Friday, December 21, 2012

Purple Designer Christmas
Brand Thunder Link

Well, we made it through another year together. And today was the day the Mayan calendar proclaimed the end of time! 

I just wanted to wish you all a great holiday and hope you can spend it with family like we are so lucky to be able to.

The Brand Thunder blog had a spot about the Nexus 7 winners and thought I would post the link. http://brandthunder.com/2012/nexus-7-winners-brand-thunder-offering-more-prizes-in-new-year/ I am really enjoying the Nexus 7. I am reading books on it right now. I put the Kindle app on it and can get books from Amazon free or at a very low cost. My husband is using it to play a hunting game on it, too. So I want to thank Brand Thunder for the win. I did work hard on the contest, though. I made a lot of pop culture designs and the one that they chose to win was Darth Vader Red Planet. I have never seen a Star Wars movie but it was fun to make. 

Till next year!

Christmas Closing In

Purple Designer Christmas
Brand Thunder Link

Well, we made it through another year together. And today was the day the Mayan calendar proclaimed the end of time! 

I just wanted to wish you all a great holiday and hope you can spend it with family like we are so lucky to be able to.

The Brand Thunder blog had a spot about the Nexus 7 winners and thought I would post the link. http://brandthunder.com/2012/nexus-7-winners-brand-thunder-offering-more-prizes-in-new-year/ I am really enjoying the Nexus 7. I am reading books on it right now. I put the Kindle app on it and can get books from Amazon free or at a very low cost. My husband is using it to play a hunting game on it, too. So I want to thank Brand Thunder for the win. I did work hard on the contest, though. I made a lot of pop culture designs and the one that they chose to win was Darth Vader Red Planet. I have never seen a Star Wars movie but it was fun to make. 

Till next year!

Thursday, December 6, 2012

Fun to Be A Snowman

Merry Christmas, Happy Hanukkah or whatever you believe in!

We still have geraniums blooming in pots under the eves of the house so it doesn't really seem  like Christmas time but it is.

We have had a pretty rough couple weeks but things are looking up now. I came down with walking pneumonia before Thanksgiving and just kept working but I shouldn't have. Then the day after my husband took me to the Dr. our son and his wife dropped by and they were just leaving when my husband just passed out cold on the floor. It was so scary and I was so weak from being sick that I don't know what would have happened if the kids hadn't been here. I almost passed out while the EMT's were here taking good care of my husband. They took him to the hospital and it sounds like the Doctors had him on too much blood pressure medicine and his blood pressure just dropped. He hit his head on the floor but guess he has a hard head because there was no fracture, etc. He is doing fine now, but of course he caught my bug, so we got him on antibiotics right away so it didn't end up like mine. We both still cough but can see a light at the end of the tunnel now.

I am so thankful he is all right, and so thankful that we have great kids and they are all close by. 

We decided that we won't have Christmas Eve at our house this year. It has gotten more difficult to get everyone together since everyone has so much family, babies, etc. This will be the first Christmas eve I haven't had a get together in about 35 years so will be different but guess we have earned it at this point in our lives. We will be with family earlier in the day, though.

I have kept very busy working on designs and have more Christmas designs made than I should have. But they are so much fun and I keep getting new graphics so hope you are enjoying my work.

I always make our family calendar and worked on it over the week end and it is finished and printed out. 

I am loving my Nexus 7 that I won and my husband likes playing hunting games on it since he isn't doing much hunting this year. Thank you, Brand Thunder for it and to all the people that are using my designs.

Christmas Bright

I will end this post as I began it by wishing you all a great holiday season. I want to thank you for using my designs and your support over this past year. 

And a good night to all! 

 

 

Friday, November 9, 2012

Autumn Resting Wolf

Thought I would stop in and thank the loyal fans that voted for my theme in the Brand Thunder contest. I knew I would not win the popular vote contest because I refuse to go on Facebook. But I did win the most important contest to me and that was the one judged by professionals. You can read about it at: http://brandthunder.com/2012/winner-best-design-pop-culture-theme/ Brand Thunder broadened my horizons as far as designs go. As you know I usually stick to nature but since this was for pop culture I had to do some deep thinking. One thing I never thought I would do was gaming themes, but I talked to a grandson and he gave me some ideas and I really enjoyed making them. And will probably continue to make a few. So I want to thank Brand Thunder for the contest and for liking my designs well enough to judge me the winner.

