Lets talk about nice people (and Scrapbooking software!)

Good morning/afternoon/evening....

My sleep patterns are getting better, despite my body not wanting to answer to my brain commands, but I have been in a good mood overall, so many nice people making their way into my life.
There are so many givers in the net world, even if we only talk about the scrapbooking "scene" (I could be hours writing about the amount of gifted people who share their music with the world for free, and many other forms of art...)

Starting by the one who brings us the givers as a package, Maria from Digifree, which recently has changed names to CraftCrave.
I have to admit I don't much like the new name, even my daughter made a comment as to the old name making more sense, but the essence remains the same:through this site one can have a blast reading the many blogs found by the searching engine, and get freebies to scrapbook for a year without having to spend a penny....thing is, if you are anything like me, you will feel a bit *guilty* of only downloading freebies, start picking your favorite designers and, when they become affordable, buy some kits.

When buying, I end up most of the time at Digital Crea France . They have very often (once a month at least) sales with full kits for as little as 1 Euro or 1.50, and they are my preferred style, but lest go back to the point (yeah, I know, blame the prescription meds!)

Amongst the many people who create and always give freebies, is the most wonderful Rosemarie (or RosemariePixel, as you may know her) who runs Pixel Scrapbooking
I think I came across her through Digifree, as one does, and the freebies were so cute and so many, I ended up signing up for the newsletters, which allows you into more freebies than if only searching through Digifree (or any of the other search engines, I know there is Lori and some others, but up to date, my chosen one is ...ok, ok, I have to correct myself: CraftCrave (it's gonna take time to get used to this, though!)
But she offers not only freebies but so much more, the first time I went to the site I spent quiet a long time reading, she also has such a beautiful family you can get lost into her creations, a great source of inspiration too.
The tutorials are amazing, and I have clicked in many of the adverts, there is interesting stuff I didn't even know existed.

I have been saying for a while that I wanted to post something about these people, these women who so kindly put their talent out there for everyone to enjoy, and particularly wanted to do this for Rosemarie, so I thought: what better than share my latest experiences with software?
As my concentration levels still are clouded by medication or pain levels (or severe discomfort, as the British NHS would prefer it to be described!) I wasn't sure I would complete the task properly, so it took a while, but I got started... :)

So here is where you can find my thoughts and experiences with the few programs I use & bought, starting by the not so creativity inclined Smilebox and followed by the (at least for me) winner of all prizes, Scrapblog
Just click on the highlighted names to go to the reviews, leave a comment there, come to talk to me here...but above all, sign up for Rosemarie's freebies, everything is amazingly beautiful or teaches you a lot...even if you were just born in a non computerized era (like me!), girls like RosemariePixel (who apparently was *download* instead of just purely born LOL) will help you master the digital arts in a very, very easy to understand way.

Here is a LO I made last night with a mix of elements from different kits, but where the star is PixelScrapbooking moon, which you can get for free (together with some more of different colors) when signing up for the newsletter and having access to all previous freebies.
Stay tuned for the following reviews of ScrapbookMax V 2.0 & DigitalScrapbookingArtist by Serif (used to make this LO)

For the LOve of SCRAPBLOG

I'm not gonna stop long (got Sarita a bit poorly) but just wanted to share this with you guys...

I will as promised review all the other programs/designers, but we chose our winner, so here it is something we made together with Sarita:



Thanks for all the attention given everywhere!
Huggzzz

Creating Paradise

So... after another sleepless night (if you know me you will know this is not as bad as it sounds) I decided to share my delight with my new toy.

Everyone knows how much I love Scrapblog.com, and how much happiness and benefits I got from the site, not only the program but also the community, one couldn't hope for a better site...but lately it has been changing towards the financial side and, after much thought and seeking advice, I decided to buy a program.

I had seen the advert for ScrapbookMax when first investigating DigiFree, the price converted in British Pounds was more than convenient but, why buy at that stage, when @ SCrapblog everything (or most) was free and I was enjoying it so much....

There was also the fact that ScrapbookMax was designed for Windows and we were already working towards our iMac, so I forgot all about it.

I then embarqued in the project of  scrapping Sarita's year books and (at her request) print them.

In this I found the first difficulty with Scrapblog, as they don't ship to the UK.

