Society of Stampaholics

The Cracked Pot

I received an email with a cool story a number of years ago and I always meant to share it here but I misplaced it on my computer. I don't know who authored it, and it's probably been around the globe a hundred times, but it was new to me, and I like its message. I hope you enjoy it as much as I did.

The Cracked Pot

An elderly Chinese woman had two large pots, each hanging on either end of a pole she carried across her neck. One of the pots had a crack in it while the other pot was perfect and always delivered a full portion of water. At the end of the long walk from the stream to the house, the cracked pot arrived only half full. 

For a full two years this went on daily, with the woman bringing home only one and a half pots of water. Of course, the perfect pot was proud of its accomplishments. But the poor cracked pot was ashamed of its own imperfection, and miserable that it could only do half of what it had been made to do. After bitterly perceiving itself to be a failure, it spoke to the woman one day as she was filling the pots with water at the stream.

“I am ashamed of myself, because this crack in my side causes water to leak out all the way back to your house.” 

The old woman smiled. “Did you notice that there are flowers on your side of the path, but not on the other pot's side?"

She continued, "That's because I have always known about your flaw, so I planted flower seeds on your side of the path, and every day while we walk back, you water them. For two years I have been able to pick these beautiful flowers to decorate the table. Without you being just the way you are, there would not be this beauty to grace the house.” 

Each of us has our own unique flaw. But it's the cracks and flaws we each have that make our lives together so very interesting and rewarding. You've just got to take each person for what they are and look for the good in them.

And it works even better if you can find something inside of you that will bring out the best in them.

I like the author's comment at the end, but I took this story as a personal reminder to examine my own flaws - the ones that embitter me - and try to see if there's a way to use them positively.

So, to all of my crackpot friends, have a great day and remember to smell the flowers on your side of the path!

How to Resize a Digital Picture

In the interest of making my life better, (and yours, too!) I think it would be good to share with people how to resize a digital photo. This is a very easy thing to do and a very important item to have in your skill set - especially if you regularly upload pictures to the 'Net or send them via email.

If you don't know why size matters, read on.

Any image you want to put online will look dandy at 72 dpi - it only stops looking dandy if you try to print it. (Rule of thumb: 72 is good to view - like that rhyme I just made up?) A photo at 72 dpi allows you to use a file that is relatively small. Smaller files are good because:

1. They load faster (Who wants to wait for a huge picture to load? Not your viewers, that's for sure!); and
2. They take up less storage space (less is more when you're dealing with online galleries that limit your available storage space).

So it's really in everyone's best interest to have smaller files. 

If you know enough to get your photo uploaded onto the Internet, you probably already have a photo editing program. Adobe Photoshop Elements is what I've been working with for the last ten years - very user friendly - can;t say enough good about it.

No matter which program you use, however, they're all set up with the same basic organizational logic.

BUT BEFORE WE DO ANYTHING... please remember it's a good rule of thumb to never edit your original photo. Open your original photo ("Halloween Card" for this example) and save it as something else ("Halloween Card copy"). If you always perform your edits on a copy of the original, your original will always remain protected and safe.  

Okay, on with the show!

In Photoshop Elements select File > Save For Web. This opens up a box which allows you to choose what size you want. As an illustration, the Halloween card I posted earlier today originally clocked in at 28M! (Can we say HUGE?! I forgot to change the settings on my camera.)

When I choose Save For Web, I get a new window which shows me my original photo and my new version side-by-side. The new version defaults to "low" - in this case bringing the file size down to 317k.  I can also select "medium" which increases my file size to about 800k. I can go to "high" but why bother? Low is a teensy, tiny bit more pixelated than my original photo, and medium looks exactly like my photo.

Here's the photo (size 317k):

And here it is at 800k:

As you can see, it looks just dandy at either size! But it will load ten times faster and take up much less space than 28M.

By the way, most photos I take of cards are much smaller. I usually set my camera to its "good" photo setting when I take a picture of my projects - which means that most of my pictures are usually 1M - 2M - which means they usually end up being about 100k - 200k once they've been resized for uploading onto the Web.

I think Picasa (a fabulous and free program - click on link to download) may automatically resize your photos when you upload them to the Internet, but I haven't used Picasa in years, so you might want to do a test drive. (If anybody can verify that, please feel free.)

Irfanview is another free internet download that definitely will allow you to resize your photos. Although I have never used it, it comes highly recommended.

If anyone knows of a better way, faster way, etc, please leave a comment and I'll update this post.