I am excited about winning the Google Nexus 7 and learning something new. I had almost enough winnings from other contest to buy the Kindle Fire HD and have read 2 books already on it, so now my husband can read books on either the Nexus 7 or the Kindle Fire HD! 
 
The theme I have up today is from a painting by Peter Williams. I just happened to come across some of his art work and wrote and asked him if he would allow me to use his work for my Persona theme designs and he was nice enough to grant me the privilege. There is something about wolves that fascinate me. You can probably tell because I have made quite a few wolf designs. It may be some of my Native American heritage from way back when my great, great, grandfather married a Cherokee or Choctaw Indian woman named Nancy.
 
I am now working on Christmas themes and it is kind of hard to do when you are not really in that frame of mind yet. But I am doing it!
 
I want to wish you all a very Happy Thanksgiving.
 
That is all for now

Friday, November 2, 2012

Finalist in Brand Thunder theme contest!!

FALL RAIN SHOWER
 https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/fall-rain-shower/

Well, I am a finalist in the pop culture theme contest from Brand Thunder. So I am asking all my fans to vote for the one Brand Thunder chose. You can check it out at: http://brandthunder.com/2012/omg-pop-culture-theme-contest-finalists-are-here/

The one they chose of mine was "Pirates of the Caribbean". It was not the one I thought they might choose if I made it to the finals, but I am very happy to be there. I think you can only vote through Facebook and as you know I don't do Facebook so that lets me out of voting for myself! So it will depend on you guys out there that do Facebook, I guess. I worked really hard all month and made some pretty good ones. My favorite was the Elvis one I called "No Time to Say Goodbye" but then I guess that shows my age. I skipped school to go to his movie "Love me Tender" when I was in high school! I think you can vote once a day, but am not sure about that so you can try and see if it lets you. I would appreciate any and all of you that can vote to do so.

The theme I am showing today is the fall design I am using. It seems to be pretty popular with Firefox users also. The wallpaper link is at the Persona site.

I would like to wish all of you on the east coast that were in that horrible storm good luck and I hope you can get back to your homes or someplace warm and dry soon.  A fellow named Tony had written to me and asked if I would make a Persona with a photo of his Siberian Husky, Bandit. So since I was finished making designs for the contest I took time yesterday to make two for him and submitted one. I wrote to him and told him it was on line and got a message back saying, he couldn't see it because the storm hit him hard. I have no idea where he lives but I was surprised to think how insulated I was from it. We watched the horrible pictures on TV but here I was sitting in my nice warm living room and thousands of people were living through the havoc.  My thoughts are with them and I am going to send the Red Cross what we can, anyway. That is about all I can do for now.

Now, I am going to ask all of you to vote in the election on Tuesday also. This is one of the most important things we can do to keep our country free, I feel sad that some out there are trying to make it hard or impossible for every citizen to vote and I hope if you are one of those that you can see through the smoke and mirrors. You can vote if you are registered, so do.

I will let you know the results of the contest next week. Since I don't do Facebook I have my doubts of winning the popularity contest but I sure as heck would like to. Thanks to all of you and let your friends and relatives know they can vote, too.

 


 


Saturday, October 13, 2012

Watch for New Contest!!!

Night Scares

Brand Thunder


I thought I would take the time to stop in and let you know I am in another design contest. I didn't think I would enter another one because I got caught up so much in the one last year, but I decided to. Brand Thunder is having a theme contest with pop culture as the them. Since I have lived through most of the pop culture years I am getting into the thought process. The finalists will be announced on Nov. 2nd so if I happen to be a finalist, I will post on this blog so you can vote for my design. I don't do Facebook or any of that social media stuff so I am not out there socially like the younger people, so am at a disadvantage, but I just can't take the time to do Facebook. I have so many design ideas in my head and don't like to take time away from designing. 

I like the Halloween design I posted today so check it out and use it if you like it. If you uses Internet Explorer and want the design you can go to Brand Thunder and download it.

I see the blogger has changed their interface so I am going to have to figure out how to re-do the theme and main picture on my blog. So have patience. I will be back and post about the contest, though, for sure IF I am lucky enough to be a finalist.

