What more can a lady want? I knew that I would be spending Mother’s Day alone. With hubbie out of town and daughers busy with their own lives it was to be expected. So I mentally prepared myself, stayed up late last night so I could sleep most of the morning away and then planned on fixing a specail meal just for me.

Of course nothing every goes as planned. Yes, I stayed up late, it was almost seven this morning when I got out of the bath. It was time for breakfast, so I prepared some toast, fed the cats and watched a little television. Then off to bed I went. That was the last thing that went according to plan. The phone would not stop. Well, ok, it only rang three times. But each time woke me up from a good sleep. Then, the cats, well I’ve discussed the greedy buggers before. Each time the phone rang they felt they deserved breakfast. I am not kidding. These cats are shameless. Never mind that there is still food in the dish. It is NOT FRESH food.

So I managed to stay in bed until noon, debated whether to get dressed or not and then gave in a got dressed. I don’t know why I get dressed since I have not seen a soul since Friday evening and will not see anyone until Wednesday or Thursday. That is how far I live out here. No one around to see me. But I digress. The food I had planned did not appeal. The work I needed to do was boring and I just needed to get moving around. So, I cleaned my stove. Thats how I celebrated Mother’s Day - I cleaned my stove.

Now how can cleaning a stove be an act of celebration? It’s the joy you feel out of a job well done and the uplift from getting that monkey off your back about the dirty stove. That is something to celebrate. When I say I cleaned the stove, I mean I took the whole top apart to clean it. It was not a grungy as I thought it would be, but I cleaned it all anyway. It looks soooo shiney!

Moving ON

COW status: she came back tonight with Junior. She is not very careful with him as he started playing under our porch. Who do you call for careless cow mom’s. “Hello, can I speak to someone about this mother who lets her child play in dangerous places? . . .How dangerous?      . . Well, the poor child was about to pull the porch down on himself, that dangerous. . . no I am not exaggerating the porch was shaking . . . I’ll hold” That is a phone call that would be fun to make.

Moving ON

I just found this neat little button at the top of this window I type into. It is actually called kitchen sink. When you run your mouse over it, the little pop up message says “show/hide kitchen sink”. So, I’m game, I click that button. And wow look what pops up. All these other little buttons. Gee, where have they been all this time? I can color my types, make them different sizes, justify the text, and WOW I Just clicked a button that gave me the whole screen to play with. Ok, I’m getting to be in love with WordPress all over again. I have to say, they have the neatest things to put on your blog.

Ok on to the freebie for today. I made some baseball overlays for you all. Is it baseball season? When is baseball season? Well, never mind, here are some overlays for you all. You can use them whenever baseball season comes around. There are two patterned overlays and a texture one. Have fun.

Downloaded a total of 20 times

They really have me figured out and know just how hard they can push. Though the boy does step over the line now and then. They have decided if I wake them up at night with my computer songs or noises, then I have to feed them. After all, that is what you are supposed to do when you get up, eat breakfast right? Then, the same holds true with their afternoon naps, and their morning naps. But, these multiple breakfasts are not to be confused with their right to their morning and evening meals. Oh, no. The don’t give an inch on those.

The two have it down real pat as to who does what. If I am at the computer, it is Clio who is to come and do the staring thing, jump up on the desk and rub my hands and then stretch up and pat me on the arm. Then if I am in bed, Dayton’s job is to get me up since it is harder to get me up from bed than from the computer. He comes in and rummages through everything that is out on any surface. Books are pawed through over and over, items on dressers and night stands are knocked off to the floor. The curtain in the windows is pushed back again and again letting in the deadly sunshine. The tops of my dressers and chests of drawers are very clean.

I have discovered it gets especially bad when the food is older. Food from freshly opened bags seem to hold them longer. Its kinda strange. Then food that is left in the dish for more than 6 hours is not considered food. Both the cats are very picky on freshness. They are not picky on food, though, they eat anything. Dayton taught Clio that. She used to only want to eat cat food, but when he came along and she saw him eating this other stuff, she was not going to let him get it all, the greedy little stinker.