Hope this helps!

MIA but Still Amongst the Living!

In case anyone was wondering about my whereabouts, I'm still alive.

I know I'm still alive because I see no angels anywhere. Nor are they offering me the much-deserved glass of wine I am fully expecting to be given upon admittance into Heaven. (That would be grape juice for all you Baptists out there.) And since I'm also not being poked with a pitchfork by some twit in a furnace, I must deduce that I am definitely still here on Earth.

Although it has been hellishly hot over the past two weeks....

I've not been around because I committed an act so incredibly stupid that I ought to be committed, period. I share this experience with you on the off chance that at least one of you may also be COMPLETELY NUTS and be contemplating doing the exact same thing as I did. So listen up, you Crazy Woman (whoever you are):

DO NOT SPEND YOUR PRECIOUS ONE WEEK OF DESPERATELY NEEDED VACATION TO TAKE A SEMESTER-IN-A-WEEK DIGITAL PHOTOGRAPHY COURSE BECAUSE YOUR HUSBAND GETS FREE CLASSES FOR FAMILY MEMBERS AS PART OF HIS EMPLOYMENT AT THE UNIVERSITY DOWN THE STREET!

It will not be fun.

It will be stressful.

Much more stressful than your job (if that's possible). It will be hot and miserable and occur during the summer's hottest heat wave, and your teacher will make you go outside and take pictures because interior lighting is not allowed. You will be forced to wrestle with a tripod that is an instrument of torture - possibly even designed by Satan himself - and you will not be allowed to use it to beat your teacher - even though she richly deserves a beating because she is a rude, mentally-deranged "artiste" who thinks it's okay to change the assignments and syllabus three times a day AND hollers at you as if you were a red-headed stepchild.

(I have been both an "artiste" and a college professor, and I'm telling you right now, there are a lot of posers out there. Tenure is pure poison for these people - and you can always tell just how truly talentless they are by how many times they let you know they have tenure and then mention how they can do anything they want now.)

You'll end up getting one of those losers because they're the only ones unethical enough to make the claim that you can learn in one week what you quickly come to realize requires a whole semester. But, hey! She got her paycheck, and that's all that matters, right?

On the bright side, I can say that you will finally understand the mysterious trinity of aperture, shutter speed and ISO. And, as a student, you'll get to finally upgrade from the world of Photoshop Elements and purchase Photoshop Extended CS5 for $149.00 instead of $999.00. (It is these perks that saved my teacher's life as I would otherwise surely have taken her down with that wretched tripod.)

And enjoyed doing it, I might add.

Seriously, I have never, EVER had a worse instructor or a more miserable excuse for a class. However, I'm over it now. Despite my little tirade here. (I had to fill y'all in, didn't I?)

I also suffered some major dehydration while out shooting at some damn apple farm she made us all go to, and I ended up pulling the calf muscles in my right leg - I was limping like a pirate with a bad peg leg from Wednesday to Sunday. On Friday, after the class ended, I went home ready to celebrate and finally get to make some cards... and proceeded to have a massive sinus episode that kept me in my bed for the rest of the weekend. The only thing that brought me out from under the covers was my responsibility to Paula's blog hop (which was a success, BTW - thank you, everyone)!

I spent all of last week trying to recover from my "vacation."

And trying to catch up at my job. Can you believe they actually changed the name of our group while I was gone?! We used to be the project's field deployment PMO and now we're totally revamped and are calling ourselves the Business Support Something Or Other.

This is like going to visit your father and finding somebody else living in his house. (Where did he go? WHEN did he go? Did he go to the Final Roundup in the Sky? Did he leave a forwarding address?) 

Very disorienting and not just a little flabbergasting, I can tell you.

(I speak from experience. The year was 1992 and I didn't send my rotten Daddy a Christmas present that year I was so ticked. Well. That and I didn't have an address.) 

Despite the past two weeks, I'm feeling optimistic. Gigi's school starts in a fortnight - which means my life will be getting much better. She's been here with me all this summer, and it's been very trying for both of us. She, understandably, wants me to play with her, entertain her, take her places. While I wish I could do these things, I work from home, so I can't very well just stop analyzing data to go have a tea party. But she persists and fights for my attention anyway. Far too often I've had to wait until she's gone to bed so I can go back to work to make sure they're getting a true 40 hours. It's been rough and frustrating, and given the whole spinal issue this spring, I've had practically no time at all to create anything.

Good grief - do I need some cheese to go with that whine or what?!