Have a great Halloween and don't eat too much candy!

Tuesday, September 18, 2012

Winds of Autumn

Winds of Autumn
Brand Thunder theme for Internet Explorer 

Just thought I would pop in for a minute and let everyone know I am still around, still working. 

I really like the theme I am showcasing today, Winds of Autumn. The wallpaper is at: http://nature.desktopnexus.com/wallpaper/1181558/ . So, if you check it out, I hope you like it, too. I want all the great people that leave comments on my wallpapers that I DO  read all of them but I don't have time to answer them. Thanks for leaving the comments and I am very pleased you like my work.

We are having the best August and September  weather I can remember in years. The weather is finally summer and autumn starts Saturday! I wish the weather could be like this all the time, but we live in an area that has seasons!

I am trying to get out and enjoy this weather more, but fall is such a beautiful, colorful season and I have so many fall graphics, I am finding it hard to do so. Today was really productive fore me so I am going outside right this minute and enjoy it.

Have a great week and I will check in soon.

Wednesday, August 8, 2012

Beginning to feel a lot like fall!

AUTUMN GOLD

For some reason, this morning looks like fall. I have to get in the mood to make fall designs soon. The one I posted today is from last year, but I like it. The wallpaper to match is at: http://nature.desktopnexus.com/wallpaper/790696/;

The leaves are beginning to fall off the trees already. Fog in the mornings and you can feel a chill in the air. Sunday it was 89° and this morning it was 59° so you never know what to wear.

Monday when our great grandson was here the fields were being cut for hay.  He came running in to tell me the eagle was back. So I got out my trusty camera and took a few shots while he (the eagle, not my great grandson) was sitting in one of our tallest trees watching for mice. They can actually see mice jumping in the fields after the mower cuts the hay and they love mice. I got one fairly good shot of it so I made a wallpaper and theme (the new name for Personas). I posted a wallpaper also. The link for the wallpaper is with the theme.

August Bald Eagle

I have been submitting about a dozen themes  at Brand Thunder each week, too and have been getting Theme of the Week almost every week so that makes me feel like my work is appreciated. Thanks to all who use them.

In  my last post I reported on the review manipulation that has been going on at Mozilla. The Persona Theme department head emailed them and gave them a slap on the wrist, but the manipulation has continued to some degree. It has slowed down some, though.  Needless to say we were all disappointed that the reviewers were not released from reviewing designs.

Thank you all that write and continue to like my work. I guess I will keep making them at this point since I still have lots of ideas. 

Have a great Autumn and enjoy the warmth while we have it.

 

Thursday, July 26, 2012

Shake Up Shake Down

Wow, there has been a bit of a shake up in the Persona division of Mozilla. You may not be aware but the designs are reviewed by volunteer designers. There have been two designers that have been manipulating the system since at least March and maybe longer. They decided they wanted their designs to be on the Recently Added page so they would have at least 12 or more hours to get top billing. They are good designers and very popular, but now people are wondering if all their popularity is because of the manipulation they have been doing. 

It was brought to my attention at the beginning of this month so I started checking into it. Low and behold, every day these two designers, Lisa and Sassy would have 3 of each of theirs at the top of the AMO page. It became obvious after a few days of checking. I don't take the time to do this usually because I am busy with designing and just life itself. 

It was reported to the person that is the head of the Persona division and the girls got a slap on the wrist but that was it. The Administrator failed to  do anything more than tell them not to review each others designs as they had been doing in the past. Many designers were very disturbed by the lack of punishment, if you want to call it that, even after given absolute proof in screen shots and a spreadsheet of statistics for an entire months submissions.

This has been so unfair to beginning designers because it takes a long time to get a design recognized and become used by enough users to get in the Up and Coming List. I am sure many got discouraged and just quit designing. You work hours on some designs and then have it just sit at the bottom of the pile is discouraging.

To make a long story short, I am thinking about quitting designing for Mozilla because of their lack of supervision over the Administrators.  I have a lot of designs finished so will continue to submit what I have done but I will have to wait and see how the move from getpersonas to the Add On Mozilla (AM0) site works out.

I love making wallpapers and will continue doing that for sure. So we shall wait and see what happens.

I know for a fact that one designer quit making Persona themes and actually switched her browser from Firefox to Google Chrome because of these two "girls"  playing fast and loose with the system.


