That Marky chose me among women to design what will now be a part of him until he leaves this earthly life and his earthly shell, I’m very thankful for that. It’s something I have done that will not pass away, at least hopefully not for a very long time. Sniff…..now I miss him. Like the deserts miss the rain.
The one visible web page is aesthetically pleasing, which has to be a good sign. Apparently through e-spresso we will learn how to become more professional. Plus, this proves what’s I’ve known in my heart all along; Family administration clearly endorses coffee. Only good can come of this. Go sign up.
I’ve been meaning to do this for awhile. There are one million ways to get the exact same effect in Photoshop and you probably already have your own ways of doing this, but in case it helps anyone anywhere – here are two eeeHEASY (heh, heh) ways to get two effects that I use all the time for the usual little design jobsies that come up in one’s service for the Lord.
Exhibit A: You want something more interesting than a plain background for your Christmas card/birth announcement/wedding invitation so you start with a colorful photo.
In Photoshop, open duplicate the layer then go to Filter>Blur>Gaussian Blur and adjust it to a nice state of um….blurriness.
Too easy. Here’s something I put together with this technique recently.
Exhibit B: A gradient. When I found this technique on some PS tut blog I was giddy with joy at the simplicity (oh the simplicity) of this technique. I’ve used it on things that really needed no gradient at all just because it was too easy.
Fill your background with any color (it could even be a photo)
Make a new layer. Use your polygonal lasso tool to make a shape like so, and fill it with black.
Then run the same Filter>Blur>Gaussian Blur on the layer with the black shape.
And you’ve got yourself an entirely adjustable gradient layer. Praise the Lord! Here’s something I used this technique with. Gives stuff a nice little zing.
Sniff. In the interests of honesty and full disclosure, this post was partly made for the purpose of highlighting this very last image that you see here – the one with the great big 2009 on it. I’m oh so pleased with it and the Lord saw fit to break me by not allowing it to be used for reasons that make sense, but it still hurts in places deep inside of me. I had to make a different cover and my heart just wasn’t in it. Ah, well.
Hope these few novice tidbitietes of information have helped in some way. I’ve made this post after a number of glasses of not halfway bad White Zinfandel (I love that I can say that in public) while I simultaneously try to listen to Nat King Cole and cultivate my budding friendship with the new friend I think I have made in Florence (name drop) over Skype, so if this hasn’t made as much sense as I think it has, that’s well….kind of the reason. God bless you.
I had to make one recently, although they’ve been run into the ground through overuse, they can sometimes – operative word being “sometimes” – be useful. Here’s a criminally easy tutorial I found. Just don’t abuse the power it gives you.
As God is my witness there are two – not one, but two things I will do before the end of this month and if I don’t do them, I charge you to slap me upside the head and/or express your disappointment in me as your fellowman in either verbal or written format, depending on your geographical location relative to my person. I will a.) Do an interview of the month and b.) draw that thing for Stinky that I can’t really talk about but just threw in there because a.) I have to do it and b.) It’s common knowledge that being cryptic on your blog makes you awesome. There, now the world is watching and I must deliver. I feel so motivated now.
So I’ve blogged about that and now with a heavy heart I make my goodbye post to one of my mostest favorite mammals (at least in my top fifteen). Dan, for two magical years have have rocked my world with your politically incorrect, shamelessly self-sabatoging, completely non-nonchalant awesomeness. I will never be the same and I hope you know that you are….sniff…..forever in my heart.
The Family International site is looking pretty fanshmastical these days. It’s looking so good that I felt led to give it some link love. Go web guys!
I thought I was unique and edgy for having a crush on Jon Stewart and I realize more and more every day how mainstream the dude is and how everyone has a crush on him. The crush hasn’t gone away though. I harbor a secret fantasy that when we start performing miracles like the Lord says we will, I will perform a grand miracle in the middle of a very public place and it’ll get caught on camera and Jon Stewart will want me to appear on The Daily Show to talk about it. And now, the Lord knows He can’t use me to perform miracles because I will abuse the power. Damn my pride.
I was talking to Jer last night about the dread Papyrus font and how much I despise it and and today I saw it used four times in advertising and two of those times at Costco. For shame, for shame. I should also mention that I feel geeky and design-esque when I talk about things like this (fonts and conversations with Jeremy)
Chuck and I were looking at photos one night and realized in tandem that whenever we see a hot guy, we both sniff. Just one lone sniff. We figured out that we do this out of grief due to the unlikelyhood* that they will return the sentiment. So if you pass by us and we sniff, you’ll know why. (*spellchecker tells me this word is spelled wrong but in my heart I know it’s right)
Our new house has a tennis court, which makes me very happy because now when I must defend my much-too-excessive use of salt with my usual argument “But eating salt helps you not faint when you’re playing tennis in the hot sun” (see Life with Grandpa #3) the argument is even more airtight since there is now the possibility, however remote, of actually playing tennis.
In all seriouslyness, there is Big News on the horizon for your friend and comrade Jules and I’ll be posting about it soon, thus redefining myself as a woman of actual substance on this blog.