MOVING ON

The cow came back!! She did not bring her calf but there she was in my back yard tonight when I started cooking supper. We must be on her circuit, the evening munchies so to speak. Though she does not like all the noise I made when cooking and digging through the pots and pans.

Again MOVING ON

Today is Mother’s day and I would like to share with you all a photo of my mother. This was taken when she was in her early 20’s if not earlier. The writing there says “Love, your Wife Phyllis” My father was in the service at the time and this must have been a photo she sent him while he was overseas.

I made this little photo cluster for all of you to download. Plus I added a couple of other pieces to make it worth the time. Do you recognize that bow? It is from the cu bows that are still available from several days ago.

Speaking of downloads, did any of you notice the button for downloading I have now! Is it not just too cool. Now I can just put the link on the post and you all don’t have to go anywhere and I still get to collect my stats I want on the downloads. I am totally in joy about this button. It means I don’t have to make one of those pages for every download either. Saves me time all around.

OK here is a preview of the download. It has two papers in newsprint style, several labels, a scalloped mat and the photo cluster. And it is Commercial Use OK. Enjoy!

Downloaded a total of 51 times

Strange how you can get used to something in just two days. Well, the cow did not show up today, at least not while I was here. Perhaps she found some greener grass. Though, thanks to her our grass will be greener soon!

Guess she is MOVING ON

All of us have recieved the news that Hello, that instant messenger service will no longer be available soon. Some of us got on Goober, an alternative to Hello,  tonight and gave it a test drive. It really is a cool program - though someone said something about it crashing computers. None of ours crashed thank goodness. But, what I really like about it is you can share photos and images with more than one person at a time. We used to switch back and forth between Hello and MSN talking together on MSN and then going to Hello to share images. Tonight we were all on together talking and sharing images using only one program. I still have not figured out all the buttons and gadgets, but got a kick out of the sounds some of the smilies made.

I got my mother’s day flowers today - youngest daughter gave me some orange roses. They are sooo pretty. I pulled out a single one to put in a bud vase by my computer so I can look at it while I work. Kind of funny, I just ordered my mother’s flowers today and then I get my own. Kinda like karma you know.

Again, the freebie is a commercial use one. It is three paisley brushes for you all. I included a png file for each brush if you want to just use them to make overlays. I also included the sample paper I made with one of the brushes. . . thought you all might want to see it in action. The sample paper is the background you see in the preview.

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So I’ve put on a few pounds these past few years, well a lot of pounds. At five foot almost nine inches you would think I could carry a lot of weight. But not so, with tiny bones, the weight causes problems. I’ve been on a few serious diets but nothing too extreme. But, now it is time to do something drastic, like maybe eat healthy for a change. Tuesday, when I went to the grocery store - the day I got my photos taken - I kept this in mind and was careful to leave the candy on the shelves and to look for alternatives. I even picked up some salad makings. AT checkout, I discovered healthy is expensive! I paid $111 for my groceries and when I carried them into my house, it only took three trips - Is that all there is for $111?

For lunch instead of eating sandwiches, two sandwiches being the norm, I decided to go the Lean Cuisine route. So the first day, yesterday, I self righteously got the box out of the freezer and followed the directions. When I pulled the meal out of the box, it was like, where is all the food. Is that all there is?? I was good, I determined to eat it up and not crave more. So, I put it on a plate and got a small fork to make it last longer. There were like five bites of chicken in there and a little bit of sauce AND broccoli and carrots for veggies. But, gee we have apples with crunchies for dessert on the tray. Holding off on dessert til last, when I started in on the apples, I found they had an unusual flavor. What is that flavor? could it be a caramel taste? If I could just identify the flavor perhaps I could enjoy it more. Then Iooked into the container, into the section with the apples and realized I was tasting broccoli juice. WEll, that spoiled the apples for me. What a bummer. So as I was cleaning up, what do I spy? The cherrie pie that I made on Sunday. It was just sitting there being evil. Did you know that cherrie pies can exude an evil atmosphere? This one was. But I was good, I did not eat any. After all the cool whip was still frozen and I had no ice cream. What good is cherry pie all by itself?