Sometimes life is fair and other times it stinks. Needless to say we were all disappointed in Mozilla's reaction or should I say non action.


Till next time

 

Tuesday, July 24, 2012

G Mail Themes

A quick stop in. I just discovered you can choose your own GMail theme. If you want one of my wallpapers as your GMail theme, all you have to do is download it to your desktop. Then after you are signed in to your GMail account, click on the little gear wheel on the far right, hit themes, go down to Custom Themes/change your image background/upload Photos/My Photos/Upload Photos and then just drag the wallpaper you downloaded to where it says Drag Photos Here. Works really cool and if you have any problems or questions, email me and I will try to answer them.

 

Wednesday, July 18, 2012

Precious Peonies

Precious Peonies

I hope summer is going well for everyone and you aren't having droughts or floods. It is almost scary to listen to the news anymore. At least our summer is neither. The thunder and lightning we have had I do not like, though.

I have really been having fun designing lately. I love finding new graphics to work with and I am learning more and more with Photoshop every day. I will never be able to do even half the things that you can do with it but it is fun to try. Although sometimes I do get frustrated. 

As I have said before the getpersonas site where everyone has been getting their theme designs from is going to be changing and moving everything over to the  AMO site: https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/personas/ so I will have to learn a whole new system of submitting, etc. And I am not one that really likes changes.

I was with Personas when they were the new baby on the block and had hoped and tried my best to keep it a sight that had class and you wouldn't be afraid for you child or grandchild to come across. But over the years they have changed a lot of their guidelines and really lowered their standards . Anyway that is this old great grandmothers opinion! And who listens to great grandmothers anyway? Right!

Just thought I would pop in and say hi and hope all is well with everyone. Thanks again for using my designs and writing. I love hearing from you and need the kudos every once in awhile.

Have a good one!

Monday, July 9, 2012

NEW BABY

Butterfly Browser Buddies

 Our family has a new baby girl. The first one in over 30 years!! She is a beautiful baby and we want to welcome Lucy Jane into our wonderful family. So we now have 4 great grandchildren. Guess we are going to have to buy more picture frames. They grow and change so fast it is hard to keep up.

Hope everyone is having a great summer.

This would be a good time for me to thank all the great people that follow this poor blog and continue to use my designs. If you didn't use them I would not be working so thanks again.



Tuesday, July 3, 2012

Where is summer?

Daybreak Over the Mountains

I am wondering when summer is going to come to the Pacific Northwest. It has been cold and rainy here for the entire month of June and so far July is the same. It is supposed to be a bit better for the 4th of July afternoon and next weeks forecast looks like it could be summer. I watch the news and hear about the heat in the east and midwest and am actually glad we are not having that, but it could be a bit warmer here.

I feel so badly for the people and forests in Colorado and other states that are burning up. My husband was a forester with the United States Forest Service for 33 years and fought fire every  summer. We didn't make a lot of money working for the government like so many people seem to believe so we were glad when we could get that extra income fighting fire. Raising 3 little ones took more money than his wages actually brought in. And we were very frugal. We lived in the mountains, close to the ranger station. He hunted for most of our meat, I canned fruits and vegetables, made jams and jellies, baked all of our sourdough bread and we pretty much lived off the land. But it was a great way to raise children and it proved to be so when our 3 turned out to be such wonderful, hard working adults. I wouldn't change a thing.

Our daughter says she can still smell the smoky smell her Dad had when he came home from fighting fires. Fighting fire 50 years ago was a lot different than it is now. 

Anyway, I feel sad for the people that lost their homes. But they should never allow houses to be built in the forests like they do now. I see these big beautiful houses that are built on mountainsides and  know what is eventually going to happen. One lightning strike or a discarded cigarette butt is all it takes for hundreds to lose their homes, trees lost and insurance companies raising everyone's insurance because of all they had to put out in claims. And putting all the firefighters lives in danger to try to save the houses that probably shouldn't be there in the first place.

Don't know where all that came from!

