One of Xanga’s icons is Nanny.  She is a familiar face to a lot of Xangans and a definite asset to the seniors ring ~*~Old People, Platinum Treasures Of Society~*~ .  Nanny writes homey entries and posts a lot of photos of her part of the world, her activities and her handsome other half.  She allows me to use some of her photos and a recent photo caught my eye, taken as a memory of Knight’s (her very special other half’s) birthday.  Here are some things I did with the photo. 

I loved the photo and the special look of appreciation on Knights face of a wonderful Vintage car planter he received as a gift from a special group of friends. 

Here I used the photo lining it with a coloring page of the same photo.

 

Here the photo appears as a nice sketch for adding to an album or a wall arrangement of personal photos or a very nice coloring page.  See it larger in my albums.

These images were removed from a couple of Nanny’s photos and made nice little vignettes for a triple pic for album or grouping or it would make a nice head for personal stationery.

See Nanny’s original photo and more, CLICK HERE.

 

Coloring pages are easy to make from some photos. Some are too detailed but many make really cute pages.  Custom made coloring books with pages that resemble the birthday boy or girl and their favorite pet plus a little box of crayons at each party place are unique party favors.

I do a lot of creative graphics and I can do projects for you with your photos.   FOR EXAMPLE

1 - Personalized pages for coloring.  You print them out and staple, sew, glue or clamp to finish.  Use them for your next birthday party.  At the price per page think ahead for your other children’s parties.  $2.00 per page, minimum of 6 pages and the money goes to Eden’s fund raising project.

2 - A greeting card set of 3 different personalized cards for you to  print to send. $15.00 for a set of 3 different cards.  Print as many as you want and the money goes to Eden’s fund raising project. 

3 - A collage of photos in color and in black and white for framing and desktop use #35.00.  The money goes to Eden’s fund raising project.

4 - a portrait. A price quote after seeing the image and discussion of work desired; I have examples in my Eden album. click here.  I do the work, you do the printing from digital images and the money goes to Eden’s fund raising project.

See a line of greeting cards that Eden is making for her personal efforts at fund raising.  Follow the cafepress link for Eden’s …

“geekgear”
click >< here

For complete information on this fund raiser, visit my daughter Halie’s site. 

Thanks for reading and your tolerance,

Becca

 

Adding a coloring page with the look of “Cool World”.  I can do similar with your photos.

This  image

was made from this photo image.   
Halie took this photo of Eden on one of their outings while stationed in Spain …

 

I do a lot of creative graphics and can do 
projects for you with your photos.  A greeting card set of 3 different personalized cards for you to  print as often as you want to print to send. $15.00 for a set of 3 different cards. 

A collage of photos in color and in black and white for framing and desktop use #35.00 or

a portrait. A price quote after seeing the image and discussion of work desired; I have examples in my Eden album. click here.  I do the work, you do the printing from digital images.

See a line of greeting cards that Eden is making for her personal efforts at fund raising.  Follow the cafepress link for Eden’s …

“geekgear”
click >< here

For complete information on this fund raiser, visit my daughter Halie’s site. 

Thanks for reading and your tolerance,

Becca

  

A different photo of Eden in one of my greeting cards.

Eden likes games. She taught me how to play Sudoku over Christmas holidays. I like the game but don’t expect I’ll ever be a wiz as I run into problems needing more skills than I have developed but my skills are growing.  To play one of the puzzles that gave me problems this week (2 hours time now cut to 44 minutes),  CLICK HERE.  My best time is 12 minutes and 19 seconds.  Halie finished the game I linked to in barely 11 minutes.  I have a lot of practice time ahead of me. 

Eden’s activities includes Girl Scouts, soccer, swimming and lifesaving skills.  She is a very creative photographer, an avid reader, makes a lot of her own clothes, cooks and she has grades that are nothing to sneeze at.  She has volunteered many hours of community service including political activities and is a docent for Virginia zoos.  She loves the beach, is interested in dancing and having fun with friends.  She is a willing game player.  

See a line of greeting cards that Eden is making that include her own  photography.  Her site is on cafepress and is being developed to help in her fundraising efforts.  Follow the cafepress link to view Eden’s line of …

geekgear
click >< here

See my growing album of Eden photos, click here. See others of my work in other albums of photography and graphics, all listed in my photos.

