Tuesday Tutorial: You Can Hide!

Another quick tip from the Digital Scrapper newsletter.

Now I must say, I've never had the need to hide one of the items mentioned above. But maybe you have! and maybe I will one day! These tips are also my own kind of record keeping of "now how do you do...???"

AAM: Project Life Weeks 29 & 30

Sometimes, when it seems that I don't think I have many photos, or much to put into a weekly page,  I'm pleasantly surprised.

• There are some photos 
• There are book images to get on line 
• There are images of tv shows I've been glued to (ty Netflix)
• There is a record of where we've been on our iCals
• There is the day in day out bits of journaling on DayOne

It's all good and most weeks I'm surprised that I do have so much to put on a page. When it flows that easily, I'm even inclined to look for some bits and bobs in my stash to 'tart it up'! Not a lot. I'll never be the Queen of Embellishments and that's fine. Using patterned paper is a big departure for me!

Can you believe it? We're on the downward slope for Project Life 2012?  Only 22 more weeks!  It really has been fun so far. I guess I'm hooked.

Sunday Serenade: Yes, Dorothy, This is Kansas

Since I'm going to a picnic this afternoon, I'll show one of the most famous scenes from another "Picnic". This is the 1955 movie with Kim Novak and William Holden.  Romantic and sexy, especially for that era.

 "Moonglow" by Morris Stoloff.

Flashback Friday: Malta

Just two years ago, but somehow it seems like a lifetime ago. A trip to Italy and then on to Malta. Malta, one of the places on his bucket list. It was a place that, to me, combined both the Italian world and the Arab world, a place where I was never sure in which cultural direction I was looking. A fascinating place.

With no car, we took buses and all bus routes traveled via Valetta on the east side of the island from our hotel on the west side of the island. This day we had time to stop for tea and coffee before catching the next bus. A time to reflect.

Wordless Wednesday: I ate this!

Peach Festival 2011

Tuesday Tutorial: About That Clock

This is not quite a tutorial today,  but rather a where-to-find.

I believe I had this screensaver on a former computer. However,  having had work and home computers for so many years, that could have been anywhere in the past 20 years back when we needed screensavers!  I've thought of this screensaver fondly on and off for a while as you can tell. I had to wonder and of course then Google it when I finally decided to search for this baby. Yes, I have the time in the corner of my beloved iMac, and yes I have an analog clock on my wall, but ....Well, if you like clocks and time you understand. So if you want the digital clock screensaver on your Mac  with Mavericks then try THIS LINK.  This version will NOT work on earlier OSystems however according to the description. If I find a link for that one I'll post it.

eta: This post was updated on August 24, 2014 as the earlier link no longer worked on my Mountain Lion. However, once I updated to Mavericks, the newer version did not work but the older one still on my hd did. Go figure... fwiw, fiqlo.com as far as I can see only had a download link that does not take your directly to the clock. Beware some links that require you to add a dedicated search engine. You don't need that by any means and you may have a hard time getting it off your computer.

You can follow the progress of this clock on Twitter by following @fliqlo

This is NOT an active link.

AAM Project Life Week 28

Week 28 wasn't the most upbeat week because 4 days involved a lot of waiting - waiting for this, waiting for that, waiting waiting waiting to find out if I had a heart issue or not. Fortunately, I was tired enough in the hospital from the lack of sleep each night to be willing to wait. In the end, the news was good, and that in itself was reassuring. It WAS worth the wait.

Sunday Serenade: Our Recent Welcome Weather

Chirstmas in July - Memories i.e.

Snow is rare in Washington DC for Christmas but there are other things that are special to this city during the holiday season. The lighting of the National Christmas Tree on  the small grassed area south of the White House.  There is also a Congressional Tree between the Capitol and the Mall. I went into DC to watch the lighting once when I was a Congressional staffer. One of the memories that goes back to my childhood, however, is the poinsettia display at the "Botanical Gardens"which is also down Capitol Hill at the start of the Mall. My mother loved to see this amazing display and I was always fascinated by the steamy atmosphere where the tropical plants lived!  While we always called it the "Botanical Gardens", the proper name is the United States Botanic Gardens.

