Showing posts with label desktop. Show all posts
Showing posts with label desktop. Show all posts

January desktop

2 comments Posted by Lynn at 1/02/2010 08:08:00 am

Happy New Year!!!

Well, it seems an age since I was last here, so apologies for that. December and January are my busiest times of the year for work. We have a 31 January tax return filing deadline here in the UK, and as a self employed accountant, I have masses of returns to do. I end up working through Christmas, the New Year and keeping very late/early hours as I struggle to get everyone's accounts done.

Did you have a lovely Christmas and celebrate the New Year in style? We had a very quiet Christmas spent with the family, which was really lovely. At the moment, our eldest son and his girlfriend are here (but I think they go back today), middle son is home from Uni until next week sometime and daughter is away in Manchester visiting a friend. The boys are really disappointed not to have had more snow. We had about 2 mm last night and it has now frozen over so that walking from the house into my office (aka the garage!) is like walking on an ice rink, even though I only have to walk a few feet! And what's more, because we only had a little bit of snow, I haven't been able to take many photos as it disappeared so quickly, and I had a brand new camera for Christmas, something I have been wanting for absolutely ages!! David Bailey, watch out, because here I come!!!!

I've been practising with my camera (there are so many buttons and dials I only know what two of them are for!) and taken pictures of grass, snow, wood, plants, bricks as I am determined to get some decent textures to use in creating background papers. So watch out for those at some point in the future! But realistically, I won't get any designing time in this month as work is hectic. I have about 40 tax returns to do plus umpteen sets of accounts to go with them, so I have no free time at all.... :(.

I did squeeze in an hour yesterday though, and managed to create a desktop.


It's only 1280 by 1024 and personal use only I am afraid but I have included in the zipped file:
  • My own desktop with the photo of the swans on the frozen canal;
  • Two png files, one with the black mask and the other with the mask deleted;
  • The mask file; and
  • The psd file.
That way, you can either select the black mask or transparent mask area (you'll need to keep Ctrl pressed down to select it all). Then copy and paste your photo as a new layer above the mask area and clip it to the mask area (Layer>Create clipping mask). Alternatively, use the psd file. Feel free to download it here.

Happy scrapping! I'm off to do a VAT return now, exciting stuff, eh?!!!

 

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September desktop

4 comments Posted by Lynn at 9/02/2009 06:10:00 am

Yesterday was busy - the first "real" day back at work after a holiday is always hectic and yesterday was no exception. I seemed to have millions of phone calls when normally the phone hardly rings at all. I even had one very nice gentleman from Google ring me up asking me if I wanted to take out a month's trial on google search engine (only £3.30 a day plus VAT!!!) and when after several minutes of me saying I didn't want to take out any more advertising at this time, he slammed the phone down. I don't know who he was, but slamming the phone down on me is definitely not the way to get my business, especially as I was perfectly polite to him. He must have either been having a lot of refusals that day or was totally stressed out after the Bank Holiday weekend!

Anyhow, despite being busy, trying to get my own accounts finished for once (!!!!), I managed to make a September desktop using my part of the ADSDesigners School Daze blog train:



I am afraid it is only in one size (1280 x 1080) but hey, one size can be made to fit all, eh? Just like those trousers in the Colour Purple?!!! If you really need it in a different size, just let me know and I will see what I can do ;). Oh, and in case you are wondering, the birds will be offered as a freebie hopefully sometime later this week (depending on work commitments as I do have a large set of accounts to get done for Friday so time is at a premium at the moment) - I just didn't have room for them in the original zipped file of the kit.

To download the desktop, CLICK HERE.

Happy scrapping!


 

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The Wrekin in summer

1 comments Posted by Lynn at 8/05/2009 07:27:00 am




Well, two weeks ago we (myself and three of the guys) went up the Wrekin. I'd promised our youngest a run out so even though it was raining, we decided to brave the elements and go up the Wrekin. The weather was just a slight drizzle for most of the time, so we didn't even need our coats on until it got too wet without them!