Not only that but there is no possibility of ordering more than one book and paying one delivery: I had to pay postage and package within the US per book (I printed 3) and then (this I will eternally grateful for) I payed Rebecca, who is part of the team and a marvelous person, the international postage.

Have to admit though: I took the opportunity that they had at the time 25% discount on printing keepsake books, so, all in all, it worked out approximately £50 each book, which, if you shop around, will realize it isn't expensive, especially taking into account that each book had 70 pages or over....

All brilliant up to here.

I was buying credits from time to time but, as it works out cheaper to buy the U$25 at the time, this was a bit of a risky situation...and as the time went, more and more stuff had prices,less and less was free.

Then one day I got an email (presumably I registered at the time of checking out the advert) from ScrapbookMax , announcing their latest version, the 2.0, and the discount, a modicum U$47 something....

I write back (not expecting a reply at all) suggesting they create a version for Macs...

Very soon after I got a reply, explaining how I could work the program on Parallels, the program form Apple designed to allow Windows in the Macs.

Lets cut the story short: I bought it.

There are some reviews of it here:

http://creativespirits.ning.com/profiles/blog/list?user=3k0gnjw4vlyho

but since writing them, I have come a long way.

It wasn't easy at first, I even went through the painful task of recovering my PC from Trojan Horses and Spyware attacks in order to work SBM in it, because the Parallels was crashing my Mac, but once I got the grip of the program (with a huge helpful hand from the SBM members and team) the making of my pages has turned into creative paradise.

There is one plus with ScrapbookMax that makes everything worth wile: the prints at home are excellent, as we retain our high resolution photos.

In a minor scale, the use of all the freebies and stuff bought in stores is usable with no fuss, no going through Photobucket and wasting time downloading. I say in a minor scale because (we need to be fair here) at the moment in Scrapblog the getting files from Photobucket is faster than it was...still: with SBM I get them drag and drop from my computer.

ScrapbookMax isn't Scrapblog.

I said and will keep my word: Scrapblog is the best program on the net.

Is fast, has a number of amazing features that make composing easy and creativity flows...but our wallets get drained as fast, and SBM does not have this problem.

The program is mine.

A few of my Scrapblog sisters have followed me to ScrapbookMax, that makes it even nicer, and plus the SBM ladies (and gents!) are a nice bunch too.

My thing with Scrapbooking is not a superficial pastime, it has a goal,is a task.

I create projects with the photos we take, I am still in the middle of producing Sarita's books and I will do the rest in Scrapblog.

But ScrapbookMax has allowed me to make my own cards, and now I'm making our Brazil album...and will be able to print and put together in those fabulous albums I got for free from Freecycle...huge leather bound albums which fit two A4s per page...

Can't wait to finish !

So, there you go, this is what I have been up to.

Wont post everything here as I have done lots, but if you are interested, there are two albums and a few loose pages here:

http://www.scrapbookmax.com/gallery/showgallery.php/cat/500/ppuser/15060

Now I'm gonna go think out the next step: to sleep or not to sleep?

that is one hell of a question right now! (09.33 am)

:)

Facing a new phase.....

..isn't easy.

So much that I have been avoiding writing.

Writing about what happens means pretty much acknowledging and therefore solving.

I have never been one to run away from things, but when the events are such as the current in our lives, stuff which I cannot change, I wasn't sure I wanted to write about it.

My daughter, you see, my precious little baby whom I nursed on the breast for almost 3 years, that little princess who liked dressing up dollies and learn to sing in the bath tub with Maria Elena Walsh, Sound of Music and Annie.... that same one who still cannot go to sleep unless I'm there to do the *tickles* (this means stroking the side of her back in a particular way), this same girl is entering the grown up world.

This a world not so different of mine when I was 13, but faster and meaner, if those are words to suit. 

(I never know, in English, you ll excuse this foreigner, but at least I try)

I don't buy the crap of the *understand your teenager* books, or the *how teenagers think* (which by the way I couldn't get pass the 15th page, and have intended to write to Jellyellie to give the kid a piece of my mind, but hey...)

There is nothing to be understood about teenagers.

The teens are a time of change, revelry, even if you have nothing to rebel against.

Time to define stuff, to make desicions on your own, to start forming your own world....which may change drastically or not in the future, but, in my honest and humble opinion, the only thing one can do about out teenage children is try to remember how it was for us.

