding how the frames should be made. So here they are. (Those two sweet ladies are my hubby’s sister and cousin. Two of the grandest ladies around!)

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Posted in country living, Freebies, Life, Store Stuff

Hot Water Woes — Free Hybrid Ornament

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edited to fix download link—sorrry!

Another thrill about living in the country, when the hot water heater goes it is a 50 mile round trip to town to get parts. Hubby has made that trip now about 4 times if not more and we still don’t have hot water. It would not be so bad if the water that came out of the faucet were not soooo cold! Last night, I decided I just had to have a bath so got out the big pans and started heating water. This past summer when I did that it took just one batch of heated water to warm the bath water to acceptable levels. Well, last night it took THREE batches of warm water to do it. I expect ice crystals in the water it is sooo cold!

On the positive side, I am not expected to cook. On the negative side, I am not expected to cook. In weather like this a warm meal would really be nice. Of course this happened when we are experiencing the coldest weather we have had in two years.

Moving ON

Today my ornament is the give away for the DigiScrapStation Ornament Express. It is a hybrid ornament and real easy to make. You just need to print out the pdf given and then follow the directions on putting it together. Here is a photo of it–for mine I put a photo of Clio in the center, for yours of course, you put your own photo. The download link is below. If you missed any of the other ornaments from the DigiScrapStation Ornament Express check them out on our blog at: http://digiscrapstation.com/blog/ A new ornament has been given away each day of December.

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Posted in country living, Freebies

Rain!!

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WE had rain!! almost two inches of rain fell in the past 24 hours here in parched Central Texas. It has not been wise to burn trash, throw cig’s out of car windows or to even use the welding torch out in the pasture. It was so dry we had to give up on our elephant ears this summer and barely kept the zinnias growing.

But, it rained!! It is fun to say that it rained as it makes me feel oh so good inside and fresh. The rain is gone now, but maybe it will remember it’s way back to come back again.  When I went to the mail box this afternoon the wind was blowing so hard I wondered if my glasses would come off. We have a cold front moving in and just maybe that means that the hot dry summer is over. Ninety degree heat in October is really pushing summer into the wrong part of the year. We also, might just start getting a little more rain with the colder weather.

Moving ON

A GOOD tech support report! I finally bit the bullet and called HP tech support over the scanner again. Last time I called we worked on it for 3 hours and then I had to go as I had company at my door. But, I really wanted that scanner to work. So I called again today. After looking at the clock and deciding that if it ran more than two hours, I could call hubbie on the cell phone, I dug out the ticket number given me from the last call. After waiting for just a short period of time, I got Daphne on the phone, gave her control of my computer and watched her work. It is just so much fun to watch someone take over your computer from half way across the world. (I knew this was coming so I cleaned up a bit on the desktop first.) She went here and there deleting files and searching and deleting more files til finally after about 45 minutes she restarted the computer and THEN installed the software that was being difficult before. AND IT WORKED!! It only took about an hour and a half and my scanner works now!! To celebrate I created some distressed folded and worn papers to scan in and created a new product for the stores.

They are five folded and worn overlays to give your papers that great aged look. The edges are a little messed up and they are not quite 12 x 12 as you need to be able to show the edges when working with layouts. I have noticed the the new thing lately seems to be stacking stuff. This will work great for that. This is beig uploaded to my stores right now as I type this in. You can find it in my stores at DigiScrapStation, Divine Digital, and ScrappersZone.

I created a layout with one of these on a photo of Clio to see how it would work on photos instead. It’s really subtle but I like it.

By the way, you can get this kit, Old Juniper by participating in my Ad Challenge at DigiScrapStation. The link will take you right to this month’s challenge. In the layout, Clio is being all fierce and protective of my purse. I think she was waiting for me to leave so she could smack Dayton a time or two. When I have been gone for an hour or two and come back I find tufts of hair on the carpet like they have been having a wrestling match. Clio is always waiting for me on top of the freezer which means she won the coveted positon. The two of them just don’t share sleeping spots at all.