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I do a lot of creative graphics and can do projects  for you with your photos.  I can do recovery work on some older photos and I make original desktops for computers, images for printing out for albums, personalized greeting cards for any occasion, gift tags, book covers or ???

See a collage of Eden with her mom, full size, 1024 X 768 pixels CLICK HERE

See the same collage in Black and white, 1024 X 768 pixels CLICK HERE   I can make the images in any desktop resolution and they can be sized for printing.

• If you like my work consider making a donation, all money going to my grand daughter’s fundraising efforts, at this time.  Each graphic will be made so they print out to fit an 11 x 8 piece of photographic paper or smaller. You will receive both the color and the black and white for your donation.  
• Images are sent to you via email to download for desktop use or to print for use in albums or frames.
• These images take planning as I work.  Time spent is usually an evening of full concentration barring no problems.  They can be made with a digital frame or without, with decorative digital corners or without.  Your finished images (one set) will be yours to download for the bargain (and it is a bargain) donation of $35.00, all money going to the Eden fundraiser. 

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I am sharing this funds raising effort with my daughter Halie to send my Granddaughter Eden to New York Cities Fordham University for a week taking part in a National Student Leadership Conference.  We are attempting, by various ways, to raise $1945.00.  

For complete information on this fundraiser, visit Halie  to read or take part in our Shameless request for sponsorship funds for Eden

If you care to donate a dollar to this good cause, the assistance in the education of my grand daughter, follow any of my links specified for Halie.

Thanks for reading and your tolerance,

Becca

 

 

Happy Saint Patrick’s Day
2007 Xanga

the Leprechaun who enchants us,

framed in Green for the occasion …
See my Eden Album CLICK HERE

I am sharing a funds raising effort with my daughter Halie to send my Granddaughter Eden to New York Cities Fordham University for a week taking part in a National Student Leadership Conference.  We are attempting, by various ways, to raise $1945.00.  

For complete information visit Halie  to read or take part in our Shameless request for sponsorship funds for Eden

If you care to donate a dollar to this good cause, the assistance in the education of my grand daughter, follow any of my links specified for Halie.

Thanks for reading and have a safe and fun Saint Patrick’s Day,

Becca

Original posting date 3/8/2007
New Photos Edited in daily … March 15, 2007
Eden Album CLICK HERE

I am sharing a funds raising effort with my daughter Halie to send my Granddaughter Eden to New York Cities Fordham University for a week taking part in a National Student Leadership Conference.  We are attempting, by various ways, to raise $1945.00.  

For complete information visit Halie  to read or take part in our Shameless request for sponsorship funds for Eden

For my daughter’s site: visit Halie   Here are some different photos of Eden and I have an Eden Album I am building.  Eden Album:  CLICK HERE 

 

This is a collage of Eden with her mom, Halie.  See it full size, 1024 X 768 pixels CLICK HERE

I have created a lot of collage as

• #1 I enjoy doing them and
• #2 they make a great desktop.  I enjoy viewing Halie and her family on my desktop as they live about 14 hours distant from us.  While they were serving in Spain, a three year tour of duty, it kept them close to me.  I could see them everyday on my computer desktop, anytime I wanted to see them.

See the same collage in Black and white, 1024 X 768 pixels CLICK HERE

• If you like my work and think you might enjoy a similar view of your children or your family or
• you realize a personal desktop would make a nice gift for someone,
• consider making a donation for my work, all money going to my grand daughter’s fundraising efforts.  Each graphic will be made so they print out to fit an 11 x 8 piece of photographic paper or smaller.  I can make any desktop size, I only need your settings for your desktop view.   
• You will receive both the color and the black and white for your donation. 
• The images will be sent to you via email to download for desktop use or to print for use in albums or frames. 
• These images take planning as I work.  Time spent is usually an evening of full concentration barring no problems.  They can be made with a frame or without, with decorative corners or without.  Your finished images (one set) will be yours to download for the bargain donation of $35.00, all money going to the Eden fundraiser. 

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• FYI: 
  1945 people sending $1.00 = $1945.
  972 and 1/2 people sending $2.00 = $1945.
  648.33333333333333333333 people sending $3.00 each =$1945.00
  486.5 people sending $4.00 each = $1945.00  and, I never turn down pennies.