We will see how long I stay on this healthy food kick. History shows I am not good at this stuff called diet. Today, I had a beef and noodle dinner for lunch. I did not wait until I was starving to fix it and it was a little more satisfying. The cherry pie gave up a piece to me last night before I went to bed - now ithe pie is going out for the critters. It is soggy and very unappetizing. So I will not tempt myself any more.

Mama Cow came back tonight. AS i was cooking supper she was out there. She did not like all the noise I was making trying to find the right pots and pans so moved off. Then I saw she had brought junior up with her. Oh Boy! more cow patties. He was hiding in the brush towards the back where she must have stashed him while she ate supper. When she moved off, he had to follow and he was like, Is that all there is? I could totally relate.

Hey, I added another item to my blog - check it out on the left at the bottom of the column. Its a way for you to subscribe to my blog. It is set so every time I make a new post, subscribers will get an email. As most the time when I post, I give out a freebie, you might want to sign up. If you don’t like it, you can always unsubscribe. How cool is that!  will try to be sure I put in the title if I have  freebie with the post as the title of my blog post will be the subject line of the email you get. That way you will know if it is worth it to come read.

The freebie for this post is another Commercial Use Freebie. Its three bows to recolor. For some reason I learned how to make bows way back when I just started designing. No one told me they were hard and that a lot of designers could not do them. So I persevered and taught myself how. Here are three I made yesterday for you to download.

Click here to go to the no wait download page

This place is all about animals it seems. The cats, the parrot, and now a cow!

First the cats, they decided they needed to be fed three times today, the poor starving felines. You can tell they are being starved, look at how their bellies stick out! But, Dayton prowls around the room knocking over stuff until I relent. Clio will come and rub her cheek and nose against your arm and then if that does not work, she will start nibbling at your arm. These two are very persistant. So, they got three meals today.

Then good news about CiCi, my parrot. I called the shop where she is today and discovered she had found a good home. I was so thrilled to hear about it that I started crying. I was so worried that CiCi was scared to death in that shop and no one would want her. Her new owner came in one day and talked and talked to her and had CiCi eating food out of her hand. That was so different from what I imagined she would be like in the store. Then the lady came back yesterday and said she just had to have CiCi. It really sounds like the two belong together. So, thus ends the story of CiCi in my life. I have a freebie at the end of this post to celebrate birds in honor of CiCi - it is a Commercial Use Item so don’t miss out on it.

NOW about the cow. I have a cow in my back yard - that is right, there is a big, black mama cow in my back yard. I walked down to the mailbox today and when I got back, there she was eating up a storm in my back yard. Well, calling it a yard is a big stretch. But, hubbie does mow it. She must have got through the fence from back behind us. While I know which family owns that land, I sure don’t know their phone number and really don’t know the name of the responsible family member to call even if I did have a phone number. Couldn’t you just imagine that call. “Hello, are you missing a black cow? This one has big eyes, is black all over and is a female. Could she be yours?” The cedar brush and trees are so thick back there it is a wonder the cow made it through it. I had to call hubbie, cause he is the one that mows. You do know what will be all over the place now  - cow patties and he will have to deal with that. He said it wasn’t something to worry about and that he did not have a phone number either to call. Think of him when he gets back from Houston next week and has to mow through all that.

Ok I promised a Commercial use freebie. This one has three pattern overlays, one texture overlay and one grunge overlay. I made a sample to show you how it can look. I put a color burn on the pattern layer and an overlay on the texture paper and, oops not sure about that last, but I do know it was a color burn on the pattern. The sample is included with the download.

Click here to go to the no wait download page

and finally did it. Can you see what is different today? up in the top of the right column? Probably not, cause who remembers what a blogger looks like from one day to the next? But, I finally changed my photo to reflect the new me. When I cut all that hair off two months ago and got a new “do” I wanted to wait for the cut to settle in. Who knew what hair do I would really end up with. But, I’ve had a second hair cut since the first (gotta go in about every 6 weeks when you have short hair you know) and I pretty much figure this is it. Then, I ordered some new glasses. If you look close you can see that I wear trifocals. I have been wearing trifocals for about 10 years now and love them.