 

Posted in Cats, country living, Life, Scrapping Journal

Desktop for you and what’s going on!

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Wow, have I ever been busy. For some reason the last two weeks have been very hectic. The end of the month rush of getting challenge gifs and team kit contributions really took their toll this time. I think it was partly due to the fact I had lost so much time to the computer troubles I had.

I am still finding things that happened to my computer that I did not realize due to using that recovery point thingie on my computer. I reset it back to the middle of July thinking there was nothing new added to my computer in the way of programs since then. But, here and there I am finding things that I forgot about. For example–I forgot I had added another email account, an important one –The one that I get my payroll stuff from Diving Digital on. It did not hit me until just two days ago that I was missing those because of the email account was missing.

Moving ON

Wildlife Report

Last time hubbie was here we had a ball watching the night time antics of the wild life around here. In one night we saw a racoon, a fox, and a possum. Then the next morning we discovered an armadillo had been in the front too. (They dig and leave distinctive holes behind.) The wild pig has not been seen. May just have ended up in the mess tent of some of the army type dudes who were on maneuvers just a couple of pastures over. Hubbie has trio of deer who visit and he sets out corn for them. One has twelve points and the other two have ten. They are gorgeous, what we can see of them in the night under the security light. I call them the amigos trio. They are always together like three good friends.

The snakes have become a real problem. Just a little while ago, I went out to put out seed and corn since hubbie was not here to do it. I dumped a bunch of seed on this satellite dish we use for that purpose and realized I had dumped too much. As I was bending down to scoop some back up, I looked and there was this fella watching me with his tongue just flickering. I yelled at him, threw rocks at him and even a stick. But, he would not budge. He knew that was a good spot to get him some dinner when the birds came for the seed. So, the nieces husband had to come shoot him. When hubbie is here he usually tries to relocate them but since he was not here, the snake had to go. He turned out to be much larger than we first thought. He had been wound up in a wad so we could not tell at first. But, he was a good four feet long if not more. It might have been the snake that I walked up on when I came home from a night with the daughter. Hopefully it was and there is not another one of those critters wandering around my yard.

Moving ON–New Product

I have some new items in the stores. The one you all don’t want to miss is the Mixed Bag I have up for just two weeks. It has four photoshop actions in it along with three other products. All together it is $30 worth of product, but if you get the Mixed Bag you only pay $5.00 –that is a great deal!

It is at Divine Digital, DigiScrapStation and ScrappersZone… links to these stores are up in my blog header.

And I have to show my newest action that I just finished. I will be uploading him later tonight or tomorrow.

This little dude gave me lots and lots of troubles. I must have built that action five times. Several times I had to start over because I had neglected to add this or that. Another time, I had it all done on my computer and in photoshop, but when I got up the next morning, the silly computer had restarted itself for some virus program or another. So when photoshop shut down without it doing it the right way, the action that had been made in the action palette was lost. BIG BUMMER as that was the one I really thought was IT! Anyway, he is done now and will look cute on any number of layouts. I was thinking a number of him in miniature lined up side by side would make a real cute border. Or perhaps a circle of them with the hats all pointing into the middle would be funny.

Moving On –a Free Desktop

I made a different kind of desktop today for my computer. It doesn’t have frames for photos. Instead it has a castle and a forest with a gargoyle in it. I like the idea of a gargoyle protecting my computer –kind like what they are to do for buildings –keep the evil dudes out. Most desktops I see around have a calendar on them and a place to put photos. But, I just don’t change the desktop that often and while I do put photos on my desktop, this one just did not seem to need one. I used my figments kit to make this one and thought maybe you all would like to use it too. Oh, don’t be fooled into thinking my desktop is always this neat. I cleaned it up special just for the print screen shot so I could show how I use the desktop. I generally have another column of icons on the right under the trash icon of kits that have been put up on the servers and just need to be put away. Plus there are always those other icons that just seem to multiply on my desktop..like dust bunnies.

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Posted in country living, Freebies, wildlife