I was so amused that my dearest friend Deb asked who that dude was with Pavarotti in the video, so here he is again, Deb: (His name is Sting and in the rebellious, idealistic days of my youth, I loved that there was this rocker who could sing songs of substance and with deep messages… their kind don’t come around often, so when they do, I fall in love 😆 Isn’t talent just soooo attractive?)
For you, Deb, and for everyone else who has a thing for Sting 🙂 :
And here’s the classic Sting song:
why, yes, even in my own home, as of last night! 😆
Christmas, my friends, has officially arrived in our home as of December 8th, the feast of the Immaculate Conception. 🙂
It’s a good thing that my dear hubby does not believe in filling every nook and cranny of our humble home with Christmas decor, because it makes my job of decorating that much easier. 😀 Also, it totally helps that I have five sons who can help me put up the Christmas decor (well, okay, four… 😛 )
What I really love is that I now have some real Christmassy photos to use for my Daily December album, which has been up in the air (or more correctly, stuck in my camera’s memory card), instead of the daily-any-month photos that I’ve been taking since December began. 😆 I’ve been trying to decide whether to post the photos here or maybe make a layout and post THAT here (need a push to actually start scrapping those photos, and this might be it! haha)… but while I make up my fickle mind on that issue, here’s something again for you!
(And some nice music by two of my favorite people to keep you entertained as you download 😉 )
This freebie is actually a spin-off from the Winter Shimmer kit, so you might notice that the papers are similar to some in Winter Shimmer, except they’re in more playful, brighter colors (and the striped one is new, and the creamy one has a different texture). This came about because my dear friend Jana loves pink christmases, so I decided to go ahead and make a pink version. The elements on this mini kit are not the same, though, so you might want to snag it as well. 😀
Since this is a mini kit, you’re getting all of it in one download. Aside from the four papers, I’ve made a chipboard arrow with a snowflake accent, a Christmas tree calendar transparency accent, and three silver-bookplate tags with gemstone brads. One of the tags has wordart on it. Thank you’s are in my TOU! And that’s the whole kit, my dears!
Thank you for letting me know that you can still do with more Christmas kits; this one is for you and you and you, and all of you, my sweeties!
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Download Jolly HollyDays here. Now much as I’d love to sit on this porch swing with you, I really must go to bed as my fingers are frozen from the cold and it’s almost 5AM in my part of the world. 😀
ETA: Sorry, download link is no longer available.
Love to all, and to all a goodnight! (((((hugs)))))
with the last set of the Winter Shimmer Kit!!!
It’s getting pretty busy around here, with all the preparations for the holidays. How are things in your home? Have you done any shopping yet? (If you tell me your list is all ticked off, I’m going to sit on the floor and bawl! Or… hmm, since that’s not very productive, maybe I’ll send you a ticket so you can come and do all my holiday preparations for me! Does that sound good to you? 😀 😆 😀 )
Only 17 days to go till The Best Day of the Year, and in some places where my friends are, they’ve got snow bringing on the brrrrs!!!
Here’s something to keep you company while you scrap by the fire:
Winter Shimmer Set 3:
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There are 4 papers here; one is patterned, the other has a frosty, icy row of white snowflakes at the top, and the 2 are shimmery blue and lavender almost-solid ones. All are highly textured, as usual. I went crazy with the elements (and the snowflakes too, heehee), so you’re getting a metallic blue snowflake border which coordinates with all the papers in the entire kit (I tried putting it on each paper and it goes well!). There are 3 gem-centered pewter hanging accents, and so that you can hang them on your layouts, I’ve included 2 metallic snowflake brads–the ones you see on both sides of “Christmas 2007” which is a pewter Christmas label. There’s also a snowflake paper clip and 2 journaling sheets (to write your Christmas wishes for Santa? 😆 )
To make the paper clip look realistically attached, just CTRL-CLICK on the layer thumbnail of whatever element you’re attaching the clip to. You should see marching ants around it. Then target the layer that the paper clip is on. Take your eraser brush and start erasing the paper clip parts that should be behind the element. Voila! 😀
Hope you like this last set of the Winter Shimmer kit. I’ve got some exciting ideas for more freebies, but do let me know if you’re sick of Christmas freebies already (there are so many going around, right? Have you had enough? 😆 ) Download Winter Shimmer Set 3 here. There is no zip password this time.
