"Art enables us to find ourselves and lose ourselves at the same time. "
Thomas Merton
Angel Love ~ Free IncrediMail Letter and Tag Extras
Good afternoon!
Hope you all are having a fantastic weekend. I thought I would share another IM stat with you. I’m usually more of a fairy girl than an angel girl, but this work of art of an angel mother and daughter was too beautiful to pass up. Irulana is a fantastic artist. I created this as part of a group permission. There are also a couple of tag extras you can snag below… one that says “Feel Better”, another says “Blessings” and the last is a “Thank You” tag. If you aren’t using the free IncrediMail email program yet, you should check it out.
Artwork from Irulana
Download Angel Love IncrediMail Stationery
All the tags read at the top: “A mother’s love is like an angel’s hug.” Right click on the image and choose “Save As” to save to your hard drive. Use them in emails or Facebook. Leave credit to the artist intact and please feel free to share the link back to here so folks can see the site. 
Use to send in a email to cheer someone up!
- Please save to your hard drive and use from there!
xoxo ~ Melissa
Read MoreNeon Text in Photoshop – Tutorial Result
Hi there,
I’ve had a very busy couple of weeks here. My youngest son broke his nose and my oldest son had a major overnight field trip. So, I’ve had a little emo roller coaster going, but I’m getting back into the swing of things. I’m actually working on several posts: a restaurant review of Sweet Tomatoes, a book review on Let’s Pretend This Never Happened by Jenny Lawson, a giveaway for a Wii game and some sharing about a book that I’ve been working on for the last several years.
In the meantime though, I needed a little art therapy. This Neon Text Effect for Photoshop came through the challenge group I belong to and I decided to give it a shot. I must say that I loved the tutorial because it was extremely easy for a beginner like me to follow. I think you could have a lot of fun with this one. Here is what I created:
Don't even attempt to make any decisions after 2 a.m. -- trust me on this!
What do you think? Give it a try here: Glowing Neon Text Effect. I use CS3 and it worked out beautifully.
Enjoy and please feel free to share your own results with me. I’d love to see!
xoxo ~ Melissa
Read MoreToo Fat for My Mother’s Day Present
:::sigh:::
Maybe you haven’t noticed, but I haven’t talked about my weight loss journey in a while.
That’s because…. I SUCK at losing weight.
In fact, since I started in the beginning of this year not only have I failed to lose pounds … I put a bunch more on.
Don’t ask how much. I’m not telling you this time. Maybe next week.
The thing is… I knew it. It was there and being obvious, but I kept ignoring it.
Until yesterday, when I received the most amazing Mother’s Day gift… my first Pandora bracelet!!! I’ve wanted one for so long. Isn’t it so pretty?
Three Murano Glass Charms for each of my three children.
My very sweet husband went to place the bracelet on my wrist and it hurt when he closed it. It was just too tight.
I’m too fat for my Mother’s Day present.
It is easy to see where I went wrong. I went back to drinking Coke every day from morning till night, rarely taking in any water. I ate whatever I wanted with abandon… chocolate covered banana for breakfast? Sure! A shake and some fries as an afternoon snack? Why not! I basically said, “Screw You” to my body and acted like a petulant child.
I’m going to fix it. I don’t know how. I don’t have a plan this time and since it obviously didn’t work the last time… maybe I just need to trust my gut.
Today, I’m drinking water. I know this much… soda is the devil and will kill me if I don’t stop drinking it. I will blow up like that blueberry girl in the original Willy Wonka movie.
Today, I’m moving more. As I do laundry and housework, the radio is playing and I’m moving along to the music.
Being fat sucks. Not fitting into a bracelet is humiliating. Bumping into everything as I walk by is completely embarrassing. This must stop.
I deserve to be healthy. I deserve to feel good about myself. I deserve to live a full life with energy.
And I deserve to wear my damn Pandora bracelet.
They do carry larger sizes, so I'll get one that fits this week.
xoxo ~ Melissa
Read MoreSome of Our Favorite YouTube Videos for Kids
My children love it when I let them watch stuff on You Tube. Sometimes, that can be a little difficult. What looks like could be fun, winds up being really for adults only. So, as I find the good ones, I’ll include them here.
As a reminder, links are in no particular order. This is just the way they landed in my Bookmarks. Also, all links open in new windows/tabs. This way, you don’t have to worry about navigating back to us.
I should probably also mention that none of these are our videos. They are ones we found on You Tube and the like. I haven’t figured out how to use our camcorder yet, but when I do….
Spiderman Lego – The Peril Of Doc Ock
Littlest Pet Shop – Visit With Friends
Thomas the Tank Engine – Tomica World
Thomas the Train on Sodor
Littlest Pet Shop Clinic
Lego Indiana Jones
Thomas Wants To Pull The Christmas Tree
Littlest Pet Shop Greatest Day
Super Steve vs. Giant Alien Potato (this one does feature light Lego violence, but it’s funny)
Thomas the Train
Another Thomas the Train
Littlest Pet Shop Christmas
Episode 3: James
Read MoreFree Digi Scrap Papers: Random 6
I am still poking around my hard drive and old disks and thought it would be okay if I threw together a random digi scrap paper pack for you.
Random Paper Pack for Digital Scrapbooking
There is:
- Painted Ribbon Candy
- Trippy Blue
- Dark Books
- Green Dream
- Blue Traffic
- Red Weave
They are for personal use only because I don’t remember which came from me and which ones are tut results. So, if you would like some free full size digital scrapbook paper that do not follow any theme whatsoever then Download the Random Paper Pack from Little Bits and Pieces.
If you decide to download, please consider leaving a comment. Thank you!
xoxo ~ Melissa
Read MoreBeing Social:
