That Was Then, and This is Now...

Since discovering that I wanted to start a blog, I have spent the past few days relentlessly, fiddling around with the computer. If those of you who have really come to know me, had a crystal ball view of my compulsive struggling, you would do a double-take and think my surgery and resulting hormone changes, had left me completely mad. But guess what? In my own awkward, yet determined way, I have navigated around, learned so much, and have actually become very excited about it. A few days ago, I didn't even know how to do many of the techniques in this post...I'm actually showing off for you, and most likely you don't even know it, because I am doing it by using many of the things of you and your children use every day. But that's okay. Wayne's Antiques is open today, and I am back here in our living space, so very amused. Sort of like the cat with the tinsel, kind of thing.


So, let me tell you about these latest creations of mine. The featured top photo is something that I created out of something else, which is something I love to do.It's actually a picture of a new arrival in our family, imposed upon a picture of a piece of my hand painted, Pieces of Dreams furniture. With photo programs being so different, I won't get into too much detail of how it was actually done. But perhaps this could inspire you to do something similar. You could even take a close up photo of fabric, wall paper, a bouquet of flowers, what ever tickles your fancy. After saving your photo in your computer, you pull it up and crop it into a desired shape. Then you go to another stored photo, copy it, and paste it onto your cropped creation. After that you look into your program for the "Insert" tab, hit text, pick a font and a script color, type it into the box and place it appropriately onto your photo and background. And, there you have it.

You know, it's all part of a journey. Long ago and far away, I had been an administrative assistant, armed with a state of the art electric type writer and white out. Then I became a stay at home mom. My then husband was the computer genius in our family and credibly noted for his knowledge at work...The "Go to" guy. Anyway, one day I heard this alarming bit of news. It was about this terrible computer virus that was ripping its way through the New York/New Jersey area. Well, I ran to the phone and left him a voicemail. "There is a horrible computer virus going around. And, with the amount of time you are on that computer, you are going to get it and bring it home! You better spray your computer with Lysol! Please tell everyone about it, because you are all going to get sick!" There! I did my wifely duty and beyond. I have now saved the lives of my husband and everyone in his office. Later, my husband called everyone into his office, called me on the phone and said, "Okay, I want everyone to listen to this!" Much to my surprise, as my message was being played, there was an overwhelming roar of laughter, rather than cries of gratitude. Needless to say, I was better known at his office for my dinner parties and baked goods, rather than my computer expertise. But, "That was Then, and This is Now!" Pieces of Dreams

This is the piece I chose for its design.

The corner design of this piece is what I thought would work best.

I used the auto-crop option in Microsoft

Picture It, placed the shape over the

design, and like magic, there it was!