ETA: Sorry, download link is no longer available.
I decided to do away with the zip password, as that is the reason for the orange sign coming up on my 4shared site. The only reason I placed zip passwords was to make sure that those who snag the freebies do pass by to say hello on my blog (I always love having you visit! 😉 )… but I really don’t want to give you unnecessary hassle and I can’t help thinking that those of us who have a deathly fear of viruses (who doesn’t?) may just have their fears stoked by that sign, even if it only means that 4shared couldn’t check my files for viruses due to the password. Phew!
To make a long story short, download and extract without hassles, my dears! 😀 😀 😀
Have a happy day, and thank you so much for the love you leave! (((hugs)))
Thank you so much, darling Deb, szilvia, and Tina for your oh-so-reassuring comments (And thank you so much, Tina, for testing this phenomenon out on your own 4shared site). And thank you veevs.
Finally got a response today from 4shared…
So the whole reason for that strange orange sign was because I have passwords protecting my file. Phew! (Amazingly, this is what my three darling friends figured out before I received my email). Thank you, 4shared, for your response. And thank heavens that I can now resume my freebie uploading without a worry about strange messages cropping up. Thought you’d like to know why that sign is there.
I asked support how I could solve this problem (i.e., get rid of that message) while still being able to protect my files with passwords. The solution is to password-protect the whole folder. I’ll figure out how that works and let’s see how it goes from there. If it’s just too difficult, I may forget passwords altogether (what? and lose the creative thrill of thinking up passwords? 😆 )
Working on Set 3 of Winter Shimmer as we speak… and going back now to the salt mines.
All is right with heaven and earth… and my 4shared site! Woohoo! 😉
Here it is. Zip password is itworksnow
ETA: Sorry, download link is no longer available.
I can’t begin to tell you how frustrated I’m feeling about this kink. I have spent the last 2 and a half hours trying to contact 4shared support to shed some light on this. I tried Live Chat help, and twice I got them on the line, and twice they just poofed out on me (there was no response and the chatbox just ended). However, I was able to give them the link so that they could check it out… and after waiting and waiting for more than 2 hours, there still was that –as veevs would say–blooming message on my download link.
Out of frustration and after 2 emails to 4shared support (with no response yet up to now), I decided to take out the link and reupload a new zip file (did the whole usual round of zipping, virus-checking, and test-extracting before uploading to 4shared). Well, I lost all the lovely notes left by all those who were able to download earlier without that blasted orange note there, and I totally feel bad about that.
And that’s not all. I checked the link and AGAIN there’s that orange message.
4shared, if you can read this, please please please fix that up! please!
As for you, my sweeties, do try to download this file and see if you can do it notwithstanding the sign there. I’m downloading it myself to test it again as we speak.
So so so sorry for the hassle. I hope you understand that this is not within my control, and I thank you immensely for your patience and kind understanding.
Make some wishes for me, please, that 4shared will fix this up real soon. Thank you so much.
sniff, sniff, sniff, sob, sob, sob
Yeah, I know, those words half don’t make sense. Like what’s happening at 4shared totally doesn’t make sense.
I was just chatting with my wonderful friend veevs and she checked other 4shared sites, and ALL of them have this notice.
Will keep you updated as we sort this out, darlings. Thank you so much for your patience.
Oh and the best cyber-sleuth? That would be my friend veevs.
My friend J just alerted me to something on my 4shared site where Set 2 of Winter Shimmer is… a note that says “Protected archive-failed to virus-check-2007-12-05” which TRUST ME was NOT there earlier when i checked my site (and there were already 16 downloads by then). I have an amazingly strong anti-virus software installed in my compy and I always check everything I download and upload … ALWAYS.
Here’s the most baffling thing: if you check on the 4shared site DATE UPLOADED, it says “2007-12-06”.
So how can you state “Failed to virus-check” if you’re doing this to a file that has not YET been uploaded as of the time you failed your virus-check? Think about it: Failed to virus-check – date? Dec. 05″ Compare it to date uploaded “Dec.06” ????? Can you explain that to me, Kaspersky people? I mean, if you have a way of virus-checking files that have not YET been uploaded, well then, that’s totally amazing! What’s that called–cyber-ESP?
I’m sorry for the rant, my dears. I’m not normally like this… but I’m totally aghast at this development!
