Logo's Logo's Logo's

Been busy with school & very little of anything else! Kitties are absolutely ADORABLE. If they were any sweeter I'd probably have a cavity.

In my chair-sitting (all tired out from the school grind I can barely leave the recliner at night!) I've been designing some templates & logo's for the jemima*bean side of things. This logo I created here will probably be a finalist in a contest on a design board I belong to. Cool!

I'm supposed to go to a wedding this weekend, afternoon ceremony so nothing formal. I probably need a new dress or skirt or something. Right? I'm just too tired to pin & cut out & sew right now. Meanwhile, I think it's funny that even exhausted beyond belief, I still gotta be creating. And I can create on the computer, which TOTALLY counts.

Project Runway tonight...which I'm not jinxing like I did last week. Soooo sorry bout that.

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McSmoothy

Tim Gunn, you devil you. So suave, so cool, so imperturbed. Even as a bobblehead, you are the smoothest of the smooth.

But I believe, dearheart, we're about to have our first quarrel. Zaftig? Plus-sized? At risk of sounding uncouth...What the #@!% ?

You're usually so gracious even your criticisms are sublime.

In fact, I'm going to use my powers of selective memory to forget this unfortunate incident altogether. I choose to believe you've been in the company of unsavory characters without talent, brains or taste (AKA Heidi Klum) entirely too long. It was a slip of the tongue, a lapse of judgement. It's forgiven. (As is the aforementioned bobblehead incident.)

Putty Tats

Lu & G with the babies...

That little black nose poking up from the lower left corner of G's pic is Oscar the pom. He thinks the kitties belong to him. (He's pretty much in charge around here, we call him "the Colonel". )

Just brightening your week with Awww-inspiring kitty pics. You're welcome.

The Single Mom's Creed

I will not feel guilty for asking a co-worker to cover for me so I can see my son's 5th grade graduation.

I will not justify taking my children on a last minute vacation when I find myself with a bit of extra cash.

I will not hesitate to exchange meetings for me to attend important events in my children's lives.

I will not place any one, or any thing ahead of my children. Period.

This post is for all the single parents, male or female, who are fighting the fight with me. The fight for more time, for quality of life, for enough money to make it all happen, for an end to the stress and fear of never having, never doing, never being enough.

For respect.

For loving someone so much, that no matter how bad it gets on the outside, those little faces push me to go on.

For Lu, and for G...the reason I get up every day to do it all over again.


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Kitty Update

Just look at this little face! Isn't that the cutest pink nose you've ever seen in your life?!! Mama "hid" them from me under Lu's bed. Here' s a shot of the whole family:


In other news from the homefront...my airport extreme, cordless phone and printer are all completely shot from the lightening. Unfortunately for me this means a Herculean effort to get online!! I've got to string phone cords across the room to connect the old-fashioned way. Combine that with the first week of "workshops" and "professional development" at school, and I probably won't be on much this week!

I've got a new addition to my SWAP in the planning stages! Sort of a Stage 2, I guess. I'm incorporating some black (which I tend to have too much of but is so dang wearable!) Hopefully I'll have that finished and up by the weekend! It will definitely be fewer garments (I think Stage 2 is smaller than the first stage anyway) and I'm planning a couple of untried & un-simple patterns.

In geek-world news...I had almost gotten over my tv boyfriend. However, the new season of Stargate: Atlantis has reinforced the supreme yumminess of My Joe. As a tribute to their mother's complete loss of sanity, my children propose we name the new kitties Major Sheppard, Rodney, Ronan, and Dr. Beckett. HA! Sounds good to me ;o)

G'night chickens!

Storyboard Tute!

Whew. Finally.

I use a free program to do my storyboard (Paint.Net) which is located here:
http://www.getpaint.net/index.html

It's very easy to use, and has a few neat little tricks that make it quite a step up from your regular old Paint program on most Microsoft pc's. (There's no Mac version, Nina! Sorry :( But...if you don't mind a bit more of a learning curve, try The Gimp, which is also free.)

First, I copy & paste the line drawings from the pattern websites (or PR!) into a new window in Paint.net:


I cut out any part I don't want (back views, etc.) using the dotted square in the Tools (left side of your screen). This selects a rectangle of space.


So I just select all the stuff I don't want outside of the garment view and hit delete.


After deleting you will probably have a square/rectangle of grey/dk grey checkered area. That's transparent. I'm such a brain child I took a screenshot of the TRANSPARENT CHECKERED spot and actually thought you'd be able to see them. Hee. (Note the line pointing to the transparent checkered area.) :D


The fill bucket can be used to cover those checkers up with white. It can also be used to add color to your line drawings!! For a lime green jacket, I choose lime green in the Color box, then click the fill bucket & click again in the area I want to fill. Just like coloring with Crayola!


To add a fabric instead of color, we're going to use a layer. I go to LAYERS (top toolbar) and choose IMPORT FROM FILE.


I browse my hard drive for the picture of my fabric (you can also do LAYER, ADD NEW LAYER. Then copy/paste off the web if you don't have it saved on your drive.) Resize this picture as needed so that it's approximately in scale to your line drawing. (To resize you might have to choose the dk grey arrow with a plus sign under it in the Tools. )

You're now working in a different layer than the background (which is the initial line drawing). (Your layers are over on the bottom right of your screen.) You might have to select it first (or again) with the dotted square "select" button, then click the arrow and you'll see the "move" handles appear on your pic and you can then drag it to a new size or move it around. Drag the fabric over your line drawing to completely cover it.

(Above: and yet another obvious screenshot by yours truly of the fabric completely covering the line drawing. Hee again.)

Now look at the Layers box on the bottom right side of the Paint.net screen. Click on your line drawing Background layer so that it's blue (the one you're working on is blue). Then move that layer to the top by clicking the arrow button down at the bottom of the Layers box.


Your line drawing should now be on top of the fabric (you won't even be able to see the fabric pic at this point but don't worry!)


Now over in the Tools again, choose the "magic wand" which is a red tipped microphone-looking thing. That selects only a specific area (like within an enclosed area.) Think of this as being the opposite of the fill bucket. It's the best! Click inside your line drawings (anywhere you want the fabric to be). Clicking will hi-lite everthing within a border.


Now click delete. Voila!! Like magic your fabric appears!


The fabric shows now because you just deleted the "white" fill of the line drawing, and the fabric is showing through from behind this layer!

That's pretty much it! Pretty snazzy, huh?

You can add words to your storyboard by clicking the A button in the tools.

Tip: When you save your storyboard, save in .jpg or .jpeg as file type. The default is .pdn (which is a Paint.net type and internet browsers won't recognize it.) You just drop down the file type arrow in the Save box when saving and choose .jpeg or .jpg. Paint.net will also give you a message when saving to .jpg that you are going to "flatten" the layers. That's fine! We're turning it into a solid picture at that point. You won't be able to switch back & forth between layers anymore from a .jpg image tho.

You CAN, however, add different garmetns/images you've created to a new paint.net project by going back to your Layers button (top toolbar) and choosing Import From File (just like you added the fabric). Then just use the grey arrow (top right button in tools) to drag that picture around the page until you like the placement.

Hope you enjoyed the tute! It's not Friday...at least not in this part of the world, but I'm thinking its Friday somewhere!! TGIF!!!

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