"I like living. I have sometimes been wildly, despairingly, acutely miserable, racked with sorrow, but through it all I still know quite certainly that just to be alive is a grand thing." ~ Dame Agatha Christie



Sunday, April 12, 2009

Cuttlebug Challenge


What a cool blog! I'll be quite honest--I do not own a Cuttlebug; after months of research and using friends' various die cut machines, I decided a Big Kick fulfilled my personal needs better. Having said that, I must also say "I LOVE CUTTLEBUG FOLDERS AND DIE-CUTS!!!"

And, now, I love this blog! I cannot follow any blog as often as I would like...somehow things like a job and household chores take up more of my time than I would sometimes like ;-)

I do plan on spending time on this blog MAY 1-3 and hope you other Cuttlebug lovers will too--this Spa Weekend looks like a ton of fun and inspiration. Come out and play with us, won't you?


Friday, April 10, 2009

"Artful Blogging"

I've enjoyed past issues of this rather costly magazine before, but the most recent (Feb/Mar/Apr 2009) issue has just blown me away! Not only because of the creativity of the artists whose blogs are featured, but most especially for the sheer encouragement to "jump on in"--to start from where I am as an artist/writer. As long as I am continuing to learn/grow/develop, it is more important to enjoy the journey than to strive to reach a possibly artificial destination. There are no final destinations, only resting spots on the way to the next leg of the trip around the wheel of life.

This issue has encouraged me to add more art to my blog, to post more often, and to even learn how to add a banner (hopefully soon to come).

Some folks have multiple blogs for their multiple interests and I have often allowed the OCD side of my personality to run rampant with a self-induced guilt trip that I have not followed that trend. This blog runs the gamut from my political rants to my desire for increased environmental awareness; from my book reviews to my organizational challenges; from my papercrafting to my memories of simpler times. "Artful Blogging" freed me from these niggling OCD thoughts. This blog reflects me. Just as I am NOT a one-dimensional person, my blog is not a one-dimensional work-in-progress.

So, who knows what will be posted next? Bookmarks or cards I have created? A book review? A rant regarding the commercialization of a religious holiday? New tips for living a greener life? A product review? Whatever it is, it will reflect an aspect of me--Linda Kay--and whether someone else enjoys or agrees, it will be an honest aspect of where I am in that moment. I hope you come back for more...

Sunday, March 29, 2009

The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency

Okay, I'll freely admit to being one of the few who like cozy mysteries as a genre but who just totally disliked this book (so much so I never read the rest of the series). After seeing the scenery and characters in the commercials for this HBO version, I decided to give tonight's pilot episode a shot.

Am I ever glad I did--the show is awesome! Very true to the book's storyline, this is a novel truly suited for adaptation to the small screen. What feels like a chopped up conglomeration of short tales when read are integrated much better on TV and the scenery is truly breathtaking. Jill Smith brings the main character Precious to life in such a believable way and the secretary is a true hoot! I may never go back and try the other novels, but the series is getting set into my DVR reminder/record list.

Network Nightmares

I am sometimes convinced that if there is an easy way to do something and a hard way, my genetic makeup will pick the hard way every time LOL! I recently crossed another item off my bucket list and replaced my laptop that had been stolen in 2005. Instead of a second TV for my apartment, I now have upgraded my home network to wireless and added this great HP G60-235DX laptop. You would think I would just unplug all the ethernet cables from the wired router and plug them into the wireless one, right? Not hardly.

Don't ask me how, but I managed to tangle almost five feet of three different ethernet cables into a knot when they were first installed last year (mind you the walls are back to back with only the width of the studs between). So, pulling them back into the office when relocating the router from the living became a much more involved task. Gratefully I had extra ethernet cables; when all was done, one cable had lost its end connector. But, most important of all, the network is up and running.

I cannot seem to get the printer/laptop connection using the desktop as a pass-through to work. For the time being, anything that needs printing from the laptop can be dropped to a flash drive or memory card and I can then plug into the desktop and print from there (much cheaper than a new printer or a print server).

What should have taken an hour at the most took over five (didn't talk about the fact that the file cabinet and 6 boxes of archived materials needed to be relocated in order to access the wiring and the hole in the back wall of the closet where I had passed the wiring through)....

Now maybe I can get back to organizing the studio half of the space?????

Tuesday, March 24, 2009

What Font are You?

This is a really cool little quiz...I'm a font collector, so when I found this I just had to share. Some of the questions were a bit weird for me, so I just picked the best of the bad and ended up being Helvetica (one of my least favorite fonts, believe it or not LOL!)

Hope you have fun and enjoy your font!