So, today before I left to go pick up my glasses, I took extra care with my hair. Then after I got the new glasses fitted I went to Wally World and asked about getting a photo. Well, they advertise $7.95 for a package deal, but that is not all there is to it. I needed a photo that was not copyright protected so I could put it here on the blog and other places as well. And I wanted it TODAY! never mind waiting two and half weeks to come back and pick them up, I wanted a photo today. I ended up getting a passport photo, but without the passport photo pose. It is not copyright protected and I am allowed to scan it and publish it anyway I want. Plus, look at that white background! it was a totally perfect answer.

The next question was how much was I going to “de-wrinkle -fy” the photo before posting it. I worked and worked and created several versions with no neck wrinkles, firm jaw line, the works. It took 25 years or more off my apparent age. But, gee look at that photo, it looks just fine the way it is, so I decided to give you the REAL NANCY! Yep that’s me the real me, wrinkles, age spots and all.  . . not too bad for a fifty eight year old is it? Here is a larger version of the photo:

As I was driving to the other Wally World (long storey) I got to thinking I would really like some REAL photos, so I went in and talked to the photographer at that second Wally World and we discussed packages and stuff. She knew I just wanted the special package for $7.95 but had to tell me about all of it. But, after the photos were taken, and she showed me everything, I ended up getting some more. Its been years since I have had a professional photographer take my photos. She did a good job, but of course I have to wait two and a half weeks to get them. OH and by the way, she can sell me the copyright to them for $18. I might just take her up on that if I like the photos as much as I think I am going to like them.

Moving On

I put a bunch of top site blinkies on my blog last night. They are on the bottom of the right column. If you got a minute or two, you might click on some of them for me. That would be sooo sweet of you. Then if  you tell me that you did, and let me know where your blog is, I’ll return the favor. I get some good traffic from those sites, you all ought to try them if you don’t use them already.

Moving ON

Today is the last day of the Scrapper’s Zone NSD celebration. And we saved the best for the last. The green category today is 75% off. That is a great bargain and you really should check it all out.

In honor of it being green day at ScrappersZone I made a green mini kit for you all today. It  has four papers and a bunch of odds and ends incuding that zipper you see and the torn paper at the bottom.

Click here to go to the no wait download page.

Yep, I was not nice. The old server people still had not moved over my site to their new server when I was orginally told it would be a couple days. AND THAT WAS THREE WEEKS AGO! I was supposed to sit idly by and twiddle my thumbs while they figured out what was wrong. I called several times and told them not to worry about fixing the errors, but just to move it and I would fix it myself. Well, today I decided to get their attention. I wrote a help ticket telling them I was going to delete the site and THEN they would not have any excuse to keep from moving an empty site. And that is what I did. Of course, I first checked to be sure there was nothing still there that I needed, then I set about deleting and deleting. I deleted all the files, I deleted all the databases, I deleted all the ftp accounts, I deleted all the email accounts and every forum I had set up for practice and every gallery I had set up for practice. It was kind of cleansingin a way.

It was less than thirty minutes when I got an email saying they were sorry about any inconvenience, yada, yada, yada. But, it must have got their attention, cause tonight I got another email saying that finally my site (what little there is left of it) has been moved over to the new server. Of course, they did not do as I said and set up one of my domains I had left there as the main domain. Sigh. I’m scared to call and ask about that. We just don’t seem to be speaking the same techie language.

Moving ON

Do ya wanna see what my challenge gift is for May at ScrappersZone? Every month I post an ad I find in the magazines or on the internet and ask you all to use it as inspiration for a layout. When you post your layout I send you a gift. Here is the gift for May.

That is  four papers and a side cluster for your photos. I included some of the items I used to make the cluster as loose files also. It can be yours free if you post a layout in response to my ad challege in the forum at ScrappersZone.