After the usual exertion of the steep path up to the house/cafe where we always get an ice cream, the path eased out (well, if you can call it easing out - at least it wasn't as steep as the first part where I always feel as if I am about to have a heart attack and have trouble getting my breath!). The view was, as always, stunning, even with the looming grey clouds:






So last Sunday, when our youngest wanted to go again, the weather was completely different: no rain and, in fact, there was actually some sunshine! The first part of the walk was the usual killer. DS kept telling me to be quiet on the way up when people passed - this was so they wouldn't hear my heavy breathing as I panted my way up the hill! I don't know what he was complaining about, at least I was walking (crawling?) up and many people wouldn't even attempt it!



As you can see the weather was much better. In actual fact, it was really warm and sunny and you can see the difference in the following photos:






DS wants to go to the Stiperstones next, but that will be an all day event, as we usually walk several miles when we go there and end up absolutely exhausted. I'm always amazed just how long a four mile walk can take as I am sure the trail map we follow is deliberately misleading. There is no way I could be that tired after a four mile walk, and I am convinced the walk is really eight miles at least but is only described as four in the brochure to get more people walking!

Anyhow, I have been playing around in Photoshop and actually managed to make a desktop before the middle of the month (just!):




I've only made it in one size (1280x1024) so if you would like it, grab it here.

Have fun!

 

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I finally managed to....

0 comments Posted by Lynn at 7/16/2009 11:26:00 am

....get the desktop for July finished!!! It's only 16 July today, so obviously I am totally up to date and on time, as per usual, lol! I'll leave the preview and download link later in this post

Things here seem to be even more hectic than usual but at least it is almost the end of term. Only one more day to go and then my youngest son finished until September, which will make life a lot easier as there will be no school run over the summer. Of course, the other two still need taking to work, but that will mean only a 12 mile trip instead of the current 24 mile trip. Gotta love those school holidays!

My youngest is really looking forward to the holidays. I reckon he needs a break from school and some time to just "chill". He's been working hard these last few weeks and whilst his school report was both good and bad. How can someone be so good at maths, history and science, achieving better than the national curriculum level for year 7, and yet have grades just below that for English and geography? He is not a stupid boy, far from it, so is this the school or the teachers or what? You have to wonder.....

We start our summer holiday sessions at church this week. This means that the house groups, etc each take a Sunday Service and it is cafe church all through the summer. So, lots of tea and coffee, with different styles of service to look forward to:).

Well, I'd better get back to work. I need to get three sets of accounts finished by this weekend and only have today and tomorrow to do it in! If you know how to squeeze an extra hour out of each day plus an extra day in each week, please let me know, I could do with the extra time! In the meantime, here is the preview of the desktop.





It is made using my part in the Summer Garden blog train, and the photos are of the Red Arrows, the Royal Air Force Aerobatic Team. We saw them in action at Cosford Air Show last month and I managed to get a couple of decent photos out of the umpteen I took. Most of the others were too blurry or far away to be any good, but I was really pleased with these two photos. Due to my camera not being the fastest around (or maybe it's the photographer!), there were many photos of the sky, the clouds, some smoke as the planes moved too fast for me to get them in shot an press the button before they flew away! One day (in my dreams) I will have a digital SLR camera with zoom lenses and all that stuff, and will be able to take millions of photos in seconds, but until then, I have only a limited ability to take photos of fast moving objects!

So far, the desktop is only in 1280 by 1024 size, so if anyone wants a different size, just let me know. Click on the preview to go to the download page.

Bye for now!

 

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June desktop

2 comments Posted by Lynn at 6/04/2009 09:44:00 am

I'm having a slightly less stressful week, this week and am catching up on various jobs, as well as trying to clear some of the paperwork in my office. I don't know about you, but I absolutely hate filing, it is the one thing I leave for ages and ages until I have mountains to do. I keep trying to persuade my children to help out, but they know me too well! If I'm trying to get them to do a job in my office, it will usually (in their opinion) be boring, and the pay is nowhere near enough! It's beginning to look like I might have to do this mountain of filing all by myself, sigh!

However, on a brighter note, I have used my part in this month's ADSD blog train to make a desktop for June and here it is:


I used the pupcats font and a ribbon template from Royanna Fritschmann plus the flowers, frame and papers from my kit.

If you would like to download it, then here it is:

Desktop 1280 x 1024

Desktop 1024 x 768

Desktop 800 x 600

I'm off to do some accounts for a card shop now (I lead such an exciting life!). Hope you have a lovely day!

 

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