Aaaaaaaaaaaaanyway, that's where I've been and what I've done.

The coming week will bring you more posts with pictures of the fabulous get-well cards I received because...

I AIN'T DEAD YET!!!

;~D

Copic Certification Here I Come!!! & Cards

Oh, crud!  This was all written ready to be posted yesterday morning and then I forgot to hit the schedule button! One of these days I'll get it right....

Oh, well, there is one good thing about this being posted after the fact: I can show you a picture! Here is Sally Lynn MacDonald signing Copic Certification certificates:

Yes, I am now certified! (Read on for the original post.)

By 4:30 p.m. EST I will be Copic Certified!

Hurrah!!! So excited about finally getting this opportunity! I will see if I can bring back lots of information to share!

In the meantime, here's a card I made two weeks ago - and I want you to pay special attention to the ribbon because it's been altered. It was originally a white silk ribbon, and then colored it with a Copic marker. It doesn't get any easier than this, people! I will never buy colored silk ribbon again! It covered perfectly and quickly. And the drying time was practically immediate. I am soooooo loving my Copic markers - even more than before (something I thought not possible).

Supplies: STAMPS: Hero Arts K5313, CL351; INK: Ranger Distress, VersaFine; MARKER: Copic YR07; OTHER: Prima flowers, silk ribbon.

I'm always amazed at how the same design can evoke such different moods with the slightest changes in color and/or embellishments. To illustrate, here are some additional variations - same design but different colors and embellishments. I also added a Hero Arts cling stamp in the background. (Used Copics to color the ribbons again, though!)

Supplies: STAMPS: Hero Arts K5313, CL351, CG154; INK: Hero Arts Hues/Memories, Ranger Distress, VersaFine; MARKER: Copic; OTHER: Prima flowers, Hero Arts gems, silk ribbon.

And here it is again, just a little changed. I made this card several times because I kept needing sympathy cards, I am saddened to say.

Supplies: STAMPS: Hero Arts K5313, CL351, CG154; INK: Hero Arts Hues/Memories, Ranger Distress, VersaFine; MARKER: Copic; OTHER: Prima flowers, Recollections pearls, silk ribbon.

Have You Been to The Farm? AND Lookit What I Got!

No, not the kind that produces milk or corn or other less-glamorous products.

I'm talking about a Farm that sows a far more exotic seed... that then grows and blossoms into a full-grown rubber delight...

I'm talking about The Greeting Farm!  

And lest you think we're talking about images of Bessie the Cow and Mr. Ed and the like, know that approximately 95% of the images are of people and 5% are of animals. If you love coloring stamped images with your Copics, and you haven't been to The Farm, you are missing out because:

• These images are perfect for Copics.

• They're very versatile - you can use them for both adult and child cards, masculine and feminine.

• They're very nicely priced - especially the shipping, because they aren't mounted on wood (they're uncut rubber mounted on gray foam backing). You cut them out, slap 'em onto an acrylic block, and you're in business, baby!

• They have a cool blog with daily prizes.

So what's not to love?

My friend Donna Mikasa is a big Farm Addict. She's made many cards with Farm images and posted them on her blog, Three Umbrellas.  Go here to see a card she made honoring two of our friends who were just selected to work on The Farm's design team.

Kelly Booth (one of the above mentioned DT members) is certified in Copic markers, and she's another big Farm lover. You can see her amazing Farm work at her blog, Lovin' the Life I Color.

I'm not really up to their cardmaking abilities, but I made Spouse a card using a Farm owl. 

You, too, can take a trip to the Farm and pick some rubber, so go now!!!

The Greeting Farm Rubber Stamps

LATER...

As you know, I mentioned above the uber-fabulous Kelly Booth as a Copic Goddess. And guess what I got in the mail from her yesterday?!

A card! And it features a Greeting Farm image:

Did I not tell you that Kelly's a wonderful card maker?! And a real sweetie, to boot!

You should definitely go check out her blog for more card-making goodness at Lovin' the Life I Color.

Thank you, Kelly!

An Apple a Day

Okay, I looooove my Mac. My first computer was a Mac Performa, and I would never have purchased a PC if my law school had been set up to handle Apples (they got set up the year AFTER I graduated).

Macs kick PC butt from this way to Sunday because they are (1) super fast; (2) have a terrific immune system (as in virus-resistant); (3) have customer support that is UNEQUALED; (4) hold their value; (5) have a longer life span.