Since I am on a rant I might as well rant about a designer on Mozilla Persona themes that seems to watch a lot of my designs and then copy them pretty much verbatim. They can't be refused for being copies because they aren't "exact" copies. It doesn't take a genius to just look through the designs and figure out who I am talking about. Apparently she checks out my wallpapers, too and uses them for some of her designs. I could and probably should  file against her, but she is a reviewer and I don't want to make any enemies.  So, I grin and bear it, but the grin is not a pretty thing to see!

Still waiting for our 4th great grandchild to be born. He or she is overdue and Mama is very uncomfortable . I had 3 dreams last week that it was a girl and even named her in my dreams. We haven't had a baby girl born in our family in over 30 years so a sweet little girl would be nice, but another boy added to our family will be welcomed just as much. They are one of the few parents -to -be that don't want to know the sex of the baby and I have to admit it does add to the excitement. 

I hope you all have a safe 4th of July. Remember it is not just a holiday for fireworks and barbecues. Most of our families have members that lost their lives and limbs fighting to keep our country free. Think about them while you are chowing down on that hot dog or whatever. We are going to spend a "quiet" Independence Day at home and I think we have decided on pizza! Not a very 4th of July food, but makes it easy!

Be safe, everyone.

 Dragonfly Daisies

Monday, June 18, 2012

Summer Time

Sunshines Yellow

Hi, everyone. Hope you are all having a great summer. Our weather could be better, but at least I have inside work to keep  me busy and you guys happy!

We had our family reunion and it was great. Two members of our family couldn't make it and we were all sad for that, but they had good reasons. One is adopting a daughter and couldn't find the money to fly across the US and the other are expecting my next great grandchild any day. They were missed but maybe next time! I certainly hope there will be a next time, but at our ages you don't know. You take every blessed day as it comes. 

I feel so fortunate to be able to  live close to my children and their children. Seeing the little ones learning to talk and see amazement in their eyes at something is so wonderful. To hear a little one say, "Sit, Grandma" and pat the floor next to him. 

Now back to work subjects! I am noticing that the animated Persona designs are getting a lot of usage, but I wonder if the users realize that an animated theme will actually slow their browser down. I am not going to be making any so please don't look for them.

I was pleased to make a theme for Bear Lake Golden Doodles of their darling puppies. I had never heard them called that but after I got their email I immediately went to work on one. You will have to check them out. at: http://bearlakegoldendoodles.com/index.html  I have another one made that I will put shortly.

If you get your Persona themes from the getpersonas site you will notice that the search option is "broken". And they don't plan on fixing it. Apparently they are moving everything to the AMO site and it doesn't look like designers will have their own page like they do now. If and when that happens and it gets to hard to find designs, etc. I may retire and just make wallpapers. They have also allowed too many "adult" designs to be approved. When the Persona program first started  we had very strict rules. No nudity or almost nudity was allowed. I was hoping that Personas would be a classy program but I really do think they have lowered their standards. If you see any designs that are offensive you can report them on the AMO site at: https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/personas/  You can also make remarks about specific designs and give them star reviews. Check it out.

Well, I really don't know anything new but wanted to check in on my blog and decided I wanted a new background. Hope you like it.

Have a great week and I will be back soon, hopefully.




 

Saturday, May 26, 2012

June June June

Purple Daisy Flower


Well, it is the last week end before June. We used to go camping with the dirt bikes and four wheelers on this week end and it usually always rained! Part of this week end starts out good and ends wet! Well, this is Washington! If you don't like the weather, wait ten minutes and it will change.

I posted another flower wallpaper on my blog today. It is called "Purple Daisy Flower" and it is at: http://nature.desktopnexus.com/wallpaper/1058076/ 

I have really been hard at it this past month and I don't know why. I can't seem to stop work. I even went through my files and deleted some. Once in awhile I will design something and like it and the next day it looks different and I don't like it, so I use the delete button a lot.

Mozilla has the daily user counter fixed, or anyway it seems to be so that is good. 

Honeymoon Tasting Room bought most of our fresh organic rhubarb so they have new batch of rhubarb mead brewing. 


If anyone is interested there is a site where you can vote and make comments on designs. That link is: https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/personas/ You have to register and sign in to make comments. But since I don't have a social networking I don't get a lot of comments. But if you have a design of mine you really like, go to the site and put the name of the design in the search box and it should come up. Would love to see some votes and comments. 


