Saturday, November 21, 2009

I Yield

I'm packing up my studio to haul it South. It will stay either in storage, or in my MIL's house until we move. I'm hanging out at her place most of the time, anyway. Will I really have a studio? No. I'm hoping that I can prevail upon her to let me put up a table in her work space on the glassed in porch. With the cat litter boxes. Because it certainly won't fit in the bedroom we are using. I'm not talking about a full 8' folding table, I'm talking about my wooden camping table that's half that size.

It will be like going out for a crop that never ends. I'm thinking that a lot of my stuff will end up in Rubbermaid tubs that will stay in the back of my truck. There isn't storage space inside her house. I've been spoiled with my custom closets.

I've finally realized that I must mark boxes clearly with the contents. Especially since it may be many months before I see those boxes again. I will not remember what is in them. I'm not used to that, I'm used to packing things up and then unpacking them within a few days. I might not unpack these boxes until March.

Thursday, November 19, 2009

The Nature of the Beast

A lady was complaining that PS7 was eating up her RAM. She said it was using up 'like 1.5 GB' and wanted to know what to do. She was considering downgrading to some other application. I answered her as politely as I could, saying that you can configure Photoshop to use less RAM, or a smaller percentage of your RAM, but then it would run more slowly. Mine is the only response she has gotten.

What she's done is the same as buying a car with a huge, powerful engine and then complaining because it isn't very fuel efficient, or getting a puppy and complaining that it needs to be fed and walked. There are some things that are the nature of the beast. Complaining about the negatives won't get me much sympathy. If I want to dance, I have to pay the band.

Wednesday, November 18, 2009

Trying to Hide

Can I just stay off the Internet until all this New Moon nonsense is over?

And will it ever really be over?

That's Not New Product

I was thinking that a designer wasn't putting out new kits at the rate she usually does. I checked the dates of her latest two kits. She's on schedule. Several of her recent releases that have been filling up her 'new' basket are things that other people have made using her kits. Quick pages, holiday cards and the like.

I do not purchase quick pages by themselves. I'll get them only if they are a part of a bundle and I'm not spending extra to get them. And I can't help but wonder if the designer is paying the people who made those quick pages a portion from the sales of the quick page kits.

Sunday, November 8, 2009

I Would if I Wanted

I was asking about kits for selling a home and moving and got several suggestions. I was amazed. At least three of them were what I call 'kid art' in that they were simply drawn and colored things like trucks, signs, and rolls of tape. The big fancy embellishments were trucks created in felt. Ummmm... I don't need to buy a kit for that. I've even got Flergs CU felt style.

OTOH, I've never used kid art style embellishments. While I could create that type of kit for myself, I'm not interested in even trying to create a few elements. They are not my style.

Back to the Carousel!

I've not been able to actually finish a layout, but what I've been doing is selecting paper for the photos that I have and cutting the paper to size for the base/background. This is where I use my opposites on the color wheel a lot, to make the photos pop when I can. Sometimes, the photo just does not pop and there isn't much that I can do to save it.

I'm tired of looking at a half finished photo carousel and I'm not going to be able to finish it any time soon, with my stuff getting packed up for the move. But I thought that I'd at least have the majority of the paper cut and ready to use when I finally get time to go back to it.

This technique of getting a little bit done when you have a few minutes here and there is an old successful one. I don't try to finish even one layout. I simply try to finish the next step. If all I can do is cut a single piece of paper, it is still progress. I've been able to cut a lot of sheets of paper.

Thursday, November 5, 2009

New References!!

At Borders yesterday, I was browsing the magazines and found a publication from the UK called "Focus Guide" that has regular publications that specialize on one specific task or area in all versions of Photoshop and Photoshop Elements. The previous month's issue hadn't been cleared away, so I was able to get two different issues. The first was on how to repair and restore photos using the clone, heal and other tools in Photoshop. But it started with a discussion on how to set up your scanner. If you didn't have a scanner, it explained how to photograph a photo.

The magazines are not cheap at $16.99 for 132 pages, but the depth of information and they way the information is presented, in small, easy to grasp lessons or articles makes them worth the cost. Typical for a UK publication, they also have a CD included with sample software, images used in the tutorials and video lessons to go along with the ones in the issue. I'm looking forward to getting more of these.

Wednesday, November 4, 2009

What is She Thinking?

A local store owner is having a Scrapbooking Yard Sale. The original plan was, pay $15 to have a table and sell your stuff to whoever walks in for however much you can get for it. The owner has changed the rules at the last minute. The new rules are that buyers pay the shop and the seller gets store credit.

Ummm... Does anyone else see the problem with this? I have to pay $15 for the right to turn my unused scrapping stuff into store credit at a store that I don't shop at often and will be moving away from anyway. It is certainly such a horrible deal that I will not be participating in her yard sale, and I had been planning to go in with some friends and get a table. There is no way that I want to do this now. Nope! This plan is a product of her husband's and he's pretty much a greedy idiot.

The more you heap, the worse you cheap. I can't bring myself to shop at this store ever again. Period. No loss. The only reason I ever shopped there was to use a 40% off coupon for something that I couldn't find elsewhere. But I know that I can find it elsewhere and I will. And I don't really care if it isn't 40% off. I can't stand business practices like that.

Tuesday, November 3, 2009

Breathe!

I finally feel like I can relax and not worry so much about the house. Either it will sell, or it won't. But I've done just about everything I plan to do to the house. I might get a wild hair and do a little painting, but I don't think so. I worked a little bit on a mini book yesterday and finished it up today. Nothing special, just something to get me back in the swing of creating.

Now, I'm selecting paper and starting to design a Seven Gypsies Envelope Book. The front and back covers are larger than the envelopes, so I'm doing them first. I will avoid confusing myself with different sizes of papers that I need to cut. I'm using up some of my stash, that I avoided packing up. I'm enjoying this a lot.

I've been pouring my energies into getting the house ready to show. The garage has a lot of boxes in it that I packed up in the process of de-cluttering. The house is really, really clean. I'm ready to get back to the kind of work that I choose to do.

Monday, November 2, 2009

You Can't Get it for Free!

Why is it that folks think that they can find excellent technology for a pittance, if they just shop long enough?

You can't get something for nothing and if you do, you deserve what you got. If you are particular about what tools you use, you will pay more for your tools than someone who doesn't care how their tools work. Do not complain about how much a quality tool costs. You will get no sympathy from me.