In doing so I have been able to keep my relationship with Sarita a nice one, even though her aspiration at this time is to *fit* with a group of kids who's life consist in going every saturday to the Heath to get drunk and smoke cigarettes.

My coming into knowledge of these all, as in verbally speaking, happened when she brought a friend to spend the weekend with us. They come back not wanting dinner, and when I pass the living room and have one look at this girl, I did not need to ask, but I (ay ay, it hurt) of course, did:

"What's the matter with her? did she drink?"

""mae, everybody drunk!!!!"

"What do you mean everybody? did YOU drink?"

"maaaaaaeee, EVERYBODY drunk!!!"

so I kinda smiled, asked her what did she drink, and went over again the subject of alcoholic fathers and genetics and her father's family and having a life and not wanting to end up, well, you know the drift.

I (again) suggested that, if she HAD to drink, as to not to appear like a wimp with the kids she is trying to fit in, to ALWAYS have her own can or bottle, to just get a sip and drop it on the side..... which (thank God for that!) she confessed to have done. 

I also kept (and keep still) saying (on and on and on and on, poor kid must NOT like the sound of my voice by now) that these boys are not the ones who will be having the life she dreams of, one with sports cars and a carrier and a house with a garden and children who will be loved by both parents and whole families.....

I know she isn't into drinking or smoking as in a daily thing, I know she is driven to these by what they call *peer pressure* but, though I know she does listen to me and takes things in, I cannot avoid being a bit worried.

I try, as I said, to put myself in her shoes, to listen to what she tells me without negative criticism,I know I am lucky that she talks to me, and I remember how every time my mum forbid me to befriend this or that one girl or boy, I would go to the end of the world to make the best of friendship with said this or that girl or boy.... whom, invariably, were at least 5 or 6 years older than me, not forgetting Mariana who was 16 years my senior.....

I may be wrong, but I reckon if I know who she is with, where she is and what she is doing, I have more chances of protecting her than if I just ignore or forbid stuff which then she will be doing regardless....

My solution to all these comes in the form of keeping her busy, if she is studying, doing after school & weekend courses, she has the chance of meeting people who have ambitions in life other than getting drunk every weekend, right? 

well, that's gonna have to wait... why?

because of the one evil instrument which makes the world go round: money.

we are traveling to see the family this summer (which I'm dreading as I'm not well), so stiff will only happen when we come back. It will though.

I'm not happy with the school in general right now though.

No uniform could mean individuality in the best of ways, but when your child wakes up two and a half to 3 hours earlier to get ready,and this getting ready is more alike an American Next Top Model parade than going to school.....

This morning I cringed when I saw what she was wearing....and the make up.... you know what school said to me when I called to ask (to Sarita's insistence that every teacher saw them with make up and even the HeadMistress and none ever complained) :

"well....you see...is not NOT allowed...."

"what do mean by that?"

"it isn't written anywhere that they cannot wear make up...."

so WRITE IT then!

I'm not sure they learn that much these days either, to be honest...

but hey, worse is written now, I had to make a record of this, though I have dread the writing the words in black and white, I know is important for both of us that I do.

There is still the fact that we watch TV together, we do computer stuff together, she shows me every site she goes, tells me about every boy (or girl) she talks to.... and we ve been to see Hannah Montana's movie (yeah, call me childish, but I fricking loved it)

There is the issue of my health which I should be writing too.... suffice to say that I'm in and out of hospital again, and this week some big testing is in store....I may bring up some energy and will power to write about that too.

What I have been doing?

making books of memories for the future,by Sarita's request, we are printing them, and also all these have brought a new skill I didn't know I had, and something I maybe pursuing when we come back....

Here are the books:

I hope this works.... otherwise, you know where to go  to view them :)

Down memory lane.....

... with the music of today.

So now we have the iMac, iTunes at hand, but LimeWire is the blessing for the less fortunate on the financial side (that would be us), so, not having gotten around to get the PC, our dear dinossaur, going to retrieve my old collection, I set out to get some new (old) songs.
But when I got into our LimeWire library I saw that Sarita downloaded a few songs, I decided to give a bit of attention.