I think I will go out and enjoy this sunshiny day. Then come back in and work on the photos I took this morning of the horses enjoying the pasture.Have a great holiday week end.   Enjoy Memorial Day week end and remember what the holiday is for. It isn't just for camping and picnics. It is a time for us to remember all the loved ones we have lost. As you get older you realize this more. Have a good one!

Thursday, May 10, 2012

Persona Theme Site

I just thought I would drop in for a quick update on the Persona site. I guess they are trying to move some stuff around and the daily active user count has been down for almost a month so we don't know if a design is catching on or not. The Up and Coming site has also been corrupted for the same reason. So the counts you see are not the actual counts. 

I have no idea when things will be fixed and where they will be when they are up and running again. A lot of people, especially designers are quite disgusted about the whole thing. 

I submitted a really cool theme to both Mozilla and Brand Thunder today and it makes you think of spring and summer.

 Summer Sunshine

Have a nice Mothers Day everyone and make sure you call your Mom or spend some time with her. I wish I could spend the day with mine, but she has been gone almost 10 years now and I miss her every day.

Till next time.....

Monday, April 30, 2012

Goodbye To April

Sakura Shine Tree

Well, as usual, I haven't kept up my blog. I keep thinking about it, but have more fun working on designs. Mozilla is going through a changing period right now and I don't think they are keeping things up like they used to. The daily counter has been down for almost 3 weeks now. So no one knows which designs are doing good and which ones are flops! And we all have those. I guess they have decided to call Personas themes now, so Personas will be no more. And I think they are trying to move things to a different site which I am sure will cause all kinds of problems. I will let you know if and when things get changed.

When I went to update the blog today Google had changed the whole interface on how to work so that was another learning experience. I DON'T WANT ANY MORE LEARNING EXPERIENCES! At my age each new one only confuses me instead of adding to the joy of doing it. So I have no idea if this will show up the way I want it to or not.

Spring seems to be having a hard time getting here. The one good thing this year is the good weather is on the week ends and the rain during the week. It is usually the other way around.

I have been winning the theme of the week on Brand Thunder almost every week lately, so that gives me a little more confidence. 

I made a theme for a lady last week from photos she sent me of her parents and that was fun. I hope her family will enjoy it. I like doing that but it is hard to know what the person has in mind. 

Mozilla is having a contest for your favorite add-on, but I am not going to enter because there seems to be a bit of favoritism involved in the Persona division right now and I don't want any part of that. I will just do my work and let them do what they want . I know at least one designer that is totally getting out of the Persona part all together and going to switch to designing wallpapers. Actually wallpapers are much easier to design because you have so much more area to work with.

Mothers Day is coming up and as usual I start thinking of my Mom. She has been gone 10 years this Sept. and you would think it would get easier, but it really doesn't. My sister and I are working on a family reunion this summer and I am really looking forward to that. I got the invitations designed and mailed out last week. 

Well, I am tired from working today so think I will just sign off for April. And wish everyone a happy May Day. I remember when my kids would put flowers at the neighbors front  doors on May Day. I wonder if anyone does that anymore. I doubt it as most people don't even know their neighbors. How sad! Take care and I will return sometime in May...I promise.

Monday, April 9, 2012

Scary Easter

Spring Fresh
 I had a very scary Easter. I spent the day with my husband at the hospital. His heartbeat was 180 and irregular and to get it corrected they had to sedate and shock him But the Doctors knew what they were doing and he is fine now. We have to do follow ups but he is back! We have been together for 56 years, just had our 55th wedding anniversary last week and I do not know what I would do without him. Needless to say, I was very, very scared.

And then to top that off, one of the Persona designers accused me of copying one of her designs!  I have my head full of so many designs I don't have the time to check other designs and copy them. She didn't even specify which design she thought I copied, it was a floral design! Duh!!! How many floral designs do I have?

Enough complaining. The sun is shining, my husband is fine and all is good in my little world today. I think spring is really, really here.

I will try to do a better job of posting but hope everyone had a great Easter and got to spend it with family and loved ones. 

More later....

Monday, March 26, 2012

Nearing April

For some reason the creative juices aren't flowing this morning and I am a bit depressed. I hate it when I get to feeling this way but it happens. 

As I have said in many postings, family is very important to me and I do not favor anyone over anyone else. They are all important and loved, but sometimes one family member can cause a lot of friction and I am very hurt by this. I wish it didn't cause me heartache, but it does and then I get depressed. 

