The Life of Mrs. Miles

FROSTED FLAKE FRAMES

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You gave such an enthusiastic response to my snowflake overlay that I decided to 'speriment around and make some frames to match. I find they do best on a dark background. They don't work well with a drop shadow but a bit of bevel makes them look cool - play around, have fun and ... send me a layout to post here? With the files being downloaded at least 500 times... surely SOMEONE made one tiny layout ... poke poke - I'm such a pest!

QUAIL HIDING

After posting yesterday about my diaper bag/camera bag... I came across this in a mystery novel I am reading: 'Geoff opened the back door and handed Clare a diaper bag disguised as an expensive tote' *GULP* And here's little old me doing the very opposite, hey? Yes, if your lookin' to my blog as the latest fashion statement you're bound to be very disappointed. I can't even tell you I shop at a brand-name store either - the nearest large stores are over an hour's drive north. Am I sick? I would rather shop at the thrift store than a walmart! I could not tell you what the newest, slickest kitchen tool is, or what type of heels are in on sandals... I only know what appeals to my eyes and what textures and materials please the artist in me. Nobody eyes me up and down and shakes their head so I'm sure I do ok dressing myself.

No, I put my pennies aside for a few good things. Now, saying this, I DO enjoy walking through the malls when we visit our folks at the coast, and I DO enjoy going Boxing Day shopping there too. Even then, I know that I stir feelings inside that I DON'T like... that 'have to have' feeling. It's only when I see the latest fashions I become acutely aware that I don't 'fit'. I sometimes even buy one thing thats 'in'... but you know how that goes... once you have the shirt, you have to have the jeans, have to have the shoes to match, the purse etc... Its like when you update a room in your house, the rest of it looks old and tired... its a never ending cycle, and I face it... I can't keep up with it all, not unless I spend more than we make. I like to think of this in spiritual terms ... if I am consumed keeping up with everyone else... worrying whats on everyone elses plate then I won't know whats REALLY important. We all like nice and new things, but there is an invisible line where it begins to control us. I don't ever want to be like that.

I also feel stirrings of envy at times - after all I'm human. When I see some women with all the latest of everything and it all seems to come so easy, I am stirred to envy. Its completely natural. But I know that I have what the Lord wants me to have a this time. He's entrusting me financially with what I can handle. Besides which, I would not trade for all the tea in china, the time I get to spend with my sweet husband. I think I'll stick to bliss and little funds. Have any of you any thoughts on this? I would love to hear from you.

Proverbs 13:40

A heart at peace gives life to the body,

but envy rots the bones.

Ecclesiastes 4:4

And I saw that all labor

and all achievement

spring from man's envy of his neighbor.

This too is meaningless,

a chasing after the wind.

GRAPES FROZEN ON THE VINE

On a brighter note, I would like to share one of these sweet, cheesy little powerpoint shows with you that was forwarded to me from my friend Mina. Its a small presentation with music and paintings about snow and farm life. I hope you enjoy, you can find it here:

HAPPY SNOW SHOW

More oxymorons (let me know if you have any too?)

harmonious discord

hasten slowly

hazardous waste disposal

head butt

health-care system

healthful-city environment

healthy chocolate

healthy city environment

healthy competition

Healthy tan

heavy gas

heifer bull

helicopter flight

hell’s angels

here and there

high ground

Higher education

highly visible covert operation

high-speed computer

hilarious funeral

history of the future

Historical Current Event

hollow point

holy hell

holy land

Holy Roman Empire

holy war

home office

home school

Homeopathic Medicine

BARB'S HANDY TIP #140

Programs 'To Go'

What a TERRIFIC and useful idea. You may remember a previous entry where I showed you Open Office - and open source program that works like Microsoft Word - word processing... and its completely free. Well, they've gone even a (logical) step further and created it to be 'portable'. This means you can load this program, along with a firefox browser etc... onto your flash drive (storage device for your files, you know)... You heard me... if you have a flash drive with 512 of space on it, you can take your programs with you to whatever computer you want to use! HOW COOL IS THAT? This also means you won't be leaving your sensetive information on other computers, it stays with you.

THIS IS WHAT CNET SAYS ABOUT IT:

PortableApps Suite is a collection of portable apps, including the integrated PortableApps Menu and the PortableApps Backup utility along with a set of custom icons, an autoplay configuration, folders and a quick start shortcut. Just drop it on your portable device and you're ready to go.

PortableApps Suite (Standard Edition) includes ClamWin Portable (antivirus), Firefox Portable (web browser), Gaim Portable (instant messaging), OpenOffice.org Portable (office suite), Sudoku Portable (puzzle game), Sunbird Portable (calendar/task manager) and Thunderbird Portable (email client) and runs comfortably from a 512MB drive.

FIND THE DOWNLOAD HERE