  Xanga has into the many thousands of members.  Many have a real need for your help with various causes.  Every penny does count.  If our cause doesn’t interest you, please keep your eyes open for one that does.  If we each picked from them sending only a dollar plus our envelope, stamp and time to drop that same dollar into the snail mail, all causes would benefit and not a single community member would suffer a hardship by his giving.  THE REAL PLUS, all the good feelings that would be floating around making their way into upbeat writing from the beneficiaries of the giving.  Big smiles …

  If you care to donate a dollar to this good cause, the assistance in the education of my grand daughter, 

  follow any of my links specified for Halie.

Thanks for reading and your tolerance,

Becca

  

 

Making lots of discoveries today,

I used to be able to link to the actual size of my images.  For some reason that has changed so, an image full size for your desktop, here on the page.   Use it for yourself or send it in an email to someone who might enjoy it.  EDIT, if you don’t add the image to an album, links work to bring an image up full size so, click on the link below for the 1024 x 768. 

 

800 x 600

1024 x 768 just click on the link to bring it up. 

A Variation 800 x 600

A Variation 1024 x 768

Enjoy, I hope.

MORE EDITING:  I believe a lot of Xanga fixes are happening.  A lot of things that were not working for me are now working as I would love them to work.  Playing from one computer to another to try to figure things out I am seeing a lot of changes.  Not going into it all, I think these Xanga heads are very smart and “interested in what the membership would like”.  Thank you Xanga.

Becca

 

My latest graphic was built

from this photo taken by my husband in his little hometown of Kilbourne, Ohio.  I sent the photo to our group with these instructions: 

The photo is a store front. 

 

Your challenge:  edit the store front, making it appear as redone for your new store to move into. 

 

Do everything you can do to make it look appealing.  New paint, color, business signs, clean up the front, maybe some grass or plantings???? so people who walk by will want to come in to look, shop, buy. 

 

Do what you think you would do to this store if you were actually renting it to move a business into.  Your personality, have fun with it.

 

 This is what I did with it and below, 

I tried to put glass into the windows.  I am not sure I accomplished it.

Hometown,
All recognition gone;
My eyes or your face have changed  © RSBlain

John Clark asked about doing the challenge I had posed, see what he did here j61johnclark , very nice work and some wonderful takes on the graphic.  I really liked his window lighting.

Becca aka LittleE

Ignore my enthusiasm if you live these scenes matter of factly. 

Regarding Ice Storms, we’ve had them but the ice melted away as the day wore on.  Today, four plus days after our most recent ice storm hit (February 13, 2007), the ice persists.  It’s a new and beautiful experience for me.  Today, we add on top of the ice, several more inches of new snow.  It’s like diamond lace, everywhere.  Every blade of grass, every branch of every tree is covered with a layer of ice.  A few photos for nonbelievers of magical places.  I have uploaded more into my album if you want to see them.  AN EDIT, I have renamed my IceStorm album TO “Winter Photography” for my convenience.  I apologize for confusions.

Sign me as a witness to the existence of Fairyland.  I have seen it.  See more of my ice storm photos in my “Winter Photography” album.

Becca

A Mystery:  Where are the days, for the new year, hurrying to? 

 HAPPY VALENTINE’S DAY

XANGA

Valentine’s Day already and I still have inklings of Christmas. 

I have a great affection for holidays.  Big, small, important, and some not so important, I celebrate them all.  My affections include the use of the very tall, 16 ounce, latte’ style coffee mugs.  Possibly, they help rush my year.  Using different patterns for different occasions I celebrate the year round.  It’s a simple pleasure.  I have yet to discover the perfect Valentine Mug so when February rolls around, my Christmas mug with the Christmas holly is still hanging in.  I like prolonging. 

Our snows seem to be making a lot of entrance later than usual.  This year, we have snow for Valentine’s Day.  It’s cold and white and did I mention cold?  It makes for beautiful pictures but I’m having problems talking myself into getting out into the weather.  A few photos of what may be similar to circumstances where you are.

As I type this entry, we are in the middle of an ice storm.  We have Canadian Hemlock surrounding our front.  They are covered with what you see here and some of the branches are now laying on the ground.  I hope the electric wires stay up on the poles.

We drove through an ice storm in Texas a few years back.  It was about the most beautiful thing I have ever seen.  This is a reminder and it is beside my front porch looking like this, right now.