She still makes a point to be home in time to watch the Cheetah Girls movie and new episodes of the Sweet Life of Zack and Cody, but I can see her wondering into a different period of her life.... and, providing it is not Britney, I try to learn as much as what she likes to be able to share and encourage her to sing and keep performance a part of her days, though we, not surprisingly, have no more money to pay for the classes.
( I've just got my energy bills for the quarter, which total the amount of £297 Sterling Pounds... there goes Sarita's birthday's sushi dinner, I'm afraid)

And I found a couple of jewels.
One was Beyonce (why the Brit presentors call her BeyonceYYY, is beyond my comprehension of the eastendernest of the Shakespearean language, and makes me puke, but that is a minor detail) , which did not surprise me as I had watched (to Sarita's insistence, the E channel's life of the girl, and hey, a girl with determination, with intelligence, supportive parents and a drop of luck that came in the right time, a voice to kill for and.... well.... have you seen her and Shakira performing together?
my idea of heaven.
(well, one can't help but lust...)
So Beyonce singing *If I was a boy*
[I almost got all happy thinking she was changing teams, but hey, chances of her ever noticing us are slim, so, never mind...;)]
The other one was Jennifer Hudson singing Spotlight.
So I go into YouTube....
this was at, what...18:30h?
I'm still here, with Sarita coming and sitting in my bed to share a kebab and what she called *quality time with my mummy*, as she has been spending time with Syan because if this party on monday... (that will be something to talk about on tuesday...right now, I wish I had a double barrel shotgun to keep all the boys and whatever influences she can find when she goes out with her friends..., but as that is not very civilized or makes any sense, and your children are not your children and all that.... lets leave it as that and go back to YouTube, safer subject)

Not only is Beyonce amazing on all aspects of If I was a boy, but I found this video of her paying tribute to Tina Turner and singing dancing and fiercing Proud Mary... hwich by the way I have been trying to embed here for the past 20 minutes and, no matter what I do, this thing here wont paste the code I copied from YouTube, but, make an effort go watch it, it's well worth it, the user is Karavias, because you'll find a number of videos of Beyonce WITH Tina, that's not what I'm talking about... also, if you are familiar with my Vox, is there.

So,as much as I'm always complaining about the young *artists* performing (and recording) old stuff without notifying the younger ones as to who authors the songs, I'm amazed when things are done properly, and, to crown it all, I kept going back and back in time with the click of the mouse and I was not lying in my bed with the computer no more, but tripping my head of and listening to a mixture of Pink Floyd, Tangerine Dream and Air Supply (yeah, don't ask) in a big cassette player and eating grapes half by half at my parents place...
You gotta love YouTube.

There is also the video of Jennifer Hudson doing Spotlight, look for the official one, another jewel, certainly (another code which wont paste here!)

it makes me feel like standing up and dancing a bit too...
(which I actually can't as Sarita has fallen asleep fully clothed in my bed .... three more days of her 12 years of life...
I'm enjoying all the attention and at the same time praying to keep it in the best way....)

And, to go, I just thought I share with you something which came into my mailbox tonight and made me laugh, though I presume you computer-wise people have seen it in every other language...this came to me in Portuguese, from a Brazilian, so I'll try to translate it without loosing the humor.....

A Jew is walking in the desert and finds a Coca Cola bottle... picks it up and.. surprise...a genie comes out of it!

-"Hello, I'm the 1 wish Genie, at your service. I can grant you a wish, an only wish, what would you like?"-

"Oh, I want peace in the MIddle East... look at this map, I want all these countries to live in peace, in harmony. Yes, that's my wish"

"But, my friend, come down to reality, get your feet on the ground.... I'm a genie, and a good one as it goes but.....man, these countries have been at war for the past 5000 years!!!!!!! nah, I'm not all that good, ask for something else, man"

"OK, I have never found and ideal woman...so I would like one that has a sense of humor, likes to have sex a lot, likes cooking, cleaning the house,is not jealous, is loyal and wont cheat,likes football, enjoys a beer or three,is gorgeous, hot, young, affectionate and it's not addicted to credit cards."

The Genie takes a deep, deep breath and says:

-"Give us that shit of that map again!"-

and this is the last of my photo scraps I m making to print....




and now I really need to go (to listen to Air Supply and Peter Cetera...yeah, I know, but hey, I'm 50 now, I can do as I please, I'm officially old!)