Families get very complicated over time and I think I have said enough. I just had to sound off a bit. 

I hope you like the new look of my blog. I think it is rather springy, if that is a word!  You can find the Persona lightweight background theme at: https://www.getpersonas.com/en-US/persona/463151 on Mozilla and at: http://gallery.brandthunder.com/en-US/theme/824ca612-7e20-4ca3-bbf9-1594ddb6f774  for IE and Firefox at Brand Thunder. 

I will explain a bit more about Firefox Persona's, which will be called either lightweight themes or background themes. I don't know for sure what they have decided and personally don't care. I think it was a mistake and foolish to change the name of something that was so popular. It will just cause a lot of confusion. That is neither here nor there, it is done. 

I am adding my name to all of the themes on Brand Thunder and you can find most of them at: http://gallery.brandthunder.com/en-US/gallery/All/search/1?p=MaDonna. I still have a bunch to change but as of right now I can't get back on that specific site to change so there are about 100 more I have made that won't come up until that happens.

I think I better sign off for the time being and try to get something going. It was a beautiful sunshiny weekend but dark and drizzly today and will be all week. Kind of like the mood I am in. 

Friday, March 9, 2012

Twitter

Good morning, all...Just thought I would let you know I am on Twitter now. I am learning how to use it, etc. so be patient.  @MaDonnasPersona. I think that is how you can find me! So check it out and follow me if you can find me!

Friday, March 2, 2012

 


I am featuring the theme I am using and is one of my favorites right now. It also won Theme of the Week last week on Brand Thunder. So if you use Internet Explorer you can still have a great look to your browser by going to Brand Thunder and downloading it.

I just found out today that Mozilla is changing the names of their Persona's to themes and the name Persona will mean something else entirely. They didn't take into consideration what the designers wanted at all which really upsets me, but that is the way it is. So I have changed the name of my blog as you may have noticed. I may have to do a lot of editing on my wallpapers, etc. but that is the way the ball bounces. 

I won the Celebrity Theme contest on Brand Thunder which really pleased me. I am saving my winnings in hopes of purchasing a Kindle Fire, but have a way to go yet. 

I hope you all have a great week end and will get back here soon.

Sunday, February 26, 2012

March into March

Irish Fairy

Well, today is my 73rd birthday and I must admit I felt like it when I got up this morning, but much better now. I decided today would be a good day to do an update on the blog, so here I am! I haven't made many St. Patricks Day themes or Personas this year...so better get going on it. I don't have a lot of graphics for it so won't get too far. I like the one above called Irish Fairy.

One of my grandsons works with Photoshop and we were able to get together and he showed me some things and I showed him some and shared all of my brushes with him. He actually gave me the courage to try some new things and it has been amazing for me. I usually just stuck with what I knew and once in awhile I would do something amazing but not know how I did it! So now I am writing things down. If you have ever worked with Photoshop you know it is a very intense program with many, many, many features. I have wondered many times how designers get a certain look when I know it is not "real". So now I am able to do some clipping, (thanks, Steven) and smuding. It has made designing more fun with a better final project.

I have found out that Mozilla may change the names of the Personas and call them themes or skins or something else. I put my 2 cents in and hope they don't. I don't know if I would have to change my blog name or just keep it the same. In my mind they will always be Personas so I doubt if I change it.

I am in another contest on Brand Thunder right now, too. Making Celebrity Themes. I am not into celebrities that much so have had to kind of ask around about who they thought would be good candidates for me to work on. Of course I had a few ideas and have done those and Steven (grandson) suggested Eminem. I knew who he was but not much so had to do a Wikipedia search. As I have said before in my blog I love watching the PBR, Professional Bull Riding so made one of my favorite rider, JB Mauney. There is no voting in this contest and I am glad of that because I don't have enough publicity to get anyone to vote except family members and some fans.  I know I should do Facebook but I can't even keep my blog up very good so doubt if I would do Facebook very much. I must be about the only person in the world that doesn't though! 

Well, I hope everyone has a good day and march into March.

Till next time!

Monday, February 6, 2012

February Events

The Heart Demands

Well, we are into the 2nd month of 2012. It is really hard to believe this year is going as fast as last year.