I took this photo and the cornfield above while driving to my dentist appointment yesterday.  The color is pretty accurate of what our days look like right now.  A bit on the dreary side but at the same time, very white.

Another photo taken yesterday, from the bridge above the Little Miami River, here in Loveland.  Most of the smaller branches are frozen but this river is still running though very slowly.  If it stays cold enough to freeze it solid, the Ohio may do it.  It takes a lot to freeze the Ohio River but I have seen people walk across it.  I’ll get photos if it does freeze even if it means getting out in the cold.  Digital cameras were not in existence the last time it happened and it’s quite a phenomenon.

A bright spot, our little red shed.  The cats were added for a bit of interest.  Those are Virginia cats but they are seeing some cold in Virginia even if no snow.  Amused here, thinking, they may be seeing a little snow where they are.  It’s happened before.

To My Valentines, 2007
© RSBlain
February 13, 2007

 

To the Love’s of my life, present and past
Your memories remain through the years
All lightly perfumed though I can not deny 
Some memories pinpointed with tears
Each face, like a painting, hangs safely on walls
Of the Louvre that resides in my mind
Indelibly painted with the soft brush of youth
Nameplates brushed with the softness of sable

 

Stay warm Xanga and Happy Valentines Day.

LittleE aka Becca

 

I totally missed Groundhog Day.  For those in parts of the world not familiar with Groundhog day and what it is, READ HERE.  Phil’s prediction is favorable this year, see it HERE.

Anyway, Groundhog Day was here then gone and my usually good frame of mind with it.  NOT MY FAULT.  My, built into my stove microwave, burned out.  It was one of Litton’s originals, has been fixed several times and now, as the unit is about 35 years old it’s so much cheaper to do the ugly American thing of dumping it into our huge American dumping system, replacing it instead of fixing it which actually we would be willing to do but, you can’t get parts for it.  Good things, expensive things aren’t meant to last, we just think they are.  It’s called built in obsolescence and we, meaning our family, avoid it as much as possible but you can’t fix what you can’t get parts for.  Though I do range-top and oven cooking, I am spoiled to a microwave.  The replacement car (October purchase) is taking all excess funds so, a new oven/stove/microwave isn’t in the stars at this time.  So, he 1- ripped the defective microwave from it’s moorings above the range 2- purchased a sheet of 3/4″ plywood for cutting a shelf for the remaining hole.  3- runs all over town to purchase wiring that seems to be more than the norm for insulation and heat conduction inside a stove and all over means he ended up having to go to a parts house as hardware stores don’t carry what was needed.  4-Popping into the hole an older portable microwave I had that used to be in our camper, also a had.  5- my very small kitchen is strewn with all the stuff needed to do the repair, pliers, screwdrivers etc and in other words a mess you can’t work in.  Well used or lived in areas of a house, torn up for a couple of days does a number on a good mood.  It can really do a number on days say for instance “Groundhog Day” and it did, as it flew by totally ignored in its importance. 

I did watch the movie, Groundhog Day, about a week ago with Bill Murray and Andie MacDowell.  It’s one of my favorites, similar in type to Jimmy Stewart in “It’s  A Wonderful Life”.  If you haven’t seen it.  It’s a feel good movie, after the fact, giving opportunity to “get it right” concerning possible less than human actions.  I recommend it as a seasonal watch.  Tonight, a rerun with pizza, chips, hot chocolate etc as an “day after Groundhog day” party to reinstate the sweet person I know is hiding somewhere inside. 

A happy day after Groundhog Day to anyone reading.

Graphics, our newest group challenge came from my sister and it was, “learn more about the Brush Variations Palette in Paint Shop Pro”.  This black and white photo was sent in for our use for this challenge.  It was taken by my friend Tim, from the UK who loves playing with photos as much as I do. 

Tim’s statement, I know you can take a color photo and turn it into a black and white but can you take a black and white and turn it into a color photo?

This is what I did for a try at true to life color and I’m pleased with it …
 

And this one I did trying for a look of a painting but it falls short.  I’ll keep practicing.

Florida:
Florida can use your good thoughts and your open wallets.  Contact your Red Cross to make much needed donations.  Red Cross site link:  Red Cross donation link.  A large list of sites used for Katrina last year, many will be helpful now.  See it HERE on CNN.

Take care of you,
Becca