Last year my husband and I had a DC day where we visited the display which now includes a train for the children as well as miniatures of the important buildings on Capitol Hill. The stars of the show are still the poinsettias though. Red, pink, striped in all sizes and varieties. The display is free too! If you happen to find yourself in Washington DC some December, put this event on your list for a quiet, peaceful break in the holiday season.

Flashback Friday: Oh Those Summers

Summers at the beach when my now 40sumthin' sons  were young. Summers with my mother, their grandmother who missed having them around so very very much.  The boys she always wanted  - a continent away most of the years she had with them. But the days at the beach house...oh that meant the world to her.  It's funny to see that in this photo she's wearing 'my' hand-me-downs, a pants outfit made for me by my dressmaker in England that was too warm for Thailand. I was the one taking the photo but today looking at it, my heart is really in it. It just took me a while to see that.

Wordless Wednesday: The Path Taken

towards Loyola Retreat House

Tuesday Tutorial: Yes, You Can Kern!

This one came from a blog post by Trixie Scraps Designs. Most PSE users didn't think they could kern their text. I sure didn't think I could but once again, I did not feel it was worth the CS price to change just for that. Usually I just used the move tool to squish or stretch the words.

Here's how to use steps that Tracy, aka Trixie, spells out in that blog post. Will it work for me? I'll have to see!!

and after being 'kerned' at 100% it looked like this.

I think I will later try this out to see what it looks like if just one word of a group is kerned,
Here is the basic font.

Now with the word "Astoria" kerned @100%. Interesting.

I suspect this would look a lot more dramatic depending on the font used. This one was just near the top of my font list!  Have fun playing with this, and thank you Tracy for searching the net for this great tip!

AAM Monday Project Life Wk 26

Right after my extended stay in the hospital, I was able to go on a pre-planned retreat for the weekend. Down on the Potomac River, the retreat house has marvelous views. Calming and peaceful. Lots of good womanship, and time to regroup and recenter. Such a blessing. I especially enjoyed talking with several women who shared my experiences in both the expat life and the political life. While I don't really miss either, it was good to remember some of the unique times and how it was to return to the United States, sometimes feeling very very foreign.

Back home I'm catching up on some Project Life I started before I headed south.

Then a Challenge page which shows a 2011 position I hope to enjoy a bit more this week! Of course, there's a boot on my left foot now, but the afternoon lounging feels the same.

Flashback Friday: Oh What a Week

FF is usually not  a wordy post but this is an image I am glad to say is in my past not my present.  Monday I had a pinching feeling on the left side of my chest, like little nips. Not pain, but not a good feeling. For once, I bit the bullet, and told my dh and it was off to the emergency room for us.

Lots of exams including a nuclear stress test. btw, it can be done chemically instead of the dreaded 'treadmill from hell'! Eventually I was sent to Washington Hospital Center's Cath lab.

DH and I are familiar with this since he had HIS catheterization and subsequent heart stent done there 6 months ago.  No, I was not thinking...Anything you can do, I can do better... But his problem made it clear to me that it was not the terrifying thing that it once was in 'the old days'. I had wanted to get a stress test myself, since so many heart problems remain hidden until it's too late. But my aching knee and then heel pain made me dread that accelerated time on the treadmill even more. Don't get me wrong. I will use the treadmill at the gym, but I don't go faster, I go up more of an incline to get my heart going.

My time in the Cath Lab resulted in , no stent, no more surgery. I got a clean bill of health for my heart but showing a bit of a twist in one part of one artery. Was that the reason for the pinching?  Some things remain a mystery. Like my dh I was fortunate to have the catheterization done by a doctor who goes into the heart via the wrist not the groin. Recovery time is a few hours! While I did overnight again, it was because my procedure was done late in the day and I was glad to just go to sleep when and where I could. 

Now? it's great to have all the tubes and bits out of my arm. This is just a flashback, and for that I certainly am grateful.

Wordless Wednesday: At Least 2 Months of This

torn ligament in heel

Teusday Tutorial: Another PSE Quick Click Shortcut

This one from the Digital Scrapper newsletter  is one I tend to forget. I hope that the writing of this blog post will help me remember to use it. That seems to be the only way for it to stick in my head.  Hope you like this one! I do.

AAM The Weeks That Were

Getting up to date with the 365/366/Project Life isn't bad when there are

1. Photos
2. Journaling Bits via DayOne
3. iCal calendars - between the two of us we have 5 calendars
4. Tweets
5. Goodreads to remind me what I read
6. Netflix to remind me what I watched

Week 23 had a neutral mood so I went with the more subdued tones. Once in a while that's good.