I was going to stop making Valentine designs but I didn't as you can tell. I still have more graphics I want to use but if you don't get your holiday designs on early they really don't get used as much. The one above is a very simple design but i like it and others are beginning to like it also.



I discovered something new this past week. I wanted a wallpaper on my cell phone that was one of my designs so I tried taking a photo of the wallpaper on my monitor and using it as my cell phone wallpaper. And it worked! The design I used was: Sunset Beginning:  http://nature.desktopnexus.com/wallpaper/955080  and it looks great. I used more of the corner with the flower, butterflies and humming bird. If you try it, let me know how it works for you. I did have to move my on screen icons because I didn't want them showing but I try to keep my screen uncluttered if possible so don't have tons of them to move.

Don't have much to report but did want to check in and let you all know I am still here. I wish I could quit working so hard but I have all these ideas and they need to be put to use.

Have a great Valentines Day and Happy Birthday to my baby sister. I love you and miss seeing you.

Sunday, January 22, 2012

Just Amazing!

Just Amazing
Hi again and welcome new followers. I am not very good at checking in often like most blogger's do, so I am hopeful you will have patience with me. I just get so involved in designing the wallpapers and themes that I run out of time! You would not believe how many hours a day I work...or maybe you would, I don't know. I used to sew the same way, just lose time...sometimes it is worth it and sometimes not.

The design I am displaying today is one that got popular very quick. I knew I liked it, but you never know if others will or not. I have posted the link for the Mozilla Firefox site, wallpaper and Brand Thunder site. I have noticed that some designs I submitted in 2009 are getting a lot of use all of a sudden so I wonder if it is from some of the followers that are beginning to know me and my work.

We just got through a terrible week of weather. Snow, freezing, northeast wind...you mention it, we had it. It was 11 degrees here for several days with that horrible northeast wind so with the wind factor, was much colder.  There are still drifts in our yard but almost gone. We had gotten in to town the Saturday before it started so didn't need anything so stayed home. AND WORKED! 

Our New Years day turned out to be not a good start for the year. We were robbed that night. Someone or more than one got into our shop and went through everything and stole a lot of things. It is quite a shock to get up in the morning and look out the window to see a shop door open when you know it was closed and locked the night before. It has taken my husband days to go through things and try to find what is missing. He works hard and helps people out that don't have much money to keep their vehicles running for them and to have someone come in and steal tools, etc. that lets him help people is really disgusting. That is not the kind of world I want to live in but it seems to be the way it is now. So I advise any and all of you to go through things and make sure you have serial numbers, etc.  If you have a camera, take a photo of the serial numbers on items as that is almost easier than writing down a ton of numbers, put the photos on a disc or flash drive and keep them somewhere safe. I learned this a little late! So don't be like me and close the barn door after the horses got out!


I am working on Valentine Day themes right now but already getting tired of them! And it isn't even February. I enjoy making the nature ones with forests, trees, etc. best. So don't think I will make too many Valentine ones, but do have some graphics I want to use so will make some more. 


I am going to sign off for today. But I happened to check the blog the other day and saw I had a couple more followers and wanted to welcome them and hope they check in more often than I do!


Thanks for using my work. That is why I keep doing it. 


Have a great week and hope you are all warm and cozy.

Sunday, January 1, 2012

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

New Years Celebration

I hope you all had a nice Christmas or whatever you celebrate at this time of year. I loved having toddlers around for Christmas Eve. What is more fun than watching little kids open gifts, eating too much and celebrating the season with the family you love? But honestly I am glad it is all over. It seems like I worked on Christmas designs for months. Actually I didn't but it seemed like it.

I have a lot of designs on Brand Thunder now and they seem to be quite popular. I am afraid I got too involved in the contest. I wish they hadn't shown the running results. I think we would have all been happier if they hadn't but I knew by early the last evening I didn't have a chance of winning because the competition was getting a lot of last minute interest. I was told by many they like my design much better and couldn't figure out what his was. But apparently a lot of people liked it because he won. I am a traditionalist and like the old standby. That is probably an age thing!

I just wanted to check in and wish you all a Happy New Year and hope for a great 2012.

💚Marching on to Spring💚

                                            Spring Tulip Farm https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/spring-tulip-farm-by-m-donna/  ...