That Performa I mentioned above? We bought that in 1996 for $1,300, and it was destroyed when our basement was flooded in 2003. Also destroyed in that same flood was the Gateway I had purchased for law school in the fall of 1998 (at a cost of $2,100). The value of the Gateway was determined to be about $200. The value of the Mac?

$1,700.00.

Which doesn't really surprise me because, although that thing was tiny, it was powerful, and, right up to the day it died its watery death, it would start up in 30 seconds and run all day long with nary a glitch. (It never seemed to understand that it was ancient by computer standards - one people year being like 25 years for a computer.) By comparison, that wretched Gateway started complaining about its "internal miz'ries" before it was old enough to buy a beer.

So go with Apple the next time you need to buy a computer.

I'm on this Mac kick because of the demonstration video I shot on my camera (I have a 4.0 gig memory card that's good for about 60 minutes of filming).

Or had a 4.0 gig memory card, I should say.

I called technical support at Apple with a question about iMovie, and the technician had me do something with my memory card that inadvertently ended its career in the digital imaging industry. (Given its rather specialized skill set, I see no further employment opportunities on its horizon... except maybe as a guitar pick. But even that's doubtful in this economy.)

Now, lest you think that Apple employs bumbling idiots, this was the first time I ever encountered anything less than A+ service, and they made it right.

Boy, howdy, did they make it right.

Within 24 hours I received a 4.0 gig memory ScanDisk HC memory card AND a 4.0 gig Wi-Fi memory card. (So now I don't even have to plug my camera into the computer or remove the card to download my photos.)

You can bet your sweet bippy that Microsoft would never do something like that.

So, there you have it!

Hmmmm.... I wonder if I can trick them into making me destroy our television set...?

Advice to Lucy on Her Upcoming Nuptuals

Lucy is getting married at the end of the month, and she is A Wreck!

So, Lucy, read the following, follow the following, and everything will work out great.

1. Something will go wrong - sometimes more than one thing, so there's no point in fretting over the inevitable. Besides, it doesn't matter because nobody cares. TRUST ME on this one. You will be the only one who cares and in a month, you won't care, either. So let go of it needing to be perfect. You've done what you needed to do, now just LET IT ALL GO. Once you stop aspiring for perfection your stress will ebb.

2. If you have any Mothers that are driving you nuts, grab your Maid of Honor and tell her to run interference. If your MOH is driving you nuts, tell the Best Man to distract her. (That's really what they're there for even if they don't realize it.)

3. The only thing any guest remembers from a wedding is:

• how beautiful the bride was;
• how awful the bridesmaids' ensembles were (IF they were, in fact, awful);
• whether they liked the cake; and,
• if applicable, how utterly dreadful the DJ/band was at the reception.

And, of the four, they'll only remember the bride after a month.

4. Everyone in attendance is, or should be, a close friend or family member - the people you love the most and who love you back. They are there to share your happiness, so they're rooting FOR you. (It's not like anyone is sitting there thinking to themselves, "Boy, I hope she trips on her train as she's walking down the aisle!")

5. Remember to breathe the minute you realize you're feeling even remotely anxious. And by "breathe" I mean to do what I tell Gigi. "Smell the flower and blow out the candle": deep, slooooow inhale, long sloooow exhale. Repeat in cycles of ten. This is THE KEY to wiping out your stress. Once the stress is banished, the nerves will fade and the skin will clear. (Seriously, the reason I walked away from my car accident without massive injuries was my ability to completely relax my body prior to impact - which I did by smelling the flower and blowing out the candle.)

6. Squirt a little Windex on those zits (it worked for the groom in My Big Fat Greek Wedding).

7. Make time to watch My Big Fat Greek Wedding because...

8. Laughter is definitely the strongest stress eliminator there is (right next to smelling the flower and blowing out the candle).

9. When you pose for pictures remember to lower your chin a trifle, only smile half as big as normal, and let Jesus shine through your eyes. (Try this is in front of the mirror or have the MOH take your picture this weekend and see if you don't look fantastic.) (I'm sharing this because people are always so stressed about pictures coming out good - especially if they're scrapbookers. Now you know the secret to taking a perfect picture, there is no need to feel stressful about that.

10. Go soak in a hot tub with some relaxing bath salts. (Hydrotherapy is very popular in the booby hatch for a reason, you know. Does wonders for Crazy People.)

Now go BREATHE, watch My Big Fat Greek Wedding - in the tub, if necessary - and, if all else fails, smoke an all-natural, herbal cigarette.

*grin*

Love you, Lucy! Remember to HAVE FUN!!!