I’m presently trying to download my own file and will check it out. If it seems like it’s been sabotaged (my friend J tells me that nothing comes out of the file), then I’m taking that down, changing the password, and uploading a new file.
Oh, and for the sake of your own peace of mind, I never, ever, ever, ever upload a file without running it through a virus-check, EVEN IF I know my compy is virus-free. I am deathly afraid of those buggers, ask my dearest and closest friends. I love playing around with my compy too much to not make sure it’s got itself protected in a plastic-bubble from those atrocious things. And then there’s that OC-AR tendency in me to double-and-triple check, even if the virus-scan software runs every so often within the same hour, 24/7. Just want you to know, you have nothing to worry about.Â
And that is why I rant at things like this. I mean, really, what is supposed to be accomplished by something like this? I just want to share my designs (insert crying emoticon here).
Okay… now on to checking this bummer. Will be back to let you know what happens.
I’m looking at a bunch (and when I say bunch, I mean a WHOLE bunch) of letters from three different schools that my three sons attend (one in preschool, one in elementary, one in high school) and I’m slowly going nuts. Here’s a sampling:
* Notice of Christmas outreach program for the poor orphaned children (that’s nice. I have prepared the box of goodies; just have to find some nice functional toys to share with them… that my kids won’t kill me for giving away… deadline for wrapping all of this is like an hour away)
* Notice of FOUR different days’ worth of practices for some dancing activity for parents for the Christmas program of R (my kid in Sixth Grade) – now this is NOT nice. I don’t dance unless I’m under the influence of alcohol (and, aside from a few sips of red wine now and then, I have not had any alcohol in the last 20 years… and have not danced since too–publicly at least 😛 ). I didn’t go to the first 2 past practices and I informed them that I would do anything–clean the whole school after the program, maybe even lie down on the ground and turn myself into a mat?–just to be excused from turning the dancing activity into a huge disaster.
* More Christmas programs and Christmas activities, and a parent-teacher conference to boot–for A, my eldest in high school. I truly dread the PTCs at his school because they last forever and a day. But claiming the report card takes even longer, with more winding paths to tread along, for those who don’t attend the PTC… so what choice do I have?
And that’s not all on the list of school activities to attend to (and have I told you that they overlap on days and times?)… but let me not bore you to tears.
Now here’s my question: does anyone know of a doctor who can divide me into three, or maybe even clone FIVE copies of me (three to attend to these activities plus one more to attend to real life errands and another to do my Christmas shopping) so that the original me can stay at home and play?
😆
Let’s talk of better things, shall we? 😉
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Let’s talk of snow and winter and Christmas (don’t no one mention shopping lists, okay? Shhhhh! )
😆
Here’s the latest set of Winter Shimmer (with the last set slowly nearing completion). There are 3 papers here, all in colors that coordinate with the first set and the third set still coming: JackFrost is a shimmery solid, toned paper; Magical Morning is another shimmery snowflake-studded one; and the last one (on the leftmost area of the preview) is a text-patterned paper with Merry Christmas in different languages all over the world (I googled these, but the only ones I can remember are English, Filipino, Spanish, Italian, French, Kenyan, German, Hawaiian, Dutch, Russian, Latin… and I forget the rest. 😆 )
This set also comes with an acrylic accent tag (from what I’ve read, acrylic is on its way to being one of the big scrapping fads) ; a gem-dotted frosty tree accent, and two metal frames with snowflake accents. (Thank you as always to atomic cupcake {totally fab}, and to claudmey and takatula of stock.exchange for the photos I used on the preview).
Here now is Winter Shimmer Set 2. Zip password is pax (which is Latin for peace, which I really need a lot of now. 😆 )
EDIT:
Please see post above for the new link and the new zip password for this Set 2 of Winter Shimmer. I really don’t understand what is happening to my 4shared links, but I uploaded a new file for you to download. Sorry about this totally unnecessary hassle. 😦
I know that I promised this within 24 hours… but in my part of the world, I try to make 24 hours stretch as much as it can and still, I’m not always lucky. 😀 Hope you like this just the same!
Oh, and before I forget, a HUGE HUGE THANK YOU to all of you who shared your snow and winter stories with me as you downloaded. I totally LOVE reading everything you write, and it always brings a smile to my face and warm fuzzies to my heart. Sending you all warm fuzzies as well, to keep you nice and comfy in your part of the world where you can watch snowflakes drift outside your window. And thank you too, for all the invitations to come and make snowangels in your yards. I just might show up one of these winter years. 😉
Have a happy day, my sweeties!
woken up–say, in the dead of night, or even maybe a couple of hours before the sun himself rises–to this scene?
