To fill you in quickly in a very condensed manner: I finally built and got my new desktop in late August which was a "have to" situation. It's a humdinger with all new stuff, several large internal hard drives, new Windows, new keyboard, and a new much larger monitor to boot! I am still working to learn its operations and working kinks out of it. I completely put my digi-scrapping aside to focus on learning this new equipment. In the meantime, a friend at work rekindled my desire to make jewelry; so we've joined forces and have made a ton of pretties to sell at local fairs and festivals together! I retired completely from work on Halloween, then came the holidays, and now here I am, finally! I'm finally at home every day, all day as I have dreamed of for a million years. I'm a total crafter by heart, so I stay busy with all sorts of hobbies and so many things that need me to finish what I started (no matter when that was). My three grandchildren are also getting a lot more of my attention than ever possible before! We've had sleep-overs and tons of fun! My daughter graduated in November from The American School of Broadcasting and has begun the pursuit of her life-long dream to have a career in broadcasting. She currently hosts DJ Bingo and Trivia in local restaurants in her evening hours and is doing an internet radio show weekdays from 7-11 a.m. at Smooth Jazz and Friends (dot com). She continues to do voice-over work from home, so I help her out with her children when she needs me. It's been busy!! I've always heard people say you have to adjust to being retired, but so far, it's been about the same pace as working, just busy in a different way!
I missed giving you a few Quick Pages that I had done, but I will eventually catch that up at some point and attempt to get my digital work back on track. I did manage to make a Thanksgiving album and get it printed for a Christmas gift! Woohoo!!
Today, I have a FREE QUICK PAGE for you! I have participated in the January QP challenge over at Ivy Scraps to get my feet wet again. We played with a kit called "SHELLBY" by Gloria Val Verde and made a 12 x 12", 300 dpi QP in png format. If you visit the the January 2015 Quick Page thread of the forum there, you can pick up about 12 or so free Quick Pages, and you'll have enough to make an album by the end of this month. The download links should be posted in each participants post and should be active at least until the end of February so you can collect them. You may have to be registered in the forum to see the links. Here are the previews of the kit and the QP I made for you with download links below,
I've revisited a bunch of my favorite digital scrapbooking websites trying to catch up on what is trending these days. I've also found some of my old favorite sites have closed down, and some have merely changed their format.
I found a wonderful Art Journaling challenge going on monthly over at The Studio, and I'm particularly interested in that because it is way outside of my own comfort zone. I think this year I will push myself to do those and maybe eventually I will become more comfortable. The pages over there that have been made for that challenge are simply out-of-this-world beautiful and very inspiring to me. It always amazes me how people can create so many different images using the same basic supplies. Everyone's mind works so differently, and it's always a thrill to see all the creativity involved with the finished pages! I tried to make a tribute page about my daughter's journey in life from achieving becoming a certified dog groomer to finishing her degree in broadcasting. We were provided some supplies to work with, and here is the layout I designed with them.
Maybe with some monthly practice I will get better and more comfortable with this style! I had fun making this although I didn't feel as though I had a plan. It just sort of happened as I went. Maybe that's the whole concept, I'm not sure!
Well, if you've stopped and visited with me after all this time, I must thank you profusely!! Please leave a comment so I'll know you were by. I hope to bring you lots more free goodies as I jump back into my digital fun!
I'm in the process of putting more of my jewelry in my online Etsy store, and the little gadget at the top of this page will take you there if you care to look at some of my hobby work. I have a ton of earrings to put in there, some bracelets, and a few necklace sets so far. I've taken some metal-smithing classes to learn a few new tricks of the jewelry trade. It's winter now, even here at the beach, so I've also got my knitting needles in hand!
Take care, the weekend is almost here!
TOOTLES!!
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