Week 24 was a lot about food and gardens. That's typical for the season when the Farmers' Markets become part of my life.


Week 24 was also done when Designer Digitals had a color challenge that I liked so the citrusy colors were used for this week and the following one.

Week 25 was my week for the annual dog-sitting for my family while they go to Myrtle Beach. Better them than me at the beach at this time of year. My dh and I wait til the cooler weather of autumn for our jaunts down.

How's your Project Life or 365 or Memory Keeping doing? Do you realize the year is half over? It's never to late to jump on in and have a wonderful memory of the days.  Seriously!

Oh Those Greeks!

No not the political or monetary crises. Just memories of a few weeks back and the wonderful Greek Festival. That's the joy of memory making, aka scrapbooking. You get to relieve the memories and have fun in the process. Somehow just the plain photos doesn't quite have the same fun anymore.

I wasn't overjoyed with the results of my watercolor technique here, but it's a leaning process, and hopefully I'll look back one day and say...Ah but that was one of my first tries. Practice, practice, practice.

Happy Birthday Josie!

My dear granddaughter has a birthday today. 13. Always precious, she's now growing into a beautiful young woman. She is loved so very very much.

Flashback Friday: Yankee Papa 13

Vietnam...another generation, another war. Always too young.

Life Magazine Larry Burroughs photo

Wordless Wednesday: Celebrate

Image by Amber

Tuesday Tutorial: Get Back, Get Back

Get back to where you once belonged. Ok the Beatles said it and so did the folks at Digital Scrapper. 
Every once in a while you'll find that your PSE settings get wonky. An easy way to fix those who have strayed from their proper place is to use this Quick Click! 

AAM Monday: Who Doesn't Want an Assist?

Ever since yesterday, I have been remembering a moment that lit up my heart and made me so very happy.

I used to be a diehard Liverpool fan, and was glued to the weekend matches that featured my team. Oh yes, I'd watch or attend other games, including my xh's team, Leeds United, but my heart was with Liverpool.  Years passed and many moves and a divorce later, I still had a generic interest in football, ok...soccer for those of you who know the game only by that name...but the US sport bugged me no end. All those stops for commercials. Puhleeze. This is a a game that imho is dependent on the intensity of full tilt boogie for each half.  Period.

Now to the present day. My grandson, god bless him, is also a Liverpool fan and my dh is wise enough to realize that learning to love his grandson's interests is a wise move. Time spent watching the telly in England and on the continent  has shown him how the sport is really played and a fan was born! (He even fell for rugby but that's another tale..)

Yesterday, as I was happily watching episodes of "Brothers and Sisters" on Netflix, I heard the tv go on in the living room. Now if someone is watching tv in our house, you can almost make book on it that it is not my dh. But finally I had to go and see what he was watching. UEAFA 20212, the final between Spain and Italy.  I came in near the end of the first half with Spain leading 2-0. Now we have been to Italy a lot over the past years, and there is an emotional pull for them but Spain was undoubted the better team on the field. Their "tici taca" passing was a joy to behold.  DH watched more of the 2nd half with me but the game had slowed down a bit and he figured that it was going to end 2-0 and he went off to do other things.

I stayed and saw Spain forge ahead with two more goals, first by Fernando Torres, but then it was that last goal that brought tears to my eyes. Torres passed the ball to the 'just on the pitch' Juan Mata. Yes, it was another goal but it was the look on Mata's face when he looked back at Torres!

Pointing that finger at his Chelsea teammate was a Wow! moment for me. Yes, we live in a hard world and people do things one could not imagine that they could but...but...there are still the times of great generosity. Giving an assist in football is one thing. No, I'm never going to be able to do that and you probably won't either. But an assist is one thing most of us could use now and then. Watching that look reminded me of the importance of an assist in life. I'll never  know when the next opportunity may arise, but my heart will. I just have to go with my heart.

Thank you Fernando for teaching me this lesson once again and making my Sunday!

Sunday Serenade: A Stageful of Talent

You have Joe Satriani, Sammy Hagar and the Doobie Brothers...all on one stage.



I hope your holiday weekend is as joyful! Rock on...