Well. In case you have woken up to this scene, rejoice, my friend. (And if you haven’t yet and are on your way to this a few months from now, brace yourself).
Because this is how it is at my bedside pretty often, say about…hmmm… every night?
😆    😆
That’s right. But you know what? I would never trade this scene for any other in the entire world, not even if you promised me soft rays of sunshine gently creeping into the room to rest on a bed covered by a warm comforter and your most loved one beside you breathing softly.
Because, you know what? Nothing is softer than 5 hugs from 5 wonderful sons. Plus a happy husband.
😉
not here where I am, thankfully. But whenever I think of cold weather, I remember with a chuckle an email I got from my dear brother, who now lives in North America with his wonderful wife and kids in a place particularly known for its biting cold during the Christmas season. Last year, having newly moved to this place from a busy city in the same part of North America, he sent us an email telling us that the temperature was like -43ºC and he said “Now I know why that Christmas carol went ‘The weather outside is fright’nin’ ‘ ” 😆 I guess when icicles are threatening to hang from the orifices of your body, then that really is frightening!
But this new kit I’ve started is NOT frightening (I hope!) hahaha.
I’ve been wanting to create a nice shimmery effect on paper, inspired by my recent shopping spree (oh those Thanksgiving and Black Friday sales are wicked!!! 😛 ) at Little Dreamer Designs (ahem… among other wonderful places like here, here, here, and here. I loved, absolutely loved, totally loved, Michelle Coleman’s Glow Kit and had to have both the paper pack and the elements… and in the process influenced a few of my friends 😉 to pick up the same pack for themselves as well. If you don’t already have it, it is a MUST. Wonderful wonderful kit! Thank you for creating it, Michelle!
So anyway, I spent around 3 days researching and trying to find out a way to produce that nice shimmery glow digitally (aided at one point by my dear friend Veevs who is the cyber-search expert, especially–but not limited to–when it comes to sales of digital stuff… 😆 ). In the end I was so confused with all the input I had been reading that I just decided to play around with Photoshop and do a bit of this and that here and there… and this is what I came up with. I know it’s far from Michelle’s wonderful kit, but there’s nothing like the feeling of satisfaction derived from just working hard on creating something that you see in your mind and finding, when you’ve translated it onto paper, that it’s not half bad actually. 🙂 (At least for me… hehehe. I hope you like it too!)
So here’s the first set of the Winter Shimmer kit. Zip password is starlight I kind of went way out of bounds in terms of color choice here, because these colors are not the ones I would usually play with, but somehow when I imagine what winter is like, these are the colors that bounce up and down in my mind’s eye. Yeah, I know, I have only seen snowflakes ONCE in my life, when I was about six years old, in Belgium… and I’ve never even touched the Real Thing called snow. On my list of Things to Do Before I Get Too Old: make snowangels in the snow. So don’t be surprised if you ever happen upon a fifty-five year old lady having the time of her life lying on snow and waving her arms and legs about: chances are that would be me. 😆
ETA: Sorry, download link is no longer available.
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This set comes with 3 shimmery papers, one with a night winter scene called Starburst (I wish I could show the entire paper in the preview–as this is my favorite in the set, but I had to put in the other parts of the set in the preview as well). There’s also WhiteLight, a light greyish-white one with snowflakes; and Bliss-ard, which is a mostly-solid, highly textured one. There are 4 glittery snowflakes that measure about 6 inches from end to end which you can upsize or downsize as you wish… and you can use them for accents on your page.
There’s more to come, for sure… I just have to finish a special project that my playground girlfriends and I are producing for our dear Jessica. 😉
I’ll be back soon!
Oh and PS. I was extremely extremely moved and touched by your comments. Actually, I always am, but this time was awesome in a special way, because some people really made an extra effort to leave such inspiring comments. Thank you so much. (Thank you, Tina and Ruth K, for your extra thank-you’s for all those who forgot them). Huge hugs to you all! Your words, the time you take, the effort you make to write down your comments: PRICELESS. Thank you. Seriously.
Alright! Back to the salt mines! Visit soon for the next installment of Winter Shimmer!
Have a happy day, my sweeties!
liv.e simply 