 National Scrapbooking Day Celebrations are still going strong at ScrappersZone. All the items in the orange category are now 25% off for Tuesday. Be sure to check out all the freebies that I have uploaded into the side columns of the store from the designers. You DON’T have to go through check out to download them. Just find the images and click on them and your download starts right then. If you want to see previews of what the freebies are, I have previews listed in the forum.

Because it is orange day at ScrappersZone, I have made a mini orange kit for you all as a freebie.

Click here to go to the no wait download page.

I’ve had my nose to the grindstone, so did not have much time to spend looking at my blog today. But when I got here, WOW - 30 comments! I am thrilled. This is an all time record I believe, for me to have 30 comments in one day. ummmm, was the commercial use freebie?? or perhaps you all were out in numbers today getting the freebies for National Scrappbooking Day  - OR maybe you all just like my stuff?? Probably a little of all three.

You ever have one of those moments when everything comes together and looks soo neat, but really there is no one to tell? That was me today. I got my home page finally set up for the new store at http://digiscrapstation.com/ and was really proud of being able to actually stitch on the web page. We are talking css, z-index, absolute positioning and all that stuff. I was able to take a single stitch and run it across the top and down the edges just like a line of stitching. I really like the effect. Then I did the holy grail of web design and put in three css columns there too. I just sat and stared are it for about five minutes. AND COULD NOT THINK OF ANYONE TO TELL WHO WOULD KNOW WHAT AN ACCOMPLISHMENT IT WAS! Sure, my desiger friends would ooo and ahhhh and my family would say that’s neat mom. But, no one would know how hard it is to do something like that and would not understand that it is a web developer’s dream to build something like that. Well, after staring at it for a while, I figured I had better bite the bullet and see what it looked like in FireFox - the bane of all web developers. Of course, I had to rewrite the whole page when I saw what it looked like in Fire Fox but got it done real fast since I could remember what I wanted and it came out just fine. So, if you are reading this, and understand what I am talking about - please go look!! and then tell me whatcha think. 

Today’s freebie is again related to Scrapper’s Zone and the celebrations we are having there for National Scrapbooking Day. Today all the products in the yellow category are 50% off. So the freebie for today is a little yellow mini kit.

Click here to go to the no wait download page

Sounds a little vulgar doesn’t it. Phished. Well, I am sure the people who do get phished feel like it is vulgar. It is being raided for your personal information. I got a little email from what looked like to be ebay, saying I had a dispute over not paying. Well, perhaps something had slipped my mind and I owed somebody for an auction I had bid on. So, I clicked on the link provided and then poof, my McAfee came up and said a big, huge NO!

Just like that I could have been phished. If I had gone to that site and answered any questions I would have been giving information about me to the bad guys. Of course, I went to the REAL ebay and checked to be sure it was phony. There was a message there saying my information may have been compromised and to change my password please. I did, and while there found the address to report this to and then forwarded on that nasty, vulgar, phishing email to them. They sent an email back confirming that it was a nasty email.

Phishing, what terms will the big tech dudes in California come up with next? Supposedly it comes from the term fishing as in fishing for private information.

My McAfee sure paid for itself tonight. One other time this happened to me, except it was a phony PayPal thing. I was starting to fill in the blanks when I realized that PayPal never had this information to begin with, why should they ask for it now. I deleted my info and got out of there fast without hitting the send button. Of course, we changed our credit cards and stuff right away afterwards anyway. It doesn’t hurt to be careful.

So along that lines, Scrapper’s Zone is fishing for your patronage on Sunday by putting all the items in the Black and White category on Sale. Guess what items have a lot of black and white? Commercial Use items and yes there are a lot of commercial use items in that category and they are all on sale for 50% off.

My freebie is Commercial Use this time too in order to get in the spirit of the day. Here it is, pattern overlays and texture overlays. fill a layer with color, slide the pattern over it, then slide that texture right on top. Change the blending mode of the texture layer, maybe work a little with the opacity and you will have a great paper. Want better? Change the blending mode of the pattern overlay to Color Burn and it really will give you a cool effect.

 Click here to go to the no wait download page