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.

 

Precious Peonies

Precious Peonies

https://www.getpersonas.com/en-US/persona/475639 

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!

NEW BABY

 

Butterfly Browser Buddies

https://www.getpersonas.com/en-US/persona/473770

 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.

Where is summer?

Daybreak Over the Mountains

https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/daybreak-over-the-mountains 

https://www.getpersonas.com/en-US/persona/474205

http://gallery.brandthunder.com/en-US/theme/3f96065d-db82-4b92-977e-cf84db0792ba

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

https://www.getpersonas.com/en-US/persona/467039

Summer Time

Sunshines Yellow

https://www.getpersonas.com/en-US/persona/427335

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.

Spring Fantasia

https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/spring-fantasia/?src=ss 

 

June June June

Purple Daisy Flower

 https://www.getpersonas.com/en-US/persona/469469

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!

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

http://gallery.brandthunder.com/en-US/theme/ef45c26e-9355-47fb-833c-fa7d50000f14

https://www.getpersonas.com/en-US/persona/469043 

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.....